The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-01-05

half IS yours, SAID the master. Will
have none of them save this pearl, re-
piled the clerk; "and oh my master,
would give it to the most beautiful, the
chastest girl in Venice, thy daughter. .
"Take them both." cried the merchant.
"And have seen, added John Austin,
with an astounding amount of convic-
ton, as he finished his ernst, sat the
Metropolitan Museum OF Art, on free
days, when it is open, and when / go
there to keep warm, the very piece of
old majolica that shipping-clerk had
made to present to his mistress as a
dedicatery offering expressive of his love.
Yes, the absolute plate in which he put
the big pearl"
The mans breakfast was over, ayand
buttoning on his threadbare overcoat he
hurried down the dirty stairs of his tene-
ment-house, stopping just a moment to
caress little girl who loitered on the
| landing.
"See," said the child, showing bit
of faded silk, and holding up needle IN
her small, blue fingers, for it was bitterly
cold and gusty in the passage, '' mother
has given me q piece of an old dress she
was turning. If only had some beads
to trim it with I am going to make
myself dolls dress for Christmas. If
only had doll to dress |"
"No doll9 That is hard, little sister.
And is to- morrow positively Christmasl"
inquired John Austin, as if with some
vague idea, for the child's sake, at least,
that there was some possibility of max
ing Christmas a movable holiday.
"Mother had saved some money to
buy me doll, but father is worse, and
the money had to be spent for cough
mixture"
"You do not say so" The mans
and was in his pocket. Had his twenty
five cents by any chance been divided up
then, there might have been twenty
cents between him and nothing.
Now John Austin was in the streets,
and the stupid fellow was wondering
over story he had picked up some
where, all about great Russian Prince,
in the time of Peter the Great, who
happened to have been born just about
that time. How peasant of the
Ukraine, who never before in his life
had done anything else but chop down
fir trees with his hatchet, as if by inspir-
alton, in anticipation of the happy
event, under imperial command, of
course, had made a complete set of au-
tomato soldiers, an army in fact, with
music and Generals in front, and cavalry
and artillery, and how it all worked, the
soldiers presenting arms, the cavalry
charging, the artillery cannonading, and
the trumpets blowing. John Austin
saw it all, and had become even for the
moment godfather to some possible
Gar, when into one corner of his pict-
ure there was protruded a little wan
face that had not even doll, and the
fancy was gone. Mechanically walking
along, John Austin now found himself
quite suddenly amid an assemblsge of
men and boys, all wanting to be ship
ping clerks, in the act of besieging
business house. "There are people
enough here" thought John, "to fur
nish two men per package for every lot
of goods to be shipped out OF the port
of New York for the next month.
wonder whether, in the present dearth
of work, an advertisement headed,
Hands wanted, might not bring out
Briareus in person9"
Presently John had his innings. The
faiAtest appreciation of the postulant's
presence on the part of q STRIPPING in
office, who cast rapid side-glance on
John Austin, assured the supplicant that
at least his chances of filling the position
were in the highest degree problemat-
ical.
Perhaps that clerk" thought John
Austin, "has been bred up in the house
for this particular line of duty, selecting
shipping clerks, and exercises his calling
with some fine shadings of discrimina-
ton, which can neither understand nor
appreciate"
"You are too DID," said the clerk.
How too oldg"
eve want a young man. Can't you
understands"
"Here is my name with good refer
ences. May / call againl"
Perfectly useless, replied the young
man. But John had pushed in to the
clerk his rather dingy letter of recon-
mendation, which told how the bearer
had really been confidential clerk for
twenty years in q respectable house, and
how by their failure, John Austin at the
age of 80 had been turned adrift.
"I say-no use at all for this" cried
the clerk, as he picked up Johns thumb
marked paper, and tried to shove it back
through the pigeon-hole. But John
Austin had gone. His rude reception
as the possible incumbent of the position
advertised for had not disturbed him a
particle. His experience for the last
year had been pretty much of the same
character.
John Austin went up Broadway with
brisk step. He would go to the
Cooper Institute or the Astor Library,
and would pass some three hours there.
The temperature there was always pleas
ant-he might read book. Then there
was baker on Fourth avenue who sold
a very superior loaf of bread for 8 cents.
John Austin knew that, for he was criti-
cal in regard to the staff of life. He
passed hack-stand by the City Hall,
and remembered when cab-drivers al.
ways said to him, Hack, sir9" Z" That
inquiry" thought John Austin, de-
pends solely upon how man is dressed.
Once they used to apostrophize me"
John now pondered about clothes, and
gazed at large poster pasted against
the front of q store, which announced
"that for only thirty daysand no more,
the entire stock of clothing would be
/