The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-02-04

MO- n tlOu tOWuku utI lOigtls
VIA and any interest at.
VA tached to her uncon-
" ventional attitude had
quietly fizzled out along with her
meagre claims to beauty. When the
world had gono well with Hannah,
and she had possessed the irritable
devotion OF an invalid mother and the
undivided love of a selfish father, she
had worn modestly the good looks
which belong to a middle class young
woman who enjoys excellent health
aud a wholesome temperament. Now
the light in her abundant hair and her
bright color had died for want OF vital
sustenance, and her rather prominent
features had bleakened with the un.
resting struggle for existence. A
stranger would not trouble to question
if her unsympathetic manner was the
result or the cause OF an unsatisied
existence.
Hannah Fletcher had spent the best
years of her youth subduing the pas.
sions and emotions which make
beautiful W man irresistible. but she
had not studied her own ugliness and
mastered it as some women do. A
plain woman's battle in life is defying
her own ugliness. Hannah had fallen
into the way OF walking like a plain
woman, and the world accepted her as
such, for the assurance of n beautiful
woman enters into her walk as it does
into her dressing.
Hannah's ledger was, it is true, an
"elderly party" SO the maid.ot.all-
work described him, ''always messing
about with them Chemistry fizzicks;
'e's wonderful clever, but it don't
bring in no money, and if il wasn't
that Miss Hannah was n bit sweet on,
him she'd ave cleared i'm out along
with his publishing smells long ago."
Hannah was a "bit sweet" on the
"elderly party" When her mother
and father had died her ledger had
not given a thought to tie fact that it
would be advisable tor him to leave
his comfortable quarters. Hannah had
grown necessary to him in his work,
and he had learnt to depend on her,
as q man of powerful intellect grows
to depend on a practical uni with
an intelligent brain who is his daily
and hourly companion. Habit is
stronger in men than in women. Five
or six years had passed since her par'
ents' death, bringing little or no
change into Hannah's life. She shaved,
and toiled, and pinched for tie eel
derby party" who was too self.cen-
tered to guess at the true extent of
her poverty. He was casual about his
payments, and she would never re-
mind him. 10 brighten up her rooms
and bring a little pleasure into her
day he would now and then go out
and bring her home an oxtravagantly
beautiful bunch OF flowers, or a PAIR
of palms, and present them to her
with a touching enthusiasm for his
own generosity and thoughtfulness.
Her practical mind would fly with a
woman's quickness of thought to the
four mouths rent which was still
unpaid; but only a feeling of tender.
ness for his eccentrlcities would come
we her, and she Rugged to her heart
the thought that she could help him
in the work by waiting for the over.
due rent.
He was poor, and his income would
have barely covered the modest ne
cessities of his simple life if he had
devoted it to them, but she spends all
his money on them messes and invent
ing things as aren't no use to no one,'
as Arabella remarked when he over
looked her tip one Christmas Day
81 amt got 40 use for the like OF his
sort" Clothes he never bought, anC
Hannah, with a beautiful regard fol
the feelings of the man she loved,
stitched and mended and patched, anc
bit by bit replaced his worn ant
shabby wardrobe. She was careful
never to put into his room any new
garment she had made until the ruth
less laundress had robbed it of it,
newness. Then she would substitute
it for one which was beyond even hel
clever needlecralt to mend, and tn,
"elderly party would put on thu
new shirt or wear the new socks with
out the slightest suspicion that thu
familiar patches and darns were miss
ing. He acted as intellectual foot
and nourishment to her starved brain
and she became the pratical part o
his ~unevenly balanced character
which nature had left wanting. Sh'
often argued with herself that theil
existence together in that house wa
q proof that purely platonic friendship
can exist hetYeen q man and q womb