The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-05-22

ana uOllafs, now. Any flcn man would
consider it a mere bagatelle in his expen.
SEES: but if | could command the sum. il
would make us three comfortable for life
How do you mean? What would you
do with a thousand dollars if you had it.
John?"
'Ill tell you. Langworthy is going to
sell his practice"
ooh"
1T is a large practice for the country,
| you know. 1t brings him six or eight hum
dred dollars a year-sometimes more. He
has a chance to go into partnership with
his brother out west. somewhere. and he'll
sell for a thousand.
but John, some people like you better
than they do DR.. Langworthy.
Yes. some people do. But the ques-
ton is. will they like me better than the
other man who buys Langworthy out? If
| were that man | should command both
practices. 1t is a chance, don't you see :.
But a new man coming in has his chance
to cut me out"
i see. What can be done?'
Nothing, with a rueful glance. That
the worst of it. | can only keep on and
hope for the best. But it is hard. when
with this miserable thousand dollars |
could double my chances and make a nice
home for yon two. Sue. darling. don't
cry!i
She had her check down on his arm. but
she wasn't CRYING. only looking sadly into
the fire.
"If we sold everything. all this which
aunty left us-tle home, everything
couldn't we get the thousand dollars ?" |
asked desperately.
John shook his head. Il couldn't let
you do that. Cree, in any case. You'll
want your share some day, yourself: it
mustn't go into buying a practice for me.
now that this wouldn't realize much over
the value of mortgage at a forced sale.
And the furniture, though worth a good
deal to keep, would 90 for nothing at an
dttttlOt. IDdt Dlhli Mbuitt l wv at All u
any of us.
Still there's no harm i'll thinking about
it, and seeing what We have. and what it's
WORTH" | urged, 10th to give up any
ghost of a chance. I'VE may do that,
mayn't we, John?'
s'Ofeourse. That is the thing you must
do sooner or later. Look over the house.
and make a list carefully, and we'll on
suit and fix on approximate values. Don't
hurry about il, though. Next week is
time enough, and | know you need rest. :
Rest is the very thing | don't need
and can't take | cried i~mpetuously.
Something to fill up the long days and
keep us from thinking and getting blue is
what we want. Well make the list to-
morrow. John"
A little more talk and he rose to go.
did you stop at the post-office. John =
''Yes. There was nothing for You
Not even the Tntelligencer, asked
Sue, languidly.
II forgot to tell you. There has been
"A great fire in New York, and the Intell-
igencer is burned out. Abner brought the
news over; it was telegraphed TO the juno
ton. They say the building is a total loss,
so | suppose there won't be any publica-
ton for a Wholesome days at least.
Poor aunty how sorry she wouldbe."
sighed Sue. ''.Aunty took the paper ever
since it began-forty-five years ago. She
was so proud of her file. It's no use at all
now, | suppose, is it, Jobn?."
THE ragman will give a penny a pound
for it," | suggested, that's something.
''We'n weigh the lot one of these days
and see what we can realize. said John.
Goodnight, children"
1t was a ghostly task which we set out
to do next day. The past, itself. the faint,
fragmentary past. seems to he wrapped up
and enclosed in those bundles of time-worn
articles with which elderly people encuia-
bered their store raoms and closet shelves.
Some air of antiquity cxhales as you open
them. and. mingling with our modern air.
produces an impression half laughable,
half sad. Aunt Priscilla had been il
born collector. She loved old things be-
cause they were old, apart from use or
value, instinct and principlescom bined had
kept her from ever throwing away any
thing in her life.
Our list was a very short one. \. few
chairs and tables, Il dozen thin spoons,
and a small teapot in silver. the huge
new spaper heap which | had appraised at
a penny a pound-tliese seemed the only
salable things: and we looked comically
and grimly into each others faces as We
set these down.
Il wish it was possible to eat lntelli-
gencers, said |.
They say newspapers make excellent
counterpanes, replied she-"warmer than
blankets"
John came in as usual in the evening.
'.Here's enterprise. he called out as he
came in.
"What is enterprise -
''The In~telligencer Behold it as large
as life, and looking just as usual, only
forty-eight hours after the fire, That's
what | call pluck.
Isn't it?" cried she, admirinsly, as She
-. ~. 49, f-.,, "a. arI