The St. Mary banner., 1902-12-13
SHas Norris
Brave Start.

A woman and boy cannot do mug b
with fifty acres. Mrs. Norris knew it
necausc she had tried. Her husband
.had left her the farm. l23 acres, and
she had done her best with it. She
had kept her boy Silas at school. she
had planted berries, trimmed vines,
cared for the orchard, millsed her own
cCW and tended the chickens, but
eomehow she didn't set ahead much
She had watched her boy grow frcn,
weazen, freckle-faCed child into a
great. hulking, stoop-shoIldeTei man
CT 20. Year after year she had seen
ss patrinony diminished till the 129-
acres were reduced to fifty. He could
read. write and figure and he was
handy" with machinery. Sometimes
She believed that the farm. was hold
ing him back" and that she should
send him to the city to make his
way"
But she loved him now even as she
aai loved him when he was all that
was left to her Of company, OF affec-
ton, cf hope. He looked as his father
loked when they were married He
had been born in the cottage in which
ais father had been born. The berry
patches, the orchard, the five-ac-e
meadow, the rickety henhouse, the
river which ran past the pasture lot,
were in her eyes transfiSured by the
knowledge that they were his, that
some day her boy would own them in
his own right and make his home there
FOR all HIS days. And so she struS-
gled alcng, doing her own work, max
ing. mendirg. planting, herself the
foremost and the swiftest of the berry
rickers, the first in the field in the
morning, the last to bed at night.
She was thin now, with whitening
hair and sallow cheeks, hands Drowned
ami hardened with the work, shoul-
ders stopped with bending over the
earth and the wash-tub. silas, the
boy, was big and red. There were
freckles and pimples en- lis wide. eS-
DectaEt face and he had been shaved
a dozen times. He was commencing
to take on the ways of man, for he
went TO the Saturday night dances at
Kings Landing. bought an occasional
pint of beer from the steward Of the
steamboat May Graham, and smoked
his cigar with the confident assurance
Of a person CT aHairs. When he went
down to the landing with his load Of
berries he hailed Captain Fykes as
Cap and called the amiable clerk
Charlie" He had a personal ac-
quaintance with John Egar, the first
mate, and had no hesitation in slap
ping him on the back and asking,
How's traffic, John?" The widow had
seen and admired these evidences
Of broadening character, and deep in
the fCnd recesses Of her heart she
knew that her boy Silas was "cut out"
for man of business, that he had
future before him and that the narrow
of small fruit farm
were holding him back"
Silas lad been to St. Joe and Ben
ton Harbcr more than 20 times. He
had done heap Of trading" and the
town atmosphere was the breath OF in
spiraticn to his nostrils. He had
seen each year the incursion of smart
'resorte7s" from Chicago, ard seeing.
Searned to look, to feel. to act as they
lid. Full Of this ambition he talked
o his mother atcut taking boarders."
t was easier than farming, he said.
md more profitable. The Jcneses had
lone it and made money enough 10
,uy twenty acres OF the Norris farm.
{ would give him chance to get ac-
Iuainted, who knows Hlt It might give
I'm ian opening" an opportunity to
settle in Chicago? The boys eyes
viJe;ed at the very thought, and Mrs.
Norris, eager to help her boy alcrg,
,et dreading the prospect Of losing
lim. stifed her selfish hopes of having
i'm "all to herself" and advertised
or summer boaracrs. ....t.
The widening hopes of the possihili-
les of converting the little farm into
popular resort" they planted cniy
noiigh .or the maintenance of a few
'oarders. They figured on cutting
he empty barn into halves and max
ng cottages of it. June, July and half
f August cane and vent. ard they
ad many letters OF inquiry abeu. the
lace. the water. the mosquitoes. the.
'cthlng. the terms. tho reads. the
'u!., tho beds. and the general ac'