The farmer and mechanic., 1911-02-28

80 romanee OF the domestic sort
Mary Jane Holmes exceiied. 1he great
popularity which her stories enJo5cu
when they were first published stiii
retains at least Il portion OF ITS vital
fty. as the well -thunibed volumes Oh
her works i'm the circulating Libraries
attest. Her pictures OF lie and So
ciety in the middle of the last cen
tury are most interesting. 1t was an
era when stoves and Oil lamps formed
part of the furnishings OF the nome Oh
the rich and when Saratoga held its
social head us high as Newport Inc
times IN which the story OF Dora
Deane is pla& ed were times OF great
prosperity in this country and no in
considerable degree of luxury. Yet
sOmetfiAg of the relative cost OF Nv
ing then and now may be CLEANED
from the fact that Mrs. Deanc COM
plains of the eNo1bitant price OF ten
dollars a week which she paid for
board at a fashionable watering place.
L n those days man with a hundred
thousand dollars was ''rich.' In char
az ter drawing OF however impossible
perfection and insi pid goodness. Miss
Holmes may make her heroes ana
heroine. her other creations are
strongly depicted, real and human. we
feel as if they were people we knew
and, have only to look around among
our Friends and acouaintanCes to pick
out those who might have sat for the
portraits drawn by the gifted Mary
Jane.
In small, low, scantily furnished
roOuI high up in a New York tene-
ment house poor little Dora peane
was watching bes de her dying moth
er, trying hard to keep back the tears
and trying vainly to keep al We the
scanty fire which was expiring from
lack Of fuel. Dora's father had died
in early manhood, leaving his wife
and daughter to battle with the hard
world, and the battle had been an
unequal one-Fanny Deane was dy
ing in the direst poverty. The
woman called her daughter to her
side and said:
You are like me and I am glad,
for maybe Sarah Will love you better
when she sees that you look like
one whom she once called sister
and should he ever return-your
Uncle Nathaniel she paused and her
mind went back to the Years long
ago--to the old yellow farmhouse on
the New England nills-to the gray
haired man who had adopted her
when she had been written father
less-to the dark-eyed ".rl, some
times kind and sometimes overbear-
in whom she had called sister.
thou~h there were no ties OF blood
between them. Then she thought of
the red house Just across the way
from her adopted fathers, and Of the
three brothers who lived there
Nathaniel. Richard and John. Very
softly she repeated the name of the
latter, seeming TO see him again as
he was on that day when. with the
wreath Of white apple blossoms upon
her brow. she sat on the mossy bank
and listened to his low-spoken words
of love.
Again she was out IN the pale star
light and heard the wind go moaning
~ntl <J,1
strange, eccentric. communicating
Nathaniel just returned from sea. told
her how madly he loved her and how
the knowledge that she was to be an
others would drive h m from his ia
therland forever-that in that burning
cline of India he would make gold
his idol, forgetting all else.
Then she recalled the angry scorn
with which her sister had heard of
her engagement to John, fore ng
upon the girl the knowledge that
Sarah herself loved him and recalled
how Sarah had. in fit of oique,
given her hand to the rather incom-
petent Richard. "But she will love
my Dora for Johns sake thought
Mrs. Deane-and then she told Dora
that she had already written to her
aunt, that the aunt would come and
take her home and also that she had
written to Nathaniel her uncle n
India. asking him to be kind to the
orphan.
The night fell. the scanty fire went
out and the freezing blasts Of winter
shook the crazy tenement. But to
the angels who were lowering near,
waiting to bear their sisters spirit
home. charge was given concern ne
the little girl so that she did not
freeze, though she sat there the live
long night with her arms around her
mother. When in the morning. peo-
pie came to the souald room they
found her in the sweet sleep of child
hood. while the mother by her side
sieDt the long eternal sleep Of death
It was a richly dressed lady and her
brother who came into the room and
found there the living and the dead
The charity Of the lady had been
solicited for the w dow Deane the day
before by a woman living in the same
tenement house with Dora and hel