Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1882-12-21

you, for she has no one to care for but
herself | never could understand how
some people can be so selfish
Ruth turned her face TO the window
and smiled softly. She was wondering
il her step-mother thought of consist
ency when she talked of other people 4
selfshness.
Mr.. Nugent had been dead six years.
Two years before his death he had lost
nearly all his property. The little that
was left was barely sufficient to support
Ruth and her step-mother. To exc out
the scanty income, Ruth, for the past
two years. had taught little school to
which children of from eight to twelve
years came. In this way she earned
enough to make herself and step-mother
comfortable. But Mrs. Nugent was
not satisfied with being comfortably fed
and clothed, even if il cost her not the
least effort. She sighed for days of
vanished grandeur, and could never talk
OF the past without seeming, in meas
ure, TO blame her husband for the loss
for which he was not responsible. That
always touched Ruth in a sore spot. She
had loved her father dearly, and she
knew that the thought that he was to
leave his wife and daughter with so lit
tie of this worlds goods had made the
last year of his life sorrowful one. III
he had speculated and lost, if he had
been reckless in the investment of his
money, then she might have had reason
TO blame him. Ruth thought. But he
was always careful, and when ruin came
to him as it did to hundreds of others rs
careful az himself, it was not of himself
that he thought, but of us.
Mrs. Nugent had always been help
less woman. She never depended up
on herself, always upon others. She
was one of those persons who seem to
consider that the world owes them q
living They are not very particular
how il comes, or where it comes from,
so long rs they get it. Like all others
of this class, she was not satisfied with
what she received. She sighed for
more. and in listening to her, you would
get the idea that she felt herself cheated
out of what was Justly her due. Rachel
Nugent was wealthy. She had no one
to expend her wealth on save herself,
and her tastes were not expensive ones.
See lived alone in little country vii
lage where the cost of living was next
to nothing. She might help them, if
she would. Mrs. Nugent was always
thinking. She ought to. What good
did her wealth do her?
Aunt Rachel's allusion to ''plans," in
the letter Ruth had just received, gave
her step-mother to hope that at last she
was going to lido something" for her
niece. Rather than have the chance of
having something "done for them lost,
she would stay at home alone, great as
the Inconvenience would be, while Ruth
went to Winsted.
1t won't cost great deal, she said.
You won't need any new clothes for
that little country town. 1t will be
very lonesome here, of course, with you
gone; but can manage to get along
quite comfortably. Write to her that
you are coming.
Ruth knew her step-mother well
enough to understand what she was
thinking about. 1t was not the pleasure
Ruth would receive from the visit, but
the prospect of tangible assistance.
We'll, if you think you can get along
without me for month, | will go, she
said. i would like to-. she added,
frankly.
Then 90, answered Mrs. Nugent.
So ii was decided that Ruth was to go
to Winsted. and that afternoon a letter
was written to aunt Rachel, telling her
that her visitor would he there on Mon
day.