The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-10-19
A GIRLS STORY.

7 GUESS pa and ma were pretty rich
L one time, for when they came to
California it was on their wedding tour
and cost lots; they came by way of New
York and Washington, and Panama
City in a steamboat, and ma brought a
maid to wait on her, and pa had black
feller named " "Jim," and when they got
to California pa had lots of money. 1
was born at the Lick House, and you
ought to see my baby clothes. Jones &
Co. haven't the kind of goods them was,
because Maud has draggled them all to
pieces. Maud is the baby. Six years
old Maud is, and it won't be long before
she will be clerk in Jones & Co.'s
store. First babies always have the
incest things. Ma said first babies are
like second wives. But keep getting
away from Jones & Co.
Well, L am of the opinion that after
pa bought his house on Van Ness
avenue, he went into stocks, whatever
that means. Going into stocks must be
very curious business, and sometimes
pa came home looking splendid, and
wanted to buy everything, and laughed
at ma for being SO mean, and not getting
better clothes, and then he wanted to
drive in the park and go to the theatre.
One day he came home with bran new
carriage and span of long tailed horses,
and a negro coachman, and funny
little darkey for footman. 1t was for
ma, and we rode every day. Then
sometimes pa came home and looked
very blue, and talked about stocks, and
began to watch pa, and noticed that
sometimes when he laughed the loudest
he looked just as if he wanted to cry,
and then he sold the horses, and then
the house, and the furniture was sent to
auction, and ma she felt very bad, and
pa wasn't like himself any more, aud
never told me stories nor kissed me;
and once when baby Maud was asleep
in his arms, he kissed her and cried, and
when told ma, she said she guessed pa
did not feel very well, and that mustn't
notice it, and then she cried.
After this we went to boarding
house--a nasty, musty boarding house.
Everything was well enough, only
boarding. house amt like home.
Then the baby came, and it died, and
ma almost died, and heard pa say to
the man that kept the boarding house
that che was pretty tight up, but it was
all comm out right" and the next day
pa didn't have any watch, nor any
sleeve buttons. didn't seem to notice
it because seen that maybe pa had sold
them to pay board, and heard pa and
ma talk away into the night, and some
times ma cried, and pa would look in
the morning just as if he hadn't slept
wink, and don't believe that he had.
Once it was dreadful. Pa come home
tipsy, and never seen ma feel so bad,
never; and then they talked it over,
and finally ma went home to grandpa's,
in New York, with Maud, and stayed
with pa to go to school.
Then pa kept getting worse and worse,
and we went to live in rooms and eat at
restaurants, and pa stayed out late of
nights, and guess he drank more than
was good for him and thought some-
thing had to be done. So 1 said to pa
one day:
Pa, less go into business and open a
store.''
And he laughed and said: "What
kind of store 7"
And said "Oh, a candy store, or a
stationery store, or thread and needle
store, just such as women keep and
little girls help in.'
And pa laughed and said he would
think of 1t, and when he came home
that night l asked him if he had