Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-05-23
A POOR COUNTRY BOY:
Or the Great Mistake Made by Miss
Kettle Neremore.

John Lindsay was a poor farmer;
who lived on Il small piece of unpro-
~ductive land Il mile and q half from
the village. He had a large family to
support, and it was with the gre latest
difficulty that he succeeded in Keeping
them from the poor-house until his
Oldest boys grew strong enough to
work at odd jobs for the neighbors.
and thus increase the family income.
The weakest and most timid of Mr.
Lindsay's boys was Arthur, the young e.
est. He was not an ordinary boy. for:
If he had been. it is scarcely pro
that he would have been heard of out
side of his immediate ighborhood.
But the chief characteristics which
made him different from other boys
were his extreme sensitivcness and his
indomitaDle will. Being ply sically
incapable of holding his own with the
other boys, he was made to feel his
insignificance at home, as we'll as at
the little district school-house where
he acquired the rudiments of an edu
cation.
He is a gooc-enough boy" neigh
Dor said to the teacher one day, ''but
he won't amount to any thing: The
-Lindsays amt got no ambition.
They're a harmless set; but no one
ever heard of one Of EN- gittin' more n
one meal ahead. and no one never
will. Nobody pays any 'tention to
the Lindsays. They're sort of fam
lily that's no good to themselves nor
any body else"
Other boys in the vicinity did not
care to associate with young Arthur,
and his brothers made him the butt of
their ridicule; so he found himself
everywhere he went. treated as q no.
body: Every sighting word or act
every smile of contempt, cut him to
the quick, and caused him hours, and
sometimes days, of mental anguish.
The only friend he had who could I'm.
derstand him was his mother; and she,
being always nearly worn out with the
cares of her large family, was unable
to give him much sympathy. But he
had heart, an article which it ap-
peared to him, his brothers and most
of his acquaintnnces lacked; and he
appreciated those trifling. but express.
i've acts of kindness. the time fol
which he knew she stole from other
duties, and which made up about all
the sweetness that came into his young
life. His natural desire to improve
his condition was famed into a con-
stantly-in creasing flame by the unde-
served ':kicks and cuff,'' which he re-
ceived from those whom he felt we're
no more than his equals; and very
often, without replyin g to or seeming
to notice an insult, he would shut his
teeth hard, and say to himself: 'Neve1
mind. Sometime will be in a posi-.
ton to compel their respect, and they
shall feel ashamed of the way they
are treating me now"
At eighteen, he was tall, thin and
stoop-shouldered, with his self-esteen
so dwarfed that he very rarely had the
courage to look a person in the eye
for more than an instant. He had, the
summer before, earned a few dollars
with which to pay his tuition at the
village school, where he was WORKING
hard to acquire the knowledge he So
earnestly desired. He paid no atten.
ton. apparently. to the jests and
sarcasms OF his school-mates who
found much in his dress and manners
to ridicule, but plodded on so dill.
gently that he won the respect of his
teachers and few Of his class NJ ates.
This gave him great encouragement,
and he worked on with renewed
energy.
Hard work, when we'll directed, is
always fruitful; and. in the spring,
Arthur obtained certificate to teach,
and found a summer school a few
miles from the village. By this me ami
he was enabled to return to school il
the fall with better clothes and more
self-respect, and he took up his studies