The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1893-11-17
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
How Mrs. vranklin Secured Her
New Clothes.

IN blc cleau klIcuen, SlltlnB DeSlQe pDe
stove, Mrs. Vranlslin rose, went into her
bedroom and brought out a bundle of
clothes.
81 want you to look at these things.
jeremiah, she said, mildly.
"What are they?" said he,
She spread them out on the floor.
''That is my best DRESS" she said.
'"Those are my best shoes. That is the
only bonnet I've got in the world but
my calico sun-bonnet, and that is my
Sunday shawl"
She uttered the words quietly, and
waited.
'Wellp'' said Mr. vranklin. still smok-
ing.
"Well?" she answered.
He said nothing. She gathered up the
garments with look of disdain, and
piled them on a chair.
You're rich man." she said
"Rich for farmer You are sixty and
l fifty years old. Our boys are married
| haven't had any money to spend for
five years I'm sight to behold. If
were servant should get wages and
not have to beg. No, l don't beg,
Jeremiah. Since you don't offer it
yourself, I'm going to tell you that !
want money. / want a hundred dol
lars to buy me some new clothes to
| feel decent and comfortable in, I'm
really destitute. Why, Pm out of fam
nell My calico gowns are patched at
the elbow. My shoe heels are twisted.
| can't go to church any more, for I've
turned my black silk twice, and the
back breadths upside down. I've
washed my bonnet ribbons. I've done
| all could rather than ask for what
| you didn't offer; and there's no need.
You're well-to-do / want to be de-
| cent and take little comfort while
can. / must. There, now! It's my
rightr'
She had spoken her mind, and Mr..
Vranlzlin felt that climax had ar
rived. He had ''laid by" large sum.
He was growing old and had no need
to pinch, but the awful demand for a
hundred dollars all in lump was too
much for him. He had become used to
Eva Maria's quiet way of mending her
| old clothes and asking for no money,
and it had never occurred to him that
she would some time come down upon
him like this.
He stared silently, and puffed across
the stove the smoke of the cheap to-
bacco he burntin common corn-cob
! pipe. The old rag carpet was clean.
The old chairs were mended with car
pet bottoms. 1t was all tidy. but moth
ing was new. Nothing pretty but the
scarlet geraniums in their big pots on
| the window-sill. He had given his
wife very little in their thirty years Of
married life; for all the furniture was
his mothers. She had helped him make
his fortune, selling butter and eggs and
| pot-cheese and flower roots, feeding the
hands cheaply and well, wedding vege-
tables and even riding the moving ma
chine, now and then--though not very
/ lately. Conscience told him that he
ought to pull from his vest pocket the
crisp hundred dollar note he had re-
ceived that morning for some hay at
| the landing and say: Here, Eva Maria,
why didn't you speak before?' But
when greed takes possession of the
/ heart of man, it holds on like leech
AL he said, after the silence had re-
NAMED unbrolxen for some minutes,
was:
"Well, Eva Maria, I'll think it over .
To some women there is no agony
like asking husband for money.
They want love-gift, not aims.
Generally they have to ask at last.
Eva Maria had nerved herself at last
in the misery of her shabbiness to make
the speech above recorded, but it
seemed fearful thing to do. She lit
tie guessed that she had frightened
jeremiah almost out of his senses.
| "a hundred dollars!'' he said to him
self. "She must know what I've got
about me. She must mean to have it.
Fifty, now. I'd give But a hundred
I'll get the money charged, and give
her fifty"
| He opened the door of the passage,
crossed it and went into the parlor. II
was a cold, neat place, kept sacred fol
great occasions. 1t had a CRATE in it,
but it was doubtful if a fire would be
lighted there that winter. It had beer
inconvenient to take it down that sum.
mer, so fringed pink paper had been ar,
! ranged between the polished bars and
the rug drawn across the hearth
Photographs of several members of the
family hung by red cords. from the wall
dotted muslin curtains with neatly
fiuted rufiies covered the green paper
blinds A dish of wax fruit, covered
by glass shade, ornamented the cen.
ter-table, and the horsehair furniture
had been SO little used in two genera
tions that it looked almost new. The
vases on the mantle were old-fashionec
blue ware, for which china-worship
er would have paid great price.
| Eva Maria should have fifty dollars
but she had said she had right to
hundred. If he gave her the bill in hi
pocket she would spend it. It was Sat
urday evening; he could not get i
changed that night-no, not until Mon
day. If he locked it up, she woult
know, and take it out, perhaps, and dc
as she pleased with it. She had de
clared her right" to it. Eva Maria
humblest of the humble, meekest o
the meek, had spoken sol Could it be
This comes of these here strong
minded meetin's." said Mr.. Vranklin.
This was not logical, for Mrs Vranlz
lin had not attended one of them.
Women used to be biddable The,
are kicking over the traces now. No
body soliloquized Mr.. Vranlxlin
growing more and more ungrammat
ieal with his wrath nobody ain
goin' to ride over me, specially q wifi
of mine. l must hide the money unit