Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-08-11

door. "Have you no wish to follow
this sort of employment ?"
"No, sir. 1t has always been dis
tasteful to me. 1t is fathers wish. He
has worked hard and saved to educate
me, and always made it boast that
his son should not be forced to follow
the plough for living. Poor old dad !
He was so proud when l got this po-
sition."
81 will write to your father if you
wish, telling him what l tell you
That there is success in the world for
you, only, like all those who succeed,
you must get into the right corner. Is
there any calling toward which you
have liking
Eyes, following the plough" said
John.
"a noble calling, my boy. Follow
the plough and may God be with you,
said the old man, reaching out hand
to the younger one, Stay with US a
few days" he continued, "and l will
write the father and prepare him for
your home-coming-that is, if you IN
tend going home"
Father is too old to work the farm
longer, and if he will accept my help
shall return home"
The two clasped hands once more
and John went back to his post with
smiling face. The clerks all looked at
him in surprise, and a moment later
it was being whispered around that
Raymond had been promoted. John
did not deny the statement, for he felt
in his heart that he had indeed been
promoted.
The letter Johns father received
somewhat modified the bitter disap-
pointment he felt at his sons failure.
He could not see why John, with a
college education, should have failed.
The evening after receiving the disap-
pointing intelligence, he sat in his cosy
little sitting-room, still ponderlng over
the letter. His wife sat near little
table on which sat lamp, its rays
subdued by a paper shade into soft
mellow light. She looked up with
smile and laid down her work as the
old man leaned back in his chair and
said little fretfully:
"Read that again, mother, what he
says about John not being cut out for
a store-keeper. l can't somehow un-
derstand." He listened attentively as
his wife read
"Your son tells me be has followed
your wishes, not his own. Let me
congratulate you on having so dutiful
a son. There is not one boy in hum
dred who would have done as your
boy has. He has done his lest, but as
a clerk is a failure. He knows it, and
for his as well as your own good, 1t is
best that you know it too. | prophesy
success to John. There is always sue
cess for bright. honest men like your
son, but they must get into the right
corner We must trust to their own
instinct to find that corner.
Maybe he is right, said the old
man, with sigh. "He talks like an
honest man. John is good boy, and
smart, too. His teachers always said
that. l wonder what he wants to do.
Be a lawyer or doctor, maybe. That
means more money, and it seems that
I lust can't wonder who that is,
he added, as there came the click of a
gate and sound of approaching foot
steps. II was John, and a moment
later he was in his mothers arms.
1t was late hour that night when
the little family, which had been bro
ken for the past few years, retired to
rest. Two hearts were serenely hap
py, and even the old farmer felt that
the bitterness of thwarted ambition
was not without its sunny side. He
felt that burden had been lifted from
him when John had stood before him,
his shoulders squared, and said:
Father, you have had har fight !
all your life. You could i'll afford the
extra load of sending one to school. 1t
is nv turn at the wheel now let me
take the burden and you rest
The old man hesitated. What was
John saying Did he want the farm
turned over to him He, man with
a college education, to plough corn
and earn livelihood by the sweat of
his brow? For the first time he be-
gan to doubt the wisdom Of his efforts
to educate his boy.
Maybe You are right, John, he
said aloud. 81 am too old to do much,
that's so. I've tried to do the right
.o's ,.o,, wouldn't have