Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-05-03
THE MADONNA OF THE TUBS.
Elizabeth stuart Phelps in Harners.

ling of care about her temples and her mouth |
told that her first youth had passed in hand |
to.hand struggles with life, from which mid. |
die age gave no prospect OF releasing her The
ltue between her lips indicated that nature |
had given her sweet temper, which expert |
ence might push hard now aud then under |
stress OF circumstances. Sho had what It |
would be sufficient to call a busy voice, |
pitched like the American feminine voice OF |
Ter class, but without shrewish notes on the
whole, making allowance for the nation |
al key, what might be called motherly |
or wifely voice. She had the curious,
watching look common 10 the women oi |
Fairharbor, acquiring from that observa- |
tion of the sea with which tho summer |
boarder is unfamiliar. \ little anxious rln- |
ming down to the beach now, or the wharf
then, when the fog sets in little more |
restless climbing of the clifl when the wird |
rises this peeriug Tor the dory before dawn,
or searching for the sail at dusk, or scanning
tn headland by moonlight, or asking the
dead of night TO give the absent headlight TO
straining eyes, or beating about over the |
downs in the November gales with the glass
which trembles in the aching arm before the |
blank horizon-these things, we see, give |
optical results which no social C1ulist has |
distinctly classified. For the rest, Ellen Jane |
Salt wore "a navy blue calico dress, well |
htted (by herseii) 10 pleasant figure, and |
tucked up over the hips under gray |
crash washing apron, on which she wiped |
her steamed and dripping hsuds to give Miss
Ritter greeting. There wasa strip of tourists
| running III tne neck pi lle navy nlue CallCO
and the house. like the mistress, was as neat
as honey comb. One might also say, with
out straiuing point, that there was a certain
poetry in her ayocation for Ellen Jane Salts
old cottage seemed to the chance visitor a
kind OF temple of cleanliness. The small
kitchen was sunny and sweet and despite
the dsproportion of the ironing table aud
stove to the environment, the only litter
seemed to be the signs of the presence of
children, which abounded. Then 1t must be
distinctly understood that Mrs. Salt had a
| 'parlor." What New Highlander has not ?
Whether his debts be paid or his soul saved
we need not stop to inquire; he will attend
| to that presently; meanwhile, a parlor or
your life
In Mrs. Salts parlor WAS a carpet of
| high-art pattern under reduced conditions
olive green, to be sure, playing at geome-
| try with Indian red, and sepa brown and
ivory black; it was All excellent carpet,
| and protected by strip of oil cloth nailed
| across like little plank walk for the chill
| dren TO travel over to the bedroom beyond.
| There was new paper on the walls of the
| parlor, very clean and very gilt (olive
| green, of course), and the price per roll
| such tritle that a Goldfish could afford il,
as Mrs salt had often said; the paperer
| being Ellen Jane herself, at midnight,
after a days washing, when che" was
asleep.
| In the parlOr were black hair-cloth
sofa, centre table with red cloth, a
| Bible, copy OF children's paper, an
| Old ffuFpfT, anu a lAteDI-nlptlclne almanac
| a chrome called Innocence Asleep" (pre-
| sented with pound of green tea, and since
| framed in gilt), and framed photograph of
| Raie but when we come 10 Raie--
| Meanwhile, in the parlor there was also
"an instrument Mrs. Salt bad privately
meant it to be a piano; but Mr.. Salt had a
bad year haddocking snd that overgrown
ambition was silently set aside. Anyhow,iit
was an instrument 1t did not matter
| whether one called it melodeon or a abinet
| organ, or whatever; the musical future of
| the Salt family was thus assured. In mar
| rover personal sense the instrument was in
| tended for Emma Eliza, who took music les
sons in prosperous seasons, and played--to
Rate. Emma Eliza was the oldest daughter,
and Rafe was the youngest son. Mrs. Salt
bad siy children-two babies Rate was a
cripple.
.Wasn't that Mrs. Hannibal p. Harrow.
stone comm up the beach alongside of you?''
began Mrs Salt, promptly. She ironed a
she talked making small ceremony OF Miss
Ritter, who was an old customer, and
} regarded quite as one of the family,
| Mrs. Salts irons thumped when she was
a | tired or excited, though she would have
, | you understand she knew how to iron
: | scientifically and silently, and no fuss
! about it Tonight she thumped good
J deal.
: 'She's a good customer, Mrs. Hannibal
| p. Harrowstone. But there! When | count
the yards and yards on her pettcoats--dol-
| lar yard, every mite Of lt-and her nigh
1,
might say, and them dimon's Ithumpl
and beef tea for Rafo goes so fast at twenty
| five cents pound durin his spells and
there! [thumpl Why, Miss Ritter, l did
| up one dress for that woman last week
would ha paid our rent Tor a whole year,
| by the Sassinfrass Bitters Almanac and
Bran so sharp on his rent, too, luck or
| none; an If man makes eighty dollars
| to his trip or eight cents, it's all the same
to Bran come rent.day. But there. that's
| tishin' | amt com plaiuiu', and thanks to
mercy | can stand at the wash-tuh day an
| night tor 'em longs there's anything tn
wash. Six weeks amt much, now, is it ?
Pretty short season aud no more for a
| woman To do in EalTharbor rest OF the
| year than there is for "A clam. We're like
| 'em, l guesS-iust stick in the mud and
stay there. But there! l amt complain
| in either and sIX children do want sight
| of things from JanoOary to Janooary, as
| you'd know, 1t you'd ever had one; aud
| Rafe--"
"Rafe looks pale, thought" interposed
| Miss Ritter, glancing into the "parlor,"
where a little, bent figure sat in high, padded
| chair by the window.
| The child had a delicate face, refined by
suffering, and a singulariy sweet mouth he
| had long blonde hair, which felltOyer his face
as he stopped. There was no other children
visible, except the baby, asleep in the crib or
cradle at the little cripple's feet. Now and
then the boy logged the cradle with his foot
as he bent over his work or play.
-" It's your scrap-boOk,n said Mrs Salt
| in a low voice 'that one you gave him
| with the ChrOmos aud magazines when
| you come in June. You never see such q
| sight of comfort as that child gets out O
them things-bless your soul for it! It's
| the pretiness that pleases him. The
bOarders give him money sometimes, but
| he don't pay the same attention to tit amt
that, you know. There's kind of pretti-
| ness about Rafe-like the ladies and gentle.
men / do for. He amt like a fisherman,
Rafe amt, aud so sweet of his temper in all
: his spells. Now last night never word.
} His father and me hate to see Rafe suffer"
II saw Henry on the beach Just now"
, | observed Miss Ritter, backing up by the
Z stove, as she was hidden, to dry her white
| flannel dress hem after Mrs. Salts PROBES
; siOnal treatment thereof The young lady
l had quite dignity enough even for this
4 | awkward and exceedingly warm position,
9 | and seemed to ill the little house with kind
, | OF splendoT-distant, uncomprehending, ac
| cidental-like that gift of the sCrap-bOOk
She thought too little about them to know
l when she did the right thing by poor people
until they told her She did not mistake heI
= taste for her principles, though they some
: times might al saw Henry" said Mis-
a Ritter in her atiablo tone, that the wash
! | woman did not always distinguish from per
sonal friendship. "He was going of in the
Y dory after those Benzine children that always
= get lost foggy days / thought he was pretty
] | patient, though he had to have his say abou
A | it, All the children were with him, believe
: Tom and Sue and the bigger baby and the
| rest"
l