The Press., 1884-08-07
FARMER BENToN's MISTAKE

 the cheerful, pretty dining room.
 ssIt is very hard, Reuben; but we have done the best we could. Fate has seem ed against us. Other years the profits from tue dairy have been so large that Il felt my time was not lost i'll making but ' ter but who could have foreseen the fall | in prices !? And last year, when you plant ed wheat, every one said the farm would have paid better if you had put in corn in- stead and now that you have tried corn, the early frost has killed it all. It does seem that luck is against us Perhaps Mr. Sill will give us more time in which to pay the mortgage, if we can only raise the money for the interest. 4-I.i
 "It is no use to ask, Hannah. l met him yesterday, and he said he must have the money this fall, and there's no help | for us If we had a son it would have been different but we have made fine lady of our daughter. Twas always against sending hel to the city to be taught all sorts of nonsense that is of no use to 8 farmers daughter Perhaps now she might have been able to help us. If instead of learning to speak French and paint pie | lures she had been taught some good trade. At least she could have earned her own | living'
 Don't speak so, Reuben, dear," broke 1 in his wife. "Yon know you are proud of Fanny. It is true," she added, with Q sigh, "she has not helped me in the kitch- on and with tfe butter she might have done. I have olIfy made ten dollars on all my summers work
 l 'sI1he worst of it is, she takes no inter- est in our trouble, but spends her time in idleness, while we hardly take time to eat and sleep. I tell you, wife, Fanny is un- | of,,1 T ,o% l., e1J have done for her."
 While Farmer Benton and his wife had been talking, pretty delicate girl had ap- peared at the door, When she noticed that the conversation was about her she | turned to leave, and the tears came into her eyes.
 "Ah, father" she said to herself, ''you will learn before long that you have been unjust to me"
 That day, at dinner, Fanny asked if she might go to the city in the afternoon :; and her father who before had never refused her request, replied:
 ''No tell you, Fanny, you will soon be without a roof to cover you, and then you will know that money does not grow on bushes. You were in the city only last week."
 "Father, do not ask for any money. I have a special object in going. I need some paints to finish the pictures I am making. You will not object to my going, will you, father?"
 s'To buy paints |? If what: has been spent on your paints and painting had been saved, we would not now be almost without home.'' -'..'
 ''But father, when I went to school you were prospering. Please do not think all the money spent in that way has been lost. You know I have applied for the district school here this winter. I am sure of get ting it, and then I can help you and moth
 "Yes, when it is too late to save the farm" ;" impatiently answered her father. | A great lump, which seemed almost to choke her, came into Fannys throat, and she said to herself
 "Oh, if I could only tell him what I have done and all hope to do, he would not misjudge me so. But must not, for my expectations may not be realized, and I must not raise his hopes only to have it all end i'll disappointment"
 Turning to her father, she again asked him if she might go to the city. 70, yes. Go if you like. I don't care" he gruffiy replied, as he rose from the ta- ble and left the room.
 Farmer Benton was not unjust or un- kind generally, but everything had gone wrong with him for the past two years; Two years before his crops had failed, and he had borrowed money on a years time, giving mortgage on the farm in return. He expected to be able to pay it within the year, but the late spring frosts had killed his peach crop on which he had greatly relied, and he had to get the time extended another. This year. however, had been equally disastrous, and he saw no way of meeting the payment. His daughter had not been unmindf11l of what was going on or careless of her par ents' troubles, but she thought she knew of @ way ill which she might aid them. Her success with pencil and brush had been remarkable while she was in school, and she asked herself, "Why may not people buy my pictures as we'll as those of others ?" < ] Gg f% [ Fl
 The spring before she had taken little water-color sketch to the city and offered It at several picture stores with the usual result, the answer in most cases being:
 ''It is very good, but we want only pie lures of artists who have made name. We have no sale for others"
 Poor Fanny began to despair.
 "How am I ever to make 8 name," she
 
 At last she found an art dealer who had the courage to decide for himself and take work on it's merits. He offered to put the sketch among his pictures and if possible sell 1t for her. It was one of the very pie lures her father had spoken of, and repre- sented maiden at her churn. When she went next to the city she was delighted and surprised to find that it had been sold for twenty dollars. .&ER
 She could hardly keep her secret when she went home that nlght and SAW her fn ntaaea',s4 tirnd, worried face butshe thought she might never be able to sell another picture and decided to say nothing about It till she was sure of earning enough to be of real help to her father in paying off the mortgage. 1 Y ~5 " i-t-s ss.&
 All summer, when her father thought she was ldling, she had kept hard at work, and now she had nearly two hundred dol lars in the bank. The week before she had left five pictures in the city, and she was anxious to know what success the art dealer bad met with in disposing of them %@ Her heart beat so loud she felt that ev- cry one near her must hear 1t as she en- tered the store. It had seemed to her as II the time would never pass until she knew her fate, and now that she would Know 1t in few minutes she felt that she must have more time. What if none of