Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-11-26
Their Eldest Son.

Their Eldest Son.
Fall trade had been dull There had
been good deal of visiting, but not
much buying and selling in Tracy &
Co.'s store, where was to be found not
large and choice stock of dry goods,
but also groceries, boots and shoes,
crockery, wall paper, etc. Jack Gid
dings' father was the Co" He was a
modest, patient man, past middle age,
who, having had few advantages in his
youth, determined that his son should
have a college education, and hoped
for him all that his own career had
lacked of worldly success and distinc-
ton. There were two younger chill
dren, but Jack was "his first-born, the
beginning of his strength" and as he
made his way daily to and from the
store, morning, noon and night, it was
Jack for whom he was working and
planning, denying himself and his wife
and the other children. 1t was Jack IN
whose future he dreamed dreams and
saw visions"
Jack had got through his freshman
year at college creditably if not bril-
liantly, and had been hero to the
village girls through the summer vaca-
ton, going back with new suit and a
lot of group photographs in which his
handsome boyish face figured promin-
emily He had been considered de-
cidedly fresh at college, and sSthe
fellows" had done what they could to
educate him. With them he was less
egotistical than he had been. He
tried to assume the airs of a man OF
the world, and had learned how to tie
his neckties and fold his trousers. At
home he talked a good deal about the
fellows" and was full of anecdotes
concerning them. so that all of the
Giddings family felt. as Mrs. Giddings
said, almost as if they were acquaint-
ed with Jacks friends
It was nearly Thanksgiving now
Last year they had not been able TO
afford the money for his railroad fare,
so Jack could not come home, and it
had seemed a hard thing to them all
that he had to eat his Thanksgiving
dinner in boarding house. But this
year it was to be different.
There were some things about his
letters that had troubled Jacks father
they had not been as frequent as they
used, and though they contained no
demands for money, there were vague
illusions to the requirements of city
and college life that people in. the
country couldn't realize" with hints
as to the difficulties a fellow ex-
perienced when he couldn't do as the
other fellows did. 1t would take $40
to pay for his ticket home and return,
and that meant his sister giving up
her music lessons for the winter.
That she had consented to gladly It
wouldn't be Thanksgiving without
Jack, they all declared, and to think of
the forlorn time he had last year.
Their simple hearts melted at the re-
membrance.
The father and mother talked it
over and accepted the sisters prof
fered sacrifice. Times were hard now,
but in a few years Jack would be able
to help himself and then things would
be easier at home, and Mary could go
on with her music.
Years ago, when his uncertain steps
could only carry him, fearful but
triumphant, from mothers knee to
| fathers out-stretched arms, they had
decided to do for him this thing that
they were doing now. They had
known that it would be hard, but
there had been no hesitation.
eve must give our boy every
chance, Reuben" his mother had SAID
| solemn1y, and as he took him in his
arms and laid the little curly head on
his shoulder, II want he should have
everything that l missed, Ellen" the
| father replied.
So he sat down one evening week
| before Thanksgiving to write to Jack
| and send him the SO to come home
with. The days work was over. The
! light was out in the store, all but the
| lamp by which he wrote, and the more
valuable of the new winter goods were
| covered with dustcloths. The desk at
which he sat was cheap and the head
that bent over it was growing gray
and the shoulders stopped. A strang
err regarding the scene might have
thought it sad one A frail, elderly
man at his desk long after working
hours should have been over, in the
midst Of surroundings which suggested
! how slight had been the reward of {
! life of patient toll. Years ago had h
no ambition beyond this? Was he
always content now, this junior mem
Der of the firm Of Tracy & Co., retail