Connecticut western news., 1873-03-21
VOL. II.

ness out of it than there air threads wove into it!'
 ooh! oh!'' sighed Mrs. Sovereign, wondering if her companion was in her right mind.
 "Yes, I hev. Sometimes I've thought if I could git hundred dollars fur it agin-theugh, of course, couldn't tit would be jest enough ter take me into the Old Ladies' Home-that's one of my castles in the air-so't I'd be out of Liza Ann's reach. I've thought maybe the grave couldn't be so bad if Liza Ann wusn't there too p
 "Dear, dear! But you were telling me about the shawl ?"
 "Lor, yes I've got habit of wan dering onto me like my old grand mother. She'd begin a-telling how the children got the measles, and she'd let ye into the private history of half the family by the way, and wind up, like as not, with fortin somebody wus expect ing from Angland. Wa'al, I dunne as you remember the widder Niles son that went a-voyaging ter the worlds end !? They do say how he wus rich as Croysus, but she never got no more'n his cheest after he wus lost overheard. You see, she was expecting of him home, and his cheest came instead
 Wa'al, Miss Niles, she didn't so much as open it fur six months and then she found this 'ere shawl in it, which I s'pose he wus a-bringing home ter her. I sometimes wish she never he'd opened 1t
 Howsomever, the minute I clapped my eyes on the shawl I was covetous of it, and never rested till got it. I thought it was the most beautifulest thing I'd ever sot eyes on. It looked as if it wus all wove of rubies and precious stones, and it wus most all border, saving bit of scarlet about as big as a bandana handkerchief! Now, you see, I'd never owned shawl but this 'ere robroy that I've got on and though it wa'n't so nigh, used up as it is now, it he'd lost considerable of it's bloom and so, one day, when Miss Niles dropped in, and said she hedn't no heart fur nothing sence James death, and she shouldn't never wear nothing but black clothes the rest of her life, and how her only desire now wus ter go out ter Indy fur missionary, and if she could only raise hunderd dollars on that Cash mere shawl, 'twould help pay her way, and after that the Board would take care of her, it seemed sort of pious duty ter help her out, if she felt call. Lestways, it was one of the biggest temptations that ever beset poor vain mortal We wus a-buying back the house in Joy's Court at that time-fu fur, ye see, my husbands name he'd bin on Mr. Crews paper, and what did he do but up and fail, and obleege us ter mort gage the house! Wa'al, I said it then, and say it now, that it ain't proper fur man ter put his name ter another mans paper, and leave his family out in the cold-not that I planes John half so much as myself, fur he did it just ter obleege, and I bought the shawl only ter please myself! We wus trying ter git enough tergither, you understand, ter pay off the mortgage, and some years we couldn't do no better than ter pay the interest. I worked amazing hard. I took old Miss Lamson ter board-and 8 heap of trouble she wus, poor soul, with her rheumatics and ticdoloreux and she he'd ter hev skeleton jelly made fur her, and lastly she he'd ter be fed and 1t want no fool of job-she wus 8 powerful eater! But I never give her 8 nasty word, nor a wry look and l treated her as handsome as if she'd a bin my own mother, or the fust lady in the land. You see the town paid fun her board-and a mighty small one il wus, but it helped and after she'd gone home I he'd more time, and I took in needle-work, and I'd raked and scraped a hunderd and some odd dol lars tergither-my John he'd bin laid up with rheumatic fever, and hedn't got nothing a forhand that year-and ] wus going ter pay it down that very next Monday, when Miss Niles and the shawl they come in Saturday!
 e" I he'd great struggle with myself fust. It kep' me a-turning and twisting all night a-making up of my mind. ] hankered after that shawl like all pos. sessed, till it seemed as if I couldn't be happy without it noway, though all the while knowed I'd no business with anything so grand. But all the neigh. bors he'd he'd new shawls that fall, ever Miss Grew-lor! they rides in their car riage ter-day, and goes about cracking in their silks, as if failing and bringing honest folks inter poverty want cry ing sin!-and I thought ter myself how this one would be crazy with envy whe1 she saw me sail out in my new Cash mere, and the other one and her Ba, State would be cast inter the shade.
 "So, without onst thinking that hedn't nothing, like gowns and fxings ter correspond, I jest paid Miss Nile, the money, and carried my shawl u1 stairs. Wa'al, she want no sooner ou of the house than I'd give farm not te hey bought it; but wus too proud te call her back, and I've allus he'd he | -l. for, you know, she wus lost a-going te sible- seeing, too, as she wus the last O her family. Wa'al, John he didn't knov he'd the hunderd dollars-Td kep' i fur surprise-and now I couldn' mak up my mind ter tell him about the eshawl So when it came Sunday I put it on witt my old delaine, and my rough-and-read, straw bonnet, and sneaked down tn back stairs ter meeting without sayin, be out himself-and I felt so horrit mean about it that when Miss Jenkin said, What splendid new shawl you'r swearing of ! 1t didn't give me tn leastest quiver of pleasure as ever wus T don't seem worth while ter hey such
 dressy shawl ter wear about here, wher there's nobody ter see-now, does it nor when Miss Little declared, 'Ther wasn't nothing like shawl ter cover III your old gowns, and make ye look re speetable ? though I knew it wus al spite and jealousy that made their word stinging.
 "I've come ter think I'd rither he l my neighbors good natured than envi ous as I git along in years. I wa n hal so comfortable in my Cashmere as r. bin in the old robroy; and after I wor it twice I took such disliking ter that I jest hid it away, and went bac
 ter the robroy. But I allus felt as the Cashmere he'd crippled us. Ye see we allus has ter pay fur our luxuries