Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-11-22

I'm making right smart o butter now,
and I'll bring you all the eggs gather,
and if you want to ship chickens, 1
have some coming on; SO it won't be
long till the clothes are paid for"
"Oh, "a rich farmer like Mr.. Still
man can afford to pay cash for such
goods as these" replied Mr.. Peterson,
who was reluctant to take the produce
and yet anxious to make the sale.
"Of course he could, but he amt
doing the buying of these clothes, as l
was explaining to this lady minute
ago. He says John haint any need of
a dress-up suit; but the boy Gays he
can't respect himself if he's forced to
wear his old rags all the time, and it's
true; the clothes farmer works in
amt fit to wear for any other purpose:
so when ! found Stillman was so stub
born, and it was having such bad eff
feet on John, / concluded to take the
matter in hand myself. Why, the
boy had built up SO on these clothes,
that when his father refused so positive
poor John actually lost his appetite.
He worked right along, but it was in
joyless, heartbroken way. l tell you,
it pays in an economical pint o view
to have people around you that are
hopeful and cheerful. If they think
they have TO drag along forever, and
never have dollar of their own to
spend as they like, it operates agin
their work SO wasn't long in maxim
up my mind that John should have
the clothes, if | had to pay fer 'em
with my butter money. You see,"
lowering her voice. to a confidential
key, 81 was the more determined to%do
it because it was just such actions that
drove away our Oldest boy from home.
He was a good deal like John, only
fonder of books and reading. Well,
nothing would do Joe but he must
have dictionary. He begged and
begged for it. He said everybody
ought to own an unabridged, and that
Mirandy and Kate would grow up to
be as ignorant as bosses if they wasn't
encouraged to study and pick up in
formation but dear me when Still
man heard the price of them big die
/, tionaries was ten or twelve dollars, he
: just put his foot down on it, and that
, settled the matter. Well, then, Joe
got to planning and made his father
, promise not to hire certain extra
hand that harvest, and he would do
double, and the poor fellow liked to
| have killed himself working, and after
| all, Stillman wouldn't buy the book,
J nor pay him wages so he could buy it.
The upshot of it was that Joe got riled
up and went off right in the middle Of
| the summer and hired out to old man
Billings, whose farm joins ours, and
| Billings told me he never in his life
r saw such worker. He paid him
,. good wages, too, and poor Joe got his
t book at last, but it made his father
mad, and so he told Joe he couldn't
come back any more. 1t nearly upset
me. / was poorly for long time, but
: finally Joe and his father made it UP
and were good friends agin, but he's
r never been at home much since. He
9 worked summers and taught school,
winters and peddled fruit trees in va
b cation. At'last he got to college, anJ
! now he's been reading law, and is going
. to be admitted to practice, and nc
n thanks to us nor nobody. But dom
i you see how hard Stillman has made il
s for the poor boy? Folks says it hal
e been good drill and helped to make
d a man of Joe, but his heart will never
g feel just the same toward his father al
}, if he'd showed some sympathy, ant
o had patience with him. You see
r folks as has children must be patien
o with their whims sometimes. 1t ain
k going to hurt us, and it makes then
e happier. So you can see now," sh,
added, frightening up and taking VI
d her bundle, 'just why want to humo
John with these clothes. People ar,
d often unjust to their children, ant
= drive them away from home, but the,
n generally live to find that no strange
y will ever do for them and take an in