Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-07-15
ESTHER'S OPINION.

By HELEN FORREST GRAVE.

here and eat humble pie" said Martin
vindictively.
"Oh, Thomas, don't talk sol" said
his wife. "One would think you would
be glad to have some evil befall
them!"
And SO / should" said Martin,
viciously grinding his teeth together.
THAT girl needs lot of humbling,
and hope she'll get It,"
Three years afterward there came
one of those terrible droughts that I'M
do a farmers life-work in a season,
and swept away his prospects as an
autumn wind sweeps a sere forest.
The cattle died, pestileDce broke out
among the flock of sheep, which Thos.
Martin had just brought high wind
blew his best barn over, and diaster
stared him in the face on every side.
IT'S no use talking" he said. 81
can't meet this years interest on the
mortgage. The place will have to &c"
ooh, Thomas" groaned Mrs. Mar
tin, who, poor soul, now lay all day
on a hard wooden lounge, and groaned
to see how woefully she was needed at
the helm.
Il can't help it," said Martin.
Everything is against me-"
ITS only five hundred dollars" said
Mrs. Martin. You n light borrow it.
Who'd lend to me, I'd like to
know?" said Martin, remembering
with sigh how he had hardened his
face against every humble suppliant in
the golden days of his prosperity.
There's Esthers husband" sug-
gested Ruth. I've heard that he is
doing well in Boston. And, after all,
Esther's my own sister,"
Mr.. Martins features contracted in
to a hideous grimace. OF all the bit
ter cups which circumstances had held
to his lips of late this was the bitter
est.
But it had to be swallowed. There
was no nelp for it.
Il didn't suppose Smiths folks lived
as genteel as this" said he to himself,
as a neat maid led him across an &C.
tagonal vestibule, foored with black
and-red marble, and fragrant with
flowers, under the golden fringe of an
antique pOrtiere, into large, taste
fully-furnished room, where the sing
ing birds, the open piano, the low sat-
in sofa all betokened no lack of
money.
Yes-Mr. Smith was at home. He
had not yet gone to the store, and
presently he came in, waving welcom-
ings to the man who had married Es-
theirs sister.
Lend you thousand dollars?" said
he. "Of course we can lend you a
thousand dollars. What is money for
if not to help each other with. Oh,
yes We've a snug little sum laid
| UP in the bank, and we live very COM
fortably My business? Yes, it's toll
cradle, but 1t never got us all these
things" glancing at the soft arabes-
ques of the carpet, the graceful folds
of the crimson silk curtains, and the
easel filled with proof engravings.
THAT is my wife's doing"
"Eh?" said Mr.. Martin, staring
around him.
"Yes," said Smith, with a certain,
quiet satisfaction. "Essie is an ar
fist, you know-a designer. She in
vents patterns for the paper-hangers
and upholsterers. They are glad to
pay her fifty dollars week"
Fifty dollars a week." exclaimed
In hot
fifty dollars is, / macmillan poor
Ruth made by all her poultry for a
year. Well, l never!"
In all his life he had never respect
ed Essie as her respected her now.
"She has money laid up" said Ste
phen Smith "And if she's the woman
think she is, she won't grudge it to
help her sisters husband in pinch. .
Gall and bitterness-gall and bitter
ness! But. thought poor Martin, with
a sigh, how was Stephen to know all
that had come and gone?
Essie's light step, on the passage
way, sounded at this instant; and she
came in, dressed in picturesque
brown linen blouse; her hair still
shading her forehead, like a fringe of
floss silk, after the old, graceful fash
ion.
YES" she said, brightly, when her
brother-in-law's errand was stated to
her; "of course you shall have it.
| owe you as much as that, l think,
Thomas, were 1t only to erase from
your memory that last scene of our
parting. How defiant and insolent it
was to be sure!" and she laughed the
sweetest of mellow laughter. But I
insist upon it, still, that my theory was
correct; woman can work, without
| becoming a drudge"
Perhaps she can," slowly and I'M
willingly admitted Thomas Martin
perhaps she can! But it didn't use to
be so, in my mothers days."
And he sighed to think of poor Ruth,
broken down in the meridian of her
days, by the cruel necessities that drive
the wife of an American farmer to her
DOOM Was it his own fault? Per-
haps it was
ESTES thousand dollar loan was the
straw which saved him from figura-
tive drowning. He paid the interest,
bought new flock of merino sheep,
and weathered the storm.
And the next year when Essie came
to the farm to assist her sister, for
the first time she found Ruth sitting
on the piazza, and watching the little
lambs play in the sunshine wi h list
less, heavy eyes.
YES" said Ruth, 81 can't work any
more. But Thomas is very kind He
don't grudge the hired girls wages,
and he is always saying he wished he
had taken more care of me in the old
times. But it's too late now. You
were right, Essie, when you said you
wouldn't stay on here, and help with
the homework"
Yes" said Essie, fondling the thin
hand which lay on the arm of the
rockingham, Il think / was right"
New York Woolxly