nt aa THE TASK OF LIF It is not death but life I fear! If all the other things were done, *T'were not so hard at last to hear The summons of the sunset gun. But all the chance, the seeming fate, Dull and unconscious, hold us back : &Vhin 1 have conquered these, T'1l wait In patience for the list attack. “SREPTY. BY JENNIE COLTON. The June sunshine poured gener- ously in at the wide doors of the Merritt ‘great barn,” and the large, cleanlyroom partitioned off for a car- riage-house was full of the breath of summer. Opposite the door stood the family “surrey,” wearing the drapery pro- vided for its hours of retirement, and in was a lofty pile sleighs, patterns and sizes. he same side as the door stood the frame of an old- fashioned and high in state before it was seated the mistress of the farm-h Many happy solitary hours Murs. Merritt spent one ¢orner Of of various Un t gaunt hand-loom, Hise, 3 $4 & She said, in o weave,”’ litative volce. was not merely was more for of love the weaving. It pleasant sights and summer weat leisure of life’safternoon, sounds I 1 il for the Kindly y er, and ) Slimmer as muen i { ful task belonged t an inate davs of as did the swaying of the daisies at the hum of the bees. In winter the but in the May, when by the foothpath, and the apple-t shed th last lingering bl soms, longi delightful task would awaken, bestir herself act up a "web The old | treasured linen, ‘‘three brothers E 1g 3 loom stood neglected 1 forgott the grass was already deep und gr had sl ir i the longing for the drea: Mrs. Merritt would inheritance, extends rland She had the ren of the men ently ¢ hold ar: conderog: her h themselves qu arisen why barn an fact that of oak 1her side beyond R wilderness. But if it was all righ ip 1 OOK mother’ pleased And Miss Sarepta Toker even was welcome b Lo Knitting-wor and tell married, fre whi was de yt he Nepash., marries the towns gave her a8 a purveyor of Sarepta possesse | sisters an cousins in county advantage She was a meagre little woman, who had never | credited with much alertness of mind or body. It added a little brightness to her existence even to look on from the outside the lif ing at *'t And in the interval when sat and knitted, to hindrance t Mrs. Merritt than gat, dozing Back and forth then followed batten. would the ratchet the fabric “How weavin’' | of w hind oy trv Wich an mune en Tiss Pied e and stir, the comin he Merritt place.’ her ey visible 16 Was no more placid musings would have been a in the sunshine. moved the shuttle, the dull stroke of the descend repty, rot “Mis” Mi don’t half do her'n, and Rosalia has said, time and she would't send any more rag but then she's kind er ’ It's hard along,’’ said children had been diffe “Your loom out of the SOIT for Mrs. Ww ould got kind o' erowded house, n't S'repty “The old furnitoor has got to go. Reminds me of what « Spencer Doolittle said when Square Lane fugled round an’ got him turned out of the gallery to the Baptis’ meetin'-house. He'd played the bass viol to lead the singin’ for forty years. ‘There ain't no room left for the stable foundations of order,’ sez he. ‘Folks mus’ keep underminin’, an’ counterminin’, an’ improvin',’ sez he.” *‘It was my notion having the loom set up out here,” said Mrs. Merritt, “‘He says it's ny amusement for sum- mer weather, that I have to have. just as the girls play croquet and tennis.”’ Another long, dreamy silence, ox- cept for the shut fe that went on and on, There was a sound of wheels, and all semblance of slumber fled from Barepta’s eyes as there appeared at the front gate a very shiny top- buggy. And when in a few moments a sie di it?’ said ‘ousin way, and Lois Merritt entered, no detail of her appearance was unob- served. The girl was tall, like her mother, with the same large, serious cast of countenance, “What awful little bunnits they be a-wearin’!’’ said Barepta, as if obeying an irresistible inner prompt- ing. Lois received placidly this im- plied criticism of her new summer complacently: ‘Lois don't mind | S'repty. Emma and Lucia ain't so even-tempered, They'd have flared up.'’ It required but little urging to in- | duce the visitor to stay untél after | ten. It had been one of the great | treats of Sarepta’s childhood to go | Lucinda. “1 don’t see mother,” said Emma Merritt, as with a sigh of relief she Sarepta’s departing foot- ry come here so much, It's just to see and hear, and then go and tell. And she doesn’t miss anything that’s go- [here isn't any harm in S’repty,’ said Mrs. Merritt. “I've always known her, and it kind ’o interests her to come here.” ‘She takes too much ffairs,”’ persisted Emma. she goes she 0 interest in my a **And everywh tells about ‘Si,’ and ‘Em,’ and ‘Lucindy,’ and so on as if we belonged to her.” “Never mind Emma Jane, ”’ her wer, enough in this S'repty, too.’ Xn are replied guess there's room world you and motl for mother, mother! you're too You make excuses for every. ody, and there's nobody you'd re- I do by ¢ve vou'd use to speak to. i illar, if you with a hought it would be pleased.’ absurd ¢ day as Mrs. state at her the window cater] This seemingly oniecture wv # A was veri ne Merrit ti caterpillar, as became int green mot shuttle lay id es Mrs. Merritt watched alked soft woul and even t All lishness to | present. Her mind structed on tor she reserved this a CUDDY 8 view space bes de r was above her hes itrusively busy sed new r been surveyed growed track. Mrs. Merritt assented An’ to : reechin up big i § the il be easier said Mra. Merritt Pd g to rush it through. But the emigrants will them Eyetalians, “*An’ under your they'll be cookin livin’ on black bread Even this mixed statement, hinting at cannibalistic tendencies part of the workmen, did not to shake the placid nerves of Mrs. Merritt, “You're making a good, workman. like job of that tear,”” she said Kindly. ‘‘There’s very few can beat you at mending, S8'repty.’’ S'repty drew her thread with a steadier hand, She was used to less disinterested compliments than this; | hints pointing directly to great bas- | kets full of tattered garments which | had accumulated ready for her! in they say they 7’ ve be 3 have to «nid will the shanties be an’ there nose. themselves, an’ on the wooem “Mother,”” said Lois Merritt one morning some days later, ‘here is Bradford Toker. He says S'repty is very sick and wants to see you." “Yessum,’”' put in a small boy at the door, ‘'S’repty says, if you soon’s you ean.” ‘How long has 8’repty been com. plaining?”’ inquired Mrs. Merritt, “Oh, most a week—an’ las’ night we was kep' up with her "bout all the forepart of the night,” said the small boy with a careworn air. Bhe was out of "er head, an’, took on pretty bad.” “I'll go over to your house as soon as I can,” said Mra. Merritt, to the sick-room. on about bein’ took up, an’ about she couldn’t git up. school, an’ that most killed him. But he's a great hand to read, Bradford Argus upstairs an’ read it through to S'repty, advertisements and all, Somethin’ in it seemed to excite her and begun to act then, he thought. all know that the intellex of S'reply mind ain't over keen at she But of course we the best of times, an’ havin’ so much read to her right out kind’er dazed her.” It was a very pale, drawn face which Mrs. Merritt encountered a moment of the supposed victim learning but there was in 0 later, ~—that of too much gave them more than usual, S’'repty said but that in very feeble tones, until ther a call from below which sister-in-law was obliged to heed Then the invalid started promptly g posture and drew under her pillow a newspaper d to Mrs. Merritt rid to expression little, and came her tr tiny into sittin she hands Bradfor dress wuss’ n "twas before de » CArs came along snfession arial to the strawh PIMA S was ‘round an’ + was 3 Hee hed to risk hard it would up, but 1 how good you'd allus ben tried a thinkin’ I heerd somebody an’ I got in springy pla ¥ the Lloyd lo my drees how ideo them sticks t 2 tO come home shorter erin in wet that an’ got ’ to o 4 t an’ my shoes, gaid the loyalty. have so ible on my account! Ihe 4 have acted real fair by wouldn't say anything it yet for you know how every- thing goes, but we expect to move in the fall.” ‘You don’t say!’ exclaimed Srepty with considerable animation. “Yes, he's been thinking for a long time the place is too large for him to carry on, seein’ the boys ain't ever going to take to farmin’. And the creamery folks want it, and he had a good chance to buy the Ford place at the Center.”’ "What! the house with the pillars thing you!” ill-starred should this hat vou Foy #Iiron us, revived, “Yes, and so I gave my consent, It's home to me where my folks are. The girls urged suppose, if nothing happens, Emma will live right next door to us—"’ “What, has Emma Jane an’ John Kilborn made up?’’ queried 8'repty, forgetting her feebleness and sitting up. “Yes, and I suppose thers will have to be a double wedding,’ said Mrs. Merritt. “Well, I never!” said 8'repty. Lois ain't goin’ to be married, too?” “The girls wouldn't thank me for telling, but you won't mention it, That's the pian now.” “When you move, I can’t go an’ set with you an’ see you weave, even if § & sighed **Oh, he gays there's room enough we get moved, I want you to come and muke me a good visit,"’ The invalid brightened again, ‘““Hain’t you told anybody you was goin’ to move? Not Mis’ Peters, nor Yiny Smith?” “Not yet” Mrs. Merritt, Sarepta breathed a sigh of content. “An' I know Rosalia ain't lieerd it,”! she said,— Romance, said # Oi PROPOSED BY TELEPHONE. es m— A Hardware Drummer Gots Ahead of His Rival, An event has occurred in Michigan, near Detroit, which firm the idea that c« things appears to cone 1p, as well hereafter facilitated by recent in- It seems that there is young lady residing in Detroit ROI urtsl as most other will atly he 3 ventions Fre time has been the recipient two y the State ni r attentions of » a professor in t Ann Arbor and i salesman 10 Dung men af the 1 Y Ors hago WiIlO8(« for a New hardware house O INRKe gardware d ry i PRA H. ppearance there was a long heard her reply id ring i ) inger, and returned Miss ’ mir very imj F x1 will said the 1 I want t quest 100) utes later, ortant me for putt you be my w further wi inter the i f § p ront gle % Hse BE is fe? th 1} ani £20 no His utes the 4 { irofessor wer } and shook the train for Ann elephone wire, and ti Arbor. = Har Adoption Among Birds. Modern regenr o] doubtedly ‘ends to place tl of bird life on a higher and hig level, Even the cuckoo whom so much has been wri now acknowledged to have been mae ligned when it was universally af- firmed by ornithologists