Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-10-17
CHAPTER III.

cause the name suited her, they said !;
but Maddy they called her at home, and
there was world of unutterable tender
ness in the voices of the old couple, her
grandparents, when they said that name,
while their dim eyes lighted up with
pride and JOY when they rested upon the
young girl who answered to the name of
Maddy. Their only daughters only child,
she had lived with them since her moth
er's death, for her father was sea cap
tain, who never returned from his last
voyage to China, made two months before
she was born. Very lonely and desolate
would the home of Grandfather Mark
ham have been without the presence of
Madeline, but with her there, the old
red farm house seemed to the aged couple
like a paradise.
Forty years they had lived there, till
ing the rather barren soil of the rocky
homestead, and. saving the sad night
when they heard that Richard Clyde was
lost at sea, and the far sadder morning
when their daughter died, bitter sorrow
had not come to them; and, truly thank
full for the blessings so long vouchsafed
them they had retired each night in peace
with God and man, and risen each morn
ing to pray. But a change was coming
over them. In an evil hour Grandpa
Markham had signed a note for a neigh
Dor and friend, who failed to pay, and
so it fell on Mr.. Markham. who, to meet
the demand, mortgaged his homestead;
the recreant neighbor still insisting that
long before the mortgage should be due,
he certainly would be able himself to
meet it. This, however, he had not done,
and, after twice begging off a foreclos-
ure, poor old Grandfather Markham found
himself at the mercy OF a grasping, re-
morseless man, into whose hands the
mortgage had passed. 1t was vain to
hope that Silas Slocum would wait. The
money must either be forthcoming, or the
red farm house be sold, with its few
acres of land. Among his neighbors there
was not one who had the money to spare,
even if he had been willing to do so.
And so he must look among strangers.
IF l could only help Madeline had
said one evening when they sat talking
over their troubles 'but there's nothing |
can do, unless l apply for our school
this summer. Mr.. Green is committee
man; he likes US, and l don't believe but
what he'll let me have 1t. l mean to go
and e." and, ere the old people had
recovered from their astonishment, Made
line had caught her bonnet and shawl,
and was flying down the road.
Madeline was a favorite with all, es-
pecially with Mr.. Green, and as the
school would be small that summer, the
plan struck him favorably. Her age,
however, was an objection, and he must
take time to see what others thought of
child like her becoming school mistress.
Others thought we'll of it, and so before
the close of the next day it was gener-
all, known through Honedae that pretty
little Madge Clyde had been engaged as
teacher, she receiving three dollars
week, with the understanding that she
must board herself. 1t did not take
Madeline long to calculate that twelve
times three were thirty-six, more than a
tenth of what her grandfather must bor-
row. 1t seemed like a little fortune, and
blithe as a singing bird she fitted about
the house, now stopping moment to fon-
die her pet kitten, while she whispered
the good news in its very appreciative
ear, and then stroking her grandfather's
silvery hair, as she said:
You can tell them that you are sure
of paying thirty-six dollars in the fall
and if | do well, maybe they'll hire me
longer l mean to try my very best. L
wonder if ever anybody before me taught
q school when they were only fourteen
and a half. Do l look as young as that?
II nv hair were not short l should do
better. What pity | cut it the last
time; it would have been so long and
splendid now"
Never mind the hair. Maddy," the old
man said, gazing fondly at her with a
half sigh as he remembered another brown
head, pilowed now beneath the graveyard
turf. MAYBE you won't pass muster,
and then the hair will make no differ
ence. There's a new committeeman, that
DR.. Holbrook from Boston, and new ones
are apt to be mighty strict
Instantly Maddy's face flushed all over
with nervous dread, as she thought
'What if | should fail? fancying that |
to do SO would be an eternal disgrace. But |
she should not. She was called by ev-
arv5ody the very best scholar in school, |
the one whom the teachers always put |
forward. when desirOus of showing off,
the one whom Mr.. Tiverton and Squire
Lamb and Lawyer Whittemore always |
noticed so much. OF course she should |
not fail. though she did dread DR.. Hol-
,rook. wondering much what he would |
ask her first, and hoping it would be some
thing in arithmetic, provided he did not
stumble upon decimals, where she was
ant to get bewidered. She had no fears
,f grammar. She could pick out the
most obscure sentence and dissect a dou-
Die relative with perfect ease; then, as
10 geography, she could repeat whole
ages of that, while in the spelling book.
the foundation of thorough education,
as she had been taught. she had no su-
periors and but very few equals. Still
she would be very glad when it was over.
and she appointed Monday, both because
il was close at hand, and because that
was the day her grandfather had set in
which to ride to Aikenside, in an adjoin-
ing town, and ask its young master for
the loan of three hundred dollars.
He could hardly tell why he had
thought of applying to Guy Remington
for help. unless it were that he once
had saved the life of Guys father, who,
as long as he lived, had evinced a great
regard for his benefactor. frequently as
,erting that he meant to do something
1or him. But the something was never
i l.. -. L. |