The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-01-22

winter evenings Ou Guo o1o Aoi PoAo1oAe -
in the sitting-room, I had suddenly be-
come proficient in small way; enough
30. at least, to admit of my taking few
of Miss Harmon's scholars in the after
moons. The money I earned in this way
seemed, no doubt, a prodigious sum to
poor nanny, whose common condition
was state of perfect impecuniosity.
Mother had often declared that both
Caro- and Edith possessed the hands OF
musicians, so slender, supple and white,
while mine were overgrown from the
wringing of dish-clothes, and red from
boiling water.
Providence had given me my bony
hands with music in them, and won.
derful voice, which Miss Harmon had
declared made me almost seem pretty.
She never knew, kind soul, how she
made my heart ache with a dull, horri-
BILE pain, when she dealt me this depre-
catory praise. ;,
The girls and nanny were in the
little dun. colored morning room, which
had once been my fathers study, with
closed blinds, ripping up an ancient
chair, upholstered in a grand Arab pat
tern OF scarlet and gold, to construct an
overdress for Caroline's cherry silk, the
sleeves and bodice of which were quite
beyond repair. The chair had been
shrouded in gray holland for the last
dozen years, and the silk really was un-
worn.
Who ever thought letter would find
its way from the outside world to our
sober little house behind these pollard
willows, like so many transmigrated
Rushtons, tall and angular, still keeping
guard over nanny and her brood.
"Do open it, mamma" said Edith,
impatiently. "Very likely it is from
some forgotten creditor of poor papa's. "
Poor little mammy's g cap-ribbons trem-
bled and huttered while she read the
few words, written, it might be, by an
articled clerk in Lincoln Inn Fields, the
letters were so aggressive.
"Well, girls with faint attempt
at cheerfulress-" here's q chance for
one of YOU, at last. This letter is from
your aunt Ruth Rushton, your fathers
eldest sister, who never married, and
who never spoke to him after he married
me-though I do not remember it
against her now. Ihave always thought
Of Ruth as being superior woman-a
very superior woman. 1 hava heard
your father say that she spoke four
languages in her young days, and that
she was a great belle then"
This brought out contemptuous
"Hunph r. from the girls. This was
the letter which proved the turning
point in my life:
SIsTER-N-1Aw: hear you are bless.
ed with three daughters. l am child
less, bedridden old woman with no one
to care for me. I need some strong,
active young person daily and hourly.
Send me a niece. She shall be paid for
her trouble. I suppose you consider
them all paragons; but beauty is not
indispensable. Honesty and good morals
are. Let me know at once. Your
obedient servant, RUTH RUsHToN,
'sof the Pines, Ken"
"What an INSULT" said Edith. /" Hor
rible old woman After all these years
of neglect, she would now make maid
servant of us. I shall not CO."
Then Caroline delivered the address
at the beginning Of my story.
"Poor nanny picked the wadding
from the back of the stuffed chair like
bird pecking at barley; sll the time
cloud creeping over her pale face.
"No; of course you'll neither of you
90, after this letter; but it seems like
flying in the face of Providence to re-
fuse. 1t is not like going out to service,
you know, after all. The coming winter
viii be very hard on me, and l can't see
my way out very clearly. There's Agnes
we might let her go; althoue h I should
miss her sadly. And she has not
decent gown to 60 in. Her next quarter
will not be due for long time yet"
"What does it matter?" Isaid at last,
my heart filled with bitterness. 81
should not be expected to dress greatly.
I am ready to 90 just as I am"
"Oh, dare say" said Caro-, in high
,lisdain. "Playing Cinderella is quite
in your line; but there's to be no god
mother nor prince in the story. You're
going to drudge and slave for hideous
old tyrant, and wear her ridiculous fine
~ for pay. But anything for an excuse
to leave the drudgery here to Edith and
I, you ungrateful thingr"
"I've done it all my life uncomplain-
ingly," plucked up spirit to say, con-
fdent it would not help my case, how
ever.
"Don't quarrel now. just before
separating" said poor nanny, almost
sternly.
And so it was settled that should
leave home; the letter was posted to my
hard aunt, who was to look for me Tues
day fortnight, some little time being
allowed for my preparations. These
we're ridiculously simple. My few
things were to be "gotten up" as the
clear r-starchers say, and I turned a
changeable silk gown of nammy's the
snuffy side out, and could have wept at
the thought of how I should look in it,
This, and my old black. and one or two
prints, were what I packed in my mean
little trunk, with many sobs and tears at
bidding farewell to poor nanny, who
cried so bitterly, her thin arms wound
about my neck, as if all her poor heart
left her by misfortune was bursting in
twain.
"Good-bye, nanny darling, l shall
write often, and if there are any earn
ings they shall come to you."
"One would think that Agnes were
on the eve of starting to America"
sneered Edith, shaking my hand coldly,
and giving me dabby kiss on my tear
stained cheek.
Oh, never knew what dear little
dun -colored home it was, until I had
turned my back upon it in the chill
September rain.
A gray.haired servitor, in gray stock
ings and rusty small clothes, met me at
the station, with an ancient affair on
four wheels, drawn by an animal not at
all unlike the solemn old man, who said
his name was Dark, and whom shocked
unutterably by calling him Mr.. Dark.
I had plenty of time for reflection as
We left the highway, turning up through
an avenue of paternal hemlocks, to the
no less forbidding old house. with
quantity of wings and windows, ram
Bling porch at the side, and one or two
statues on the terraces all soggy with
rain, and Uttered over with droppings
from the pines, whose funereal branches
had for years kept the sunshine from
that gloomy portal.
A staid, elderly woman, in respecta-
BILE silk gown, met me at the door with
the intelligence that my aunt was quite