Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-04-14
Evening Star S
Daily Story
"SORTER USELESS"
ny DONALD ALLEN.

His wife was unusually sturdy and
strong and she was proud Of the fact.
Farmer Streeter could twist a bar
rel of cider around as easily as a city
.aiior could his goose. He could
shoulder a. bag of flour at the gate
and carry 1t into the house without
breathing faster He could lift q.
yearling calf over a rail fence, or
s1ang Up q dressed hog to cool, no
matter what the weight.
The wife had never been heard to
say that she was tired, and had she
asked the husband to move a bureau
or lift the soap-kettle off the fire 1t
would have been q matter of great
surprise.
When a man hired out to Farmer
s5treeter, he must be a strong man.
II he couldn't work sixteen hours q
day and not get tired, he was put
down as a weakling and advised to
look for q job in a clothespin factory
1t was into such an atmosphere
that Ruth Streeter was born, and her
coming was q disappointment to her
parents and a wonder to others.
why. she's dwarf!' exclaimed
the father.
"oh, she'll grow. but she'll never
be strong" replied the mother.
"You can't hear her squall more'n
= rod away"
"If she has the measles or the
whooping cough, she'll be a goner.
sure"
eyes, she won't last three days"
And what are we going to do
about it?''
''Why, Josiah, we can't kill heri"
''Noap, of course not, but why
couldn't she have been bouncer in
stead of little runt?"
Very early in her young life Ruth
betrayed the fact that she was go
ing to the a Streeter only in name.
The father and mother had loud
voices; the child spoke softly. Most
children of her age would have been
roaming the fields or climbing trees,
but this one had more interest in
pictures found in the few books in
the house. The hired men would
have made a pet of her, but her look
Of dignity kept them at q distance.
When old enough to be sent to the
district school, and after she had
been a pupil for a couple of weeks,
the teacher called at the farmhouse.
''You must not let Ruth study her
lessons at night. She is so anxious
to learn that she will overtax her
BRAIN" he said.
Don't she look frail to your" was
asked.
She seems TO be perfectly well,
but she's never going to make
"Thats what her father and me are
afraid Of"
"Afraid?''
''Yes-that she'll grow up to be a
lady instead of knowing about house.
work! How much education should
she have?"
Just as much as she can get"
''But we can't have a lady in the
house!''
"But Ruth is going to grow up and
get married and leave you. Don't
you think It will help her to get a
better husband If she's lady and
we'll educated?'
'It may was the dubious reply
That evening the matter was talked
over between the parents, and the
father said: 81 can see a heap Of
trouble ahead for us, but 1t can't be
handled just now. Does Ruth know
that you can handle a. forty y-pound
feather bed with one hand?"
''She has seen me do it, and didn't
seem to care"
'Does she know that you can
bring two big hams from the smoke
house at once?"
''Yes, but she don't praise me-
HAS she been told that 1 can hoe
the county?"
"Yes I told her."
"And that / can lift barrel Of
cider?"
Yes"
And that I won a prize pitching
hay?"
II have told her all this" sighed
the wife.
"And she-she--"
"She asked why we didn't have
more books In the housei"
It was queer enough that Ruth
should be one Of the family and not
Of the family. There was disap-
pointment on the side of the parents
there was O strangeness On her
side.
ma, the Lord sent that girl to the
wrong house!" said the father at
last.
"I've sometimes thought so," was
che reply.
"And so has she, but nobody's to
blame as can see. She's here, and
she's sorter usless. but we've got to
bear the burdens the Lord puts upon
u.s."
AT fourteen Ruth was sent to the
village school. After two years she
was sent away to a boarding school
Not because her parents had changed
their minds about being "sorter use
less' but, as Farmer Streeter had OBJ
served as he sat before the fire ono
evening: Ma, I'm not complainin'
about Ruth any more"
mo, you amt. pa"
''I said once that the Lord brought
her here"
Eyes"
''Well, I'm leavin' It to Him to
bring It around as He thinks best. l
.dsh she had taken to sewin',
patchin', maxim bread and cuttin'
carpet rags. but as she didn't, mebbe
aile was sorter told to go the other
way. Hows her eddecation comm
onS.
''I amt asked her many questions
and she amt told me much, but Par
son Davis told me the other day that
l1a heard she was one of the smartest
girls In school. She'll be finished up
hhis fall, you know"
"And then come back to us?''
yes"
And then-then---" he queried after
a time.
II dunno, JOSIAH dunno!"
They had a world circumscribed by
the farm limits. They knew what
went on in their world, but not in the
other. It was work. work. In their
world. There were four seasons in
year, and particular work for each
season. They awoke at just such an
hour; they went to bed at just such
an hour. Their meals seldom varied.
They plowed and dragged and sowed
and planted. They gathered the crops.
The farmer gave exhibitions of his
strength and boasted of his health,
and the wife boasted of the soft soap
she had made and her jars of picked
-. L.. s.l.n L. "a H.