River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-04-18


"Ob. stop" cried Margaret. "Iou
know ii didn't last"
"Of course not. Neither would you
had you kept it up. The next thing,
when you came back for your sopho-
more year, was art
"Music, you mean" corrected Mar
garet. hastily.
Art in a sense, lebcs kind. Yor
girls are compact of martyr STUFF,
surely Nothing else would have en-
dured four hours daily piano prac-
tice heaped upon your regular lessons.
And the concerts and recitals and
symphonies, and the musical litera-
ture you devoured! You seemed to
think there was no limit 10 your ca
pacitv for work during that period"
"Well."
I'm coming to the next. They are
all easily remembered. About the
time your teachers were beginning to
counsel sending you home for Sc
mesters rest you shifted your tents
10 the engineering building. and began
sketching impossible pieces of ma
chinery in incredible positions. You
went around with measured calcu-
lation in your very tread From that
it was only step to Holland canal
scenes, and piles of lemons done on
water-color paper. And you took to
those meal-sacky clothes about then,
too" he went ON, relentlessly
you must have observed me as if ]
were bug under a microscope about
then said Margaret, casting about
for some pebble to put in her sling.
Il did" said he, unconscious of her
intended missile. "Most interesting
specimen / ever got under my glass
And the last year-what hasn't it been
the last year? Socialism, theosophy,
amateur theatricals-did l say four
gadHies? | must have meant 49,"
whats the use of living if you're
Just as good as dead?" interrupted
Margaret, with a show Of anger
The Mathematics Man looked off in
to the blue distance and smiled
LA vie est vaine," he began.
"Say that again and I'll tell the
executive board what pessimistic
IDEAS you're putting before our sus-
ceptible minds" cried Margaret,
menacing him gaily with stalk Of
goldenrod. Then sudden shadow
crossed her face. "But this is not
joking There's some wretehed moral
lurking behind your resurrection OF
my past. | know I've had fads and
follies-more than the other girls
and | know that | was so tired they
wouldn't let me finish my work by
graduation-time. so I'm finishing il
now. That is all clearly before me;
now your moral, if you will"
The Mathematics Man took her hat
and began sticking daisies around the
crown. lie pushed them into the rib
bon band with the utmost care, using
a hat-pin to prod them into place.
"WeIl?" queried Margaret, after a
pause
That sunset makes me think of
one l saw when / was in Lucerne last
summer said he, softly. The same
masses of violet cloud piled against
the horizon till they weighed it down
beyond its utmost purple rim, the
same golden light"
Another time; make your moral
first and tell your story aftcrward,"
suggested Margaret, sweetly. Its
really less work in the end
First tell me about the story you've
written" said he laying down the hat
mruitied. Maybe l can deduce a
moral from that"
(Which one?"
(Which one? Have you then such
a collection2"
I've just scrubbed them off" said
Margaret. hastily. "Yes: I've written
eight in the last three weeks. They
weren't predetermined, nor ethical, nor
anything; just bits out of my own ex-
perience.'
"Deja?" queried the Mathematics
Man.
Margaret drew angrily away from
him, the blood flaming to the tips OF
her ears and tingeing the ivory of her
neck as she grasped his meaning. lie
looked at her in silence. n great un-
derstanding kindness in his eyes.
You can't escape my moral he said
at last, Dear child, why will you in
sist upon crowding so many lives into
once Why must YOU do so many kinds
Of work poorly instead of doing one
I kind well2"
I'm going to do this kind well, even
if they do send it back" blazed Mar
garet. Il have it in me to write and
to succeed. | know itu'
And You have it in you to paint,
and TO play. and to run a salon, and
a soup kitchen but not all on the
same clock-stroke," he returned. I'VE
are put here to gain as much as we
may on our one or on our ten talents,
as the case may be, not to-"
Not 70 imagine talents which we do
not possess, she supplied.
Just give me one minute. Not to
attempt TO develop all of them at
once, SO that they will be a distorted
mass of possibilities when we have fin
ished. Give yourself time. Margaret.
Try the stories, if you will, year, or
two years, or longer, perhaps. Then
if ypur. CDuraop trivaS O,,+ OF Is No.,