The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-12-30
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
dow MRS. vranklin Secured Her
/ New Clothes.

IN the clean kitchen, sitting beside tn
stove, Mrs. Vrankliu rose, went into he
bedroom and brought out bundle {
clothes.
1 want You to look at these thing,
jeremiah" she said, mildly.
What are they?" said he,
She spread them out on the floor.
THAT is my best dress" she sale
Those are my best shoes. That is tn
only bonnet I've got in the world bu
my calico sun-bonnet, and that is m
Sunday shawl"
! She uttered the words quietly, an,
waited.
"Well9' said Mr.. vranklin, still smo.:
ing.
"Well?" she answered.
He said nothing. She gathered up tn
garments with look Of disdaip, an,
piled them on a chair.
You're a rich man." she said
Rich, for farmer. You are sixty ant
I fifty years old. Our boys are married
\ haven't had any money to spend fol
five years. I'm a sight to behold. If
were o servant l should get wages ane
not have to beg. No, l don't beg
Jeremiah. Since you don't offer i
yourself, I'm going to tell you that
want money. / want hundred dol
lars to buy me some new clothes te
feel decent and comfortable in. I'm
really destitute. Why, I'm out of fan
mel! My calico gowns are patched al
the elbow. My shoe heels are twisted.
i 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 l could rather than ask for what
you didn't offer; and there's no need.
You're well-to-do. l want to be de-
cent and take little comfort while /
can. / must. There, NV! It's my
right"
She had spoken her mira and Mr..
Vranklin felt that climlk 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 pulled across
the stove the smoke of the cheap to-
bacco he burnt in a 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 Reraniums in their big pots on
the window-sill. lie 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.
All he said, after the silence had re-
manned unbroken 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 q love-gift, not aims.
Generally they have to ask at last. Il
Eva Maria had nerved herself at last
In the misery of her shabbiness to make
the speech above recorded, but it
seemed q fearful thing to do. She lit
tie guessed that she had frightened
Jeremiah almost out of his senses.
"A hundred dollarsin he said to him.
self. "She must know what I've got
about me. She must mean TO have H.
Fifty, now. I'd give. But hundredl
ri get the money changed, and give
her fifty
p opened the door Of the passage,
crossed it and went into the parlor. 1t |
vas cold, neat place, kept sacred for
yrcat occasions. 1t had CRATE in it,
nut it was doubtful il q fire would be |
lighted there that winter. 1t had been
TO take it down that sum-
ner, so fringed pink paper had been ar
anged between the polished bars and
he rug drawn across the hearth. |
Photographs of several members of the
amily hung by red cords. from the wall,
otted muslin curtains with neatly |
lutcd ruffies covered the green paper
linds. A dish Of wax fruit, covered
y glass shade, ornamental the CEN
sr-table, and the horsehair furniture
ad been SO little used in two genera
ions that it looked almost new. The
ases on the mantle were old-fashioned
lue. ware, for which china-worship-
: would have paid q great price.
Eva Maria should have fifty dollars,
ut she had said she had right to
undred. If he gave her the bill in his
ocket she would spend it 1t was Sat-
rtlay evening; he could not get it
ranged that night-no, not until Mon
~. II he locked it up, she would
now. and take it out perhaps, and do
she pleased with 1t. She had de-
ared her fright" to it Eva Maria,
,mblest of the humble, meekest of
le meek, had spoken so! Could it be?
"This comes Of these here strong
inded meetin's." said Mr.. Vranxlin.
This was not logical, for Mrs. vrank-
j had not attended one of them.
"Women used to be biddable. They
. kicking over the traces now. No
d." soliloquized Mr.. vranklin,
owing moro and more ungrammat-