Newspaper Page Text
December 22, 1909. THI
in the photographs tucked into the mirror
frame and hanging from the gas fixtures.
Her roommate had gone for the
holidays, and although she was not specially
fond of her, her absence added an
atom to the general depression.
Hllf nrno * * -?
uuv IV nan ui c.mia.n lime, tillU we
must eat even if our hearts break, so
Letty started for the dining room three
floors below. As she closed her door, a
girl dashed out of a room near by and
came running after her. At the top of
the stairs the new comer tripped and
would have fallen headlong but for Lettv'R
niliolf o-roon
"Bless you, Miss Ashworth! you've
saved my life this time," cried the girl,
steadying herself by a hand on Letty's
shoulder, while she stood on one foot
and tried to untangle the other from a
loop of dress braid. "I expected this
wretched braid would bring me to grief
before it was fixed. I've had a new braid '
in m v wnrlf-hnoUof for o waaIt
? .. wt u tt ccn, auu
haven't had a minute to put it on.
There!" freeing her foot by a sudden
jerk which tore oft still more of the
braid. "Now I've got to get into another
skirt," and she hurried back to her room.
Down in the dining room an animated
conversation rippled up and down the
long tables. "Did you see those lovely
combs at Hofner's?only fifty cents?"
"No, I shouldn't dare select a necktie
for him. I'm going to give him handkerchiefs."
??? a-i-m ? -
uiu juu iiuisii dressing your little sister's
doll?" etc.
Letty bore it as long as she could,
then, leaving her half-eaten breakfast,
-went back to her room. The factory
where she worked had shut down till after
Christmas, to repair the engipe, so
she had the day before her. If she only
had some money, what a nice chance
to go round the stores and buy things;
or to go home for Christmas. Home!
The thought was too much, and the
clouds beean to drnn roln
There was a knock at the door, and
the chambermaid came in.
"Why, what's the matter, Katy?" asked
Letty, detaching herself from her own
misery enough to notice the girl's swollen
face and dark circles round her eyes.
"It's an ulcerated tooth," groaned the
girl. "Not a wink of sleep did I get all
night."
"I'll take care of my room today," said
Letty, "and I just as lief tend to the other
rooms on this corridor. I'm not working
today, and it will do me good to be
busy about something."
AS Letty Went f mm mr>m tr? rnAm
making beds and straightening rugs and
chairs somehow her heart grew lighter,
and when she came to the room where
a skirt with trailing braid was thrown
over a chair, a pleasant thought came
to her. Finding a new braid in the workbasket,
she took the skirt to her room,
rebound it neatly, darned a tiny tear,
sewed on a loose hook, and pinning a
-Christmas greeting on it, hung it on the
chair again.
> As she finished her rounds she stopped
at the laundry door. "You seem to
be flyfhg round in here," she said.
? PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU'
"We're a little short-handed," said the
laundress. "Katy helps us sort the
clothes, but she has gone to bed sick,
and it looks as if our work would run
over into Christmas day."
"Can you use a green hand?" asked
Letty. "I've nothing to do, and I'd like
tr? holn Va.. ? ?11
? r. u tau can my services a
Christmas present," she added, with the
first smile of the day on her face.
" 'Twould be the best kind of a Christmas
present. Those clothes on the
racks are ready to sort, and then be sent
around to the rooms."
So Letty sorted and folded and the
piles of clothes disappeared like magic.
And when the tables were cleared the
laundry girls came up with smiling faces
and said, "Thank you for our Christmas
present. Miss ARhwnrih " '
, ? vu, nuu UCIVJ wcill
down to dinner with quite an appetite.
And there a new chance for service presented
itself. Two or three of the girls
were bewailing belated errands which required
daylight.
"Behold your slave!" said Letty.
"Make out your lists, and I will go
through them or perish in the attempt."
So, after dinner, Letty went hither and
thither, matching ribbons and silks and
tassels. Coming back with loaded arms,
she found & box from her Vermont home
a box filled with holly. If the waxen
leaves suddenly gained a new lustre, the
dewdrops which caused it were not wholly
tears of unhappiness.
The day had been lived through, but
the long evening was to be faced. Many
of the girls had gone home for the holidays,
and others were busy with their
Christmas gifts, so Letty sat alone, the
tide of homesickness rising higher and .
higher. She heard the occupant of the
next room come in and shut her door.
"I wonder if Miss Wilbur is homesick,
too," she mused. Miss Wilbur was a
comparatively new comer, a silent, reserved
girl who had no intimates in the
Home. Letty had always stood a little
in awe of her, but now she Celt a sudden
Impulse to go to her.
"May I come in?" said Letty, as the
door opened to her knock, showing the
room to be in darkness. "I'm Just dying
of homesickness."
"Then there are two of us," said the
other girl, extending her hand and drawing
her in.
"You see," Letty hurried on, with a
catch in her voice, "My mother is two
hundred miles away, and it may be a
year before I see her."
"My mother is farther away than
that," said Miss Wilbur, "and it may be
many years before I see her agan;" and
remembering the other's black garb, Letty
understood.
* or a time the two girls wept together,
and when their tears had lightend their
hearts a little, they talked tenderly, of
their homes and kindred, and came nearer
together than in a year of ordinary intercourse.
Then I^etty brought out her
box of holly and fastened a spray on
Miss Wilbur's shoulder, saying, "Now,
let's make some big wreaths for our windows."
"Yes," said the other, "or"
"yi * 4 *
f- l
rH. 19
"Or what?" asked Letty.
"Wouldn't It be nice to put a piece at
every plate, so all the girls could enjoy
it? You suggested it, pinning this piece
on me."
Letty caught at the idea at once.
"We'll break it up, and after everybody
is abed, we'll go down and distribute it
and won't thov nmnJo- ~* **
?v .. uuuvii wuere 11 came
from?"
A couple of hours later, the two girls
crept noiselessly upstairs and as they
parted at Letty's door. Miss Wilbur
stooped and kissed her cheek, whispering,
"I believe you saved my heart from
breaking tonight," and slipped into her
room before Letty could answer.
When the girls trooped down to breakfast
Christmas morning and saw the
long white tables bordered with shining
leaves and bright berries, there were
many "Ohs" and "Ahs," and much wonderment,
and soon the girls were pinning
them on their dresses or tucking them
in their hair. Everybody was in high
spirits, and Letty found herself eivinc
and receiving "Merry Christimses," right
and left. She had no thought that she
had helped toward the cheer of the day,
but Katy and the girl with the hanging
dress-braid and the laundry girls and the
girls with errands and the night watchman?or
to speak accurately, the night
watchman?had told tales and when Letty
went up to her room, she found on
her table a vase of tall chrysanthemums,
and the card with them said, "For the
one who has done the most to give the
Home a Merry Christmas."
And upon the girl who in homesickness
and poverty had lived the Christmas spirit,
fell the Christmas peace.?Congregationalism
NEVER FORGET IT.
Girls, this is for you: Never forget for
a single instant as long as you live that
the "men folks" are continually on the
firing line in this battle of life. You little
dream what blows they get and what
wounds they carry. Never nag a man.
Never whine at him. Of course, he
doesn't wipe his feet, nor hang up his
clothes, nor put things away, nor shut
doors and drawers. Dear me, you didn't
think you were marrying an "old maid,"
did you? Nag & Whine is the firm that
runs the divorce mills. So, girls, be good
to us when we come indoors. There is
only a fight with hard knocks for us
^..4 <~ ? ~
uui iu iutj woria.?a ueorgla Editor.
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