Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1878-03-08
MISS BERTHA'S VALENTINE.
Harpcr's Bazaar.

llarpcrs Bazaar.
Every body said that Miss Bertha
vas very much alone in the world, won.
flered what ON earth she would do if her
eyes and health SHOULD fail her. and
subtracts nothing from the pocket, but
leaves Il residue Of selfsatStaction in
the conscience, while they paid as little
for her services as they could help.
But Miss Bertha never yrumbled; she
put as many stitches and aS much eve.
sight into the fine sewing rs if she had
been paid u ducat for every stitch. 1t
Was her way never to slight any thing.
But sewing was not the only occupation
in which she cXcelled. If any poor
struggling mother with little children
toddlng about her fell i'll, Miss Bertha
quilted her needle into her cushion and
stepped into the breach; when watch
crS failed, Miss Bertha came to the
front; and when the smallpox visited
the little seaport of Great Harrington,
ii was She who went about from house
20 house giving draughts and doses,
comforting the dying, and making the
last ghastly toilette for the dead.
"What does it matter to MOP" she
said, when some one eXpostulated at the
risk .sThnre'S nobody III the wide
world to mind whether | live or die.
I'm the light of nobody's eyes, and as
for diotigurcment-law | left OIL Fearing
for my good looks, such rs they were,
twenty years ago. Time was when |
should have been as scared as any Of
you about being marked and losing my
complexion, but it doesn't signify in the
least now. Ii were ugly as night
mare, folks would give me their sewing
TO do Just the same, suppose"
"Oh. but | should hate to be so dis
figured that Sam wouldn't like to look
at mel said Sue Blair, all pink and
white, and eighteen, with the world be-
fore her.
al dare say; but there's no Sam to
care whether I'm fright or not" and
Miss Bertha drew in her breath with d
quick gasp, as if the fact hurt her.
You don't know, Miss Bertha, !"
laughed giddy Sue; your Sam may be
on the road to you"
"A precious long road
"Why, Aunt Janet was rs old as the
Hills before she married IJncle Arte-
mas, and Parson Chapelrs second wife
was 10 chicken Every body has
chances, they say"
=" Yes, suppose every body has
chances; but some Of them are mighty
small-hardly worth calculating" she
returned.
Miss Bertha, to he sure, never accept
I'd ANYTHING but thanks for these ser
vices in the sick-room; indeed, few
dreamed Of offering any remuneration,
One might have supposed that the uni
verse had provided her for their benefit,
along with seed-time and harvest, the
common mir, and other common bles-
sings for which nobody was expected to
render any return other than to make
use Of them. Her neighbors staid 1T
home, sitting with burned birthstone
and u camphorated atmosphere, and
yet caught the infection, while she
walked abroad in the thick Of it, shirk-
ing nothing, ard came out like those
bold men from the fiery furnace, I'M
scathed, yet more or less reduced in
finances. She was a cheerful body, and
doubtless sent 10 carry warmth and
healing into the slck-room. But poor
Miss Bertha had not always been old
and useful and thoughtful for others.
You must have been pretty once,
that needless chatterer Sue Blair had
said 70 her one day.
What makes you think so?' asked
Bertha lifting her faded eyes TO the
mirror. It is like tracing the exist
ence of the extinct meratherium from
footprint in the rock.
But Sue spoke truly. Bertha had
been fair in her day: the hair that was
white AZ ncw-fallen snow had once been
brown and bonny; the eyes. which to-
day we're sunkcn and pale, had looked
out like lucent beryls from under dark
lashes; time and toil and trouble had
robbed the satin skin Of il fine texture,
and scanned it with many line; little
of youth remained to her but heart
alive to generous impulses, and the co!-
or that still burned iii her cheeks in