The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-01-30
Gales ano gkettbes.
THE NEIGHBoR IN Law,
BY L. MARIA CHILD.

1 b1 MAMA S1lIOs
Who blesses others in his daily deeds,
| VIII find the healing that his spirit needs
For every flower in others pathway strewn,
Confers its fragrant beauty on our own.
" So you are going to live in the same
building with Hetty Turnpenny," said
Mrs. Lane to Mrs. Fairweather You
will find nobody to envy you. If her
temper does not prove too much even
for your good nature, it will surprise all
who know her. We lived there year,
and that is as long as any body ever
tried it."
/" Poor Hetty l'' replied Mrs. Fair
weather, "she has had much to harden
her Her mother died too early for her
to remember; her father was very Sc
we're with her; and the only lover she
ever had borrowed the savings of her
years of toll, and spent them in dissipa-
tion. Bat Hetty, notwithstanding her
sharp features, and sharper words, GER
tainly has kind heart. In the midst
of her greatest poverty, many were the
stockings she knit, and the warm waist
coats she made, for the poor drunken
lover, whom she had too much sense to
marry. Then you know she feeds and
clothes her brothers orphan child -
I" If you call it feeding and clothing ;"
replied Mrs. Lane, q the poor child
looks cold and pinched, and frightened
all the time, as if she was chased by the
east wind I used to tell Miss Turnpen-
ny she ought to be ashamed of herself,
to keep the poor little thing at work all
the time, without one minute to play.
If she does but look at the cat, as it runs
by the window, Aunt Hetty gives her
rap over the knuckles. I used to tell
her she would make the girl just such
another sour old crab as herself.
"That must have been very improv
ing to her disposition" replied Mrs.
Fairwcathcr, with good-humored smile.
q But in justice to poor Aunt Hetty,
you ought to remember that she had
/ just such cherries childhood herself
Flowers grow where there is sunshine. p"
"I know you think everybody ought
to live in the sunshine" rejoined Mrs.
Lane, " and it must be confessed that
you carry it with you wherever you go.
If Miss. Turnpenny has heart, I dare
say you will find it out, though never
could, and 1 never heard of anybody
else that could. All the family within
the hearing of her tongue called her the
neighbor in law"
Certainly the prospect was very en-
couraging; for the house Mrs. Fair
weather proposed to occupy, was not on
ly under the same roof with Miss Turn
penny, but the building had one COM
mon yard in front.
The very first day she took posses,
sion of her habitation, she called on the
neighbor in law Aunt Hetty had ta-
ken the precaution to extinguish the FIRE,
lest the new neighbor should want hot
. water, before her own wood and coal
had arrived. Her first salutation was,
I" If you want any cold water, there's a
pump across the street; don't like to
have my house stopped all over"
"I am glad you are SO tidy, neigh.
Dor Turppenny, replied Mrs. Fairweath.
er; cit is extremely pleasant to have
neat neighbors I will try to keep ev'
erything as bright as new five cent
piece, for 1 SEQ it will please you.
came in merely to say good morning
and to ask if you could spare little peg
gy to run up and down stairs while
am getting my furniture in order.
Twill pay her sixpence an hour"
: Aunt Hetty had begun to purse VI
her mouth for a refusal, but the prom
I Use of sixpence an hour relaxed her fea
lures at once. Little Peggy sat knit
5 ting a stocking very diligently, with
rod lying on the table beside her. Sh'
looked up with timid wistfulness, as
the prospect of any change was like
release from prison. When she heart
: consent given, a bright color flushed he
cheeks. She was evidently of an i'm
pressible temperament, for good or evil.
+" Now mind and behave yourself,
: said Aunt Hetty, "and see that 20,
keep.at work the whole time. If hea
j, one word Of complaint, you know wha
> you'll get when you come home."
L The rose color subsidized from Peggy
!, pale face, and she answered "yesma'am
= or y meekly.