Charlie's Plan.
Charles Somers was only an errand-
boy in a great West-end firm of art
upholsterers and decorative hangings—a
pale, big-eyed child, with brown hair,
drooping over his forehead, and a sensi-
tive little mouth, merely one of the bits
of human machinery which made the
great, glittering whole revolve so
smoothly.
At the shop nobody gave him a second
thought or a second look ; but here at
home he was “Charlie,” the youngest
and the pet. His chair in the window-
seat was kept sacred to him ; his little
shelf of books was undisturbed, and the
ugly little terrier-dog by the fire was
petted and caressed, and treated to occa-
sional bones, because it was ‘‘Charlie’s,””
For even errand-boys occasionally have
homes and mothers !
“Why don’t you eat your pie,Charlie?”’
said Mrs. Somers, watching the progress
of his supper with true maternal anxiety.
“1 baked it on purpose for you, and you
are letting it get cold.”
“Just wait a minute, mother,” said
Charlie, who had darted away from the
tacle, and was scratching away with a
lead-pencil on a bit of buff wrapping
paper. ‘‘One minute! There Elsie! I
thought I could carry the pattern in my
eye. What do you call that ?”’ triumph-
antly holding up the piece of paper.
Elsie Somers—a tall girl, who was
stitching away at a roll of pearl-white
flannel, carefully enveloped in old linen
~—leaned over to look at his trophy.
“Oh, how exquisite!” said
“Charlie, where did you such
pretty pattern ?”’
Charlie chuckled, and laying down
the paper cut deep into the turnover
apple pie, and rewarded himself with a
mouthful thereof.
“Could you embroider it, Elsie,” said
he, ‘‘in deep, deep blue—almost black—
on an olive-satin ground, or old gold ?”’
“Could I?” said Elsie. ‘*Of course
I could. But what does all this mean ?
‘What are you talking about, Charlie ?"’
“Just this,’ said Charlie, swallowing
a second mouthful of apple pie.
she
get a
hundred and forty.”
“Charlie,’
crazy 7?"
“Not a bit !I'’ nodded Charlie,
cried Elsie, ‘‘are you
ii Now
I came in, because the rent was over-
due and the landlord was insolent ; and
1 was wishing I was big enough to pitch
the fellow down stairs, or to earn enough
to settle with him, and move our traps
somewhere else, Now here's the way
to earn two hundred and forty shillings,
Twenty into that goes twelve times,
don’t it? That's twelve pounds. Say
half of it clear profit.”
“ Charlie.” said Mrs. Somers,
think you must be dreaming.’
“No, I'm not,” said Charlie, chasing
“1
turnover around the plate, with evi-
dent relish, before he pushed it back.
“Only hear me out. There was a
lady customer at our shop to-day, Mrs,
Vivyan, of Lowndes Square, looking at
that very pattern of curtain—light blue
flower-de-luce,
blue vine-leaves, on old gold satin, for
four windows. Hand-embroidered, Mr.
Sellers said--imported from Paris,
And she would have taken it at ten
shillings a yard, only Lady Southwood
had just ordered it for her boudoir,
At least that was what Sellers said,
And couldn’t it be matched ? Mrs,
Vivyan wanted to know. And Sellers
said, no, not possible. Now, Elsie, if
you'll embroider the design from these
seribblings of mine—I'll go to Mrs,
Vivyan and sell it for you.”
“ Oh, Charlie!” cried Elsie, with a
gasp at the comprehensiveness of the
idea. ** But where on earth should we
get the material twenty-four yards of
satin 7”
“Get the Old Miser to lend it to
ou,” said Charlie, succinctly.
Elsie shrank back,
“1 couldn’t ask him,’’ said she,
“Then I will,” said Charlie, ‘*if you
try the experiment, Elsie, Come
nothing ventured, nothing won. Say
yes."
‘Yes,’ whispered Elsie,
And away scampered Charlie, to un-
fold his schemes to an old wood-en-
graver who lived in the top story of
the house, and who, having been
pursed through a tedious attack of
inflammatory rheumatism by Mis,
Somers and her daughter, was popu-
larly supposed to care somewhat more
for them than for the other lodgers.
