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Margaret Collier Graham (1850-1910) http://tinyurl.com/MGraham

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Letters and Messages

From "Marg'et Ann," 1905. Read Online Download PDF

Reader: Jessica Teeter

We all know romantic stories of the men who struck out for California gold country, but less often do we hear about the families and hard-working sweethearts they left behind them.

In her short story "Marg'et Ann," Margaret Collier Graham tells the story of a young women who postpones marriage because her family is suspicious of her young man's religious convictions. Still, when Lloyd Archer leaves Iowa for California gold country, Marg'et Ann feels deep loneliness.

There had been letters and messages and rumors, more or less reliable, repeated at huskings and quiltings, to keep her informed of the fortunes of those who had crossed the plains, but her own letters from Lloyd had been few and unsatisfactory. . . .

There were moments of bitterness in which she tried to picture to herself what her life might have been if she had braved her parents' disapproval and married Lloyd before her mother's death; but there was never a moment bitter enough to tempt her into any neglect of present duty. The milking, the butter-making, the washing, the spinning, all the relentless hard work of the women of her day, went on systematically from the beginning of the year to the end, and the younger children came to accept her patient ministrations as unquesioningly as they had accepted her mother's.

"Marg'et Ann" was included in Margaret Collier Graham's collection, The Wizard's Daughter and Other Stories, published in 1905.