Page 27 - To Dragma October 1933
P. 27
QCTOBKK, 1933 25
n t a g 0 n i s t i c toward her parents and, according advanced to such stage that her body was f u l l
to their account, dangerous. Four years at the of great sores and the skin on her hands and
School f o r the Deaf in her childhood taught feet cracked open and bleeding. Her present
her to use the sign language, to read and w r i t e foster mother is devoted to her, tends to over-
after a fashion, to love cleanliness and order mother her in fact, but who could begrudge
a n d to w o r k with an energetic thoroughness. her an excess o f affection and freedom?
\\i\th her c h i l d r e n she is gentle and k i n d , keeps
them clean and carefully follows the routine T h e f o u r youngsters who stick so closely to-
outlined by the nurse. gether are the Fieldses. Their eighty-six-year-
old father and paralytic mother, hopelessly in-
But even these qualifications, plus a desper- adequate b o t h as p r o v i d e r s and parents, t u r n e d
ate eagerness f o r a j o b , d i d not find one f o r them over to us last March. They are now
her among people in an almost moneyless com- placed in foster homes near each other and
munity. The possibility of institutional care often visit and play together. The bright-eyed,
being at least temporarily dismissed f o r v a r i - round-faced l i t t l e f o u r t e e n - y e a r - o l d g i r l is
ous reasons, and a f t e r t w o or three abortive Delia. 'Tis f u n to watch her motherly little
attempts to find f o r her suitable employment flutterings a m o n g the younger ones.
with some kindly family, a part-time job was
made f o r her at the nursing center. Ida's prob- A f t e r the Fields quartette there comes Syl-
lems are not solved. B u t she is a gem o f a via Pennington, a laughing, apple-cheeked
worker, is inordinately proud of her job and y o u n g g i r l w h o is as sturdy a n d healthy and
touchingly grateful for the interest and encour- spontaneously gay as she looks, as open and
agement o f the nurse—who is learning to talk candid as the direct gaze o f her v e r y blue
to her in the sign language. A t home she has eyes indicates. Even adolescence hasn't done
gained status, too, and her small earnings, much to upset her nice equilibrium. She is
thriftily spent, have given her a degree o f pre- spending her vacation at Wendover this sum-
cious independence. mer and is very much a favorite.
There are to be f o u n d several deaf children N o w , as the procession moves on, we come
|n the procession, too—students at the School to some grown-ups. That tall lanky man has
for the Deaf w h o m we have helped in one way only one eye. Last winter while he was chop-
or another to enable t h e m t o go to school. p i n g w o o d a splinter flew up a n d pierced the
There y o u w i l l find H a r d i n g Barger, v e r y h a r d eyeball of the other. The sight of the good
of hearing b u t not i n school. H e is t h i r t e e n eye was threatened, eyes being sympathetic
years old and lives w i t h his grandfather. N o t creatures, and must s t i l l be c a r e f u l l y w a t c h e d
being t o t a l l y deaf, the g r a n d f a t h e r finds h i m A few months ago his f a r m was sold f o r taxes.
useful in one way or another and refuses to But the sheriff was kind-hearted, and the
let him go to school. Reasoning, persuasion, printer reduced his part of the bill f o r the
the threat of the law have to date failed. T h e cost o f the sale, so that a f e w dollars was
fact that Harding is very clever with his hands enough to get it back f o r him.
and would make an excellent subject f o r the
vocational training he w o u l d get at the School The family next in the procession are the
for the Deaf makes failure to get him there Onzie Brocks. W e got them a cow not long
all the more tragic. Our resources are not en- ago and already the two babies are gaining
tirely exhausted—we may succeed even yet. fatness and pinkness. W i t h food sufficient f o r
hard w o r k and w i t h kelp at a few other funda-
The short plump little person with a heavy mental points, 'tis amazing t o see h o w that
thatch o f straight black hair is N o r a S m a l l - man's energy and self-respect have risen. H e
wood. H e r age is lost in the limbo o f casual, has gained the reputation o f being an excellent
forgotten things. One former neighbor thinks w o r k m a n a n d h e r e a f t e r he should find i t m u c h
she is about eleven, another that she is nearly easier to get at least occasional work. H e has
fifteen, a n d there is no r e c o r d o f her b i r t h t o prospects f o r a good crop o f corn, he and his
decide the matter definitely. I n appearance, ten w i f e are b a r d at w o r k i n the field o r the gar-
or eleven seems m o r e nearly r i g h t . I t is eight den every day. The outlook is that they w i l l
months now that she has lived w i t h her pres- live more comfortably next winter than they
ent foster parents, w h o m we f o u n d f o r her. have done since Onzie had full-time employ-
A t long last she has come to expect kindliness ment i n the mines, years ago.
and affection and approval, plenty to eat and
wear, time to play and a chance to go to school The next family are the Chester Morgans.
—things that should be the right o f every T h e family's chief interest seems to be cen-
child. T o see her n o w so s t u r d y a n d w e l l , i t tered on sending the children to school—bright
is hard to believe that a f e w months ago she children they are, too. A little help in the
was in the hospital so i l l w i t h pellagra it was way of providing means f o r getting clothing
doubtful that she w o u l d live. T h e record o f and school books is about all the outside
the years preceding her advent at the hospital assistance they need. Given mountain agricul-
reads: deprived of her mother by death; aban- ture as the economic basis o f l i f e and one
done by her father to strangers in a m i n i n g finds hundreds o f f a m i l i e s l i k e the M o r g a n s ,
town; rescued by a former neighbor, and then people who, i f given any reasonable chance of
a long interval o f being passed around among making a living, would not ask or need help
relatives and neighbors, ending up i n the home f r o m anyone.
9* a m a r r i e d brother. T h e r e she was beaten,
never allowed to go to school, made to cook, But i f we dwell too long on this nearer,
wash, hoe corn, even after her pellagra was more sharply delineated procession, you will
miss altogether the long procession that f o l -
lows after, so l o n g that i t stretches out dimly
into the distance. Over eighteen hundred fam-
