Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-12-21
A LETTER.

Ruth went on with her work. There
was less of it during the summer, but
there was also less money. The four
teachers gave up their little FLAT AS
they called the top floor they shared, and
went away for the two and a halt months
of school vacation. Being poorly PAID
and economical women, they did not
pay the rent on the rooms to hold them
Marketown had houses enough where
rooms might be had, so why wsste even
few dollarsf
Mrs O'Neil closed of the top floor TO
reduce the work. BY this time Mr.. . Mel
was comparatively helpless, most of this
time was spent in bed or in his wheel
chair--an expensive article that had to
be purchased
The people living in the place annoyed
him, but he did not say anything about
IT either tn his wife or his daughter. Dun
can O'Niel at last realized the financial
straits his family was in.
And on top of all this, the manager
who had lived in two of the lower rooms
decided to take house of this own. His
wife WAS to have baby, he explained.
and they felt, since the new store was
prosperous. that they could afford a
small home now and a maid TO look after
her
The avmcnts on the back taxes iapsed,
as there was nothing to meet them with
now, and Ruth, rs the hot days went on,
had all she could do to keep her face cheer
iul for her father.
If only | could have stayed on in
the city she told her mother once.
That position ! had offered me WASH t
much, but It would have led to something
else better. BY winter perhaps | would
4 Il. l., II \ nv
wnv. YOU wouldn't be any worse off with
out me. and If could have studied
Life WAS always an if TO the girl,
Half the money Mr.. Weed WAS sending
Myra would have kept her IN the city and
gwen her the training she wantedso much
and Myra was wasting it. Her singing
lessons were mostly an excuse to avoid
coming home.
Sometimes when she thought of MyTa,
who had everything and gave nothing
vnd Of herself who had nothing and who
wanted usly chance (only q chance to
work. her whole heart filled with bitter
ne ess She made no attempt to write to
Myra now The conventional thing
had been done. She had wished her hap
piness She had wished Tim happiness.
She had tried swfully hard during her stay
In Gaby's place with Myra, 10 get back
on tnh olu fUultllilN itotilles nbA ns1
and not through any fault of hers. So
abe did not answer the only letter Myra
sent. The story Of Myra's and Tim s
engagement had gone the rounds of
Abe town and had been forgotten. Ruth
was glad that her visit to her friend In
the oity had kept her name out of the
gossip.
I'm going out and hnd posi-
ton" she told her mother one morning
one time In July when things looked
especially black.
Her mother protested. but Ruth
dipped into her serge suit and her incest
waist and started out.
1t wns harder here at home where
she waA known. 1t was owning up to
suoh poverty The people she knew, the
girls abe had played with, did not work.
Socal hnes are never more tightly
drawn than IN . small town. For Ruth
- become An office worker was for her to
drop N the social scale. To so into the
factory meant TO so to the very bottom
rung Of the ladder. Everyone knew the
O'Niels were poor, they never tried 70 hide
that fact. Few people 10 Marketown
dressed handsomely, but one evidence
Of poverty was the hideous oheapness OF
everything Ruth or her mother wore
And the fact that the same thing appeared,
re-msde or washed, or dyed, wear after
year Marketown was apt TO gauge ones
worldly wealth by such things as heavily
embroidered linens, by the dozens Of
sheets, the amount Of cut glass. The . Niels
had none of these things.
No one commented much when Ruth
filled her house with roomers-but
now for her to 60 out and take "a job
Well that meant talk It meant that few
acouAintanoes would drop her mot that
she cared; it meant that little by little
the old friends would fall away, as thev
married and settled down In comfort
able homes, and took up frivolous amuse-