The record-union., 1897-09-01
"AT LEAST A MARTYR. !"

She had a kissing-crust complexion,
and kind of apologetic scramble of a
walk. Her eyes were beady, and her
voice was unpleasant to the ear; her
wrists We're fiat and had little bones
like knitting needles in them and her
big head continually trembled, but kind
ness spread around about her ungainly
little body, and loving kindness wrapped
her like a garment Her kind-hearted-
ness was like well-regulated carriage
lamp-howeyer much was spent there
was always more pressing on behind.
But yet they called her ugly names
the little boys in the streets, and the
gossiping servants, and even the ladies
who went and drank tea and conversed
with her of Shakespeare and the musical
glasses; and especially the butcher, for
she would not SO much as look upon q
piece of meat. and used to go and har-
angue him in his busiest moments on
his hideous crime of taking the lives of
fellow-creatures. When she met him
driving the fated sheep to the shambles
she became breathless with indignation
and horror. So that he always escaped
a lecture then.
In her calmer moments she used to
to be more grieved about one than an
other. but 1 do feel sorriest for the
lambs. You see, the sheep have had a
little time to enjoy themselves"
Her furniture was all moth eaten;
mice paraded themselves in the day
time. and she had dismissed more than
one maid for suddenly and ndslaughterors-
~ descending at dead of night to pour
af
beetles.
She said to me once: Children and
cats and dogs and rabbits and canaries
have plenty of people to love them, so
try to put the balance right by loving
those things that other people despise
and kill and call unclean. Why, my
dear. I do believe the very worms in
my garden know me, and last year 1
had a dear rat that followed me about
and begged like dog"
Wasn't that the historic rat, father
OF the family that devoured Farmer
Gocdson's corn?" l asked in the hard
ness of my heart.
She looked a little disconnected and
took up her knitting.
We'll, my dear, perhaps it was" she
owned though it may just as well have
been any other and it's rather unfair
To condemn a thing unheard right off
like that. But it was very good year"
she added triumphantly next minute.
and he could easily spare it. Think
how they enjoyed it. And one reason
why love all these becalled creatures
is that it must be so nice for them to
feel that one person out of the great
contemptuous human race doesn't de-
spise them"
But they can't know it, l objected,
for did not know her very well then.
Don't you think so?" she asked deep
down in her queer cultural way; don't
you think sop
had stated my case, 50 7 only shook
my head.
"Oh, yes" she said, with a far-away
look in the heads, people stand upon
platforms and scream out that woman
wants this and woman wants that I
tell you, my dear, that all a woman
wants is something to love"
They sometimes called her ''I-tel-you-
my-dear''
''Oh, yes" she went on again, they
call it cranks, and call it fads and old
maids whims to love something but
husbands and babies and things one
hasn't got; but I tell you, my dear, it
saves a woman's soul alive!''
And thereupon she scrambled across
the room and fetched and opened "The
Contemporary at a marked passage in
an article on the Armenians, and read
aloud to me with ineffable scorn:
First their movable wealth was
seized. then their landed property was
confiscated, next the absolute necessi-
ties of life were wrested from them. and
finally honor, liberty and life were taken
with as little ado as if these Christian
men and women were wasps or mos
quitoes."
Now. my dear" she said, pushing
her spectacles up her forehead and look
ing piercingly at me, II say the day will
come when the honor and liberty of life
OF wasps and mosquitoes will be no
more infringed than those of the So
called Christians who now destroy them
without a thought"
She clasped her hands together, and
g2zed into space in an ecstasy. while
THE Contemporary" sided to the floor
and burst its back. I could have kissed
her, she was so dear and mad And
Yet when that same day I heard some
body call her the mad old maid I turned
on him in rage of Indignation.
She was terribly hurt and shocked
when the curate and I combined to pre-
vent her getting up a Zoo Depopulating
Society. She had calculated that for
f15.000 all the animals could be safely
returned to their native countries. She
said to him that she wondered especially
at him. Don't you remember" she
asked him, how your Master said 9th
er sheep I have? How do you know it
wasn't the dear patient animals on this
planet? And how you. and men like
you. who profess to serve that Master
can face them hereafterl"- Her
emotion was too much for her She
ended in gesture language.
So that l was quite used to startling
ideas from her But one day in one
brief instant she took all my breath
away and caused me to sit unthink-
ingly down u2on a basket of deserted
young bats that she was bringing up
on a drawing chair.
She had a violently orange paper book
in her hand and she greeted me with
an abstracted air.
MY dear" she said, ''wi1 you join
the Society for the Prevention of Cruel
" to Germs?"
merely gasped, and she laid down
the orange book. and produced a note
book to enroll me and enter my sub
scription.
TITS a society that I'm going to try
and form This"-she proudly fingered
that orange pamphlet-'fs the pros
pectus, SO to speak shall send it
all arOurtd and 7 am sl1ra that in this