The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-09-11

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''But, Stephen" urged his mother,
you =can,t=d any of those-t things sue
cessfully without an education"
capt. Banks did"
''Do you want to be like Capt.
Banks?"~ -
"Well, not just like, him." Stephen
admitted IT don't intend to drink or
buster around the way he does; but
he makes piles of money. He boasts
that he never went to- school a day in
his life" r.
well" said Mrs. Ward, mo one who
had~ever listened for five minutes to his
conversation would think, of ,disbeliev-
ing him." 49,
His mother coaxed, his father
scolded, and Eleanor upbraided him,
but all to no purpose. Stephen started
oste9sibly for school, to keep peace in
the family, but in reality spent all
school hours in. the woods as he frank
ly: confessed when he returned at night
The boy had suddenly developed an
obstinacy as appalling as it was sur
prising. His parents did not know
what to do. Stephen was too old for
corporal punishment, and he would not
listen to reason.
1t was at this juncture that Grand
m a Word To thu
'*Let the lad alone" said she. "You're
not using the right sort of bait. He's
got streak of his Grandfather Ward
in him. His grandfather was so OBJ
/st{nats that heiwcehd fhye :plshted lis
apple strees supsfde* d6An if AnyBddy
had told him not to. 1t took me Is
years to learn to manage Alonzo Ward,
but when once learn a thing l don t
forget 1t: Leave that boy to me for a
month; but whatever you do, don't let
him suspect that I'm paying any extra
attention to him." ...,s,-
erand : (, roSH }as q the
grounq fl!26rAsof the ramMfg, olasfash-
Toned house: She was too stout to
climb stairs easily; and. her thought
full daughterin-law had made the large
roop a very comfort:ar!lerspet:,
The elder Mrs. Ward never objected
TO Stepken;s Eta F;te s,.e as
called the Cautiously shaped BITS iof
ft1ngi; the specimens 0f ml6eFa1T-fthe
e6asfS aSs ;htSsfS !a2{ te9
that his own room was entirely safe
from invasion. The housemaid's de-
X; xXas 51 y ~'brp9mf hAs pnpt9IthapI pee
: had implicit confidence in his grand
mother: His -cheicest treasures occu-
pied the shelf over the CRATE, and no
one knew how frequently she was
obliged to disentangle her knitting
from the ribs of his precious, but evil
smelling, skeletonized trout
Stephen, with no>school work to do,
fell into the habit of spending many
of his evenings on. his grandmother's
heafth-rug. 1T was almost dark by five
QQ'@cl9ck, and the> bQN usually reached
home at that hour. He had always
been an obliging youth, except in the
onexmatterof tt6 se Ii s1' hen
his grandmother, whose eyes seemed
suddenly to have failed, asked him to
write some important business letters
for her. incompetent Stephen COM
piled with the utmost cheerfulness. o
g. The concern. with the outside world
that his grandmother seemed ALI al
once to possess came..as something g of
a surprise to Stephen. He had had no
idea that the enterprising old lady
had so many and such varied inter-
ests.
Stephen was required to order seeds
from the catalogues, to inquire into the
details of various projects advertised
IN the magazines, to write for infor=
nation regarding certain stocks, bonds
and parcels of land that existed only
IN his grandmother vivid imagina-
ton. The unsuspicious boy never
knew how many Of the laboriously
written letters were mailed, to quote
Grandma Wards quaint phrase, 'up
the chimney to Santa Claus" Ste
phen wrote them all in good faith. He
patiently and conscientiously added up
long columns Of figures, looked up in
the dictionary the words he was unable
to spell-their number was truly an
palling-and began, just as Grandma
Ward Intended he should, to realize
MS limitations. Up to this point she
had said little, but finding her I'M
conscious pupil in receptive mood one
day, she confded some of her troubles
to him.
You see," said she, apologetically,
I'd write those letters myself but it
isn't only my eyes that trouble me:
it's my lack of learning. Business let
ters have to be done sort of particular,
NY writings Tin terribly pQor;;~ don,tt all
ways know how to spess1;;" HI f10t sure
OF my grammar, and l never could
inquire, vel enough to. come. within a
dozen rows of appleztrees 81 be inc.
right. | didn't haye q chance to learn