, 1904-02-10

came TO work next day late and stupid
laggingly and made mistakes. Miss
Norcross was obliged TO call them to
account, therefore they disliked her,
made fun" of her behind her back
and TO her face so far as they dared.
They called her "Old Maid and even
"Crossbones," sometimes "Old Maid
~Crossbones," and she heard them once
or twice. They giggled, p%erpetually
giggled, after the way of thoughtless
young girls. They considered that the
most dreadful thing in this life was to
be Il single IN Of course they
expected to be married, every one of
them, and get out of work" not know
ing in their awful ignorance that the
lot of a poor mans wife who is as
crude and unframed as they were is
nearly always ten times harder than
that of the old maid who is earning a
comfortable income.
Expecting to marry, these girls adorn-
ed themselves in gewgaws and kept
their weather eye out morning and
evening to catch the men who were to
release them from work, as they fool
ishly imagined. They were not always
very tidy as to their skin and clothing
in truth, they sometimes hurried to
work in the morning with tangled,
tumbled hair, but they always wore
upon it the huge tapping hat with
feathers-of that you may be sure-and
they always and everlastingly giggled.
Now, for better or for worse, it is
quite natural for a girl to look forward
to marriage. 1t Is also natural, if not
wise, for her to try to attract men, if
she wants a husband. But, girls, an
swer me this: Do you think it is Ell
Their gentle, good tempered, womanly
or polite to make fun" of a woman
only because she is an old maid? One
likes to think of girls as sweet, bright
creatures whose minds are occupied
with pleasant, kindly thoughts, whose
manners are always courteous.
Besides, was the lot of the married
women they knew so delightful and en-
yiable that the girls l speak of were
justified in jeering at Miss Norcross be-
cause she was single? The women they
knew had been mostly working girls
like themselves. They, too, had worn ex-
aggerated hats and squeezed themselves
nearly in two at the waists and danced
away two or three years of young life in
a sort of dream. They walked up when
they found themselves fast married
and tied, with a string of children
hanging to them and MOI always money
enough to buy shoes all round. Some
times even they had drunken husbands,
They 'lost heart then, as weak, ig-
norant women call it, and did not care
how they looked any more. They be-
came bad tempered slatterns. They.
too, in their youth made fun" of old
maids. Now they envy the neat and
tidy single woman who respects herself
and is getting on well in the world.
Is there any reason to expect that the
fate of the girls who jeered at Miss
Norcross will be any different from that
of the girls who went before them?
Miss Norcross had to take care of a
sickly mother. She began it when she
was sixteen and kept it up till her
mother died. She had no time to go
to balls, and her money had to be spent
on the housekeeping. Meantime she
mastered perfectly the business she
was engaged in and was promoted to
her present place. She has now con-
siderable money in bank. But nan a
time her heart has been made bitter
because of the rude and ignorant girls.
The time is quite likely to come when,
instead of making fun OF old maids,
they will envy these with all their
souls. SUSAN PEPPER.