The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-11-16
"L1zE"-A STORY OF A CRIPPLE.

/ 11uut 4fiZCe <1S tuG tap, TOP Va hSA
crutches and the sound of her merry
laugh even the peevish millionaire's S
wife in the west suite frightened up
for few minutes.
"It's only good morning can say
to you to-day, dearie," Aunt Liz
would call out to her. 81 must hur-
ry downstairs to those precious chill
dren p
Even the lordly elevator boy waited
for her and helped her out at the next
floor. Into the children's ward she
would turn, inquiring anxiously
whether the babies had been bathed
yet. She was happy indeed when she
arrived in time to assist in bathing
them.
''Oh, the pink skins of them, and
the solemn eyes of them, like bits of
heaven shining through Do you
know" she would confide to the
nurse, "I'm thinking they're know
| ing more than we do. And why not? ?
It's only little while ago that they
left the place above and / think the
good God lets them remember it all
for while.'
As anxious as any mother was she
at the weekly weighing of each babe.
"You can't stop the young rogues, /"
she would cry. They'll grow in
spite Of your"
Then she would hobble otto make
the rest of her rounds, for she was as
faithful as any house doctor with her
morning calls. A carnation would
bloom from beneath her knit shawl for
the old deaf man in the end bed. An
orange would go to another old
woman.
"Tut, tut" she would say to stop
their thanks. 81 am giving all these
things because people know that /
know how to distribute them better
than they do"
To homesick girl she would whis-
per: 'I've fine love story upstairs
that I'll bring down to you. It'll
make you forget yourself for a few
hours.
"Poor young thing !" she would
murmur to herself. $50 young to
have the bloom of youth squeezed out
of her 10
None could give richer sympathy
to the suffering young than Aunt
Lie, fer, indeed, her own youth had
been squeezed out with an injury that
had bent her back and made her limbs
shriveled and useless. "But haven't
I two eyes of me left and my two
hands?' she would demonstrate with
those who attempted to condole with
her. "Fiddlesticks, child Give
your sympathy to the unfortunates
who need itp'
Her visits must all be made by 10
o'clock, for then an orderly would
come to wheel her into an operating
room where for an hour she would
bear torments that are given few to
know. For the rest of the day she
would have to lie motionless in her
bed, the blood gone from her wrinkled
cheeks and her eyes closed with pain.
However, by late afternoon the iu-
domitable spirit would conquer and
Aunt Lie would be at work, propped
up in bed. She mended socks for the
young internes.
Poor young things II she con6ded
to visitor. "Twas a pity to see
them all run down at the heels and
their mothers miles away. These
laundries do wear holes in things and
you wouldn't have to throw their
clothes away for the sake of few
small holes-not when Aunt Lie
can mend them !"
Surreptitiously she was embroider-
| ing pair of cuffs for the probation
nurse on that floor. 1t was char
acteristic of Aunt Lie that she should
spend her spare moments preparing a
surprise gift for the one individual in
the hospital who ever said sharp things
to her.
Soshc went throughthe days, cheer
ing, encouraging, loving, mothering
the whole institution. Even the am
bulance horses had neat straw hats
that she had made for hot summer
days.
Finally the time came when the
surgeons said they had done all they
could for her and that she might &c
home. Home meant to her only the
one room In which she lived among
strangers-beloved, no doubt, but
alone. Only then did her courage
fail She had filled her place so COM
rletely in the hospital, she had been
so appreciated, that the thought ol
leaving it all and going back to her
former colorless existence was too
much for her.
"Oh, the little ones," she moaued.
st could leave all but them | al.
ways longed for one of my own,
though knew it wasn't for such as
IL! Sometimes I've thought If | only
had little more money-only little
more-I' d take some motherless baby.
But there's just enough for one and
and 1 couldn't bring poverty on a
helpless child"
A nurse repeated Aunt Lies
words to her surgeon. Whether he
carried them to the west suite or
or whether they remained with him
no one knows. The next day legal
looking envelope came for Miss Eliza
Brown-our Aunt Lie. Itannounc-
ed that sum of money had been de-
posted with the law firm whose name
headed the paper, to be kept in trust
and the income to be paid monthly tc
her or her heirs forever. The
name of the donor was not given, but
the paper said that this was done as
small return for the sunshine scatter.
ed by heroine, not of an hour, but
of every day, too genuine to be con
scious of her heroism.
Aunt Lie did not question the
document for a moment. She imme'
q 4. -