Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-05-06
and gun or gossiped for hours with
any one he could find to talk with.

| anu gun or sosSlped Tor hours win
any one he could find to talk with.
BY the almost exertion Mrs. Mars
ton managed to make q bare living.
Early and late she worked. until at
last all knowledge of the past was
forgotten. 1t seemed to her she had
never been anything else but the weA-
ry drudge she was them human ma
sufficient bread. Her children ~
well as herself were sacrificed. They
grew up as best they might She
had no strength or leisure left to
spend in their training.
Finally, ten years before. toll and
exposure did its perfect work Aimee
Marston was stricken down one day
as she was hoeing in the potato patch.
Since that time she had never recov-
cred the use Of her lower limbs.
AS she thought OF those frst help
less years Mrs. Marston shuddered.
How she had suffered! 1t was very
bitter to her to see the family drift
into worse poverty and shiftlessness
AS long as she could work they had
never borrowed that they could not
return. But her long training In en-
durance helped her, and later patience
came. The hope that through her
children the fortunes of the family
might be mended sprang into exist.
ence. Perhaps Vinnia-the others
we're too like their father.
Her eyes fell upon the wrinkled
hands in her lap. A vision of her
self at the time of her marriage rosa
in mocking contrast to the faded aAA
crippled wreck she knew herself to be.
She called softly to her daughter:
"Vinnia. want to talk to you"
The child rose from the doorstep
where she was sitting and came over
to the bed. AS her mother talked Of
her childhood days In the old home.
Vinnia's eyes darkened with the in
tensity of her feeling. as she listened.
20. Nav" she said once. Then she
looked around the bare little room.
Say Mamma. dear" her mother
corrected. gently. did you always
say that"
Her mother nodded.
Then why didn't you tell me ~
fore?"
Her mother looked at her sadly.
Yes. why indeed had she neglected her
children SO long? Her silence had
been only another form Of selfshness
She had no right to make her children
suffer because her marriage had been
mistake.
But the child's mood had chanGs1
The two had always been very near
to one another. and now that she knew
her mothers past life In part, = knowi.
| edge of what the latter must have suf-
Tered from the hideousness OF the pres
ent dawned upon her. She burst into
tears.
20. mamma, how could you put up
with it," she sobbed. Then some
what incoherently she went on 20.
II could be like you-used to be.
But don't know nothin'."
For time there was silence. The
suddenly her mother spoke.
"Vinnia, wen go back to Canada,
and you shall go to school"
20. Maw-Mamma."
Mrs. Marston was as good ~ her
word. Within six months tho Mars-
tons changed ranches with Q farmer
| living near her old home. A little
later Vinnia entered convent At Mon
treal.
| After that one fierce battle with her
husband as to Vinnia's education, Mrs,
Marston sank into her old apathetic
state of repression. She was too
tired she said to night any longer. BY
degrees she retired more and moee
within herself. until one day she slip
ped quietly away into the great IN.
known.
Although she did not know II. she
was one Of the women who gave all
and asked nothing In return. Un-
congenially mated. az the time she
should have been rejoiC4ng In the full
ness OF life. she found m early crave
A green mound in tbs churchyafd Of
her old home. close to the path her
light feet had trodden ~ a gay young
bride. marks the spot where she IL
buried.
M trupr,vv