The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1885-10-01

there was no lack of room SO long as
none Of them were obliged to leave the
louise in order to get space to open the
| stove door.
Strips of bright carpet were laid be.
tween the beds, about which were hung
! curtains reaching from the ceiling q
the floor. The clock found a resting
place upon a shelf to the left of the
front door A bureau with mirror
occupied the space between the win
dows at the end where the beds stood.
The table, when not in use. was folded
up and allowed 10 stand in the center
of the floor ready to be opened at meal
time. Upon the walls were hung few
pictures. The white curtains which
had once adorned the windows of the
sitting-room of the old home were fitted
to those of the new; and when all was
done that could be done, the room
looked so bright and coy that the
hearts of the occupants lifted little,
and but for the thought that one was so
soon to leave them, whom they knew
not when, if ever, they would meet
again, they might have been almost
happy.
Jennie did not know what day to
look for her husbands coming, for he
could not tell, when they parted in San
Francisco, how long it would take him
| to arrange his business, which consisted
in the collection Of several little sums
of money owing to him, but she had
written from Phippsburg, telling him
where to go for directions how to find
her; and one dag, about week after
the family had taken possession of the
shanty on the mountain side, he came,
having walked out from the landing.
Mrs Parsons cried q little when En-
sign kissed her and called her moth
en- 1t reminded her so forcibly of the
separation which his coming presaged
that she could not help it. But she
welcomed him warmly and made him
feel that she loved him already for Jen-
MES sake 5.t
From John Parsons he received
hand-shake which. hardened as his own
hands were by work in the shop. came
near causing Ensign TO finch. The
man whose daughter he had married
felt very warm friendship for him in
deed
In comparing Ensign with Annelsey,
as he had naturally done at times,
when he expected both would become
his sons-in-law, he had somehow come
to regard him as kind of hero, con-
tending against odds, as he felt that all
men who labored were forced to do,
and that in choosing Jennie for wife
he had allied himself with those who;
although giving no outward sign, were
yet half unconscionsly revolving in their
minds some plan by which to remove
the wrongs beneath which they suffered
and writhed.
1t was true that he had lost his pride
in possession and with it all confidence
in himself
Without much knowledge of books,
inclined by nature to think lightly of
his own abilities, and having failed to
successfully defend what he knew to be
his natural rights to the wealth which
he had himself created, he now felt that
he had no right to offer advice upon
needed reforms in society or the laws.
But Ensign was young, he possessed
cool courage and spirit that would
not allow him to remain supinely inact-
i've beneath great and continued
wrongs. Besides this, he had fair
education. and, so the girls said, had
once or twice talked 10 his fellow-work-
ingmen in public upon questions affect
ing their interests, and there had grad
ually grown up in the mind of John
Parsons feeling that Ensign was to be
instrumental in some way, perhaps as q
leader, in righting the wrongs of the
people.
SO long as Lucy had been engaged to
marry Mr.. Annelsey these feelings had
been suppressed, overlaid as it were by
a fear that in encouraging them he was
choosing between his daughters, who
were equally dear to him, but he had
not been able TO prevent a feeling that
Annelsey. being in sympathy with the
cause of the losses which he had SUI
fered, was in some way partially re-
sponsible for them, as he certainly was
a representative of the class who were
the gamers by those losses, and by the
losses of the thousand and millions OF
other men and women who are doomed
to toll all their lives for the wretched
pittance of enough food and clothing,
and hopes:of better times, to induce them
to continue the work OF creating wealth
for others.
The moment, however, he learned
that Lucy had dismissed Mr.. Annelsey,
the thoughts which had before been
but dumb kind of feeling. kept under
by knowledge Of the relation which
the young man was likely to bear to
the family, began to take shape, and
once or twice in talking with Jennie of
the life which she and her husband
would lead in Chicago, he had even put
these thoughts into words, and now he
welcomed the young man not alone as
son-in-law, but as one who might
some day help to right existing wrongs
and make the people free.
Ensign remained with the family
nearly week, and every day endeared
himself more and more to his wife's
parents. 1t was in order that they
might become better acquainted with
him, and thus not feel that they were
giving their daughter to one so nearly
stranger, that he remained. During his
stay he helped all he could to put the
place in better shape, and as the rains
did not fall during the entire week, the.
two men were enabled TO do much
towards making things look more
cheerful.