The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-28

been standing on the table Tor an hour
and stiH the right step did not sound on
the landing outside. others steps there
had been is plenty. for this four-storied
Nienuese Iodging-house. divided into such
tiny apartments as were likely 10 suit tiny
purses was as full and as unquiet as any
ant-hill.
The supper on the table consisted of
few slices Of cold sausage and small
piece of bread and although it was the
MIDDLE of January. Isis dress was an old
cotton gown much patched at the elbows.
She shivered a little as she drew a small
knitted shawl around her thin shoulders.
Nine o'clock. and no signs of her yet. I
think l will risk lighting fire; why, she
will be frozen when she gets homer
And rising from her chair Lisi placed
few morsels of coal within the small iron
stove in the corner of the meauly furnish
ed room Aunt Clara would probably scold
her, but that could not be helped. In such
weather as this even beggars make shift
to warm at least their fnger-tips, and
surely they were not quite beggars yet
whatever Aunt Clara might say. Indeed
if there are any truth in the surmises Of
some of their fellow dodgers they were
very far indeed from being in such desperp
ate plight
1t was partly certain traces Of refinement
about old Fraulein Traun's manners. and
partly the presence of small, old-fash-
toned aud very ponderous wooden chest in
a corner of her room, which had given
rise to a sort of floating belief in hidden
riches True she was penurious to the point
of evaricc, and starved both herself and
Lisi in manner that was heartrending
to behold, but everyone knows that it is
only the avaIicious, who succeed in amass-
ing wealth, and everybody had at some
time or other read in the papers of some
old man or woman dying of hunger in a
garnet, and of the packets of bank-notes
or bags of gold which had been found sewn
up In the straw of their mattress.
When, therefore. it was noticed that
Fraulein Traun was getting thinner than
ever, there were not wanting Ofticious,
though, possibly, well-meaning, voices
which pointed out to Lisi the ACCESSIBILITY
of making sure that it was all right about
her Aunt Clara S testament; for everybody
in the house knew as well as did Lisi
herself that Aunt Clara was not her aunt
a ALL and that she herself was only an
adopted child, picked out of the street in
her earliest infancy, for some motive not
easy of explanation for it seemed difficult
TO impute one of pure charity to so CLOSE"
a person as Fraulein Traun.
But Lisi Indignantly rejected the idea
suggested to her.
"What?" she replied to the young wo-
man who lived just across the passage
and gained her living and that of three
children by sewing buttons on to boots
made by a suburban shoemaker. She
has fed me all my life and do you sup
pose that 1 could disquiet her now by
questions about the future?"
Fed you, indeedr' remarked the wife
of a house painter who lodged one story
lower, but had come up for a chat "Starv-
ed you, you ought rather to SWALLOWED
you TO starve along with her-that's about
what it comes to. Why, your face is
nothing but cheek-bones and eyes-and
with all that, there's no saying whether
you mightn't have turned out pretty if
only she'd put little more into you and
a little less into that wooden box of hers"
She gave me what she had" said Lisi
as she turned away. She only had a
whole crust, and that is why l only got
a half"
Yet, in spite of her loyal heart. she would
have dearly liked to know what that jeal-
ously guarded little wooden box contain
ed. Not that she believed in the legend
of a hidden treasure, but even a penny
laid by against a rainy day would be i'm
mensely welcome. And surely the rainy
day was very near at hand now-thus
thought Lisi as on that January evening
she covered over the newly-kindled fire.
The piano lessons, by which means her
paroness supported herself, had been
growing scarcer lately, probably because
Fraulein Trauns poor old fingers were
or ct: ffar nd
less adapted to imparting instruction, and
in spite of the rate at which Lisi kept her
needle going all day and part of the
night, the united earnings of aunt and
'nece' had for long barely sufficed to
keep their respective bodies and souls to-
gether. If there really was anything in
side that wooden case, reflected Lisi, the
moment for opening it had surely come.
Half-past nine!
Isisi turned her eyes from the clock to
the table. With the longing gaze of semi
starvation she looked at the slices of sau-
sage, and yet it did not occur to her TO
eat her own share before Aunt Clara re-
turned The less Frauiein Traun had been
able TO give her adopted niece to eat. the
more careful had she been to cultivate
both her mind and her manners, for the
Old maid had begun life as a goVerness
and could not help remaining a governess
to the end. Hence certain punctilious-
and hence also it came that people who
accosted the meanly clad girl in the tone
in which the .ower class of servants are
addressed. had been taken aback by the
accent of her reply, as well as by the I'M
expected polish of her manner. What the
house painters wife had said about Lists
looks was true, roughly speaking; for al
though her cheek bones were prominent
and her great hungry blue eyes the most
conspicuous feature in her face, yet it
was very evident that little feeding up
would infalibly turn her into an unusu-
ally pretty girl. Indeed there were mo-
ments. such as now when the freight
threw a fictitious glow upon her colorless
cheeks and played along the coils of her
pale yellow hair, when I.isi was pretty
already.
She was still sitting thus when there
was a commotion in the staircase and
Frau Weiss, the hausmeisterin, entered
hurriedly. without knocking.
Quick, Frauiein. qulckr' she painted
everyone in the house called the poor lit
tie seamstress "Fraulein" although they
couldn't exactly have said why-"your
aunt is downs airs-she has Just been
brought in by dienstmann-she fell down
in the street. it seems-you must come
and help us TO get her up"