The Republican journal., 1899-06-15

A'''o AAeS-o viz AAA IL P"J NOuoAN "AoC IL
ever has done? Next year l can hire help
out of the money saved from the sale OF
last years crops"'
Essie, all eager interest, entered into
the discussion of the capabilities of such a
| lot OF turnips, such patch of wheat, the
possibilities of dairy, the best culture
for fowls, as if she had never studied
music Or filled her head with French and
German verbs.
But the horror and wrath of Judge
Lennox when, after two years of mild
courtship, Mark took his fate in his hands
and asked permission to marry Esse, can
not be described.
ga Lamson.' he cried, when having
dismissed Mark, he returned to the bosom
of his family. ga Lamson for Essie' s
husband! The fellow wants my money to
send after all his father and grandfather
have squandered."
600 you really and truly think Mark is
a speudthrift, papa?" Essie asked quietly.
s'Does he ever lounge about the stores and
taverns as Harry Carter and james Ray
burn do?''
'I-well, no, l never saw him." was
the reluctant admission.
''Did you ever hear that he drank or
gambled, or even smoked?"
IN o. never did
as he not It gular at church?'
Eye es.''
"But, oh, Essie,n struck in Mrs. Len
nox, what shabby, half washed shirts he
wears, and his fingers all out of his
gloves, and half the buttons of his coat
goue"
"Poor Mark!' said Essie gently. "He
needs a wife,
"Well, he need not look here for one"
glowled the Judge.
II heard Mr. Thomas say last week."
said Essie, quietly, ''that there was not a
better farm in Green county than Lam
sons
"such palace of houser' the Judge
sneered.
Mark is hoping TO put a new house on
the place next year. He has had builders
over from B, but they said the old
house is beyond repair and it would cost
less to have new one
And where is the money to come
from?'
Where the improved farm came
FROM said Essie; "from Mark perse-
verance and enegy, in the face of the
hardest discouragements ever young
man had to fight
''Eh"' said the Judge. ''What?'
What?'
See what he has done" said Essie,
still In an even, quiet tone that carried
conviction far more than an excited one.
Eight years ago, when he was but a boy,
he put his shoulder to the wheel and took
his playtime between school hours to
weed and clear away stones. Nobody
helped him. He was ridiculed sneered
at, discouraged on all sides. He had the
poorest farm in the place, and he has
made it one of the best. He has put every
spare dollar into books on agriculture,
improved machines, good stock. He has
now four men to work for him, good
horses, good cattle, good poultry, and
will have good house. Papa, do you
not think it will be pity to have the
new house in the care of Mrs. Lamson to
ruin as she did the Old one? Out doors
the management is all left to Mark, and
see what he has done. But man cannot
make a home comfortable alone; he needs
a wife. -
well" said the Judge, ''let him have
one, but not my child"
''Still he loves me-" said Essie, land |
love him.
''Pshaw.' said tie Judge, and march
ed out Of the house.
But. proud as he was he was Just. He
loved Essie. He had let prejudice intlu-
ence him against Mari ali his life; now lie
took pains to find cut how much of his
dislike was well founded. Gludgingly
enough was the verdict given in Marks
favor. Maysville did not willingly ac-
knowledge it had been wrong in its esti-
mate and shouldered upon Mark all the
faults of his ancestors. But the facts
ct md JpJfra T 4
self confronted by them. Slowly, for he
was NOT easily convinced, he took respect
into the place of contempt, and, after a
month OF patient Investigation, he sent
for Mark
The interview was frank, manly one.
the old G ntleman not being given to half
hearted measures of any kind. He admit,
ted his former prejudices, and heartily
commended the young man who had
struggled SO nobly
when your new house is finished, you
will need wife. A man who can make
his way against wind and tide as you have
done deserves happy home. :"
The Judge being power in Maysville,
public opinion veered around as the en-
gagement was announced. The new house
being completed, Essie became house
keeper, Mrs. Lamson gladly resigning her
feeble reign. And under the new reign it
was wonderful to see how even the old
people smartened up. They had no
chronic objection to cleanliness, if some
one else did the necessary work; and with
Mark and Essie to govern and direct, the
Lamson farm and Lamson household so
lost its old name that you could scarcely
find today in Maysville one voice to
repeat the old saying that Mark Lamson
came from bad stock" New York
Ledger.