Year: 1866




That Is a question I wish to put before


the public I have puzzled over it from
morning till night, have dreamed about it,


and grown thin upon it, and can find no
solution thereof.


Her name was Nina Blake, and she liv-
I ed among the hills No matter what
! hills. There are a great many in this
country unknown to fame, and she lived
among some of them She lived in a
! frame house, and there were plenty more
like it among these hills. The situation
was bleak, and the soil so poor that the
old men and small boys did all the farm
work, while the rest of the people worked
in the mines under the hills, or in the
factories of the dingy smoky town that
Law near them. These last were the aris-
toeracy, and they looked down upon the
miners, who were foreign" and low"
The people never carried their lives
about them like clogs" hard labor was
not a 'dull pain" to them, (unless they


were rheumatic); they did not look at
strangers with "pitiful, dumb animal
eyes :" they did not stalk about with
| hands upon their brOws and hearts, pres
sing down their miseries to keep them
lent. Nothing of the kind. For re-
lief to their physical miseTies they resort
ed to brakes Plantation Bitters, and as
a soother of mental miseries. opinions
were pretty equally divided between the
Bible and the tavern. They did not
''strive to work out the problem Of their
lives" for they had extremely vague
ideas in regard to problems, and life to
| them was a simple thing enough.


They got pretty fair wages, and ate, and
I drank. and slept, and talked politics, and
some said their prayers, and some did not,


and they all expected to go to Heaven
when they died. They shufHed along


through life, half-educated, and happy,
and sooty, and conceited, got married and


died. and that was the end Of them. Let
them go for it is clear that such unnatu-


raj specimens of the laboring class can be
| no manner of use in story.


/ Nina Blake worked in factory. She
was not in the habit of standing by the
/ looms, and thinking how they were crush
/ ing the beauty and swe6: mess out of her
/ life (she did not know what they were, she
/ was so stuDid) nor did she wonder if they
| were weaving the web Of her destiny )"
nor did she walk among the whirling
wheels with great thoughts whirling
/ through her dizzy brain. If she had
done these things her wages would have
| been docked and she knew it.


/ Neither did she live on fruit and cream
/ in summer, and in the winter on corn
cakes tinted with a delicate brown, and


spread with golden butter" The fruit
/ that grew on the hills was scraggy and
sour and the grass thin and poor, and
| half the year Nina saw no butter. Mush
and molasses, bacon, and brown bread
constituted her ordinary food.


/ When the war broke out, she did not
| urge her only brother to 60 and pack his
/ knapsack with smiling lips and fearful
eyes. Not she. For when at last he was
| drafted she hid him under the hay in a
| neighbor's barn, and when he was drag
ged out and marched off she nearly cried
| her ewes out. And, after his first battle,
when he was reported missing" she did
| not 20 into a state of melancholy and fan
/ cy him lying in lonely spot IN a faro #
| forest, with his musket rUstiDg at his side,
and the waters of brook ripping gently
over his feet. The picture that filed her
mental vision was a room IN Canada
! tavern, with the missing one seated at
a table, with other choice spirits, playing
/ the instructive game of poker, and with
/ still other choice spirits in junk bottles
! on the table And so she dried her eyes


and was content.


! 1t is plain enough, so far, that Nina
| was no heroine, and she was so far differ
| ent from any other factory girl who ever
lived and breathed-in boOks-that if
had not seen her last week, l should bt
. uLEDOS6u
| ist at all, but that l dreamed all that
am going to tell you.


One pleasant Sunday morning, some
| two or three summers ago, Nina went tC


church arrayed in her best. She wore {
blue dress not because 1t was the color
of truth. - and not because it was 'thC


outward symbol of the deep, and liquid


purity of the soul, nor for any other rea
| son of this kind, which factory girls al


ways have for wearing blue; but simply
because it costs ten cents less on yarC


than any other Of the nice goods at Pools


store. She also wore a straw bOnne


trimmed with green rosettes, a black sill


shawl, and pink kid gloves. This wa
Mina's idea of elegance. L know tina


working girls who have any claim to bt
heroines, have an intuitive perception o
what is refined and harmonious, and
grieyes me much to be compelled to ad


NIT that Nina had not.


have not been particular in describing
her dress, not that it has anything what


ever to do with the incident am abou


to relate, which would have happened al
the same whether she had worn baize, o


brOadcloth, but because a heroine's dres
is always described when anything is go
ing to happen to her.


Nina had a bright and attractive face


and looked pretty In spite of the conjunc


ton of pink, green, black and blue upol


her small person.


When she arrived at church, she foun,


nearly all the congregation assembled, bu
the service had not begun so after set
Ting her dress, and opening her fan, sh
, looked demurely round to see what wa


to be seen. And the first sight that me
her eyes so arrested her attention tina


she saw nothing more. Tom Hartie wa


looking at Kittie Smith A young mar
gazing at young girl is not wonder up


on earth, but this particular young maj


was Mina's property. They had been en-


gagged for some time, and until the Smith


came into the neighborhood he had beer


a very attentive lover. Kitty was thu


prettiest girl in all the country. She haC
red lips and pink cheeks, and great in
nnnanh hrnun avas and The lnvlieah nnl