Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-02-01
The Twelve Wine Glasses.
THE GLAssEs ARE BOUGHT.

|ksrELLIE FISHER was shopping
~ on Broadway for at least the
twentieth time since the morn.
| ing when her husband kissed her
good-by and left her for month
as the guest of Mrs. DIR. Fowler,
who had known aud loved her ever
since she was 9 child. Nellie had
bought silks at Stewards and carp
cts and laces at Arnold's, and gloves
at Harris, and had been more than
dozen times to "LylesA great clear
ing ont sale," and had bought for
ty articles she did not need because
they were $50 cheap" and the sales
woman $50 polite" She had sent
home to her bird's-nest of cot
tage in Oakland numerous boxes
and bales of goods, and. George had
written her good accounts of their
safe and speedy arrival, and had
said that the blue carpet intended
for little Harry's room was beauti-
full and just the color of her eyes.
He had also sent her more money
with which to pay her bills, and
never hinted at extravaganza ,.but
had hidden her to get what she
wanted, as his last law case was O
great success and had brought him
handsome profit, and so, in her
new travelling suit of buff, in which
she looked SO pretty, Nellie was do
ing her last shopping for the sea-
son, for on the morrow she would
leave New York for her home in Oak
land. She had bought an exquis-
ite chrome at GoupiPs and a jewel
box for George at Fountains and
more bows and ribbons than she
could wear in year, and she stood
at last before andsome dinner set
which for more than a week she had
looked at every day and wondered
if she could afford it.
Il have nothing but the plain
white dishes | had when / went to
housekeeping she said to Mrs.
Fowler, who was with her, sand
part of them are broken and nicked
in places, and would look so shah
by if l was to give that little din
ner party l told you about when
Mrs. General Rossiter comes to
Oakland
1t is n pretty set and reasonable,
too. / don't think | would hesi-
tate to take it, Mrs. Fowler replied; !;
and so the dinner set was bought,
and some mats to 60 with it, and
some cut-glass goblets, and fam
ciful dish of fruit, and then Nellie
stopped before row of wine-glasses,
and taking up one of a very pretty
pattern, inquired the price per doz-
en-.
Four dollars seemed great deal
for such tiny things, and she stood
holding the glass in her hand, and
looking at it in different lights,
when Mrs. Fowler said to her:
Come, Nellie, put it down. It
is nearly dinner time. You surely
would not buy that p
why not ? and Nellie's blue
eyes, in which as yet there was no
shadow of sorrow, looked wonder
ingly at her friend in whose voice
there was a tone of mingled terror
and entreaty as she said, You sure
ly would not buy that p
She was thinking of q church
yard among the hills in Massachu-
setts and the grave under the ever
green, and the boy who slept there,
his headstone telling only that he
died at the early age of twenty.
Not how he died, or of the crushed
heart which wept for him all the
more bitterly because of the fearful
horrors which gathered around his
death-bed and left no hope behind.
1t was drunkard's grave over which
the tassled pine whispered so sadly,
and since the day when, IN a voice
which was more like howl Of des-
pair than a human cry, the young
man had said to her, Mother, you
taught me to drink by having wine
upon the table, and now l am 60
ing to nell, Mrs. Fowler had never
suffered drop of the juice of the
grape to cross her threshol1a and
when she saw the glass in Nellie's
hand and guessed at her intention,
she felt Ike dashing the frail thing
to the floor, and involuntary drew
a step nearer to Harry, Nellie's lit