St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-09-16

DrOthers to do, for, like all other men
as far as my limited experience goes
e they scarcely ever thought their com
I panions to be good enough to be tn,
= ! companions of their sisters-when h,
r ventured to express his admiration fol
!. her. The young man soon after sue.
: ceeded to a very handsome property
and became great swell-"a perfect
tOO-too," as / believe the fashionable
!; way of expressing it now is-a kind OF
being after Minerals own heart but
she was never invited to ride behind
his fast horses, and what was much
worse, never again asked to take the
head of his table.
And in like manner the graceful and
enthusiastic professor of music, the
stout, gOOd-natured proprietor of the
extensive irOn-wOrks ("wholesale and
retdiF') on the next block, the young
artist, who has since risen to wealth
and fame, and sundry others, all fall
ing short of the aristocratic standard
set up by our family, were snubbed by
my lady cousins, aided by my broth
ers, and not wholly unassisted by their
mother. never had had, at the time
this story commences, being then in
my eighteenth year, a chance to snub
any one /; for, lacking the personal at
fractions of my relatives, as we'll as
their ''high-tOned" natures truth to
tell, having decidedly democratic ten
dencies-I was kept in the back kground
on all occasions.
Let it be remarked in passing that
Eleanor eventually married, when
rather an old girl, a widower in the
milk business very wholesale, how
ever-the father of four children. At
the same time Minerva, a few years
younger, deigned to become the wife
of an elderly bachelor, something or
other i'll a shoe manufaetOry. But
they held their heads as high as ever,
and declared that they had sacrificed
themselves for the family, uncle hav-
ing failed for the second time-thrOugh
no fault of his own, dear old mana
few months before the double wedding.
That their "sacriticen was for the
good of the family | don't deny but
there still were left at home to be tax
en- care of after their departure three
Old maids, young one, and two help
less young men, who, having been
brought up to do nothing, did it to
perfection.
After the failure, uncle got situa-
ton us superintendent of one of the
many departments in the large estab-
lishments of the gentleman who sold
''pins and needles by the paper, and
lace by the yard'' Che was now head of
the firm, and had pretty, lady-like
wife and two pretty children), and we
dismissed one of the servants, and
moved into Il much smaller house.
Rut in SnIta of all nnr affnrtS af acnu
Omy our income proved vastly made
quate to our expenses, and this was the
cause of so much bewailing and be-
moaning that our house seemed to be
bereft of all gladness and sunshine
And one evening after Ethel, our
youngest daughter, had burst into
tears because aunt had declared it
would be impossible to have ice-cream,
meringues, wine .jellies, and similar
dainties every day for desert, for the
two sufficient reasons that we couldn't
couldn't make them, l ventured to
suggest to the weeping damsel that if
she found life positively unbearable
without the above mentioned luxuries
(all the Egberts, by-the-by, were eX-
travagantly fond of good things to eat),
she might knit and crOtchet some of
the wOrsted articles she was in the
habit of making so artistically for her
self, and sell them tO"-Mr. Lee, uncle's
employer, l was about to say, when
was interrupted by shrill shrek.
"WOrk for IL store J" she cried. "I'd
stdrUe first"
"You wretched girl !" added my
aunt. "How dare you even think of
such thingP Ethel, my darling, calm
yourself"
at is not enough that strangers
should presume upon our poverty"
joined in Cleanthe, also frOwning upon
me, ''but one bound to us by ties of
blood, though it must be confessed
more alien than many stranger would
be, must advance ideas that shock and
wound us. Imagine"- to her
brother Roland, who lay on the only
lounge i'll the room, cOmplacently re-
garding himself in the mirror on the
opposite wall-"that impertinent Mrs.
Bradshaw coming here this morning,
with the air of doing kindness, too,
to offer me position in her academy !"
"Great heavensw ~ exclaimed Roland,
springing to his feet-and the cause
must be a mighty one that brings ROl
and to his feet. "One of my sisters n
teacher! Great heavens !" and he
went stamping about the room in the
new suit of clothes aunt had just paid
for by parting with her handsome pearl
ring.
"Whatever is done, lUe can do moth
ing,n sObbed Ethel.
"Of course not" replied Roland,
grandly "the women of our family
never work"
| | thought to myself "nOr the men,
neither, except poor old uncle, who is
tagging at a desk from morning until
night"
"But our income must be increased" !"
said Alethea, looking up from her nov
ell, and joing in the conversation for
the first time. Alethea was our eldest,
and still wore her hair in the fashion
of her youth, loose curl dangling over
each cheek-bOne, being fully persuaded
that no other fashion was half so grace
full or becoming.
"Discharge the chamber -maid," pro-
posed Ethel, "and let Dorothea" Il am
J DOrOthea) "dO her work. 1t is about
all she is fit for. She never had a bit
of fine feeling or style about herr
"NO, she never had 4; she always
} ,oouId bite her BREAD" sighed my aunt" !"
and she has seemed sadly out of place
among my children. She comes of a
working race, and her ideas and tastes
all smack of -trade-trade." /
discovered in after years that my aunt's
r grandmother on the maternal side
made fortune out of tobacco.
| 81, I