Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1896-05-21
Copyright, 1896, by Irving Bacheller)


0'rom notes written by Miss Sarah
Fairbanks Immediately after the report
of the Grand Jury)
AS take my pen to write'this. / have
a feeling that | am ON the witness stand
for or against myself, which? Tho
place of the criminal in the dock l will
not voluntarily take l will affirm neith-
err my innocence nor my guilt. wilt pre-
sent the facts of the case us impartially
and az coolly as if had nothing at stake.
i will let all who may read this judge mo
as they will.
This am bound to do, since l am con-
dcmned to something infinitely worse
than the lifc-cell or the gallows. ! will
try my own self in lieu of judge and jury;
my guilt or my innocence l will p-o7e 10
you all, If it be in mortal power. In my
despair l am tempted to say | care not
which it may be, so something be proved.
Open condemnation could not overwhelm
ME like universal suspicion.
Now, first, as | have heard is the GUS
tom in courts of law, l will present the
case. am Sarah Fairbanks, a country
schoolteacher, 20 years of age My
mother died when was %. Since then,
while | have been away teaching ut
Dgby, cousin of my fathers, Rufus
Bennett, and his wife have lived with
my father. During the long summer
vacations they returned to their little
farm in Vermont, and l kept house for
my father.
For FIVE years l have been engaged to
be married to Henry Ellis, a young man
whom l met in Digby. My father was
very much opposed to the match, and has
told me repeatedly that if insisted upon
marrying him in his lifetime he would
disinherit me. On this account Henry
has never visited me at my own home.
While l could not bring myself to break
off finally my engagement, l wished To
avoid an open rupture with my father.
He was quite an old man. and | was the
only one he had left of large family.
L believe that parents should honor
their children, as we'll as children their
parents, but had arrived at this con-
clusion: In ninc-tenths of the cases
wherein children marry against their par
ents' wishes, even when the parents have
no just grounds for opposition, the mar
riages are unhappy.
/ sometimes felt that | was unjust to
Henry, and resolved that if ever | sus-
pected that his fancy turned toward any
other girl l would not hinder it, especial
ly as was getting older, and, | thought,
losing my good looks.
A little while ago, n young and pretty
girl came to Digby TO teach the school in
the south district. She boarded in the
same house with Henry. heard that he
was somewhat attentive to her, and |
made up my mind l would not interfere.
At the same time it seemed TO me my
heart was breaking. l heard her people
had money, too, and she was an only
child. / had always felt that Henry
ought to marry a wife with money, be-
cause he had nothing himself, and was
not very strong.
School closed five weeks ago, and
came home for the summer vacation. The
night before | left Harry came to see me.
and urged me TO marry him. | refused
again; but | never before had felt that
my father was so hard and cruel as |
did that night. Henry said that he should
certainly see me during the vacation. and
when ! replied that he must not come lie
was angry, and said--but such foolish
things are not worth repeating. Henry
has really Il very sweet temper, and
would not hurt a fly.
The very night of my return homo
Rufus Bennett and my father had words
about some maple sugar which Rufus