Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1893-08-10
ssSHE.,,

Why the ihsignlncant prOnOuT
above written was invariably uset
to designate a woman of such fine
PersORnelle, was one Of the unsolyed
mysteries to the good people Of
/ B.
But though a mystery, it was
nevertheless a fact; for while Mr..
Hazlett had been wont to speak OF
his first wife, Familiarity, as s'Bess, -
he always referred to his second
choice as s'she."
When farmer Hazlett brought
home his second wife, there was
much shaking of wise heads, aud
gloomy sighs for the memory of the
gentle wife SO speedily forgotten,
many wise forebodings and proph-
ecies about the ultimate fate of the
poor children, now under the pro-
verbal iron of a stepmother.
These children, be it remember
ed, were examples of infantile ig-
nOrance and childish worthlessness,
held up by piOus parents, after
much the same fashion of the N.Y.
thical Ounce, in a back woods school:
to be pitied, laughed at, and held
aloof from; to be talked of in whis-
pers. as disgrace to the neighbor-
hood, that such ignorance and
rudeness could exist in its charmed
precincts.
Their ignorance was deplorable.
And though the children were mi
racles of rudeness, it was alone
from neglect that they were so.
They had been allowed to run
loose, and grew up wild as savages,
as matter of course. For the far
mer was interested in no earthly
pursuit or pleasure, but the growth
and improvement of his South
Downs, his Suffolk pigs and AL
derney COWS, and lis trained horses
and dogs. Too indolent when he
came into the house to rest, to ut
ter word of expostulation to his
noisy children, they went unchibed
for their rndeness. and were nm
taught in the simplest things.
And his poor over-worked wife, |
whose fingers were so busy, and
body so tired, she had not the spirit |
to teach them, the strength to cor
rect, but worked her way through
the turmoil laboriously; for the |
had been won't to OBJ
serve that she had no knack of ar
ranging her work, though she did |
it well. And so it happened, her
rest never came, till the pulseless
hands could no longer work.
To be sure, the children went to
the district school when they pleased
and stayed at home when they
willed. But the little they learned
there was forgotten during the long
Besides, they did not like the
school, and the scholars shrank
away from them. This avoidance
was due, in part, to their savage
way of playing, but more from an
aversion, which sprang up from this
occurrence. Mike came to school
one morning during the first term,
unaccompanied by Jim. The teach
er who had not learned the peculi-
arities of the family, thinking per-
haps the boy was sick. asked kind
ly,-
"Where is your brother, Mi
chael 20
"Hey?"
"Where is your brother ?" more
distinctly.
"What dye say ?"
"Where is your brother 20
''Is it my pap you want %
And after, with childish AFRO
gance and hauteur, the other schol-
ars held themselves aloof as much
as possible. There must be some
thing uncanny about a boy who did
not know what the word sbrother"
meant.
And the poor little waits grew to
hate the school, and shrink from
the teachers. But of the many ev-
idences of their ignorance, none
was more widely known through
the Mortified neighborhood than the
incident / am about to relate.
Of all things, to be forever treas
ured in their stunted minds, was
the memory of a party given by
their parents one winter. The
Terpsichorean art never won Drawer
plaudits nor awakened more sincere
admiration than that felt hv thasa