Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-09-07

smallest variety. Could l put her off
till Monday; Without that half eagle
my Saturday nights marketing would
| be a very small affair.
But what will hers be without it?"
said INV conscience. eff Won feel the
Inconvenience Of an empty pocket so
much, what must it be to those who
earn food and shelter from day to dav?
| Daily bread is something more than a
mere form Of speech to themr"
Perhaps little would serve her i'm
| mediate wants. Selhshness received this
suggestion very approvingly, and
| turned from my papers to the copyist to
make the suggestion.
She stood on the other side of the fire.
| place as motionless as if she had been
carved pillar placed there TO support the
| mantel against which her shoulder rest
| ed. One foot-a neat one, even in its
worn, wet shoe-peeped from beneath
| her dress as if drawn irresistiblv toward
| the grateful warmth. Indeed her whole
attitude seemed TO express the same feel
ing She did not bend and crouch over
the fire as Il beggar would have done.
She did not sit before it and court its
cheerful heat as if it had blazed on her
own hearthstOne
Scarcely swcrving from the most erect
position as she leaned against the mar
bic, her clasped hands hanging before
her, she seemed to be bracing herself
against an attraction that would draw
her completely into the flame. could
almost fancy that. if left to itself. her
slender form would be drawn closer and
closer, till finally it mingled with the
Pickering blaze and with it passed into
viewless air.
But when | lifted my eyes to her
face | saw that she was at least uncon-
scious of the fancied impulse. Her fixed
eyes and faint smile on her lips told
that some pleasant thought had be-
guiled her even there into day dream.
Following the direction of her gaze |
saw that it rested on the same solitary
coin which had been the subject of my
own meditations, and which lay Just
where | had dropped ton the table
when startled by her knock.
Modern critics are very fond of talk
ing about the suggestive in art and litera-
ture. To my own mind because it is
hackneyed and worldly, suppose they
would say there is no word in the Ian
guage so suggestive as money-no work
Of art that brings up so many and 50
varied thoughts as those very remark
able prohles and effigies which adorn
our current coin. Dross in itself, if the
philosophers will have it so, yet as
means, a tool, "A path, is it not wonder
full in the versatility of its power? What
magician ever worked such wonders in
the material world: What spirit works
SO universally, 50 unfailingly, so unceas-
ingly, in the moral; Even that single
coin onlny table--that intinitesimal drop
iii the great ocean Of wealth-how much
lies within the circumference of such a
small piece of metal?
To my own mind-worldlv and hack
neyed, as | have before observed-it had
been suggestive of a great many things.
Compressed within its disk. | had seen
my Sunday dinner-ample, done to
turn, rich with dripping gravy and
smoking hot from the roasting jack
From its metallic rim l had already
slipped in imagination the rare old
Amontillado, y fragment of the gold
had curled my lips in fragrant wreaths
Of smoke. And if |, to whom even
half eagles were not infrequent Wis
itors and who, If | had known pow
erty at AL, had known him only as a
neighbor to be Stunned, and not as an
inmate to he fought, who even in my
worst estate, had been spared the pain
Of seeing him enter at my own door
and sit down with my dear ones at their
scant meal; if | could see 50 much in
a half eagle, what Il worldwide prospect
Of happiness might it not open 10 that
poor girls eyes? | dared not dwell on
the things she might see there. lest
should loathe myself and the well fed
Christian men around me, who so rarely
grant such visions TO the starved eye
sight, but | Immediately gave up all
thoughts of sending the girl away with
out her money.
Yes, her money! For hers it was by
all that can make good title in law or
equity; earned by the fragment of her
young life she had given for it; earned
with the very flesh from her wasted
frame and the blood from her pale
checks.
What business had to be specializing
and sentimentalizing thus about the af-
fairs of a young lady with whom | had
only a little business transaction.
might have known that such an unpro-
fessiOnal train of thought would lead to
some blunder The earthen pot and the
iron one never can swim safely together
in fact or fable. Consequently broke
i'll upon the poor girls rcyerie with the
most awkward question in the world:
"Have you any change, miss?'
ySTlySYsfss sSS b Il