Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1915-01-15
DIGGING OUT A FOX
How a Girl Found a Man to Love
and One to Love Her.
BY BRYANT c. ROGERS.

4 hard all day. and now that evening
chad 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 q grunt for each boot. and
F, sat silent.
! David had been silent for a long ten
minutes when his wife looked up from
her knitting and asked: Tired. par
Not uncommon" was the reply.
Amt you goin' to read?'
"Tm a-thinkin'.'
"'Bout Jessie comm home tomor-
rer7"
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"
The matter is," slowly replied the
husband, that we've been wrong all
through this thing"
You mean with Jessie?"
Yes
How have we been wrong?"
we 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
o daughter Jessie. She went to dis
trict school and got better education
than either Of US"
"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 clothes and
other things, and it has been a tight
squeeze to keep her goin. She's
4 learned music with the rest of 1t, and
now we must have pianer for her to
play on. It stands there IN the par
ior, 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 farmers wife. There
will be precious little time to thump
on the pianer There viii be precious
little use for this education that has
cost US so much money. Them are
the things that have been thinkfn 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?"
NO"
That's just why the one is a ped
dler and the other chicken buyer.
Miss Walters, the school teacher, is
getting $50 month and free board,
amt she?"
YES"
"And what is Eoyt's gal, Thomp-
sons gal, Ridgeway's gal, getting?
They are hired gals at s12 month
Why? Because they are not educated
Hasn't it occurred to you that Jessie
might become a school teacher, and il
she does and goes to some village she
can earn her $50 month";
"Mebbe she can," grudgingIy ad-
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 am ignor-
ant one. Neither a farmers son nor
daughter has much Of chance 10 pick
and choose"
There was a silence lasting three or
four minutes.
We owed 1t to Jessie, pave owed
1t 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 q 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 edecation"
The morrow came and Jessie came
with it. She was glad to be home,
and her parents we're 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 cHrrant bushes. There was
much done to make the old farmhouse
look as If new family had moved in,
and she did 1t. People drove slowly
past that they might see the improve
rents. and the mother said to the IA
Their:
II comes Of education. pa. Weeds
AMI burdocks looked all right to us.
bat see what change Jessie has
made,y
Bat what about her getting mar
rie67T he grumbled.
AS If in answer, three or four young
men from the village drove out on
fictitious errands that they might get
sight of and a few words with the
college girl" as they called her.
And three or four sons of farmers