The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1889-10-30

proud to-day as she was when her
carriage drove up to our door, and
she brought you fruit from her hot
house. No, am wrongl She was
not proud, then Heaven bless herl
but she is nowll''
Beggars have no right to be
pronndl / won't have It'll Do you
understand If you persist in this
folly, you may suit yourself to the
situation, for your allowance stops;
understand, the day you propose TO
your cousin Rhoda. Yon can find a
home and an income elsewhere
.I don't mind that threat, but
should be very unhappy If / left
you alone, father. =
ssDon't do If, then.
aBut it will make my life utterly
wretched to give up my cousin. =
BAH Go to bed. Yon'r re head
strong boy, and yon have not tasted
poverty yet Keep yopr heroics
E.tiif-you hare.
Frank Lewis. knew that there
We're some moods in which his
father was utterly stubborn, and
that to argue was to take time for
no result, So he accepted his dis
missal, and went to his own room.
|. ri
Thinking deeply, he came to the
resolution to try his power to con-
quer fortune before seeing Rhoda
again. She knew he loved her, and
if his love was returned, would trust
him; if she cared for him only in
cousingly way, then the separation
might help him to bear later dis
appointment. He would not desert
his father, but perhaps when he had
proved himself no braggart, his
father might relent.
Itwas drcary enough in the weeks
that followed in the tiny parlor, be-
hind the little stationer's store
where Rhoda Lewis strove to keep
the wolf from the door. Brought
up in utter ignorance of business,
the young storekeeper had depend
ed unconsciously upon her cousin
Frank in all financial difficulties. =
Frank had taught her how to keep
her books, had given her instruc-
tions about renewing her stock in
trade, managed her banking busi-
ness, had been her adviser and best
friend from the day when she re-
turned from her fathcr's funeral TO
know she must be breadwinner for
herself and her invalid mother.
She had never looked upon him as
a lover, only as hervery dear cousin,
until her uncle rudely opened her
eyes and heart by informing her of
the penalty attached to his sons
courtship. Then love awakened to
sting her SHARPLY when pride for-
bade her cherishing the sweet in
truder.
Yet, while she suffered in heart,
there was a magic of prosperity
about the tiny store. Customers
focked to her, and she found sale
for better class of goods than she
had ventured upon at first. She
had some skill in water-c color paint
ing, no wonderful talent, but suffi-
cient capacity for much of the pretty
decorating, just at that time coming
into fashion. For what she had
leisure to accomplish in that line,
she found quick sale at large profit.
Her sorest grief was in her
mothers wasting health, and the
certainty that a long standing
disease must terminate fatally,
though the decline was very slow.
Heart and brain were sorely taxed,
the more that she had been so care
fully guarded from all care and
sorrow during her fathers life.
But she was brave and faithful in
the discharge of daily duty, trusting
in Gods care for her future, as
humbly as a child trusts it's mother.
Two years had passed since Frank
Lewis put up her shutters, when he
wrote to her from another city, tell
ing her that he had good position,
was working faithful to make
himself independent, and asking
her to be his wife if his income ever
filed his pockets sufficiently to start
a home.
81 tried to work in my old home,
to be near my father" he wrote,
@but it was better for me to be away
for time"
1t was strange, deep happiness
that met this letter, for Rhoda knew
she loved her cousin as the one love
of her life. She wrote back at once,
frankly and lovingly, and the cor
respondence became her ray of sum
shine in her sorrow for her mother
and her daily toll for bread.