Free The Wilful Daughter by Georgia Daniels

the eldest. Everyone knew this. He had enough money to build a house on the land they rented from the Blacksmith when he married.
    So what was the reason the Blacksmith didn’t like him?
    Some said the Blacksmith was afraid he’d take Minnelsa away to another town or even another state. Maybe far up north where the boy had been in school and like so many of them, he’d never see his child again. Never see his grandchildren.
    The Blacksmith had asked John one question each time he had called on his daughter and each question had been answered correctly. The young couple was positive on the day John came to ask for Minnelsa’s hand that the answer would be yes.
    “ No,” the Blacksmith had flatly refused. “I don’t have to give you a reason, daughter. After all, I am your father.”
    “ But I love him, Papa.” Minnelsa had cried in Bira’s arms. Angry and standing firm John would not be led to the door.
    “ You need more than love with a man like this, daughter.”
    “ Then what am I lacking, sir?” John Wood had boldly asked.
    No suitor had ever questioned the Blacksmith before.
    His reply was: “Get out. This is my house and my daughter. Whether I have a reason or not, I do not have to give it to you.”
    “ I ask you, sir, I have come in good faith. I’m an educated man. I’ve read far more books than you know. I have a job, a future, a place to live. I will inherit my father’s business, and most likely I’ll be able to buy the property it’s on, too. I have some money saved, though it’s only a little. But I can take good care of a wife. I ask you sir, what am I lacking in a husband for your daughter?”
    Each person who gossiped would tell you a different story about what had happened next. Each wagging tongue had a different tale to tell.
    Some believed the mighty Blacksmith had taken John Wood and thrown him out the door into the dirt of the street for the Blacksmith was at least a head and a half taller than the man. Others said he swore at the boy for questioning his authority in his house and took his daughter and locked her in her room for three days. She didn’t even go to church.
    Someone even suggested the possibility that the Blacksmith had told John Wood to his face that he might be his father. Of course everyone dismissed that as just evil gossip for John’s mother had been a woman of high virtue-and dear friends with Bira until she died.
    What really happened was just as sad. The truth is always worse than the most vicious gossip. For William Brown sent his eldest daughter to her room, put his prospective son-in-law in the wagon and drove him to his father’s store. There the three men decided the future of Minnelsa Brown without her consent.
    Brown said: “John Wood, you are a dreamer. You have spent more time with your nose in books then you did attending to your affairs.”
    Harland Wood tried to speak to what he thought was an old friend. “William, what are you talking about? You know John has been the pride of the community since he got back from college and. . .”
    “ He has a teaching position and almost lost it for failing to show up for classes. They say he is working on his book. I find this unsuitable behavior for a husband to be.”
    The father sighed. “William you are a reader and John is. . .”
    “ I promise to change. I love Minnelsa. I will give up writing the book until I have the time and more money. I will tutor and take on more classes.”
    As he pleaded with his father, Harland Wood noticed the immovable expression on the Blacksmith’s face and called a halt to the begging.
    “ He owns this store, John,” he told his son.
    “ This is our store, father. You own it. He may own the land but you own the store and the house.”
    The father, too embarrassed to look his son in the eye, said: “When your mother got sick I needed money. Things were bad. You were away at school and your brother had just gotten married. And there was the fire. I borrowed the