The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1884-03-22

ing, as we sat IN the east window
watching the outcoming stars and tell
ing girlish stories.
"Destiny, my child" answered
Katy, STOPPING to replace the boot she
had thrown off to rest her foot.
"But you might have been an author
ess, ora painter, or bookkeeper, Or"
Lizzie's knowledge of this world was
rather limited; Katy broke in upon
her:
"There, that will do. l was not
born genius, and l hate arithmetic. "
"But you did not always have to
work for a living7" asked Mary.
Katy laughed queer short laugh.
eyes," said she; ''and that's why !
don't know how to get my living in
any other way but this. So behold me
a healthy and honest factory girl"
She ross s made Hel sfi.llit little s.l bey aHd aHd
all laughed, although she said nothing
funny.
chilly" said she, "please light the
the lamp and get the magazine, while l
hunt my needle and thread. Ladies,
find myself under the necessity of mend
ing my glove this evening. Oh power
ty where is thy sting? In shabby
glove l do believe, for nothing hurts
me like that, nnless it be a decaying
| boot ?"
The next day was Saturday, and we
had half holiday. Katy and 1 went
to make some trihing purchases, and
on our way back stopped at the big
boarding house to see one of the girls
who was i'll.
When we came out Katy ran across
the street to get magazine from the
newsstand and came hurrying up to
overtake me before l turned the corner.
She had the magazine open and one of
her hands were ungloved; but it was
not until she reached home that she
found she had lost her glove. 1t was too
late to go and look for it. We went
and searched the next morning, but
could not find it,
Katy mourned for it.
'It was my only pair girls, F." said she,
tragically; "and it is a loss that can
not be repaired"
What people call 'picnic" had oc-
cured in financial circles; in the spring
Arthur Craig had lost his Katy and almost
without days warning, he found him
self poor man. He left his affairs in
the hands of his creditors-having sat-
isfed himself that they could gather
enough from the wreck to save them
selves.
He had been educated for a physi-
clan, though fortune made a merchant
of him. Learning from a friend that
there was an opening for doctor in
Fenwick, he came here and began to
practice.
DR.. Swell had gone on visit, leav-
ing his patients in charge of new doc
visit Maggie Lloyd, the sick girl at the
lodging house, when, just after turning
the corner near the new shop, he saw a
brown glove lying on the pavement.
He was about to pass it by, but mans
instinct to pick up anything of value
that seems to haveno owner, made him
put it in his pocket. He forgot all
about it the next minute.
But when he had made his call and
returned to his consulting room, in
takinga paper from his pocket the glove
fell out, and he picked it up and look
ed at it with idle curiosity.
1t was old, but well preserved. 1t
had been mended often, but so neatly
as to make him regard mending as one
of the fine arts. 1t had strangely fa-
miliar look to him. Little and brown
and shapely it layed on his knee, bearing
the very form of the hand that had
worn it.
And as he gazed at it there came to
him the memory of an hour, many
months past, when he sat by Katy's
side on the green sofa in the dining
room of ''their house" (alasD and
watched her put her small hand into a
pair of brown gloves so much like this
one.
Ever since that never-to-be- forgotten
day the vision of his lost love sitting
there in the fading light, slowly draw
ing on her glove, her sweet eyes filling
as they talked-quarrelled, we should
say perhaps-had gone with him as an
abiding memory of her, until he had
come to know each shade ofthe picture,
the color of her dress, the ribbon at the
throat and the shaded plume in her hat.
He looked at the glove long time.
He had thouhgt it might belong to one
of the factory girls, and he found it
near the lodging house. But it did
did not look like "factory hands"
glove. He would ask Maggie Lloyd,
at any rate; so he put it carefully in
his pocket until he could make his call
| the next morning.
He had suffered the glove to become
so associated with his memory of the
past that was sacred to him, that he
| felt his cheek burn and his hand trem-
BILE as he drew it forth to show it to
Maggie, who wassitting, in an arm chair
by the window, watching the handsome
Young doctor write the prescription
| for her benefit.
'sBy the way Miss Maggie, do yon
know whose glove this is?"
Maggie knew at once. 1t was Miss
Gardeners glove.
"Miss Gardiner
The name made his heart beat again.
els she one of the factory hands?"
eyes; but she lodges with Mrs.
Howell, quite out of town, almost; she
was here to see me yesterday"
ooh, see!" said he not the most
relevantly. "And can you tell me
how to find Mrs. Howell's house? l
suppose could go by and restore this
to its owner"
Maggie thought this unnecessary
trouble, but she gave the required di-
rections and he went out saying to him.
self, "It can't be my Katy, of course,
but the glove shall go back to its own
er."
|