Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-03-05

A. y"ui iaener and mother should
Due n you were alone, and found thnt
the the very roof that had sheltered y voM
wash yours, and that the bread yon
ate belonged to a~nother-what tbsOa
ihere Is bltterer bread than that earnad
oy honest toll, let me tell YOU. Th;s
place was like a great plank SWINE
down to me out of deep darkness. broad
and strong and sure. and | stepned nnoM
it with a thankful heart, but / sfaid Vim
Aunt Polly just the same. Six DAYS n',t
OF seven she washed and boiled and
sudsed and rinsed and whitened clothes
to the whiteness of the driven snow and
All the Tune She kept me and everything
around her in a state of shining neat.
ness. l liked my work and succeeded in
IT, SO that Aunt Polly got brayely over
her forebodings, and as l grew IN into
the estate of womanhood believed in
me. -
And so five years passed, so crowded
full that they glided by like a weayer's
shuttle, and woke one sposhv morn, >
ing to find myself twenty. I went out
INTO the morning. through the mud and
slosh and darkness, blindfolded. Blind
folded, and it must be confessed, down
hearted. Looking back at it now, I
think my head ached.
The train was half an hour late, and
the smoking Kerosene lamps grew
dingier and more smoky, as they
hared and spluttered in the light
that peeped slowly over the east
ern hills. l was looking at them. and
wondering why Jack Briggs could not
take a lesson in cleaning chimneys
from Aunt Polly, when the train
struck the bridge, half a mile away.
Only a few got off that morning, the
most OF the passengers remembering
that they were only an hour from
Springdale. l dropped the bits of
silver in the till, and rinsed the cups
wondering why it took them so long
to wafer and when that screechino
engine would be off. 9
just then Jack Briggs, whose name
ought to have been Jehu. since he was
always first to hear evil tidings, rushed
in, and said that .'somethine allied the
tacklingg and they must stop for re-
pairs."~
what will come next?" said 1, i'm
patiently, stepping on to a chair to
turn down the light which had sput-
tered itself into a state of imbecility.
David and Jonathan" came next,
and it was like a ray of sunlight to
see them. Two men from the far
West, who were always together, so
[ called them David and Jonathan"
Moreover they had married twin sis
tiers, and each had more than half a
dozen children. I used to think it was
worth a days wages to serve those people
the happiest, ~jolliest set that ever rode
on a rail. and l thought it was my great
fortune that they rode OF my particular
rail very often. The very sight OF David
and jonathan always put me in my best
spirits. They both came in talking to-
gether and joking each other about
oversleeping, and David drew from his
pockets a package of sweets and said
that Tot, his five-year-old daughter,
sent it to me, with her love for nv birth
day.
Why" 1 said (more pleased than I
could telD chow did the child know it
was my %birthday3"
'Oh, her mother knew it and told
her--she knows everything"
l reflected that [ must have told her
at some time, though when Or why I had
not the slightest recollection. L said
what was indeed true, chat I had never
had any birthday remembrance that
pleased me as much, and then, finding
the filling rapidly, l turned to my
work.
Right here the ~strangest thing hap
pened. dropped the little package in
the till, thinking to myself my best
birthday present. when something
came into my mind like a flash.
''Your best birthday present stands
before YOU
1 raised my eyes quickly, and what 1
saw directly before me across the table,
was a man enveloped in fur from head to
foot. AS startled rs l was. my judgment
came to my rescue in time to attend to
his order. IA cup of coffee and sand
wich.'
That man drank his coffee, wiped his
mouth, paid me the exact change and
was off without any more notice or
thought of me than if l had been a
bushwhacker of Central Abyssinia-a.d
candor compels me to acknowledge,
not half so much.
And now l must make a DEPRESSION
long enough to say that in all my plans
for my future, marriage had never en-
tered into my thoughts. l had planned
for myself a business life-and when
several good opportunities of marriage
had come to ME, it had yexed Aunt Pol
ly's righteous soul that 1 had refused
them. 1 treasured the good creature
with the promise that when the right
one came 1 would accept him, but l set
tied it with myself meantime that the
right one never would come. And with
out the least waste of sentiment | am
going to confess that from the time [
saw that man standing before me [ as
firmly believed that he would be m hus-
band.
didn't know if he was as poor as the
Thanksgiving bird usually attributed to
Job-Chough why that lo%ng-sutferingy
individual should forever be saddled
with a turkey surpasses me(-or if he
was as rich as the Rothschilds; he might
be as much married as David and Jona-
than put together, it made no difference.
He would come my way again some
time, and l should know him whether
he were dressed in seals like an Eskimo,
ar lilo tho s.vei1ed prOphet of khOraS-