Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-07-02


by slow degrees, and letting their first
flerce anger burn itself out or give place
to hopes born OF tales of yet better
country to be found in some distan,
State or Territory where they would be
free to again build themselves homes.
While in most cases the delay in
evicting the settlers was but robbing
them of so many more years of their
labor, in the case of John Parsons little
family it was, however little intended.
blessing; for from the land already
cleared Mrs. Parsons had been able to
make a living for herself and children,
aided only by Erastus, an orphan boy
whom out of their native goodness of
heart John and Martha had taken to
their hearthstone and their affections
ten years before. He was now robust
lad of fifteen, tanned by the sun, tough
ened by work. and with sturdy air of
independence, born, in part of the
heavy responsibility which he had been
taught rested upon him as ''the only
man about the place, in part of nature
itself and showing itself in his eyes. and
through the childish words and actions
which had once led John Parsons to re-
mark to his wife that ''the little cub
weren't exactly lackin' in willingness to
claim what was his n"
When Mrs. Parsons had finished read
ing aloud the letter from her husband,
the little girls stood with hands crossed
upon their long bingham aprons silent
ly gazing at their mother, who as silent
" arose, laid the letter upon the rude
mantel over the stone fireplace, and
took up her household work where she
had left it when neighbor, in passing,
had brought her the letter.
Her mind was too much occupied
with thoughts to which the letter had
given birth for her to be fully conscious
of what she did, but force of habit, born
of the cruel necessity which compels
nine out of every ten of the wives of
laboring men, and especially of farmers
the world over, to be constantly ''on
the CO." always busy, always at work
for others, held her to her usual round
of duties, even while her mind was
busy discussing this and that plan for
the most rapid and profitable DISPOSE
ton of their little remaining accumula-
tons, devising this and that scheme for
adding to the comfort of the family upon
the long and lonesome journey which
she saw rise up before them.
Then. too. her thoughts turned back
ward over the past; to the scenes of her
girlhood; to the time when she welded
the man she loved and whom she was
now to join after long years of separa-
ton.
She remembered how proud she had
been when he first told her of his love
and asked her to be his wife, and how
hopeful they had been, and how certain
of their future happiness when they be-
gan life together.
And then came sadder remembrances
the loss of their home through trying
to help neighbor; the death of their
first baby that was buried in the little
church-yard beside her own father and
mother, long since gone to their re-
ward-and the other little one. that had
come to them only few months after
they landed in the spot from which
they were now being driven, whose
tiny grave, she remembered with pang
keen as the thrust of a dagger, must be
left without any to care for it, without
a permanent Enclosure even, perhaps to
be forgotten, obliterated, trodden upon.
But these thoughts only served to recall
her to herself, for with the poor, to think
of the dead is always to recall thought
to the living, the living whose necessi-
ties lay claim to every waking thought,
to every effort of the hands and feet.
Her thoughts recalled from the past
to the present. from the dead to the
living, without ceasing her work or even
turning around, but intending to address
the little girls who yet stood silently
beneath the weight of their childish
thoughts of the wonderful, perhaps dan
gerous, journey to their father which
they understood was to be taken, Mrs.
Parsons asked:
s.Where's Erastus?"
Her voice broke the spell which was
upon the children, and snatching their
sun-bonuets from the bed upon which
they had thrown them when they fol-
lowed the neighbor in with the letter,
they whipped out of the house and dart
ed around the corner in the direction
from which came the sound of the boy S
axe.
Across the pasture lot they sped,
catching their sun-bonnets from off their
heads as they ran and carrying them in
their hands, until out of breath and
within talking distance of the object of
their search, the oldest girl broke out
with:
s'Oh! Ras! what d spose? Mas got
letter from pa, and he amt comm
home, cause he's been froze out again,
but he's going to send money home for
us to 90 to California on, and Mr. Peters
is coming down right away to see if
we can be ready to start next week,
and
.Why, Ras, if you amt cuttin' up
rails!'
Wall" replied the boy, his look
changing from that of a very interested
listener to one of set determination,
'.waIl, s'posen am? Didn't your mother
say she wished she had some dry wood
to wash with tomorrow? and amt these
rails dry? Guess they are, fur your
father split 'em and laid 'em up him
self fore he went to California. Shud
think they ought to get dry in six years
if they are ever goin' to-"
''But they're rails" protested both
the girls at once, their Unborn idea of
the wrong involved in the destruction
of property causing them to forget every
thing else for the moment. They re
rails, and if you cut 'em up for wood
they will be spoilt, and besides the cat
tie will get into the field"
'Spose they do, who cares? faint
our field. They stole it. Wish the cat
tie would get i'm
Bet they don't get many rails with
this place." he added, bringing his
axe down with all his strength and fin
ishing the destruction of the one he was
at work on.
Then he shouldered his axe and the
three returned to the house. the girls
still swinging their sun-bonnets in their
hands and talking eXcitadly of the com.