Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1878-05-15
MISS BERTHA'S VALENTINE.

Miss bEkIhA'S NALENIINE.
Everybody said that Miss Berth
was very much alone in the worlC
wondered what on earth she woul
do if her eyes and health shoul
fail her, and pi:ied her in that easy
going way which subtracts nothing
from the pocket, but leaves a resi-
due of dissatisfaction in the con
science, while they paid as little 70
her services as they could help
But Miss Bertha never grumbled
she put as many stitches and a.
much eye-sight into the fine sewing
as if she had been paid ducat for
every stitch. 1t was her way never
to slight anything. But sewing
was not the only occupation in
which she excelled. II any poor,
struggling mother with little child
rem toddling about her fell i'll, Miss
Bertha quilted her needle into her
cushion and stepped into the
breach when watchers failed, Miss
Bertha came to the front; and
when the smallpox visited the lit
tie seaport of Great Harrington,
it was she who went about from
house to house, giving draughts
and doses, comforting the dying,
and making the last CHASTITY toilette
for the dead.
"What does it matter to me 2"
she said, when some one expostu-
lated at the risk. "There's nobody
in the world to mind whether | live
or die. I'm the light of nobody's
eyes, and, as for Disagreement
law ! | left off caring for my good
looks, such as they were, twenty
yeas ago. Time was when / should
have been as scared as any of you
about being marked and losing my
but it doesn't signify
in the least now. If Iwere as ugly
as nightmare, folks would give
me their sewing to do just the
same, / suppose"
"Oh, but l should hate to be- so
disfgured that Sam wouldn't like
to look at me !" said Sue Blair, all
pink and white, and Is, with the
world before her.
81 dare say; but there's no Sam
to care whether I'm fright or not;'
and Miss Bertha drew in her breath |
with 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 as old as
tho hills before she married Uncle
ARENAS, and Parson Chapell's Sec
ond wife was no chicken. Every
body has chances, they say"
"Yes, l suppose everybody has
chances but some Of them are
mighty small-hardly worth calcu-
lating," she returned.
Miss Bertha, to be sure, never
accepted anything but thanks for
these services in the sick room |;
indeed, few dreamed of offering any
remuneration. One might have
supposed that the universe had
provided Ter for their benefit along
with seed-time and harvest, the COM
mon air, and other common bless
ings for which nobody was expected
to render any return, other than to
make use of them. Her neighbois
staid at home, sitting with burned |
birthstone and camphorated at
mosphere, ard yet caught the i'm
lection, while she walked abroad in
the thick of it, shirking nothing,
and came out, like those holy men
from the fiery furnace, unseatbed,
yet more or less reduced in finan-
,es. She was a cheerful body, and
doubtless sent TO carry warmth and
healing into the sick room. But
poor Miss Bertha had not always
been old and useful and thoughtful
Ior others.
"You must have been pretty
,pce," that Needless chatterer Sue
Blair had said to her one day.
"What makes You think so 7"
Isked Bertha, lifting her faded eyes
O the mirror. at is like tracing
be existence Of the extinct megath-
rium from n foot-print In the rock