Mary E. Wilkins

“ There was a light in the parlor of the opposite house; the Nottingham-lace curtains showed finely their pattern of leaves and flowers. Marg'ret eyed them. "'Tain't no use my tryin' to git up a notch," she muttered. "'Tain't no use for some folks. They ain't worked no harder than I have; Louisa Ely ain't never begun to work so hard; but they can have lace curtains an' Christmas trees." ”

“ She stood eying it. Suddenly she began to cry. "Oh, dear!" she groaned; "I can't There don't anything do any good—the lace curtains, nor payin' for 'em, nor nothin'. I dun know what I shall do."
She looked at the clock. It was about nine. "He won't be gone yet," said she. She stood motionless, thinking. "If I'm goin' to-night, I've got to," she muttered. Still she did not start for a while longer. When she did, there was no more hesitation. No argument could have stopped Marg'ret Poole, in her old hood and shawl, pushing up the road, fairly started on her line of duty. ”

“ Now the daughter was dead, and she had the spoons. She regarded the daily use of them as an almost sinful luxury, but she brought them out in their heavy glass tumbler every meal.
"I'm goin' to have them children learn to eat off silver spoons," she said, defiantly, to their father, "they'll think more of themselves." ”

“ What can't be airned, when anybody's willin' to work, ought to be took. I'm goin' to wait till arter Christmas; then I'm jest goin' up to Mis' Whitens some arternoon, an' I'm goin' to say, 'Mis' White,' says I, "the day before Christmas I went into your husband's store, an' I see a bundle a-layin' on the counter, an' I took it, an' said nothin' to nobody. ”

“ She was going into the parlor, when a man caught hold of her. "Where are you going?" he shouted. "Clear out of this."
"I'm a-goin' to git out them lace curtains an' the carpet."
"It ain't any use. We stayed in there just as long as we could, trying to get the carpet up; but we couldn't stand it any longer; it's chock full of smoke." The man shouted it out, and pulled her along with him at the same time. "There!" said he, when they were out in the road; "look at that." There was a flicker of golden fire in one of the parlor windows. Then those lace curtains blazed. "There!" ”

“ The evening before Christmas she went up to the post-office. The last mail was in, and there was no letter for her. Then she kept on to the store. It was rather early, and there were not as yet many customers. Marg'ret began looking about as usual. She might have been in the store ten minutes when she suddenly noticed a parcel on the corner of a counter. It was nicely tied. It belonged evidently to one of the persons who were then trading in the store or was to be delivered outside later. Mr. White was not in ”