Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1906-05-10
THE eRAYToN HOSPITALITY.
Il Did Not Cease When Their
Wealth Was Taken from Them.

Wealth Was Taken from Them.
'"That must be Emmeline Brayton's
funeral" said the elder sister. peer
ing through the misty window and
glasses that grew suddenly mister.
my, but It's long one! Adelaide,
you must remember Emmy Brayton?
| She was in the class above us, but"
| Adelaide, who had just returned to
her native place after an absence Of
many years, nodded and Joined her Sis
ter at the window.
| "Of course l remember Emmy. She
was always treating us younger ones
Once she got us all on the kitchen
porch and brought ont two great pans
of sugar gingerbread, hot from the
cook scolded, but her mother just
laughed, and when l came home and
told about it, grandmother said that
was tho Braytons all over. and that
there never was limit to the Brayton
hospitality. Seems to me, Anna, I
heard they had lost their property. 1t
must have been hard for people of that
kind, used to doing SO much for every
body. to have nothing left to do with"
"The question is where something
ends and nothing begins answered
Miss Adams, blowing on her glasses
and scrubbing them. "They did lose
their property. but they never stopped
being hospitable. They were only more
and more simple in their ways Of show
ing it. Their house was the center Of
things long after everybody they knew
was better Off than they.
But ut last, when marriages and
deaths had broken up the family till
only Emmy was left, and she had to
move way out where you had ride a
half-hour by trolley and walk. down a
long lane all full Of tin cans and sooty
snow drifts, 1t did make a difference.
She was an invalid then, too, pretty
nearly. and couldn't get about herself ;
and although her friends didn't forget
her. they couldn't get to her often. and
II Emmy had been anybody but Emmy,
she might have been miserably lonely
and forlorn.
But she was Emmy and the Bray
ton characteristics were as strong as
ever. Her shabby little cheap cottage
was on the edge of marshy pond.
and the Polish boys and girls. big and
little, from the new factory settlement
on the farther side used to come there
to skate
Zone day she beckoned In a boy who
was struggling with broken strap and
told him she would be glad II he and
his friends or any Of the skaters would
come in and get warm whenever they
liked. They were too shy to respond.
till one day n crowd Of them hurried
in with a scared little fellow who had
broken through the ice, and after that
they fell into the way of coming-and
there was Emmeline provided with q
new social circle, and headquarters In
her own kitchen.
"Those warm-hearted boys and girls
grew fairly to worship her, and would
talk to her as eagerly Of Stanislava
and Casmir, Ladislas and Falka as If
they belonged to families she had been
friends with all her life.
| you see, 1t was the Brayton hospi.
tally; nothing left to offer but good.
will and a kitchen fire, but she had of.
fered those"
poor Emmy" sighed Adelaide.
| mo, not poor Emmy" responded
Anna, setting back her glasses firmly
and blinking fiercely behind them
"'Dear' Emmy, II you will, but not
poor Emmeline Brayton was hap.
py woman-happy to the very last
Youths Companion.