The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1878-09-07
MISS ASHBELL.

CONSERVATION was depicted on the
faces OF the family group assembled to
hear it, when I finished reading the let
ter had just received from aunt.
The group consisted of myself Mary,
eldest daughter of the house and hearth
brown, dark-eyed, tall, and eighteen;
Helen, not quite as brown, hazel-eyed,
almost as tall, and sixteen; Will, brown
er, darker-eyed, a head shorter, and ten;
and Carol, towering above us all, blue
eyed, fair haired, golden-mustached, and
twenty-one.
Aunt was, in fact, our great-aunt, sis
ter of our fathers mother, but the only
aunt, great or little, that we had ever
known. We had met her but two or
three times during our lives, as she lived
in far-away Illinois, and was too much
occupied with grains and herds to think
Of frequent visiting, and we-well, we
were too poorly provided with gold and
silver to be able to take long and ex-
pensiye journeys. So what little visiting
there had been had been on our aunt's
side, with one exception, and then I was
the visitor. It was when was about
fifteen this short but memorable visit
took place. Yielding to aunt's repeated
solicitations-I was her namesake--I
started from home with the intention of
spending the summer months on the
Illinois farm. arrived there safely,
was welcomed heartily, and entertained
right royalty; but before week had
passed away had grown so tired of the
seeming boundlessness of every thing,
and longed SO for the little cottage and
Lilliputian garden where grew my three
rose -bushes-one red, one white, and one
a creamy yellow-that aunt, seeing the
longing IN my eyes, said, Child, you
must go back, and back came long
before I was expected, but my dear
father and mother assured me not a
moment too soon.
We children had always heard twice o
year from aunt-once collectively at
Christmas, and once respectively on our
birthdays each time the kindly
note which e1horted us to s'be good,
industrious, and self-reliant, +" inclosed a
check larger or smaller, according to
aunt's gains the preceding year. These
notes we had been taught to answer with
many wishes for the old lady's welfare,
and thanks for her kindnesses, and hopes
for speedy meeting: in short, in a
manner beftting the only nieces and
nephews Of the Carmody family when
replying to the friendly epistles of their
only aunt, to say nothing of that aunt
being the wealthiest and most influential
member Of that family.
A few days before our father died he
called us together, and said: 'sMy chill
dren, it ism t at all likely to occur, but
if ever aunt should ask favor of you,
grant it, at no matter what inconven-
ience. She has been my best and dear
est friend"
; Poor father I suspect aunt had
often helped, him out of pecuniary
difficulties. He was an impractical,
dreamy sort of man, fond of birds and
poetry and flowers, and didn't succeed
very well in life. But, in spite of his
dreaminess and his want of worldly tact,
and his being SO totally unlike her in
most ways, he was great favorite of
aunt's, and when we telegraphed his
serious illness to her she left her vast
possessions without captain at mo-
ment's notice, and hastened to his side,
making her appearance in bonnet that
Immediately suggested the prairies, it
was so unlimited as to size and so bare
of ornament, and which grotesquely
obtruded itself into the remembrance Of
that sad time forever after.
Since fathers death things hadn't
been very bright with us. Tn fact, they
hadn't been bright at all.
We found there was a good deal of
money owing, and what remained of the
two hundred dollars aunt gave us on the
day of the funeral l-she bade us 6 good
bye " the instant the ceremonies were
over after cur very cheap mourning
was paid for, went to the butcher,
grocer and shoemaker.
We were all willing to do, ard all did,
whatever we could toward supporting
the household; but, dear dear talk
about weeds, I never saw anything
grow like bills.
Jarrol, who had an artistic turn of
mind, struggled with it, and I, who had
q dressmaking turn of mind, struggled
with that, and Helen struggled with her
books, hoping to become q teacher in
time, and little VIII struggled with
somebody else's books, for he went into
publishing house as errand- boy poor
fellowl
Besides the struggles, we had mother
on our minds. A few weeks after we
lost our father we lost our baby sister.
A beautiful child she was, as bright as a
diamond and as fair as pearl, and the
pride and darling of us all. Already
sinking beneath the blow of her hus-s
bands death, when her little daughter
lied, too, my mothers heart was almost
broken. From being a sunshiny, en-.
ergetic, busy woman, she became listless
and apathetic. sitting in her room day
after day gazing upon the pictures Of
the loved ones, or rocking back and
forth, her hands clasped before her,
looking with dry eyes upon vacancy.
g O that she could be made to weep /
that she could be reused from this
dreadful speechless gloom into which
she had fallen r. was our continual
prayer, for the terrible thought came to-
us often that We should lose our mother
in a much worse way than we had our
father and sister-that her brain would
at last give way beneath its weight of
heavy, despairing thocghts.
Well, the exch0quer Was low enough /