Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-02
"What was Nehemiah,s miami ,

III .tr nm with a sudden impulse, and asked,
WA MHa was Nehemiah's plan?"
ne was an lsraelitish noble, and the
great leader in rebuilding Jerusalem after
the captivity" replied the stranger, plung-
Ing AZ once into the subject, md not mani
Iestlng the least surprise at the question.
.And his way of rebuilding the wall was
10 seG each man to building before his own
n uoE NO one spent his time running
around, putting i'll a stone here and u stone
mere, trying to build q little in every
preach. or trying to find an opening that
JUST suited him, and build there; but every
man took the work that was straight before
NM; II you want to do good work in this
WoLiu; Iry Nehemiah's plan. If you want
me preacher had dropped into his chant
ing tone; but just as Margaret began to rea.
llze that she had called down the whole ser.
mon upon her devoted head, her foot slip
pea upon a wet stone in the rough steep
pam, and she fell. 1t was awkward enough,
sne assured herself in vexation, but the
hrst effort to rise proved it something far
worse. She grew white, and faint with
pam, and the voice of her companion ask
ing II she were hurt sounded indistinct and
iar away. Some of the others turned back.
one scarcely noticed who came or how they
aloed her, but she presently found herself
at Miss Grey's, surrounded by a sympa.
phor.
"A bad sprain like that is really worse
than a broken bone-atleast it takes longer
70 neal" announced the country practi-
!loner, an hour later, when he had exam
Der. 'It will be several weeks before YOU
car put that foot to the ground again.o'
several weeks! Margaret listened to his
retreatlng steps, looked at her swollen and
bsndaged ankle, and then at the figure
moving busily about the room, picking up
1 n0GtIAC and hifc oE c1I 1.,o~
Miss Grey, what will you do with me?'
III nave to do the best I can, I s'pose.
Here you air, and we can't neither of us
help It,. What can't be cured I'll lave to be
endured," answered that lady, without
pausing in her work of putting to rights.
Having her presence accepted as an af-
fietive dispensation was a new experience
to Margaret; she thought of home and Tom.
She had ample leisure for thinking of many
things as the long afternoon wore away,
and she began fully to realize the imprison-
ment upon which she had ~entered-that all
her planning had ended in this. How
strangely it had happened!
"The idea of leaving home Just to bury
situation. "Nehemiah's plan, indeed! I
shall certainly have to build straight be-
at all"
Straight before her in the next room sat
SAoAA OW3IAy ONci C1OUu duu
pattern with a perplexed wrinkle in her
forehead.
"What is it? If I could help vou-v
questioned Margaret, and hesitated. She
had grown interested after watching her a
moment.
"Well, you can't" said Miss Grew. drop.
ping her hard hands meditatively in her
lap.
"I'm trying to make over an old dress of
my gr~eat-aunt's into a new one for myself.
and there amt enough of it. It seems as if
l ought to be able to do it by this time, for
my whole life has just been a-makin' over,
or patchin' up, or turnin' best side out, of
what somebody else has used or wasted or
spoiled before got it. It's taken my best
days to exc out Shortcomings and patch up
plumbers. pve never had anything fresh
and new to start on."
Except Billy?" .ventured Margaret, as
the child's sunny head appeared at the
window.
"Billy: Well" Miss Grey paused.
Thai little half-brother was dearer to her
even then she knew, but he was perplex.
ing, also. Something that looked out from
his dark'eyes Il dspoke in his wistful tones
was more difficult than anything else to fit
seem to belong there. But she would not
say so; she was beginning already to won.
der at what she had said. With a quick
breath that would have been a sigh on less
determined lips, she bent over her work
again; Upon those stopped and rounded
She had paid the penalty of being consid-
cred "smart" and "~capable" by having
whatever the others of the family were toe
busy, too indolent, or too selfish to do al
ways cleft for Susan" When her dis.
couraged mother slipped away out of the
and supply what her careless, improvident
father never provided-to supplement his
love of ease with her self-denial, and econo.
mize while he wasted. After hard years he
had crowned his e-xtravagances by bring
ling home a fragi lie young wife whom he
plished, had comfortably died and left her
to Susan's care, as she, a little later, left
Billy. 1t never occurred to Susan to shirlz
the burdens that others dropped. She had
taken them up resolutely one by one, and
gone on her way, never having had time for
a life of her own.
So it happened naturally that having &C.
cepted Margaret's stay as one Of her ''al-
lotments," she gave faithfully the best care
in her power.
ga Kindness that can never be itemized
in the bill, nor repaid in any way" said
Margaret, regretfully. "You have so much
to do it seems strange that I should lave
been thrown on your hands,"
"Mebby," suggested Billy. gravely-
"mebby you was throwed for me. cause
1 don't nave things like-folks. Pm" he
hesitated, and looked at her foot-"I'm the
gladdest kind of sorry"
Her presence seemed, indeed, constant
pleasure to the child. He hung about her,
admired her pretty dresses and ornaments,
and listened in delight whenever she spoke
of the world of "folks" from which she
came. When her trunk arrived, and she
took from it one day a portfolio of sketches
and drawing materials, he looked from the
pictures to her face with a wondering,
trembling eagerness.
"That looks like something a little lame
boy could play if he knew how" he said,
clasping and unclasping his small brown
hands in a tremor of excitement.
H shall try,' smiled Margaret, won by
the pleading eyes.
That was the beginning of many lessons,
in which a new world opened to Billy, and
Margaret quite forgot that she had left
home to find rest from teaching. There
were many things forgotten in those slow,
quiet days. Her vague unrest, her fever
ish ambition, seemed selfish and ignoble in
the presence of this strong, brave life be-
fore her-such a hard, homely life that she
could scarcely understand her own interest
in it.
She had written home nothing of the
accident that had befallen her, but only in
definitely of a necessary change of plan.'
There was no need that any one should be
anxious about her or grieve at her disap: