Year: 1878

If he cannot love me when he hears
I am poor snop giri, ne cauIoe. ~.
me at all.


All very well in theory, but very
poor in practice. | fold up Fred Lang
ley's offer of marriage, and sit down 10
write TO him that, before he makes any
further plans with me Jor this end, he
must know that I'm one of those SUI
perilnous beings, a girl who came into
This world with no place prepared for
her; that have clerked al Sharp &
Sniper's ever since | was seventeen
and | am now twenty-three; that |
have two young sisters depending on
me for support, growing up in gawky,
lll-clad ugliness, q shade palmer than
myself even.


Some way. when first met him at
that pleasant summer resort, the first
breath | had out of Sharp Il Sniper's
store for over two years, was SO hap
pv | forgot 10 mention the scrubblng
life had left behind me at home, and
was sick of poverty and third-rate
people. .-....


How should he, being D,an, know
the dress wore had been turned twice.
that trimmed my bonnet myself that
the diamond ring l wore had borrow
ed from my sister, being the unvalued
relic of some forgotten lover of hers
that the beauty he said that was in nv
face was due to the happiness in his
society: For | do think the old say
ing. Be good and you will be happy,
ought To be preserved.


How did he know that charming
ndirete Of mine was learned trying to
induce customers 10 buy.


Old Sniper always says when he ex-
poets to sell a large bill of goods to a
customer Let Miss 10 manage him !;
she can smile the dollars out of his
pockets, if anv one can.


So smile and smile yet am no
villain. for they are enforced and inn
pudent smiles for bread and butter.


How round and rosy grew in those
few weeks of ecstatic joy What walks
and rides we had up and down the ra-
vines! What charming sails through
the dells, through Witch's Gulch, about
Devils Elbow


How brilliant and agreeable and how
handsome my Fred was Dare | call
him my Fred before be knows that l
am clerk at Sharp 4 Snipers!
l am no strong minded woman.
frankly confess that do not like 70
take care of myself. am no olinging
vine, however, never had anything TO
cling to. ! have grown up stiff and
straight all by myself, like weed in
the middle Of bare ten acre lot.


Perhaps l will not make such a bad
wife, after all. i am q good house
keeper, and having been no trouble or
expense 10 any one since can remem-
ber, l do not see why should be so
very much trouble now, even with my
two sisters thrown in for ballast. Still
Fred must know all about the poverty
and membranes, and make up his
mind accordingly. So waste a great
many sheets of paper writing Jan an
swer that shall be frank and truthful
aud yet ladylike.


l inform him IN my most genteei
manner, that he must marry three when
he leads me to the altar.


l send it off in a pink envelope, my
heart beating painful tattoo, as !
think of his elegant sister he has de-
scribed to me, and he member of the
Legislature.


1 pieced down my sister Sophia's
one summer silk for her, that bought
at such bargain. thinking peradven.
ture there might be wedding soon.
do not scold May when she comes
home late from the picnic with my besl
sash drenched and soaked through, my
lace fichu torn, and her toes through
both her boots, and creeps into the bee
beside me. l hng her in my arms in