The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-01-23

supper nre.Y
| How white and clean and sweet they
we're. As Pbrosy gathered them into q
tifiy-awkward bundle in her arms she
corld not help bending her head TO in
/. hale tho smell Of outdoors (as she
called III tbateam from them
They smell differently from Chinese
washing she thought There's one
shirts are always the incest done up in
town. and then as that thought passed
through her mind it left an inspiration
behind it, . -.
That night after supper when Ben
was resting himself from his days labor
| BY ssputtering' around the chicken
house and backyard generally, and Mrs.
Miller was chatting with a neighbor
who had opportunely dropped in, Phro-
| sy. rleading an errand at the store,
slipped away from them all and proceed
ed to put her inspiration to the test Of
practicaffty.
1T might be agood idea,v said kindly
| Mrs. Jenkins, % whom she had gone IN
her emergency, abut there's SO many o.
them plagaey Chinese around that it
brings prices down dreadful, and most
folks don't care how thing is done 80 it
Is done cheap
.'But my things don't smell of opium
and nastiness as the Chinamen's do, .
averred phrosy, stout1y, there must be
some one who would rather pay little
hig her and have things nice.u
such folks is scarcer than diamonds
in dust heaps" was the sententious re-
| ply. 81 would myself, OF course, but
old Ma'am Gilman has kind of got a
mortgage on me, and though she's failing
dreadful and rdon't send things home fit
to be seen some weeks, kinder can't go
back on ber.au at once.n
"Of course not" assented Phrosy, un-
hcsitatingly, shat isn't what want at
| all. But-~see here-you ask Joe to in
quire around up to Loren's mill and do
believe he'll find something for me.
don't dare to say word to Ben or he'd
| fly all to pieces-nor you needn't tell
| Joe who 1t Is that wants the things
just let him say some one who'll do
them the best they can be done and
needs the money. = -
''All right" said Mrs. jenkins, "I'll
keep 1t as still as mice, whether it turns
out we'll or not You come by to-mor-
row night and Ill tell you the verdict
IsAnd so, full of hopes and fears and fond
imaginings, Phrosy went home.
The next night Mrs Jenkins met her
with her broad face beaming. i've got
six for you" she said, delightedly, s'and
six times two bits is dollar and half
you are in luck, Phrosy t-tTafn'ton one of
the mill hands either, but a young fellow
that has bought out the old Bradbury
ranch. He's been up to the city for the
last week and more and come home with
about carload of dirty things-it's
been that hot up there, Joe says, that
you can't keep nothing decent two min
utes, and old Mrs. Bulgal that cooks up
there don't know beans about doing up,
land I'm glad of IT for one.
And | for two answered Phrosy,
gleefully, and then with a light and
thankful heart she took possession of
her somewhat bulky bundle and went
merrily homeward.
4 The next day six white and antic
shirts fluttered upon the miller's clothes
line the ncxt day-stiff and shiny and
odorous only of Heavens pure breezcs
they went to their owner, and Joe
brought back to his mother in return
the silver which looked to Phrosy
brighter and better than silver ever
looked before. He brought something
/ else, too-an overgrown bundle Of shirts
which had evidently seen sorrow and
had not lived the lives that aristocratic
white shirts ought to live.
These belong to the mill boys" he
explained; they got sight at the
others and nothing to do but they must
send these down-theyre pretty hard
lot (meaning the shirts and not the
mill boys), 'but guess your old woman
can get EN- clean, MOTHER
And his mother, chuckling a little as
She thnnght-of old 8oman,t,,-t
the bundle and informed her son that
any thing the kind was welcome until
further orders. -
That week, in the neighbors' estima-
tion, Ben Miller fairly blossomed with
shirts, for the number Of those useful
and ornamental garments that hung on
the Millen'ss line was something abso-
lutely unprecedented.
Thirteen shirts for one poor work
ing-man is the worst l ever heard" as
severated the woman next door, whose
propinquity gave her, in her own esti-
nation, right to criticise the Millers
with more frankness than s'manners. y
II wouldn't slave myself to death for
the sake of Ben,s vanity if was his
sister,
But Phresy smiled serenely. =s-zA.s=e==
Il don't call Ben over vain myself
she answered, ''and Pm sure am not
shaving myself to death or near it for
any one, and as long as Pm satisfied
don't see what difference the size of my
washings ought to make to any one
else" And with this the oficious and
would=be inquisitiye neighbor was forced
to retire discounted.
Phrosy went to the picnic under Mrs.
Jenkins protecting wing lone of Mrs.
I Millers whilom cronies consenting glad
I ~ to come and spend the day with herJ,
and she had on fresh pink lawn and
ribbons to match and looked for all the
world like peach-blossom.
i The picnic was near the ''old Brad.
bury ranch and its new owner--a tall,
sunburned, masterful young fellow with
plain, sensible face and pair of eyes
that seemed to Phrosy the kindest that
she had ever seen-made them~welcome
to his home and was as hospitable as a
true Californian always is-and some
way Phrosy was shyly conscious, after
the first, that those kind eyes looked a
trifie more kindly upon her than they
did upon some of the more noticeable
girls.
Phrosy was always one of the useful
ones and when it fell to her lot to over
see the arrangement Of the lunch her
now acquaintance very quietly Olsen;
| Gagged him self from the others and do.