Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-12-23


its sour crumbs on top and it's gasping
little goldfish dying OF inalnutrition at
the bottom. snd they will go hand in
hand into the great starless night of ob
livion.
With this statement | bid adieu to
good society and become great coarse
outlaw; also glad of it and defiant.
Finally Madeline got started, with a
mouthful of popcorn, and played Bona
parties March," All looked around
proudly to see if the other guests at the
hotel were pausing, awed and elevated,
in the halls and corridors of the hotel,
but they were not. Only one "town
lady" halted near the parlor and looked
at Madeline with steady gaze and said:
"Huml Oh, yes; she is one of the
crowd from Smear Kase. Come down to
see the 'opry." And she passed by on the
other side.
They were a gentle, simple, happy
crowd, and you could see by the sly way
they joked about the rough road and
how Herman had to hold Grace in the
seat to keep her from falling out" and
all those little jokes, that the "opry" was
only an excuse for coming, and that it
was very small part of the entertain
ment.
sometimes wish, looking on such
fresh and beautiful, kindly joy and a
digestion which only asks for employ
ment, that l could be placed back there
for week to forget the glimpses of the
sad and the bad of this world, which have
been the reward of my curiosity.
would not care to go back to Smear
Kase and remain the balance of my life,
but could manage somehow for a week.
Oh, to shuck this false and artificial
society life that lead, with its assumed
gayety; its rich apparel by day and pa
jamas at night; its rich victuals three
times day and the widening of our
circle of acquaintance, thus giving one
more people to be jealous of and to strive
to initiate!
Sometimes wish that was back there
at Smear Kase, a hungry boy eating
everything could overtake, from gal
Ion of preserves to corn in the ear. But l
would have ahead of me the whacks and
stumbles and jolts of maturing years!
would have to learn again to use to-
bacco! That makes me content to stay
where am. would have to run again
for the legislature. The elephant has to
be seen, even if he step thoughtlessly on
rs while we are looking at him.
Vain was the man. and false as vain, who said
Were he to live his long career of life again
He'd do as he had done.
quote the above from Sanders Fourth
Reader. We acould not do as we have
done, and yet that is what we would
have done. Each of us is placed here
for purpose. Weakly we wander on,
not knowing what that purpose is any
more than the carrier dove knows, when
she speeds homeward in obedience to her
own blind wish to be back in the cool
shade of her home, that she bears with
her message of war or peace, of love
or defiance, to break the hearts of mil
lions or to thrill with joy a thousand
souls. We are as ignorant of the great
policy of heaven as the average voter is
of the ultimate success of the tariff
tinker.
And so watch sadly from across the
hall the playing of Madeline on the &C
cursed old rosewood feed cutter, the de-
mon of unrest with the CHASTITY smile
among its white and black keys looking
out at you like the smile you see in a
dentists show window where teeth can
be bought as low as four dollars per set
Will she be buxom wife in Smear
Kase, following the customs of her neigh.
borhood, spanking the golden butter and
six or seven boys into shape? Or will she
be the wife of rich merchant or the
leader of some great movement? l do
not know what she will be. l only know
what she will not be. She will not be a
musician of any kind whatever.
By and by they all go to the "opry." 1t
is not quite what they thought it was,
being more quiet and subtitle, and as
heard man about town at Fostoria
say, 1.-THE persimmons were little too
Ugh for their POLE"