Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-02-04
A Real Lady.

One summer | was boarding with my
family in farm house by the seashore.
Our host was a pitiful miser, starving
himself, starving his family; and, for
tiorf, starving his boarders. Sick Of hu-
man nature, sick Of pity, miserable con
tention, o party Of US started out one
day in a wagon for fine beach some
miles away, to try to forget our woes in
the kind lap of mother nature. AS we
approached the beach we stopped at
farm house to ask permission to put our
horse in the barn. Knocking at the
door, it was opened by a motherly-look-
ing woman of fifty, in spectacles, the
glasses of which, however, far from hid
ing, seemed only to serve, like varnish
on picture, to bring out the light and
warmth of pair of loving blue eyes
underneath. - pa
She gave US the heartiest reception.
Put your horse in the barn. Certainly
You'll find plenty of hay there, Come
to spend day by the beach, have you?
That right do like to see the young
people enjoy themselves Won't you
eat your lunch in our apple orchard; it's
so nice, and cool, and shady there2 And
wouldn't you Ikea pan of sweet milk TO
have with itY na
p" Bless your dear, loving heartr I
cried internally. "Then the stern ne
cessities of farm life do not shrivel, and
wien, and dry-rot souls after the man
ner of old Grimes we are boarding with.
But perhaps this old lady had trodden q
more silken path Fmaff HF
I Hooked round the room. There were
mi!k-pans enough to make ones life one
eternal sour. Her dress too, was trussed
up, her arms bare and with that battered
and callous look about the elbows which
betokened hardy usage. ldgl
"No children, probably; that accounts
for it" Presently a rustling of bed
clothes and an incipient wall from a
neighboring room "Ahl that's your
grandchild, / suppose2p rNo, that's my
baby" l was about as incredulous as
Sarah of old but she went on + have
sixteen children"
Sixteen children! All these milk
pans, ordinary work of the farmhouse,
and room still in the heart for such re-
ception as we had for such a generous
" do like to see young people enjoy
themselves" for such hearty proffers of
the hospitality of the apple orchard, and
of a full gallon Of sweet milk All /
see 1t. Where there is room in the
heart, there is always room in the
house." room for all these children, and
then room to spare for a bevy Of plea
sure-seeking, do-nothing strangers, who
would seem sent only to suggest the
complaint, why must my life be cease
less toll of nursing, scrubbing, ripping,
sewing, while these people can lie on the
rocks, all day long, counting the breaks,
cooled by the spray dozing off to the
music of the pulsing ocean2
/ could tell a great deal more about
this blessed woman-how she refused all
pay, feeling she was already paid amply
in the delight of kindness itself; how
she manifested a delicacy Of politeness
worthy of Chesterfield himself. Chester
field forgive the wrong of naming his
hollow, artificial type of manner in such
a genuine presence-but still an exquis-
ite delicacy of politeness; by replying
when went after preliminary embar-
rassment in the stable over the horse
collar, aud said, blushingly, 7" Madam, |
am ashamed to say do not know how
to harness that horsel p "0f course
not, everybody cant do everything
and this in atone as though she we're al
ready overwhelmed with amazement at
the number of things / could do. =
Her replying thus, | say, and then
running to the back door calling to two
of her sons in the field Here you,
Henry Clay Daniel Webster (Room
still in the heart, we see, for a streak of
hero worship) Come here and help
this gentleman harness his horse" But
cannot enlarge further. Does not she,
however, illustrate gloriously the creative
power to make a small house big, narrow
means abundant,work play, a contracted
sphere roomy, broad and airy2