He was old, and he was shabby, and
he had a small accouut at the savings-
bank, which three facts had won him
the appellation throughout the tene-
ment house of the Old Miser, but his
real name was Jenkins,
“fend you five pounds, eh ?"’ said
Mr. Jenkins, looking up at the lad
Surough his goggles like a huge speci-
n of the lobster tribe, * Humph |
nh a pretty cool request, ain't it ?
What should I lend you five pounds
for
* Because we need it,”’ Charlie ans-
‘* And because Elsie
and mamma are so—so poor! And
because?
' + Because,” said Mr,
ly, *‘they were good to me when 1 was
sick and alone. That’s the best reason
of all. Well, what are you going to do
with the five pounds ?"’
“S8peculate, sir,’ said Charlie,
ly.
And then he explained his ideas.
“There are the germs of an enter-
prising business man about you, young
fellow,”’ said Mr. Jenkins. “Yes, I'll
lend you the money—or, rather, I'll
lend it to your sister.” :
* * * #* #
Jenkins, quiets
brave-
Mrs, Vivyan was sitting in her bon-
doir, writing cards of invitation to a
musical party, wherewith she was in-
tending doubly to enchant the senses to
an especially favored few, when the
blue-ribboned maid showed in a little
lad, with a bundle under his arm,
“He would insist upon seeing your-
self, ma'am,” said Matilda, the maid.
“Would vou be so good as to look at
these curtains, ma'am,” said Charlie,
without allowing the grand lady time
to express any at his appear-
ance. ‘‘Its the wild vine and flower-
de-luce pattern— peacock blue old
gold, you know."
And as he unfolded the glittering
fabric, exquisitely embroidered in the
pattern, Mrs, Vivyan uttered
an exclamation of delighted surprise.
“It's exquisite !”’ cried, ‘It's
superb! Even more beautiful than the
other. Did Mr. Sellers get it for me
after all, then? And how much
they ask for it ¥V’
“It’s ten shillings a yard,"
little “and there
four Enough for four win-
surprise
Of
artistic
she
do
said wise
Charlie, are twenty-
yards,
“I'll take them,”
promptly. Tell Mr, Sellers
“Please I don’t come from the shop,’
said the boy valiantly, “My
the curtains. I how
much vou were pleased with the pattern
last month, and I copied it as nearly
I could, and Elsie—that’s
worked it. And if you are suited with
it we shall be very glad, ma
Mrs, took off her
eye glasses and stared at the
said Mrs, Vivyan,
sister em-
Saw
as
my sister
‘am.’
Vivyan jewelled
bov.
“I never heard anything so extraordi-
nary in my life I” said she. “Do you
to tell that that exquisite
work was done by vour sister
me
here, in
this country 7?’
Charlie's face beamed with pride.
“Every stitch of it, ma'am,’ said he.
And he carried back with him the
rich lady's cheque for twelve pounds.
But this was not the end of it. The
next day a card came up—Mr., Vivyan’s
card, and Mr. Vivyvan himself followed
it, to Elsie’s secret dismay,
“If 1 could only have had time to
brush out my hair I’ thought the girl,
not knowing how lovely she looked in
the picturesque disorder of her fair, yel-
low tresses, as she sat at the everlasting
embroidery frame,
The gentleman his hat as
courteously as if she had been a princess
of the blood.
“Tam Mrs. Vi
raised
vyan's emissary,”’ he
said. ‘‘She wishes to order a banner-
screen to match the curtains, and she
hopes that you will undertake the com-
mission.’
“Gladly,”
eyes,
cried Elsie with sparkling
And the two sat down together to
design the pattern, as enthusiastic as
two children.
“He's the pleasantest gentleman 1
ever saw,’ said eager Elsie, when
Charlie asked her about the visitor
when he returned from the shop. “But
I thought you said that she wore eye-
glasses and a false front of hair, Char-
lie 77’
‘So she did,” said Charlie.
all ladies wear those wiggy
now-a-days,”
‘‘He must be a great deal younger
than she,” said Elsie, thoughtfully,
“Married her for her money, proba.
bly,” said Charlie, as he sat down to
his supper.
