Trial and Triumph | Page 2

tongue."
"Yes," said her neighbor soothingly, "you have had a sad time, but still
we cannot recall the dead past, and it is the living present with which
we have to deal. Annette needs wise guidance, a firm hand and a loving
heart to deal with her. To spoil her at home is only to prepare her for
misery abroad."
"I am afraid that I am not equal to the task."
"If any man lack wisdom we are taught to ask it of One who giveth
liberally to all men and upbraideth none. There would be so much less

stumbling if we looked earnestly within for 'the light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world.'"
"Well," said Mrs. Harcourt, Annette's grandmother, "there is one thing
about Annette that I like. She is very attentive to her books. If you want
to keep that child out of mischief just put a book in her hand; but then
she has her living to get and she can't get it by nursing her hands and
reading books. She has got to work like the rest of us."
"But why not give her a good education? Doors are open to her which
were closed against us. This is a day of light and knowledge. I don't
know much myself, but I mean to give my girls a chance. I don't
believe in saying, let my children do as I have done, when I think some
of us have done poorly enough digging and delving from morning till
night. I don't believe the good Lord ever sent anybody into his light and
beautiful world to be nothing but a drudge, and I just think it is because
some take it so easy that others, who will do, have to take it so hard."
"It always makes my blood boil," said a maiden lady who was present,
"to see a great hulk of a man shambling around complaining of hard
times, and that he can't get work, when his wife is just working herself
down to the grave to keep up the family." I asked Mrs. Johnson, who
just lives in the wash tub and is the main stay of her family, what would
her husband do if she were to die? and she said, 'get another wife.' Now,
I just think she has spoiled that man and if she dies first, I hope that he
will never find another woman to tread in her footsteps. He ought to
have me to deal with. When he got through with me he would never
want to laze around another woman."
"I don't think he ever would," said Mrs. Harcourt, while a gleam of
humor sparkled in her eye. Her neighbor was a maiden lady who
always knew how to manage other people's husbands, but had never
succeeded in getting one of her own, and not having any children
herself understood perfectly well how to rate other people's.
Just then a knock was heard at the door and Mr. Thomas, Annette's
former school teacher, entered the room. After an exchange of
courtesies he asked, "How does Annette come on with her new

teacher?"
"I have not heard any complaint," said Mrs. Harcourt. "At first Mrs.
Joseph's girl did not want to sit with Annette, but she soon got over it
when she saw how well the other girls treated Annette and how
pleasant the teacher was to her. Mr. Scott, who has been so friendly to
us, told us not to mind her; that her mother had been an ignorant
servant girl, who had married a man with a little money; that she was
still ignorant, loud and [dressy?] and liked to put on airs. The nearer the
beggar the greater the prejudice."
"I think it is true," said Mr. Thomas. "If you apply those words, not to
condition, but human souls, for none but beggarly souls would despise
a man because of circumstances over which he had no control; noble,
large-hearted men and women are never scornful. Contempt and
ridicule are the weapons of weak souls. I am glad however, that
Annette is getting on so well. I hope that she will graduate at the head
of her class, with high honors."
"What's the use of giving her so much education? there are no openings
for her here, and if she gets married she won't want it," and Mrs.
Harcourt sighed as she finished her sentence.
Mr. Thomas looked grave for a moment and then his face relaxed into a
smile. "Well, really, Mrs. Harcourt, that is not very complimentary to
us young men; do we have no need of intelligent and well educated
wives? I think our race needs educated mothers for the home more than
we do trained teachers for the school room. Not that