May, 1879.
THE WEST SHORE.
'39
I ut on liia hat and went out.
Just at nightfall an express wagon drove up
to the iloor, and Mr. Conaid's portly form hove
into view at the oorner. Mrs. Conard ran,
more like a aleepy, happy child than a woman,
out to the atepi, to nuet the men carrying in a
sewing machine.
"I am quite willing, KUen," auid her hua
band, " to indulge you iu any reaaonahle whim,
but a parlor organ waa a little too ahaurd. I
propose that you ahall give up teaching, for
which you must teo you are totally unfitted,
ami take in aowing. Indeed, I have already
engaged work, Mra. Strumpf, at the saloon,
saya she will aend you up aome pantaloona to
make, for her hoya, and aee what aort of a tail
oruss you are,"
When 1 went to number 311, a fortnight
afterwards, I found a little tin aigu at the door,
" I'l mi Sewing for Ladies and Gents."
Mr, Conard atood on the atepa hruahing a
new heaver hat with hia arm.
"Kathor neat that!" he said, "Practical; to
the Hiint. I compoaed it. Couldn't promiae
line work. Fact ia, Kllen'a not capable of it.
Her ability ia mediocre throughout."
I found Mra. Conard at work at tho machine,
a pilu of cloth beside her, the children akirmiah
iug over the Iloor. She waa tho aame gentle,
affectionate, anxioua little creature to them and
toiler huebaud; but ahe aeomed, aomehow, to
have lost all vitality. I do not rememlier that
I ever saw a ainile on hor faco after that disap
pointment. "I do not think that I ahall ever he able to
help the children aa 1 wiahed," ahe aaid. "Hut
Hetty will do it. Hetty haa entered the high
achool. In two years aha will be ready to
teach. Then aho can help Mr. Conard aupport
the family."
"And you!"
"Oh! yea I I had forgotten that I would bo
here," with an inexplicable expreaeion on her
face.
Silly and weak aa ahe waa, ahe had been able
for a year to keep aeciet a wearing diaeaae. She
thought then that ahe would not live to aee
Hetty graduate.
The murdemtia aewing machine rapidly de
veloped the weakness.
Thia ia an aUolutoly true atory, and not a
cheerful one. I aee no reason, therefore, for
dwelling on the detailaof how one little woman
died with her reaaonahle, pure hopea unfullillnd.
Many womon who read theae worda will dio
with their work half done, and I really do not
believe her atory will help them one whit to
liniah it Hut then ia a reason for telling Hetty
Hoard's atory, and 1 wiah to do it aa plainly aa
1 can.
She waa a girl (like the majority of achool
girla) of very moderate mental ability. She had
a weak power of verbal memory anil no mathe
matical talent Hut ahe had a vivid imagina
tion and a firm hold upon ideaa, when once they
were gained. She had, like her mother, an
energetic, loving, loyal aoul; and, like her
father, a firm will, all of which would have
made her uarful to children in the world, either
aa aiater, teacher, or mother.
A yaar'a akillful training by a teacher who
understood tin- girl would have fitted her for
this life work, instead of thia, ahe waa put
into a maekine. Her father entered her at the
High School.
"Our objoot," aaid the principal, "ia to fit
the pupils to take plaoas aa inatractora in the
pnbho schools. There ia gnat competition for
theee plaoea. Conatantly the ataudard of
scholarship ia regulated by the ability of the
brightest pupils. Wt acknowledge that I bill
girls have no chance. No time for pulling them
up here, Mr. Conard. Down they go in Dm
raoe."
" I have no idea that my girl will go down,
if. In fact, ah can't afford to go down. 8ba
haa her own living to make
" Yea. This ia the system. Our eiamioa
ti'm are searching. It depends ntua the grade
which the girl receives whether she oaa receive
an appumtmcnt aa teacher or what kind of ao
"- la akurt her future position and
salary depend on her examinations. Do I make
myself clear !"
"Perfectly. Do yON understand, Hester!"
sharply.
" Yes, Father."
Hetty had never been reckoned a clever girl
by auy teacher, and ahu knew it now. She die
covered that hur chances of helping her mother
depended on her cleverness. The girl cared for
nobody iu the world but her mother. They
stood alone, together. She resolved to do this
thing, "if there waa life enough iu her body
to do it"
She brought home that day 1:1 tmt-booki
They were literally textbooks, whiuh she waa
to teach again. There was no meaning in his
tory shown to her ; no principle iu any study
made clear; no line of thought opened to her iu
them ; no development for her of character,
taste, judgment, ur even intellect ; nothing but
a maaa of unoouiprehonded facta, which ahe waa
to commit verbally to memory. There was, in
credible as it may aoem, not a single elrirt made
by her teachers to train her mind or eveu to
explain theso facta. The lessons were simply
recited at school and studied at home. Sharp
girla, who had the ability to remember words
and cared little for ideas, accomplished the task
with comparative ease ; but Hetty worked at
them until late at night, slept dreaming of them,
woke to begin them again, her brain heated,
strained.
When the two years drew to a close, her
mother's health was broken, anil Hetty hail dis
covered tho caose. It aeomi'd to her aa if, in
the breathleaa race ahe waa running, aim hail
not even time to weep.
" You will have to take my place, Hetty,"
said her mother. " You can do more for the
children by teaching than I can at the machine. "
"I'll try, mother." She was on her kueee,
with her head on the dear little breast. The
machine hail stopped for a moment.
"You're sure to pass, Hetty!"
"Oh ! I must, mother ! Nobody haa studied
harder than I."
Tho examination day came. She did tint pass.
