The Squatter and the Don

"To be guided by good advice, is to profit by the wisdom of others; to be guided by experience, is to profit by wisdom of our own," said Mrs. Darrell to her husband, in her own sweet, winning way, as they sat alone in the sitting room of their Alameda farm house, having their last talk that evening, while she darned his stockings and sewed buttons on his shirts. The children (so-called, though the majority were grown up) had all retired for the night. Mr. and Mrs. Darrell sat up later, having much to talk about, as he would leave next day for Southern California, intending to locate--somewhere in a desirable neighborhood--a homestead claim.

"Therefore," continued Mrs. Darrell, seeing that her husband smoked his pipe in silence, adding no observations to her own, "let us this time be guided by our own past history, William--our experience. In other words, let us be wise, my husband."

"By way of variety, you mean," said he smiling. "That is, as far as I am concerned, because I own, frankly, that had I been guided by your advice--your wisdom--we would be much better off to-day. You have a right to reproach me."

"I do not wish to do anything of the kind. I think reproaches seldom do good."

"No use in crying over spilt milk, eh?"

"That is not my idea, either. On the contrary, if by 'milk' it is meant all or any earthly good whatever, it is the 'spilt milk' that we should lament. There is no reason to cry for the milk that has not been wasted, the good that is not lost. So let us cry for the spilt milk, by all means, if by doing so we learn how to avoid spilling any more. Let us cry for the spilt milk, and remember how, and where, and when, and why, we spilt it. Much wisdom is learnt through tears, but none by forgetting our lessons."

"But how can a man learn when he is born a fool?"

"Only an idiot is, truly speaking, a born fool; a fool to such a degree that he cannot act wisely if he will. It is only when perversity is added to foolishness, that a being--not an idiot--is utterly a fool. To persist in acting wrongfully, that is the real folly. To reject good counsel, either of one's own good thoughts or the good thoughts of others. But to act foolishly by deciding hastily, by lack of mature reflection, that I should only call a foolish mistake. So, then, if we have been foolish, let us at least utilize our foolishness by drawing from it lessons of wisdom for the future. We cannot conscientiously plead that we are born fools when we see our errors."

Mr. Darrell smilingly bowed, and with a voice much softer than his usual stentorian tones, said:

"I understand, little wife, but I fear that my streak of perversity is a broad one, and has solely been the bane of my life; it has a fatality accompanying it. I have often seen the right way to act, and yet I have gone with my eyes wide open to do the wrong thing. And this, too, not meaning to do harm to any one, nor wishing to be malicious or mean. I don't know what power impelled me. But if you will forgive my past wickedness, I'll try to do better."

"Don't say that. Don't speak of your wickedness, for real wickedness is perversity. You have acted wrongly at times, when you have misapplied your rights and the rights of others, but you have not intentionally done wrong. You are not perverse; don't say that."

"In a few days it will be twenty-four years since we crossed the plains with our three babies, in our caravan of four wagons, followed by our fine horses and choice Durham cows. I firmly believed then, that with my fine stock and my good bank account, and broad government lands, free to all Americans, I should have given you a nice home before I was five years older; that I would have saved money and would be getting more to make us rich before I was old. But see, at the end of twenty-four years, where and how do I find myself? I am still poor, all I have earned is the name of 'Squatter.' That pretty name (which I hate because you despise it) is what I have earned."