Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-08-28

dinner and gather the rufles, I might
reconsider, but dancing all night and
dawdling all day is not my vocation,
o that of any woman who has a
healthy body, a sound mind and an inn
mortal soul"
And so. a true estimate of life, with
its magnificent possibilities, backed by
a strong will. brought down the scale,
as it always will, when opposed to
worldliness and frivolity, and Helen
Rutherford packed a medium sized
trunk and started for Mapleton.
After Helen's departure, the really
a~ffectionate, but too fashionable, mother
devoted herself to the faithful discharge
Of her social duties, and she was a very
busy woman.
A true conservation to the service of
fashion demands the best energies of
its votaries; time and talents must often
be mortgaged to secure the highest
honors, and it is we'll if a sudden fore
closure does not preclude the possibl-
ity of redemption.
Helen Rutherford happened to go to
Mapleton i'll this way. On their way
home from Niagara the previous sum
mer. Mrs. Rutherford hunted no a
cousin, who had married early in life
and settled in a part of the country
that was then almost a wilderness.
Little better now, thought Mrs. Ruther-
ford, when, after two days spent in
talking over old times with the friend
OF her girlhood, she began to feel rest
less and lonely. The owls in the trees,
and the frogs at nightfall, made only
dismal music to her uncultivated ear;
the rag carpet was SO %.'dreadfully
countrified," and the oil lamps, she
told Helen, had. she feared, given her
nose a permanent upward tendency.
This was not the effect produced
upon Helen by her short visit to that
primitive little home among the hills.
Her foot was on its native heath"
and her soul claimed kindred with the
birds, the brook and the grand old
trees.
The simplicity of daily life in her
cousins household was in pleasing
contrast to the artificial, surface-like
existence of very fashionable society,
and particularly soothing after her
summers campaign. She longed to
be there again, and when she received
W ASooSA " AC COuSluy WIN 1uCu.
toned the marriage and removal of
their school teacher; and the difficulty
there would be to fill her place, she at
once applied for the position, an
nounced her intentions to her mother,
and carried her point, as we have seen,
against all opposition. =,
CHAPTER II.
AS Helen Rutherford stepped from
the cars upon the platform of the
Mapleton station, she gave her travel
ing dress a little shake, and drew a
long breath, as if she would thus shake
Oft the bonds of conventional life and
take in the sweet influence of nature.
Her cousin, Ruth Kendall, met her
at the station, and for Helen, that
walk home. through the woods. in the
deepening twilight, was a pleasant en-
trance upon her life in Mapleton.
She had a joyous, uplifting faith in
God, which. enabled her to utilize all
the events of her life, and that evening
she was very happy. With pleasant
surroundings, sympathetic companion
ship and congenial work why should
she not be happy?
In Ruth Kendall Helen had found
that which is as rare as it is valuable,
a true friend.
One of our own writer's has said:
.tAll friendship is likely to end in van
ity that is not founded in mutual re-
spect." The friendship of these two
women had its foundation in mutual
respect, and was to be built up, and
completed, in similarity of taste and
perfect confidence.
There is no eneer about Ruth Ken
dall-her ladyhood was innate; the out
ward expression of inward refinement.
Her educational advantages had been
few in youth, and her intelligence was
mainly the result of observation and
reflection; she brought the powers of a
she saw and heard.
Some people, by their superficial at
tainments, make think that some
time in their lives they strayed into an
educational institution and stood there
while a limited number of facts in
mathematics, history, philosophy, etc.,
with a few Latin and French decora-
tions, were thrown at them, some of
which happened to stick fast. 1t often
happens that many of these are torn
of in the crowd and hustle of after-life,
and then there is a sad lack of drapery.
Others, like Ruth Kendall, take in
knowledge as a tree takes nutriment,
from earth and air; and day by day
there is an increase of strength in the
sturdy trunk and. wide spreading
branches, and new beauty of form and
color in the delicately veined leaves.
So a proper use of our mental powers,
in digesting the materials we find in
books, nature and human life, will re-
suit in strength Of mind, delicacy of
perception and beauty of thought.
Ruth was a widow now, but the men,
DRY of a true love and happy married
life still gladdened her heart; and
though three little daughters had died
in their childhood, like buds with an
early blight" she felt that her dear
mes were still guarded by the same
kind hand that marked out her own
daily path. In the careful train
ing of her only remaining child, a boy
of twelve, in the performance of house
hold duties, and in mental and social
enjoyment, she still found life a thing
to be desired.