The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-04-09
DrudgerY.

iNffie was doomed, or so it seemed TO
life of drudgery. What else than
drudgery was it to wash the dishes for
ten in family three times a day, to
sweep and dust the SAME rooms every
day, to DO the errands, to answer calls
made OH her by all the older ones and
all the younger ones as well" Surely
wheu she got to school, sway from all
the tiresOme home duties, she would
be happy and content.
She was placed in u Loarding-school.
and for time she was happy and con-
tent. There were no meals to get or
clear away, only her room to see to.
But pretty soon the examples in arith-
metic got very hard, and she couldn't
''get' them all the declensions and
conjugations in her Latin grammar,
how long it took to learn the tiresome
things, and often she missed them !;
the parsing in English grammar per-
picked her. and she found the hill Of
knowledge very steep climbing. The
srhool-bell rang just when she was
ready to have "litlle good time" the
table fare grew m0nOtonous; not all
her school-mates were agreeable to her,
and poor Ettie felt that the old doom of
drudgery was on her still. But by and
by she would be through the arithme-
tic and in algebra, through the Latin
grammar and in Caesar, through pars-
ing and in 'composition," and then
lite would be easier. In fact, it troub-
led her more to find the value ,of X
than to work in figures it was harder
TO guess what Caesar meant than to
learn conjugations and rules; and,
what was the hardest task of all, to
write on a given subject when she
didn't know any thing about it and
hadn't word to say. So the same old
discontented look that had been on her
face at home was Oh her face at school,
and she had changed her skies only,
herself remaining the same.
When she had finished school and
had become young lady, then, GER
tainly, she would be happy. Then her
mothers health failed, and Eftie had TO
rake charge of the household. This
wasn't harder for Effie than it was for
those who had to live with her, for now
every thing was drudgery, and the
spirit of drudgery pervaded the entire
house.
This last calamity, her mothers ill
health, was really Etfie's opportunity
| if she had only known it. She might
have learned how to administer domes-
tic affairs so as to be ready to take
charge of home of her own. She
might have made the lives of her
younger brothers and sisters a JOY to
them rather than burden. She
might have caused her mothers heart
to be glad and her fathers to rejoice in
her. But the old habit of considering
every thing she didn't feel like doing
to be drudgery was too strong to be
broken.
When her mothers health was re-
stored in part, Effie went to learn the
dress-maker's trade, and she was sure
that when she could make dresses nice
lly, her own and other peoples, she
would be happy and independent and
content. She was for time; then she
found some customers very hard to
please she had to be very diligent to
meet her engagements, she got tired of
sitting so steadily at the needle, the
work was monotonous and wearing; in
fact. it was drudgery.
What task imposed on mortals may
not he turned into drudgery? What
task may not, by cheerful, obedient,
submissive soul, be made delightful? ?
What tasl. may not be made step
ping stone to something higher and
ever higher?
1t takes some people all their lives to
learn that the happiest place is here,
and the happiest time is now, and
some never learn the lesson.