The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-16
W0MAN'S DEVOTION.
fl TOUCHING STORY IN LOWLY
 LIFE.

'NN'~
 sturdy, raw-boned roly-poly damsel
 with a face shining with good nature
 and yellow soap. He was a sulky black
 browed, unprepossessing specimen oi
 the Bill Sikes order of humanity, boast.
 ing, however, of the highly incongruous
 Christian name of Arthur. or rather
 "Orthur," to adopt Liza's own pronun.
 citation. With regard to his profession
 1t was something to do with a cart
 though what might have been that
 carts particular line of business l am
 unable, after lapse of time, to denote,
 It might have been a mud-cart, or a
 dust-ditto; it might equally well have
 been connected with the coal interest,
 or have been chartered for the convey
 ance of building materials, or dabbed dn drain pipes, or taken a hand in paw
 tng-stones. All I do know is that the cart used to go ploughing up the mid ale. of the road, with the Lout slouch- ing along at the side, with his hands dn his pockets, and a general expression of dogged determination not to take them out unless driven to it.
 As to Liza, she was "a general" or what in former times was known as a
 maid-of-all-work. There was no slouch- ing about her, and no half measures. Her invariable method was to go at everything head foremost, and see what came of it--a proceeding that was not without results from the family porce- lain; indeed. Liza, her mark" might have been traced upon most of the household gods.
 Still, there was no getting over the fact that she meant well, in spite of the dearth of handles and the harvest of cracks and mutilations which marked her domestic progress.
 q never see the like" she would ex- plain tearfully; If I only looks at the things they falls down and breaks their selves"
 She and Orthur had known each other all their lives If they had not exactly grown in beauty side by side, it was owing to nature having placed stum- bling blocks in the way when she en- dowed Liza with a turnip-shaped vis- age and turn-up nose at the same time that, having roughly sketched in Orthur'S features with a very blunt pencil, she had stamped the design with the most truculent, ready-made scowl she had in stock.
 Not that Liza was conscious of there being any room for improvement in his expression. They had been neighbors' children and she had seen him scowl his way up from boyhood; her own youth having been passed in a galley slave eopt of ayistapoa cbaipad to on oar in the shape of a perpetual baby, while he had slouched and hung about with his hands in his pockets, accepting her homage as his lawful due, at the same time levying tribute-such as the largest bite out of her apple, or the first suck at bulls eye-until that day when Liza, having grown up as well as she could came to London "to better herseIf."
 The fact of her success in securing a situation. to which was attached the handsome emolument of f12 per an num- having been waited on the wings of rumor to distant Devonshire, was responsible for the reappearance of the Lout upon the scene, burning not so much with desire to better" himself as to obtain the maximum wages for modicum Of work.
 Although it is possible that in this iaudable design his luck was-in Liza's opinion, at least--less than his deserts, | he nevertheless succeed in obtaining the nondescript post previously alluded to. | Marrying, however, under eighteen shil- | lings a week, was considered inadvisa- l 'ble: the more so as Liza had set her | heart on commencing housekeeping on | quite an ambitious scale,, with no less than four chairs and set of tea-trays. |
 To this end she devoted all that could | possibly be laid aside from the yearly | f12 Orthur, as a superior being requir- | ing beer and baccy ad lib, could not | naturally be expected to contribute any thing to the fund. It was also requisite that his food should be not only ann pie, but administered at intervals of | clockwork regularity; whereas Liza re- garded meals more in the light of tire some interruptions, and dinner in par ticular as movable feast, or a species of passover to be partaken of stand ing, with your sleeves tucked up and | loins girt in the intervals of blacking grates or cleaning windows
 Still, as far as could be judged the course of true love, as exemDlified in the persons of Lize and her Lout, ran with tolerable smoothness. If the lat ter was not an ardent wooer, neither was the former an exacting ffnancee, be- ing quite content when her Sunday out allowed her the privilege of walking by his side and responding deferentially to such remarks as were growled out once in half a mile or so.
 And thus it went on--Liza slaving and saving, and the Lout gorging and guzzling-untiI change came over the scene in consequence of the advent of a third person. This was none other than B younger sister of Liza's--name of Looheaser-for whom the former had succeeded in obtaining a position as 
 a "Looheaser, she be that sick and tired D the country, and see a bit O life she must and will if 'tis ever so."
 So Looheaser, aged seventeen (there were nearly ten years between them and half that number of brothers and sisters), having packed her box and secured the overflowings in a. blue-spot- ted handkerchief, came up to London to see life from behind perambulator
 She was on a larger scale than Liza rta yaYfarr To1pro b{o1,1Vr oolopad |