The Opelousas courier., 1892-03-19

OF help that fell to the ground. 1t wa
like fighting a feather bed to try to rous
Mrs. Lamson to an active improvement
and rebuffed there, Essie could only hell
Mark by words of sympathy that wer,
like wine of life to his love.
An hour with Essie sent him back ia
his uphill work full of new hope, every
CLERGY stimulated, every hope bright
ened. He had not dared to set before
him in plain words the hope of one day
winning her heart to his own, for there
was all the humility of true passion IN
that young, ardent heart, but hes4eal.
lied a new force, q new spur to am.
bit:on.
Essie never sneered at him as the
neighbors had become accustomed to
doing; Essie never threw cold water
over his plans for improving the land;
Essie was never sarcastic over the clash
ing of his povery and his ambitions. As
he saw her more frequently, he ventured
to tell her of wider, wilder hopes, of
some day escaping from the drudgery
before him, and making his way to a
city, where his education might give
him astart in more congenial occupation.
"Father and mother seem to need me,
now,a he told Essie, one day; ''they are
old, and they have no other child. l
think it is my plain duty to stay"
N think it is" was the quick reply;
"yorr mother could scarcely bear a sepa.
ration"
land while / am here, I must do the
work that lies under my hand" he said,
''hard as it is! But Essie,' and his face
frightened, s'do You know that already
| have made the farm pay double what
it has ever done. Next spring I can
hire help out of money | saved from the
sale of last years cropsl"
Essie, all eager interest, entered into
discussion of the capabilities OF such a
lot for t~urnips. such a patch for wheat.
the possibilities of a dairy, the best cul-
ture for fowls, as if she had never
studied music or filled her head with
French and German verbs.
But the horror and wrath Of Judge Len
nox, when, after two years of mild court
ship, Mark took his fate in his hands and
asked permission to marry Essie, cannot
be described.
"A Lamson!" he cried, when hav-
Ing dismissed Mark he returned to the
BOSOM of his family. "a Lamson for
ESTES husband! The fellow wants
my money to spend after all his father
and his grandfather have squandered."
do you really and truly think Mark
is a s~pendthrift, papa?" Essie asked
quietly. "Does he ever lounge about
the stores or t%ayerns, as Harry Carter
and James Rayburn dol
"I-Well, no, | never saw him." was
the reluctant admission.
"Did you ever hear that he drank or
gambled, or sven smoked2"
'tN-o-I never did,"
us he not regular at church,"
eye es."
"But, oh, Essie!n struck in Mrs, Len.
nox. aWhat shabby, half-washed
he wears, and his fingers all out
If his gloves, and half the buttons of his
coat gonei'
"Poor Mark said Essie, gently. "He
needs a wife,
.Well, he need not look here for
growled the Judge.
81 heard Mr.. Thompson say, last
week" said Essie, quietly, stthat there is
lot a better farm in Greene County than
Iamson' s.
asnch d palace of a house!' the
Judge sneered.
"Mark is hoping to put a new house
IN the place, next year. He has had
over from b, but they say
he old house is beyond repair, aud it
you'd cost less to have a new one"
ssAud where is the money to come
eWhere the improved farm came
rom,'' said Elsie; s.from Marks indus
rs, perseverance and energy, in the face
f the hardest discouragements ever a
Dung man had to fght.n
CHR said the Judge. What?
Vhat2'
.tSee what he has DONE said Essie,
Till in an even, quiet tone that carried
onviction far more than an excited one.
years ago, when he wa but a
oy, he put his shoulder to the wheel
nd took his playtime between school
ours to weed and clear away stones.
Iobody helped him. He was ridiculed,
neered at, discouraged on all sides. He
ad the poorest farm in the place, and
g has made 1t one of the best. He
as put every spare dollar into
ooks on agriculture, improved ma
hines, good stock. He has now four
len at work for him, good horses, good
title, good poultry, and he will have a
God house. Papa, dc you not think it
ill be a pity To have the new house in
lie care of Mrs. Lamson, to ruin as she
rs the old one2 Outdoors the manage
lent is all left to Mark, and see what he
as done. But a mar cannot make q
ono comfortable alone, he needs a
ife.n
ssWell,n said the Judge, sslet him have
ne, but not my child !,
tsStilI he loves me, said Essie, ssana
love himl', /,
stPshawl y said the Judge, and marched
it Of the house. !.
But prompt as he YES, he was just,
i'd be loved Essie. He had let preju- !,
ice influence him against Mark all his
e; now he took pains 70 find out how :
uch of his dislike was we'll founded. J
rudgingly enough was the verdict given :
Marks favor. MaYsville did not will 6
IgIy acknowledge it had been wrong in I
) estimate, and shouldered upon Mark I
| the faults of h~iyaneestors. But the
cts we're afrang and Jndno Tanncy