National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-03-14

can't bear the sight of that shawl, it
makes my eyes smart ter look at it, and
the tears jest come of their own accord.
Sometimes I've been mind ter sell it !;
but, sakes alive! you cant never get the
vally of thing like that"
"And how much did you give for it?"
asked her listener.
"A hundred dollars.-silver ones! 1t
blisters my tongue ter tell it! A hun
dred dollars, if I'm sinner and I've
wore it twice, and he'd more wretched.
ness out of it than there air threads
wove into it!'
"Oh! ohl" sighed Mrs Sovereign,
wondering if her companion was in her
right mind.
"Yes, hev. Sometimes I've thought
if / could git hundred dollars fur it
agin-though, Of course, couldn't-it
would be jest enough ter take me into
the Old Ladies' Home-thats s one of my
castles in the air-so't I'd be cut of
Liza AIMS reach. I've thought maybe
the grave couldn't be so bad if Liza Ann
wusnt there too ~
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. Shed begin a-telling how the
children got the measles, and she'd let
We 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, dunno 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 WIS 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
s'pose he wus a-bringing home ter her.
! sometimes wish she never he'd opened
it ="
Howsomever, the minute ] clapped
nv ewes on the shawl | was covetous of
it, and | never rested till ! got it.
thought it was the most beautifulest
thing Id ever sot eyes on. 1t looked as
if it wus all wove of rubies and precious
stones, and it WIS most all border,
saving bit of scarlet about as big as q
bandana handkerchief! Now, you see,
I'd never owned shawl but this ere
robroy that I've got on and though it
want SO nigh used up as it is now, it
he'd lost considerable of its 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 60 out ter Indy
fur a missionary, and if she could only
raise a hunderd dollars on that Cash.
mere shawl, 'twould help pay her way,
and after that the Board would take
care of her, it seemed a sort of a 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 WIS a-buying back the
house in joys Court at that time-fur,
We 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! Waal, l said it then,
and | say it now, that it amt proper fur
a man ter put his name ter another
mans paper, and leave his family out in
the cold-not that | blames John half
so much as myself fur he did it just ter
obleege, and | 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. l worked amazing hard.
l took old Miss Lamson ter board-and
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 it want no fool of a job-she WIS a
powerful eater! But | never give her
hasty word, nor wry look ; and /
treated her as handsome as if she'd
n bin my own mother, or the fust lady
in the land. You see the town paid fur
her board-and q mighty small one it
wus, but it helped and after she'd
gone home | he'd more time, and | took
in needle-work, and I'd raked and
scraped 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 l
wus going ter pay it down that very
next Monday, when Miss Niles and the
olluNI tlltN CollC III u
- he'd great struggle with myself
fuss. 1t KEEP me a-turning and twisting
all night a-making up of my mind. l
hankered after that shawl like all pos
sessed, till it seemed as if l couldn't be
happy without it noway, though all the
while l knowed I'd no business with
anything so grand. But all the neigh
bors he'd he'd new shawls that fall, even
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 l thought ter myself how
this one would be crazy with envy when
she saw me sail out in my new Cash
mere, and the other one and her Bay
State would be cast inter the shade.
$50, without onst thinking that l
hedn't nothing, like gowns and fixings,
ter correspond, l jest paid Miss Niles
the money, and carried my shawl up
stairs Wa'al, she want no sooner out
of the house than I'd give farm not ter
hev bought it but l wus too proud ter
call her back, and I've allus he'd her
heavy on my mind, as well as the shawl;
for, You know, she wus lost a-going ter |
Indy, and somehow felt sortof respon-
sible-seeing, too, rs she WIS the last of |
her family. Wa'al, John he didn't know
| he'd the hunderd dollars-Fd KEEP it |
fur surprise-and now couldn't make |
up my mind ter tell him about the shawl. |
So when it came Sunday 1 put it on with
my old delaine, and my rough-and-r d-ready
straw bonnet, and sneaked down the |
back stairs ter meeting without saying
a word ter him he hedn't got able ter
be out himself-and L felt so horrid
mean about it that when Miss Jenkins
said. What splendid new shawl you're