The Tupelo journal., 1903-03-27
The girls were alone. For willie the

The girls were alone, for while the
visitor was eating her early supper
Johanna had retired to make some
necessary repairs to the harness of
the bony horse. Pauline had begged
that she might be driven to town that
night and Johanna had consented.
Hilda, however, seemed far from
sociable. She fairly slammed the
boiled eggs upon the table and looked
as if she would rather hurl the thick
slices of bread at Pauline than pass
them politely. This was so foreign
to the ethics of Swedish hospitality
that the bewildered guest determined
to discover how she had offended Jo-
hanna's eldest. She went to the
point at once.
"Hilda," said she, pushing back
her chair, why don't you like me?"
BY way of answer, Hilda flung a
stick of wood into the stove and
banged the lid into place.
"You don't like me at all, do you?"
persisted Pauline, rising with diff
Guilty because of her bruised knee,
anc standing beside the stove. "Do
you, Hilda?"
mo" said Hilda, with a flash of
her eyes.
"Why not? 1 like you-or / would
if you'd let me. 1 should think
you'd like me a little, I've done so
much for you"
DO you tank L like your old
~clothes?" demanded the Swedish girl,
an indignant red flooding her cheek.
Il tank sometime | hate you! If it
is not for you, maybe sometime L
have something new, and not all the
time old. Always l have your old
dress, your old shoe-look at him!-
your old hat, your old stocking, your
old book, your old doll; not once ever
anything new. Always hole or ink
or rag, or maybe patch, everything
you don't want, then l get him. 1t
is easy to give away what is not
good. All the time since | am baby,
l tank me, There is that Winthrop
girl, all new dress, all new shoe, new
book with cover on, new hat, and
MEME"
But the thought of the contrast
was too much for Hilda, who turned
and thrust two more sticks of wood
into the already crowded stove.
"Why, Hilda!" gasped astonished
Pauline. I'm sorry about it. l never
supposed you'd mind. L thought
you'd like the things. I'm awfully
sorry"
Hilda, however, had lot waited for
the apology. The storm having burst,
the Swedish girl rushed away like
any other tornado. Pauline did not
see her again that evening.
Pauline was restored at ten o'clock
that night to her anxious parents
and her remorseful brother, who had
not missed her until he was APP
preaching the outskirts of the town.
His frame of mind during the even
ing had been anything but pleasant,
and ne turned pale under his freckles
when Johanna's horse stopped at the
gate.
There were two results from the
girls adventure. Gordon henceforth
looked after his sister with a brother
ly solicitude, wonderful to see; and
it slowly dawned upon Pauline, who
had been ~singularly thoughtful all
the way home, that there were sew
eral kinds of charity. She puzzled
out for herself the difference between
making sacrifices of the things, ma
terial and otherwise, that she herself
really wanted, and the giving away
of things for which she had no use.
The result was quite as beneficial in
her case as in Gordon's.
The next bundle hat went to the
Hansens contained for Hilda a fresh,
bright ribbon that Pauline really
hated to give away, and a new book
with a cover on" purchased by Pau
line with her not too abundant
pocket money. When spring came,
Hilda, who was, perhaps, a little
ashamed of her outburst, drove to
town with her mother and carried
to Pauline a huge bunch of marsh
marigolds, which Pauline readily rec
ognized as a neutrality-suspicious.
Companion.