The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-06-18
TODD ASHTON'S JOURNEY.
BY CLARA DIXON DAVIDSON.


On a breezy hilltop in Iowa, gar
risoned on three sides by u crescent of
ravine and wood, and looking out
toward level prairie on the north, the
sleepy little village of Kirkville had
stood still for thirty-two years, like a
dlsarmed prisoner who could not fight
and would not crafty his enemies by
dying. Kirkville boosted its lumber
mill, its flour-mill, its well-built
churches, and its commodious school
building, which was newly supplied
year 10y year with material for future
statesmen and hod-carriers; for this
quiet place, with its few houses always
full, this gentle rivulet of human life
and interest, was a steady tributary to
the great sea OF work and thought and
passion that lay beyond it, When the
California fever or the Black Hills ex
element were pulsing most hotly, the
rivulet was at its flood tide, so that its
contribution was proportionately small
during the ebb that followed.
Todd Ashton first saw the light
through the small, square panes of
glass in the oldfashioned windows of a
low wooden house in Kirkville. That
very house sheltered her father and
mother until their silent forms were
laid to rest in the populous cemetery
behind the Presbyterian church. and
was her home up that thirtieth birth
day when our story begins.
Todd was born to love and to be
loved. She could no more live without
loving than she could breathe without
air. There were few children in the vii
lage who did not pass her gate with lin
gering steps, looking through the pickets
with wistful eyes, longing, if the truth
must be told, less for sight Of Todd's
gentle face than for the delightful
germs of dyspepsia she was sure to
offer them in the shape of generous
wedges of fruit cake, handfuls of can
.dy, popcorn balls, nuts, and enormous
slices of white bread spread with rich
preserves.
There was one subject upon which
Todd was very decided for so gentle q
body-she would not live alone She
depended upon the love, the society,
and the sympathy of her fellow beings
for whatever share of happiness might
flow into her soul. She needed q
servant, too, so she told herself ten
years ago, but the industrious people
of her native village would have been
scandalized had any healthy woman in
their borders presumed to indulge in
such luxury without giving weighty
reasons for such course. Todd
thought of all the cakes to be baked
for them sweet children" of the long
pieces of flannel to be sewed into
Christmas offerings for the girls, OF the
socks and mittens to be knitted for the
boys, and decided that the village preju-
dice must be circumvented in some
way. So she went to Mrs Armstrong,
"a widow who had lost the greater part
,of her property through that benefi-
cent protection afforded by the law and
the lawyers, who washed for her bread
when women were too i'll to wash for
themselves-and who rejoiced in the
possession of eight children, and said t:
Give your Mary to me. Twill watch
over her like o sister; l will feed her
we'll and clothe her comfortably, and
she shall have all the schoolin' she can
get in Kirkville."
The widow cried little, said some
very ungrateiul things about laws and
lawyers, but finally consented because
she saw such bountiful provision for
Mary. And when Todd's thirtieth
birthday had arrived Mary had been
with her ten years, aud had grown to
,be comedy, happy-hearted young wom-
IAN, as good-naturedly obstinate as Todd
was good-naturedly yielding.
On that morning Mary arose two
hours earlier than she was wont to do,
and swept and busted and scrubbed
and secured in q manner altogether in
comprehensive to Todd, for more rea-
sons than one. First, this was not
sweeping day; second. it was not scrub
bling day; third, Mary had insisted
'rpon doing a totally unprecedented
amount of cleaning on the day before.
so Todd gently demonstrated, remind
ing Mary that two lone women could
not possibly have brought in all the
dirt that she seemed to imagine herself
removing. But "Mary the Obdurate"
that was the most uncivil thing
'Todd's gentle tongue had ever ventured
to call her, and she would have been
shocked at herself for even that unkind-
ness had her acquaintanceship with
Webster's unabridged been less limit
ed Mary the Obdurate refused to hear
reason, only she palliated her ofiense
by planting on Todd's mouth q sound
ing kiss that, coming as it did from rosy
lips covered with the fragrant breath
of ezuberant health, did much to mol
iify whatever faint degree of wrath was
kindling. But when Mary entered
the sitting where Todd sat GRO
.cbeting a collar for some bi .sht-eyed
favorite, and rearranged the snowy cur.
tains for the seventh time, and relaid
che table-cover that was never known
10 be awry. and dashed her dust-brush