New Ulm review., 1901-06-12
0T1R RISE TO WEALTH

III FONT know why Jay and l were SO
! reckless as to marry. We had nothing
j, to i've on. At least. Jay ddn't make enough
fcs two. He was an electrician, with ex-
perimental tendencies. Mrs Nora Brandon,
who rented a back fiat down in the store
after Jay had finished putting all Of. his cleo
trical appliances in it there was corner or
two left for the bed and a table with an
oil stove on it. Fortunately, we had big
| closet. I stored this as a sailor stores his
locker, and SO managed to live with sem
blance of order.
/ look back now upon those days spent in
shat little room Of Mrs. Brandon's, and count
them as among the happiest of happy life.
appreciate them more now than I did then,
though was happy then, but when COM
pare that one little room with the big house
full of big rooms with its many servants,
any one Of whom would scarcely deign to
notice so humble home as ours was, the
whole thing seems but pleasant dream.
doubt not that much of it was but dream;
d love dream that made our happiness poz-
sible
We were happy-very. Every morning
we congratulated each other on being alive.
We ate our breakfast of coffee and toast
merrily, taking turns in the reading aloud
from some book from the public library
our only paper was weekly-and after that
we worked until five. Then we put on our
best clothes, and went out to a nearby
boarding place to dine. We could not af-
ford to go to the theater or the concerts or
the flower show or to lectures, but we joined
the crowds which were going to these places
and walked along with them to the door,
and then passed on with an air Of having
something more entertaining in mind than
the amusements that temped the mob.
Sundays we went to the most beautiful
church in the city, and we were devoutly
thankful for many great blessings. But we
were poor! 1t is difficult to exaggerate our
poverty. We used to sit before the dismal
steam radiator with dear old Nancy Nc.
Mahan and wonder how anybody could be
so poor who was not defective in sense or
limb. Nancy McMahan, like ourselves,
subletted from Mrs. Nora Brandon. She
had a room at the end of the hall, and she
compounded hygienic face powder which
she sold from door to door.
Nancy was altogether the most interesting
person we had ever met. She had green
eyes, so clear and luminous that it seemed
almost possible to see through them. Her
forehead was high and unshaded by curls
of any sort. Indeed, her pale hair was
brushed back relentlessly from her brow.
Her mouth was large and kindly. Her COM
plexion white and wax-hke. She had been
born in an orphan asylum and her life had
been one of the straDgest vlcissltudes. Her
adventures were never-ending source of
delight, and to hear her tell them was our
one great entertainment. She had heart
that ached to love, and not finding anything
better at hand she consented to love us.
We returned it in kind, and got into the
way of sharing everything with Nancy. We
hardly enjoyed our own jokes till she had
given them the approval of her laughter.
She knew our hopes and expectations, and in
our happy selhshness we overlooked the
fact that she had neither hope nor s<pecta-
ton.
Late one winter, after our dear friend had
worn herself out with Intellectual tramping
Of the icy street in the bleak wind, she fell
Ill with pleurisy, and though we gave her
our unremitting attention, pawning some OF
our trinkets to buy her medicine, she died.
Nora Brandon and Jay and saw her laid
away among the poor.
tThis is but a lodging for the night" said
my husband, weeping, some day she shall
lie in better place than this and have her
own headstone" Not that it mattered to
Nancy.
We couldn't help laughing when we found
that the dear old thing had made will,
leaving everything to us. She mad left Jay
all of her furniture and the apparatus with
which she had made her hygienic face pow
der, and she had bequeathed me her quaint
old clothes and a recipe. The recipe was
contained in letter. It said:
"My Dearest Friend: I shall be dead
when you take this in your hand, and so /
| shall not mind having you laugh at me. The
recipe which inclose was given me by a
dying woman-and now dying woman gives
it to you. She told me that she had had
| dream that this little formula would bring
mighty fortune to some one, but she felt
that the fortune was not for me, but for the
pne to whom I should give it. For seven
nights I have dreamed that in your hands
| it would become great instrument of heal
ing, and bring you wealth beyond your
dreams of riches. The prescription is for a
cleansing medicine which will reach all the
secrehons of the system. I enjoin you~by
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