News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-02-03
DIGGING OUT A FOX
How a Girl Found a Nan to Love
and One to Love Her.
BY BRYANT c. ROGERS.

MIXED the hogs fed, the hens shut
Iup, and The kitchen wood-box filled up
with dry maple wood, he pulled off his
! boots, with a grunt for each boot, and
sat silent.
David had been silent for long ten
minutes when his wife looked up from
her knitting and asked: Tired, pa?"
mot uncommon" was the reply.
"Ain't you goin' to read?"
I'm a-thinkin'"
"'Bout Jessie comm home tomor-
rer?"
Yes
"And you don't seem 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 matter
is. I've been wanting to talk with
you"
1.-The matter is" slowly replied the
husband chat we've been wrong all
through this thing
you mean with Jessie?"
Yes"
How have we been wrong?"
I've are farmer folks. We begun
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
daughter Jessie. She went to dis
trict school and got better education
than either of u.s.
"Well?" queried the wife.
THAT wasn't huff. You got the idea
! that we must send her off to boardin'
school and learn her lots more. She
must have heap Of good clothes and
other things, and it has been tight
squeeze to keep her goin'. She's
learned music with the rest of it, and
now we must have pianer for her to
play on. 1t stands there in the par
lor, 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 a farmers daughter, Jessie ought
to marry a farmer. She will have
work to do as a farmers wife. There
will be precious 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 have been thinkin of,
and | tell you, ma, we have made a
big mistake"
HAS any one been talkin' to you,
'pa?"
well, the tin peddler and the chick
en- buyer have had something to say"
"Then let us start right there. Are
either one of them educated men,"
mo"
"That's Just why the one is ped
dler and the other a chicken buyer.
Miss Walters, the school teacher, is
getting so 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 $12 a month.
Why? Because they are not educated!
Hasn't it occurred to you that Jessie
might become a school teacher, and if
she does and goes to some village she
can earn her $50 month"
"Mebbe she can," grudgingly adj
mitted the husband
And why do farmers daughters
generally marry farmers sons? It's
because they haven't chance to mar
ry in another class. The farmer amt
lookin for an educated wife. An edu-
Gated man amt lookin' for an ignor-
ant one. Neither a farmers son nor
daughter has much of chance to pick !
and choose"
There was silence lasting three or
four minutes.
we owed it to Jessie, pave owed |
it to her. Neither of us 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 Jes- |
sic show, but it will come out all |
right, and you take my word for it. |
Don't ever let her know that you
sorter begrudged her an edeoation."
The morrow came and Jessie came |
with it. 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 done to make the old farmhouse
look as if new family had moved in.
and she did it. People drove slowly |
past that they might see the improve
ments, and the mother said to the ia
Their:
1T comes of education, pa. Weeds
and burdocks looked all right to us,
but see what change Jessie has
made!"
But what about her getting mar
ried?" he grumbled.
As if in answer three or four young
men from the village drove out on
fictitious errands that they might get
a 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 or sheep. and
once face to face with the handsome
and self-ccnfident girl they forgot