The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-05-04

as AoA 2AAa@3 SIG went un @4GSE q
minute, II never had no conceit Of
him nohow, but I'll try to get along
with him till you come. +"
Hell be there, sister,
80, yes. he'll be on hand He al
ways was on hand when nobody wanted
him. "
Only few days after Needles died.
It was one lovely August morning in
the early dawn that Pins heard her call
and came hastily from the little inner
room where she had been trying to rest
little. She came out and bent over
to kiss the withered lips of the dying
woman.
"Sister. do you know mep IT'S I,
Prissy," she said. 'tSister! good-morn-
ing, sisterg' The dying eyes opened
for one last loving look and Their
closed forever.
Pins buried her, ga good decent
burial that the town didn't have no
hand in, she said to herself, grimly.
''Mebbe I'll have to be buried by the
town myself. but sister wasn't" she
said, and she took up her work again.
But, alas! the stiff. hard old fingers
worked even less swiftly and steadily
now. There was something gone from
the life and the eyes wandered visit
fully over the meadows while the work
dropped idly from her hands. So. be-
fore long, it happened that the dozen
shirts to- ok two weeks instead of one
to fRish. Then coarser work was
taken that tried the old eyes less and
LnA = 4
instead of fifty cents. Nineteen cents
a week! 1t wasn't much to live on,
but she did it. Easily too, as her app
petite began to fail her, and soon she
began to lay by out of that little sum
something more for her burying. She
couldn't eat the coarse food she
bought, and day after day a little
bread and butter and a cup of tea was
all she took. But worse of all was the
loneliness. She missed her sister so!
Again and again she would start up in
the night thinking she heard her call,
and then would lay herself back on
her dreary pillow, not to cry, for she
was over seventy, and the old shed few
tears, but to remember.
She took to going about little now,
stopping at the houses of by-gOne
friends, and she would be often asked
to stay to dinner or to tea with them.
How good the food tasted! 1t would
be easier to wait for death she fancied
if she could always have food like that.
But one day she overheard the good
man of the house remark; ''Prissy al
ways happens around about meal-time.
don't she, wife?'' and she hurried
home in an agony of shame. She
never went again.
That same day one of the selectmen,
a kindly-natured man, though with
rough exterior, overlook her as she
walked, and involuntarily she spoke to
him about that which was always in
her thoughts; Chow does Mis- Bruno
make out with the town poor. 'squireP''
There's complaints. Mis- Youngs,
there's complaints, But paupers amt
easy to satisfy no way you can fix it.
wish we hadn't had to give them to
Mis- Bruno"
docs she give any outside help.
'squireP''
mo, Mis- Youngs. she don't, and
it's comes mighty hard on some of
EN-
The last faint hope was gone. She
had thought that perhaps she might
humble herself to ask for little town
help to keep her off the town, ," as our
New Englanders put it. But now it
was useless. There was nothing left
She must die.
The days wore on. 1t was the third
day after that the old storekeeper said
to the squirrels daughter as he handed
her her mail: miss Mary, do you
know how old Mis- Youngs is getting
alongP"
why, nicely, 1 guess. Inever heard
of her wanting any thing"
"Wen, she was up here this morning
for a pound of crackers, and she looked
so white and faint tried to make her
sit down. You know my wife always
sends me down a hot lunch. and it
came just then. I happened to look
up and I saw her eye it so wistful-like,
when my little Mary spread it out, that
I sent Mary off quick, and then said:
Come, Mis- Youngs, sit down here
and take lunch with me. I've got
enough here for a dozen, and it's
lonely eating by ones self. Besides, 1
want to talk over old times with you
just a minute thought she was going
to do it, when there came steps on the
bridge and she Strengthened herself up
stiff as poker and said: Thank you,
Mr.. Curtis, l must be going, and she
was of. l looked out and there was
Mis- Bruno coming with old Jack be-
hind her Miss Mary, I'm afraid that
woman is suffering and afraid of the
poor-house.
80, Mr.. Curtisi'' Miss Mary did not
wait for any thing more. She few
home. Old Prissy Youngs, suffering.
starving it might be, and she, absorbed
in her own selfish happiness, had never
dreamed of it "Inasmuch as We did
it not"-how could she not have
knownP How long the way was! Yet
truly she had never so flown over 1t,
even to meet her lover.
At the house she filled little basket
with dainty things, fresh-laid eggs and
new butter, wine and jelly and a little
chicken broth and delicate bread, and
then she started
Pins had gone home with her crack
ers and sat down in the little room.
| There was a little fire in the old stove
and she went to the cupboard to make
| herself some tea. But there was so
little tea left in the caddyi she looked
at it and then she put it back. ''They
mustn't find it empty" she said, and
she sat down in the old armchair.
There's wood in the box" she
said gently to herself, land crackers
and tea in the pantry, and nobody need
ever know but what had enough al
ways, an there's ten cents in my purse,