St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1896-05-23
A NEW ENGLAND LADY.
By allyn YATES KEITH.

As write the words, a quaint, small
! figure steps noiselessly out of the past,
a slight figure, too, though well knit.
weighing scarcely 90 pounds. The
face is gently old and withered like a
late hanging peach. keeping still a
shade of its youthful pinkness. The
hair, brown and fine. with a wide.
| white parting and snug twist that curls
when released, is kept in nnvarying
place by an old-fashioned backcomb.
Two small, fiat curls are held close
to the delicate ears, partially covering
them, BY modern sideeombs.
The eyes, gray-blus and clear, look
out on world that has been hard to
their owner, who has not repaid it in
kind. She must have wondered often
st It's hardness in the years before
she accepted it brasely as something in
the general plan.
The gown, clean and becoming, is of
fine, old-fashioned ealico-always of
calico and always clean-chocolata
brown in color and lightly sprinkled
with tiny sprigs of white. A gingham
apron of blue check is tiedwith smooth
ly ironed tape strings around the waist,
which is trim as a young girls. About
he neck kerchief of thick muslin,
that might be cousin to the Breton
coli, carries with it the thought of
spotless purity that always attached to
Aunt Lois.
She was aunt to the town-never in
,ited, but always hidden to It's festiv-
tiles, to take the part she loved best,
without which teaparty, sleighride,
sdpper, winter dance and wedding feast
would be incomplete. When she APP
peared, serene and capable, responsible
ity dropped at once into her hands,
and the satisfied house mother took
no more thought for the day or the
morrow.
Aunt Lois was by no means the
grande dame, the fine lady of whom we
think and speak vaguely. She was too
fine, too grand for careless speech.
From her early youth she had been the
bearer of almost incredible burdens
burdens borne in silence. with such
came blessings.
You see | never had rheumatism or
any ailment, not even headache, so
could always work right along. day
after day" MY back was strong, OF |
couldn't have done a great many things
that were necessary. Many a time
carried my first baby two and three
miles to do housecleaning and back
again at night. He was SO good could
put him to sleep and tuck him away il
a rocking chair where nobody could sit
on him. So, you see, he wasn't much
hindrance. But T went little early
and stayed late, of course, to make up
the time I lost, and right thankful
was to be able to do it,
Aunt Lois had mothered not only
eight children, but good natured,
worthless husband to boot, who sawed
the wood for home use and kept the
Kettle boiling whenever he could be
spared from the more hilarious pas
times of the tavern. No work was too
hard or too disagreeable for Aunt Lois,
no weather too wet or cold. She was
the happiest perhaps at those EN-
barrassing times when one family was
out as another moved into
house, and she as capable high priestess
had charge of the lares and penates Of
both
But what are you going to do for
your dinner?n one would ask. There
is positively nothing to eatin the house
since that last load went, not SO much
even as a spoonful of tean'
Now, child, don't you give it one
single thought" Aunt Lois would re-
ply, comfortably. Theresa kettle full |
CT hot water. It's better for most folks |
than tea, you know. Inever was much
IF a tea-drinker; and / put a cracker
in my pocket, TOO, this morning, for i
knew you'd be all stirred up to-
lay It's all / want, certain.
'Tisn't SO easy to starve as you think,
md I never was hungry like some
folks. / rather think the Lord knew
when lie made me what sort of work
He'd laid out for me-
And never was back more beautiful
" fitted to its burden. On being re-
Z