The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-06-18

! YOU WOulu RlVCther strength. ts
She tiedion her hood and wrapped her
shawl about her, and plucking the flower
and leaf or two, and that bright bud,
that seemed perhaps the fairer Of the
two, babe Jane be good and wait for her,
and went down stairs and out from the
dlngy cross street into Broadway
There everyone save herself seemed CAV
and happy, and we'll dressed. 81
She seemed to be a thing apart-a
black blot in all his brightness.
She stood at a corner and held out her
flower, but it seemed thatlno one needed
her. @
AT last she gathered courage to touch
one OF the ladies that passed, and say:
"Buy rose, lady-buy a rose Please
buy a rose" 1.">'@& @''5t y 5tt
But the woman hurried by as the rest
had. '''@ ~.1* 81. 5t .o'...5
It would not do to stand still. ~ Is,
She walked on slowly. h.
Whenever she caught Il pleasant eve
she held out her bouquet, and repeated
her prayer: st3.G tsaf Ls.ss -ss
buy rose! buy rose !''.S
But the sum was setting and she was
opposite the City Hall Park, and still no
one had bought her flower. s2 4
She was growing desperate.
Some one should buy it. Ri ''!
Jane should have bread that night.
BUY rose! See! Look at It! See
how pretty it is!'' she cried, in voice
sharpened by hunger and sorrow. ':Look!
You don't look at it, or you'd buy it,
"These street beggers should be sup
pressed said the stout man she had adj
dressed. young woman I'll give YOU
IN charge if you don't behave YOURSELF
He don't know, he don't know" said
Mlilllicent to herself: Nobody could
guess how poor we are. Oh,what hard,
hard worldr'
Then she went on not daring to speak
again, and her rose dropped a little in
her fingers, ann still no one seemed dis
posed to buy it.
In her excitement she had walked
further than she knew
She was far down Broadway, and be-
fore her was the Bowling Green, with it's
newly trimmed grass plot and its silvery
fountain.
A little further on the Battery, newly
restored to its pristine glory, and on it's
benches some blue-bloused emigrants
with round faces, and their bareheaded
wives with wooden petticoats and little
shawls crossed over their bosoms and
knotted at the waist
AS they stared about them, it struck the
girl that they. fresh from the sea- might
be tempted by the fresh, sweet rose She
held in her hand to spend few pennies
but when she offered it to them, she saw
they were more prudent. ~-
They only shook their heads solemnlv
and looked away from her.
And this last hope gone, despair seized
upon Milicent.
She sat down upon bench and began
to weep bitterly.
The twilight was deepening.
She was far from home and little Jane.
She was faint with WEAKNESS and hun
ger. 'G#
Beyond the present moment all seemed
an utter blank to her.
She covered her face with her hands
the rose dropped into her lap unheeded.
She care for ut no more
Fate was so much against her that no
one would even buy a beautiful flower
like that Of her.
There were steps.
She needed them not
There were voices.
It mattered not to her.
Suddenly some one said:
"What beautiful rose
And the words caught her ear.
She looked up.
Three or four seafaring men, with bun
dies in their hands, were passing by,
fresh from the ocean evidently, embrown-
ed with the sun and wind, and with the
ships roll still in their gait
Sailors were always generous. One of
these would buy the flower.
She held out the flower.
sBuy it please" she whispered, family.
"Please buy this rose
II am glad to get it, said stout, ell
derby man, slipping forward. ''What's
He tossed three or four foreign looking
silver pieces into her lap, and took the
flower ~,
Then looking at her very closely he
spoke again 1885,. ....
"What's the trouble, lass. Don't be
afeared to tell me. had little girl of
my own once. She's dead now. Tell me,
can help you2" @ .--' .."
Millicent looked up. d 's.
The mans face was half hidden by his
hat, and he was stouter and graycr than
her father had been, but she. fancied a.
likeness.
"You have helped me, SIR she said,
"by buying the rose. Thank you very
much. My father was $sailorItoo and
he was shlpwrecked..' #f5#.E
''It's a sailors fate" said the man '"It's
time you were getting home, lass. This
city is. place for ayoung girl to be out
in after night. But just wait, a sailors
orphan has claim on a sailor, and nv
poor little Millicent would have been
about your age if she had lived ..
"Millicent!'' screamed the girl. ooh,
my name is Millicent.s I'm frightened.
I don't know what to think You look
like him you. I'm Millicent Blair.
My father was Roger Blair Is it a
dream? It can't be true It can't be
fatherW 81 es VI SS
But the next instant he had her in his
arms, and she knew that the sea had given
him back to her.