The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1881-08-13


mandatory. But they held their heads
as high as ever, and declared they had
sacrificed themselves for the family. un-
| Gle having failed for the second time
| through no fault of his own, dear old
mana few months before the double
wedding
That their "sacrifce" was for the
/ good of the family | don't deny; but
/ there was still left at home to be taken
care of after their departure three old
maids, young one, and two helpless
/ young men, who, having been brought
up to do nothing, did it to perfection.
After the failure, uncle got situation
| as a superintendent of one of the many
departments in the large establishment
of the gentleman who sold spins 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 our servants, and moved into a much
smaller house.
But in spite of all our efforts at
economy our income proved vastly in
| adequate to our expenses, and this was
| the cause of SO much bewailing and be-
moaning that our home seemed to be be-
reft of all gladness and sunshine. And
one evening after Ethel, our Youngest
daughter, had burst into tears because
aunt had declared it would be impossi-
BILE to have ice-cream, mefingues, Wine
Jellies and similar dainties every day
for desert, for the two sufficient reasons
| that we can't afford them and our pres
ent cook couldn't make them, I ventured
to suggest to the weeping damsel that if
she found life positively unbearable
without the above mentioned Injuries
(all the Egberts, by-the-by, were ex-
travagantly fond of good things to eat,
she might knit and crochet some of the
wOrsted articles she was in the habit of
making so artistically for herself, aud
sell them tO-Mr. Lee, uncles employer,
[ was about to say, when I was inter
rupted by a shrill shrek.
"Work for store - she cried. "Pd
StarUe first"
"You wretched girl !" added my
such thing? Ethel, my darling, calm
yourself"
cit 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 turning to her brother
Roland, who lay on the only lounge in
the room, complacently regarding HIM
self in the mirror on the opposite wall
"that impairment Mrs. Bradshaw COM
ing here this morning, with the air OF
! doing kindness, too, to offer me posi-
ton in her academy
"Great heavens - exclaimed Roland
springing to his feet-and the cause must
be mighty one thot brings Roland to
his feet Gone of my sisters a 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, we can do moth
ing sobbed Ethel
"Of course not" replied Roland,
grandly;" the women of our familynever
work"
I thought to myself, " Nor the men
either, except poor old uncle, who is
tagging at a desk from morning until
night
said Alethea, looking up from her novel,
and joining in the conversation for the
! first time. Alethea was our eldest, and
still wore her hair in the fashion of her
| youth, a loose curl dangling over each
cheek bone, being fully persuaded that
no other fashion was half so graceful OF
| becoming.
discharge the chamber-maid, pro-
I Il / II
Dorothea) "do her work. It is about
all she is fit for. She never had any fine
feeling or style about her.
/ ono, she never had; she always
would bite her bread" sighed my aunt,
land she has seemed sadly out Of place
among my children. She comes of a
working race, and her ideas and tastes
| smack of e-trade-trade." [ dis
covered that my aunt's grandmother, on
maternal side, made a fortune out of to-
! baccO.
/ "But discharging the chambermaid
/ wouldn't help very much" said Alethea.
g 1t viii not" agreed Roland. "What
/ is saved thereby will no more than find
me in the little extras no society man
can do without.
"Dear dearp - aunt took ND the bur
I den again, could [ have foreseen that
your father would have come down in
! this way, [ never would have married
him. really don't know what is to be
done, unless we emigrate to some
country place where we are unknown,
and where it don't matter how we live. -
1.-The country % screamed her chill
dren, in chorus. "Better death al
once"
[ can't imagine how I got the courage
to do so after my late sharp rebufs, but
! at this moment / blurted out something
! that had been in my mind for several
weeks: "Why could not Alethea and
/ Ethel room, together, and Alethea's room,
which is the pleasantest in the house, be
/ let to ledger ?-one who would"
But here paused abruptly. Alethea
had tainted in the arms of my aunt, who,
/ glancing at me over the top of her eldest
/ daughters head, commanded me in hel
deepest tone (aunt has rather a bass
voice. to ''leave the room-instantly .
But in a short time, during which
things had been getting worse and worse,
and we had been reduced to rice pud-
dings for dessert on weekdays and ap-
pie tarts on Sundays, [ was allowed tc
prepare an advertisement for the morn
ings paper, In which was offered to 4" an
elderly gentleman, who must have ex-
cellent references, q fine room in the
house of a family of refinement, who
had never before taken a lodger, for the
privilege of occupying which he would
be expected to pay liberal equivalent. >
/ disapproved highly of the wording
of this call for help, but my aunt ano