The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-10-31
Onr family 9tnra.
The One That Prospered.

q said this when they were quite
little fellows, and came to live with
her In order to attend the private
school in the town OF Wytheville.
They regarded Miss Hoover with awe
even before they saw her, and her
piercing black eyes made q lasting i'm
preston upon them as they stood in
her presence on the first night OF their
arrival.
~ viii do my part by them equally"
Miss Hoover had said, prior to the
invitation that the boys should come
to her and be educated. "They shall
start In life with the same chances.
II they both prosper, we'll and good I;
but IN not throw money away"
After the boys had been with Miss
Hoover for about three weeks they
both came to the conclusion that il
was hardly possible for them to share
other would get all--it must be u race.
Richard will have lots of money,
any way" said Bob to himself. II
wish knew what | ought to do"
The old lady smiled grimly when she
saw Bob deposit Ave cents of his
weekly allowance in his little bank on
the dining room mantel. The bottom
of richards bank, which was beside
Bob's, must be pretty we'll covered
with nickels and dimes, thought Miss
Hoover.
Take care of the pennies, and the
pounds will take care OF themselves"
said she in an'awful voice, three days
after Bob's deposit in the bank. Tho
piercing black eyes were on Bob's
abashed face as she waved the bank to
and fro without asound. .
~ got sticking-plaster with it for
Harry ~Burganaut's head" said the
boy, alphabetically. HE slipped on
the ice just two squares above here,
and none of tho boys had any money"
And you had so much ?"
CT only had five cents" Bob's
face redeemed.
"Yes'm."
Odd Richard offer to run home and
get any Of his money? Richard could
have afforded it better than you. If
Harry Burganaut head needed q stick
ing plaster, Harry Burganaut's father
was the person to buy that sticking
= plaster, not Bob Hoover"
1t was then that Bob gave up his
dream of heirship. But all that was
long ago. 1t seemed ages and ages
ago to Bob and Richard, bearded men
and the heads of families. Perhaps it
did not seem quite so long ago to Miss
Hoover.
1t is strange how some people can
be little old rwomcn for half a life.
To tho inhabitants of Wytheville, Miss
Hoover had looked the same for thirty
years, neat and prim and little and
old.
1t was only Miss Hoover herself
who noticed any change. She knew
that she walked a little more slowly
thar she had done thirty years ago,
and she felt aches and pains unfelt by
her then, and that her hands trembled
II she kept too steadily at her knit
ting.
She sat one day with her hands in
her lap beside her knitting. She was
making up her mind for a great under
taking, q visit to those boys who had
slept and eaten under her roof twenty
five years before.
She had kept herself away from her
relatives, and she had let them under
stand from the very beginning that if
ever h wanted their presence she
would let them know.
~ could have the lot of them if ]
whistled." she said, u triae contemptu-
ously.; and yet how very, very angry
the old lady would have been against
any II who would hare not to respond
to the whistle.
ltseemed hard to realize that twenty
five years had passed since the full
bank and the empty bank, poor Bob
HOover's bugbear, had stood side by
side or the dining room mantel. The
rich relative, true to her intention, had
started the boys in life. She had
asked permission to do this thing lust
as h had asked permission to educate
her nephews, and the permission had
been gladly and quickly granted.
She had sneered q little both at the
gladncss and the pronptness of the
replies to her letter; but oh, how she
would have sneered and how bitter
and reviling she would have been if
either the gladness or the promptness
had been lacking! She started
Richard into life as u merchant and
Bob as a doctor, and she had not seen
them since, for she had not whistled.
Miss Hoover looked at her wrinkled
hands until they trembled under tho
intensity of her gaze.
We'll. l can't live forever" she
murmured and then she quite made
mp her mind to visit the boys"
She had said always that She would
give her money to the one that pros
pered, thus raising no false hopes.
She believed that either a man or u
woman could prosper in this world il
1.-THE mind was set to it," She herself
had commenced on u little she had
invested %prudently in land and stock
she had bought and sold at proper
times. She was a m who laughed
"luck F." to scorn.
Why, some people would call me
lucky !" she exclaimed. 81 who have
worked hard for every cent and care.
fully laid it by"
There was q sort of prosperity, how
ever, to which Miss Hoover was
violently opposed, the prosperitywhich
would not bear investigation.
"If I'm told a mans rich, and for
special reasons it is my business to-.
know that man is rich, then | want q
look at the books"
Miss Hoover made this announce
ment to her knitting needles before
she laid them down in her lap to
think. She clicked them when she
uttered the words. So it was to get
alook at the books that the boys rich
relative determined to pay them a
visit.
There is more or less excitement in
preparing for any visit, but to a person
who had not left her home since she
was a girl the excitement was intense.
II it had not been for the stern sense
of duty a%ctuating the proceeding, the
trip would never have been taken.
In the first place, Miss Hoover's
dressmaker wanted so show the peo-
pie in the city that she understood
the styles just as well as they did.
She stiffened up her customer and
bounced and b%eribboned her to her
hearts desire.
II tell you, Helena Simpson, Pm