The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-06-13

| ~ ~ NiNlA BiANg othh AAAs 4 ibf'
Arragon. MAY ask if you are TAX
ing lessons from Ferrani or Agra
monteY
Neither one of EN-" said Octavia.
And at that juncture Fernando
hurried the literary man away to look
at a beautiful cluster of trailing ar
butus which some one had just
brought in from the woods.
There's no telling what Octy
would blurt out if you once gave her
the chance" said she,
And she did not breathe freely until
Octavia had left the old farmhouse and
gone back to her duties in the big
fancy store on Twenty-third street.
Octavia herself felt as If some dis
agreeable pressure were removed from
her existence. She was frank, noble
natured girl, who was saving up her
earnings TO pay off the mortage on old
Grandfather Glenn's farm.
She delighted in work, not only for
its own sake, but for the beneficial re-
suits it could produce and she had
sufficient of courage and selt-denial to
live plainly until her object was at
tained.
She occupied a lireless hall bedroom
in shabby little downtown boarding
house, patronized mostly by the guild
of working people, whose only recon-
mendation was its scrupulous neat
ness.
She wore cotton gloves dyed-over
gowns and the plainest of plain bon
nets, and through it all she respected
| herself.
Stay, though-we have not told it
all There was one extravaganza in
which Octavia Glenn occasionally in
dulged herself-that of charity. She
had class of innocent-faced children
in the mission school, of an evening,
and she was diligent worker in the
ranks of a quiet benevolent society,
which wrought great deal of good
without any blowing of trumpets.
And one day when the feeble old
porter at the store fell i'll and his place
was vacant, Octavia Glenn constituted
herself committee of one to inquire
into the matter.
"Of course you can do as you like,
Miss Glenn" said Mr.. Idem, the pro-
prietor of the store. but Ferrigan
lives in most dismal neighborhood,
and I'm not sure that it is altogether
safe for you TO venture there after
dark"
After dark is all the time have"
said Octavia, brusquely. And it
must be a great deal worse to live
there than to go once in awhile. l
think III risk it,"
So she begged permission from the
boarding-house keeper to make little
farina Jelly over the cooking-stove
when the heavy, blackberry dump
lings, which were to regale the boarders
for dessert, were taken up, bought a
few Strawberries and small slice of
sponge-cake, and set forth to visit old
Ferrigan, the porter
1t was a dismal neighborhood, in
deed, where the poor old man lived
a neighborhood where piles of ashes in
the narrow street made sort of model
of the Rocky mountains, on small
scale, and layers of cabbage-leaves and
! damaged lettuce festered in the gutter
) where rivulets of soapsuds trickled
; across the pavement; and there ap
| peartd to be more feeble groceries
/ than there were people. The very
gaslights sulked behind their cloudy
/ lanterns, and the occasional passers
prowled by like homeless cats.
Number ninety-nine," said Oc-
. tavia, briskly walking into thread
| and-needle store, where an old woman
5 sat fast asleep behind the counter.
? "Does Mr.. Ferrigan board here?"
1 The old woman reused herself anC
? looked about.
4 Second floor back" said she, anC
instantly fell asleep again.
b 0ctavia smiled.
t II can find my way myself, / dom
b doubt" she thought.
e And she did.
The whole house seemed to be damp
|, Blotches of blue mold had broken on
here and there on the ceiling, the wall
- felt damp and clammy to the touch, a
if Octayia had put her hand by mis-
take on a snail yegetable-scente
y whiffs came up now and then from
o the cellar, and the room in which oil
+ Ferrigan lay gasping with rheumati
> pains felt more like dungeon thai
s. anything else.
e No carpet was there, no table. onl
IS shelf, where a dispirited kerosen
# lamp had smoked its chimney into
If black cylinder; no chairs, the windoV
s. uncurtained; and the shabby bed
e spread was tattered and soiled unit
e its pattern was beyond all recognition
Octavia's soul recoiled from this in
l. personation of hopeless poverty.
3 "Can | do anything for you, NJ
Ferrigan?" she asked, after she ha
r tenderly administered the farina-iell,
If the fruit and the sponge.cake, straigh
G, ened up the bedclothes and trimme
the lamp afresh.
N - u -.