Middletown transcript., 1901-02-16

| woman, discovered that she was awake;
and as ! silently placed the flowers in
her hand and the basket on small table
near the cot, a flash Of pleasure illu-
mined her face, and quickly raising her
eyes, tear-dimmed and g ateful, she ex-
claimed, rapturously:
"Oh, ma'am, how can I thank you?
They are like the flowers that grew in my
mothers garden, and itfhas been SO long
since ] have seen any like them" Her
voice quivered and broke, and she buried
her face in tile fragrant blossoms, hiding
the emotion which she was so little ac-
customed to betray in the presence of
strangers.
Taking seat beside the cot and an
orange from the basket, I devoted my
self to preparing it for her, talking to
her the while about the flowers and the
friend who sent them. She quickly re-
covered herself, and as fed her with the
sliced orange she peered in my face with
q deal OF interest, as though trying to
locate me- At length she succeeded, and
a flash OF recognition accompanied the
words.
"Ab, yes! I've seen you before, ma am.
| thought had, and now I remember"
YES" | replied, t1 have seen you
many times, and had wondered what had
become Of you"
A flush of shame swept over her face
as she remembered where I had seen
her. Looking at me wistfully, she said,
with some hesitation: "I'd be glad for
you to know, ma'am, that 'twa'n't Jim
that is my husband-that caused me to
be here. I remember you were standin'
not far from Jim and me the night be-
fore | was picked up and brought here.
But Jim never hurt me; had just over
worked myself bit, and kinder tainted
on the street, that was all, and I'll soon
be all right again"
Every day I visited her, always carry
ing fruit and flowers. Having written
about her to my kind friend in the
country, every day or two became the
happy recipient Of delicious, old-fash-
ioned posy from her country garden,
which duly found its way to the hospi-
tai. One day, especially, the flowers
seemed to open the fioodgates of her
memory, and as she smelled and caress-
ed them she rambled on about her girl
hood, and then, with some hesitation,
stepped over the border into her mar
ried life. She had hitherto avoided all
such allusion; but, the ice once broken,
she talked on unreservedly:
"He had nice place in the country,
Jim had; he was employed on a dairy
farm, and we had a cozy little house
furnished us, and we were gettin' on well,
and had the dearest little baby girl!''
Here her lips tightened to suill their
quivering, and the tears stole out from
beneath the closed eyelids Presently
she continued: "But he had high
notions, Jim had, and he wanted to get
rich. Well, we couldn't do that in the
country, though we had plenty Of all we
needed. Finally he got to hankerin' to
come to the city. He thought if he
could just get to the city he could get
work at high wages, and would soon get
rich; and SO, after bit, he give up his
place, and we came here to live.
tWe had saved up a little money to
keep us till he could get something to do,
but we soon found there was mo,e people
who wanted work than there was work
for them all, and he could get only an
odd job once in while. Then we had
to give up our comfortable lodgings and
take cheaper ones in dirtier part Of the
city, and after that 'twa'nt long before
our little Rosy began to pine for the
pure, country air she'd always lived in,
and from bein'the plumpest, rosiest baby
when we moved here, she fell away and
lost her pretty color till she didn't look
like the same, and | kept seein' that she
was CROWN weaker and weaker, and |
there was nothin' that could do, for l
knew twas the stiflin' heat and vile,
filthy air that was KILN her. And
then-and then-one night when Jim
came home / see that he'd been drinkin'.
Oh, ma'am, I give you my word that was |
worse than all; had never seen him SO |
before
The next day asked Mrs. O'Riley, a |
kind-hearted Irish woman livin' on the /
same floor of the tenement, to try to get /
me some work, and she got me place in
laundry not far from where we lived. /
Jim had never let me go out to work; he
had always boasted Of his great, strong,
strappin' health, and he said twas
enough for me to do the work at home,
that twas his place to provide for the
family,-and so he did, ma'am, when he
could get anything TO do.
We got on little better now. | was
paid regular for my work, and Jim had
steady job in livery stable, though
twas bad place for him, and I'd a.
been glad if he could "a got work else
where; but beggars mustn't be choosers,
and we were lookin' up bit, only my
baby kept on dwindlin' away, and Jim
said twas her teeth, and not the city air,
that was the matter with her. Mrs.
O'Riley looked after her for me while I
was away at my work.
Il had never left her before, and it
wrung my very heart to have to go away !
from her, and she with her little arms
stretched out to me and cryin' Nanny, /
oh, mammyn so pitiful when I would /
leave her. I've wondered SO many times !
ma am, how in the world the rich ladies' {
who need never lose sight Of their babies {
can give them up to the care of servants {
as they do; and | would a. been 50 happy 8
Just to stay with mine.
sOne dar, I shall never forget it, when t
was startin' of, it seemed harder to get s
lway from her than usual, and after I y
yot to the door went BACK and took her
II my arms and kissed her over and over q
i TsY