Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-02
The. MONEY SPINNER
BY CELIA HARPER.

perfectly still, Mrs. Harmon. Don't move
There, that's the third time! | am awful
glad. Now you'll be rich. Once is little
money, two is a good deal, but three is
fortune"
'I don't know what it is all about, Mar
gerry, but if there is a fortune coming to
either of US shall be very glad"
''Oh, it was a money spinner. Don't
you know what they are? They are lit
tie black spiders, and they spin down
from the ceiling, and if they touch you
once and draw up again, that means some
money, and twice is more. and three is
fortune, and now you will surely very
rich"
81 hope you are a prophet, Margery,
but I won't run into any great extraVa-
gance until the fortune is here. Yes, L
will, too; we will have jam with our tea
to-day, dear. Now, will get our lunch
ready"
And Mrs. Harmon rose from the table,
which was covered with manuscript, and
drew a light stand close TO Margery, who
was a helpless invalid, though cheerful
one.
Margery was an orphan, and her old
grandmother supported her by selling
toys and candy at little stand that she
had built in disused alley-way, between
two houses, in North Eight street, IN
Philadelphia; and there she sat through
summers heat and winters cold, knit
ting industriously, when she had no Gus
toners.
Everybody liked the CHEEKY old woman,
and she made decent living for herself
and this unfortunate little sufferer. She
left her home in large tenement house
ri, IN ha and she had been
obliged to leave the suffering child alone
all day, but to make time pass more pleas
antly, all the toys she sold had passed at
least two DAYS in the hands of the little
Invalid, and then they were sold to other
children.
But one day Mrs. Harmon, who was
widow, and lived in dreary tenement
house also, happened to hear of the lone
Iy child next door, and forthwith she had
begged the grandmother to let little Mar
gerry pass her long days with her.
Only too gladly was the promise given,
and now for long time had the little girl
been carried in there mornings and back
at night. The grandmother always pro-
vided good bowl of soup or some other
nourishing food, which she ate at noon
with her kind friend.
Mrs. Harmon was a woman of great re-
fnement. She had been the petted idol
of her family but she had offended her
widowed mother by her marriage with
Lester Harmon, who was struggling ar
list, while Marion Whittlesy Crawford
was the heiress to great expectations
from very wealthy grandmother IN Eng
land
The young brides mother, it was true,
was not on friendly terms with her moth
er in England; but that did not alter the
fact that all the grandmother's wealth
would one day belong to her, and her
pride revolted at a marriage so unequal
to her daughters expectations; but the
young couple had been happy with the
two lovely children who came to bless
them.
Then Mrs. Harmon's mother died sud
denly. and soon after that an epidemic
took her two children, and the grief at
the loss of these, developed pulmonary
trouble in her husband and in one short
wear. Marion had lain her last loved one
beneath the sod.
She was a woman of talent, and thought
that she would be able to earn a living
for herself by her pen. but found 1t hard
for a beginner, and she had taken one
room after another, each cheaper than
the other, until she now occupied this
third story back room among the poorest
people of the city.
She had sold one after another of her
possessions until almost nothing remain
ed, as she was, as yet scarcely able to earn
her support by writing, though she was
more capable than many a woman who is
receiving good salary for less work than
she did.
She was not old, nor yet was she young,
but sorrow had destroyed the most of the
beauty she once had possessed; but life
held for her nothing now, but the love of
this poor little creature who was suffering
all the agonies of hip disease.
So now she drew up the little stand say
ing;
s'We will have our lunch now, dear, and
we will dissipate to the extent of a pot of
jam. Here is your soup, and here is our
tea, and bread and butter, for must con-
fess that don't like dry bread, even with
jam.
"What would you like to have when our
fortune comes? Tell me, shall it be
Drown stone house, or wax doll? A car
riage and four, or canary bird in gol-
den cage"
''You may laugA if you like, but grand
mother says that it always comes true, so
now!" poutsd Margery.
''All right, dear, whatever comes you
shall share it."
At that moment came the shrill whistle
of the postman in the lower hall, and a
stout pair of lungs fawled out:
"Two letters for Mrs Harmon, one reg
istered. Bring pen and inkp' and then
he began to dance and make eyes at q
young woman to pass the time, until
Mrs. Harmon came down with her pen
and ink, signed her receipt and took the
letters upstairs.
She smiled at Margery, saying:
''May be your fortune will come" and
opened her letters.
One came from a weekly newspaper,
and enclosed a check for five hundred
dollars for a serial story which she had
written.
She heaved sigh of satisfaction, ana
then opened the other, which she new
saw bore the name of a London lawyer,
and drew forth the enclosuee, which was
as follows:
sMRs. HARMoN-M Madam: If you are
the granddaug of Mrs. Marion Whit
tlesy Crawford, and can furnish the doc