Elsie began her banner-screen the
next morning. Old Mr. Jenkins had
been repaid his loan with interest, the
landlord was paid, a score of petty
debts had been settled in various di-
rections, and still there remained a
little residue in the family treasury.
No wonder that the golden-haired girl
sung at her work.
Mr. Vivyan called the next day to
take Miss Somers to a ‘Needlework
Exhibition,” Where there was a device
of water-lily buds, something similar to
the flower-de-luce stalks,
Afterwards he bought a book of old
engravings, with illuminated borders,
for her to look at; and there was the
Rennaissance to discuss, and the grow-
ing pattern on the old gold satin to
criticise,
And one day Mrs, Vivyan herself
wrote a note to Elsie :
“1 want you to come and look at my
conservatory protieres,” she said, “They
are stiff and ugly, and I know that
you could remodel them. I have heard
so much of your artistic skill that 1 am
beginning to have great faith in you."
“But
concerns
gw
Wo ir
>
And Elsie entered the rich lady's
carriage, and was driven to Lowndes
Square. Mrs. Vivyan welcomed her
with the sweetest grace and cordiality.
“My dear,” she said, ‘I am glad to
see vou,’
Elsie glanced timidly at her, Oh,
how old and wrinkled she seemed, to be
his wife |
“SY our husband told me
Bad,
“My husband I’ repeated the elder
lady, “I have no husband, child. I
havebeena widow for fifteen years, It
isn’t possible that you mistook Herbert
for--my husband ! It isn’t possible, my
little shy beauty, that you are ignorant
that he loves you?’
Elsie turned first red, then pale ; she
might have fallen if her arm had not
been gently drawn through a stronger
one,
“Mother,”’ said Mr.
have spoken too abruptly,
is taken by surprise. ’’
“Well,” said Mrs, Vivyan, smiling,
“go and look: at the conservatory
I will wait for vou here.”
The end of it is easily to be
tured. Mrs, Somers’ pretty daughter
is queen of the Lowndes Square house
and a pretty country Kent,
and Mrs. Vivyan senior has subsided
into a graceful dowager.
Mrs, Somers toils no longer now,
little Charlie has exchanged the
ery of the shop for school.
And all this romance grew
tangle of flower-de-luce
wild vine-leaves !
So truth is oftentimes stranger than
fiction,
s
she be-
Vivyan, ‘‘you
Miss Somers
pro-
tieres,
conjec-
in
abode
and
of
and
out a
blossoms
-lw
Ina Russian Prison.
In the cells of the upper and
put the least
All the cells
ten feet long, seven feet broad and
twelve feet high.
two openings
tiers are compromised
criminals,
sie
The deors have each
one large
daily food and drink to be put in through
it and the other of smaller size,
hole for the The
are also each fastened
locks—the key of
jailer's custody, while ti
a8 Spy jailors,
with
being in
wat of the
of the
The dish
eats
one
remains in charge
of ti
the
grooves cut in a plate
1 fortress, from
prisoner is pushed throug
of
ts from the interior
at ht of about
the floor. The dish
be removed by
take
and this
tached to
iron whi
of
four
the
feet
therefore,
projec
t the heig
cannot,
the prisoner, who must
with
the
which
Ti ie
a Spoon
plate,
the door.
drink be must get down upon his knees
at
six
pivots. Food
o'clock in the morming
is supplied
and in
CONLIN
of
there
of
evening, and ordinarily
oatmeal gruel and a quarter a
gram of meat ; besides this
daily allowance of a Kilog
am rye
bread,
The prisoner’s bed consists of a plank,
by three, with a
&hest
impossible
1X straw
a gn strong and
to
CORSE
it
covering of felt—all
are taken away during
dress consists of a gray
quite short and tight-fitting : short pant-
. and long felt
boots. For women the jacket is sup-
plied, and a gray shirt added, The
prisoners must get up at six o'clock and
go to bed again at eight. It
ascertained, by means of the secret
observations which are constantly taken
through the peepholes, that, as a gene-
ral rule, the prisoners, spend their long
hours from their rising until their
breakfast in pacing to and fro in their
cells ; after this they are wont to re
main quiet for an hour or so, only to
give way next to an excess of desolate
despair which their pitiable situation
may well inspire.
is tear it, and
of which
the day.
woolen
a
jacket
aloons of the same color
has been
a
Queer German Decisions.
The highest court of Germany de-
cided a queer case in a queerer manner,
A butcher's wife obtained a divorce on
the ground of desertion. He appealed,
declaring that she had driven him from
home by injurious and defamatory ex-
pressions, and was, therefore, the really
guilty party. The court, however, non-
suited him, and held that, since “both
parties belonged to the lower classes,
where such expressions were common,
there was nothing defamatory in them.”
A Berlin saloon-keeper entertained
some guests after the legal hour for
closing. A policeman appeared among
the eomvives, when the publican ex
claimed : ‘Gentlemen, the policeman
got in through the window.” The
officer brought him up for defaming
him in the discharge of his duty, but
the policeman was acquitted. ‘‘The
intention of ridiculing the officer was
clear,” said the judge, but the expres
sion itself waa not wisely chosen, For,
since it would have been the duty of the
policeman to come in through the win-
dow, instead of through the back door,
as he actually did, ithe had had no other
means of the charge of the pub-
lican, though false, whs not defama-
tory."
§
that will
amuse.
© The only possible secrets between two
Something
are confided to either one of them by
others, While some people, who call
themselves worldly wise, will Taugh at
the idea of such perfect confidence as
this implies, others still, especially the
married, who have but small
worldly experience, will be shocked
that 1 should suggest the keeping of
any kind of secret by either wife or
husband from the other. I am not
prepared to say that these last are not
the wiser of the two. Ouly, in that
case, when any confidence is proffered
to either husband or wife, the recipient
of it should make
clearly understood.
Possibly
his or her position
there is a certain
either to dispense with the
trial
cynical
their weakness and
judgment, the
of 4 man or a wolnan
for them no tender toleration
loving Yet it
to submit
the cold
sideration
has
of
to
intimacy.
confidence while the world stands than
to receive a secret to keep when its cus-
tody would be a wound to one whose
first object,
husbands
happiness should be
wives
our
Some and some are
large-minded enough and free
from jealously not to be troubled by the
that a confidence has
in which they
and then there can hw
knowledge
bestowed cannot
a confidence,
eed
jut no personal secret can f
to one only of the two people of
and law have made one flesh,
who
ast praver at night
his
him, his lips were
wife, and when at last she
left dumb and
even
heart to God,
One frequent cause of trouble
of
husband
in mar-
ried life 1s a want openness in
¢ y i
matters, i MAITies
thhasnror hit ies ¥ i rn
, thoughtless girl has
who
ti
LAO
prety
*
ught
ab
than the
field. He begins by
hint, at care |
80 long as he can help it,
ing expenses—he does not like
associate himself in her mind with dis
appointments and self-denial.
been willing enough,
the sweet eagerness to please her
girlish love, to give up
whatever,
ans
own falls into
of careless extravagance,
at last,
much
a re
How
perfect
monsirance comes,
would have been OPETIness
We much
Now,
or thus ¥”
have just so money
shall we ar-
matters thus
jon I heard a very
ask his still younger bride not long
|
i
|
i
$
Scraps.
Aithreg year old little girl at Roches-
r, N. X., was taught to close her
during the temporary
absence of her father, with, ““and please
watch over my papa.” It sounded very
gweet but the “mother’s amusement
may be imagined when added,
“And you'd better keep an eve
mamma too!’
A Boston type-maker,
ally »dumps old type into his melting
kettle, has several times been scared
half out of his wits by violent explosions
in‘the molten fluid, and now, after in-
vestigation into the cause thereof, he
she
on
not to by any more pistol
into their old type.
cartridges
A celebrated vocalist,
or and acting
gainly
whose demean-
and un-
as his voice was beautiful,
day to
were as awkward
“Do
voice 80 mel-
one Charles. Bannister :
my
“No,” replied Bannister,
Why, then, when I was fifteen,
lowed by accident
“1. don’t think.”
“it would
I swal-
oil.”
Jannister,
some train
rejoined
have done you any harm if,
you had swallowed a
dancing master,’
“Why, Franky, I kuew
béfore to ask for preserves a second
time.” Franky didn’t
brother Tommy,
never you
, but
who was
say much
in-
the ways of bad bovs, spoke
with
face,
up, a guileless smile on his pure,
and said : ‘That's
the key he
That's why
because
made
he
al
lost to open
the pantry. never used
the
he
can’t open
preserves Supper
He
supper,
pantry.’
used to all wanted
but now
After Franky's
get
he
the father
and the stricken vouth was left alone in
the shed to repent of his erime, Tommy
as he sat down to
study his Sundav school lesson: “1
poor Franky is sorry
asked h for them.
better the next time.”
Dartmox
skeleton kevs
im He will know
Convicts at
y
ARE
am riate. Their ¢
nop
means reminds us of one of ti
ton leaves,
To get up adinmer of great variety
od a wide range.
Men take
their
who have monev to loan
greatest possible interest in
bnsiness,
had his
£2000.
A gentleman picture taken
cost him
A fel
the
and still he is
low took it out of the
latch was up.
t happy.
when
The reason
the story is that he cap stand for hours
to this demand upon it,
thing to be despised. though
i
she had * and
am
fed upon the roses
life.’ 1
speaking of marriages that are no mar-
lilies of
riages-—where
but
have
forge- marriages where two true
hearts together,
love's sake, to learn the lessons of life
and live together till death shall part
them, And one of the first lessons for
them to learn is to trust each other en-
tirely., The most frivolous girl of all
“The rosebud garden of girls,” if she
truly loves, acquires something of
womanliness from her love, and is ready
to plan and help make her small saeri-
fices for the general good. Try her
and you will seé,
But if you fail to tell her just how
much vou have, and just what portion
of it can be properly spent, antl whut
portion should be saved for the nest-egg
in which her interest is not less than
your own, then you cannot justly blame
her if she is careless and self-indulgent,
and wishes today to want to-morrow.
There are thousands of little courte-
sies, also, that should not be Jost sight
of in the cruel candor of marriage. The
secret of a great social success is to
wound no one’s self-love. The same
secret will go far toward making mar-
riage happy. Many a woman who
wotld consider it an unpardonable rude-
ness not to listen with an air of interest
to what a mere acquaintance is saying,
will have no less scruple in showing
her husband that his talk wearies ber.
Of course, the best thing is when talk
does not weary-—when two people are
so unified in taste that whatever inter.
ests the one is of equal interest to
other, but this cannot always be
sd out
tention to the one who depends on you
for his daily happiness than even to be-
stow this courtesy on the acquintumcs
whom it is a transient pleasure to
please ?— Lowise Chandler Moulton, in
Our Continent,
want to.
fact that
all centénarians are poor and have
t is an undeniable nearly
to agond old age, voung men, never
a IIIs
The Blood- -Stanching Weed,
During the French
informed
his
the
was
by A native that a plant in
was largely used in
grew
which
domestic surgery of the Mexicans,
he advised the General to lay in a stock
| of it for use in the French camp. It
goes by the name of “the blood-stanch-
ing weed''—the exact native word has
not been placed on record. This plant
has the property, when applied after
being chewed or crushed, of almost in-
stautly arresting the flow of blood from
a wound, General Martroy brought
home some specimens of this plant to
Frauee, and cultivated it in his garden
at Versailles, where it has thriven ex-
cellently eversinee, blossoms every year
and produces a sort of fruit. Mean-
while its transplantation to European
80il has not robbed it of the quality for
which it was originally recommended
to its introducer. Its recognized bo-
tanical name i8 Tradescantia erecla
Although it is quite the reverse of an
ornamental plant, and is not dis
tinguished by any beauty of shape or
color in its flowers, it fully deserves, if
we hay trust our informant, to be
widely cultivated on account of its rare
medical value, The practicability of
its acélimatization is now placed beyond
all doubt. Its effect in stanching bleed-
ing fs sid to surpass all means hitherto
binge: to this purpose, and it is in any
be procured cheaply and easily.
