The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1883-01-06

| to, and did not longer feel To be burden.
And the debt to society troubled Mrs
Brooks, and the other parlors must be
furnished, and royalty, to match the D.
brary, and then q grand reception WIS
given.
For these money had to be hired.
Benevolent balls and quasi-literary So
cieties, fashions caprice mingled with
the dancing parties, and Mrs. Brooks was
worn and weary with the manifold
duties of her position. and must be re-
lieved of some household duties, and
another servant was indispensable.
Mr.. Brooks confinement to his busi-
ness wore upon him, and he must have
recreation, which means q fine horse
and buggy. But it was so selfish for him
and his wife to drive off every evening
and leave those dear girls at home after
they had been shut up all day in school.
So two horses and carriage and hostler
were needed.
Thus little by little expenses increased,
and his business, like all mems of the
time, was dull, but his was on sound
basis; he was yet young and full of en-
ergy, and no one feared the result, nor
had he one thought of danger.
A party was made up for the sea-
shore. They Joined it; it was their first
| indulgence Of the kind. and sniff of the
salt sea is luxury that strengthens.
One morning the bathers were very
gay. and Mr.. Brooks passed the safety
line, and the sea never gave him back.
The estate paid twenty cents on the
dollar.
THE OTHER.
1t was town OF hills and rocks, I'M
disturbed by railroad or telegraph-wires.
There was a bit of village in it. and a
"white sky-pointing spire," of course,
for it was in New England, and equally,
of course, and for the very same reason
there must be economy in all things, and
the s. first floor of the spire crowned
building was the Town Hall, wherein
politicians fought and wandering min
strels amused. and stray lecturers edited.
But between the hall and spire lay the
church, clean and bright, where the
farmers mapped, and their wives chewed
caraway seed. while warned of sin and
judgment in words as eloquent as could
be hired for S400 year and the parson-
age-a clean little white cottage.
In that same parsonage lad, bright
and energetic-boys are like the moth
ers, biologists tells us--was fitting for
college, under his learned and lazy
father. But
1--WE are not wholly brain
Magnetic mockeries."
At least so Tennyson says. And Ed
ward had an eye for rosy cheeks and
bright eyes, as well as for Greek roots.
And the particular pair that sparkled
back to his on Sunday. on week days
helped her busy mother look well to the
ways of the household, in a white cot
age that crowned hilltop, the sides
OF which hill were intcrmixed with sheep
and stones in such dire confusion that a
little way off one conld not tell the one
from the other.
One bright June morning Harriet had
skinned the milk, washed the bright
pans, and made pyramid in the sun
that sparkled like stars. And humming
good old hymn of Watts. her def
hand was now smoothing and trying to
polish the family linen for the coming
Sunday, that dress-day Of country towns,
when bodies as well as souls put on their
best. Harriet sung slower and slower,
as she thought faster and faster, and she
stopped carolling, to say:
Mother! when the summer work is
over, couldn'tyou get along without my
helpr'
why. Harriet!'what do you want to
Harriet hesitated; it was great thing
she longed for, but at last she said:
ssYou know most of the girls around
here have been to Dick Academy and
boarded themselves; why can't I for a
term or two?''
"Your father and l have been talkin',
that John hadn't ought to come of age till
he been to the Academy"
20. mother, let us both go! tits only
four miles and half, you know, from
here. and father or Jesse can come after
us every Friday night, and Saturdays
win cook up enough to last over the week,
except meat and potatoes. and those can
cook there, so lean board him and my
self, and we can both 60 as cheap as he
could go alone"
'spll talk with your father about it"
And they went. The one term ran into
two years. Then Jesse. the bashful book
worm, was to go. and he wished sister
Harriet to stay with him; and she did
wish she could finish the full course, and
had been . good scholar, and, good girl,
had worked early and late and willingly
| through the summer vacations, SO that It
was not easy to refuse her.