Year: 1874







Little Ruth;


on, rus JOY THAT coMEs oF SORROW.


| know | was q selfish old idiot, now, |
when look around me and see the mercies
given me in my helpless old age, feel the
warm love around me on all sides, and real
ize the desolation my own hand reached
forth to grasp; but | was blind to the fu.
ture in those days when 80 nearly wrecked
all its happiness.


This was how it happened. After Mar.
tha died-my wife, | mean, with whom
forty happy years of my life were spent
and all my children were dead or married,
excepting little Ruth, there fell upon me
the heavy misfortune that has chained me
to this chair, or bed, for fifteen weary years


had been a hard-working man all my
life--a wheelwright by trade-with large
family to rear, to clothe, to feed, to edu-
cate, and, ah, me one by one to bury in
the old churchyard, till only Mary, james,
and Ruth, our baby, were left TO me.
Mary married. and went with her husband
TO the far West. James took his small
fortune of few hard.earned dollars, and
left US for the golden land of promise, Cal
ifornia, and only little Ruth was left US.
Then the angel of death came for Martha,
and six months later was stricken help.
less with paralysis.


am reconcied now to my hard fate, and
can sit here happily, glad that my eyesight
is still good, my right hand free, and that |
have learned in my old age to love books, to
enjoy reading, and even writing, as never
did in the hard.working days of my youth.
But in those FIRST months of helplessness,
when even to toss and turn in my nervous
torture was denied me, my sufferings we're
simply horrible. No agony of pain, no tor
ture of flesh or bone, could equal the dread
full pressure upon my strong limbs, that
held them motionless, dead, in spite Of my
efforts to move them one little inch. |
have tainted with the frightfal efforts
have made Just to lift once the feet that
had carried me miles in day with unwea.
ried ease.


But even in that time of rebelious mur-
muring, of bittercst repining, there was some
consolation First, there was the house and
FIVE acres Of land, my very own, free Of debt
or mortgage, and small sun in the bank,
the interest of which lifted us above actual
want Then | had Ruth.


She was just twenty when her mother
died, and others beside her father thought
her face the fairest one for miles around
She had the bluest eyes, like little patches
Of summer sky, and hair that was the color
of corn silk, and nestled in little baby curls
all over her head-rebellou hair, that
would never lie straight under any coaxing,
but kinked up in tangles that were full Of
sunlight. Her skin was white as milk,
with cheeks like the heart of blush rose,
and her smile showed the prettiest rows OF
pearly teeth | ever saw.


She coaxed me from my wicked repinings
by coming to me for directions, making me
feel that my head was still needed to direct
the work, though my feet would never more
carry me over the door-sil. Then she fitted
up for me large back room that over
looked most Of the farm, and had Silas, our
head man, lift me up every morning, aud
put me in deep-cushioned chair by the
window, where | could see the barn, the
poultry yard, the well, and the fields Of
waving corn and wheat. She made me feel
myself Of Importance by giving me thus the
master.eye over my own little domain and
she brought up her own meals to eat with
ME in the room where my infrmity held
me q prisoner.


You must understand what Ruth was tC
me, or you will never understand the simple
story l have set myself to telling you. She
taught me to use my right hand without
my left; and, if you want to appreciate th'
difficulty, tic your left arm down for onc
single hour, and try how often it will un
consciously strain at the cords. She brough
me books from the village library, anC
opened to my old eyes and brain field o.
pleasure never before explored. lhad reaC
my Bible and the newspaper all my life
but never knew even the names Of books
now my greatest treasures, till Ruth though
reading would be company for me.


When she was busy about her house
work. her baking her washing and ironing
she left all the doors standing open, that
might still hear her CHEEKY voice as sh
sang or talked to me. Then, when all he
work was done, she would put on clea
white apron over her black dress, and 81
close beside me, stitching busily on th
household linen, while read aloud what
ever had most pleased me in my morning
studies,





She devised little dainty dishes TO temp
me to eat; she put saucers Of flowers o.
my table that | might cheat myself int
fancying was outdoors, as their perium
crept out on the air; she nursed me, petite
me, loved me, till even my misfortune
seemed blessings drawing US 50 near together
And when she was all the world +
me, all that saved me from misery, job
Hayes asked me to give him my Ruth 70
his wife. could have struck him dea
when he stood before me, young giant i
strength, with his handsome, sunburnt fac
glowing with health, and wanted to tax
away my one blessing, my only home-child


al will be true son TO you, Mr.. Martin,
be said, earnestly. 81 will never tax
Ruth from here but let me come and shar
her life, and liit some of the burdens fror
her shoulders"


laughed bitterly. knew well wha
such sharing would be when Ruth had
husband, and perhaps children, to take he
time and her love from me. But wa
not harsh. did not turn this suitor iror
, my house, and bid him never speak to Rut
again, much as longed to do it, worko
more cautiously. l let him go from me t
Ruth and when he left her, and she cam
to me, all rosy bushes, to tell me, wit
= dropping lids and moist eyes, Of her me-
/ happiness, worked upon her love and he
i sense Of duty till she believed herself
! monster Of ungratefdl wickedness to thin
I of leaving me or taking any divided dut
. upon her hands.


l wcpt, asking her il she could face he


dead mother after dcserting her helple'
> father. l pointed out to her the unceasin
8 round Of wifely duty that would keep he
from nv aida and nroyad In her that m