Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-11-09
BROTHER TO NECESSITY.
BY HELEN HICKS.


York, or of talking of her cousin, who
was a senator at Ottawa, aud her sis
ter-inlaw's brother, who had been
appointed lieutenant-go of a
province once, but who had died in
advertently before he was sworn in.
Little Alec looked upon these distinc-
tions, and he saw that they were
good. He saw that the men who got
eespect aud consideration when they
came to his fathers house were not
farmers like his father, but the doctor
in the black coat, who ordered some
body to hold his horses and asked ap-
prehensively if the dog bit, or the
minister, who kept the men after a
hearty dinner from the hay, while he
was praying, and thunder cloud was
gathering overhead. 1t was for men
like these that the silver and the best
table napkins were brought out, and
.he household routine set aside as a
thing -, small consequence. The boy
began % be ashamed OF an occupation
that compelled man to wear rough
clothes and carry rough hands, and
the town made him shy and ill at
ease.
NJ. McPherson's remedy for the
disadvantage under which her son had
been born was education. She told him
what it could do. Education could
make him a gentleman, give him
money and clothes, and respect and
power, and put his heel on the neck
&c al
their heel on his neck. So it came
about that by the time Alec was "a
and his father laid safely to resi-
under the sod, the boy had taken his
bachelors degree at college, spent a
year abroad and was plunging into
the study of Blackstone and the civil
code.
1t was on an evening in early spring
That he came home. There was still
srost in the air, and night was coming
on windy with a moon that was no
more than tilted horn wracked with
clouds and insignificant beside the
lights beginning to come out in the
houses. After 10 miles in stage over
this bare country, sole passenger, hud-
died into corner, with rug wrapped
round his knees and his hands thrust
deep into his overcoat pockets, the
gush of yellow light from his own
door was the welcomest of sights.
The low-ceiled room, the familiar en-
cravings on the walls, his mothers s
lined face under the gray hair, were
furniture of his earliest recollections.
Mother" he said "my health is
broken down. If l don't get help
somewhere I'm useless for life"
He told his story, his nervousness,
his sleeplessness, all the long months
he had spent trying to work and doing
nothing. Ever since that hot day
last summer when | was overcome by
Che heat, I've never been the same
since. When l went back to lectures"
he went on, 81 couldn't work. There
was doctor | knew, young fellow.
He thought he could fix me up. Bro
mide, morphia, chloral-I tried them
all. Then | went to a specialist, and
he told me everything. 1t was a
Shock to the brain; | was a victim of
neurasthenia. Mother, may live to
be an old man, but I'll never be good
for anything, so far as head work is
concerned, agaiu."
MRS. Mcpherson stood up indig-
nantly. "Alec! With your constitu-
tionl A little thing like that can't
break you down. Your father was a
strong man, and Pm sure there's never
been much sickness on my side of the
house." YES" he said, "that was
what the doctor said. He said it was
in my favor that | came of country
people and hadn't inherited the
hysteria and debilitated nerves that
are the common curse. He said,
mother, that coming back to the farm
vs. my only hope" He sat silent,
with his clenched hand holding his
Head; then looking round him, 81
was in a hospital for WHILE" he said.
''Thanll God Pm homew
One day in the middle of the fore
noon Alec came downstairs with the
unusual feeling that he was n slug.
| gard. The sun was strong, and just
outside the door a turkey cock dis
tended himself in its warmth; the bees
were busy in the flowers, the men
were haying. He took his hat and
went out, walking past the barns and
along a lane where beside him lay a
field of potatoes, their regularly
spaced clumps of green radiating like
the spokes of wheel from whatever
point the eye chose as a beginning.
An unremarkable man was walking
between two rows that ran parallel to
the fence. In one hand he held q
pail filled with tinted water, and
in the other whitewash brush. He
dipped his brush in the green water
and founced it over the potato tops
on either side, and talked aloud to
himself as he walked "Saul has slain
thousands, and David tens O. thou
sands; but I'm slayin' millions of 'em
-millionsp
"Hello, Henry" Alec called lean.
ing over the fence; paris greeninp
the potato bugs?" The man set dowr
his pail and stood erect ''Yes, but