The Penn's Grove record., 1895-12-20


TO 20. =,
81 didn't say So" snarled the old
nan. 'SSit down q minute. How
I'D are yOu?"
seventeen
"H'm, yes. Well, when your father
was seventeen he"
Never mind my father" broke In
the girl. ''He Is out Of this entirely.
| 1t Is not necessary, o is it good
taste to di cuss his shortcomings. l
/ am the one who is applying for tn 3
place. don't know whether I'm
ON etent to do the work or not.
! Neither do you until you try me II
you don't wish to try me, I'll U
for a pace somewhere else"
Old John Jenkins pu he'd up his
glas es and looked al the girl He
had never taken the trouble to OBJ
serve her before. She wasn't pre-
possessing. The light brown hair
was brushed straight back from the
strong-featured face, Her hat was
utterly devoid of trimming and quite
I'm becoming. 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 ensemble of the slim
tgure standing before him, and he
said to himself
''She's homely enough. There
won't he any nonsense about lovers
and that sort OF things" and with
HIS usual dispatch he decided to try
her.
"You may come next Monday
morning at s O'clock, he said. THAT
desk will be yours, and the first thing
you are to do Is to 60 over the books.
! II you're going to manage my busi-
ness, you must first get acquainted
with It,"
| "What will you pay me?" asked
sarah.
"uh, you want to make a bargain,
do you? That isn't bad, " thought the
old man. III wouldn't wonder II she'd
do. / believe she's got some of my
meanness in her, and it makes her
sharp
Aloud he said,-
allow much do you wantp"
And Sarah promptly replied
II want ffty dollars a month until
1 learn the business, then / want
seventy-tive up to the end Of the first
year. After that II we are both sat
isEed, we will make a contra t."
"Wetl, you don't hesitate to say
what you want, do your" Here old
oohn Jenkins did what ne n had
ever known him to do befOre-he
smiled. Who's to be the Judge
wien you have learned the business
as you call it," he asked.
on are" replied the girl. II
have always heard YOU were honest,
aud l do not look for injustice"
II Sarah jenkins had %ponderei all
day she could have said no wiser
tning than this, for John Jenkins
pride was In what he was pleased to
call his honesty. He had been called
hard, and avaricious, aud u%nyieldiug,
but no one had eve said that he was
not honest
'.All right, my girl" he said, and
his tone had softened somewhat.
''iou C me 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 ofice
for fifteen years. And then the old
man tn. ne his face to the wall and
Il ed leaving his granddaughter every.
thing he possessed, as it had been OK.
/ pc tel he would do.
Sarat's experience had not been
that of the usual girl in a story.
!, Her grandfather, although he APP
preciated the TACT that his business
, manager was faithful and efficient,
did not recent toward her, and become
loving and kindly. lie was bard, ex-
act ny, and wholly unloving to the
very cad The % kles Of his heart
. weIe cookies always and when he
was gone sarah felt u sense of relief.
Isle had ne er s%pecuiated as to what
she would do with her grandfather's
money when it came to her. She
would not allow herself to do so.
) When the thought presented itselj
she would say resolutely,-
: ut is not mine yet. 1 will wait, .
= and she had waited, long and patti,
; emily.
= On the day that the property wa:
made uver to her, Sarah went to The
humble boarding house that had beer
!, her home Tor d long time, and, shut
! ting herself n her room, sat down to
think. she locked about the shabby
little place. she looked over hel
, plain, scanty wardrobe. Then she
! looked in the glass And at last
looked at the folded paper which SAID
j., she was worth a million. She went
. back over the dull routine of Eerlife.
. Sarah had reached the age when mos
women ire happy wives and mothers.
But, for her, the years had held moth
, ing but hard work. Even the 70
, mances OF happy lives written Ii
books had not interested her. She
had not understood them. All hel
thought had been concentrated upoI
her work. That vas at an end now,
and she realized for the first time
that something was missing out o
her life Immediately she missed the
, something she began vaguely to lonl
/. for it. Her woman's nature seemed
TO awake, and with its awakening
came to Sarah Jenkins the first realll
unhappy moments OF ner lie
She began to compare herself with
| other women 1hey had eve in
terested her very much before. Blu,
' now she seemed, all at once, to keenlJ
lealize that they were different from
her. She went to the glass ant
looked at herself. For the first tint
IL occurred to her that she was verl
PLAIN; that the dressing of her hal
was unbecoming. and that her gown
fitted badly and was not like othe
j.. w%onien's gowns.
Sarah did not possess a ribbon or
bit of lace or a .ewel. Her room hat
none OF the pretty trinkets witt
which women like TO surround them
selves. she stood looking in thu
99@Ak@N0 60