Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-05

, late at the office and declined utterly
to take any intelligent interest whatso-
ever in the christening festivities. which
We're reduced by this attitude of his to
lamentable tragedy in domestic life.
No. indeed daughter wasn't anybody :
joy in those days-why, she wasn't even
permitted to be her own joy.
Even her pretty hair asn't allowed
to be loose. SO she could see the sun
shine through the curls of it, but was
all shut up under tight cap that made
daughter look like her own grandmother.
She had TO sit and sew samplers and
help make the family garments entirely
by hand and hem the ruff1es for father :
shirts: and lucky if she didn't have her
poor little knuckles raped every five
minutes by horrid, hard old thimble
because she was SO awkward
And If anybody happened to say an
unkind thing about her she was blamed
for 1T herself, because no well brought
up young lady could be permitted 10
have such thing happen. And. just
as likely as not, she was packed off to
a, convent or Aunt EIiZabeth's in the
country and had a perfectly awful time.
1t wasn't any joke in those days to be
punished for anything People took
them most seriously Of all. Poor little
thing, she had to.
And yet even under those discourag-
ing circumstances. and facing reception
into life that might cause shjver to
run down the back of polar bear on a
midsummer day in the tropics, daughter
persisted in arriving.
She kept right on slipping into the door
of this world even though it wasn't set
wide in welcome. but was, on the con-
uary, just a stingy little bit aJar; and
there she'd be, her pretty head tucked
down and trailing behind her her own
pinky clouds of glory, held tight in her
dimpled hands
She kept right on nesting, all downy-
headed. beside mother, and comforting
mother, and making things easier for
mother, TOO, when she grew up to be
big girl. Her yellow curls kept right
on making a glory all about her little
head till even father and the boys be-
gan to notice her
She kept on being good. too, did daugh-
ter, and tending. if she were permitted.
sweet gardens of heart-f1owers right out
on the very edges of battlefields.
She kept on being useful, besides. They
used to say that. being merely girl.
she could never be Of much use to the
world unless she sewed and housekept
from days end to days end, all down
the long. long generations. They used
to say that she owed that much. at least.
TO the men folks, who took care of ii
useless thing like her, all for nothing.
And yet the actual fact and the stern
truth of the matter is that all this time
she was the most useful member that So
ciety had. Useful? Why, when you re-
member all the people that the men folks
used to kill in those days-yes. and do
now. every now and then-Td like to
know what this poor old world would
have done if it hadn't been for daughter.
1t would have been just ever so long ago
nothing but a depopulated desert.
Well for years and wears, and for gen.
Grafton after generation, daughter kept
right on being good and useful and dis
regarded except by mother. And some
times even mother regarded son more
highly, which, as father always took that
course, left daughter rather lonely and
forlorn
She felt lonely and forlorn, too. l can