Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-04-15
a PRIMA r, E CHER
#IWrttten for This Paper.l

Written for This PapEr.l
John Craig was the principal Of the school
Of small Iowa village. As principal it was
his duty to teach the classes ID the third
l ROOM, Of, as it was termed in the village, the
/ high school. As teacher be was as near
s perfection as it had ever been the good for.
! tune of the school board Of the village to Sc.
. cure, and he was also as near perfect speci-
men of physical manhood as one could wish
! to see. Many a mother in the village had
angled for him as husband for cherished
daughter during the winter he had spent
with them, but none had been successful.
The reason for their failure was that his
affections were placed elsewhere, and in his
own school at that. Il ILL., ,-.x
Madge Mackenzie taught the primary
room of the village school. She, like Craig,
was stranger in the town, but, unlike him,
was not popular in village society. People
said of her that she was "stuck up" and
naughty. That because she had college
education she felt herself above the young
women of the village, and the people Of the
village resented it. But Madge Mackenzie
did not feel above the people of the village
with whom she had cast her lot. Hers,
however, was one of those peculiar natures
! that cannot harmonic with uncongenlal
company. Her education had given her an
ambition, and her ambition overmastered
all else in her nature. She was ambitious to
be leader in her chosen profession. 10
attain to professorship in her alma mater
was as far as she had let her dreams carry
her, and to do this she would sacrifice all
else. For this she declined the invitations
that had been offered her when she first
came to the village, and devoted her even
II
it necessary to inform the people of the vii
lage of her reasons for declining their in
! vitations, and they, village like, ascribed it
, to feeling of superiority:
| It was Craig who first fathomed the mys-
, terry Of her reticence It was to him that
! she went for assistance in her studies, an as
eistance which he gladly gave. Before the
, winters term was half over his heart had
gone out to the little schoolmistress battling
alone with the world.
! She, too, learned to respect and love the
! manly man who was assisting her, but what
should she answer him should he ask her to
marry him? Her heart dictated Eyes, but
her ambition said "no."
! The end Of May was drawing near. School
would be over in another short week. Madge
Mackenzie had been unable to get any salts
faction from the school board regarding a
place for another term. They had not said
no to her application, but they had intimated
that her services would not be needed, and
she realized why. She must make applica-
ton elsewhere and would ask the advice of
J Craig.
When she went to him with her request
for advice he reached over to her, and, TAX
ing both her hands in his, asked her not to
look for another situation, but to let him
provide for her. He poured out to her all
the pent-up love of his nature, reasoned and
argued with her, but to no effect.
To the sensitive girl it seemed as though
she had thrown herself at his feet by giving
him the opportunity to confess his love to
her, and, though it hurt her probably more
than it did him, she said no, and said it in
such way that he took it as final.
He could not see her reason for refusing
him. He felt that he had been deceived,
that she had encouraged him only that she
might add another name to her list of pre-
vious conquests. He would go away and
forget her; he would spend his summer at a
little place in northern Minnesota which he
knew of and where he was acquainted. 49,
When Madge Mackenzie left the school.
room where Craig had asked her to marry
him it was with bitter heart.
ooh, why did he choose such time, - she
moaned to herself as she passed down the
stairs. "Why could he not have come to
me instead of taking time when had gone
to him? How could / have said yes, and
yet my heart is all his, my ambition is as
nothing to my love for him, and now even
my ambition seems crushed under this
weight / feel that my life will be spent
where it but really began, in the primary
schools. shall go away for the summer to
Mrs. Clark's, and there in the country
among the pine forests will try to forget the
happy days of the past few months
! As the train drey up to the little station
in northern Minnesota and Madge Mackent
| zie stepped out onto the station platform
she received a welcome such as only moth
erly woman can give to a friendless girl. She
| had known Madge when she was but chit
of girl, before, her parents had died, and
before her uncle had offered to educate her
| so as to prepare her to earn her way in the
world. To-day she had left the girls at
! home to prepare the supper and had gone to
| the station four miles from home that she
might welcome her summer boarder.
'There is surprise at the house for you,
Madge," she said, after they were started
homewards. '*You would never have
thought that we should turn our place into
summer resort. would you, but we have,
and have another boarder who intends to
stay until fall"
II don't know but that am sorry for it, -
! replied the GIRL" had wanted to be with
just you and the girls this summer"
"But I know you will never mind Mr..
Craig, he is such a gentleman. know you
can't help liking him" #
"How funny that is, his name, mean, for
the name of the principal of our school this
last year was Craig, Mr.. John Craig" .
"And THAT'S his name, too, and he is Z
schpol-teacheA. I wonder if It can be the
: And Madge wondered, too, but said moth
ing. But if it should be, she would have
to 60 elsewhere for the summer, for she
would never stay where he was now. .
They met at the supper table that even
ing. He was more surprised than she, be.
cause she had been warned that it might
! be the man she had worked with all winter.
She was mad at herself because she could
not show the surprise she would like to. She
felt sure that he imagined she knew he was
there and had followed him. Why could
their lives not part. Why was she called