Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-12-23
TROTTIE,S DREAM.
A Christmas Story.

A Christmas Story.
On Christmas eve, 1871, two poor girls,
averaging between twenty and twenty.
two years of age, quilted large biscuit
manufactory in Rotherhithe, in which
they we're employed, and continued their
way westward towards the Borough,
conversing as they went in what manner
they should spend the next day. One
of them, who lived in Lambeth, said to
the other:
cat our house we intend to have q
regular joliacation, and I mean to spend
eighteen pence of the money I've earned
during the week in buying bottle OF
good rum, to give my father and mother
a treat of punch. And very happy we
shall be together, for my brother Tom
has just come home from sea, and
Martha has got holiday for three days
from the shop she works at in Piccadilly
What do you intend doing, Trottie 3
amt you going to give your people 6
treata"
Trottie, pretty brunette, replied thai
she was rather puzzled what to do.
"The fact is," she said, "we're in
great deal of trouble at home. Father,
who works in the docks, has been thrown
out of employment through the continu,
ance of the east wind, which keeps the
shipping from coming up the channel,
and poor John, my brother, who worked
in the silk factory, has 80 sprained bus
leg that it is probable he will not be able
to 90 to work again for some weeks tc
come. If it had not been for what
have earned. and mother picking uf
something at umbrella making, we
should be pretty well starved. As it is,
the two little ones, Kate and Johnny,
are getting so pale and thin for want OF
nourishment, it quite goes to my hear,
to see them. Still, should like to give
poor father treat if I could, for he's
very low-spirited, and it would cheer
him up little, aud do him good"
"You'd better do SO, said her com
panion; "and depend upon it, it won't
be money thrown away. It's only fair
daughter should think of her father and
mothers comforts.
By this time the two girls had arrived
at the corner of Tooley street, In the
Borough, and after very afectionate
parting, each wishing the other the com
pliments of the season, the one hurried
southwark to her home in Lambeth, and
Trottie continued her way onwards over
London bridge towards the Commercial
road, where, in a by street, her parents
resided, thinking as she went over the
conversation she had with her friend.
The poor girl was in state OF grea,
indecision. She much wished to pur'
chase the rum, but she had heard hel
father say it was his intention to take
the pledge. He knew, he said, severa
men who worked in the docks who hao
done so, and their report was that no
only could they perform their work fully
as well and with as little inconvenience
to themselves as when taking three OF
four pints of beer during the day, but,
in point of fact, found them in better
health than before; they rose fresher IN
the morning, and went to bed feeling
less fatigued in the evening; also that
their wives and families were made the
more comfortable, on account OF the
money economized from the public
house. Still, Trottie argued, her father
and mother had not yet taken the pledge,
and therefore she would not be tempting
them to break it. They could have
happy evening tomorrow, and then be-
come teetotallers, if they pleased, the
next morning. Aud then it occurred tc
her that, suppose they did not, would
sbe. in auy manner, have made herself
snswerable in keeping them from theil
good resolution2 Other thoughts then
came into her head. The family lardel
was at very low ebb, and would
it not be better to give her mother the
money she had earned, to expend In
good nourishing food for the family In
stead of DIR nka
Poor Trottie continued onwards in q
state of lamentable incertitu Ie. At last
she came to conclusion. On passing
fiaring gin palace in Whitechapel, which,
from the splendor of lis decorations,
probably surpassed Aladdin's palace
with the exception that the quaint Ori-
entail magnifccnce of the latter might
be worthy of some admiration, wh,,e the
e1ecrable taste displayed in the former
was worthy of all reprobation), her eye
was attracted by the glare of gas, plate
glass, and gliding. She looked at the
building for moment, and found, among
other labels, embossed in golden letters,
in the window: Fine old Jamaica
Rum, eighteen pence bottle" The
words seemed to cast singular spell
over Trottie, and she could not keep hel
eyes from them.
At last the truth of the proverb,
"What is done cannot be undone, D
came across her mind, and she resolved
to enter the gin shop and purchase q
bottle of rum. But attractive as the
show and fuery of the place might have
appeared from the outside, and although
the gliding and appointments on the liz
side were even more lavish than on the
exterior, she soon found that she was
in a most uncongenid atmosphere
There was a crowd composed of womer
of the lowest character, worklngmer
land, alas some also had their wives
with them), soldiers from the Tower
sailors, and others, few being quite
sober, the majority slightly intoxicated
and some positively drunk. There wai