Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-17

MINK ~ TnIUNB dIltIiHetICS, d II U
NSN " Nv have stopped o r k
~ for the rest of my
life. Through all
these forty-four years / have squeezed
resolutely all the sweets out of existence
and stored them up to make a kind of
tasteless but DEMONSTRATING honey for old
age 1 have never spent one penny unless
Tor the barest necessaries l have added
term by term to the sum on my bank book,
until have been able to build this house
and have a sufficient sum at interest to
i've upon. l need little, very little, to eat,
ana wear my clothes carefully and long.
was never extravagant in clothes but
once mat was twenty-five years ago.
when was thirty-fve, and expected to be
married in the spring. I had a green silk
uress then-a bright green. But / had it
uyed black, and. after all, got considerable
wear out OF 1t, although it was flimsy. Col
ored SILK is apt to be. / had blue woolen
TOO, a color / should never have bought
II had not expected to be married, and
that faded. 1 also had a black velvet cloak
something that was very costly, and
should not have bought it under any cir
cumstances, but 1 was foolish. However
that has made my winter bonnets ever
since; 1t was a good piece and not cut I'D
much.
Looking backward forty-four wears.
cannot remember any other extravaganza
imam this outlay in clothes when l expected
10 De married at thirty-five. l never have
bought any candy except few cough-drops
when had cold. 1 have never bought a
ribbon even. or a breast-pin. have always
worn my mothers old hair pin, although it
was SO oid-rashioned, and the other girls
n ~ all
My mother died when 1 was fourteen ::
my rather, when l was sixteen; then be-
gan to teach. My father left me nothing.
Mother was sick all her life nearly, and
ne could not lay up a cent. However, there
was enough to pay his funeral expenses.
and was thankful for that l sometimes
wonder what my father would say If he
could see me now, and know how l am
situated. wonder If he would think l had
done pretty well. don't see how il ca make
any difference to him now; he is past all
such earthly vanities, even if he knows
ABOUT them, but l do sometimes feel glad
L nave done SO well. on his account ANY,
pody has to have some account beside their
own, even IL 1t is somebody's that's dead
nave built this house, with six rooms in
II. and woodshed. / have a little land.
TOO. Keep hens, and l am going to have
a vegetable garden back of the house. and a
hover garden front. 1 have good wooden
carpets all over the house except the
Kitchen. / have stuffed parlor furniture
and marble top table, and a marble shelf
with worked plush scarf on it. l have a
handsome dining set and two nice cham
Der sets. and two beautiful silk Quilts
l pieced from bits my scholars gave me. /
shouldn't be ashamed to have anybody go
over my house. And l keep it nice. too:
you couldn't find q speck of dust anywhere
OF course l have nobody to put 1t out of
order, and that makes a difference II has
always been my habit to look at all the
advantage there is in life, and / have
found there is an advantage side to almost
everything. can keep my house a great
deal nicer than l could If / were NOT alone
in the world. l sometimes wonder what /
should do If L had a man coming in with
muddy boots, or children tracking in dirt
and stubbing out my carpets or kicking the
paint off my new doors.
To tell the truth, 1 have never cared
much about children, though / have been
teaching them forty-four years l never
dared to say SO before, but it is true. Once
in while l saw child that / thought a
good deal Of but taking them all together.
l have often wondered how their own
mothers could stand them. / would have
worked my fingers to the bone for the few
/ did take a notion TO. l fairly srudged
them to their folks, but the others!-and 1
had to hide it, too; it wouldn't have done
for the children to think | was partial
They had all the meanness of grown-up
folks, without knowing enough to hide it
Grabbing each others appie-cores and teas
ing away each others candy, and the big
ones plaguing the little ones; throwing pa
per-balls, and marking up the walls, and
everything else. / know, for one that
there's something in the doctrine of origi-
nal sin. l guess most women that have
taught district school forty-four years do.
l have never been sure, either. that they
learned anything SOS to remember it, and
have 1t do them any good. l have always
been afraid that, no matter how hard 1
tried to DO my duty by them, it was never
quite done, and that l was teaching myself
more than anybody else. just as / always
seemed to hit my own hands harder than a
scholars when 1 had to ferule one
could travel all over the earth, On the
map, and never once lose my way but l
wonder If my scholars could l can spell
through the spelling-book without missing
word, but i know that not one of my
scholars can do it. 1 can do every sum
In the arithmetic, measure the depths of
all the wells, calculate the speed of all the
dogs and foxes, and say the MULTIPLICATION
tables by heart but am quite sure that no
boy or girl ever left my school who could
1t seems to me sometimes that have gone
to school to my scholars, instead of NV
scholars going to school to me- and that /
have never been of any benefit to any one
of them.
Still, L have sometimes thought that I
was. once, and in strange way, to the
strangest scholar / ever had Before think
ing even of this scholar, and this story 7
nave to review my face, and nv whole
character, in my mental vision as before
glass, TO establish, as 1t We're NV own
reliability to myself. Is it likely that any
body, who looks like that should tell her
self that she saw what she did not see. or
heard what she did not hear? Is it likely
that anybody. who is like that, should?
But, after all, was never given to saw.
n hot
sense. Still, it has always kind of seemed
Marshbrook, that it didn't ring like anv
known metal. But there may be some
metals that really are on earth, Though
they are not known, l suppose and any
body might hear them ring, and be honest
enough about 1t.
1t was just twenty-five years ago todav
that 1 went to Marshbrook to teach the
Number One district school. 1t was rieht
in the middle of the spring time. 7 had
given up my old school, because I was ey-
pecting to be married that May But when
/ found out he'd changed his mind toward
me, felt as if I had ought to go to work.
again. I'd laid out good deal of money
on my clothes and I knew I'd have To
make it up some way, as long as was AL
ways going to have nobody but myself to
depend on, the way I always had.
Maria Rogers had my old school She
had come from the east village to teach II.
when / gave 1t no, and it wasn't more'n
three weeks before he began to go with
her. She was good-looking. always smil-
ing, though it always seemed to me It was
a kind Of silly smile. I was always sober