The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-06-08

turnec ---a RS --ners TO tie copyist to
make the suggestion.
She stood ON the other side Of the Gre
place rs motionless as 10 she had been n
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 III drawn irresistibly 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 a beggar would have done.
She did not sit before IL and court its
cheerful heat as IL it had blazed on her
own hearthstone.
Scarcely swerving from the most erect
position as she leaned against the mar.
BILE. her clasped hands hanging before
her. she seemed to be bracing herself
against an attraction that would draw
her completely into the flame. l could
almost fancy that, il left to itself, her
slender form would be drawn closer and
closer, till finally it mingled with tho
pickering blaze and with it passed into
viewless air.
But when l 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 a day dream.
Following the direction of her gaze l
saw that it rested on the same solitary
nnln which hal hr.ax, t1a -
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
hackueyed and worldly, suppose they
would say there is no word in the lam
guage SO suggestive as money-no work
OF art that brings up so many and SO
varied thoughts as those very remark
able profiles and effigies which adorn
our current coin. Dross in itself, if the
philosophers will have it so, yet as q
means, tool, 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
30 universally, SO unfailingly, so unceas-
ingly. in the moral? Even that single
coin on my table-that intinitesimal drop
In the great ocean Of wealth--how much
lies within the circumference Of such
small piece Of metal?
To my own mind-worldly and hack
neyed, as have before observed--it had
been suggestive of great many things.
Compressed within its disk. | had seen
my Sunday dinner-ample, done to a
turn, rich with dripping gravy and
smoking hot from the roasting jack.
From its metallic rim | had already
slipped in imagination the rare old
Amontillado. A 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, il | had known pov-
erty at ALL. had known him only as a
neighbor to be Stunned, and not as an
inmate to be 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 SO much in
% htii OaSiC, Wudt u WOTluWIu6 prospect
of happiness might 1t not open to that
poor girls eyes? l 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
ont her money
Yes, her money! For hers 1t was by
ell 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
cheeks. -
wnastt business had had to be specializing
and sentimentalizing thus about the af-
fairs Of a young lady with whom l had
only a little business transaction. !
mighthave 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
in upon the poor girls reverie with the
most awkward question in the world:
"Have you any change, missy'