Louisiana capitolian., 1879-06-21

touch one of TIC ladies that passed and
said:
buy rose"
But the w,man hurried by as the
rest had.
1t would nat do to stand still.
She walked Oh slowly.
Whenever lhe caught pleasant eye
she held out,her boquet and repeated
her prayer:
"Buy q role-buy rose {"
But the sui was setting and she was
opposite the City Hall Park, and still no
one had bou,ht her flower
She was growing desperate.
Some one eyhould buy it.
Jane shou ID have bread that night.
"Buy r&o7 see Look at it! Sec
how pretty it isl" she cried, in voice
sharpened by hunger and sorrow
"Look! yot don't look at it or you'd
buy it,"
"Thesc street beggars should be sup
pressed" sd ID the stout man she had ad-
dressed "Young woman, I'll give you
in charge i'd you don't behave yourself"
ole don's know, he don't know" said
Milliccnt II herself. "Nobody could
guess how 'oor we are. Oh, what a
hard, hard world"
Then she went on, daring to speak
again, and ,,cr rose dropped a little in
her fingers. and still no one seemed
disposed toI'uy it.
In her excitement she had walked fur
ther than slse knew.
She was far down Broadway, and
before her VI, the Bowling Green, with
its newly trimmed grass plot and it's
silvery fonul Jain.
A little furthcr on the Battery, newly
restored to it's pristine glory, and on its
benches some .blue-bloused immigrants,
with round butch faces, and their bare
headed wives, with woollon petticoats
ank little shawls crossed over their bo-
SONS and knotted at the waist.
As they stared about them, it struck
the girl that they, fresh from the sea,
might be tempted by tho fresh sweet
rose she held in her hand, to spend a
few pennies; but when she offered it tc
them, she saw they were more prudent.
They only shook their heads solemnly
and looked away from her.
And this last hope gone, despair seizet
upon Millicent.
She sank down upon a bench and be
gan to weep bitterly.
The twilight was deepening
She was far away from home and ssit
tie Jane.
She was faint with WEAKNESS AM
hunger.
Beyond the present moment all seeme'
] an utter blank to her.
I She covered her face with her hands
tht rose dropped into her lap unheeded.
] She cared for it no more.
, Fate was so much against her that n
l one would even buy beautiful rose lik
that from her.
There were steps.
: She needed them not.
D There were voices.
, 1t mattered hot to her.
Suddenly some one said:
"What a beautiful rose"
j. The words caught her ears, aud sll
a looked up,
u Three or four seafaring men, wit
q bundles in their hands, were passin
u by, fresh from the ocean evidently, Ell
d Drowned with the sun and the wint
e and with the ships roll still in the
d gait.
a Sailors were always generous. One
these would buy the flower.
II She held it out.
n "Buy it please" she whispered, fain
rs ly. "Please buy this rose"
10 "pm glad to get it," said stou
elderly man, slipping forward. "What
10 the price, my lass7 viii that do"
'd He tossed her three or four foreig
a looking silver pieces into her lap al
lie took the flower.
Then looking at her very closely,
70 spoke again:
1 'What's the trouble, lass 2 Don't
1e afraid to tell me. | had a little girl
le my own once. She's dead now. tt
III me, can help you~
aI Mellccnt looked up.
The mans face was half hidden by |
v, hat, and he was stouter and grayer th
as her father had been, but she fancied
VII likeness.
"You have helped me, sir" she sal
p -'by buying my rose. Thank you We
io much. My father was sailor, too, a.
he was shipwrecked."
Gu dts sailors fate" said the ma
ne DTS time you were getting home, la
u This city is no place for young girl
10 be out in after night. But just wait.
IL sailors orphan has claim on q sail
and my poor little Milliccnt would ha
d been about your age if she had lived.
l.. "Nlillicent ?" screamed the girl. &C
~ nv name is Millicent. Pm frightent
- don't know what to think. You 10
like him--you. Pm Millicent Blair.
- father was Roger Blair. Is it dreal
~ 1t can't be true. 1t can't be my father
p,,4 IL, rovt instant ha had her