The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-03-20

Nhhhlo NE 70 Do opened ten years
There are TOW homes IN which the
lapse Of ten years does not make
wide diifereuoo-and IN that of Mr.
and Mrs Yayasor tho charge was per-
hnpa greater than tho average. They
had lived too fast--a common mistake
and when once they began 10 re-
trench, ill-luck seemed TO follow them.
Nonniol the spoiled daughter Of a
luxurious home, was learning all the
bitterness Of poverty now aud Frank
nobody exactly knew how-hadrot-
regarded in the world until the hum
bic situation Of bank clerk at a sal
airy pitiiully 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.
81 don'. mind the pain for myself"
Frank had said, "but to lie still for
nobody knows Row 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 l
don't know what the end of all this is
to bel"
But Mamie knew-and towards twi-
light, when Frank had fallen into a
troubled slumber, and little Annie sat
watching beside his pillow she put on
her bonnet and stole unseen to an en-
ployment bureau.
When she returned, it was with q
bundle under her arm-sewing which
she had obtained.
"Oh, Mamie, have we come to
this2" her husband asked, sadly. rs
she sat down by his bedside to COM
mence her task.
eve cannot starve, dear-and there
is just a dollar and a half in your
pursel"
81 know it-but--"
He stopped abruptly and turned his
face to the wall with a groan.
Little Rose came to her mother,
with pleading eyes, at this moment.
mamma, can Harry aud 1 have
Uncle Jared's Bible to look at the
funny pictures"
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, y
she said, thinking sadly how all
the other gay wedding gifts had
vanished, and how this alone remained
a relic of the days of prosperity.
Uncle Jared was dead long ago, and
his money had gone to 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 we're pasted together by the
edges on all their sides. She took uI
the scissors to separate them, with
vague, Indifferent sensation of curl
osity. To her establishment, two thir
slips of paper dropped out. :
"What are these?" said inquisitivC
Rose, stopping to pick them up.
And Mamie, scrutinizing then
more closely, saw that they we're banl
notes for five hundred dollars eachl
She sat moment in sort of be-
wilderment-and then like a sudder
inspiration, came back to her tn
stories she had always heard of Uncl
Jared's strange eccentricities. Thi
was one of them-the bridal gift h
had intended to bestow upon her, haC
been hidden away in this strange cas-
ket. And now, like a special Prov
dence, it came to supply her utmos
needsl
She leaned over and placed her han,
upon her sleeping husbands brow-ht
awoks with n start