The Prescott daily news., 1907-08-23
.RARBARA'S
 PRAYER.
2, ANNIE HAMILTON DoNNELL.
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,,,,r ,,,sb.. by Joseph B. Bowles.)

but Barbara kept on is'
 mi want to see old Uncle Zach-
 obo did not want to hear what
 had to say.
 hrow It's a barrel" she thought,
 che hurried along. "lf l turn
 nd-,f he knows 1 hear him-he'll
 .Tbar's bar'l down to the
 .sin, for the parson, Barb'ry.' I'm
 going to turn round for him to
 that to mel If he or anybody else
 nos fl LID cant help it, but l can
 n turning round, can't I?'
 Fbe girls heart was bitter-bitter-
 ter And the desolation of the
 bat flat prairie, scar in It's fall dress.
 tered into her heart and "roomed'
 +h the bitterness. Barbara Bigelow
 od greenness and hills and pleasant
 nss She hated with all her inde-
 ndent proud young soul-barrels.
 It was barrel time. Of course that
 what Uncle Zachary was calling
 for. He was plodding his bent old Ay up from the little Crossing sta An-he had seen the barrel. Every
 dy would see it-would know.
 That everybody" at Lonesome
 airie was only Uncle Zachary and
 e Tilt Tobeys and the Philoon oodys and few others, did not ake Barbaras musings any less bit f. All Lonesome Prairie would how, anyway. And that wasn't the brst 6 it-she would know! I'Daddy poor Daddy-and the l other are getting accustomed to 'm"-she meant barrels-"but not r. b, no, mol l shall never get accus- |med, If live to be a hundred! I ball always hate the sight of barrel bl them"
 Six years they had been out on this isolate prairie; the Little Parson had ben a baby when they came, and now B was boy in pockets and whis- |e. All those years the Mother had fessed him in barrel clothes. If they |ere too big she took them in: if they |ere too small she stretched them. he barrel shoes sometimes pinched Is toes.
 Most of Daddy s-poor Daddy's- lothes were barrel clothes. Most of be Mother r's-most of Barbara's and be Twins. You could tell barrel lothes the minute you set eyes on hem, by their occasional fancy freaks and their creases and their eneral air of having been worn out efore they got into the barrel.
 Every year about this. time one had ome-one year two came. Every ear Barbara had been getting more liter. The horrible sensation of be- g-of being second hand, from Daddy own to the Little Parson, hurt her , the quick.
 The people-those people far away here there were hills and greenness nd pleasant things-were kind, Dad said They were thoughtful. the other insisted in her gentle fashion, scause there were little clothes and lodle-aged clothes and grown-up otnes in the barrels. But bitter. bit T Barbara hated these people. They ere not thoughtful. they were not hd' They humiliated other people no lived in unhilled, ungreen, un- easant places, just because they did 'e there and were poor and preached Lonesome Prairies.
 This year, with the patient Mother Ia patient little Rebec' both sick, ings were badly off at the prairie fsohage' In her soul Barbara knew at they needed that barrel. The Lit rarson needed more fady, too big LOO little trousers, and Daddy need. more coats, All four of the women opie needed most everything. And Barbara knew in her soul that Mother and Daddy were watching r it.
 ID 'hlnk they should want it!" she heu' Indignantly. ITO think they 0aid De willing for it! Oh, I'd rather
 oarefooted in the snow and wear salbags!"
 put would she rather have the tuner and the Twins and the Little aSoh and Daddy-poor Daddy. !. turned cold-bitter cold--that sa,. A pitiless wind swept the a'rie' unhindered by hill or forest. tue parson-man's ome it was hard Aeep warm. Barbara put her own n leather bed over the Twins and K all the available quilts into the , "A chamber. She heated bricks and Tor everybody. padding lit.
 Aeoec's with careful pains. Then gov her work and sat down with 1t Mother's side of the bed.
 on' sighed Mother. softly. have everyday ones given out. too?a | rIx