From Farm to Fortune, or, Only a Farmer's Daughter — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4 : MY QUEEN. Dollie wiped her eyes and nodded her head affirmatively, “Yes, Marion, he has, and I can’t stand it much longer!” she cried, sobbingly. “He is just nagging at me all the time, and, oh, he is cruel, sister. Why, when I told him I did not love Silas he just sneered at me as though love was something that was not to be con- sidered !” “Poor father! It is little he knows of that holy sentiment,” said Marion, sadly, “but go on Dollie, what else did he say to you?” A gleam of resentment shone in Dollie’s blue eyes, for she was always more brave when her sister’s arms were about her. “Oh, he said I had defied him and that he would punish me for it! That a man had a right to do as he pleased with his own family, and that girls like you and me did not have a grain of sense about what was best for them!” Marion’s gray eyes flashed as her sister talked, but she walked slowly on and did not interrupt her, “Then he said that I would have a comfort- able home if I married Silas, and that I’d go straight to destruction if he did not look out for me!” | “How horrible!” burst out Marion. “And to think he is our own father! Why isn’t he content with one such experiment? . Poor sister Samantha, whom he forced to marry Tom Wilders! I should think her miserable life would be a warning to him! Oh, Dollie, if we could only go away and earn our own living. You can play the piano ‘beautifully and I can sing. If we could only go some- where and make our own way where we should never bother father, I should be per- fectly happy!” The beautiful face was radiant with eager- ness now, and seme of her wenderful courage seemed reflected upon Dollie’s more babyish features. “Tt would kill me to marry Silas!’ she cried with a shudder. “Father shall not force me to do it, Marion, never!” There was a close clasp of the arms about each other’s waists as the two girls walked on and Dollie’s golden head almost rested upon her sister's shoulder. “Why, Marion, what do you think! He tried to bribe me,” she added, suddenly. “He life just as he ruined Samantha’s, for, oh, it we have dreamed of in the way of lovers.” said I could have grandma’ s topazes the day I was married to Silas.” ; 4 A look of disgust swept over Marion’ s face. 2a “As if those old earrings of grandma's could make up for such a crime! And it is a crime to marry without love, my sister.” A piteous sob broke from Dollie’s lips and she moved a step away. . “There’s no help for it,- make me do it,” she cried. Marion. He'll “He'll ruin my will kill me to be tied down to the drudgery of farm life forever, and especially with such a man.3s oles. = Pe “We must find some way to thwart him,” said Marion, as she opened the gate that led ) to the farm-house. “It is horrible to think of © such a thing. The idea of a man trying to get rid of his own daughter, even selling her body and soul, for that is exactly what it amounts to. Silas Johnson isn’t a bad fellow, but he is an awful bore. He isn’t much like what They had entered the dingy kitchen now and closed the door behind them. There was no one there, so they went on softly with their confidences. 4 “IT should say not,” said Dollie, smiling brightly through her tears, as she recalled the mental pictures of the gallant youths which they had so often woven into the links of thei daisy chains, hoping that some day they would come, like Cinderella’s Prince, and res- cue them from the drudgery of farm life, which they hated. a “Our lovers must be all that is grand and brave and true,” she cried excitedly. “They must be of noble blood, like the knights in the story books, who would risk their lives for a maiden’s love and think no peril too great to keep them from their trysts. Oh, I have often dreamed of them, Marion, and such beautiful dreams. It was like a glimpse of bliss to be loved by such a lover.” “And just think, Dollie, the world is full of them,” cried Marion. “There really are just such knights and toey do kneel at the feet of blushing maidens.” “It makes me tremble with delight just te think of it,” murmured Dollie. “Oh, Marion 1 will | ever have a lover like that? One whose Eomicbooks.con ’ ae