The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-02-04
KIND Treatment
HAS ITS REWARD
HOW ANOTHER RESPONDED TO KIND
TREATMENT ONCE ACCORDED HIM
In This Narrative The Writer Has Shown
That Man Will not Forget a Kindness
Once Accorded Him and Will Respond
When Given Opportunity.
By T. w. L.

It's wonderful what little kind
ness will do. A mere nothing, one
might say; friendly nod, cheer
ing smile or kindly word spoken
just at the right time, may be- the
means of changing the whole life of
some poor discouraged fellowman.
1t was during the construction of
the S. G. r. r., through the Keewa-
tin District, that 1 first heard of
Joe A; and what was said of
him certainly was not to his credit.
Of course you will usually find all
the riff-raff of the world in r. r.
camp, but usually the worst charac-
ters have some redeeming features.
However, such was not the case
with Joe, for no one ever even
offered an excuse for his many faults
and failings, and, I am sorry to say,
there were many offenses laid to his
discredit on general principles, of
which, no doubt he was entirely in
nocent.
The Pine Lake Division was
stretch of about one hundred and
fourty miles, and the work had been
let to an old time r. r. contractor
by name of Parsons. He was fine
man to work for (none better) so
long as you minded your own affairs
and tried to do an honest days work.
And it was into this camp Joe came
with the last teams over the tote
road before freeze up" If there
had been any way of sending him
back from whence he came, Par
sons would have done 80. But as
| this was impossible Joe
too well of old-he put him to work
cutting up wood and choring around
headquarters, 50 as TO keep him, as
it were, segregated from the rest of
the men as much as possible and
thus save much needless trouble for
all concerned, for Joe quite natural
ly resented being treated as a veri-
table outcast, and was pretty handy
in a fight.
Parsons. unlike many men in his
calling, always had his family along
with him wherever his job might be.
So, of course, they were domiciled
very comfortably at Pine Lake.
Thus it came about that when
Mrs. P made a request for a
man to do few odd chores around
the house for her one morning, her
husband assigned Joe to her care.
1t was great novelty for Joe, for
he had never known a good woman
or had any previous chance of work
ing around where they were. And
Mrs. P. was a bright CHEEKY soul,
who made it practice of being as
kind and considerate of every one
as she could. So when Joe appear
ed, she greeted him with bright
smile and CHEEKY good morningp'
After seeing that the inner man was
refreshed, she showed him the work
that she wanted done, and then left
him to his task. After this, Joe
found many odd jobs to look after
around the house, and a smile or
gracious word and smile from the
Boss lady was more to him than
anything else.
1t was about three weeks after
Joe's arrival in the camp that AN
unlookedfor calamity happened. An
epidemic of diphtheria broke out in
the camp: and as it was between
the two seasons, it was impossible
to get any aid from the outside
owing to the conditions Of the road.
However. the camp was pretty well
supplied with medicines of various
kinds, and Mrs. P. was a capable
and we'll informed woman being
quite as useful as nurse and
pretty good doctor as swell. 1t soon
developed that there were not sew
ere cases to contend with, and she
managed to care for the afflicted and
to induce those who had escaped in
fection to use all precautions possi-
BILE to avoid contagion, 80 it happen
ed that when winter had finally set
its grasp on the roadway, every one
of those who had been layed up with
the dread disease were on the way
to a quick recovery. Then like
thunder bolt from the sky, Mrs. F.,
the camps angel, contracted the
and it appeared to have been
saving it's worst effects for this last
victim; for. from the first, we could
Concluded on Page Three