r like Jake Getz? A body can't come between a man and
his own offspring."
"I know it," replied Margaret, sadly. "But just keep a little watch
over Tillie and help her whenever you see that you can. Won't you?
Promise me that you will. You have several times helped her out of
trouble this winter. There may be other similar opportunities. Between
us, doctor, we may be able to make something of Tillie."
The doctor shook his head. "I'll do my darn best, Teacher, but Jake
Getz he's that wonderful set. A little girl like Tillie couldn't never
make no headway with Jake Getz standin' in her road. But anyways,
Teacher, I pass you my promise I'll do what I can."
Miss Margaret's parting advice and promises to Tillie so fired the
girl's ambition and determination that some of the sting and anguish of
parting from her who stood to the child for all the mother-love that
her life had missed, was taken away in the burning purpose with which
she found herself imbued, to bend her every thought and act in all the
years to come to the reaching of that glorious goal which her idolized
teacher set before her.
"As soon as you are old enough," Miss Margaret admonished her, "you
must assert yourself. Take your rights--your right to an education, to
some girlish pleasures, to a little liberty. No matter what you have to
suffer in the struggle, FIGHT IT OUT, for you will suffer more in the
end if you let yourself be defrauded of everything which makes it worth
while to have been born. Don't let yourself be sacrificed for those who
not only will never appreciate it, but who will never be worth it. I
think I do you no harm by telling you that you are worth all the rest
of your family put together. The self-sacrifice which pampers the
selfishness of others is NOT creditable. It is weak. It is unworthy.
Remember what I say to you--make a fight for your rights, just as soon
as you are old enough--your right to be a woman instead of a chattel
and a drudge. And meantime, make up for your rebellion by being as
obedient and helpful and affectionate to your parents as you can be,
without destroying yourself."
Such sentiments and ideas were almost a foreign language to Tillie, and
yet, intuitively, she understood the import of them. In her loneliness,
after Miss Margaret's departure, she treasured and brooded over them
day and night; and very much as the primitive Christian courted
martyrdom, her mind dwelt, with ever-growing resolution, upon the
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