The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1903-11-20


attention TO him"
Grandma Wards room was on the
ground floor Of the rambling, old-fash-
ioned house. She was too stout TO
climb stairs easily and her thought
ful daughter-in-law had made the large
room a very comfortable spot
The elder Mrs. Ward never objected
10 Stephens trash" as his mother
called the curiously shaped bits Of
fungi, the specimens of mineral the
agates and insects that the lad was
constantly collecting He never felt
that his own room was entirely safe
from invasion. The housemaid's de-
vastating broom had more than once
played havoc with his hoard: but he
had implicit confidence in his grand
mother His choicest 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
hearth-rug. II was almost dark by five
o'clock, and the boy usually reached
home at that hour. lie had always
been an obliging youth, except in the
one matter Of going to school. When
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.
The concern with the outside world
that his grandmother seemed all at
once to possess came as something 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's vivid imagina-
ton. The unsuspicious boy never
knew how many Of the laboriously
written letters were mailed to quote
Grandma Wards quaint phrase, Cup
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 ap-
palling-and began, just as Grandma
Ward intended he should, to realize
his limitations. Up to this point she
had said little. but finding her un-
conscious pupil in a receptive mood one
day. she confded some Of her troubles
to him.
"You see" said she, alphabetically
"Td write those letters myself, but 1t
isn't only my eyes that trouble me;
it's my lack of learning Business let
ters have to be done sort Of particular.
My writings terribly poor; don't al
WAYS know how to spell; I'm not sure
of my grammar, and I never could
figure well enough to come within
dozen rows of apple-trees Of being
right didn't have a chance to learn
those things when I was young, and
nobody knows what a difference
they've made all through my life.
"A body that can't figure can't do
anything. It's surprising, when you
come to think about 1t, what a quanu-
ty of figuring there is in everything.
Then there's grammar If you don't
feel sure of your grammar, there are
times when you don't dare open your
mouth for fear of shocking your rela-
tions. Many's the time I've just kept
my mouth shut when | was just burst
ing to say something, but didn't have
the grammar TO say it with. Many's the
time I've had things that were well
worth saying, but l didn't dare say
them for fear Of making some mistake
before your mothers friends"
Sympathetic Stephen felt suddenly
sorry for his poor. hampered grand
mother, who, indeed, always sat dumb
when there was company, although
Stephen had not suspected the reason
III your father hadn't had to leave
school when he did" continued the
wise old lady, twould have been
1 dollars in his pocket He had to Lean
things when he was a man grown that
most tcn-year-old boys know nova
days.
1--WE lost friends that I'd have been
glad TO keep. only l was afraid they'd
/ find out l wasn't educated if / wrote
10 them. | had letter from Horace
Greeley once. when | was a girl, and /
couldn't read II. | used to know him
well, and | would have answered that
letter, but l didn't know how. ]
couldn't spell much more than my own
name those days"
Stephen thought Of his own spelling
and blushed. He remembered uneasily
that he had written notes to some OF
the high-school girls in the past, and
that Bessie Smith had giggled over
hers.
did Stephen write this?" asked Mr..
Ward, holding up a sheet Of paper that
he had found on his mothers table
one day, while looking for a maga-
zine.
"Yes." said Grandma Ward.