The Republican journal., 1883-08-23

Ine mouse was, Sne SET neTSelI 10 Work TO
make it pleasanter in every way she
could. She was often impatient, and
was not perfect by any means, this hero
inc of mine, but she tried to learn from
her mistakes. She was surprised to find
that after being suspicious for the first
few days, poor old Aunt Harriet claimed
her as friend, and one morning took
the key of the bureau that held her treas
ures from under her pillow and showed
our friend the wonders she had achieved
in the way of knitted quilts, and chair
covers, and curtains. They were ad-
mired as much as heart could wish, and
when the old lady amented that her day
OF usefulness was past since her feeble
hands could no longer manage to hold
the heavy pieces of work. Annie suggest
ed that there were smaller things that
might be made, and that she would teach
her aunt some new stitches that she had
learned the winter before. Imagine the
bright yarns and worsteds that Annie
bought, and the interest and pride of
Aunt Harriet's heart, and the wrsters
and little hoods and tides that seemed
to her, and the friends who came for
dutys sake to see her, to have reached
the highest summit Of art and beauty
Annie had been afraid that she must
give up painting, for which she had a
good deal of talent, but she never had
enjoyed it so heartily before, and she
found enough time for it in the long sum-
mer days. The sketches and studies
that she had made with her teachers
frightened up the walls Of the rooms
which had always looked empty, and she
found that her father and mother and
even the boys seemed to take great de-
light in her work. Lonny was a shy little
fellow, but she soon won his heart, and he
carried her to many a delightful sketch
ing ground in the woods and pastures (;
and once in while when the horse could
be spared they all went off for a long
drive and a picnic, these boys and
their sister. And so in time it came
about that Lonny and Jack were sent to
the depot to carry an express package
on their way to mill; and they were as
pleased as Annie herself when a note
came back from a dealer in pictures in
New York, enclosing Il cheque III pay
ment for two little water colors, which
had been sold at once and asking for
others as fast as she could send them.
1t was a great deal pleasanter to carry
the color-boX and brushes out of doors
than it ever had been to sit at an easel
in the crowded studio, and instead of
being too tired to handle her brushes
after she had helped her mother in the
morning, she WAS easily rested and there
was hardly a day she could not find
spare hour or two in which to do exactly
as she pleased. Somehow the work did
not seem all drudgery any more to her
father and mother (Who had begun to
feel like horses in treadmill), because
she lent them hand SO kindly and tried
to make the best of everything.
1t was very pleasant when, one busy
morning III late summer, strong girl
from a neighboring farm came in at the
door, bringing a bundle of clothes, and
assuring Mrs. Hollis, who could not un-
derstand her unexpected arrival, that
Annie had engaged her to help with the
sewing and housework for a month.
And the life was by no means all drudg-
cry, or without companionship | leave
you to imagine for yourselves, perhaps
to see for yourselves, how one can make
the best Of life and the most of life, with
out much money to spend, on lonely
farm. The more we know, the better
and happier we ought to make our lives,
and the further we ought to be from dis
content.
Early that winter, when Annie Hollis
went back to the city to stay for little
while with one Of her friends, she found
that everybody was fonder of her than
ever, and that, while the town life was
in some way pleasanter than ever before,
still She missed some of the pleasures
that she had at home . As for her paint
ing master, he told her over and over
again that she had not lost ground, she
had been gaining steadily, and nature
was her best teacher-he was proud to
have only directed her to that great
school,
And whether Annie IIollis's life is to
be spent in town or country, by and by,
who can tell? But one thing we can be
sure of is this: that a girl who makes the
best Of things in one place, will do it in
every place. 1t was easier, some people
will think, for this girl to content herself
in the old life, from which she had grown
away, for the reason that she carried
back to it the new interest and business
of her painting. But how ready some
other people would have been to excuse
themselves from going on with that, be-
cause they missed the help and stimulus
OF companionshlp, and rivalry and excite
ment of the studio life
1t is being proved over and ever again
that where there is will there is a way,
and there is certainly a great difference
between making life and taking it. The
Congregationalist.