The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-07-10
Woman, II : skimpy skirt who has.


men and women, but this old woman
appeals to our imagination because
she is expecting something or. some-
one. What? Nobody quite knows.
Not even herself does she know
clearly what it is she is waiting for
while she sits there on her lonely
doorstep, with her old bare feet
tucked decorously under her skirt
and her toil-twisted hand folded pa
tiently in her lap. She has worked
! hard for many, many years, has this
old 'Tajan woman with the scant
hair and skinny neck. Worked hard
in the home and in the field, and has
reared dozen or more of sons and
daughters to wear out their lives IN
patient toll, even as. she has worn
out her own And, mon ami, it is a
sad sight, this worn-out old woman,
sitting all alone in that feeble ray
of light, peering into the darkness
with her wistful. old eyes. But she
was not always old, d6n! You would.
never dream it, but once she was
young. Mais oui, younger than you
or I could have ever been--even in
our babyhood Young and fair and
sweet, this Old, old woman. sAn.a she
was ambitious, yes She would learn
to read and write her name in cleaxx
bold letters, even as the priest had
written it In the parish register. So
they sent her to the public school,
|sbecause she cried to CO. She trudged
her four miles daily with a. happy
heart, and learned fast-the It teacher
said. All, but she grew faster than
she learned, and youth is 80 short
for 'Cajan girl, She q maiden at
IA, a->marriedsawomanSat Is and--la
vienx ever after. x IT.
$50 it CHANGED, mon am, THAT our
pretty young thing wa Isl maiden be-
fore she reached sthe third reader.
A maiden sitting Just where the old
woman is sitting now, Listening for a
footstep, so strong, so.swift, that
was sure to come. 1t came, and that
night there was moonlight on the
cotton fields--such moonlight as
woman may see but once in all her
lifetime, mon ami.
"Ah, well, he was very brave and
beautiful, this boy lover of hers.
Slow to anger, but blind in his rage
when once you reused him-as a true
'Cajan should be. And was there
ever a lover SO faithful and fond?
So absorbed in the wee-bit home he
was making ready for his bride. For
they were to be married when an
other school term had swept it's en-
Tightening length across their lives.
with the new term came new
teacher. "A man, so he called himself,
and so people supposed him to be-
q being of unbounded ambition
checked by poverty. At odds with
his fate, on the lookout for a bouc
emissaire. For something to soqthe
his wounded pride and feed his fam
ished vanity, and his eye fell upon
the lovely little girl in the third
class-who was "engaged.'
""Then the girls ambition began to
change color-no longer to read mnd
write, but to wear shoes I'll day
long, and to have white hands; then,
too, the 'Cajan lovers brow began to
darken. Soon there was only moon
shine falling upon the cotton fields,
and the little home that was build
ing stood neglected as a deserted
nest. But yet the teacher was hnt
satisfied. He must needs boast Nils
triumph down to the store .Aad
then, mon ami, there were hot, pant
dc in oh al
fierce blows dealt by bare fist, aud
presently pistol shot.
"They carried the boys body ho1ne
to his mother. The good priest
buried it at the foot of his fathers
and sprinkled holy water over hts
grave-but the case was thrown OF.
of court. Not MURDER they sai..
but self-defense. And, n'importe, u
was only 'Cajan, anyway
$50 the teacher returned to hi,
race and rose high-high enough t.
sit upon the supreme bench. He sits
there to-day, bearing his white head
bravely above an august assembly
but he is a hound at heart, as be
has ever been. And yonder in tE<
feeble fare of her little tin lamp si*4
the woman whose life he-lost! Ou!,
certainment, there was wild weeping
and piteous cries, when they told hes
that her lover was dead. Vain self
reproaches and equally vain prayee
for death. But she did not die-aE,
que non. She married, and became
the mother of many daughters. On
of these daughters is now my
mother, and it is I, her grandchilo,
that she is waiting for to. might.
scarcely hoping to see, me-there is
so little strength left for hope in her
! battered old heart, but. She is my
grandmother, even as the man who
the proud old judge is your father.
And his blood is in your heart, mon
ami. Did not look into your eyes
when you asked me to come here to-
night? And, bon soir, mon ami
The man started up and stretched
! out his arms. "Madeline! MOI" he
.. cried, hoarsely. But he was alone,
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