Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-05-15
RAISING THE MONEY.
BY MILTON T. ADKINS.

'HoW the Colonel getting alongT
"The Colonel's fool"
"And how is Elinor behaving?"
"She's Dinny; she's an unmitigated
noodle; they both are; they won't either
of them do what they ought to do, nor
say what they ought to say"
"It's too bad"
81 think I'll kill him in a duel, give
her dose of poison, let the villain Jerry
Smith marry the cousin and then wash
my hands of the whole business"
The foregoing rather startling CONVEX
sation took place between two lady like,
pleasant-faced young women, who occu-
pied suite of rooms in the fourth st ory
of certain establishment in Washington,
which said establishment was much af-
fected by people given over to that
doubtful mode of life known as ''lie ut
housekeeping.
They were sisters, and enough alike in
face, form, manner and voice to be
twins; IN fact, they were twins.
They had come to Washington three
years before from one of the Southern
States, hoping to obtain Government
employment in one of the departments,
but all efforts in that direction had been
fruitless. The family had been very
wealthy before the war, but that terrible
struggle had swept away their fortune.
The brothers had fallen in battle, and
the father, after struggling along for a
few years under the unaccustomed load
o. poverty and adversely, had sunk be-
meath the burden. The gentle lady
mother had soon followed, and the twins,
mere babes when peace came, had spent
some years of their childhood with a
maiden aunt, their only living relative
She, in turn, had gone the way of all
the earth, leaving the girls, to whom she
had been second mother, her dying
blessing, but nothing in the way of
worldly gear beyond some old-fashioned
furniture and tract of wild mountain
land upon which she had paid taxes for
forty years without receiving a cent of
income therefor.
The homestead in the village was
swept away by a mortgage, long over
due, and so the girls, after disposing of
the heavier personal effects, had gath
cred their remaining goods and chattels
and sought home and means of live
ihood in the capital city.
But it had been a wearisome quest.
Clerkships and other minor places in the
departments were no longer to be had at
the request of members and Senators,
even if they could have brought such in
fiuences to bear. The new Civil Service
law had superseded all that. They had
taken the examinations and passed high
up on the list, but somehow the quota
from their State seemed always to be
full, and they were never certified.
Katie, the elder, had sweet sympa,
thetic voice, and earned something by
giving music lessons, and by occasional
employment as a substitute in some one
of the church choirs. Annie gave paint,
ing lessons when so fortunate as to have
any pupils, and latterly had discovered
that she could write little sketches an6
stories, which upon being committed tt
the editors of the story papers, by mail
now and then bore most astonishing
fruit, in the shape of very modest, bu
n~ost welcome checks.
1t was in regard to the characters il
enc of these sketches, that the converse
ton we have detailed, took place. The
young authoress had experienced diff
Guilty said to be quite common, even t.
the veterans in the field of letters-he
characters had taken the bit and hat
broken away from all control.
tLet them have a rest, Twinnie Sissy
and come look out the window with me,
said Katie.
The other puckered her lips an