Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-07-01
4 WASHER WOMAHs DAUGHTER

A little Swiss muslin apron, with ruffies,
| pockets and ribbons, is a very seductive
thing, even when tossed with artless care
lessness upon the fancy table of charity
fair but who can paint its magic power up
on an unwary youth when its huttering rib
bons span a slender, dainty waist and the
pink-tipped fingers of two plump little hands
play at hide-and seek in its apologies for
pockets!
Could a mortal man help stopping to speak
to TIME Blair, as she stood behind the great
album Of photographs, alert and ready to
register subscriptions as fast as they were Sc
| cured?
1t must have been the apron that made her
SO radiantly charming, for no other table
made such stoppage in the line of travel,
although the hall was lined with tables, tenn
Piles and stands, covered with bats for the
charitable, and presided over by the beauty
and fashion of Ofport So, at least said the
Ofport Weekly, and if newspaper is not to
be believed, then what is?
Still, in spite of facts, the young men most
did congregate around that little table of Ii
nie's. She had shed small shower of tears
when it was condescendingly offered to her,
but it was that or nothing, and it would not
even have been that if the good rector had
not been SO obsolete in his notions as to sup
pose that the child of a shiftless drunkard,
whose widow took in washing, was fit to as
sociate with the daughters of the upright and
solid men who sat in the body of the church
and solemnly put their regular contributions
into the weekly plate, carefully pushing their
aims well under, that their five cents need
not be known of men.
However, having seen his little parishioner
pointedly left out in all the preparations for
the ladies' fair and festival, he did insist and
carried his point, that she should have a po-
sition among the fair amateur saleswomen.
The richest old woman in the congregation
had donated to the charitable enterprise a
huge collection of stupendously uninterest-
ing autographs which were not even genuine,
but attessed fac amiles of the signature of
every man of note, from Moses to Treasurer
Spinner, who had ever been rash enough to
put his name on paper.
The ladies regarded this gift as a white ele-
phant, and forty wild horses could not have
dragged any other girl in Ohport to take
charge of it.
The amiable first directress of the sewing
society was a Tallyrand in petticoats.
She brought the two difficulties together,
and let one take care of the other, that is to
say, if that low, odious little creature was to
be forced upon them, let her undertake the
book, which, of course, would never be dis
posed Of but which must appear, or the of
Tended donor would promptly remove her
self and her fortune to the rival church.
After the ecstasy caused by the dear old
rector's pledge that she should have a share
in the delight of waiting at the fair, il was
something of heart-break when, by request,
she presented herself before the committee
of arrangements, to find herself appointed to
a most unenviable post.
She might not have known, in her inno-
cence, that il was station so abhorred, but
the ill-concealed mirth of the others at her
appointment to it made her aware OF the
small esteem in which ii was held.
Then there were other drawbacks, and al
together it was sad little face that TIME
wore as she swept of the porch of their lit
tie tumble-down, black cottage that she called
her home.
"There's no use trying" she said, as she
bent her lovely, curly head lower and lower TO
keep the tears out of sight, mo use trying to
be like girls who have money and nice houses,
and clothes they are not ashamed of. de-
clare, if it wasn't for mother, I'd wish l was
dead"