The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-12-19
JAMES, CHRISTMAS.

"Oh. dear, what lonesome day It
will be for moi"
To pretty Janie Cress Mrs. Simms'
pretentious boarding house was as lone
some and dreary as the Desert Sahara.
She had come from ller home at Pine
Hill to try and earn some money to
help her father make the "last pay
ment" ON his forty-acro farm; and as
she worked at a small milliner shop
down town, and wore plain calico
dresses day in and day out, with q
cheap alpaca on Sundays, the other
ladies at Mrs. Simms' looked coldly at
her. or over her, or beyond her. If
they spoke to her at all it was in frig-
id, numbpalsy kind of way, that
seemed to chill jamie through and
through, to the very marrow of her
bones.
Miss Verena Gillette, the Boarding
house Oracle, had pronounced jamie q
"nobody," after glance at the slim,
little figure, in the pink calico frock,
with hair twisted in q mass of glittering
gold, high upon her head.
80 old-fashionedl" sneered Miss
Verena. "No more style than dish.
pan."
And her fellow-boarders and follow
ers, the Widow Daslaway, Miss Adali-
ma Duffy, and the two Miss Bobbs, at
once took their cue and turned up their
noses at poor, homesick, jamie, who
felt forlorn enough in her new position
among cold-hearted strangers.
However, she was not compelled to
see much of them outside of NEAL times,
excepting on Sundays, or other holi-
days; for the rest had their places of
business as we'll as herself.
Miss Verena Gillette, with all her
airs and graces, was o "saleslady" in
Griggs & Grimshawe's Mercantile En-
porium on Broadway; Aialina Duffy
was cashier at o restaurant, and the
Widow Dashaway was q teacher in q
kindergarten school.
As for the masculine portion of the
boarders, they were of no avail in Janie's
case, being prosaic married men, mid
dle-aged and grum. who swallowed their
victuals and took themselves out of the
~eSessso 10 oooA NO p1ooiOAo.
But when, as occasionally happened,
jamie had been induced by the we'll.
meaning landlady-who never saw an
inch beyond her spend an even
ing in the parlor with the other "latlies, /"
she might as we'll have been one of the
china ornaments on the mantelpiece for
all the share she had in the converse
tion.
Sitting bolt upright on the stiff. legged
horse-hair sofa, she had the pleasure of
listening to discussion 0f the latest
"styles," Miss Gillette being appealed to
on this side and that as to what would
or would not be worn during the cur
rent season.
And so tomorrow would be Christ
mas, and no wonder poor jamie felt
lonely, with the prospect of whole day
in such company.
"If l could only afford togo home,"
she thought, winking very hard to keep
the tears back, "and see father and
mother and grandma, and the dear old
home! l just know how it looks, with
the hickory logs cracking and swapping
in the fireplace, and strings OF drie d ap-
ptS'' ehAsS A0u PoFpsiH unuSiuS AIOiu Uilc
kitchen rafters, With grandma knitting
in her high-backed rocking chair, and
mother making cookies for tea, or set
ting away the crooks of milk on the but
terry shelves, and father smoking his
cob pipe, and"
But here jamie broke down in spite of
all her efforts to wink the tears back,
and sobbed like home-sick child.
Dear mel" sighed Miss Verena Gil
l,tte, the same evening as she glanced
over the top of Janie's head at the Wild
ow Dashaway, who sat next, "what luck
does happen to some folks! Now there's
my cousin John. seen by the papers
to-day" miss Verena always said ''seen"
instead of SAW )-"I seen by the pa.
pers he's beon left fortune by dis
tant relative out in Arkinsaw."
ooh, Verena!"
The Widow Dashaway glanced past
jamie at Miss Gillette.
"How romantic! Do introduce US"
eyes, do" chorused the Miss Bobbs,
and Adalina Duffy, glancing around, or
over, or beyond poor jamie.
"But he aiEt here, explained Vere-