The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-08-07
$50 strenstheninR.n

''You don't want any roots an herbs,
do YEP" asked thin, starved looking
woman at our door one morning in early
spring. She carried an old basket on
her larm, from which she had taken
bundle of crowley, writhy, dried up,
twisted-about sticks, that might have
been roots of anything-Latin verbs, for
instance-or that might have been the
remains of angle-worms dead of convul-
sions. They were not tempting, they
were not even appetizing in appearance
"No.o;" we didn't think we did; not if
those were roots and herbs Still this
was one of our women we saw in O mo-
ment; she was gaunt; che was hollow
eyed; she was pinched, soul and body,
we could see ut a glance. She had been
pushed and jostled and driven to the
wall evidently, until her whole appear
ance and general air was an ebject apollo
81 for standing upon our door-steps, or
indeed for presuming to stand at oil in
our august presence. Her old straw
bonnet just touched her scant gray hair
as though it would say, ST really wouldn't
if I could help it, Her faded shawl
had shrunk in very shame almost out of
existence; her gown was only an apology
in itself, faint one at that; but when
she spoke aud her voice trembled-ah
me, it was easy, tolerably easy at least,
to hold ont until there came that quaver
in her voice. We knew all aboutit. We
had been there, where just such quavers
were used, and we knew just how much
OF sinking heart and faint hope, grow
ing fainter, it meant. We had asked
favors once or twice in our own life,
when we hadn't so much as roots and
herbs to offer, and We knew
sOf COur9o Won don't - ahe eai1 frv
ing to smile-as if she knew we didn't
all the time and had only asked because
oh because it was the fashion, or some
body had sent her, or something it
was the faintest smile you ever saw, and
it ended in sigh as she laid them back
in the basket. "Only twenty-five CENTS"
she added, as if it were matter of no
Importance, but still might as we'll be
mentioned. She made O pretence of
pulling the shawl around her-the little
shawl which no amount of pulling power
could have drawn together-watching
our faces with anxious eyes all the while.
We remembered the soap we had bought
once npon time, that was to take the
spots out of leopard, if need be, and
that t-didn't do it. We remembered the
bottle of tooth-wash that proved to be
cold water, and we tried to become a
OPuyuA, of uuytuIuS olSo CnaC cOulQ
stand unmoved centuries or so. "Theo're
80 strengthening!" she ventured timidly.
"You've no ideal" and we hadn't. Not
one; but that our purse fairly screamed
in our pockets. $50 strengthening for
the blood!" she went on, gaining cou-
rage. ''You just steep 'em. You've no
idea how Strengthening they are! Twenty
I've cents for 'em ALL" and she gathered
the whole meagre contents of the
s6hsket with her wtinkled, eager hands.
We took them. We should have taken
them if they had been alive and writh-
ing, and she went off with radiant face,
twenty-five cents aud an empty basket.B
"What in the worldr' CALCULATED the
mother of the family, when we held up
our purchases to her astonished ewes.
"What is it?" "What is it?" we repeated.
''It's health and strength, the elixir of
life, the source of perpetual youth-it's
sassafras!'' You should have seen our
mothers face.
We didn't "steep EN-" we hung them
high and dry before our eyes, where,
when we were tired-oh of such little
thingsl-and when we were tired-ohl
by such little trialsl-we were reminded
Of the anxious-eyed woman, whose life
had seemed to hold only what was
ragged, and poor, and mean. and we
found them 'strengthoningI'
Boston Neus.