The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1904-10-07
Miss Ashbel1.


faces of the family group assembled to
hear it, when | finished reading the letter
had Just received from aunt
The group consisted of mysclt-Mary,
eldest daughter of the house and hearth
brown, dark eyed, tall and eighteen;
Helen not quite as brown, hazel eyed, al,
most as tall, and ixtecn; Will, browner,
dark-cyed, head shorter, aud ten; and
Carol, towering above us all, bIleeyed
fair-haircd, gOld-mustachrd and twenty
! one.
| Aunt was, in fact, cur great aunt, sis
| ter Of our fathers mother. but the only
aunt, great or little, that We had ever
known. We had met her but two or
three times during our lives, as she lived
in far-away Illinois, and was too much
occupied with grains and herds to think
of frequent visiting, and wc-welI, we
were too poorly provided with gold and
silver to take long and expensive jour
news. SO what little visiting there had
been, had been on aunt's side. with one
exception, and then was the visitor
We children had always heard twice
year from aunt once collectively at
Christmas, and once respectively on our
brthdays-and each time the kindly note
which eXhortcd us to "bc good, industri-
Gus and self reliant" enclosed a check,
larger or smaller. according to aunts
gains on the preceding year. These notes
we had been taught to answer with
many wishes for the old ladv's welfare
and thanks for her kindness and hopes
for a speedy meeting; in short, i'll man
ncr befitting the only nicces and nephewS
of the Carmody family when replying to
the friendly cpistlcs of their only aunt, to
say nothing of that aunt being the
wealthicst and most influential member
of that family.
A few days before our father died he
called us together, and said:
"Mychildren, it isn't at all likely to oc-
cur, but if your aunt should ask favor
of you, grant it, no matter at what in
convenience. She has been nv best and
dearest friend
Poor father, suspect aunt had often
helped him out of pecuniary difficulties.
He was an impractical, dreamy sort Of
man, fond of birds and poetry and flow
ers, and didn't succeed very well in life.
Bat, il spite of his drcamincss and his
want of worldly tact, and his being so
totally unlike her in most ways he was
great favorite of aunt's, and when we
tciegraphed his serious illness to her she 1
left her vast possessions without n cap
tain ut Il moments notice, and FASTENED
to his side making her appearance in a
bonnet that Immediately suggested the
prairieS, it was SO unlimited as to size
and SO bare of ornaments, and which
grotesQucly obtruded itself into the re-
mcnbrancc of that sad time forever after
Since fathers death things hadn't been
very bright with US. In fact, they hadn't
been bright ut all
We found there was Il good deal of
money owing, and what remained of tile
two hundred dollars aunt gave us Oh the
day of the funeral she bade us good
by" the instant the ceremonies were over
after our cheap mourning was paid for.
went to the butcher grocer and shoe
maker
We were willing to do, and did, what
ever we could supporting the household;
but, dear. dear. talk about weeds; l
never saw anything grow like bills.
Carol, who had an aristoCratic turn
of mind, struggled with it; and l, who
had 4 dressmaking turn of mind, strug-
"led with that; and Helen struggled with
her books. hoping to become a teacher in
time; and little Will struggled with some
body clsc's books, for he went into a
publishing house as crrand bny-poor
fellow,
Besides the struggles, we had mother
on our minds A few weeks after we lost
our father. we lost our baby sister. A
beautiful child she was, as bright as Il
diamond and as fair as Il pearl, and the
pride and darling of us all. Already sink
ing beneath the blow of her husbands
death, when her little daughter died too,
my mothers heart was nearly broken
From being a sunshiny, energetic wom-
an, she became liStlesS and apathetic, sit.
ting i'll her room day after day gazing
upon the pictures of the loved ones, or
rocking back and forth, her hands clasp
cd before her, looking with her eyes upon
vacancy.
"Oh, that she could he made to weep
That she could he reused from this dread
ful spccchcss %laon into which she had
fallen" WAS our continual PRAYER, for
the teri iblc thought came to us often
that we should lose uur mother in Il
much worse way than we had our father
and siStcr--that her brain would at last
give way beneath It's weight of heavy tie
spairing thoughts.
Wei, the cXchcquer was low enough.
and mother had had one of her very bad
spells, and a lady customer had Just been
i'll and abused me-yes, abused; | can see
no other word; women do fly in such
+a,,,,ars tIa;, H. La