Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-09-07
Short STORY
Of the Day


Existence.
]. Stormost Lewis in The Spring
field Republican.-She is just 10 years
old. dressed in a frock that Is much
too short, and worn, old shoes that are
much too large. Her mother wore
those shoes yesterday, and now as she
walks she drags her feet for fear they
should fall of. Life is very hard,
bread is very scarce, and shoes. how
ever small. cost so much money.
They call her Mary, just that, no pet
name, her parents have never had one
for her. Pet names are for children
whose parents have time to think
about them. 70 caress and play with
them. Poor people tormented with
the struggle for daily bread and the
constant cares of life. have no time
for such things; in their vocabulary
there are no useless words. And then,
too. one associates a pet name with
rosy cheeks, dimples, bright eyes,
curls and childish grace and beauty.
But poor little Mary is thin and sal
low, with dark rings round her dull
eyes, and the sad look of child that
suffers. She is old already. and as
she goes to school in the morning,
she stoops her thin shoulders and rolls
her little red hands in the thin old
shawl that covers her.
Her parents had known better days,
and had once had a pretty little house
and garden. but misfortunes had
come, everything had been swept
away, house. garden. furniture, all had
gone. Now a situation procured for
the father by an old school friend
Just keeps them from starving. OF
their former comfort not a trace re-
mains, not even the child's cradle or
the larger of her two dolls, the other,
which has a broken head and one eye.
is left because nobody would buy il
and ii is her only possession.
Is it surprising that the home Is
gloomy? How can one be gay, when
instead of the pretty garden with its
rose bushes and lilacs, one lives in
two little rooms, the windows of
which look into a duh. damp court,
into which the sun never peeps. The
walls are gray and the air which
comes in is damp and foul. All day
long clothes hang from the windows
of the houses around to dry, and to get
a glimpse Of the sky 1t is necessary
TO 90 into the street. But their rooms
are on the fourth floor, at the end of
long, narrow corridor, and the stairs
are steep, and dark and dirty; to go
into the street is a journey. And then
what does misery care for the sky
II smiles only for the happy.
Mary is at school all day. In the
evening, after she has helped in The
Homework, she sits down to learn her
school lessons. BY the light of the
same lamp her mother is binding her
self with doing fine embroidery, for
which she is miserably paid, while the
father is copying music or law papers.
From time to time he lays down his
pen and strides modify up and down
the room; the mothers tired eyes fol-
low him mournfully, and when he sits
down again she quickly resumes her
task with a stified sigh.
A sad life for a child OF 10 who is
growing rapidly, and has not sufficient
food. The school is so far that she
cannot come home at noon; so the
mother fills a little bottle with coffee
and milk, and at noon the child drinks
this. and eats penny roll. in the play
ground in fine weather, in one of the
passages when IL rains. The merry
games and laughter of her companions
do not interest her; they have pretty
frOcks and nice shoes, and thick. warm
coats and nantes, and as they dart
about her here and there they look
like so many butterflies. Mary's poor
old shawl hangs pitifully round her
thin figure. and IL she were TO play.
her short old frock and the holes in
the shawl would be more conspicuous.
Mother. why do you never sing?"