The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1893-04-21

enough There won't be any nonsense
about lovers and that sort OF thing"
and with his usual dispatch he decided
10 try her.
"iou may come next Monday morn
ing at eight o'clock" he said. THAT
desk will be yours. and the first thing
you are To do is To go over the books.
II you're going TO manage my business
you must get acquainted with it."
wat will you pay me?" asked
Sarah.
"oh. you want 10 make bargain.
do you? That isn't bad" thought the
old man. II wouldn't wonder If she'd
do. ! believe she's got some of my
meanness in her, and it makes her
sharp
Aloud he said: "IIow much do you
want?"
And Sarah promptly replied; II want
fifty dollars a month until learn the
business, then l want seventy-fivc up
To the end Of the first year After that.
If we are both satisfied, we will make
contract"
well, you don't hesitate to say
what you want, do you?" Hero old
John Jenkins did what no one had ever
known him to do before-he smiled.
Who's To be the judge when you have
Learned the business as you call it?"
he asked.
"You are" replied the girl. Il have
always heard you were honest. and !
do not look for injustice.
III Sarah Jenkins had pondered all
day she could have said no wiser thing
than this, for John Jenkins pride was
in what he was pleased to call his hon
esty. lie had been called hard and
avaricious and unyiclding. but no one
had ever said he was not honest
"All right, my girl" he said. and his
tone had softened somewhat. "You
come and try your best and I'll do the
right thing by you"
That was how Sarah Jenkins came
to sit at a desk in John Jenkins Office
for fifteen years. and then the old man
turned his face to the wall and died.
leaving his granddaughter everything
he possessed. as it had been expected
he would do.
On the day that the property was
made over to her, Sarah went to the
humble boarding house that had been
her home for long time and. shutting
herself in her room, sat down TO think.
She looked about the shabby little
place She looked over her plain.
scanty wardrobe. She looked at her
self in the glass. And then she looked
again at the folded paper which said
She was worth a million. She went
back over the dull routine of her life.
Sarah had reached the age when most
women are happy wives and mothers.
But, for her. the years had held moth
ing but hard work. Even the romances
OF happy lives written in books had not
interested her. She had not unde1tood
them. All her thought had been con-
centrated upon her work. Tha. was
at an end now, and she realized for the
first time that something was missing
out of her life. Immediately she missed
the something she began vaguely to
long for it. Her woman's nature
seemed to awake. and with its awak-
ening came to Sarah jenkins the first
really unhappy moments Of her life.
She began to compare herself with
other women They had never in
terested her very much before. But
now she seemed. all at once, to keeuly
realize that they were different from
her. She went again to the glass and
looked at herself. For the first time it
occurred to her that she was very
plain: that the dressing of her hair was
un becoming. and that her gown fitted
badly and was not like other women's
gowns. Sarah did not possess ribbon
or bit of lace or a jewel Her room
had none of the pretty trinkets with
which women like to surround them
selves She stood looking in the glass
for five minutes, thinking. Then she
put on her hat, went out on the street
and walked straight to one Of the
stores. where she purchased an entire
suit Of clothing. from hat to gloves.
Il want something handsome" she
said TO the saleswoman; something
that Hts me and is becoming"
This done, She went back to her
room. dressed herself in the new things
and then deliberately placed one after
another of her possessions upon the
CRATE fire. Within an hour she had not
one solitary thing that she had ever
owned before.
She left the house without a word OF
farewell, and when she reached the
sidewalk she stood for moment won
dering where she would go. She had
not friend in the great city. All the
people she knew were merely business
acquaintanccs. She had only the
clothes she wore and--a million dol.
laas.
II is a matter of wonder. even to
those who realize 1t best, what q mira
Gle may be wrought with money. In
three months from the day that Sarah
stood in the street with nothing save
her inheritance she was owner and
mistress of one of the bcst-appointed
houses in New York. There was No
lack now OF fine dresses and laces and
jewels: no lack OF people who called
leaving cards and invitations, and nc
lack OF men who we're ready to pay
court and compliments to her.
These three months had been rev
citation to Sarah. II was her first ex
pcricncc with the social world. Bu
her long business training had giveT