Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-11-28

wanted Nettie Wiley to come in and dc
some of my chores for me last fall, when
was laid up with lumbago and would
have paid her a dollar and half week,
--Nettie is only ~. and has never been
| taught anything, and her mother
wouldn't let her because it wasn't two
and Il half
But the society will help them," l
said rather anxiously, at last. 1 knew
they always had, but Betsey had shut her
mouth 50 determinedly, and looked so
much as if she were planning something
revolutionary, that l wanted to know
what they had decided to do
Help rhem?' replied Betsey. "Oh yes
If you call it helping! I'm almost per
suaded, sometimes, that it's hindering.
Why, truly, don't know, as Tabitha
Tibbals said today, but if they really had
to earn and provide and forelay, they d
do it. A dog doesn't know he can swim,
I've heard say, till you toss him into the
water"
"lf / was a teacher again, said Bet
scy, thoughtfully, she had taught in IL
good many districts before she married
Mr. Blinkerbee, and she was always well
spoken of in the reports and some of her
scholars have turned out uncommonly
well, tif l was to teach again. and some
times | think I'd like to try it, Just to
make sure that human nature hasn't
changed very much and to see if the new
methods are SO much more absorbent of
ideas than the old ones, though in my
day it was the children we wanted to get
the ideas into, and out of too; but if l
were Il teacher, l wouldn't let scholar
go ont from my school without doing my
best to make them realize what those two
words. manhood and womanhood, really
mean. Just on the very outsldos of
them, and for every one of US. IndeDend
ence is the very hub Of the wheel, little
and solid, and not much to look at, but ii
holds every spoke you can put in, and
keeps them all going, too. Independence,
twas worth having the American Rcvo-
luton, or any other kind of O revolution
for, said Betsey.
Sometimes she went on, II think the
old stock must pretty nearly have run
out. People used to stand on their own
feet And what help was given, was
given in the kindest and the stillcst kind
of way. There was neighborliless and
friendship and pity in the world, and
they didn'6 go around empty handed.
But there was grit and pride and honest in
dependence, too, and they went long way.
Everybody expected to bear his own bur
den, and wanted to. Folks didn t expect
anyone else to take cara Of either their
souls or their bodies.
'Do you know, " she went on. she al,
ways does know what book or an
author stands for, when she has once
gotten hold of them, that one thing |
like in Miss wilkins stories, or one OF the
things Some people think they are too
grim and stern, and they say they are
tired of those two Old women, who live
always together in her stories, and are
always so poor, and try so hard to hide
their poverty There We're two you
remember, who hadn't finally, but one
black silk dress between them, and
neither of them could go to church or out
among folks in anything else. And so
they took turns going to places, and every
time they went they changed the trim
ming on that dress, so that folks
wouldn know it, Now, that is just as
natural as can be. I've known great
many women who would do as much as
that, and more, for the sake of holding
their own. Miss wilkins characters al
ways do have the right sort Of stuff in
them. y
But, of course, as Nancy Hotella said
today, we can't let a family starve while
we're trying to get back to first prin
ciples.
"Do YOU not think" asked, "that
every age has its own virtues rs well rs
its vices? Some generations seem to be
morally strong In some directions, and
others have quite the opposite character
istics The ideas, and the ideals, of good
ness, change from century to century. 1t
seems to be the only way we can get hold
Of the real goodness. I know. we have
had it shown to us, once for all, but We
cannot see the VIII lie of Christ's character
at once, we have Co take it little by little |
every soul of Us and so does the world |