Newspaper Page Text
20 TH]
The Family
NANCY.
By Frank H. Sweet.
"There are just two kinds of people in
the world, Janet," said her mother.
"Those who help, and those who hinder."
"I never see anybody that I can help,"
answered Janet, swinging her school-bag
impatiently.
Her mother tied on her hat and kissed
her. "Use your eyes today, Jenny, and
tell me the result tonight."
Janet sauntered down through the
lawn, glancing at the sunny stretch of
grass, the great elms and the old farmhouse
in the background.
"It's pretty certain there's no one
here to help, unless I feed the peacock,
or?or unless Nancy needs such attention.
But I wonder who Nancy is anyhow"!
Nancy Houser was a poorly-dressed
girl, of eleven years, who was lame, and
who limped as she came up the path.
"Has your mamma any arrants for me
to do today, Miss Janet"? she asked.
' I suppose not. There are plenty of
servants in the house," said Janet,
shortly. She did not like the unattractive
little cripple who ran errands for the
workmen's wives in the village to be
seen about the house.
Then Janet stopped. What was she
doing now? Was she "helping" or "hindering"
some one less favored than herself?
There was silence for a moment,
and Nancy was passing on.
"Stop a moment. Have you no way to
earn money but this, Nancy"?
"No, mam."
"How much do you earn a week"?
"Oh, different at different times. Most
of the folks give me two or three cents
for an arrant. I go slow on account of
this," glancing at her lame foot. "Your
mamma and that kind of ladies give me
more. But they've servants of their own,
as you say. I never get more'n sixty
cents a week, and I pay my board and
buy my clothes out of that."
'Mercy! How you talk! Do you pay
board to old Mrs. Holloran? Why she
washes for us, and takes home cold victuals"!
"She can't afford to give 'em to me,
then," said Nancy, quickly, her face on
fire. "She has five children; that's seven
of us altogether. I'd rather pay my own
way when I can at any rate."
Janet, struck by her tone, looked for
the first time in her life carefully at the
girl's face. Heretofore she had thought
ui ner, as pernaps naraiy wortft her
notice, for she had constantly heard her
laughed at In the village as "Arrant
Nancy." She had seen once or twice the
rough boys of the village chase her down
the street, yelling, "Crazy Nance." It
had never occurred to Janet to ipquire
whether she was crazy or not. She saw
now that the girl had an honest, intelligent
face, and she was pleased with it.
Her thoughts were coming quicker than
she could express them, and for a mo
* r
2 PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT]
ment or more the two girls stood looking
at each other in silence. At length Janet
said more quietly than she had spoken
before,
"Let me ask you, Nancy, ' why you
don't go out to service? It would be
better than this uncertain life you are
living."
"Oh, don't I know that: You see, every
winter I h?ve trnnhln +
?tivu u1j 1c6,
and am in bed for weeks. Nobody would
have me as a servant when they knew
that."
"Where do you stay when you are
sick"?
"With Mrs. Halloran. She's kep' me
for two winters. An' she's a Catholic
an' I'm a Protestant, too."
"She is one of the kind who help,"
thought Janet. "Have you a father or
mother, Nancy"?
"Oh yes, mam"! and now Nancy hesitated
and her eyes filled with tears.
* co, 111iii, i uuve, at norne in Londonderry.
You see, it was Jaae Plumer
wrote to me to come here to America.
She lived here, and she wrote that a
girl like me could just pick up money.
So my folks gathered up enough for my
passage, and I come, an* Jane was moved
away with a family to Californy."
"Oh, I know! The Lambs"!
"Yes, mam. An' that very week the
trouble began in my leg. So I've justlived
the best way I could, as I tell ye.
But I'll never see my mother again"! and
the poor child began to sob.
Janet's eyes, too, filled with tears, and
she asked now, very tenderly,
"Why don't (our father and mother
come to this country"?
' Oh, they'd only be too glad, mam. But
the times is mnrlnl liord In rini.-..
? ??l "*31 ? J XUCJ
were nigh starvin* last winter. All the
other girls that come to this country
send money back but me! And?and?
yer see?I can't"!
"How much would bring them"?
"Seventy dollars it would take from
Derry here. Oh, I've counted it a hundred
times, over and over again! I'd
work my fingers to the bone, if I could
only earn it, but it's not possible for me
to earn so much money."
"No; I'm sure I wish you could!
Seventy dollars"! said Janet, in an awestruck
whisper. "Well, good-bye, Nancy!
I think you'd better run to the house
and see if mamma has an errand for
you. I hope she has"!
Sho furnorl omotf ?
MUV vutiivu nnoj IU SUUUIII. 1 II tl glTIS
noticed that on that day and the next,
Janet Moore was very quiet and thoughtful.
On Saturday afternoon she called a
meeting of her own school-girl friends,
seven in number. It was held. What
whs done by them was kept a secret.
But they separated with very anxious
and important faces.
Soon it was whispered about the
school that a new club had been formed
by some of the girls, and that Janet
Moore was its president. In a few days
the mewbers of the elub appeared wearing
black velvet brace.ets with "H.E.S."
embroidered on them in steel beads.
Of course, this excited curiosity, and.
Ei. August 4, 1909.
even the mothers were inquisitive to
know the meaning of it.
The club met twice a week at JennyMoore's,
and as Jenny's mother seemed
pleased and willing that they should use
her sitting-room, everybody inferred that
the object of their meeting certainly was
not an objectionable one. Between these
meetings the girls were all of them very
busy sewing and were provokingly
secret, two other girls were admitted to
the club after tremendous promises of
secrecy. #
So matters continued until about
Christmas time, when it was announced
that the H.E.S. club would hold a fair
in one of Mrs. Moore's parlors. And.
now the girls who did not belong to the
club were surprised to find what warm
interest the village began to take in tin
matter. Could Janet's secret have leaked
out?
The club arranged their little table of
dolls, pincushions, etc., early in the morning.
Later came cakes, lemonade, icecream.
confectionery, etc.. from th^ir
mothers. In the evening the parlor was.
filled with the friends of the girls. The
people of the village were always glad,
of an excuse for merry-making, and they
entered into this with unusual spirit.
Everything on the tables were sold. By
eleven o'clock the parlors were empty
and the last guest had left the house.
The girls now gathered around Janet's,
father with the heaps or money.
"O doctor, count it! We are so impatient
to see how much we have made"!
they cried.
The doctor put on his spectacles and
seated himself deliberately. The girls
surrounded the table in breathless silence
as he made separate little heaps
of bills, silver, half-dollars, quarters,
dimes, nickels and pennies, counted them
off and added up the amounts. After this
was done he drew a long breath, pushed
unci*, ins glasses ana looKea up.
"One hundred and thirty-nine dollars
and ninety-nine cents. <o?ne penny more
to make the round number," he continued,
solemnly depositing the penny
with the rest of the money.
"Mow we can do it"! said Clara.
"Yes! yes! yes"! exclaimed a chorus
of merry voices.
"It," as our readers have no doubt
guessed, was to bring Nancy's father and
mother from England to this country.
There should be no delay, the doctor
wrote the father by the next mail, forwarding
by draft the money for the passage
for himself and wife.
mow what shall we do with the remaining
seventy dollars"? Janet asked.
"I would advise you to provide some
kind of home for them when they come,'"
said Jier mother. "There is a snug little
cottage on squire Hill's place, that he
will rent for twenty dollars a year.
Fifty dollars of the money you have made
will go far toWhrd furnishing it com- *
fortably, and I have no doubt the other
mothers of the H.E.S. will give a little
help."
Of course all these mighty plans were
kept a secret from poor Nancy, who un