Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-12-08
BY BRYANT G. ROGERS.

" z dOi aim W pun Oil ally sly 10.
We can read, write and cipher We
have a daughter Jessie. She went to
district school and got a, better educa-
tion than either of us
"Well?' queried the wife.
That wasn't huff. You got the
Idea that we must send her off to
hoardin' school and learn her lots
more. She must have a heap OF good
clothes and other things, and it has
been a tight squeeze to keep her
goin'. She's learned music with the
rest of it, and now we must have a
pianer for her to play on II stands
there in the parlor, and how many
bushels of wheat is it goin' to take
TO pay for it, and what real good will
it ever be to anybody? As farmer
daughter, Jessie ought to marry q
farmer. She will have work to do as
a farmers wife. There will be pre-
cious little time to thump on the
pianer. There will be precious little
use for this education that has cost
us so much money. Them are the
things that l have been thinllin' of,
and | tell you, ma, we have made a
mig mistake"
HAS any one been talkin' to you,
pa?"
well, the tin peddler and the
chicken-buyer have had something to
say"
"Then let US start right there. Are
either one of them educated menl'
No
That's just why the one is a ped
dIer and the other chicken buyer.
Miss Walters, the school teacher, is
getting $50 a month and free board,
amt she?"
Yes
And what is Hoyt,s gal, Thomp-
sons gal, Ridgeway's gal getting?
They are hired gals at S12 a month.
Why? Because they are not edu-
Gated, Hasn't it occurred to you
that Jessie might become school
teacher, and if she does and goes to
some village she can earn her $50
month";"
''Mebbe she can" grudgingly ad-
mitted 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 lookif' for an educated wife.
An educated man amt loolSin for an
ignorant one. Neither farmers son
nor daughter has much of chance
to pick and choose.
But IL Jessie stays home is lone
city man comm along here and fall
in live with herr"
PA, how came you to fall in love
with me2"
why, you had climbed a tree to
escape bull. and l came along and
drove him away"
And can't something just as queer
happen to our Jessie? Tin peddlers
and chicken buyers are not the only
men movin' about the country
There was silence lasting three
or four minutes.
I'VE owed 1t to Jessie, Pave owed
Nat Of 1ic had the
chance to get an education, and we
have had to suffer for it. 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
for it, Don't ever let her know that
you sorter begrudged her an edeca-
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 1t
was soon shown that education had
Not spoiled her for housework. she
~as 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 II new
family had moved in, and she did it.
might see the improvements, and the
mother said to the father:
cit comes of edecation, Pa. Weeds
and burdocks looked all right to us,
but see what a change Jessie has
made,"
'sBut what about her getting mar
ried?" he grumbled.
AS If in answer. three or four young
men from the village drove out on
hof tIau might get
sight of and a few words with "the
college girl" as they called her.
And three or four sons of farmers
came to see about hogs and sheep,
and once face to face with the hand
some and self-confident girl they for
got their errand and changed it to
fence rails.
And Pa Brandon came up from the
cornfield half an hour ahead of time
one afternoon to wink his wife out
behind the smokehouse and say to
her:
ma. what do you think"
Lots of things Pa"
You know Jim Farady?"
'Of course"
zone of the richest farmers in the
country Pays forty cents a pound
hired man drink it, too
"WeII don't lose your breath. Is
he dead?"
"Dead? Not much! He was down
in the corn with me hull hour this
afternoon. Guess what he wanted ?"
"Pa, Jim Faraday is forty five years
old"
yes
Hes widower with three chill
dren.'
''Yes-three."
Hes sneakin' around after our
Jessie
'There is no sneakin' about it. He
wants her for a wife, and can give
her forty times as good home as
anyone else. Let's set in and bring
it about"
David Brandon, there will be no
settin' I'M" solemnly warned the
Wife Haven't you got sense enough
TO understand that when you tie a
aal of nineteen to a man old enough
10 be her father that you are goin'
to spile her life? Where's the love
the romance?"
''But Jim is rich"
That doesn't count for shucks."
''All right Let her live and die
an old maid them 81
Two other widowers came, and one
got as far as TO ask Jessie If she
dotted ON chicken potpie, but the
father didn't interfere again until