The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-06-03
INTERESTING STORY.
DOROTHY'S TOBACCO.

No." said Dorothy Mallard, 81 won't
run the farm with any man ON shares I've
seen enough of that in fathers time It was
always the man that got rich, and father
that LOST
" You won't, eh ?r said Silas Green, red
dening angrily.
No." said Dorothy, 81 won'tr",
Then I guess you and the children will
starve," growled silas. Anyhow, guess
nobody'll feel sorry for YOU"
" It's very well TO talk about sympathy
md help and all that sort of thing,n said
Dorothy Mallard. But when it comes to
actual business, I've observed that every
mans hand is for himself"
But no woman ever yet made farm
pay, said Silas Green, sullenly biting the
end of burnt match.
Well, anyway mean to have try OF
it," said calm Dorothy.
She was not quite twenty, this positive
young female-a tall, well-made woman,
with bright, gray-blue eyes, healthy red
and-white complexion and very dark-brown
hair, brushed straight away from her smooth
forehead.
She was no city dAmsel, whose ideas of
life are limited to six-button kid gloves,
opera matinees and walks on the sunny side
of Upper Broadway, but straightforward,
business girl, who knew every detail OF
farm life, and could tell just when rye
ought to go in and carrots come out.
Her father had been " complaining" as
the countrywide phrased it, for years; and
now that he was dead, Dorothy felt new
avalanche of care descending on her. For
there were four wistful-eyed little girls and
one delicate boy to be provided for.
Silas Green and Dorothy Mallard had
never been regularly engaged. But it was
an understood thing in the little community
that they belonged to each other.
They had kept company ever since
Dorothy put up her hair behind with q
comb. And Silas had perhaps learned to
domineer little in good-humored way
Consequently he did not approve of this
new outcropping of Dorothy's independ.
ence.
" I'd marry her in minute if she'd heal
to my way of doing things" said he. "Of
course the little girls are old enough to be
bound out. l know plenty of good, sensi-
BILE women who would give 'em their board
and clothes for the work they would do.
And as for the little boy, We would not
quarrel about him. There's lots of odd
chores boy like that would be useful for Z"
But Dorothy's eyes had flashed indigna-
ton when Silas had limited at some such
arrangement
dol" she said, bitterly. "Send little
Abel to the workhouse. That's the way
to manage. And as for the girls, it's q
pity we don't live in Singapore or Bombay,
or some of them places where they fling all
the girl-babies into the river, before they
are old enough to be in the way. I Won
der, Silas Green, what you take me for? ?"
So Dorothy gave up all ideas of married
life, and set herself to work to earn o liveli-
hood out of the old farm.
It's no use my thinking Of wheat, and
rye, and potatoes, and that sort of thing;r
mid she. 1T would require too much
capital and too many hands. Besides,
father used to say that the market was over
stocked. I'll put the big corn-lot into to.
bacco. That's crop that o woman can
handle. Old Jubal will help me about the
curing for mere triAe; and I'll put some
grape-vines up them rocky terraces by the
south woods, and the big strawberry-feld is
coming into fine bearing this year. I'm
glad set out the young plants last June,
and watered 'ern oil through the drought.
And then there's the young chickens. We
never did have such fine lot before. And
Polly, and Chatty, and Bess, and Bell are
old enough to help deal; and know
that little Abel can OF least weed strawber-
ries and help pick worms off the tobacco
leaves, child though he is. He'll like to
think he's helping, too. There's deal of
ambition in that lad"
Old Jubal was rheumantic old colored
man who travelled around the country,
mending tinware and re-caning chairs.
His laziness was proverb through the
whole neighborhood but, nevertheless,
Dorothy Mallard contrived to get some
good, heavy work out of him.
If dar's anything dis chile Understands,
it's de car OBJ tobacco" said old Jubal.
"Doan you fret, Miss Dawthy; I'll guaran-
tee de crop turns out fust best"
And so Jubal took up his residence in the
barn chamber, where he smoked himself
into stupefaction of an evening, and told
ghost stories that made little Abel's flaxen
hair stand on end, between the pipe-light-
ings.
An old niger of seventy and child of
seveni" jeered silas Green. "we'll see
what sort of farming that is /"
Dorothy turned short around upon him.
II believe" said she, with glitterina
eyes, that you would be pleased, Silas--
yes, actually pleased--if was to fail in this
enterprise Of mine"
"Well, I calculate II would teach You
pretty good lesson said he, disagreeably.
But as time went on, the young chickens
grew as fat as If they had been in Dorothy's
confidence, and were secretly preparing
themselves for the gridiron and the spit
the ripening strawberries crimsoned all the
field the young grape-roots stretched their
green tendrils sunward and the tobacco
waved its monster leaves, as If it fancied
itself down in Old Virginia instead of grow
ing on rocky Rhode Island farm.
Dorothy Mallard worked late and early.
She herself took her crops into town with
borrowed wagon and the old blind pony,