Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-03-25
Hiss Faiths Advice. 4


Miss Faith sat in close companion
ship,a usual, with her familiar spirit,
u 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
whole seemed vastly out of proportion
to the cause. Miss Faith was still
pretty, with the pathetic beauty held
as fiotsam from the wreck of years.
Her hair was prettier rs silver than it
had ever been a. brown, aud 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 impersoual object that
her fancy bad fretted into thinking Il
response. She passed her hand aztec
tionately over il now. rs the figure of
pineapple much conventionalized,
repeating itself like history again and
again, fell in scallops to- the floor.
"It's 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 as the tune of the famous
harper who played upon only one
string TO an ant the coming of u
stick or stone may be great event.
1t is not hard to understand how a
life that consists in taking infinite
pains with many little things may get
its slips of excitement, interest and
novelty from change in a pattern of
crochet. The examination of the work
appeared 20 be satisfactory, and Faith
laid it on the table mt 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 il,
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 q part of the dishwashing.
Its 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 70 Mary the dishes and all
the res, of the household divinities
that she had served so deity and care
fully for years that she might be more
at leisure 10 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
COulu not Nuluh IOI Tue iHSNdHh, Nuch
half remembered, saddened little,
lost the thread of memory again, re-
covered it and fellto 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 herr 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,
ont 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 a girlish tremu-
lous voice, ave come 10 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, sobbing, and
laid her hand gently upon the brown