Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-03-25
|! Hiss Faiths ADVICE.


Miss Faith sat in close companion
ship as usual, with her familiar spirit,
piece of crochoted edging. Her
touch upon the mazes of tangled
thread was very gentle, even endear-
ing, and her look of content as she
held it up aud noted its effect as a
whole seemed vastly out of proportion
to the cause. Miss Faith was still
pretty, with the pathetic beauty held
as hotsam from the wreck of years.
Her hair was prettier as silver than it
had ever been as brown, and her eyes,
though they had lost their vivid glow
and eagerness, had gained a kindly
sympathy. Her tenderness had even
extended to the crocheting in her
hand and impaired something to that
usually very impersonal object that
her fancy lad fretted into thinking
response. She passed her hand aztec
tionately over it now. as the figure of
a pineapple much conyentionalized,
repeating itself like history again and
again, fell in scallops to the floor
cts most DONE" she thought. II
can go back to the oak leaf pretty
soon.
A change in the crochet pattern was
the chief diversion of Faiths life, that
ran on rs monotonously to the
observer rs the tune of the famous
harper who played upon only one
string. To an ant the coming of a
stick or a stone may be q great event.
1t is not hard to understand how
life that consists in taking infinite
pains with many little things may get
its slips of excitement, interest and
novelty from a change in pattern of
crochet. The examination of the work
appeared TO be satisfactory, and Faith
laid it on the table at her side. This
table was devoted to the uses of her
art, nor was ever profaned by the
presence Of any irrelevant substance.
There were rows of spools upon II,
drawn mp in lines like soldiers ready
to receive an attack, hooks OF various
sizes lying like weapons by their side
and various rolls of lace, the finished
product Of their warfare. Faith re-
garded them with approval, but her
hand that had lain upon the table fell
away from the accustomed task, and
she sat idle, watching the red coal, the
shadows the lamplight threw upon the
carpet and listening to the clatter that
Mary, her maid of all work, was max
ing as a part of the dishwashing.
''It's a kind of jugglery she goes
through with those Dishes" thought
Faith regretfully, "a sleight of hand
performance, to see how many tricks
she can DO before one of them will
break"
But her face did not cloud, for she
had learned resignation. She had sur
rendered to Mary the dishes and all
the rest of the household diyinities
that she had served so deity and care
fully for years that she might be more
at leisure to while away her time in
her own innocent fashion.
She wondered, as she sat staring
duly at the blaze, how the crocheting
had come to mean so much to her and
could not think for the instant, then
half remembered, saddened little,
lost the thread of memory again, re-
covered it and felt to musing, her elbow
resting on the table, her cheek in her
palm. She could hardly believe now
that certain few years of her life had
ever really happened. They must
have belonged to some other and
wandered wilfully into here own, for
there was no home for them in hers or
likeness unto anything they brought.
Was it SO? They had gone so utterly,
so completely, and she was happy now
in her own harmless way, far inland,
out of all reach of storm and reef.
She was still looking vaguely, half
wistfully, at the fire, when her door
bell rang and some one entered the
room and was hurrying to her side.
"Aunt Faith" said girlish tremu-
lous voice, 'Ive come to ask you to
help me. Mother said you had suffered
like this once and you had learned to
forget, and / thought perhaps you
could show me the way"
Faith looked down upon the slight
figure crouched there, sobhing, and
laid her hand gently upon the brown