The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-09-23

| looked more cneerluu nO", Will tliO
Iamp-light and the yellow glow from the
stove, and both were conscious OF a sense
of hOpefulness.
"Now-what can you do?" demanded
Aunt Polly, whirling round in her chair
so as to face them.
1--WE hadn't got so far as that when
Won came in" replied Hetty; Il sup
pose we must do what other people do
in the same circumstances.
whats that"
Teach something, or sew, suppose.
"Sewing's slow starvation, in my
opinion. unless you've got machine,
which YOU haven't, and not much better
then. What do you know that you can
teach?"
Not much" replied Hetty, humbly,
while Della added, hesitatingly: 1--WE
could teach children their letters, per-
haps."
u presume you could" responded
Aunt Polly, dryly. But, though you
mayn't know it, perhaps, there are about
fifty women in this town can do the
same, and who mean to do it. And most
of EN- have got the start of you in one
way or another, so what's your chance
worth? No, girls, sewing and teaching
are played out. They are good things
in their way, but every who's got her
! living to earn thinks of them the very
first thing and of nothing else, and the
market is always overstocked. My adj
vice to you is, to think up something
you can do better than other people
that's what gives folks real chance!
Now what is there?'
There isn't anything | can do better
than other people," cried the dismayed
Della. Nor Hetty either-eXcept make
gingerbread, she added, with a faint
little laugh. Hetty beats everybody
at that, grandmother always said"
&" Very well; make gingerbread then.
That syour thing to do" said Aunt Polly,
Hetty looked at her with incredulous
eyes.
=" You're not in earnest are you?" she
said.
Il am. In dead earnest"
g But, Aunt Polly, gingerbread! Such
little thing as that! Who ever heard
of a girls doing such thing
"All the better if they never did. A
new trade has double chance. As for
the little great things often come from
small beginnings. Fortunes have been
made out of gingerbread before now,
I'll be bound, or if not that, out of some
thing no bigger No, Hetty, depend
upon it, if your gingerbreadis best folks
will want it, And if your teaching or
sewing is only second best they won't.
It's the law Of human nature, and very
good law, too, though it cuts the wrong
way sometimes, like all laws"
Aunt Polly, you're genius" cried
Hetty, warmed into sudden glow by this
vigorous common sense. Il can make
| good gingerbread, and it's just as you
say, neither of us know enough to teach
WELL and we are both poor hands at
sewing. and we should have much
better chance if we tried to do what we
can and not what we cant. Why
shouldn't make gingerbread? DEFY
help me, and if folks liked our things
and bought them, we could live and
keep together. We could make kind
of shop of this room, couldn' we? What
do you Think"
trade" said Aunt Polly, slowly meas
| uIlDO VIC IOOul Will HCI Z CS. DCIIl2
on corner is an advantage, YOU see,
and there's that double winder on the
street gives tirst-rate chance to show
what you've got to sell. | never did see
no use in that winder before. My
father, he hadit cut for kind of whim
like, and we all thought it was notional
in him; but, as they say, keep thing
long enough and use'll turn up. It's
a sort of gain for you, too, having the
house so Old-fashioned. Folks has a
hankering for such things, nowadays
the Lord knows why-I hear EN- going
on about it when I'm out tailorin'; call
ing ugly things 'quaintn and lovely,
because they're old. Hetty''-with sud
den inspiration-'h ere an idea for you,
be 'quaintr Don't try for shop; keep
the room room, and make it as old
fashioned looking as you can, and I'll
bet cookie that your gingerbread Il
be twice as popular with one set of folks
and if it's first-rate gingerbread, the
other set who don't care for old things
will like it just as we'll"
What bracing thing is word in sea-
son! Aunt Polly's little seed of sug-
gestion grew and spread like Jack 5
tabled beanStalk.
Your light biscuits always turn out
WE'LL"
"And my snaps. Grandmother always
liked them 50 much. And YOU re good
hand at loaf bread, you know. Aunt
Polly-I seem to smell a fortune in the
air We will begin at once, just as soon
as can get half-barrel of flour and put
an advertisement in the paper"
Hetty had ready wit, and Aunt
Polly's hint as to "quaintness' was not
lost upon her. The advertisement when
it appeared the next day but one ran
thus: after Monday next, the Old Time
Bakery, corner of Farewell and Martin
Streets, will be prepared to furnish, to
order, fresh bread, buns, biscuits and
grandmother's gingerbread, all home
made"
People smiled over the little notice, but
the odd wording stuck in their memories
as odd things will, and more than one
person went out of his way during the
next week to take look into the wide
low window, within which, on broad
napkin-covered shelf, stood rows OF
biscuits, light and white, buns, each
glazed with shining umber- brown, anc
&