The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1882-08-19

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Before night the bargain was closed
Spellman liked 1t all very well except th
house he was to live in. IL was n 1ittl
storysand-sAbalf building, with vefy small
rooms; and what was worse than all th
t'st another family occupied portion
of it. Ever since he was married ant
lived In the city be had rented q fin,
tenement house, with large, high fooms
and now to move his family into hu
was not a pleasant thibg TO contemplate
At the time he whs married, six years be
fore, he had one thousand dollars in
money, and bis wife five hundred dol
lars. This money they invested in furn.
iture, fve hundred dollar piano, aud
other expensive articles. 50 they had
been living IN a style that poorly accord.
ed with their meaus. The money be
earned was spent as fast as IL was due
so that as soon as he stopped work he
was short of funds. But now, even when
he could get work, which he had so much
desired. bug-bear was still in the way.
The house which was to Be furnished
them was not large enough to hold their
furniture, and as for getting the piano
into one of those small rooms, it was
wholly out of the question.
1--WE will have to rent it," said Spell
man to his wife, If we 60 there"
10, Edward" she replied, Il could
not think of such thing. 1t would be
spoilt."
"Then sell 1t Priscilla"
1--WE cotld not get half we gave for it,
Edward, and how could 1 live without
IL p have never done without music"
"Then what is to be done2 We can
get neither that nor half the other things
into the hut. For my part wish we
had not bought so many things. If we
had put the money out at interest, we
would now have enough to buy little
place. Cills, it was all nonsense, and
not altogether my dcinRs."
Nor altogether mine," she poutingly
said you were as much to blame as
l."
"Well, we won't go into that miserable
hut to ifye, any way, Priscilla"
II don't ee how we can, if there is so
little room"
Nothing further was said on the sub
ject, and Spellman sent word the follow
ing day that he could not fulfill his en-
to come into the country. Af-
terward, finding his efforts to procure
unavdiling, he worried hinS' elf
into a fever, and was ill long time
When he was able to get around again,
his furniture and piano had been pledged
to pay the debts that had accumulated.
At last he procured work for small
pay, aud Priscilla obtained employment
in shoe-factory. The house in which
they now lived was no larger than the
one in the country that they had rejected,
and as most of their furniture, including
the piano, had been sold, they had hard
ly enough left for their necessities.
''If we had begun in this way when we
were first married, Priscilla, and instead
o spending all we had, kept adding to
our little store, we might now be pretty
we'll off,"
In this way Spellman was constantly
talking until he became monomaniac
on the subject, fretting his wife nearly to
death.
There is no use complaining about it
now," she would reply. I'VE are both
doing the best we can, and will manage
10 keep out of the almshouse as long as
we can work"
But if she did not complain, she went
about with a constant heartache, think
ing of her children who were so much de-
prived of her care, and being brought up
Under such adverse circumstances, still
rying to murmur not over what might
lave been.