Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-10

MI. w CtUClDSo HIS Ills NJ Olie
knows them better than l. But where,
she added, touchingly, "where will yor
find man that hasn't faults?'
"Where, surely 2" responded T..
81 don't look for nerfect happiness here
below" continued Hannah pensively.
"Tve seen too much of life for that -
Hannah is some years my junior, and must,
at this period, have arrived at the mature
age of nineteen years.
| returned home and two years slipped
away. l was still hating between two
opinions and looking inquiringly at third,
and the opinions had begun to manifest
lively symptoms of taking care of them
selves, when one day in neighboring city,
strolling through a paper box factory
whose proprietor was my friend, | came
across Hannah.
" How in the world came you here q
| bluntly calculated I.
''By the fortune of life and the railway"
didn't know whether she was to be ad.
dressed as Farley or Wetherbee, and OBJ
serving that she was dressed in deep
mourning, avoided anything that might
suggest explanations. She presently told
me that her father was dead. Then as
sought her coEfdence-on the fraternal
basis-she told me that her father had left
his estate incumbered.
"Those disagreeable Wetherbees hold a
mortgage on the house, said she, and
they are just the exacting, unaccommodat-
ing kind of people who would not hesitate
in foreclosing the day the time expires.
She had set herself about earning money
to pay the indebtedness.
" Gu see" said she, "the property is
| left by will to mamma and myself con-
jointly. If it is disposed of at forced
sale it must be at great sacrifice, and then
poor mamma viii be left without home.
! She has done everything for me here
Hannah's large eyes filed with tears
Is and it is small thing for me to try to
save the home for her."
| said l wondered she hadn't sought a
different kind of employment, and sug-
gested teaching.
"Oh, I've tried applying for schools.
Two or three times I've received invita-
tions to examinations and they've given
me perfectly dreadful lists of questions
asked reasons why we performed opera
tons that 1 never before knew we did per-
| form"
'.Music, then"
81 love music; but there are three
teachers to every pupil. This Is pleasant
work, and l am happy in feeling l shall
save the home for mamma"
When l reached home that evening l
sold an opera ticket l had purchased in the
morning, and, whereas l had always smoked
! 10 cent cigars, now purchased box at 10
cents Il gave them away before the close
of the week, and went back to l5sl, and
asked mother if there wasn't place some-
where in the city where they cleansed and
dressed over soiled kid gloves to look as
well as new.
For the next few weeks I had consider
able business IN neighboring city, and
used to transact it in season for the 3
| o'clock train, and then concluded to wait
! for the express. Hannah was always in
fine spirits, buoyed up by the belief that
she was making sure progress in paying
that debt l should as soon thought of
| discharging the national obligation by
peddling matches.
One warm Saturday afternoon, when
I stood by her side, and she leaned back
fatigued. but distractingly pretty. with the
loose hair curling around her temples, she
inadvertently laid her hand on the corner
OF the table next TO me. 1t was growing
! thin, and the Il formed by the blue veins
on the back, and which, in the days of
youthful simplicity she had told me stood
for Hartman, stood out with great dis
| tinctness.
1 suggested being allowed to make an
arrangement removing her from the neces-
sity of hquidating those debts. She re-
] fused to listen. | pressed the matter I'M
avaihngly.
then went to the proprietor, told him
| Miss Farley was an old schoolmate and
| friend of mine, who was heroically trying
to save the family residence for her step
mother, and asked him if he could not
| furnish her better position but Frank
is the most obtuse of creatures. He finally
asked me if she could keep books. Re-
membering the splurges in that youthful
epistle of hers, L felt by no means conf
dent, but said l !:
"Give her the books, anyway, and look
to me for damages"
He found that she wrote neat hand,
and had slight inkling of double entry
but when it came to the subject of remu-
neration, and she asked him how much he
had paid his last bookkeeper, he had the
stupidity to reply, "He had $500, but l
shall allow you 81, 200"
''Ahw said she, she was an old and ex-
. pGLlSLSC0 bOOhhCSPClJ nLiAC huOW litJLS
about it. Why, under such circumstances,
do you increase the salary p
Frank wouldn't have scrupled at an en-
tire series of equivocations in his own be-
half, but since only my interests were at
stake, his conscience became as tender as
George Washingtons. He finally acknowl-
edged that the increase was provided for
bya friend.
| I shall tha ,1ooi4iOo ~ SS00 -
said she with dignity.
Hannah. I reasoned with her; ]
'set things in their true light !" 1 ''made
matters clear" 1t did seem as if she
might see, but she wouldn't.
Upon the urgent and repeated invitations
of my mother, she consented to spend the
Sabbaths at our place. She was in the
frequent receipt of letters from her STEP
mother in which the most affectionate
sentiments were couched in the most
beautiful language, and on Sunday even.
ings she used to read me extracts from
these letters with tears in her eyes.
The payday came at length, whereon
was morally certain she would receive
enough to complete her payments. l went
to see her at her boarding place that even
ing, and preached the deferred subject.
She attempted evasion, but had decided
that if ever l was to have my own way IL
this connection it was time | began. The
result was went home with her the next
day.
We found Mrs. Farley had just decided
to marry the former Chairman of the Board
of Road Commissioners who wouldn't fl
up my fathers mud-puddle.
4 think, Hannah" said she reflect
lively, that perhaps we'd better dispose o.
the property, and take our respective per,
tions to purchase our trousseaux with"
They did accordingly, and one respect
i've portion was made up as quickly as
could spur on an able and experienced
corps of dressmakers.
During the years that have elapsed since
that eventful period our domestic life hai
been sometimes critical, and often peculiar
but always jolly. I've never seen the houl
when in the Utmost recesses of my hear
I've regretted that my fathers family once
resided opposite the ud-puddle and Han
nah Ann.
Through the weary Hours
OF many night, made doubly long by it
protracted agony, the rheumatic suffere