Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-10-15
ALL SHE COULD.


The Sacrifice of . Bright Eastern Girl
for Christ and Humanity.
Some years ago clergyman moved
| from New England to the northern part
of Iowa and settled upon farm. Many
people said that he was foolish to do
this; that he was throwing his life
away. He left behind him comfort
able home, pleasant associations, libra
! ries, schools and congenial neighbors.
Besides, he was old and beginning to be
| feeble. But he felt that there was await
ing him a broad field, unplowed and
ready for spiritual cultivation.
He had meant to go into this home
missionary work years before, but his
wife had persuaded him to wait until
their daughter had finished her educa-
ton at an eastern college. Now the cp-
portunity had arrived, and with an
eagerness like that of youth he left
community that, as he expressed it, had
| been "for generations preached to
| DEATH" in order to go to a people beg
| ging to be preached to life.
There in the middle west the family
| built a small cabin of three rooms and
q "lean-to'' for the kitchen. No trees
| protected them from the burning sun in
! summer or from the fierce hurricanes of
| winter. The country was new. There
| were no roads. Their nearest neighbor
| was six miles away across the prairie,
and one Sunday the good man, after
preaching to an audience of IL persons
several miles away from his home, was
lost in a blizzard in endeavoring to re-
turn to it. From the effects of this eX-
posture he died, and his wife soon fol-
| lowed him. .....
rhe daughter, 20 years OF age, was left
| alone. What was she to do? Should she
| pack up and return to the comfort
able east, or stay and fight it out in
| the pioneer west? She decided to stay
| and continue her fathers work.
| She went out upon the vast prairie to
teach. Most of the settlers were Nor
wegians, and in a little two-roomed
house, occupied by large family, she
went to board so that she might learn
the language. But the food was so
roor that she became i'll. Finally she
secured the position of principal in 4
small, struggling college. Here her sur
1oundings were pleasant, but the trus-
tees could not pay her salary, and after
three years she went back to the prairie.
| This time she boarded with kind but
| ignorant Irish family. During the win
ter the mother died, leaving two young
girls to care for household of men.
Here the teacher found her mission in
life.
| She taught those girls how to work.
| hn1 70
make their own clothes, to make the
home cheerful and sweet. She made
herself an elder sister to the two. She
shared their whole life. She mended
with them, baked with them, made but
| ter with them and endured the hay
| field with them. Soon the two sisters
became noted for their gentleness, con-
sideration and excellent home qualities.
| Wherever they went they carried a
spirit of helpfulness and an electric ray
of cheerfulness.
| But the world never knew of the sac
rifice of the minister's daughter, who
spent some of the best years of her life
in dreary hardship in order to make
the lives of two other girls worth living.
The story of this noble sacrifice came
recently to the writer from the west.
What can be said of her who could have
had the sweet, but chose the bitter for
humanity's and for Christ's sake?
There are many bright, educated east
ern girls in the west, enduring poverty
end hardship as good soldiers of the
Master, that they may do all they can
for Him. Such unreserved giving up Of
self ought to shame us out of our easy,
self-satisfed lives of nominal Christian
service.-Youth's Companion.