The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-04-25
"OID III. BIHiEY."


.OID llR. BIHNEY.'
All their friends had said, when Mrs.
Binney died: aNow what 4 good thing
II would be il old Mr.. Binney would
marry Miss Bright"
Miss Bright had not been without her
troubles, and very hard ones they had
been, too, but she bore them with q
brave heart, and carried a smiling face,
and bsd : thankful spirit within her,
striving always to remember her bless
ings, and how much they ontnumbered
any evils she was called upon to bear.
Indeed, to listen to Miss Bright's
showing, you would have counted her
as n Of the luckiest persons ever born.
She had had the kinasst Of friends, the
most comfortable of situations, and the
girls she had taught were endowed with
an amiability OF disposition which made
it a positive pleasure to be with them.
The only accusation she could bring
against them was that they were all in
such q terrible hurry to grow up and get
married, and then Miss Bright's occu-
patton was gone, and she had to step
out into the world and find . fresh field
for her labors.
As years rolled on, each one adding to
the score Of Miss Bright's age, these
hunting grounds of instruction became
more and more narrowed. Children Of
eight began now where girls of eighteen
used to leave of, and. history and geo.
graphy, to say nothing of the parts of
speech and grammar, were all SO altered,
that poor little Miss Bright had to ack-
nowledgd that at times she really did
feelquite confused. every soon sha'nt
be left with anything to teach" she
used to say, pathetically, and then Mr..
Binney's nephew, Joe, or some other
Igoodfsllow who heardhe would declare
she should set up . school for wives,
for there never were such wives as the
girls whom Miss Bright had brought
up. She had taught Joe's wife, Sally,
and her sister, and though since then
she had had other situations at holiday
time, or whenever she was seeking en-
ployment, she always returned to the
house Of Or. Brendon, their father.
When Mr.. Binney dropped in, as he
frequently did, to inquire after his old
friends, the Brendons, he from time to
time found Miss Bright there, and hap
pening in n of her visits there, to
bring the news that Mrs. Binney was
i'll, with noona whose business it seemed
to be to look after her, nothing was
more natural than that Miss Bright
should volunteer; and . great comfort
they found her.
So sprightly, yet unobtrusive, was
the CHEEKY little woman, that Mrs. Bin
ney herself was influenced in her favor
until, with an eye to their mutual COM
fort, Mr.. Binney proposed that Miss
Bright should stay with them alto
gether.
"Why not?"h he said. aWecould well
afford to pay her a salary"
But this word, salary, acting like
magic on Mrs. Binney, seemed to bring
her to her senses Immediately. She
would be very glad to have Miss Bright
as . visitor, as long as she liked to stay,
but as to living with them altogether
no, she would not give her consent to
that; she had always objected to having
in her house a third party. TWAS then
that Miss Bright's friends pulled very
long faces indeed. What would she dc?
they ssked her.
"Oh, something is sure to turn up
she would say, hopefully. "When-
ever / have come to my last ebb an
opening has always been made for me
and ] am not going to despair now
And she said this all the more EN-
p~hatically, because, in spite of her
confidence, she could not help feeling
that a voice which she could not still,
kept repeating: ssWhat will you do
when you grow older? Teaching will
get harder than ever" That was true
enough, but what else was there for
her to do?
When Mrs. Binney died, which hap
pened quite suddenly about a year be-
before, there has been some talk as to
Miss Bright going to Mr.. Binney's Ms
housekeeper but this proposition had
been made without the knowledge or
consent Of the principal person con-
cerned, who, as soon as the hint was
given, negatived it.
Mr.. Binney thoroughly appreciated
Miss Bright. but he had lost his taste
for matrimony. He remembered that
he had spent forty excellent years
without . wife, and, Notwithstanding
that he was o q widower, he could
not co~nscientiously say that he felt his
state to be SO very unhappy.
Susan, the cook, respectable and
staid, would, he felt sure, manage his
household properly, and if it proved
that she should give way to extrava-
gance, as people seemed to say she
would, MI. Binney fancied that he
could better put up with that evil than
with too much of the economy from
which he had suffered already.
So all the hopes, that, on the death
OF Mrs. Binney, Joe and Sally, and the
Brendons, had cherished for Miss
Bright, were ruthlessly dashed to the
ground. Evidently, Aunt Binney was
not to have q successor.
IF we could but have got her there
as housekeeper, /" said two Of those arch
conspirators, "tEe rest wonld have been
easy"
But though they returned to the at
tack several times, no good came of it.
MIR. Binney shared in their regret at the
loss of Miss Bright's pupils, wondered,
as they did, what would become OF her,
and, his visitors gone, to make his SYM
pathy apparent. he sat down and wrote
. kind little note, with . check for s1O
folded within it.
Hes an old stupid!n said Sally, "and
now she is going away altogether, ever
so far"-for Miss Bright had had
another p zee Of news to tell. An old
/ pupil Of early days had been recently
4 left a widow: her health Was "a delicafa