Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1889-10-04
Two Shill ings Of Luck.
Oh .APTEk |.

than halt starved, but in Sc nuch O
the world as wears clothes, ana no
only in pocket, hut in skill Ofcourse
it is always IN ms own fault wher
he is failure; that was the favorit,
doctrine of Herr Elias Lewis, thu
great banker and financier. who
could have bought up half Eulen
burg, and therefore must be true; but
yet-even allowing for lack of skill
it is hard to say why Cans, the tailor
should have been quite so poor. Fol
he was sober, not only from necessity
but OH principle; he was as honest as
the day, and as steady and as punct-
ual as the clock Of Saint Walburga's $.
His only ailment was hunger; his
only weakness and extravaganza
centered in the sidkly little girl whom
his dead wife had left him when she
carried all the luck he had ever known
away.
His little girl had gone to II hungry
sleep, while he, in his bare attic, was
mending a pair OF pantaloons by the
light of a candle end. And they
were no common pair of pantaloons.
For they had been intimately &C.
quainted with the limbs of no less n
parsonage than Elias Lewis himself;
and yet they had wanted so much
mending that Cans wondered, in the
midst OF all his anxietics for his
Gretchen, that so rich man should
have such IA pa r of pantaloons
patched instead Of thrown away.
And perhaps that very wonder con-
tanned the secret of his own poverty.
III L was as rich as Herr Lewis"
he thought, if such vain Imagination
could be called thinking, "I'd keep
the trade going by having u brand
new suit every year and never wear
an old one; and I'd have the best
doctors for Gretchen; and when she
gas quite well, and as straight and
as pretty as her mo Their, I'd give the
finest ball that ever was seen; and
feathers-diamonds-- +"
But his thread snapped; and with
his thread the very beginnings of his
dream. Feathers-diamon ds-when
Gretchen was moaning even in her
feverish sleep with hunger, and her
father had not a penny in prospect
for tomorrow; for e ven the price OF
his present paltry job had been paid
in advance, and spent before it was
earned.
"Pd sell my very sc ul, > said he, as
he turned the garment ankles up
ward to get at the fra yed edges, ito
be certain of getting the chld's crust
for another day"
Almost as he spoke something
iingled at his feet upon the floor.
Thinking it might be one of Herr
Lewis metal buttons. he went down
upon his hands and knees to find it,
with the help of his candle end; and,
after a good minutes search, saw,
stuck in a crack between the boards. |
a solitary gulden, well nigh as much
the worse for wear as the pantaloons
from whose recesses it had fallen.
Poor Cans sighed. 1t was too
cruel jest of Fortune to mock him /
in his distress with the sight of an
other mans money. A whole guldenl |
Why, it was wealth I'd n man who |
had nothing, and-but there, there |
was no use of thinking of it, when it |
was no more his than any portion
OF Herr Lewis Millions. So he set his
teeth and finished his Job. badly
but as well as he could. and
then lay down in a corner 10 rest.
with his waistcoat for Il pillow. in
which he had slowed tho gulden for
safety, and, though he Gontrived to
sleep, the sense of the guardianship
over a whole gulden all ut once dis
turbed him with strange dreams-he
dreamed that he was Herr Lewis,
and that Herr Lewis was Cans
Mohr.
Gretchen was no better the next
her fever had grown.
Cans, too sad and hopeless even to
sigh, made up the pantnloons into
n bundle, felt that the gulden was
safe, and set out to restore both to
his employer, u master tailor, with
II shop in agood quarter.
1t was fine morning, but the
of the sunshine onlymade
him feel all the more miserable.
W nat shame 1T was to see so many
healthy and happy children laughing
and romping on their way to school,
and to think of his Gretchen, posi-
lively dying before his eyes-of her,
who ought to be the hea lthiest and
merriest OF them all OF her for
whom there was neither school, nor
play, nor even food. TIN ut gulden.
Of which he thought so much that
night, felt terribly little after all;
even if he spent it it was not enough
to make Gretchen well again.
That gulden! 1t was not till he
was lledriy nan way nome AGAIN
That he remembered that It was still
IN his waistcoat pocket-that he had
clean forgotten to return it with the
He was vexed with HIM
self, and all the more so inasmuch
rs he was very weak. and hungry
md tired. Well, it did not ma tier
: rich man had to wait u day or
Two for single gulden. Nay