The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-04-28

f+AN Ia NAtN AatAAAA-t18A4 NAM az $780,
set and listened 80 Parson Page preaehin'
about predestination and free-wiil and
I've said 10 myself, Well / ain never
beea through Center College up at Dan
vile. but IL / could jest git up IN the
pulpit with one of my quilts, could
make 1t "a heap palmer TO folks than
parsou maxim il with all his big words.
You see. you start out with jest SO much
calker, you don't go TO the store and pick
II out and buy it, bus the neighbors VIII
give you piece here and a piece there,
and you'll have "A piece leIt every TINE
you cut out a dress, and you take jest
what happens to come. and that IKE
predestination, But when il comes to the
cuttin' out, why, you're free TO choose
your own pattern. You can give the
same kind o pieces to two persons, and
one'n make nine-pateh and one IL
make a wild goose enase,' and there Il
be two quilts made out O the same kind
o pieces, and jest as different as they
can be. And that is jest the way with
Twin. The Lord sends as the pieces,
but we can cut 'em out and put EN- to-
gether pretty much 10 suit ourselves,
and there's a heap more IN the cuttin'
out and the SEWN than there IS IN the
caiiker. The same sort o. things comes
into. all lives. jest as the APOSTLE says.
There hath no trouble taken you but is
common to all men,
''The same troubH come into two peo-
pies lives. and one u take it and make
one thing out of it. and the Other'h make
somethiu' entirely different. There was
Mary Harris and Mandy Crawford. They
both lost their husbands the same year;
and Mandy set down and cried and Wor-
rled and wondered what on earth she
was goin' to do. and the farm went to
wrack and the children turned out bad,
and she had to live with her son-in-law
in her old age But Mary. she got up
and went TO work. and made everybody
about her work, too; and she managed
the farm better'n 1t ever had been man
aged before. and the boys all come up
steady, hard-WOrkin men and there was
not "a. woman IN the country better fixed
up than Mary Harris. Things is predes-
tined to come to Us, honey, but We re
jest as free as air TO make what We
please out of 'em. And when 10 comes
20 putin the pieces together. there's an
other time when We're free. You don't
trust to luck for the caliker to put your
quilt together with. you so 20 the store
and pick IT out yourself any color you
like, There's folks that always looks on
the bright side and makes the best OF
everything, and that's like putin your
guilt together with blue or pink or white
OF some other pretty color; and there s
folks that never see anything but the
dark side. and always lOOkin for trOu-
BILE. and tre8suriu' 10 up after they sit it.
and they're putin their lives together
with black; jest ike you would put a
guilt together with some dark, ugly col
or. You can spoil the prettiest quilt
pieces that ever was made jest by put
tin 'em together with the wrong color
and the best sort o. life is miserable II
you don't look at things right and think
about EN- right
Then there's another thing. I've seen
folks p3cce and piece. but when it come
10 putin the blocks together and quiltiH
and linin' IL. they'd give out. and that's
like folks that do a little here and a lit
tie there, but their lives amt of much
use after ALL any m0re'n lot o. loose
pieces O. patchwork. And then while
you're Twin your life. il looks pretty
much like tumble o. quilt pieces before
they re put together, but when You GIT
through with il. or pretty nigh through
as ! am now, youu see the use and the
purpose Of everything in ia. Everything Il
be in It's right place jest like the square
In this four-patch. and one piece may
be pretty and another one ugly. but il
an looks right when you see it finished
and Joined together
Did ] say that every pattern was rep
resented No. there was one notable
omission Not a single crazy quilI"
was there in the collection. I called Aunt
James attention 10 this lack
Child she said, Il used to say there
wasn't anything I couldn't do If I mad,
up my mind TO IT, But I hadn't seen
"a crazy quilt then. The first one / ever
seen was up al DauvIlle AZ Mary
Frances. and Henrietta says. Now
grandma. you've got To make a crazy
quilt, YOU sc made every other sort that
ever was heard Of And she brought me
the pieces and showed ME how TO haste
EN- on the square. and said she'd work
the fancy stitches around I'm for me
Well, / set there all the m0ruin' tryin
To fix up that square. and the more
tried. the uglier and crookeder the thing
looked. And. Enaliy / says: Here. child
take your pieces. IL / was 20 make this
the way YOU want me 40, they be a
crazy quilt and a crazy woman, too "
Aunt Jane was laying the folded quilts
in neat piles here and there about thl
room. There was "a look of unspeak-
able satisfaction on her face-the look OF
the creator who sees his completed work
and prOnounces &c good.
I've been a hard worker all my life
she said. seating herself and folding hei
hands restfully. but most all my work
has been the kind that perishes with the
usin, as the Bible says. That's The
discouragin' thing aDout woman's work
Milly Amos used 10 say that if a woman
was 10 see all the dishes that she had q
wash before she died piled up beforJ
her i'm one pile, she'd lie down and die
right then and there. I've always had
the name o. bein a good housekeeper
but when I'm dead and gone there ain
anybody goin 10 think o. the floors Tv,
swept, and the tables I've scrubbed. ana
the old clothes I've patched, and thy
StOCkin's I've darneG. Abram might "a
I remembered IL. but ne amt here Blu
/ when one O. my grandchildren or great
grandchildren sees one O. these quilts
they'll think about Aunt Jane, and, wher-
! ever I am then, III know ] aint forgot
ten.
Il reckon everybody wants to leay,
somethin' behind thatll last after they'r,
I dead and gone. 1t don't look Ike it':
worth while 10 live unless you can do
that. The Bible says folks rest from
their labors. and their works do follow
| them.' but that amt SO. They go, and
maybe they do rest, but their works stay
right here. unless they're the sort thai
don't Outlast the usin Now. some folk!
I has money to build monuments with
great, tan, marble pillars. with angels OF
| top of en-, like you see in Cave Hi
and them big city buryin grounds. AND
I
ODE TO GREEK BOOTBLACExs.