The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-04-08
M>a. f. le Nol'ae goahe,

and she was satisfied so far.
But the other and far deeper modification
could not be got clear of so easily. Mrs. j..
De Lorme Couke's mother kept a fruit shop
ON ID ST., and no pursuaslons on the part
Of her fashion loving daughter would induce
her to give it up. She sold apples and
oranges pineapples and bananas, and was
~ trim looking and comely an old matron as
one would wish to see. Although nearing
her SEVENTEEN year, she was as active and
light of foot as many a girl OF twenty.
Honest as the day, good tempered and hap
by, who would suppose that this dear old
danes occupation was so sore a trial to her
daughter that it would have been a great re-
lief to Mrs. j. De Lorme Couke if that
good grey head, which all children knew"
OF course Mrs. De Lorme Couke did not
admit, even to her own heart, any such
shocking fact as this, but it was, neverthe-
less, a fact. Yes, all the children of that
and the adjoining streets knew sweet old
Mrs. Deans. She gave them, when they
went to buy nuts and apples, such pretty
little picture cards and tracts, telling of the
dear Jesus who came to save. She was al
ways ready to tie up a cut finger, or lave
with camphorated spirits, q bruised face, or
pat fondly a curly head, or chuck a dlmpled
chin. And such a cheerful back parlor she
had behind the shop, with its tall German
clock, its easy bamboo chairs and pretty en-
cravings. Mrs. Deans was a Scotch woman,
and in her youth had been employed by a
lady of rank in Scotland, as lady's maid.
Therefore she was a person Of good taste,
both in dress and furniture. Simple as a
Quaker was her Scotch tweed gown, and
cambria handkerchief, but always exquisite
ly fresh and clean. She kept a half grown
girl to wait on her, and a servant man to do
the heavy lifting and unpacking Of goods in
her shop. But none but her own deit fin
gers tied up the parcels, none but her own
light footsteps were heard stepping back
and forth behind the clean and shining
counter.
When Betsey Cook, as her mother always
called her. was first married, she lived In a
small house near her mother and her eldest
boy Freddy, was the grandmother's darling.
The young mother gladly confided him to
his grandmother's because her own hands
were full with the ung children. AS
prosperity increased with the young couple,
they moved into another aud still another
more fashionable neighborhood, gradually
ascending in the scale Of expenditure.
Freddy, while living with his grandmother,
was the picture of rosy, cherubic childhood.
His simple breakfast was bread (cold) and
milk, but it was the whitest and sweetest of
bread. and freshest and purest of milk.
His lunch was bread and fresh cottage
cheese his dinner was bread and fruit
sometimes oranges, sometimes apples
sometimes dried figs, but most frequently
bananas, of which he was extravagantly
fond. Every morning, Gretchen, the ser
want girl, gave him a cold bath, and clothed
him in a fresh clean suit.
At his mothers, he shared with the Other
children the luxurious meals. For break
fast, he had bis choice of chocolate tea o.
coffee, hot buttered rolls, hot mullins ant
beef steaks. At dinner, roast and stews
rich buildings, i%ellies, and creams.
The four beautiful boys looked like no
house plants, pale and thin and always sick
Mrs j. De Lorme Couke would not believe
her mothers statement, that IL red higl