The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-03-11

| could not well afford the time to enter into
details himself; but he felt forced to do it.
and after a series of exhaustive calcula-
| tions and the experiment of two of the
longest months he had ever passed, he
established a schedule of quantities and
prices tor Melindy's guidance that she
both scolded and laughed over, but all in
vain.
81 should like to know, Mr. Griffin, how
ever, you're to have molasses cake once a
week for your Sunday tea, and sweetenin
in the pies, and sass to your griddles"
| (dear reader, she meant cakes fried on
griddle. 1t is an abtruse figure of speech)
ION pint OF molasses a week -
"Leave off the cake then, Melindy, - re-
sponded the stern guardian of cents
''And pound of butter a week. Ny
goodness gracious. Your mother and me
used three
"Well, you won't here. 1t is strange
enough how little it cost YOU two to live
IN Peterstown and what you spend here
"Land alive. We Jest about lived on
garden sass nd eggs, nd old hens md salt
pork. We raised the sass in the garden
| ourselves, nd the chickens picked up a
livin' round the lots We killed off all but
two hens md a rooster long in the tall"
''Well. well, we'll y growled Mr.. Grif-
fin. We've got to live; but won't have
extravaganza
''And l won't starve, neither,'' stoutly
responded Melindy. Il can get places
enough where Ill get good victuals and
good wages, Mr.. Griffin. But | calculate
to stay with you for spell, if you treat
me half way decent; cause | liked your
mother real well and | come here a pur-
pose But-''
Mr.. Griffin stopped the incipient threat.
Melindy had cowed him. He looked with
horror at the loss of time and money that
would follow another overturning of his
| household goods
well, well, Melindy, You shan't starve;
only do your best to save what you can.
Living is awful in New York. I'm not a
rich man, Melindy; but depend on you
to stop. You promised for a year, you
know
Mr.. Griffin told two lies in this brief
speech; but far better men than he, yea,
men who | have known mighty in church
and state. men of spotless standing and
unimpeachable piety, will lie on a matter
of business. They don't call a spade a
spade, to be sure; lying has as many
aliases as sneak thief And to lie about
buying and selling is probably a stern but
sad necessity. In fact as my very candid
washer-Woman said to me the other day
''Sure we'd never get along without a bit
iv a lie sometimes" feel a strange want
of faith in her excuses and pititul tales
| ever since. ! also find that | do not be-
lieve with alacrity the statements of A, B,
and G, whom have casually caught prac-
tlcing the same little necessity; but then
| am an old-tashioned person, out of date
Yes, Mr.. Griffin told two lies. He said
he was not rich 1t is true. riches are
comparative. lie was worth half a mil
lion; but how many men are worth three
whole ones. On the whole | am ready to
agree with Mr.. Grit1in's lie, for in truth it
was true. He was q poor man, poorer
than the cripple who sold him his daily
paper, for that cripple had a heart and
home-cellar if it were. 1t held loyal
loving Woman's heart and the rich prom
ise OF child's joyful, tender life-luxures
too great for Mr. Griffin. Doubly poor
he was, for he had no wealth of resource.
no enioyments of his boards except in
their boarding, no keen pleasure Of the
eye that seeing him blessed him, and the
ear that hearing his voice rejoiced One
day there should ring in his ears, too late,
the awful admonition that the poor of his
sort received
''Because thou sayest | am rich and in
creased with goods, and have need Of
| nothing, and l1nowest net tns,t thou ;rt
| wretched and miserable and poor and
| blind and naked. | counsel thee to buy OF
me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest
| be rich
The other lie was about Melindy's prom
| ise. He had said, II expect you to stay
with me one year on trial, and being
| busted about some imminent matter, Me-
| Indy made no answer. "Silence gives
consent" must be Mr.. Griifin's excuse tor
this lie
SO Mclindy stayed and economical and
grew thin, but happy; for after the s
o'clock dinner was done her employer
retired to the small parlor and studied
the newspapers, made his plans for the
next days campaign, summed up his
gains and his losses, gave that which he
called his soul to the utter contemplation
of stocks and bonds, hovered like q very
| busy and anxious bee over the respective
morning glory flowers OF Harlem, Erie,
| Pacific, New York Central, Airline, and
so on, nd 70useaA1, betaking himself to
| the deadnesS OF an OYer-Wrought brain,
which took the place OF sleep with, him
about ten o'clock, leaving Melindy free for
prayer meeting or for home-keeping-the
| DAYS one rest for her-When sometimes q
| good book John Perkins lent her, some
times the weekly paper from PeterstoWn,
not unfrequently the presence of John
| Perkins himself come for ''a dish of talk
as Melindy said, satisfied her honest, un-
exacting soul and kept her content. For
it cannot be denied that at first Melindy
was bitterly homesick. York" as .
place of residence, had lost all the fair
aspect distance lent it. Broadway and
its tabled glories were two good miles
away from Melindy She had neither
time nor money to explore its magnih-
cence; she had not even been to Bar
NUNS Museum. The ways OF housekeep-
ing in a city flat were entirely new to her
| and yery hard Her outdoors was gone
and every country housekeeper knows
what refreshing margin ''outdoors' is.
Melindy grew pale, sometimes listless
She begun to save her money, to turn
and twist her dresses, old and plain now,
into some vague attempt at fashion. She
would have been spoiled, washed out, and
pressed down into drudge Of the merest
routine but for John Perkins.
| And there was something in Melindy
that charmed Jack nightly. The rough
old proverb that every Jack has his Jill
expresses, like many another proverb,
radical truth; that in every human being
there is something attractive to some other
of its kind-some grain OF beauty that all
eyes do not see, some inward lovliness
unveiled only to the true worshiper, some
| spark from the great God-shining that
called us all out of dust and quickeped US
to living souls. 1t was rare to John Per-
kins, as an orchis on the pavement would
| have been, to find a fresh nature like Me
lindy's, a woman of nearly MS own age
who had never seen theatre, did not
know the inside of a museum, was not
even aware what a valentine was till John
one January evening was telling Of his
last years experience in sending a valen
| tine to little crippled Girl, with whose