The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-07-01
LITTLE, BUT FULL OF GRIT.

"Talking about pure grit" said q
woman who was lunching the other day
at the Colonial Club. II knew a wom-
an once who was full of it,
"Tell us about her," exclaimed the
other two women of the luncheon party.
"Who was she?"
"Why, she was my mother" answered
the first speaker. "She was the littlest
little woman ever saw, but there was
courage and fight enough in her to stock
whole regiment. l don't mean she
was a nagging creature, making trouble
for everybody. She was the sweetest,
kindest woman in the world. 1t was
only when somebody tried to impose on
her, or on some of us girls, that she
came out as fighter. Let me tell you
a story about her, and you'll see what l
mean.
swell, we were living in Iowa when my
father, minister by the way, died and
left mother TO manage a farm and to
care for big family of girls. The grain
was high in the field and it had to be cut
at once. Mother entered into negotia-
tions with neighbor and was just about
to close trade with him when she dis
covered that he was trying to overreach
insisting on terms that were exorbitant
and absurd.
Mother told him that she'd get some.
body else to cut the grain, and that made
him so angry that he was quite rude in
his speech. But mother shut the door
in his face and left him to have his sput-
ter out all by himself.
''That night about 1 o'clock, mother
was awakened by noise out in the
yard. She slipped out of bed and peered
out of the window. There was the same
farmer engaged in taking down the p ars
of the fence that surrounded the field of
grain that mother wouldn't let him cut
The bars down, the man went out in the
road for a minute, and the next minute
he came back driving a yoke of oxen,
which he turned loose into the field.
What did your mother say to the
MANI" asked one of the listeners.
''She didn't say anything"
Didn't she tell him to take the cattle
right out of the field?
mo, indeed; that was not her way of
doing things. What she did first was to
dress herself. Then she stole quietly
down stairs and went out into the yard.
Then she went to the barn and got an
ox-goad. Then she bounded to the field
and drove the oxen out of it."
Anu Lueu SHe WeuJ DdCk W Deu,
suppose" said one of the women. cor
did she watch the rest of the night?"
Neither. She drove those oxen a
mile and half down the road until she
came to great field of corn which be-
longed to that awful man. Then she
took down the bars and wished the oxen
good morning.
son the way back she stopped long
enough to open the gate of pasture in
which was quite herd of steers, and to
set some of them moving toward the
cornfeld, and they found that field,
can assure you.
Next morning mother told us what
she had done, and we just Rugged her
and kissed her till she cried"
Sand what came of it?"
'Oh, yes-that's the best part of the
story. The neighbors somehow found
out what had happened, and they were
so pleased over it that they came and cut
mothers grain for nothing.
"But just think of that 95-pound WON.
an driving a yoke of oxen a mile and a
half in the middle of the night on such
an errand. always feel proud of my
little mother when 1 recall this episode
in her life.-Nelo York Times.