The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-05-02
MISCELLANY.
MRS. MUNGER'S BOARDER

Y
Round and sparkling like crystal glob
of dew, the big tear rollel down Bessie Bar
tons cheek, aud FLASHED upon the faded in
grain carpet of the dreary, freless hall bed
room, in which she sat upon her own shabb,
little trunk, the red shawl drawn Tight,
around her for warmth's sake, the roar anS
rattle of the avenue below rising up to he
ear like the howl of distant demon. Fo
Bessie was country girl, aud better &C
quainted with the gurgle of alder shaded
brooks and the hum of bees than the rusl
of omnibus wheels and the whizz of train.
over the elevated roads
Bessie's visit to New York was proving
rather disappointment She had commit
ted the not unnatural error of taking hei
city cousins entirely at their word when
after month at Bluebell Farm, they hat
invited her to come and see them in the city
so she had INDUCED in new violet cash
mere, made by the village dressmalser, q
little straw hat with wreath of daisies,
and new boots and gloves, and taken the
eight o'clock train to the city one fine morn
ing.
But Mr.. Millions Muuger's house, instead
of the elegant mansion on Fifth Avenue
which she had limited at, was a big domicie
over shoe store, where she kept boarders,
and expended most of the profits in snowy
dresses for herself and her two daughters,
Medora and Adeliza. And she stared blank
ly enough at Bessie Barton when that dim.
Piled young damsel presented herself smil-
ingly at the door, At first she could scarcely
recall her face, but presently she remember
ed who it was.
girl from Bluebell Farm, isn't it? Dear me,
what on earth has brought you here"
"Medora and Adeliza asked me to return
their visit" said Bessie, feeling as if her
heart was plunged into cold bath. "And
and didn't know that you kept board
ing house !"
: 1t isn't boarding house," sharply re.
torted Mrs. Munger. "If choose to share
my expenses with a few refined friends,
don't know that my establishment need be
called boarding house. But I'll call the
girls. Medora Adeliza Where are
your"
Medoras Munger emerged from the parlor
where she had been hammering away on a
wretched old skeleton of a piano. Adeliza
came up from the ungenial occupation OF
polishing red apples for dessert in moldy
smelling dining room where the boardera
ate their dinner by gaslight, and there
issued forth Whit of black beetles every
time the cupboard doors were opened. And
together they escorted their cousin Bessie
up to the chilly hall bedroom, whose atmos-
phere seemed to strike, like frozen knife,
to her heart.
"Oh, of course we're glad TO see you,
said Medora, adjusting her frizzes before
the misty little looking glass framed in cher
ny wood. "But it's unlucky that you should
have come just now, when the house is SO
full, and the waitress has gone, aud there's
such a deal TO do. But you can sleep with
me and Liza, in the dark room off the linen.
closet, and dare say wen get along very
comfortably
But this style of speech was so different
from the gushing cordially displayed some
three months before at the Bluebel Farm
by these ladies, that Bessie Barton could
scarcely believe her ears. And she was just
making up her mind to propose return to
the country after three days Of chrysalis ex.
istence in the dark dining-room and gloomy
back parier, which were SO widely different
from her pictured anticipations of city life,
when Mrs. Munger broke out With a totally
unexpected proposition.
".Ill,tell you what, Bessie said she,
"rm troubled for help just now, and if
you'll stay and lend hand with the glass
and china, and desserts-I know you've got
good taste about such things, for your table
out at the rarm was Always as pretty as q
picture--pll give you dollar week I"
And to the little country danisel, who
never had earned penny of her own, a
dollar week appeared like wealth, although
this realization of the New York dream
seemed so unlike her fancies of Fifth Ave-
nue., the Central Park, the glitter of Broad
way, and the Kaleidoscope splendors of the
Academy of Design. Moreover, after all
that had been said throughout the simple
country neighborhood about her visit to the
city, she was little ashamed. ito come
back at weeks end, with the confession
that her aunt hadn't been especially glad to
see her.
And she hounced out OF the room in a
passion. The next day she would not speak
TO her niece, and Adeliza ami Medora went
about with faces of grim disapproval II
Bessie must throw her money about, why
couldn't she have thrown it in the direction
of the family Golfers?
From that day everything seemed to go
wrong in the Munger household. Bad debts
grew worse. The stout couple went to Eu-
rope--the editor married and set up a
hearthstone of his own. One by one the
desirable boarders dropped away, while their
places were taken by snowy impostors, who
departed, leaving behind them trunks full Of
young lady with the euris who taught school,
and the genteel dressmaker who had the use
of the parlors to see her company in, and
the saucy, pretty saleslady" who always
dressed SO elegantly, and the shy youth who
was bookkeeper somewhere on starva-
ton salary, and whom nobody noticed.
They were all studies of character to little
Bessie Barton. She looked at them as she
might have looked at so many statues or
pictures-they amused her. M
Until finally the shy lad-Laurence Wyatt
was his nams--fell sick of malarial fever In