Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-06-13
.SOTIiER CASE OF THE HWRONG
SUNDAY"

DO people, as they read, ever stop to
&h;nk how often in books the plot, or
main idea, is the same? A situation is
repeated, only with different actors and
different stage appurtenances, year in
and year out, from the first recorded
hi tory to the present day. 1t is not
Shakespeare only who pleased his
peegish fancy with q '.Comedy of
Errors" Hehad many a prototype, and
has had a many repetition since that day.
To err is human; we like to err; and
when unable to mistake each other are
ready to mistake things. Readers of
Jules Verne will remember how the
impenetrable Englishman, Phileas
Eegg, went around the world in ever
lbs than eighty days, but did not keep
Ythe right account, and by the mistake
OF a day very nearly lost his wager.
In somewhat the same way Deacon
Weaver lost sight of the day of the
week, and in this case lost the wager,
too, He might not have called it a
wager, being opposed on principle to
any such arbitration of chance, still it
was one. and az such he lost it. To
BERN at the beginning, however.
Deacon Weaver's old red farm house
lay at the foot of a hill sunnily 'front.'
ING the south, and, secure in this shell
tered nook, put to defiance the keen
winds. At. its let was the orchard; in
front q road that led to the village a
mile away, where the white church
.steeple rose like a beacon; and across
the road. just opposite the house, was a
large, commodious barn. The late
Eastern Spring had put out a few buds
by way OF experiment, and, although
snow yet chung to the hillsides, the
Aelds were bare and brown.
On the day when this story opens the
air was deliciously mild, and the Dea-
MS three sons were seated on the
barn steps enjoying it. They had fin
ashed dinner and were waiting for their
Eiailler to go with them to the field.
Meanwhile they were grumbling.
trembling must be one of those imi-
@sative words which. philologists tell us,
wsre the first approach to language
rumbling, mutterlng monotone Of DIS
content, hardly v e rising into the de-
clslve accents OF wrath; just an oDsti-
ha'ely kept up accompaniment to the
everyday events of life. Everybody
Knows that an habitual grumbler is a
very unpleasant person TO live with;
Fand' had the Weaver boys been Of this
class, their story, quite likely, would
hot have been told. But their Grum-
Fblins was only semi-occasionaI, and
wSircumstan. es went far to excuse it.
lhey were always in a state Of repres-
(slon; no allowance was made for their
youth, for boyish fun Or boyish wishes.
her father prided himself on being
strictly just; but this must have been a
anlstake on his art; strict Justice does
a go with such utter hardness; and
Etie Eeacon was 20 inf1exible that he.
you'd much o break than bend.
NO halfway measures for him. ''When
1 say a thing, l mean it," was his fav-
oilte expression. Where the children
We're c, ncerned, it was always. Do
ph.s:--do that! and if instant obedience
WAS not given, the whip fell. "Not y
word'' he would say. ''Do as 1 tell
you-that's all I want"
MIS-; Weaver was, herself, of q COM
loFta ne, kindly temperament, but
lo"lo 40 little toward so!tening her
husbands h%arshness. She, too, lived
IN Tear OF it, and obeyed with anxious
promptltude. Still, in one way or an
e1Aer, she contrived to make life tolera-
ple TO the children. She it was who
notea the paternal weather-signs, and
ffaEe the youngsters warning; who
oaked cakes for them surreptitiously,
a'o IN mary an uanoticed way put in
~ inc young lives some of that inter-
oSs ana variety their father would have
90 time passed on until the boys were
snrteen, fifteen and seventeen years of
re-, respectively; strong, active fell
,ows: able to do a good days work. and
reqHlIed to do it, except in the winter
-noh'hs when they went to district
1.nool' But amusements they had
zone: They never went nutting like