Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/134

 and thought all the world of her till her death, which occurred when Anna wuz fourteen. She wuz brought up dretful good, curious, hain't it, she bein' a old maid, but old maids are sometimes real religious, with good common horse sense, too, and Aunt Judith wuz. And I have always spozed it wuz her bringin' up and her precepts and examples that made Anna so different.

You see, the ideals she held up in front of Anna wuzn't fashion and expediency and outside show and vanity, no, indeed! they wuz truth and honesty and honor and simple living and high thinking. She held 'em up in front of her, and held 'em high, too, and propped 'em up by her own simple, straightforward, noble, self-sacrificin' life. For it wuzn't any comfort to her to leave her little quiet, comfortable home to take up her abode in the house of a Tamer or even a Hamen. But she shouldered her crosses wherever she found 'em and marched on with 'em silently and oncomplainin'ly and bravely, and folks didn't know from her groanin's how heavy they bore down on her shoulders.

She didn't want to take the care of this worse than motherless child into her own tired hands. And she had plenty of means and no need to, if she hadn't felt it to be her duty. But she see the little bark jest settin' out, swashin' and dashin' round on the jagged rocks of life, and she felt it to be her duty to take holt of the hellum. Hamen had always been her favorite nephew, and she wuz dretful sorry for his poor little peaked lookin' baby. So, as I say, she gin up her comfort and ease and histed this cross onto her tired-out back, and commenced trudgin' along the road of life with it.

And wuzn't it queer how things will turn out? This job she had tackled only from a sense of duty and in a