Fp {ments have been made with it in
Vienna, and the New Freie Presse, of
that city, adyises its regular cultivation
for metical, nse,
i MM IS
William Taylor tells of a young
wonderful flight of fancy : “Yes, my
friends, the mind of man is so expan-
ae
Pious Reflections.
“Bear ye one another's burdens,” was
the solemn admonition of Him who sub-
limely bore the burdens of the entire
world,
Preserve your conscience always soft
and sensitive, If but sin force
its way into that tender part of the
soul and dwell easy there, the road is
paved for a thousand iniquities,
Our lives should be like the days.
more beautiful in the evening, or like
the spring, aglow with promise, and
like autumn, rich with golden sheaves
good words and deed shave
one
ripened on the field,
“et love be without dissimnulation
It your profession of it be sincere and
Do not wear a mask,
while
in word,
deed and
not hypocritical,
You
“Love not
but in
another,
neither in tongue,
in truth,”
are
Men may not appreciate your labors,
but
faithfully
the divine
award, If
here.
do
witt
nor reward you for
may rest assured that labor
performed, with an eye to
your toil,
You
glory, shall not fail of its
it is not rewarded here, it wi be
after. Then be patient ;
duty, the
labor on ;
YOUur and leave result
(ron.
There are two sides to a question
but, where our feelings are concerned
we are apt to look at but one, and that
the that We
that others have also a right to
and they view the matter
an entirely different light, It is well to
consider both sides before
what is right,
They say that 1
cause my hair is silvered, az
one justifies wus, forget
thelr
Of
NNIOns, i
deciding
growing oid,
yd
am De-
there are
crows’ feet on my forehead, and m3
step is not so firm and elastic as before,
But That i not
but
we house |
are mistaken.
brow is wrinkled.
not This is tl
But I am young,
was before,
they
The
brow is
ne, Lhe
me,
live in.
1 ever
Tine LAasor
in the north of
upon
younger than
or Love.—A
Europe,
one of the arches o
century
ago, stood
an
id cathedral, f
which was a sculptured face of won-
drous beauty. It was long hidden un-
the light striking
slated window revealed its
And
upon the days when
hour it
came and
but a glimpse of that face It
had a strange history. When the ca.
thedral was being built, an old man,
broken with the -
came and besought the architect
work upon it. Out of pity
age, but fearful lest his failing
and trembling touch might ma
fair the
to work in the shadows
roof. One day
asleep in death,
til one day SUN'S
through a
after
{
features,
vear by vear,
brief
crowds
matchless ever
illumined
a was thus
waited eagerly to
catch
weight of years and
Care,
to let him
for his
sight
some master set hin
of the vaulted
they found the old man
the tools of his craft
in order beside him, the cunning of
his right hand gone, his face uptu
this marvelous face which he had
wrought-—the face of one whom he had
And
artists and sculptors and
workmen from all parts of the cathe
dral and looked upon that face
they said : “This is the grandest work
ofall! love wrought this!” In the
great cathedral of the ages—the temple
builded for an habitation of God
we shall learn some time that love's
work is the grandest of all.
design,
red
Oo
the
came
a
How to Spoil a Husband.
Henpeck him.
Snarl at him,
Find fault with him.
Keep an untidy house,
Humor him half to death,
Boss him out of his boots,
Always have the last word.
Be extra cross on wash-day !
Quarrel with him over trifles,
Never have meals ready in time.
Run bills without his knowledge.
Vow vengeance on all his relations,
Iet him sew the buttons on his
shirts,
Pay no attention to household ex-
penses,
Give as much as he can earn in a
month for a new bonnet.
Tell him as plainly as possible that
you married him for a Hving,
Raise a row if he dares to bow pleas.
antly to an old lady friend.
Provide any sort of pick-up meals for
him when you don’t expect strangers.
Get everything the woman next door
gets whether you can afford it or not.
Tell him the children inherit all their
mean traits of character from his side
of the family, :
Let it out sometimes when you are
vexed that you wished you had married
some other fellow that you used to go
with,
Give him to understand as soon as
EE an
enough paGHey lovers,
but that for married Tull t= very