The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-08
The Euenine Story
Digging Ont . Fox.

Digging Ont . Fox.
| (By Bryant C. Rogers.)
Farmer David Brandon had worked
hard all day. and now that evening
had come and the cows had been
MIXED, the hogs fed, the hens shut
up, and the kitchen wood-box filed
up with dry maple wood. he pulled
on his boots, with grunt for each
boot, and sat silent.
! David had been silent for a long
ten minutes when his wife looked up
from her knitting and asked: Tired.
pap
/ mot uncommon" was the reply.
| "Ain't you goin' to read?'
I'm a-thinkin.'
Bout Jessie comm home tomor-
rer?" XXI
| Yes"
| 'And you don't seem a bit glad.
You haven't appeared to take a mite
of interest in her for the last month.
/ want you to tell me what the mat
! ter is. I've been wanting to talk with
you"
THE matter is" slowly replied the
husband, that we've been wrong all
through this thing
You mean with Jessie? 2"
| YES"
How have we been wrong?"
I'VE are farmer folks. We began
that way, and we shall die that way.
We don't aim to put ON any style.
! We can read, write and cipher. We
| have a daughter Jessie. She went to
district school and got better edu-
cation than either of u.s.
'Well?" Queried the wife
THAT wasn't 'nuff. You got the
idea that we must send her of to
boardin' school and learn her lots
more. She must have a heap of good
r. a n Isnvp hi nd h
been tight squeeze to keep her
goin'. She's learned music with the
/ rest OF it., and now we must have q
pianer for her to play on. It stands
there in the parlor. and how many
bushels of wheat is it goin' to take
it ever be to anybody? AS farmers
daughter, Jessie ought to marry q
farmer. She will have work to do as
farmers wife. There will be pre-
cious little time to thump on the
pfaner There will be precious little
SO much money. Them are the things
that / have been thinkin' of, and I
! tell yous ma. we have made q big mis-
take"
Has any one been talkin' to you,
pa?"
chicken-buyer have had something to
say"
Then let us start right there. Are
either one OF them educated men?''
NO"
That's just why the one lis a ped
dler and the other a chicken-buyer.
Miss Walters. the school teacher, il
getting $40 month and free board.
amt she?'
Yes
And what is Hoyt's gal, Thomp-
sons gal. Ridgeway's gal getting?
haW ra<7 1e nd -
Why? Because they are not educat-
ed! Hasn't it occurred to you that
Jessie might become a school teacher.
and II she does and goes to some VIII
lage she can earn her $50 a month p"
"Mebbe she can" grudRtnely adj
mftted the husband.
And why do farmers' daughters
generally marry farmers sons? It's
because they haven't a chance to
marry in another class. The farmer
amt lookin' for an educated wife. An
educated man amt lookin' for an tg-
nOrant one. Neither farmers son
nor daughter has much Of a chance
to pick and choose"
But If Jessie stays home is some
city man comm along here and fall In
love with herr"
PA how came you to fall in love
with me?'
why, you had climbed a tree to
escape bull, and I came along and
drove him away"
And emit something just as queer
happen to our Jessie? Tin peddlers
and chicken buyers are not the only
men movin' about the country"
There was a silence lasting three or
four minutes.
I'VE owed 1t to Jessie, Pa-we owed
1t to her. Neither Of US had the
chance to get an education, and we
have had to suffer for 1t. We don't
know much more about the world
; than two wooden posts. We've had
to work hard and scrimp and save to
give Jessie a show, but 1t will come
out all right, and you take my word
you sorter begrudged her an educa-
ton"
The morrow came and Jessie came
with 1t. She was glad to be home,
and her parents were glad to have
her. She went about singing, and it
was soon shown that education had
not spoiled her for Homework She
was also busy with the roses and vines
and seeds and currant bushes There
was much to be done to make the old
farmhouse look as If q new family
had moved in, and she did It People
drove slowly past that they might see
the improvements. and the mother
said to the father:
1T comes Of education, pa Weeds
and burdocks looked all right to us,
but see what change Jessie has
made!''
but how about her getting mar
rfed ?" he grumbled.
men from the Village drove out ON
Me1i11oQnm mHKmaS11l fl0f 49, 1SfalS4 -