The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-08
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81 can work fourteen hours day,
mother, and live upon pork and peans
as well as the next man" He STOOD "
his full height, displaying to the pdle
woman the outlines of massive muscu-
lar DEVELOPMENT. His hands were
huge and cauous. their grip the terror
of his mates after a husking bee he
had measured his great strength put
once. That was in the dead OF WINTER
with the snow drifted five feet deep De
tween the barn and the mouse. a
heifer. well grown, had been taken SICK
and needed warmth for recovery. isaac
swung the sick beast over his Shout
ders, holding it's two legs in each mana
before his head, and strobe through
the storm, subduing the battling snow
with as much ease as he did the bel
lowing calf His mother met him at
the Woodshed door. Behind the gladi-
ator rose the forbidding background OF
a stark mountain range; but to her
astonished and Unlicensed sight, her
son seemed greater than the mountain
and more compelling than its peaks.
From that hour his whisper was her
law, and from that day-for how could
the adoring mother help telling her
quarterly caller all about the heifer?-
Isaac had no more wrestling matches
in the valley.
September, triumphant in her process
sion of royal colors, marched into Oc-
tober, the month of months. Mrs. Mas
tiers had already completed her pa
thetic preparations for her sons de-
parture. There, in the family carpet
bag, which his father had carried with
him on his annual trip to Portland,
were slowed half dozen pairs of well
darned wooden stockings, the few de-
cent shirts that Isaac had left, his
winter fiannels, which had already
served six years, his comb and brush,
a hand mirror that had been one of
his mothers wedding presents, like
wise a couple of towels that had form
ed part of her self-made .trouseau;
and we must not forget the neckties
that Abbie had sewed from remnants
of her dresses, and which Isaac naive
~ considered masterpieces of the ha-
berdashers art.
AT the mouth of the deep bag Mrs.
Masters tucked a Bible which fifty
years ago had been presented to her
husband by his Sunday school teacher
as prize for regular attendance. This
inscription was written in a waver-
ing hand upon the blank page:
In the eighth year of the reign of
Josiah, while he was yet young, he be-
father 2 Chron. "a, s."
For" said Mrs. Masters. softly to
Abbie, after she read the inscription
aloud, and had patted the book af-
fectionately, This is the first prize my
Josiah ever had, an the Lord knows
he thought more on it than he did of
Lucy, his mare. An if there should
happen any accident to Isaac they'd
find by opening of his bag he was a
Christian, nor ashamed of it. neither"
isaac had only money enough saved
up to take him as far as Boston, and
to board him in the cheapest way for
several days.
If I can't work, he said proudly,
Strengthening to his full height, mo
one CAM
1t is just such country lads as this
strong, self-reliant, religious-who.
when poverty has projected them out
OF her granite mountains upon granite
paVements-each as hard and cleak as
the other-by massive determination
have conquered a predestined success.
Too soon, for those who were to be
lett behind, the day of separation
came Mrs. Masters haggard face and
Abble's red eyes told of unuttered mis-
cry.
But Isaac did not notice these signs
future. The last hustle was over The
last breakfast gulped down amid
forced smiles and ready tears, the last
button seWed on at the last moment:
ana now Mrs. Masters lunch of nince
pie, apples and doughnuts. was tender
~ tucked into the jaws of the Garnet
rag; thereby disturbing a love letter
that Abbie had hidden there. A young
nelghoor had volunteered to drive
a NA'fC
ton.
All aboard Hurry I'D Ikep, cried
THIS young person, consulting his sill
yer watch, and casting a look of
mingled commiseration and envy upon
the giant, locked in the arms of TWO
women, who hardly reached to the
second button Of his coat. Isaac caugbt
the glance and started to tear himself
away. But his mother laid her
gnarled hand gently upon his arm.
ana led him into the unused parlor.
just a minute, Abbie dear. I want
10 ne alone with my boy she waved
nc tHe gllI pacK' Then You can have
MIN last. It's my right an your'np'
She closed the door and led him nm
ger the crayon portrait of his father
framed in immortelles She raised her
arms, ana he stopped that they might
clasp about his neck. ms ~
isaac, she said hoarseIy. "I ain,t
no longer young nor very strong Re-
member fore you go away from the
farm that you're the son of an honest
man, and pious woman. and',W
cropping with great solemnitv into
Scrlpturai language. 81 beseech vo,1
my son, not TO disgrace your podIv
name" eou4y
With partings like this the print
tive Christians must have sent thair
sons into the whirlwind of the ovorld
Then Isaac broke for the first time
and with the tears streaming. he Iift,
ed his mother bodily in his arms. and
promised her, and kissed her. .'Nfotber
trusts you, key" was all she couId
say. But his time had come. There
was crunching of wheels.
Now go to Abbie Leave me herer
Goodbye, you have always been
good boy, dear" Mrs Masters voice
sank into a whisper; the strong man
moved as he was, could not compre
bend her exhaustion
Abbie was waiting for him at the
door, and he went to her The impa
tient wagon had gone down the road.
They were to cut through the pasture.
and meet it at the brook. There thew
were to part.
They clasped hands Isaac turned.
A gaunt, grey face, broken. helpless.
hopeless, peered out beneath the green
paper shade of the parlor window. If
he had known-a doubt crossed his
brain, but the girl twitched his hand.
and the cloud scattered. Down the
hill they ran, down, until the brook
was reached. There they Stood pant