The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1888-03-24

weak In their unoiied sockets, aud
hen she would roll the child out OF her
an and 70 down to the ferry 30 ~ to %
ready when the wagon came up 10
Jerry it over. i
The driver would pass the time Of
Ilay with her, but rarely did she ask
him what might be going on In town.
She took no interest In any life or GO
inps.on away :rom the hut BY the ferry.
When he would he safsly over the
traveller would pay the ferrywoman the
isa of two-bits aud his wagon Wou'o
cresk off until Lost In the forest. some.
times ne would lood back at the row OF
bow lexgsd, pink.frocked, tow-headed
children standing ia the white sand by |
the river, or a, the woman banding her
back as she strained heavily at her
huge ferry, pulling 1t back to shore.
Aud the wagon y ould 60 out Of sight,
the creaking fade away, telling on a.
II down a hill into silence.
Sometimes q party Of hunters came
the ferry way, or the village doctor 10
his buggy, or q atramp. preacher VINO OF.
fered to mend her shoes II she would
ferry him over for nothing. Then the
woman would laugh and put out bare
foot. hard and solid and brown out
shapely, and ask him how he could
mend that, but when she fsrrled him
over she would shake her head and
take no fee from him at all.
II was generally supposed in the
sparse settlement down by the cross.
roads store, and by the semi occasional
travellers, that the w0man's husband
,vas dead. Sometime ago he had been
s.wap,ed' by the sheriff, had dtsap-
neared, and then she took to ferrying.
living on with her young ones In the
cabin. and if they or any others asked
apy question of the missing man she
would say sharply and shortly ''dead."
Her cabin was clean, she cut her own
wood. the children fished In the river,
and she worked her garden, MIXED
he COW, ran the ferry when IT was
needed, which was not more than Two
or three times q month, and sometimes
sent her two oldest children to the
crossroads store after meal, coffee or
little sugar. Az for herself she could not
leave the ferry. She watched 1t day
and night in an eager expectant way
that was. perhaps, born of her lone
some and unusual situation.
What a life was hers! A tall, sal
low woman who worked in . garden
and pulled OK wagons over river II
a raft ferry, who cut her wood anc
dug her potatoes, who could neither
read nor write, who lived on catisf
and sweet potatoes, and knew nothtpt
.. about the value of being refined spt
Intellectual! O..
But she was q good mother. Sh
was like a hen, scratching and pickinl
, for her young ones and sheltering then
lunder her wings, or like COW stayinl
i, close beside her weak and bleatinl
calf or like . gentle doe regarding Will
a food eyes her timid, hungry fawn. On
the mother is or ought to be beautilu
' whether che is iu q brute's skin, unde
= a robe of feathers, or whether she 10 II
! the image of Mary kneeling In adore
e ton before her babe.
s One day the woman was down
her knees in her little garden wssdin
n her onion bed. Overhead the pluI
r. trees we're all in q white feather
Il bloom and the bees were busy an
i noisv in the branches. The groun
o was shady, thesoil hne as bread cruml
n and moist, and the worker plucl
r. ed at her task as daintily as fine lad
"a might sit at a bit of Kensington en-
At broidery. For my part do not kno
"a ANYTHING better than to be down
II the shade under blooming plum trt
az where the bees are grooming aud
Il, little spears of grass and weeds iro
or a bed of fine black earth In Will.
il. Young vegetables are sprouttng.
IN see the clean space grow under one
IN hand, to feel the silence of the count
in all about, to know without looking
tn that beyond the plum blossoms the
III Is blue sky and white wooliy clout
,es is enough. 1t is as good as being
fined and intellectual. At any II
pst this WON an thought it was good,
no while she was not happy-for on
er. children and young lambs, bride
,at her wedding day, or = mother "
IFS her first baby in her arms can tr'
his be said to be happy-shs was conte
to The children were at play In the sal
to under the ruins Of an old dock wh
ool ages ago some men had built RI
the schooners for living, and the fe
in was idly tethered to the bank. IL
on a peaceful time.
,e n Just at this moment there soun
ans in the woods the baying OF hour
rht a noise that heard in forest alW
q a makes one think Of the booming
7ere funeral drum. A oust "as III .oe y
ipa- the beat of horses hoofs and ma
dozen men with guns on their eln
rry. rode up and called to the woman
her riedIy. Two convicts at work In
,auk railroad camp in the next county