The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-04-22

"what do you want?"
you advertised for a business man
ager," answered Sarah, land l have
come to ask for the place"
you? What do you know about
~business?"
Nothing, practically. Theoretically
l know all about it, for l have just
completed a business education. / can
not say that / shall not make a failure;
but l should like to try"
Him." grunted old John. Think
you'd like to experiment on me. do
you? That's exactly what your father
thought. His experiment was not a
success"
''Then you don't care to engage me"
said the girl
She had been standing near the door,
and now she made a movement to go.
Il didn't say So" snarled the old
man. "Sit down a minute. How old
are you?"
Seventeen"
aH'm. yes. Well, when your father
vas seventeen ne ="
'sNever mind my father" broke in
the girl. He is out of this entirely.
1t is not necessary, nor is it in good
taste, tt discuss his shortcomings. l
am the one who is applying for this
place. don't know whether I'm com
petent to do the work or % Neither
do you until you try me. If you don't
wish to try me I'll look for a place
somewhere else"
Old John Jenkins pushed up his
glasses and looked at the girl. He had
never taken the trouble to observe her
before. She wasn't prepossessing.
The light-brown hair was brushed
straight back from the strong-featured
face. Her hat was utterly devoid OF
trimming and quite u~nbecoming. Her
dress was like the dresses she had
worn all her life, made for service,
without regard to anything else. Old
Johns keen eyes took in the tout ensem-
BILE of the slim figure before him, and
he said to himself: ''She's homely
enough. There won't be any nonsense
about lovers and that sort of thing"
and with his usual dispatch he decided
to try her.
you may come next Monday o
ing at eight O'clock he said. THAT
oCon J. oC you1O y ~ tAC AAop tAAhS
you are to do is to go over the books.
If you're going to manage my business
you must get acquainted with it.
"What will you pay me?" asked
Sarah.
"Oh, you want to make a bargain,
do you? That isn't bad thought the
old man. II wouldn't wonder if she'd
do. l believe she's got some of my
meanness in her, and it makes her
sharp"
Aloud he said: How much do you
want?"
And Sarah promptly replied: Il want
fifty dollars a month until l learn the
business, then l want seventy-fve up
to the end OF the first year. After that.
if we are both satisfied, we will make
a contract"
We'll, you don't hesitate to say
what you want, do you?" Here 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 rs you call it?'
he asked.
you are" replied the girl. II have
always heard you were honest, and
do not look for injustice" E
If Sarah Jenkins had pondered all
!, day she could have said 10 wiser thing
than this, for John Jenkins pride vas
: in what he was pleased to call his hon.
esty. He had been called hard and
. avaricious and unyielding, 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
t he possessed, as it had been expected
5 he would do.
, On the day that the property was
made over to her, Sarah went to the
/ humble clearinghouse that had beer
her home for a 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 sale
, she was worth a million. She wen
back over the dull routine of her life.
Sarah had reached the age when mos
women are happy wives and mothers
: But, for her, the years had held moth
, ing but hard work. Even the romance.
of happy ives written in books had no
: interested her. She had not understood
them. All her thought had been con
9 centrated upon her work. That wa
at an end now, and she realized for tn,