Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-04-20
Resurrection of
a Forlorn Hope
J BY WILLIS SCOTT T.

~ 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. Memory took her
back years and years before to a
happy childhood with mother and ia
Their. Then the consumptive father
had died and she and her mother had
drifted to the city. where a bitter. hard
fight was begun for existence. The
mother did the best she could for her
little girl. but scant was the education
which she was able TO obtain. and
early she had had to ply herself to
needlework tasks to help piece out the
living for the two. Thus 1t had
gone year in and veal out, a living
from hand to mouth; never beggared;
never in abject want. and yet never
knowing what it was to have a little
surplus for a rainy day. Then the
mother had died. She was the only
friend Clarissa had ave had, for the
poor girl was too shrinking and re-
served to make friends with even the
most friendly. And so when the
mother laid down her weary body. and
closed her eyes. and ceased to breathe.
the heart-broken and lonely girl
drew more and more within herself.
and never went out upon the street
except to ecure her bundle of work
and return it to the shop, or to do her
pitifully small marketing. Clarissa
had never known any girlhood, with
its fun and frolic. She had jumped
from babyhood. almost. into worn.
weary womanhood, and now at 80 felt
and looked ten years older than she
really was. Gray hairs were beginning
to creep into her wealth of dark hair.
and the deep lines in the face and the
hollow dark-rimmed eyes told their
sad tale of life's burdens.
One bright ray of hope there was
amidst all the gloom. 1t had flashed
into the mind of Clarissa nearly a 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 a 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 o time to lin
ger. She must hurry back to her task
of plain sewing. for idle moments meant
less bread, and perhaps a shortage of
rent money and an obdurate landladv.
But she had in that brief pause before
that counter caught a 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 trifes. She want
ed to do something besides that monot-
onous plain stitching and button holing.
out she never seemed to get the time
from the daily tasks. Now, how
ever, a 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
lext Easter. The boldness of the
Thought made her tremble. But the
.dea would not down.
One day when passing the markets
she noticed a sign: Eggs, 60 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." floated before her vision.
Now, there Is not much connection be-
tween eggs at go 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
1t in her hands 1t struck her that 1t
was the exact shade of an eggs yolk.
Her deft fingers moved by the
thought soon had a puffy round bali
made which for all the world looked
Ike an eggs yolk. Why not make
he white Of the egg and have a fried