The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-05-14
LITTLE SNOW GIRLS "A MEMORY

It is summer; and the town of the Pilgrim Faith
ers Boston in Lincolnshire, is bathed in mellow
LIGHT The narrow streets-those haunted streets
through which the catchpol officers, long poles in
hand used to hunt uekless fugitives who refused
conform including both Sober-clad Puritans and de-
voted sons of Peter-are quite bright today; the
golden glory lights up the sowly-flowing William,
and Wharves the Tower of st. Nicholas, and all
the other places dear to pilgrim hearts
Along one of the streets young woman and
q little girl with ripping curs. Both are plainly,
even poorly clad but the eye can see at once that
the mother is woman of culture and of refine
ment She is lovely, too, with rare and winning
ment She is lovely, too, with a rare and
winning loneliness, which appeals to magma
ton as well as sight Lila Girdwood often
looks sad, because her life is a hard one,
and she has many crosses to bear. Truth to
tell she had too many to carry, they have to be
dragged, as the Saint of Avila dragged hers in old
Spain; for behind her is a broken-up home in the
Nantucket of England. A careless and often cruel
husband. and the depressed vet haunting memory of
q lost love-of man who loved her, and whom
she loved. had loved from girlhood from whom the
iron bar Of circumstances had parted her. and as it
were driven her to become the wife of another
Of man who Is blind to her self-denial her sweet
ness. her talents-to all, indeed, save her rare
beauty.
Mother" said the child suddenly, this is the
toyshop where l saw the dollie's coffee service'
She draws her mother by the hand up to a toy
shop window, and together they look through the
panes at waxen ladies' nodding manda1ins, coaches,
trains. and doll S furniture.
"Look!" says JEANNE "There is the service !
Oh, aren t the tiny cups and the mugs lovelyl''
In Mrs Girdwood' s purse is shilling put by for
personal use. Her gloves are past mending; she is
hoping to buy decent pair. But the other hand,
JEANNE is so hopeful, has so few toys. The old
gloves viii last. She will expend the shilling on the
precious article and save another So she enters the
small Old-Word store and asks the clerk kindly to
the doll s coffee set for her little daughter
And then the pair walk on In the sunlight JEANNE s
slppered feet scarce touching the pavement
All at once the mother eyes caught and held
by large posters near the Guldhall 'FTonight Pro-
lessor Thorold will lecture The World and Its
Needs " The beautiful face pales to the lips. In
thought she leaves old Boston, is in Arcadia, in Nor
folk-in the Garden City," as Fuller quantity
styles Norwich She is girl In silk attire, with
rose-pink chapeau on her sunny hair. The bells of
the thirty-seven churches are ringing, and she is
coming down the steps of a house in the cathedral
close, and Arnold Thorold waits for her and greets
her with the one word, "Lila!' And the twain
walk together in paradise.
The scene shifts. He who ought to love and pro-
ect her Is doing hard and mereiless things is using
hard and cruel words. He sees her enbroidering,
making fancy and useful articles for private Gus
toners and for the window of the small general
store, which is the knife with which he essays to
carve fortune; and yet he can, he does, treat her
harshly Then she recalls the words of farewell
letter: Il shall always love you, Lila. If you are
ever sad or unhappy, come to me. :"
Yes she will learn where he is staying and will
go to him; will open her heart, tell him all, and be
Comforted. Even at the thought of seeing him once
again the fair face flushes like the red, red rose
She Is not Catholic, but some guardian angel is
per. She steals small hand into hers and says:
Mother, are you sorry? / love you!"
~ love you'll The words music to the tempt
ed woman. She kisses the sweet small face, turns
homeward and resolutely abstains from going near
The Gudhall until the man who loves her quits
Pilgrim Father Town"
The famous chimes Of st. Michaels calling
citizens to service in that old English city, which
some style La Vile Sonnante (The Ringing Tower
through the streets of this same city, before the
Great Eilage, went white friars and black-brown
lnars, and gray, in stately long professions, with
"me-1obed choristers chanting, and thurifer-bear-
ts sending up clouds of insenee to the clear blue
SKY Now ''Icabod' is written on despoiled tenn
pes and played converts. But still the Church
nods her own with firm and steady hand; there is
Inc Catholic church the "Rise" for the town
congregation, and st. Mary's Convent has temper
Sy chapel for the suburban one.
II IS Sunday morning, and Mass has been cele-
grated in the convent The chapel is empty for
nose WorShippers who have remained to pray and
give thanks Amongst them is Lila Girdwood, who
las been caught in the net of the Fisherman, and
s aas known strange happenings since she trod the
streets Of old Boston.
Fortune smiled on the Girdwoods for time and
outward prosperity came. But Jasper Girdwood's
orange, erratc temper, though kept under, still
mere, as his cruelty to the devoted woman who
" fortitude, self-denial and clever suggestions
.elped him up the ladder. When the all but top
~. most Of it was gained came the heaviest blow of
a. Jasper turned from his wife and children and
Wrecked the home
Lila and her dear ones live in dolls house, in
aaeer little narrow street, with field at the far
T%aQ but they are happy, for they are together
lue mother and her daughters are of faith. On
le parIor mantel-shelf stands statue of Our Lady