Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-12-25

I'm powerful glao, IL amt nae you're
hitting, Simeon GrayItt, for do despise
| a slandering tongue. guess I'll be goin'
now, so as to be really for an early start
in the morning. Co4e along right early
and wen all go together"
"Hal ha! hal I thought she'd start 1t
takes me to clear out hornets an rattle-
snakes and old wqmen with strings in
tongues"
self, for doesn't shd tell us we must treat
! people we'll in our own houses. Howsom-
ever, was kinder glad to hear you speak
| out. We must get things good and ready
! for morning, as Mrs Fundy said. feel as
/ if we should never have another day at
/ Miss Dorothy's."
"That's some more of your nonsense, Su.
sauna. You're always feeling what is GO
| ing to happen. If thought it would come
| true this time, I'd never smile tomorrow
| once"
Ppm sure hopehot, just as much as you
do; but what is Going to happen, III nap
pen, whether or no, reckon" After a
I few more words, the visitors rose to leave,
| and in twenty minutes fires were covered,
| and all was quiet fn the log house of Simon
Gravitt. PerhapS they dreamed of the
coming day, perhaps they did not dream at
all, but while they sleep we viii tell some
| thing of the wSman and the day, that
| caused all this excitement.
Dorothea Langley had been delicately
nurtured, had been accustomed to every
comfort and even elegance of life, yet at
the age of thirty five we find her living
| among the noun aims in one of our border
States, apparently as much at home among
| the simple-hearRd country folk, as she had
| formerly been With the cultured and re-
| fined. She wors a small cap of white mus
| lin, that merely limited at her golden
brown hair, and tied under her chin with
snowy strings, like her grandmother's in
| the old-fashionsd portrait at home. This
| cap would havb been a most unbecomng
| adornment to ninety-nine women out of
\ hrpIraI lbut Miss nv he
one out of the Hundred to whom it was an
| ornament. 1t gave an added sweetness to
the curve OF the chin, and softened the
brightness of her hazel eyes by its soft
edges. Yes, her cap was becoming to her,
and though she found this out after having
worn it a year or SO, it had no effect what
ever upon her. She wore it for reasons of
her own, entirely apart from the question
| of beauty or looks.
To have lived thirty five years, possessed
| of more than usual attractions, was suffi-
Gent in and out of itself to set idle
| tongues wagging; but to leave society
| and the great world of fashion, put a
| Quaker-like cap upon her head, and settle
among the wildS of distant mountains,
| leaving no clue to her whereabouts, keep
| ing up no connection with the old life;
surely this vas more than a nine days
wonder, and even among the class to whom
she had come as an angel from heaven, it
was mystery constantly forcing itself
upon their notice.
IL.
the morrow, or, "Miss Dorothy's Day." was
in the thought of old and young for many
miles. Sheihad been among them seven
years. She had come when aZaleas and
mountain sides showed neither bowlder or
barrennessg because of the verdure and
bloom that concealed them. She had
bought twenty five acres of wild wood
work to clear it., with an eye to
final beauty; and here she had seen
her log house built. If she was to
be anything to these people she |
her own level, so the house was of logs like |
their own, with all the added beauty that |
taste and refinement could give. She knew |
enough of human nature to be assured of |
q welcome not altogether hearty, and her
first step must be to win their confidence.
1t was slow progress she made, but sure.
The log house did much for her, for it
spoke constantly to the passers, saying,
"Here dwells a woman without nonsense
and airs" but with the logs all similarity
ended.
Everything within and around it was as
aesthetic as il belonging to a poets home,
and all its beauty was planned with
single intent, viz: that they should see,
admire and initiate. That this had not
been in vain, we can CLEAN from Simon
Gravitt's words; that Miss Dorothea her.
self was not satisfied was just as true. The
worker never sees the full effect of his
to feeling of encouragement that would
have astonished the people who saw far
Their than she, and felt more deeply than
she dreamed.
Perhaps the greatest good she had done
them had been just where she would have
placed it least of all. This was in teach
ing them to set apart certain days of the
year for holidays, whereon they must
dress in their best and meet together for
social enjoyment.
She began with Christmas, by inviting
them to meet in the school-house, where
she had prepared a Christmas tRee and
some trif1ing gift for each. Next year she
added the Fourth of July; then Thanks
giving. and followed it the same year by a
cordial invitation to her own home for
New Years Day, where she entertained
repast, and sent them home as
happy as mortals could be. From that
time the beginning of every year found
them gathered together at her house, and,
far and near, the day had come to be
known as ''Miss Dorothy's Day."
The mountains where all this life went
on, were a range running from northeast
to southwest, through one of our Southern
der land between North and South. They .
were bold, and high at their sides, and hid
beneath their surface mines of iron and
coal, sufficient for countless generations of
wasteful humans. On their tops, broad
stretched for miles, as level as
the rolling prairies of the West, and rich
with lumber for the needs of the future
Capitalists passing over these mountains |
made note of all these possibilities, where |
some day they might invest surplus capi- I
tai; but to the jewellers of the region, no i
thought of marketable values ever came. ,
To them it was place where nature Joined |
hands with human nature to help it to 8
thrive without effort, and this was the rea-
son that no homes, worthy the name, could {
be found there, when Dorothy Langley I
first came among them. Occasionally a ! !
visitor, DESTROYS of discovering 6
some new region, would stop at the foot Of '
The mountain, hire ricketty wagon and a :
ands of which he had heard rumors. He |
was glad to return in a short time, and t
would describe it as ''semi- barbarous, in z
1abited by shiftless ne'er-do- weels."
After Miss Dorothy's house was built, +
the neighborhood about her !
changed its aspects. Over the log houses, :
zines were trained-roses and honey I
,uckles and trumpet-creepers and passion /
lowers in glorious profusion. At the win '
carpets, and shelves oramented with /
NOSES, met the eye. ! 6
There old grandmother who still I
smoked her pipe in the chimney corner +
put even she never ventured on the front
porch with it, save in the shadows of the .
twilight; yet the time had been, and not ,
ong since, that young women as we'll as '
Did, had smoked regularly and constantly. G
They had not given up the habit because g
IF anything Miss Dorothy had said, but e
lnder her influence the evil had been rele- l
gated to the dark corner, and thrift had I
aiken the place of untidiness. 6
She was seven years younger then than +
now, just twenty weight years old-with a | q
form made up of pretty curves and plump S