The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-25
T7h0 Loom Girls
Christmas

great ROOM and the sound seems to cut
through Jennie's aching brain. Her lit
tie head under its wealth of glossy braid
ed hair sinks down. With mechanical
step she moves to and fro in her "sta-
tion," the belts and pulleys and clang-
ing looms fading into "A BLUR before eyes
half blinded by despairing tears.
''Hoo-ee" calls Il laughing voice.
Jennie looks across the room. 1t is
Carrie Wester, who has called her; and
the girls freckled mobile face is all
asparklc with tantalizing diablerie.
'Iookin' for him to-morrer, Jennie!
Expectin' him all in the Chris mas morn
in. hey?"
Jennie does not hear these words; but
accustomed as she is to the clang and
clash of the weaving room at the
Caraleigh, she has no difficulty in read
ing them by following the movements of
her tormentor's lips. And the glossy
head droops lower; and the sad little
face. with its all too plainly told story of
patient suffering silently and bravely
borne. grows whittier, ais with heavy
sigh, she turns once more to her work
Hits a burnin' shame" says the
voice of a girl in the next station"
Look here, Jennie; why don't you give
that no count fly-up-the-creek Il piece
of your min'?'
Jennie shakes her head.
1T would do no good. Susie-none
whatever. Only" faint culver stir
ring her pathetic mouth-7"I can't I'M
dcrstand why she hates me So"
You can't?" wide eyed.
NO wonderingly. "Can you?"
Huh. / should say could. Why
don't you know she was crazy over your
Tom till the very day you married i'm!
An for all | know she's crazy over i'm
VT. Anyhow, she's never forgive you
for takin' i'm away from her; an she'll
plague the very life out'n you, if you
let 'er. That she will"
but | didn't take Tom from her.
Susie. How could ~ says the young
wife, her pretty face aflame.
SWELL" dryly. 'she took himself then;
an hits all the same in Dutch, reckon"
rs it," laughs an airy voice; and
Jennie turns, to see Carrie. who has
come darling across the room III tenn
porary absence of the foreman, standing
close beside her.
rs it?' she repeats: and then with
eyes impishly alight, she whirls upon
Susie.
Say" she cries. ''Do you know what
Harry Hinton said bout you this morn
in. beautyg
Not / an what's more, / don't keer,
Carrie Wester."
Don't you now? Well. really, it's
so sweet / mus tell you anyhow. He
said you KEEP leanin' that woodpecker
head of yours on his shoulder las night
goin home from church until it burnt A
big hole in his new Prince Albert coat.
That's lie," flares Susie.
my" laughs the Wester. What in
the worl' air you so mad about. beauty"
Susie's only reply is a shrug and an
abrupt presentation of her back to the
speaker With a second airy laugh, that
lady therefore turns to Jennie.
KILLED the fatted turkey yit. Jen?I
Tom loves turkey you know. An as for
sweets. he'd jest die for 'em. Maybe
that's why he's so fond of you.
Jennie says nothing. She only looks
at the girl with great sad. appealing dark
eyes, before whose gaze the girls smile
dies and her color changes.
You're expectin' him, of course" she
says. but do you know that all the
girls here think he'll never come back?"
! Yes, | knew it,
AN do you know the reason? They
think he's married some girl out yonder
in Cuba. That's the way with these
soldiers, Jen."
Its not Toms way, Carrie"
There is a little smile on her sad, sweet
mouth as she raises her blue eyes to
meet her tormentor's.
49," Carrie sneers. ''you really think
he'll return, do your
"1f he's alive, yes"
What, You're afraid he's dead?"
A spasm of agony crosses the young
wife's face.
Il don't know" brokenly. ''He was
in that charge at San Juan. He--ha
wrote to me just before that; and tiff
he had lived / should've heard from
him-before now"
The Wester looks at her curiously.
Seems lax you've got lots of faith in
that husban' of yours, Jennie?'
II have. Livin' or dead. he's true to-
me. my Tom, | know"
Well / declare. But s'pose you
hadn't that faith? Spose he'd left you
as all the girls think?''
Yah ouppose any tHihS VI tbc hiAd'
Carrie" with face all tear-wet and
quiyering. she turns and lays both little
hands upon the girls shoulders Carrie
what makes you hate me so? What
makes you try so hard to torture me?
Can't you see this awful waitin' is fit
10 drive me mad? Don't you know that
I'm sufferin' so that my life is one long
cry of pain? Oh, Carrie, have pity on
me- Sometimes it seems to me i can't
bear it no longer Don't--don't try to
make my hard lot harder than it is"
For all answer Miss Carrie, pushing
out her under lip saucly, gives her chest
nut head a defiant little toss, shakes
Jennie's hands rudely from her should
ers. and goes flying, but with rather I'M
certain steps like one who does not see
most clearly, back across the room to-
her station.
Behind her softly swelling hills, with
here and there an arrowy stream flash
ing through the hollows: yonder to the
left the vast pile Of the asylum for the in
sane looming against the rosy west; in
front Of her, Raleigh i'll its undulating
park-like beauty, with its masse of
shadowy roofs and crown of silver light