The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1896-02-27


afterwards.
There are few homes in which the
lapse of ten years does not make
wide difference-and in that of Mr..
and Mrs Vavasor the charge was per-
haps greater than the average. They
had lived too fast---a common mistake
and when once they began to re-
trench, ill-luck seemed to follow them.
Mamie! the spoiled daughter of
luxurious home, was learning all the
bitterness of poverty now! And Frank
nobody exactly knew how-hadret-
regarded in the world until the hum
BILE situation of a bank clerk at sal
ary pitifully small, was all the dread
winter left to him.
And when they brought him home
one night with his arm fractured from
a fall on the icy pavement. Mamie
felt that her cup of bitterness was in
deed full.
II don't mind the pain for myself"
Frank had said, "but to lie still for
nobody knows how long, and my wife
and the little ones with not a cent
ahead The rent must be paid, and
the grocer's bill, and the children
must wear clothes-God help us! I
don't know what the end of all this is
to bel"
But Mamie knew-and towards twi-
light, when Frank had fallen into
troubled slumber, and little Annie sat
watching beside his pillow she put on
her bonnet and stole unseen to an e. ;,
.,... - .wil
When she returned, it wsIt is IN
bundle under her arm-sY ones lone
she had obtained. ocnes.
"Oh, Naratlstics Of unhappy maI
this?" be There are those who wi
she !, they do 1t to console themselves
- Despair Of being the center O
' .sws circle and the prop of som
Y long as there are othe
is just a ooih' y IS people alive.
pursel"
II know it-but--"
He stopped abruptly and turned his
face to the wall with groan.
Little Rose came to her mother,
with pleading eyes, at this moment.
Mamma, can Harry and l have
Uncle Jared's Bible to look at the
funny picturesl"
Mamie rose, reached down the
dusty book from its obscure resting
place and placed it on chair, where
the children could turn over the
leaves at their leisure.
"Be careful not to tear it DEAR"
she said, thinking sadly how all
the other gay wedding gifts had
vanished, and how this alone remained
relic of the days of prosperity.
Uncle Jared was dead long ago, and
his money had gone to a hospital
She was thinking of all the sorrow
full change ten years had wrought, as
she stitched away.
Mamma" cried Rose, from the
chair, here are two leaves stuck to-
gether!"
Mamie leaned over to see. The
child was right. Two leaves in the Book
of Psalms were pasted together by the
edges on all their sides. She took up
the scissors to separate them, with a
vague, indifferent sensation of curl
osity. To her astonishment, two thin
slips OF paper dropped out.
"What are these?" said inquisitive
Rose, stopping to pick them up.
And Mamie. scrutinizing them
more clesely, saw that they were bank
notes for FIVE hundred dollars eachl
She sat moment in sort of be-
wilderment-and then like sudden
stories she had always heard of Uncle
Jared's strange eccentricities. This
was one of them--the bridal gift he
had intended to bestow upon her, had
been hidden away in this strange cas-
ket. And now, like special Provi-
dence, it came to sepply her utmost
needs
She leaned over and placed her hand
upon her sleeping husbands brow-he
awoke with start
81 have been asleep" he said, look
ing confusedly at her with that strange
mingling of reality and fancy which
sometimes follow us out OF slumber.
81 have been dreaming that we were
rich!"
1--WE are rich, Frank" she said in
I.A~>IIxl A~I ~ t1l1