that it dis. plays in its tenderest stage of devel- opment the odious faculty of ejecting its lawful occupants from the stolen nest in which it has been placed. The Bishop of Newcastle, has now made himself responsible for a touch. Not jong ago, says Dr. Wilberforce, there was a Frenchman who had a large family dware, scientific he one to look after his children, While noticed two nests in a hedge close by each other, Each contained half. fledged birds, whose parents were ly. ing dead. He went away sad, think. ing that the young birds must die. What was his surprise, however, a few days after, to see them quite happy and apparently well fed, He stood apart and watched, and pres. ently he saw the parent birds of other nests come to the young birds and feed them. They had adopted the little orphans, a fact which the Frenchman naturally took as a good omen with regard to his awn little ones. —{ London News. i 1 : NOTES AND COMMENTS. AT the Hyglenie Congress just held in Budapest the fact was brought to light that stammering is far more common among men than among women, the proportion of male to fe male stammerers being almost four to one. The New York Tribune fa- cetiously observes that ** This is not surprising, for impediment of speech ig rare among women,'’ JINE Mrs. Milne, an actress, in a book on her Eastern travels, says that the Burmese women are as graceful us the women of Japan; as gentle, as lovable, as the women of Denmark: aus vivacious as the women®of France : swomen of Ameri the women * Bay no more us capable as th and as femis England at their best, 0, Of Hine as i y 1 does the next steam- and what is 1 "? Lil NOW 5¢ v i : S§ 199 (v4 AVC 102 4 SE tHE (HN) siow salutary How a Chi he h moon CPATHMANN Ho astron- discovered on the In looking won through his telescope night | of vivid The s; ays, ped much liken &p ying riy and westerly direction, and about forty by extent, or about four times the of Tycho. 1 made accurate calculations either its size or its exact position on the lunar surface that evening, and the next night when 1 attempted more claborate investigation it had disappeared. 1 have not seen it since. To my mind the green spot could have been caused by nothing believes as » Raw a yr i of he i 8y i ~ Was 3 : Ii, in an estimated, in size was, | seventy miles no velopment—pethaps grass, perhaps forests. That it has not since been on earth, familiar to the moon.” Tue Westminster Gazette prints the report of the labor correspondent of the London Board of Trade on the strikes and lockouts of 1892 in Great Britain. The total number was 692, OF these 345 were settled either by mutual conciliation or by mediation and 18 by arbitration. The remain. der were lost by the workingmen. It will, of course, be remembered, says the Indianapolis Sentinel, that conciliation and mediation are pro. liminaries to compulsory arbitration as proposed by all intelligent advo. cates of that system. Notwithatand. | settlement of so large a number of | these strikes, the cost of the remain- {der wae very heavy. The weekly loss of wages is estimated at about $2. $00. 000. The loss on of capital is placed at $95,000 000 The cont of restarting works and resisting strikes estimnted at $1,100 000 ihr known amount of aid voted hy claer unions is $500,000, but this is only a the ji 186 small proportion of wid netu furnished. ally kable dig Ix the midst of an for invention there covered put to must surely ciated by every navigator, urs the age rems has. been arid practical use a appre- or many 1¢ mari- the determin bu Cane 1h device which sextant has been ation } yee 4 4 4 ongitude A hie ted the sea at The Starch Plant. The White and Black Cross Fish. 1 3 and Japan have long where rare and anims 3 AR Janas th vegetabid I don’t 1 fresh waters rarest specimens of countries he he two ig the one known to the Japs by a term signifying of black It is a pink-colored h (belonging tothe g iv), about four inches long, and y simost transparent, with the exception of a jet black eross ex- tending down the back, with side arms pointing down and outward toward the Jateral fins. The ‘‘white cross’ appears to be but a variety of the above described species, resem- bling it in general outline of form. In this variety the skin is of a more decided red and the tail broader and more flattened. It takes its common name from the fact that both sides are marked with perfect figures of white crosses, —{ Chicago Herald ‘the fish the aildl goldish fam! Boys Co-Operate in Farming. ** An instance of successful co-op erative farming came within my knowledge this summer,” said C. R. “Ten boys, ranging from twelve to eighteen years of age, made a vompact to farm forty acres. They rented the land near Chicago and went to work with a will. Each week a boy was chosen to have charge, and every one of the others was bound to obey him in everything. In thisway each one was boss for a part of the time, and there were no clashes. They raised eatly truck, and have al- ready cleared enough to them handsomely, in spite of its being a dry year. Expenses and receipts are equally divided, and if one shows a disposition to shirk his work, he is ducked under a pump, and two of them have had Se a that | Sayre. way. (Cincinnati Enquirer, wi
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers