Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1890-09-06
THE WOMAN In GRAY.
HER SMILE LEFT ITS IMPRINT ON
A WHOLE NEIGHBoRHooD.

Who Met Her In Her Daily Round Of
Care and Turmoil.
She was only little woman dressed in
shabby, well worn gray, and her face, no
longer young and fair, had grievous
marks upon it. that were cares sharp
writing of a life history none too JOYOUS
and burdenless, but her smile was as bright
and sunshiny as a pleased child's. And as
she walked down the long, commonplace
street morning after morning on her way
to work-for it Is of one Of earth's humble
toilers that l am telling you-she went
smiling her friendliness upon every Great
ure she met.
The dog that every morning led the
blind man to his corner close to the book
sellers stand, and sat patiently by him all
day waiting to lead him home when even
ing should come, he knew her, and greet
cd her with wag of his stumpy tail as a
sign OF good fellowship, though she could
seldom spare a coin to the ragged hat his
master held, and his honest brown eyes
said as plainly as IL he had had speech with
which to voice it, "You would If you could,
know"
The little lame tailor stitching away in
his door glanced away from his work
again and again till he saw her coming,
and the butcher, burly and bare armed, in
variably wiped his hands to return that
friendly smile. Old Poll, the apple woman,
who had never been known to give pleas
ant word to any other creature and whose
sharp tongue was the terror OF the neigh
borhood, actually had civil nod for the
little woman who persisted in smiling at
her. The postman found his round trihe
less weary when he met the small, gray
figure going its CHEEKY way The school
children were her friends and returned her
tilent greeting with interest from the same
bright mint.
ONLY SMILE
The druggist behind his gay glass bottles
knew her, the invalid child that spent so
many long hours Of pain and loneliness
looking out of the window in the fine big
house across the way watched for her
wistfully, and sighed and turned impa-
tiently upon her pillow when she had gone
by. Yes, they all knew her for friend,
though in the great rush of life and the
struggle for bread she had no time to stop
for the exchange of even word with them,
but she gave them all she had-a smile,
that bloomed, however in the rich soil OF a
heart full of love, as a rose is but the out
ward token of the kindly, beneficent earth
from which il springs
But when at last n morning came, and
the little shabby figure did not appear, all
these friends of hers were troubled, and
had you said to them, "Why, you never
spoke word to her in your livesr' they
would scarcely have believed you. The
tailor found himself stitching up the ends
of the sleeves in the coat he was at work
on, the butcher sent on loins for shoulders
and brains Tor pigs rect, and the druggist
caught himsel1 up Sharply twice ana thrice
as ne hammered away with his pestle at
entirely wrong ingreuients IN MS mortar.
OIL Poll grew crosser ana sharper as the
morning grew nearer and nearer to noon,
and still her one friend came not and her
uneasiness grew.
The SICK child could not he coaxed away
from the window, but lay pressing her
thin, white face against the pane, peering
anxiously down the crowded street. The
children remembered with disappointment
as they entered the school house that they
had returned no CHEEKY smile that morn
ing. and the blind mans dog, hoping to
the last that she would come, kept making
little starts forward as ne cs nght giimpses
In the hurrying crowd of vanishing skirts
that he mistook for the familiar gray
dress, only to come back dejectedly to his
masters side and sit pondering over the
matter in his faithful dog heart.
YET SHE Is MISSED.
But when the next day came and went
and the next was gone and still she did
not come the neighbors of a little tumble
down house sadly lacking paint, which
had hidden itself shyly away between the
two rows of crowded tenements, were sur
prised to see the number Of callers that
came to knock softly at the door and &c