Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-05-11
CHAPTER I.
blow II All BEGAN.

years.
see her now vividly as II II were
only yesterday We were at our scant
breakfast ] as blue as was ever
even 25, she brave and confident.
And hers was no mere pretense 10
reassure me, no cherries optimism
of ignorance, but the through-and-
through courage and strength OF those
who finch for no DOGGY that life or
death can conjure. Her tone lifted
me; glanced al her and what shone
from her eyes set me on my feet, face
to the foe The table-cloth was darn
ed in many places. but 50 skillfully
that you could have looked closely
without detecting II. Not a lump OF
sugar, nor slice Of bread went to
waste in that house, yet even ! had
to think twice to realize that we were
poor desperately poor. She did not
hide our poverty; she beautified it,
she disnified it into Spartan sim
plicity | know it is not the glamour
over the past that makes me be-
lieve there are no women now like
those of the race to which she be
longed. The world, to-day, yields
comfort too easily to the capable;
hardship is the only mold for such
character and in those days, in this
middle-western country, even the cap
able were strangers to hardship
When ! was young, she went on,
land things looked black, as they
have habit Of looking to the young
and inexperienced, that put in with
a teasing smile at met used to say
to myself; Wei. anyhow, they can't
kill me" And the thought used to
cheer me UP wonderfully Ia fact, it
still does"
no longer felt hopeless ] began
to gnaw my troubles again--despair is
still a7aEgs. Z & 49,.
Jddge CRANKY is dog, said /;
yves, dog.
why dog?" objected my mother.
why not simply mean man? I've
never known dog that could equal
a man who set out to be 'ornery'"
When ! think of all the work I've
done Tor him in these three years"
HFoF yourself" she interrupted.
"work You do for others doesn't
amount 70 much, unless tt's been first
and best for yourself" =
;itt ne Was BENEFITED by it. too"
/ urged, and has taken life easy, and
has had more clients and bigger fees
than he ever had before. I'd like to
give him a jolt I'd stop nagging
him to put my name in a miserable
corner of the glass in his door Id
hang out big sign Of my own over
my own cfice door"
My mother burst into a radiant
smile, i've been waiting a year TO
hear that, she said.
Thereupon l had shock of fright
INSIDE. for I'd meyer have dared e
Show fear bef6fe ny mother. There's
nothing else that makes you so bravo
as Lying With some one before whom
you haven't the courage to let your
cowardice show its feather If we
didn't keep each other up to the mark,
what a spectacle Of fright and fight
this world-drama would be! Vanity.
the greatest of vices. is also the
greatest of virtues, or the source Of
the greatest virtues-which comes to
the same thing
when did you do it, she went on,
and then ] knew I was in for it, and
how wellfounded was the suspicion
that had been keeping my lips tight
shut upon my dream of independ-
ence
'1ll-I'll think about it," was my
answer. in tone which | hoped she
would see was not hesitating, but re-
Elective; Il mustn't 90 too far-or too
fast"
"Better go too far and too fast
than none at all, retorted my wise
mother. "Once a tortoise beat a hare
once. It never happened again, yet
the whole timid world has been talk
ing about 1t ever since" And she
fell into a study from which she
reused herself toFsay: You'd better
let me bargain for the Office and the
furniture-and the big sign" She
knew-but could not or would not
Ledch Ine-hOW 10 get a uOlidi worm
for dollar; would not, / suspect, for
she despised parsimony. declaring il
to be another virtue which is becom-
ing only in woman.
"Of when" ! began.
We've got to do something in the
next six months" she warned. And
now she made the six months seem
six minutes.
had at my tongues end some
thing about the danger of dragging
her down into misfortune; but before
speaking ] looked at her. and, look
ing, refrained. TO say ii 70 her would
have been too absurd--to her who
had been left a widow with nothinl
at all who had educated me for col
lege and who had helped me through
my first year there-helped me viii
money | mean. Put for what sh,
gave besides, more immeasurabl,
more-but for her courage in me anc