St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-30
Charcoal and Cupid )
By F. II. LANCASTER.
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DUT no; work had never seemed
ID shameful to Marie before. She had
always toiied willingly at her fathers
side at the kiln or in the field Had
driven the steers that drew the wood; ;
had dropped the corn and sacked the
coal. And her self-respect had never
suffered. Cest bon; neither had she
lacked the esteem of her neighbors.
They counted her a fine gal, yas"
Standing staunchly by father not
over strong; by mother burdened
with many small children. Sewing,
scrubbing. cooking, doing whatever
her hand found to do and doing it glad
ly. Generally dirty, frequently tired
but, all oui, always bright and neat on
Saturday evening when the sun
cropped behind the pines and she sat
down on her steps to await Donician's
coming
Tien. When she caught the flash of
his red tie as he swung from saddle
and heard the creak of his patent
feathers as he strobe up the walk, hap
pier heart had no girl. For her love
anair was in that sweetest of all sweet
stages-the certainty of her love for
him beginning to blend deliciously
with the certainty of his love for her.
And now she was ashamed of her
work, of her clothes, of her love. NAL
hereux And it was wee, winsome
woman who had brought all this shame
upon her.
Marie had welcomed the school
teacher without misgiving. Had
taken up uncomplainingly the extra
load of work and gone to sleep in the
shed that the teacher might have "a
room to herself" Perhaps in her heart
she had hoped to get some new ideas
from the teacher-how to do her hair
more stylishly and tie her ribbons into
more fetching bows. VOLTA She did,
indeed, get some new IDEAS The teach
er may have learned, mais certainment,
but she had no natural sense. School
had not been running a week before
she showed that. 1t was the morning
that she met Marie coming out of the
cornffeld, where the girl had been pull
ing fodder since daylight. Marie.
drenched with dew, her skirts tucked
up to her knees, gave the teacher a
blithe good morning. The teacher re-
turned the greeting, stared at those
bare, wet legs and the girl Juggling at
her skirts had run into the house hot
with shame. Sacre. 1t did not occur
to her that any one SO sweet and dam
ty could be SO ill bred. She could only
feel wretchedly in The wrong and for
the first time in her fresh young life,
ashamed.
The next morning, 81 drole, yes, Ma
rie tried to pull fodder with her long
skirts wrapping about her ankles. She
tired herself terribly and came to the
house so dreadfully bedraggled that
her mother cried out in CONSERVATION;
but she did not pull much fodder.
There was only needed what happened
a few days later to complete the girls
undoing. She had been helping her
father load his wagon with sacked
charcoal. He had started his slow
moving team down the road and Marie
had dropped into the grass to rest bit
when the teacher came by. Flushing
with her new-found shame the girl
started to her feet while the teachers
eyes took in every feck of coal dust
upon her.
Don't you hate to do such dirty
work?" she asked, compassionately.
Shades of sanity! she meant to be
kind.
Eth bien. The girl bore up under the
sense of degradation as best she could.
Oh. mails oui. But her shame was not
her most dreadful dose. A startAlng
fear had thrown its grim shadow ath-
wart her hitherto fearless fulture. II
Donician should be made ashamed also |
Suppose the teacher should talk to him |
and tell him that she did dirty" work. |
They had been keeping company
only six months, but he never went |
with any other girl and for a long
time none of the boys had tried to
walk home from church with her. Ma
RE knew that behind her back her girl
friends called her Madam Donician;
that everybody was watching slyly for
the ssilver ring that would annount 9
her betrothal. And-and-ah, Mere de
Dieu, the last time he called Donician
had gone all red when he told her he
had broken the blade of his pocket
knife. When she asked how he had
broken it he had gone redder still and
muttered something about cutting a
dime. She had laughed gayly then with
that sudden Quickening of the heart
beat that true-born 'Cajan girl will
always cover with a laugh.
so simple, to try to cut dime with
q pocketknife," she had jeered. DON
ician had justified himself awkwardly
with the explanation that it was the
first dime he had ever made, that he
had kept it for good luck and then with
a rather staggering directness demand
ed if she thought it was going to bring
him good luck this time. But to this
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