Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-02-17
BREAD UPON THE WATERS i.

1t was a gloomy room in q crowded ten
ement house, low, narrow, and unwhOlesome,
and pale-faced child was its only inmate
She was confirmed invalid-yOu might trace
that in her hollow cheeks and the strange, un-
natural lustre of her large blue eyes; the fame
of life was burning low on the altar OF her
childish being, yet here she was alone, in the
old armchair, in which she Teclined with one
pillow, and a rude pine box was the only sup
port for her tiny, blue-veined feet. There
was no carpet on the mouldy floor, and in more
than one place, door and window had yielded
to the remorseless hand of decay, and present
ed most dilapidated aspect. Yet all the
scaDty furniture was arranged as neatly at
possible, and there were even some attempts as
taste, as in bit of gaily colored chintz spread
over child's footstool, and solitary flower
placed in the window-seat; where the sunbeams
could touch its emerald leaves.
That flower! 1t had been poor Ksty's COM
panion long. Its royal beauty and luxuriancs
seemed strangely out of place in the squalid,
low ceiled room, yet it grew and aourished as
if in the velvet sod Of iBendeme's stream
And little Katy lay back in her cOmfOrtless
chair, and looked at the splendid rese which
quivered likea ruby drop among the leaves,
and watched the sunlight writing its golden
message on the crimson folds of the blossoms
with vague feeling of wonder. 1t was so
strange that the radiant sun, whose glory lay
on marble pillars and stately dwellings far a.
way, should come to peep into her lonely
room.
as that you, Jamie?" said she softly, as the
door opened, and q boy of twelve came in.
ayes. Do you feel any better, Katy? Are
you tired of being left alone2"
"Not very; but there is such weary ach-
ing around my heart, and sometimes Is seems
all on fire. How cool your hands feel Jamie!"
"Never mind, Katy, I've been saving wood,
and earned a whole quarter, and I'm going to
lay it out in apples and oranges to sell down
town. I'll make mint of money, and then
wont we have a good supper when mother
comes home from work! l shouldn't wonder
if we had bit of cake and bunch Of grapes
over and above the medicine the dispensary
doctor ordered for you"
Katy smiled and shook her head, ns il de-
precating this piece of extravaganza.
eyes, we will, Katy" resumed her brother;
"'tain't often we taste anything but dry bread
and cheese, and haven't forgotten that it's
your birthday, sis you're ten years old to-
day. Besides, you need something to put
shade of color into those cheeks; the doctor
said you must have something to tempt your
appetite"
He bent down to kiss the marble forehead
as he spoke.
allow lovely that rose is, to be sure It's
almost as good as company to you, Katy, isn't
"? Are you willing should leave you alone
for little while, dear?"
"Yes, Jamie, don't mind it much, she an
sWered, with deep, weary sigh, "but be back
as soon as possible, please"
And her wistful, hollow eyes watched him
from the room with that earnest startling look
that we only find beneath the very shadow of
death.
Down at the piers all was confusion and up
roar-busy passengers hurrying from newly
arraived boats-turbid waters dashing and roll
ing against mOssy posts-swayiug crowds and
loud dissonant voices, created small bedam
around the docks, and little Jamie wandered
around with his iboard of fruit, feeling very
lonely and bewildered. He had piled up the
golden oranges with their suuniest side up
ward; be had polished the red checked apples
until they shOne like mirrors yet nobody stop
ped to buy.
Carriage, sir? Take you to the Astor
House?" up Broadway in a twinkling, mad
amp
"Ere's your 'erald, Tribune and Times
Latest steamer from Europe!-hsve a paper,
sir?"
Poor Jamiel amid all this tuuult, what
chance had he of being noticed? He had pick
ed out the very bunch of grapes that he in
tended for Katy, in Tayor's window as he
came by--a plump, apopIctic bunch dang ling
from crimson thread, where the sunshine lay
full on the purple bloom, and amethystine
shadows lnrked among its fulness of fruitage.
Just at present the tempting morsel seems
very far off to Janice imagination.
Determined not to give way without a Wig
orous effort, however, Jamie stepped boldly
forward to the first person he saw, and held
up his wares with modest, buy an orange,
sir?
Now, as ill-fOrtune would have it, this posi-
Bile customer was fat, ill-tempered, pussy old
map, whose choler had just been inhamed to
fever heat by the inadvertent descent of
heavy-nailed boot-heel on his favOrite corD.-
Al All Ilnes ne considered orange Ooys huis-
ance; but just now his slender quota Of patti
ence was entirely exhausted. He aimed NUT
tered oath and furious blow at the fair-haired
boy, and rushed past to catch retreating
omnibus.
Jamie sprang aside just in time to escape
the brutal blow; but it descended full upon his
stock 10 trade, scattering apples aud oranges
far and wide He was standing close to the
pier, and most of the fruit few into the water,
where it went bobbing up and down with the
! tide in the most tsntalizing manner. A few