Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-04-02

: Mary when she is old, for time spare
e not the heroes and heroines NOR
q than it does the adventuresses an
n villains
We have seen Mary the girl in tn
| first part of our history, sitting j.
= the moonlight with her mother an
dreaming of the days to be and won
: del'ing what they would bring. w
have seen her working at a type
case and asking Daddy Joe if it wa
wrong to marry for money. w,
, have seen her walking with the MAJ
: she loved into the depths of evening
} where the world of summer sadnes.
seemed wrapt in one sweet dream
We have seen her as wife and as
a mother. We have seen her face
fade and her hair become flecked with
silver. We have seen her as a wild
owed woman bending over the husk
OF dead love and saying: Goodbye
Jack, dear! When the boys have all
joined you over there, then I'll come
too, NEVER thinking poor soul, that
it is not given to mothers to guide
their little flock before them through
the gates of heaven but to go before
them and let them follow after. We
have seen Mary Purse in these two
roles. Now we are called upon to be-
hold her in her last role-the role
of prematurely old and faded wo-
man. Old and faded the same as
Mibb is old and faded-and yet how
differently! Let the last act of the
narrative present her as we of the
telegraph" office have come to
know and love her best.
She had taken her place in our
office that following morning. We had
no body-type for her to stick, but we
gave her the fine-type work in the
ads to do and later Sam bought some
cases of eight-point metal slivers I'M
der the excuse that the machines
were not setting all the news that
the town demanded. She climbed on
her stool in her old place and from
that time on, her bent shoulders and
quiet personality made her familiar
fixture in our office somehow like
a battered old piece of equipment
which we do not know why we keep |
and yet which we cannot bring our
selves to throw away.
But during the years of her wife
hood and motherhood that she had
been absent from the office, she had
somewhat from the nimble
girl we once had know. Her hands,
once so deft and delicate and slen-
der had become red and stiff and
with labor. She couldn't
set the "string" of the years be-
fore. But she didn't appear to notice
that. Or if she did, she never men
TONED it for fear she might discount
herself in the eyes of the office pow
ers and lose her place. Fay after
Jay she toiled at the case ard then
drove home in the supper!..ur and
lid the housework for those grow
ng boys, far into the night
Oh that we could stop and set
Town here in dosail some of the
struggles that woman went through
is the seasons vert slowly by and
bills came in which must be paid and
.ruel !setbacks and handicaps and
interrupted the noble work
he was doing-work for which it 5
eemed there never could be an ade- ;
luate reward. Sam Hold, who from
inc to time has been glancing over $
hese pages while they were in COM
is wrathy indeed that so
much prominence has been given to !
he days and times and folk that came
'efore Jack left us and Mary's work !
ince crowded into one petty chapter.
The time since she was left widow !
5 the real story of Mary Purse, you !
athead" he has again and again de-
Jared. But Sam does not realize X
hat there is no drama is one aging
coming into the village
ay after day and working through S
he hours at a typecase and going {
ONE at night to order the household S
or a family of growing boys and 7
he old Morrow woman. Those years v
hight be replete with childhood trag- II
dies and bumps and bruises and the
agaries of expanding boyhood and a
outh, but they would only clutter e
ur narrative and weary the reader q
hose years from Jacks passing to II
he time that the youngest Purse boy !;
1T to take job down in Boston are n
ne of those periods of Uncle Joe +
odder's when "nothin' didn't hap t.
en-" All we can set down is that
he did her task somehow-the task n
lmost beyond her strength, and yet d
task in which will-power and moth tt
r-love and her husbands memory s.
'iumphed and which she completed. N
nd her only remuneration as she
'ent along was the fervent hope that
homas Joshua would not fail her, u
that he would turn out a preacher.
But we might as we'll have it first a
5 last: Tom Purse did not turn out a
preacher. q
The old Seminary on the north side g
Putnam Square was burned down "
nineteen-hundred and Paris built 81
fairly up-to-date high school. In e.
ne course of time Tom entered this Z
stitution and on his graduation went
p to the University of Vermont. We "
armed that he was working in one ',
the Burlington newspaper offices +
, nav his expenses and tuition-With o.