Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1907-02-14

Jack can lone from school to his faith
er's funeral, and he never went back again.
He and his mother had to make a fight for
life. The mothers friends did. n little for
her. and she managed to get a little house
city clerks and so to make both ends bread
and cheese. Jack. thanks to the same peO-
pieU.,peopie who had known the smedieys
to obtain a situation in the office OF a stock
broker. He was really only a superior err
rand boy at first. but he was paid ten
shillings a week. and that was a wonderful
help to the widow in her struggles with the
landlord and. the rate collector, not to men,
ton the baker and the butcher.
Jack was q handsome boy and an amiable
boy. He had been a favorite at school, and
he was soon a favorite with his employers.
He was quick, bright and industrious, and al
the Office two years he was a clerk and had
SIS a year. and when he was twenty-one
he was a superior clerk and had $50.
1t was just when he came OF age that
his mother died. and then Jack having
wound up her little estate. went into lodg-
ings. and started. in the elegant phrase of
the period, entirely on his own hook
Fortunately for young S%mcdley, before his
independence. his loneliness. his handsome
into the dangerous BY paths Of London life,
pretty young lady who lodged with her
iaaH. Her en- t pspn n0h had b Gose a hf lieutenant SaS in a
the navy. He had died of malarial fever
in some dreadful foreign seaport. and left
MS WlIe ana Ittle UduHnttT ABOUT 1lOO u
year. Mrs, Leacroft liked the handsome
young stockbroker they called Jack very
much indeed: He was a ge%n,leman' and
croft thought a great deal of family. Peo-
pie who come down in the world generally
do. 1t is a great consolation to them in
their poverty to know that no shabbiness,
no short IN no indignity on the part
Of landlords or tradespeople can rob them
of their birthright. They may be poor. but
they are well born" Their clothes may
be the worse for wear. they may ride in
omnlbuses, and they may not always have
butchers meat for dinner, but still they are
When Mrs. Leacroft found that Jack
Smedley was "A real" gentleman, she smiled
upon him and was gracious, and she dis
covered that her people had in some
years gone by known some of his people"
and she was able to tell him whom his
great aunts married and what relation he
occasionally figured in the list of presenta-
lions to Her Majesty and among the guests
at the balls and receptions Of the season.
And when Jack and Rose discovered that
they were in love with each other, Mrs.
Lracroft was glad. Mr.. smedIey was a ris-
ing young man He was sure to- attain a
ness man he was 1.-The scion OF a county
family"
p 1t was not a very long courtship. Six
months after they were engaged Jack and
Rose were married, and they took a tiny
little house in the Candle road and had
one little maid -of-all-work and were very
economical, for they had determined to save
all they could and never, never to get into
debt or to launch out beyond their means.
1t was a happy little home, ana it IL, grew grew
had a big grown-up servant, and the little
drawing room began to MI with elegant
nick nacks. and Rose had %prettier and more
est little dinner parties and take their holi-
day comfortably at the seaside, not in lodg-
ings. but at the best hotel.
Then they moved to a bigger house and
had stalls at the theaters aud at the opera,