Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-06-07
body who did not wear some kind Of a

Mrs. Outhet groaned in spirit when she
got this letter, at the idea of girl driv-
ing about n strange city. after dark, quite
unprotected, but the doctor said. stTrust
to Bellies common-sense, my dear Mrs.
Outhet. A bright, level-headed girl like
she is can take care Of herself"
The excitement of getting established
at home and at school occupied the first
few days, without leaving loop-hole for
inconsistencies to creep in. Belle had
argued with herself that she could rot
afford to indulge in it at any time, and if
it laid pretty desperate siege to her peace
of mind during the next winter, she never
confessed it in her letters home, though,
if the truth must be told, it sometimes
needed deal of courage to keep from
captivating.
Matters did not always go smoothly.
In what walk in life do they, pray2 But
there was the pure delight of study that
nothing could lessen To offset minor
perplexities that one never gets wholly
away from, there were the agreeable
courtcsies shown her by new friends.
To one particular circle of people Belle
always felt especially grateful. This was
u club of musicians who held fortnightly
sat homes" to which they made point
of inviting students who were strangers
or alone in the city To these delightful
musical evenings Belle owed many agree
able hours and pleasant friendships.
With various long-goings and short
comings the school years wore away. The
first summer vacation Belle spent at home;
the second year she worked right on
through the summer, dcvoting the vaca-
ton season to additional studies.
Commencement came Mt last, and, MS
might be surmiscd, when obstacles had
been encountered as matter of course
and had never been turned into bugbears,
Belle had good reason to be happy over
her years of hard work The ink on her
thesis was barely dry when a request from
the college at Halifax to the Institute of
Technology to recommend teacher of
sanitary science to them, was formally
presented to Miss Outhet.
Surely, steamer never sailed so slowly
as the one that bore her home, but then
it was heavily freighted with hopes and
ambitions. The chance to at once step
into useful and remuncrative professional
work was held Il precious secret until she
reached home. The pride she felt in it
was surely of an honest sort, for was it
not proof that she had not been mis-
taken in thinking she could be of some
use in the world9 But there was no COM
mendation of school and college that
compared in value with the pride in
Squire Outlets ''to think of this being
my BELIEF"
With II long summer vacation on her
hands, the active little woman cast about
for something to do that would be relax
alton from study and still keep her out of
mischief. There it was, acres of it,
spread out on every side, and Belle quite
took her fathers breath away by suggest
ing that they should go to work, he and
her, to improve the estate. No wonder
the squire was dumbfounded ut the idea
of young woman attempting to do what
generations Of men had undone, but
Belle was very much in earnest, and turn
the matter over rs he would he could see
no good reason for refusing to let her
try the experiment.
Before long the ncighbors were greatly
exercised over the spectacle of the squire
and his daughter ''trampin' up an down
the mountain, across back lots an low
lands, IL surveyin' an goin' on great
rate"
The women said they ''sud think she'd
better be a spinnin' or dom somcthin'
useful" but the men said ''Lct her
alone an see what she kin do There's
no better place in tn country than tn
squirrels, if 'twuz only looked after, but
he don't know anything about farmin';
WIZ always in politics, same's all his fam
lily when he wuz younger. An now he
won't sell a foot of his land; won't do
nothin' whit himself, ner let any one hcv
it tibet could"
Soon after this fences began to go up
on the Outhet place, and then it was re-
ported through the village that the squire
had "actually got stumpin' machine"
This. in face of his prejudice against
''new tangled notions" was certainly re-
markablc. But the new machine was
nothing more nor less than home made
contrivance, the product of circum-
stances-and little wood and iron The
men on the place had said they could "do
nothin' with them fields west o. tn old
oi'hiiu y iOHS tHcl Hctlllll 10 TOOt out
tn stunnps with" and Belle had said:
"Well, we will have something to root
them out with" Simple laws of physics
furnished the plan; Belle explained the
principles to Jim and Dana-mcn who
had grown up in the squirrels family and
knew less about managing affairs on an
estate than the squire himself, (which
was needless" as the gossips were fond
of saying-and in the end, the stump
problem was solved Belle soon found
out that the dilapidated state of affairs
was due to the habit of letting everything
drift from an indifferent state to bad,
from bad to worse. Merely locating the
trouble helped to rout it. 1t was not
long before the squire could see that
science was useful in other places than
schools. 1t did not stop with
making stump machines. 1t helped
to make dressing for the stumpless fields,
it shed light upon the economy of keep
ing the live stock warmly housed and
clean through cold weather, it traced
Tremainc's illness to the old well be-