River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-12-04

carried her down stairs and into the
carriage. Maggie, having first put away
the little loaf and the two behring's, fol-
lowing after.
"IaecIare, said Miss Brown, wiping
her e9 es as she slowly returned with
her teapot for comfort and company, to
her own scarcely less dreary room
"God don't forget, does He?"
Meanwhile Mrs. Sims, tired of wait
ing for her husbands return, had pick
ed up her daughters letter and read it
over
WELL" she sighed, at does seem as
if / might have Just one to cheer me, "
and then her eve caught the word per
hapsn her husband was reading when
she called him TO the window, and she
eagerly turned the sheet a CLEAN of
hope in her heart that after all she
might be coming perhaps, mother
dear, the dear Lord Will come Himself
and spend the day with you, in the per-
son of one of His suffering ones, ii you
ask Him to"
Just here carriage stopped at the
door. and to her great surprise she saw
her husband get out, and in his arms
the youngest Of the two young girls.
followed by the other.
Here, mother, said the CHEEKY
voice, as the light burden was laid up
on the soft, wide lounge, "l'ye brought
you what you wanted. something tolove
and care for, and plenty need there vail
be for it, too, I'm thinking, for this little
one, at any rate, and guess little of
it won't come amiss to her sister either,
Judging by what / see and heard at the
house,
The story of the two girls was like
many Others, -left orphans and Apen-
niless, by parents whose only fault lay in
so carefully sheltering them from every
cold blast, that when they found them
selves homeless and alone. the storm
swept over them unpreparec to resist
its fury.
The older girl had learned to make
flowers as pastime, and this she brave
" turned to good account, and for q
time made good wages and decent liv-
ing for herself and young sister, whom
she kept at school. But the great fire
in Boston swept away the factory and
threw hundreds out of employment, and
then came the heavy tug of war.
"Why did you go to such an expensive
lodging house as Mrs. Arden's?" in
quired their new friends. at must
have taken all you could earn to pay
for your room"
90 ma'an," said the girl, flushing,
Eve must be respectable. | would
rather we both starved to death than
live in low place.
Wba,, 4bo 1aIor-oJ Hattfa ouA baT
husband came a month after to spend
Christmas, they were astonlshed at
the change in the pale. sad mother they
had left six months before.
Something to love and care for"
here, that she might cheerfully resign
her lost darlings to their happy home
in heaven, was the remedy she needed,
and had found indeed, in poor, frail lit
tie Flossie, whose nervous system had
been so severely taxed by all that had
been through that it required the tender
est watcheare to bring her back to a
healthful life again. And Maggie, what II
treasure she was in the house!
" No my child said good Father Sims,
in reply to her proposal to go back to
the flower shop and earn her own and
Flossie's bread, after she had been rest
ing week or two, mo indeed; why
should you? I've got money enough,
for that matter, to buy all the bread
and butter we can all eat, and clothes,
too, Just as pretty as anybody's girls
have; but a million couldn't pay fol
what we lose in our darlings, or for
what we should lose if you went off and
left us"
~ tell you what, little GIRL" he adj
ded, seeing her troubled look, "you can
help make cakes and sweet-meats for
the shop, and ornament them up with
all the filigrees and posies you want to
hang on to them, made out of good,
clean sugar and fresh eggs, and that's
all the kind of artificial flower making
I'll agree to, so there's an end ont" and
down came the big foot with a force
which settled the matter, and made the
glasses Maggie was wiping jingle mer-
rily on the table.
The hospitable supper table was laid,
the night before Christmas, and the
happy, reunited family were busily
chatting over the events OF the past
year, when Father Sims get up and
went to the window, the same window
where his wife had sat and looked out
so sadly only month before.
Two young girls were coming down
the street, their hands filled with pack
ages. their cheeks and eyes aglow with
the exercise, and the light of love for
the home they were nearing, when he
exclaimed, "Come here, now mother.
just look at them; you wouldn't
really say now they look as if they
hadn't got no folks, would ye?"