The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-01-16

80 ~ >e
ope with your name on 1t. You are
not to open the envelope until you
go away to school. l know how you
will feel that first day. When night
falls yen will think Of your aunt and
uncle and be very lonely. When you
60 to your room for the night / want
you to sit down all by yourself and
open the envelope and read what I
shall write. They will be, ! think, the
most impressive words you ever read.
You will think them over but you
will not understand them for a long
time. Ask every wise man you meet
to explain them to you. for all your
happiness will depend upon your I'M
darstanding of those few words in the
envelope"
In the morning Aunt Deel put it
in my hands.
81 wonder what In the world he
wrote there-ayes!" said she. 1--WE
must keep it careful-ayes III put
1t in my trunk an give 1t to We when
We go to Canton to school,"
"Has Mr.. Wright goneT 1 asked
rather sadly.
ayes! Land o. mercy! He went
away long before daylight with a lot
o. jerked meat In a pack basket
ayes! Yer uncle Is gOin' down to the
village to see bout the mortgage this
afternoon, ayes!"
1t was a Saturday and / spent Its
hours cording wood In the shed, paus-
ing now and then for q look into
grammar.
What a day 1t was 1.-THE first of
many like it. I never think Of those
days without saying to myself: what
q Gods blessing a man like Silas
Wright can be In the community in
which his heart and soul are as an
open book !"
AS the evening came on I took a
long look at my cords. The shed was
nearly half full of them. Four rules
of %syntax, also, had been carefully
stored away In my brain. / said
them Over as I hurried down into the
pasture with old Shep and brought In
the cows. l got through milking just
as Uncle Peabody came. / saw with
Joy that his face was cheerful.
"Yip!" he shouted as he stopped his
team al the barn door, where Aunt
Deel and l were standing. "We Amt
got much to worry about now. I've
got the interest money right here in
my pocket"
We unhitched and went in to sup
per. l was hoping that Aunt Deel
would speak of my work but she
seemed not to think Of it.
l went out on the porch and. stood
looking down with a sad countenance.
Aunt Deel followed me.
"W'y, Bart !" she exclaimed, you're
too tired to eat-ayes! Be We sickT'
1 shook my head.
Peabody" she called, "this boy has
worked like a beaver every minute
since you left-ayes he has! / never
see anything to beat it-neverl /
want you to come right out into the
wood-shed an see what he's done
this minute-ayesw
I followed them into the shed.
"W'y Of all things" my uncle ex-
claimed. "He's worked like a mailer.
amt heT
There we're tears in his eyes when
he took my hand in his rough palm
and squeezed 1t and said:
Sometimes / wish We was little
again so I could take ye up in my
arms an kiss We just as I used to.
Horace Dunkelberg says that you're
the best-lookin' boy he ever see"
1 repeated the rules l had learned
as we went to the table.
"I'm goin' to be like Silas Wright If
I can," I added.
'That's the idce!" said Uncle Pea
body. "You keep on as you've start
ed an everybody1l milk into your
pail"
I kept on-not with the vigor Of
that first day with its new inspiration
but with growing strength and enec-
tiveness. Nights and mornings and
Saturdays / worked with a will and
my book in my pocket or at the side
of the field and was, 1 know, a help
of some value on the farm. My schOl-
arship improved rapidly and that year
I went about as far as / could hope
to go I'm the little school at LeOnard's
Corners.
81 wouldn't wonder If OF Kate was
right about our boy" said Aunt Deei
one day when she saw me with my
book In the field.
I began to know than that OIL Kate
had somehow been at work In my
soul--subconsciously as l would now
put it. l was trying to put truth
into the prophecy. AS l look at the
whole matter these days l can see
that Mr.. Grimshaw himself was a
help no less important to me, for 1t
was q sharp spur with which he con-
tinued to prod us.
CHAPTER vi.
Ny Second Peril.