The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-01-22

under her hand, and, to her amazement,
it proved to be an old gray yarn stock
ing, full of tw~enty-dollar gold pieces.
laid carefully among homespun blank
cts and thriftily preserved articles of
long-past wear.
"Janey, Janey! you amt a-lookin' in
the blue chist, be you?" 1t was Aunt
Chrystenah's voice calling from the foot
of the stairway. tits in that chist O.
draws clear out under the caves, close
to the old spinning-wheel and swifts.'
eyes, Aunt Chrystenah."
Janey Jones started away like a
guilty creature, and presently she came
downstairs with the old shepherds
plaid shawl over her arm.
Its very nice, Aunt. Chrystenah,'
said she, "and I thank you very much
for it."
The first thing that Mrs. Jones did
when she came back to the gloomy city
fiat that represented home to her, was
to go around to the jewelers. on Third
avenue and purchase the seal ring with
the onyx setting which she had so COW
eted for John. She loved John so
dearly she longed to see him decked
out like other clerks in the bank with
something which should prove that
he, too, was not utterly forgotten at
Christmas. And, after all, she was
only borrowing from Aunt Chrystenah
taking what would one day be her
own. What harm could there be in
that?
And yet Mrs. Jones had Eeckoned
without her conscience, and that grim
sentinel uprose in her heart when she
least expected it. And as Christmas
approached, with the shop-windows
garlanded with holly and red berries,
and the house-roofs glistened with
snow, Mrs. Jones was a miserable
oma
If only she could in some way earn
twenty dollars to pay back that money
to Aunt Chrystenah's blue chest be-
fore Christmas!
"a thief! a thief" she kept repeating
to herself. That's what I am! Peo-
pie don't know it when they pass me
in the streets. The children in my
Sunday-school class don't mistrust it
when they stand at my knee. John
don't dream of it when he tells me what
a neat, thrifty wife I am--but I know
it all the time!"
well keep Christmas in a small
way, this first Christmas of our mar
ried life, Janey," said the young hus-
band. We'll go marketing together
for the turkey and the yellow pumpkin
and the little jar of mincemeat, and I'll
ask poor old Hale, the fellow at the
desk next to me, whose wife died las'
summer, and young Ferris, who has
no home but a clearinghouse. You're
such a capital little housekeeper thai
it'll cost next to nothing! And 1 shall
be proud to have them see what a home
I've got and what a home-maker."
Janey smiled family.
Eyes, john" she said. "I'll try tt
have things as nice as possible" An(
she added to herself: "He doesn't know
that I am a thiefv'
$50 provoking!' said sprightly Mrs
Rayner, who lived the fiat just acros:
the hall. II had promised to do thi!
copying for Lawyer Cortright, and nov
I've sprained my wrist so that 1 can
even lift a pen. A twenty-dollar Job
tool"
Cant I do it," gasped Janey, feel
ing as if an angel from heaven hat
come to light up her dreary lot will
his torch of promise. II write a legibli
round hand, and I would take grea
pains to be accurate. Oh, please let m,
try!"
1T must be done Immediately" sait
the neighbor.
II would do it at once, even if I ST