The Newtown bee., 1880-03-10
TAKING BOARDERS.

"It was scandal" the neighbors said, "that Miss Della should be obliged to take boarders, after all she'd been through; and heaven knows boarders didn't help a body to work out her salvation. And so much money in the family, too, taking it by and large. Wasn't her Uncle Eben, over at Dover, well to do, and not a chick of his own to care for, except the boy he had adopted, who was no credit to him? It was odd, now, that a man with poor re- lations should take to a stranger, when his own flesh and blood was needy; but sometimes it did seem as if folks had more feeling for others than for their own kith and kin. Then there were cousins in the city, torehanded and fashionable, who never wUre worth |" row of pins to Della; and there was her Great-uncle Johns widow a-larking on the Continent, a-gambling at Baden Baden and trying the waters of every minera spring in the three kingdoms, for no disease under the sun but old age. She'd been known to say that her own folks were too rich already, and prob ably she would endow some hospital with her property" Plainly, wealthy relatives were of no value to Miss Della. To be sure, she had never seen her great aunt since she was a child, when her Uncle John had brought her into their simple life for a months visit, with her French maid and dresses, her jewels and fallals, which won the heart of her little namesake. Since then Uncle Johns widow had become a sort of gilded creation, always young and always beautiful; for, though Della had re- ceived little gifts from time to time across the seas for the last fifteen years, she had neither heard nor seen any thing of the being who had inspired her youthful imagination, and was quite uncertain if such a person as Mrs. John Rogerson was in the land of the living. Dead or alive, she seemed to have made no material difference in Delia's humdrum life. After having nursed her father through a long ill- ness, Della found that he had left 8 heavy mortgage on the homestead, and her mother and herself on the high road to the poorhouse, unless they should bestir themselves. As her mother was already bedridden, the stirring naturally fell upon Della, and she advertised fol | summer boardeIs:
 | GOOD BOARD IN THE COUNTRY, BY | o the riverside, at seven dollars a week Large chambers, broad piazzas, fine views
 berries and new milk. One mile from the | station. Address
 DELLA MORRISON,
 | Crottsborough Maine. | "Cheap enough!n commented ar elderly lady who happened upon it
 "Delia Rogerson. An old maid I sup.
 pose, obliged to look out for herself
 I've good mind to try her broad piazzas and new milk. If I don't likt | there'll be no harm done."
 And so Delia's first boarder arrived an old lady, with & false front of hair brown, wrinkled skin, faded eyes, 2 | black alpaca gown and a hair trunk | Della made Il as welcome as if she haC
 been duchess; lighted wood fire il
 Mrs. Clements room, as the night was
 damp, and brought out her daintiest cuI l
 wreatbing them. Wonderfully kind,
 reflected Mrs. Clement, as she combef
 out her wisp of gray hair and confidee l the false front to box. Wonderful 1 kindness for seven dollars week! She:
 new to the trade. She'll learn better l Human nature doesn tschange with lati l tudes. She'll find it doesn't pay to con | sider the comfort Of a poverty -strickeI
 old creature" But, in spite of he
 worldly wisdom, Mrs. Clement was
 forced to confess that Della had begun
 as she meant to hold out, though othel
 boarders came to demand her attention
 to multiply her cares. The fret and ja1
 of ''onficting temperaments under he l roof was new experience to Della
 When Miss Gresome complained of tn,
 mosquitoes, with an air as if Miss Roger son were responsible for their creation