Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-03-15

Aurore mad spent very busy day
which she had ended by preparing the
particularly good battercakes Allen
was just then enjoying.
Allen smiled fondly and commended
Aurore's industry, then fell into a
brown study and dissatisfied longing
hardened the lines of his face.
"Any reading, sis?" he asked, get
ting up and coming towards the fire.
Reading? No, indeed, no time for
reading, AL Too busy. You suppose
I'm going to sit down at home reading
books, while you are blowing and la
boring? Not much!"
Nine FRANCHISE, who was periodical
ly afflicted with rheumatism, came in
grumbling to clear away the supper
things, and Aurore fell into a lively
discussion while helping her, using
Acadian patois with much fiuency, GER
tain intonations and infections discov-
cred with the mellow richness of her
voice
How old are you, sis?" Allen asked
gloomy reflections, evidently.
why, don't you know, Al? I'll be
Is next June. Do l look it? I'll be
quite grown up soon, won't l ?"
Allen suppressed sigh as he got up
and reached for an iron key hanging
behind the door, the key of the mule
stable Taking the lantern from a
IN h. ho
telling Aurore the would be back soon.
he went out to stable the mules and
lock up the feedhouse, duties which
devolved upon him nightly.
The daily grind of routine and man
ual work was absorbing, and the years
were slipping by and Allen was
startled to realize that Aurore, with
all her sweet, fresh beauty, her en-
ergy and generous impulses, was
growing up to lack an indefnable
something he remembered his mother
had possessed, as he recalled her in
those early years of his childhood in
their far-away beautiful home, now in
other hands.
Allen attended mechanically to the
was secure and the cattle housed, and
all the while he was approaching him.
self keenly that he could do so little
for Aurore, that he could not give her
advantages she ought to have and OPP
portunities of education, and contact
with other girls of her age and class
in some big city.
Allen recalled with pang, Aurore' S
French, and her absorbed interests in
the daily cares of her life and her in
difference to books and reading, and
Allen fOreSaw how with all her beauty
she would narrow down into peasant
ways and peasant interests, and would
drift away from all things intellectual
What was he to do? Send her away
to some big college, before distaste
for mental effort dulled her young
mind? Allen knew by experience how
arduous a task it was to plod over
studies, when the mind and body were
alike jaded by hard days labor
How could he expect Aurore, sweet
bright, little Aurore, to have the stern
energy of man, and take up study and
book learning as pastime? No, AL
len very plainly saw that unless he
could find the means to send Aurore
away from the restricted country life
she was leading, one filed with sweet
content and pleasant busy hours, but
devoid of all ambitions, she would moi
be for all her beauty, what her mother
had been, a woman of fastidious re-
finement, high education and polish
How distinctly he remembered her.
He himself was an uncouth fellow
Allen thought. From the age of l.
he had done hard manual work. Had
driven cattle, MIXED COWS, hoed il
the garden, chopped wood, done car
| penter's work. plowed and worked III
the blacksmith's shop shoeing horses
| and mending broken implements. As
carpenter how many wagons had hi
repaired.
And during the grinding season hi
was cane weigher, or timekeeper fol
the plantation.
That he had studied hard, at nigh
with scholarly Father Perrier's help
and had acquired a certain amount O
knowledge, good deal of late and an
clent literature, and had read the grea
authors of modern times, was good a
mathematics, and was a French
scholar, were not sufficient reasons
Allen said to himself. for him to hav,
the air and polish his father had.
No. both he and Aurore would be a
disadvantage among college-bre.
men and women, and while Allen care,
for knowledge for himself only in tn
! hope of being able to utilize it som
day to emerge from the slough of pov
erty into which cruel circumstance
had plunged them, his heart burne,
within him at the thought of Aurore'
growing up to womanhood shy, beauti
ful and unlettered, like Heloise, oil
Nine. Franchises granddaughter.
Allen came back, Aurore was in tn
kitchen preparing the bread for tn