Huntington advertiser. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1874-1921, 1875-03-04
TOM HARRIsON's WINDFALL

TOM HARRISON'S WINDFALL
Tom Harrison and his pretty little
wife sat together disconsolately a,
their evening meal in the one room
which served them for parlor, kitch'
en- and bedchamber combined. II
was not by any means palatial resi-
dence, for the house in which they
lived was in one of those narrow, ill
paved and dingy streets that form
sort of human rabbit warren about
the purlieus of Gray's-inn road. MOI
was the banquet an epicurean one
consisting as it did, and it was dinner
tea and supper all together, of tea
without either milk or sugar, stale
bread, (and not much of that,) and
two small herrings, denominated by
courtesy yarmouth bloaters," but
which had probably been cured III
the vicinity of Bethnalgreen or Lis
son-gove.
Tom was a wine-merchant's clerk.
out of employment, a rather nice
looking, tall, tawny-mustached iel
lew of about eight and twenty. His
wife was perhaps three years younger
than himself. a pleasant faced. cheer
full little body, a type of English wo
man very common, thank heaven
nthis our vast Babylon. She had
been a shop girl before her marriage,
and now that she and her husband
had fallen on adverse times, had re
sumed her employment, the few shil
lings she earned weekly being all up
on which the luckless young couple
had to live.
Lima Harrison was from "home,
such Us it was, from s a. m, during
which hours poor Tom was wearing
out shoe-leather by peregrinating the
streets of London in the vain search
after employment. But for his CHEEKY
little wife, a veritable "cricket on
the HEARTH" the young clerk, who
was not naturally of an impatient
and desponding temperament, would
have utterly given way.
Lima it was who, with a bright
smile or light just on the inconveni
ence of poverty, caused the bony her
ring to taste as we'll in the mouth as
a haunch of venison, and even the
bitter, sugarless tea to do duty fol
the toothsomeness of burgundy oil
champagne.
Truly, the wisest of all men never
more showed his wisdom than when hi
gave the preference to dinner O.
herbs with love to Il dinner of roas
beef without.
1t was not the young clerks fault
he was out OF work. He had beer
employed by a firm who had failed
for large amount in a fraudulent
fashion, and other firms were very
chary of accepting testimonials as tC
character from those whose good wore
was in itself no recommendation. s.
poor Tom, in old slippers and mucl
worn smoking cap, sat morosely sip
ping his unpalatable tea, out of sort
with himself and all the world, fol
Mrs. Crouchcr, the landlady, will
that disagreeable popularity of heI
tribe, began to talk about 'her" money
Gas if it could be hers before it wa
earned y and to. slam doors and dea
out black looks, as if The one grea
duty of the larger portion ofmankinc
was to live like the proverbial hors'
on one straw a day, in order to Civ,
to landladies the means of goin.
about in purple and fine linen.
A nice fix this, Lima" said Tom
sulkily, turning over the starvelin!
herring on his cracked delf plate. :.
wish that old mother Croucher haC
six months in the House of Correc
tion to take down some of her fat
How does she get it, except by liv
ing on her dodgers? And that laz,,
brute OF a husband of hers neveI
does a stroke of work"
"Oh, hush, DEAR replied littl
Mrs. Harrison, filling up her hus
bands cup with the weak decoctior
of sloe-leaves that did duty for tea
latter all she only asked for her own.
"Her own! l hate that landlady'
expression. How can it be hers be
fore it is ours? That everlasting cry
My money, my money, l want m,
money is enough to drive a fellow
mad"
And Tom kicked off one of hi
slippers viciouslv, and stuck the forl
into his herring as if he wished that i
were Mrs. Crouch upon whom HI
was pouring out the vials of his wrath
His wife made no answer, not vel
knowing, poor little thing, how t.
cast oil upon the troubled waters O.
her husbands mind"