The Western outlook. [volume] (San Francisco, Cal.) 1894-1928, 1915-01-23
DIGGING OUT A FOX
How a Girl Found a Man to Love
and One to Love Her.
BY BRYANT c. ROGERS.

/ up, and the kitchen wood-box filled up
with dry maple wood, he pulled on his
boots, with 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!
"Not uncommon" was the reply
Amt 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 mite
of interest in her for the last month.
| want yo1A6 tell me what the matter
Is. I've Deen wanting to talk with
you"
"The matter u.s." slowly replied the
husband, that we've been wrong all
through this thing"
"You mean with Jessie?"
eyes"
How have we been wrong?"
4
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 a 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
Tor, 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 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 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?"
| We'll, 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
der and the other a chicken buyer
Miss Walters, the school teacher, is
getting $50 month and free board
amt she?"
YES"
And what is Hoyt's gal, Thomp.
sons gal. Rfdgeway's gal, getting
They are hired gals at $12 month
Why? Because 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 month"
"Mebbe she can," grudgingly ad-
mitted the husband
I "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.
I'VE owed it 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 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 1t. 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 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 a change Jessie has
made!"
But what about her getting mar
ried?" he grumbled
AS Ii in answer, three or four young
men from the village drove out on
fictitious errands that they might get
a 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 self-confident girl they forgot
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 be-
hind the smokehouse and says to her:
Ma, what do you think?"
Lots of things, pa"
You know Jim Faraday?"
"Of course"
Zone Of the richest farmers in the
country. Pays 40 cents pound for
the coffee he drinks and lets the hired
man drink 1t, too"