Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1915-05-13
DIGGING OUT A FOX.


and the kitchen wood-box filled up with |
dry maple wood, he pulled of his boots,
with a 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, pa ?"
"Not uncommon was the reply.
"Ain't you goin' TO read ?"
"l'm a-thinkin'."
"Bout Jessie comm home tomoner ?"
ayes"
"And you don't seem bit glad. You
haven't appeared TO take a mite Of inter-
est in her for the last month. want you
10 tell me what tile 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 ?"
eyes"
"How have we been wrong? ?"
1--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 a
daughter Jessie. She went to district
school and got better education than
either OF u.s."
"Well ?" queried the wife.
"That wasn't nuff You got the idea
that we must send her off 10 boardin'
school and learn her lots more. She
must have heap of good clothes and
otherthings, and 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. II stands
there in the parlor, and how many bushels
Of wheat is it goin' 10 take TO pay for it,
and what real good will it ever be 10 any
body? AS farmers daughter, Jessie
ought to marry farmer. She will have
work 10 do as 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 big mislake."
"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 men ?"
"No."
"Thafs just why the one is a peddler
and the other a chicken buyer. Miss
Walters, the school teacher, is getting $50
month and free board, amt she ?"
"Yes."
"And what is Hoyfs gal, Thompson'S
gal, Ridgeway's gal. getting? They are
hired gals, at $l2 month. Why? Be-
cause they are not educated 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 a
month ?"
"Mebbe she can," grudgingy admitted
the husband.
"And why do farmers daughters gen.
orally marry farmers sons? It's because
they haven't chance to marry in another
class. The farmer amt lookin' for an
educated wife. An educated man amt
lookin for an ignorant one. Neither a
farmers son nor daughter has much OF a
chance TO pick and choose"
There was a silence lasting three or
four minutes.
"We owed il 10 Jessie, pave owed
il TO her. Neither OF us had the chance to
get an education, and we have had TO suf-
fer 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 10 give Jessie 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 education"
The morrow came and Jessie came
with it. She was gladto 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 houSework. She was also busy with |
the roses and vines and seeds and cur
rant bushes. There was much done 10
make the old farmhouse look as il a new
family had moved in, and she did il.
People drove slowly past that they might
see the Improvements, and the mother
said to the father:
at comes OF education, pa. Weeds
and burdocks looked all right to us; but
see what change Jessie has made I"
"But what about her getting married ?"
he grumbled.
As if in answer, three or four young
men from the village drove out on iicti-
tious errands that they might get sight
OF and 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 seif-con-
tldent girl they forgot then errand ana
changed il to fence rails.
And Pa Brandon came UP from the
cornfield half an hour ahead oil time one
afternoon to wink his wife out behind the
smokehouse and say to her:
"Ma, what do you think p
"Lots of things, pa"
"You know Jim Faraday?"
"Of course"
lone OF the richest farmers in the coun-
try. Pays 40 cents apound for the coffee
he drinks and lets the hired man drink il,
too"
"Well. don't lose your breath. Is he
dead ?"
dead ? Not much He was down in
tha corr with mo n b,tli hour the after |