“We own large tracts of land in every direction and control a number of mines, timber lands, rubber plantations, coal in every grade and coal oil. We own sheep ranches and cattle, besides large cotton districts in our southern climate. The society has at this time, its order houses, representing everything, all managed under the scrip system, yet using money when necessary. No new system could change the old order of things all at once. Those who imagined the working people were created for their special use were indignant that intelligent people should introduce a system compelling them to pay larger salaries and decrease their dividends. They had imagined that the working people were born especially to earn a living for them. When I refer to working people, I include all who earn their living from those who work in the ditch to those who call their employment positions, it’s all labor. Intelligent people have shaken off their burdens since the society has shown them how. They have taken their experience, gained by serving others, into a co-operative system protected by the society and they are accumulating the wealth for themselves that they used to give away.”
“Yes,” Nellie answered, “and this natural result is strengthening us on all sides.”
CHAPTER XII.
“Well, the children are off my hands at last,” said Mira Moberly. “What a comfort it is to be able to sit down and think once in a while! Oh, dear! there is the bell. No wonder some people think heaven is a state of rest, if they all long for it as I do. A letter from mother! Oh, I am so glad!” As she reads her letter, we will tell you about her life since she left her old home.
She had the fate of thousands of others. She had come to a large city a young, inexperienced bride, very much in love with her husband. The uncle who had been the cause of their coming, fitted up their home with every luxury, besides showing her many kindnesses. Jack was proud of her and through his uncle’s influence they were introduced to a circle of acquaintances. She was happy and enjoyed being a center of attraction the first few months. She was often homesick but Jack did all he could to make her contented.
The first year passed, then the baby took up her attention. The third year came and two babies claimed her. The fourth year found her a sad-faced matron with more cares than she knew how to bear. Jack had changed. He was no longer the loving husband, but was becoming bloated and reckless with drink, so that even his little children shrank from him. This was what she had left home, mother and plenty for. This was the man she had promised to love, honor and obey. Could she love a man who neglected her children as well as herself? Could she honor this drunkard and gambler? Could she obey such a specimen of manhood? In what could she respect him? And yet the memory of other days would come to her and she would try again and again to change him. He was the father of her children and she must save him. Thus the years had passed. Then the uncle died and failed to remember Jack in his will. The firm changed hands and he lost his position. That was over a year ago, and though friends had helped him and other positions had been secured, he lost one after another. No one wanted a man who could not be trusted.
An old acquaintance who had known her family lived in the city. He had told her to come to him if she was ever in any trouble. She thanked him and said she would. That was in the second year of her marriage and she had said in jest, “Of course I will.”
Her third child was four months old now and her piano was gone for the mortgage. She felt weak and helpless, for now she saw that Jack was a wreck, incapable of looking after them. She had never earned her own living, and how were her children to be supported? “I thought I was doing wonders when I did my own work and took care of them, but what am I to do now?” she questioned herself. She sat down and thought and presently she remembered the promise of her old acquaintance. “He told me to come to him and I will ask him to lend me some money until I am of age.” She went to his home in the evening, thinking at that time she would be more likely to find him.
As she looked around at his magnificently furnished home, she thought, “Of course he will help me, but I do wish I didn’t tremble so.” She hesitated to speak as she looked more closely at his face. “Surely I must be mistaken,” she thought as she realized how cold and indifferent his manner was. Was this the same Mr. Carron she had remembered in her childhood days, who had told her to come to him? How well she remembered his very words, his admiring glances, and the same evening, as she thought, accidentally, she heard him tell an acquaintance how beautiful she was and what a good family the Vivians were and that he considered Jack Moberly a lucky fellow to have won her. In her inexperience of what a large number of men are, who live in affluence in our large cities, she considered his reference to her as flattery. Now she felt sensitive about letting any one know of her position and the necessity of talking about her husband, but he had told her to come.
“Mr. Carron,” she said, “I am in trouble and have come to you for assistance. I want to borrow some money until I am of age.” Looking at his hard face, she said, “I am willing to pay you any interest that you wish. You know I will have a legacy from my father’s estate then.”