Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-08-27
DOROFHY'S TOBACCO.

lOols
"YOu won't, ell ~ said Silas
Green, reddening angrily.
mo-" said Dorothy, 81 wOn't~
"Then l guess you and the chill
dren will starve," growled Silas.
"Anyhow, 1 guess nobody1l feel
sorry tor you.'
ats very we'll to talk about SYM
patty and help, and all that sort OF
thing,S said Dorothy Mallard.-
"But when it comes to actual bust
ness, I've observed that every mans
hand is for HIMSELF
"But no woman ever made a
farm pay" said Silas Green, sullen'
ly biting the end of q burnt match
"Well, anyhow, l mean a try at
it," said calm Dorothy.
She was not quite twenty, the
positive young fema'e-a tall, we'll
made woman, with bright, gray
blue eyes, a healthy red-and-white
complexion and very dark.brown
hair, brushed straight away from
her forehead.
She was no city damsel whose
ideas of life are limited to six-but'
ton kid gloves, opera matinees and
walks on the sunny side Of Upper
Broadway, but a straightforward,
business girl, who knew every de.
tail of farm life, and could tell just
when rye ought to go in and car
rots come out.
Her father had been "complain'
ing as,the country-folK phrased it,
for years, and now that he was
dead, Dorothy felt a new avalanche
of care descending on her. For
there were four wistful.eyed little
girls and one delicate boy to be pro-
yided for.
Silas Green and Dorothy NAL
lard had never been regularly en-
gagged, but it was an understood
thing in the community that they
belonged to each other.
They had "kept company" ever
since Dorothy put up her hair be-
hind a comb. And Silas had per-
haps learned to domineer little in
a good-humored way. Consequent
ly he did not approve of this new
out-croppihg Of DOrOthy's indepen-
dence.
"I'd marry her in a minute If
she'd hear to my way of doing
things" said he. "Of course the
little girls are old enough to be
bound out. 1 know plenty of good,
sensible 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 a boy like that would be use
full fer"
But Dorothy's eyes had flashed
indignation when Sllas had limited
at some such arrangement.
"Do," she said bitterly. "Send
little Able to the workhouse.-|
That's the way to manage. And
as for the girls, it's a pity we don't
live, IN Singapore or Bombay, or
some of them places where they
ding all the girl babies into the
river, before they are old enough
to be in the way. 1 wonder, Silas
Green, what you take me for ~
So Dorothy gave up all idea of
married life, and set herself to work !
to earn a livelihood out of the old |
farm.
ats no use my thinking Of wheat !
and rye, potatoes, and that sort of
thing;7 said she. at would re-
quire too much capital and too
many hands. Besides father used !
to say that the market was over
stocked. Pll put the big CORE lot
into tobacco. That's crop that a
woman can handle. Old Jubal will
help me about the curing for a mere
trifle; and I'll put some grape-vines
up them rocky terraces by the south
woods, and the big strawberry-field
5 coming into fine bearing this
ear. Pm glad 1 set out the young
90 }nts last June, and watered 'em
berehrough the drought. And then
other the young chickens. We
le ~ Md have such fine lot be-
ore. And Polly, Chatty, and Bess,
md Bell are old enough to help a
leal and ] know that little Able
an at least weed strawberries and
lelp pick worms of the tobacco
caves, child though he is. He'll
ike to think he's helping, too
There's a deal Of ambition in that
ADJ
Old Jubal was rheumatic old
olored man who travelled around
he country, mending tinware and
ecaning chairs.
Hislsziness was aproverb through
be whole neighborhood, but, new .
Dorothy MalIard cOntriv-
to get some good, heavy work u
1t OF him. y
"If dsr's anything dis chile un'er- l.
ans it's de car OBJ tobacco" said
d Jubal. 'Doan you fret, Miss y
awthy; I'll guarantee de crop !"
rms out fnst best" y"
And so old Jubal took up his res ~
ence in the barn chamber, where
smoked himselfinto stupefaction ~
an evening, and told ghost sto- ~