"Do yon mean to say," blustered Mr. fotiard
to the principal, " that aho has no chance of an
apHiiutment ? "
" None whatever,"
" Wh..t i she to do!"
"Try for another year, if you choose.'1
A wfiola yar I
" I cannot last so long,' thought Mrs. Conard,
as she worked the treadle harder than ever,
Hetty began agaiu. She sat up iu her garret
room until two and three o'clock 111 th morn.
ing: and then could not sleep, the 1 Is of her
brain wr so gorged with blood. She had no
time for exercise. The girl hail no appetite
and at little; but she began to grow enormously
stout.
Kvery week girls, manifestly her inferior in
character, in manner and in intellect, passsd
her in th struggle. It waa a raoa in which
hardihood, shrewdness and ths lowest quality
of memory won; and in which every nUier
power which would make a man or woman use
Mil in life was crushed down sud snd In Id 11,
alx-yanca.
Two months before her final eiaminaliou her
mother died. Th timid little woman smihssI
to hav no (ear in going out of the world;
neither of th fat which waited for her be
yond nor of that which waited fur her children
here
Old Mr. Vaughan, sitting hy hr bedside,
looked around, dismayed at th rough, disorder ly
craw.
" Hav yon made any arrangements (or four
children, Mrs. CihuisI!" he aehesl, "Who
will tak charge "I them '
" Hotly, perhaps, thoagh I asn not 1 m
aura,' sh said (ebly. "Bat 1 prayed lor
them all th tune -all th Urn, lit will r
mmbr."
Vhn she waa g-ne Jlstty rkt with a
unnatural energy sh. "paasad through wilh
bat moderate cradit A situation wa promises!
her la a few months, but beliar lb. tiase nam
th. girl was dead of aa hereditary dues. A
th lungs, dev c,,,d bv th excessive nervous
strain and over-work of th last to year.
s s . .
This happen, d four or flv year ago. Young
girls and Isiys ara going through th earn null
log process in th public schools of mot o( ottr
cl tie.
"Only the toughest and sharpest will stand
it," ia the testimony of one ol th principal
teachers. " I'll rest are thrown asid aa r. (use
Whether w hav learned th first prim npls el
education is yet ail npcu i)UstioU,"
1 met Mr. Yaughan a few days ago in th lit
tle cemetery where Hetty aud her mother lis
aide by side,
"Couard, did yon know," he aaid, "married
a woman with proierty, who has 110 children of
hor own, and has adopted his aud takeu them
well in hand. She is a little vulgar) but kindly,
thrifty, and honest a managing womau, in
fact She bought a farm iu Iowa, took them all
out to it, drove Conard to plowing, to signing
the pledge, and, they do say, iuto III lunch
However that may be, he la uow a moat re
spectable, decent, hen-pecked man. The chil
dren are well taught, industrious, and ohedieut
They will uever tie of the aain class aa lliair
mother waa; hut this Womau has davlnwd the
good material that waa 111 them lar Utter than
their mother could have done. The work la
finished, you see, whether we do it or not, aud
the order and justice iu every llf oolite to
light some tun. "
In Conanl's and hia children's, yss, perhaps.
Hut in Iter's!
The calm, dateless siinshins resting on Iho
two ouiet graves gave the only anawsr. HtUtea
llimmy Aim, m A'. )', mlrwsslrat.
nisi Talks hit a Woman. Th N York
coiresmiiilent of the Nprlnglleld Ittimkllean
writes. Iu the religious world ws ara having a
fashioaahle sensation of an ex.lusit sort, iu
Mrs. Hottome's Ibble Talks. They were Ugun
in an up town parlortwo years ago with Iff) ism
til; at the last meeting the parlor of ou of the
largest Kifth avenue houses would not hold the
audiences, ladies filled ths hallways aud cov
ered the stairs. Among her audience an
noticed such ladiea as Mra. K. 8. Jeffrey, Mrs.
II M Sehieffelln, Mrs. C. O I'.ysler I odd.
Mrs. .Ismes W. (iirsrd, Mrs. Willlsm K Dodge
and Mra. Willie l'iat Mrs. Itottonie Is a good
liHiking, muldle aged lady. Nhedrsas plainly
and sfieaka sweetly, but very distinctly so that
sh Is heard without difficulty! and sh ill in
an arm chair, talks with aimple, fervid, rnajas-tu-
eariieatiiess, putting pertinent anecdotes
slid pleasing similes in her addiessss, and using
language sometimes homely and sometimes
poetical, but always fieah and to th point
She 1 ths wife of a Methodist clergyman who
has Issen stationed at Tarrytown, on th Hud
son, and It wa there that she began the in
formal addraaasa. They hav proved very pop
ular there, sometims In strtrsl being lined (or
a long distance with carriages, ,;,, naa ,
son, an Kpisrnal curat in Kngland, and an
other in collage Her success in liitsrrting
1 allies, and making a real impression uti them,
show what an earnest woman with telent can
do without ant. ami without turning lb world
upside down cither Her InuUml 11 t Is
.'atom. . I in tbw oily this spring.
Kaanaa It ia a popular sanitary error la
think that ths mors a man eats th taller and
stronger ha will Isscoins. To bshsv that Us
more hours children study, the lasler they
learn To in lud. that, if essre.es la good, th
nor violent Use mora gutal la don. I no
agine that every boar takeu from alsiep is aa
hoar gained. To act oa the prasurapliua thai
th smallest rtsom in th. boas is large saessgh
tn sleep In. To imagta that waatavef remsaly
causes oa to fel immediately Utter le goal (car
Ik system, ailhoat regard to th ulterior
effects. To sat a itboat an appaiilai r a asv
Uaae altar it ha Uam satis bed, surely to
gratify th tost.