Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-09-07
AUNT POLLY'S ROOM.

Love in cottage, stuff and non
sense" said Mrs. Meredith, in the
curt petulant tone which denoted years
of grinding poverty, petty annoyances,
and blighting cares.
"Mary, think you ought to kno"
better.
''But, aunt Polly, why shouldn't
people love one another as well III a
kitchen as a palace?" pleaded Mary
Meredith, brlght-eyed girl of nine
teen who was plating up new trim
ming for the old cashmere dress which
had already been "turned" twice.
"They DON'T" drily retorted aunt
Polly. "That's all I know about it.
when poverty comes in at the door,
love flies out of the window"
"Then it can't be real love" said
Mary, very decidedly.
81 know that 1 should be happy
with Charley anywhere, even if we
hadn't carpet TO the floor, or cur
tain to the window" :"
''tiddle-de-dee," said Mrs. Mere
dith.
THAT all you know about it. That's
Just exactly what I thought when L
married your uncle Cyril.
Folks say that old Benaiah Mere
dith was itch miser. and that, sooner
or later, your uncle Cyril would inherit
all his property"
$50 he did, such as it was-this OLD
tumbled-down house, half-a-dozen or so
of sterile acres, and the Genealogical
Family Tree mounted on parchment
and emblazoned in different colors."
But I didn't think of that. l was a
foolish school girl in love, and, like all
the rest of them, married in haste and
repented at leisure.
''And here / am, at forty, broken
down old woman with your uncle Cyril
helpless and bedridden upstairs.
ITO me he is care and burden.
To him am slave"
'There, do you hear his cane rapping
on the floor upstalrs?
"That is a signal for me to drop
everything and hurry to him at once.
''Get married, Mary; do. if you want
to enter into Just such wretched slavery,
at once"
Mary Meredith was silent.
Aunt Polly had never spoken her
mind quite SO plainly before.
Was it then true that aunt Polly had
once been a rosy, dimpled young thing
like herself, with heart full of vague
anticipations, a soul half unfolded like
the convolvulus bHds?
Would life treat her with the same
unrelenting cruelty?
Would Charley Franklin ever shrivel
INTO a snarling old bundle of skin and
like uncle Cyril in the great bed up
stairs?
And as she pondered Aunt Polly came
briskly downstairs again with Cruel
cup in her hand.
Don't l hear the ragman's bells?'
said she, peering out of the white-cur-
tained window.
eyes, it's Abram Sc eley, with hi
old grey horse, just coming up the road.
Get the white rags, Mary, quick, and
I'll run for the old newspapers and
books"
"But uncle Cyril didn't want any of
the old books to be sold, aunt Polly, "
demonstrated Mary Meredith.
"Your uncle Cyril never wants any
thing to he touched" )" sharply retorted
Mrs. Meredith.
"He'd let the old trash of the house
accumulate haIf-ceillng high, if he had
his way"
''And ss for those battered old 'Rol-
Inns Histories, he never has so much
as taken them off the shelf since old
uncle Benaiah died.
"And I mean to turn them into
money, to buy good stout yarn for his
winter stockings"
s.Are the white rags ready, Mary
Then call to Abe Seeley while go after
the books"
And Mary stood by, scarcely disap-
proving, yet powerless to demonstrate,
while the mildewed old volumes Of
Rollins Ancient History were sold al
three cents.
"It's a shame" said she, "to sell
those books for such sum as that"
''I'd Ike to know what possible use
they can be to us, said Mrs. Meredith
tartly.
+ "Books is books" said Abe Seeley
philos optical individual with leath
cry complexion and only one leg.
"But, to be sure, folks prefers poetry
and romances nowadays"
s'1hey amt just partial to ancient
history, as far as my experience goes.
"Fifty dollars, that there last lot
Mrs. Meredith.
"And three quarters" cried Mrs.
| Marodith