Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-04-20
Resurrection Of
a Forlorn Hope
BY WILLIS SCOTT

TLARISSA was a poor, lone little
~ seamstress. Her pale, thin cheeks,
and STOPPING shoulders and needle
pricked fingers told of long hours spent
over the sewing table. 1t was so hard to
make even a living. Clarissa was all
alone in the world.
One bright ray of hope there was
amidst all the gloom. 1t had flashed
into the mind of Clarissa nearly year
before at Easter time, and ever since
then it had rested on her like a CHEEKY
beacon light of hope. She had CHANGED
one day to pass the fancy goods coun-
ter in one of the big department
stores, and her quick, hungry eyes had
taken in at glance the dainty dis
play of needlework, and she had noted
amongst them the many Easter nov
elites which ingenuity and deft fingers
had devised. She had not time to lin
ger. She must hurry back TO her task
of plain sewing, for idle moments meant
less bread, and perhaps shortage of
rent money and an obdurate landlady.
But she had in that brief pause before
that counter caught vision of a new
future. She had never done anything
but plain sewing, but there had al
ways been the hungering in her soul for
the pretty and dainty trifies. She want
ed to do something besides that monot-
onous plain stitching and button holing.
but she never seemed to get the time
from the daily tasks. Now. how
ever, new thought had come to her.
''her inspiration" she called it, and
day and night since that last Easter
vision at the fancy goods counter it
had been uppermost in her mind.
She would make something for the
next Easter. The boldness of the
thought made her tremble. But the
idea would not down, and though she
over and over again told herself that
it was foolish she planned how she
would work it out. But what could
she do?
One day when passing the markets
she noticed a sign: Eggs, GO cents
per doz." Eggs were a rare luxury to
Clarissa. The high price caught her
eye at once, 1t made her gasp to
think of the price, and she wondered
who could be rich enough to afford
them. When she got back to her bare
room the thought of eggs at prohib-
tive prices kept floating before her
mind. AT that moment a bit of
yellow satin caught her eye lying on
the table and again Eggs, co cents
per doZ." foated before her vision.
Now, there is not much connection be-
tween eggs at 60 cents a dozen and
a bit of yellow satin, but, without
knowing just why Clarissa picked up
the bright bit of cloth and as she held
it in her hands it struck her that it
was the exact shade of an eggs yolk.
Her deft fingers moved by the
thought soon had a puffy round ball
made which for all the world looked
like an eggs yolk. Why not make
the white of the egg and have a fried
egg, she thought. With bit of cotton
and a scrap of chiffon she went at it
and ere long had lying before her on
the table a very fair representation
OF an egg. AS she sat looking at it
and wondering what good it was now
that it was made, the thought sudden
ly flashed over her that Easter and
eggs were very appropriate, and with
the word Easter" penciled over the
egg it would make a very dainty nov
city. Here then was the solution of
her problem. Here was her oppor-
tunity.
The next few days found Clarissa
in fever of nervous anxiety She
went half hungry that she might
have the little thus saved for the buy.