Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-01-20

THE BlMBER F0RrUyE.
A New YEARS STORY.

On the last day of the old year Mrs.
Bamber entered her shop. and served her
customers abstractedly, for her mind was
full of trouble. She was the most cheer
full and sprightly of little women, with
bright. keen blue eyes, rudy bloom in
her soft wrinkled cheeks. aud haxen hair
arranged in stiff curls about her forehead;
bat to-day the demand of small boy, in
shrfll tones, for bottle of Bamber's Drops
failed to produce the delight usually man.
ifested bv her under such circumstances.
Bamber's Drops was the remedy of her
late husband for all the ills flesh is heir to,
and Mrs. Bamber believed in it firmly with
the ardor of a sanguine nature and loving
heart. The late DR.. Bamber's star had
set in sadness and gloom before an I'M
sympathizing world had consented to take
his panacea by the tea-spoonful. As far
as the will Of the fragile and very deter
mined woman could make the world re-
scind its objections, Mrs. Bamber had pre-
pared herself for the battle. When the
small boy had taken himself off with his
purchase, she leaned her elbow on the
counter and sighed deeply.
ITO think OF the Platts coming to this
If Archibald was alive, instead of only his
wife He knew deal about law, poor
dear, and needed it to, what with imtators
and spurious articles to injure the trade.
/ would sell out. and give them every
penny, if could find a purchaser, and ii
wasn't all so sudden. Archibald was
grateful to his dying breath, and I'm not
likely to forget that we owe everything to
DR.. Plat. Dear, dear! Five thousand
dollars, OF forecIosed mortgage. tell
you it's pure spite in that Hiram briggs
he don't know how 10 behave himself yet
as rich man."
Mrs. Bamber's gaze strayed anxiously
about the place, a. if searching for way
out of her difficulties. Did the clew actual
" lie in her grasp without her being aware
OF itp The shop was very Tiny, but ex
quisitely neat. and the variety of articles
for sale, which made it almost museum,
were arranged with certain artistic per-
ception of harmonious coloring. The late
DR.. Bamber had been chemist. and one
side of the place was still devoted to those
medicines which a woman may dispense
without being licensed apothecary; but
the rest of his stock had been removed
across the way to the new drug store,
which was grief to Mrs. Bamber's soul,
books, stationery and gay worsteds.
"Why should not be the apothecary
after Archibald?" she had said to DR.. Platt
with an energetic nod ofthe head. Don't
know as much as Peyton? ?"
Peyton was the rival over the way. DR..
Plat, rosy, good-natured gentleman,
had made some soothing response calcu-
lated to mollify feminine vanity, and sug-
gested the stationery department as fresh
field of usefulness.
Mrs. Bamber's eyes rested on the vol
umes opposite, package of valentines in
which the town INDUCED at the proper
season, jumping-jack dangling helpless
~ from nail. Never by any chance did
her gaze wander to the shop window,
She went over to the other side and
opened showcase, which contained fat
pincushions and impossible pen-wipers,
articles made by old ladies' of the reduced
gentlewoman type, and presented here
for sale.
Il believe that l would sell my own
soul to raise the money and help them out
of trouble" said Mrs. Bamber, vehement
ly and then she took up pincushion as
il in hopes it might turn 10 gold in her
hand. Pooh these things have lain here
for years. What good are they p
An aquarium occupied place in the
centre of the shop-a crystal house where
silky fibres of sea-weed grew about MINI
ic grottoes, and fish of metallic hues flashed
through thewaters. A guilty pang smote
the little woman at the sight of it. In all
these years of hard work and lonely wild
owhood the aquarium was the only extrav
agance she had allowed herself, and often
would she spend her time of rest gazing
into the miniature water-worla. If she
could now give the money it had cost to
the Plat family
A white CLEAN came softly through the
window from the snow-coyered street
winter seemed to muffie the the town of
Stoneport in mantle of silence, setting
each household in a separate atmosphere
-: ,..'s.li<SSdgalty, Up on the hill. where
genteel Stoneport dwelt in large, old-fash-
Toned mansions. the music of sleigh-bells
and merry voices were to be heard, but
down here on the main street the af-
ternoon fell in quiet, cold. deserted by
traffic as soon as the sun Quilted the mar
row thoroughiare.
Miss Simmins. the milner, pecred from
her window, and Mr. Peyton, the druggist
opposite, polished his door panes mechan.
ically with hit of channels leather The
harbor, now dark and wind-tretted, lapsed
up TO Mrs. Bamber's very back door. Pi-
rates might have landed and carried her
off at midnight, if they had been disposed,
although Mrs. Bamber was not dauntcd
by fear Of such violent abduction. la the |
old days piratical crews in rakish craft /
from the Spanish Main had not been I'M
known in the waters of this very harbor,
and Stoneport had been more intimately
associated with the slave trade than |
was good for its reputation at future
date. Like so many towns on the coast
Of New England, prosperity had ebbed
away. the bud OF promise been blighted
by some mysterious Huctua,ion OF COM
merce. There were those who detected
a righteous Nemesis in the decay OF Stone
port, and here it was left 10 crumble away
in the sunshine, moss-grown memory OF
the past. The shop-bell rang suddenly
and girl entered.
.'Oh, Mrs. Bamber!n she cried; and
throwing her arms impulsiyely about the
little woman, burst into tears.
The girl was taller and larger than her
companion. and yet clung to her
Al