The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-02-19


her character, what value would she be
likely to attach to that? 50 Becky lost
caste; only the poorer portion Of the com
munity brought their dry goods for her to
fashion, and presently even they came to
be afraid of losing their pieces, complain
ed of the quantity of stuffs it took for q
gown, without taking into account the
extra flouncing and ruching which the
new styles demanded. -
One morning Becky found herself in
debt to her landlady, and, throwing hel
patterns and fashion plates into the fire, she
went to the overseer of the Warp and
Wool Mills end begged employment. OF
course she got'lt. Honesty wasn't nee
essary qualification for weaving cotton.
Mr.. Derris thought he knew more than
one of the hands who helped herself of
the company's web few yards at q time.
But then he believed that if you wish to
make people. good, you must keep them
busy and out of want. He used to say
that taking away girls employment be.
cause she's sinner is the same thing as
sending her. to perdition by lightning
express. He had heard the reports about
DcCky-dS VINO u8u uOt .-QuC tIlC 1kOulCuG
he saw her he said to himself: =
They're a pack of:=,fess nobody could
look and speak like that and break the
commandments too
Aid so lieSfdid not give himself the
trouble of watching herr; he paid her
the compliment Of believing in-her at
once.l -
: The fashions underwent a transforma-
tion the next 'antumn. This might seem
to bear no relation to the fortunes Of such
an Insignificant being as Becky, if we were
not often admonished that help comes to
us from unexpected sources. A few peo-
pie in Paris undertook to4dictate paniers
and basques, and total change of design
in the genera toilette, without sus;
ton. i4 the affairs Of little mill girl in
Mrs. Random took down the gold-col-
ored silk and looked at it with a profound
sight, was utterly out of fashion, and
it had cost so much! But, in virtue of its
being very long and full, there was q
pleasing possibility that it might be-
worked over into over skirt and basque,
with open sleeves. She had always de-
tested those close sleeves, they were so
angular, and made her feel all arms and
elbows; and then she began to wish that
Rebecca Gerrish was at hand to effect the
change; for Miss Stitcherly was forty
miles away, up foursfights otstaiRst With
the variOlOida next door. Therefore Mrs
Random was fain to take her own scis-
sors and the gold. colored silk, and sit
down to it, in imminent peril of Tommy's
breaG-and- butter fingers. Rip, rip, rip;
how many miserable little stitches Becky
had put into it'll OF what had she been
thinking during the processf Had she been
making up her mind to keep the bill If
the stitches could be interpreted like the
telegraphic symbols, would they tell the
story Of her struggle?
Langstrath came in to tea while Mrs.
Random was ripping the last sleeve.
"What are you about!" he asked.
I'm ripping my gold-colored silk"
said She. "lt has all gone by" z~: ,:~s
Pm glad of it." he returned, with q
sigh. Il wish it had never been begun.
1t makes me shudder every time look
at it,"
"Then don't look at it," she said,
Grossly. dear me, should think she
had stitched this piping with castirOn
thread. There! Oh, Martin! See here!
Oh, poor Recky!; What shaN 1 dor" =. =
What is its": he asked, staring at the
name; "what is it?''
"See! Look! It's the ifty-dollar bill
The very one! Here under. the lining of
my sleeve!'
True enough. Itshad doubtless slinped
in there when she dropped them alto
gether to run and pick up Tommy; and
there it had waited an opportunity OF
proving Becky's innocence!
That very evening Langstrath hunted
up Becky's boarding house, asked for q
private interview, wherein he begged her
forgiveness, and pleaded the love that he
had never been able to conquer, and ended
by offering her the first place in his heart
and home. But he was a little .sardy. a.:
IL don't mind owning" confessed
Becky, "that once I would have given all
the world to hear you speak like this but
now, Mr.. Langstrath, l cannot find any
love in my heart for man who has shown
such an utter want of faith in me. Ten
thousand angels could not have shaken
my confidence in you at that time"
"Yet my love has survived yours" he
urged. (which of us do you think loved
mOst!"
you may have loved most, but surely
I loved best"
''And is there no spark left of it which
Imay hope to rekindle by years of devO-
tion?"
No; you extinguished it yourself, and
I do not wish to complain"
But as Mr.. Langstrath departed Mr..
Derris entered "What has happened."
said he, for there were tears in Becky's
eyes. 'Are you ill! Did Mr.. Langstrath
bring you bad news?"
"He brought me the news that he loved
mel"
'And you are weepings When T. told
you the same story, you did not take it so
much to hearth"
Tell it to me again, and see," she an
swered; and suppose that he must have
obeyed. her, for shortly after Becky be-
came Mrs. Derris. = -
Since that time MIR. Derris has bought
out the Warp and Wool Mills, and Becky
rides in her carriage, as her ancestors
did before her, and fares sumptuously
every day; while Mrs. Random is more
strongly fortified than ever in her opin.
ion that 'blood will tell" and Mr.. Lang.
srath is still a bachelor. -Harper's
Sasar: s...: "'< -.e.a.
What Happened in OswegO.
THE Oswe 20 Times has good story to
tell, in connection with the literary piracy
in which the students in Our colleges and
academies indulge The late b. p. Page
the first principal of the Albany State
Normal School, made one morning be
fore the whole school remarks to the fol-
lowing purport: He said that few years
previous, while travelling in Massachu
sets, his wife, at hotel, found an article
| in n m anaxina which innrnssod her 90 fa