Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-07-27
HE SHERIFF'S DAUGHTED
TALE OF MAINE SMU00LERs-
BY OTIS SWIFT
BY }. OTIS SWIFT.

'Ah. he ees dead. He die =, 80.
armee. MY precious man-mv hus-
pahd that was so good and hr,,a
what for did l let go to fight for da..
unkind Yankee folks. haze .on,,
They have let him git dead, an. thav
no say tank you to me. All. will, XII,
them! l will" But Mrs. Wevmomth
who had lived long, and knew 49,,
was best for the heart of a wow, -,
such circumstances said nothing sho
TOOK the flushed head of the girl on her
motheriy bosom and kissed her tender
~. pattlng her arm with her trembling
ola hand as she did so. The old ladv
knew no word of French. and this little
SIP OF a girl with the black eyes and
red lips was the only French woman
she had ever seen. but what she did
was the very thing that Marie's old
mother so far away in Canada would
have done had she been in her place
and the passionate. Borrowing heart
OF the girl felt it. She STONED ber
TRADE and simply wept on the Shout
der of the friend who had come to her
aid
In the days that followed Maris sum-
moned courage to so on with her farm
work. putting in the crops as she had
been taught by her husband, and now
ana then devoting a day to hoeing
them. The work hard as it was. saved
ner from the misery that con-
s,antly gnawed at her heart
Her mother had written to her
10 sell the farm and come home. She
could not do it. Everything about the
"a az
work it till little Pierre was old enough
and big enough to run it, Mrs. Wey-
mouth. who was lonely old soul her
sell. passed much time in the cottage
OF her young neighbor. playing with
little Pierre. teaching him English.
with the Yankee twang of Maine
thrown in and cooking fine New Eng
land dinners for her farmer as she
called Marie. The two women came to
be warm friends. At last the elder one
almost lived at the Croteau house, and
took the household work entirely off
the shoulders of the strong young
French girl who was fast growing
INTO robust. brown-faced. athletic
iiebe under the sun. and with her
hard farm work. Month after month
slipped by and year after year fol-
lowed. The war was drawing to a
close. Marie Croteau's farm was no
longer a clearing with field full of
stumps. Her crops were of the best,
her cattle We're the sleekest. her sheep
the finest, and her young fruit trees
We're developing in a way to astonish
any of the old line Maine farmers
who CHANGED to stop in the road to look
Curiously over the wall at the sturdy
young figure at work in the fields.
Now and then the neighbors sur
prised her by getting up a bee" and
helping her out in the heavy work.
one day twenty men had gathered at
her door and had worked up the wood
that she had hauled up for the year.
Another time they had taken pity and
had swooped down on field that she
was laboriously blowing with one
horse. and with heavy plows had
turned up the whole section in one day.
Marie had won the respect of the
community in another way. One day
a returned soldier was taken i'll at the
house of a farmer up the road. The
disease had puzzled the young physi-
clan of the village. and doctor OF
wider experience was sent for. he
came from Lewiston and pronounced IT
smallpox. The whole family was
taken down. and no one could ne
found to nurse them. Leaving Pierre
with Grandma Weymouth. Marie went
over and nursed the family back TO
health and happiness. Her strong
young hands smoothed the pillow OF
the sufferer. did the housework, ana
attended to the farm work. Everyone
recovered. The young soldier who had
brought the disease from the South re-
warded her by falling in love ana ask
ing her TO marry him.
Marie laughed sadly at his folly and
went back tn her farm work.
Early in the spring of 1866 Marie
was at work in her corn field. planting
seed from her apron and covering II
with her hoe-and thinking. thinking
over and over again, the same oid
thoughts that had been hers for four
years.
CHANGING down the hillside she
caught sight of a lonely figure coming
m the road Instantly she likened IL
~ p;arre. She knew that he was dead,
his CAPTAIN had written her the detaiis
~ tho terrible ambush and the rout OF
tho regiment. And yet she never sa"
:, stranger coming toward her put
what she compared his height 10 Una.
~ her dead husband. and wohdereu
what she would do if he should some
time walk into the yard as he had dohe
in so many of her dreams.
She looked again at the ADVANCING
stranger. and then stared WIN "iue-
onen eyes. She threw down her noe
and Jumping lightly over the renee ran
70 meet him. 1t was the good Father
Iacev the Lewiston priest VINO hao
n,arried them and who had once VI.
twice paid her visit Of comfort anu
announcement after the death Oh
pierre. But he had not been IN town
far two years and Marie supposed SURE
y. that he had forgotten her.
che caught his hand up and klsseu
!, He was old and his hair was ST.
,,arv She could treat him dinerenty
from what she would have treated d
,.o,,ng priest. And she was so lonely
too. ;.
God bless you. Father, how gooo !, u.
&c to see a real priest now ana the"'
che said. still holding his mana anu
walking beside him. It'll, =,
You are lonely, no doubt. my emu:
-, - ..,.rro frornOr IN Ills