The Springdale news., 1889-10-18


 used to say, "such a terrible pity that poor Mr. Moss should have let his mis- fortunes warp him so. If he would but talk of something else"
 And Air. Golden would say:
 "Ah, you don't know how it hurts a man to have had all his schemes and ambitions come to an end in his ma ture years. Youth can rise again after fall; middle-age can not No doubt poor Mr. Moss has failed.
 And Ellen Golden supposed that this must be so, and that night asked her tenant to tea, and made won derful cake with view to his coming. He did not refuse to eat the cake. but he gave her little sermon on ex- trayagance, and begged her to reflect what eggs cost
 1t is certainly quite disinterested, " l said Ellen Golden, but he makes me so uncomfortable. Being so poor himself l can't feel hurt at his re- minding me that l am poor, too but l wish he wouldn't" :" In return for the kindness of the Goldeus, poor Mir Moss was always ready to do thousand things. He was handy with hammer and nails, and had a wonderful faculty for mend- ing shoes. Once or twice Ellen thought he must have been a shoe maker, he so ably cobbled her dis carded walking boots; and she had fancied him | carpenter when he put the kitchen closet door on its hinges; and jeweler when he reset the amethyst in her dead mothers ring which she now wore in memory of her. Once she said:
 "How did you learn to do so many things?'
 And he answered.:
 "Nothing saves man so much money as to be Jack k-of-aIl-trades. ,
 Still he was not saving himself money when he dug her garden and put new bricks in her range. And he did it with the same aIacrity with which he sponged and pressed his own clothes, and recovered his own um- brella.
 When he came home at night he al- ways went to work; and they learned that he made his own bedstead, and his three-eornered table, and stuffed his own straw mattress.
 "A penny saved is penny got, :" said Mr. Moss. And Mr. Golden. who never yet had found himself quite able to pour himself cup of coffee, or find his own slippers, and who, tn ough he had been prosperous comm ereial gentleman once. would have been as apt to sweep his own chimney as to mend any thing about the house, stared in amazement
 "He appears to be gentleman by education, he said he is well read in the classics; he understands music as few save professional folk do; and stocks-my dear, 1 think he knows more about stocks than any one 1 ever met What an invaluable man he would have been to me in my business l would gladly have had him for my head clerk. He might have saved me from failure; yet see to what pass he is reduced himself.
 Mir Moss certainly was a mystery; but. since he did not choose to explain himself, the Goldens were too polite to ask questions; and whether 1t was the fact that there was something to wonder at in him, or whether his dark skln and black eyes were the proper contrast to her complexion and blue orbs, Ellen Golden found her self thinking of him great deal.
 "If he only would forget money. or the sound fit, how nice he would be" said she.
 And one day-but this she had never told to any one--he had said to her:
 .If a man were rich enough he would be so much happier rarried-so much happier-but it is unwise to marry if one can not afford it. It is so expen- siye a thing. Don't you think SOP"
 And she had said:
 "oh, yes, it certainly is;' and had not known whether to laugh or cry.
 Somehow, she thought to herself, knowing Mr. Moss is like meeting the enchanted Prince of the Arabian Nights who seemed d flesh and blood Prince, but who proved to be one-half of stone. So there were soft. and gentle, and kindly things in Mr. Moss almost loving things at times-but when he spoke of money the petriied half of him came 10 view.
 Yet it is trouble that has made him so, said she. The enehantment-or perhaps l should say the disenehant- ment-of loss and disappointment. It hurt papa. but not in the same way.
 It was queer life that the girl led with these two men, one old. one middle aged, and yet it was not m un- happy one.
 Mr. Moss had no other friends. save a portly, bald-headed gentleman who