The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-02-16
side the FIRE with very loving smile.

~ Wdo tuC Audn WIZ SpOkC uCAt'
He was looking again at the tired
little hand plying the needle SO deftly.
"After this, Mary, you will not
have to darn, or mend, or"
The woman shook her head. "That
wouldn't do for me-" she answered.
II have grown SO used to work that
1 couldn't stop now. And it is not
hard work either" she added quickly.
"You never admitted that it was, I"
her husband retorted. "Even that
year when things went wrong and the
title one"
Ezra ~ the woman cried suddenly
-'if-perhaps, if it had come then
she wouldn't have died p
"Ah yes she would, Mary. It
was so ordained, you know !"
eyes they said that they all said
that. But they couldn't understand
how it felt to see her grow thinner
and paler every day that long winter,
with the doctor telling me the only
chance was to send her south where
she'd have the flowers, and the fruit,
and the sunshine. God knows I'd
have worked my fingers off to do it,
but times were hard for everyone that
year, and there didn't seem any way.
She died for want of the flowers and
the fruit and the sunshine p she end
ed brokenly.
"And she's been having them all
and more than all these thirty years. "
II know, Ezra, 1 know, and 1
wouldn't call her back if I could
she's better there. It's only the long
ing for her that comes to me and that
makes me talk that way. 1 suppose
every mother who has lost a little
child-an only child-knows that
pain but it's the feeling that I
couldn't give her what she needed
that's hardest to bear"
"Well, let us see what we are to do
with our money" he said cheerily.
II suppose you will have to work
little, if you want to. But, we can
buy new furniture. You said only
this morning how shabby everything
is. Then there will be real china on
the table, and silver spoons and forks
-and the things you always planned
to get. Don't you remember 7"
The woman looked around the bare
little room, at the two or three wooden
chairs that bore the imprint of long
service, at the carpet revealing, de-
spite its many patches, glimpses of the
floor beneath. How untiringly she
had worked and saved for it in the
early married years and how proud
and happy she had been when it first
lay resplendent in the little parlor,
and when the neighbors had praised
the bright red and green tints now
merged into dull brown.
She wondered if it could not be
darned yet more carefully.
Then she looked at the table which
was laid for the evening meal, ana
her eyes rested on the delf set which
had been a wedding gift. 1t was
sadly battered. with an edge out Of
both cups, and the handle of the tea
pot held in place by tightly wound
wire. She remembered that the child
had broken it long ago, and that the
father had mended it.
''I don't think I could give up the
old set," she said unsteadily. I'VE
could keep it, and look at it some
times, even if we had real china
one, couldn't we, dear 2"
The man did not answer. He was
looking at the old mended teapot and
the woman wondered if a child's half
frightened cry had come echoing to
him as it had to her across the years.
Ezra" she said hesitatingly,
"when you used to read to me of
some country away off you always
said: "When we are rich, we'll see
that for ourselves We can go now
if-if we like, Ezra
eyes, we can go now, if-if we
like" the other answered.
Then suddenly there was silence.
The half f-darned sock fell, unheeded,
to the floor, and the woman leaned
forward with clasped hands. Ezra p
she cried appealingly, do you think
if we're to go to heaven rich she'd
know us :"
'I always like to think, when I
pass through the big, white gate, that
she will come to meet me, holding out
her little arms. just as she used to,
and crying, Mother Mother !! and
that God will let her explain it all to
me, for 1 might be dazzled at first by
the gold and the crystal and the
brightness.
"But if we went there, with what
we couldn't give her here, perhaps
she mightn't know / was the same
mother who used to cut down her
own dresses to make little frocks out
of them, and who did without things
so that she'd have enough and then,
even there, I think my heart would
break"
Her voice trembled on the last
words, but her gaze was fixed on the
sunset sky, as if she saw some fair
land beyond it.
A big rough hand was laid, oh so
tenderly on her own, and the mans
voice was strangely husky. "Mary,
think, perhaps, we don't need
Eben's money after all - and when
she turned to him quickly, he added:
"There's Tom"
"Tom ?" she repeated question
ingly, "Tom?"
eyes Eben's only other relative;
the one who'd get it now, if we didn't
take it."
"Why, Ezra p but the other con-
tinued slowly. "He's just lad, but
he has been married year, and has a
little one to work for, too. From what
1 hear it's up hill work for them all
there in the city. Perhaps his wife
wants blue silk dress, and the baby
n ot,ouna ofo ord ho-ua11 he wants