Fashion and Famine

wers on the m

may be of

ect, in al

, with pai

wrought a h

ity in hu

est angel st

much of Hea

streaked here and there with threads of rosy gold. The waters of the Hudson heaved and rippled to the glow of yellow and crimson light, that came and went in flashes on each idle curl of the wa

roken only by the rumble of vegetable carts and the jar of milk-cans, as they rolled up from the different fe

ers, carmen, and huckster-women began to swarm around the provision boats. The

oot beer and dough nuts, all with men, women and children swarming in, over and among them, like so many ants, hard at work, filled the spacious arena, but late a range of silent, naked and gloomy looking stalls. Then carts, laden and groaning beneath a weight of food, came rolling up to this great mart, crowding each avenue wi

desolate range of gloomy beams, were reddening with fresh joints, many of them festooned with fragrant branches and gorgeous garden flowers. The butchers standing, each b

having its own peculiar tint, often arranged with a singular taste for color, unconsciously

of tender green, were contrasted with young onions swelling out from their long emerald stalks, snowy and transparent as so many great pearls. Turnips, scarcely larger than a hen's egg, and nearly as white, just taken fresh and fragrant from the soil, lay against heads of lettuce, tinged with crisp and greenish gold, piled against the deep blackish green of spinach and water-cresses, all moist with dew, or wet with bright water-drops that had supplied its place, and taking a deeper tint from the golden contrast. The

f money-the sound of sharp, eager banter-the dull noise of the butcher's cleaver, were heard on every hand. It was a pleasan

iolet blue, drooped heavily beneath their black and curling lashes, if any one from the numerous stalls addressed her; for a small splint basket on her arm, new and perfectly empty, was a sure indication that the child had been sent to make purchase; while her timid air-the blush that came and went on her face-bespoke as plainly that she was altogether unaccustomed to the scene, and had no regular place at which to make her humble bargains. The child seemed a waif cast up

forward. At each of these challenges she would pause, look earnestly into the face of the speaker, an

comely were the full and rounded cheeks, with their rich autumn color, dimpled like an over-ripe apple. Fat and good humored enough to defy wrinkles, the face looked far too rosy for the thick, gray hair that was shaded, not concealed, by a cap of clear white muslin, with a broad, deep border, and tabs that met like a snowy girth to support the firm, double chin. Never did your eyes dwell upon a chin so full of health and good humor as that. It sloped with a sleek, smiling grace down from the plump mouth, and rolled with a soft, white wave in

nest, that she was quite startled by it. She also caught a glance at the empt

s, and casting a well satisfied look over her stall, and then at the girl, who grew pale at her notice, and beg

ere the woman stood, and speaking

, I want you

dimpled her cheeks. "Why, I don't know you, little one-what on earth do you w

the child eagerly; "please ma'm, just s

woman's apron, and she, kind soul, sunk back to her

, and-it seems strange-I eat as much as any of them. Well, ma'm, I tried to get something to do, but you see how little I am; n

ered the huckster-

t kept thinking what I should do. I never begged in my life; they never did; and it made me feel sick to think of it; but I cou

ered the dame, brushing a

ter all, was not so very, very mean. So, this morning, I asked them to let me go out; but

e old man!" said

me into my head in the night. I have seen little girls, no ol

oman, and her eyes began to twinkle the

es to sell, nor a cent o

l! w

ven a

r th

a grocery, where grandpa used to buy things when h

very kin

t grandpa knew nothing about it. See what a nice new basket it is-you can't think how much courage it gave me

to this side without s

red the child, with meek simplicity, "but there was something

e because it was al

because something seemed to tell me that this was the place. I thought

girl began to smile through her tears. There was something mello

hat I would trust y

e for me anywhere else," replied the child, li

old woma

dozen baskets-your little arms will break down with more than that. I will let you have them at co

them all!" said th

ke itself heard at first; but never mind, run down into the areas and look

a layer of damp, fresh grass in the bottom, and interspersing the whole with young grape leaves, intended both as an embellishment, and to keep the fruit fresh and cool. When all was arranged to her sati

owers you must make out. Sell the berries for sixpence a basket, and the roses for all you can get. Peopl

mouth grew tremulous and bright as the moss rose-bud th

only I don't know how," she said, in a v

unctual, that's a good girl. N

lia Warre

well-stop a moment

ed, and waited patiently while the good dame disappeared in some unknown region of

the strawberries, and run home with these. It will be a long time for the old folks to wait, and you will go about the day's work with a li

e rolls that her kind friend hastily

rom her, and with a sob of joy she

ying out money too; I only wonder how you ever got along at all!" said a little, shrewish woma

her, and twinkling her eyelashes to disperse the moisture that had gathered under them. "I haven't

the pail again, that's a

all know soon. At any rate I can afford to l

ed the little woman, with a sneer; "for my part I don't be

good Mrs. Gray was so fully occupied, that she had no opportunity for thought of her protégé; but just as she obtained a moment's

se up to the huckster-woman, and handing back the empty pail. "I wish you could have seen grandpa when

liked it

if you had been

mful of tears, and yet th

and upon the little girl. But the basket was already quite heavy enough for that slender arm, and the addition of a single handful of fruit or tuft of flowers, would have destroyed the symmetry of its arrangement. S

smiling upon every one she met, and looking back, as if s

pail at her cynical neighbor, in the good-humored triumph of her benevole

ries!-str

into the shadow of a house, leaned, all in a tremor, against an iron railing, quite confident, for the moment, that she should never find courage to open her mouth again. But a little reflection gave her strength. Mrs. Gra

ries!-str

ave her fresh courage, for the glances were all kind, and as she became accustomed to her own voice, the novelty of her position began to lose its terror. A woman called to her from the area of a house, and purchased two baskets of the strawberries, without aski

p it; her little heart was full. A muttered reply that she was "welcome," came back; tha

ries!-str

n the bottom of her basket. She wandered on unacquainted with the streets, but quite content; for though she found herself down among warehouses only, and

with sunshine and covered with every species of water craft, lay spread before her gaze. Brooklyn Heights, Jersey City, and the leafy shores of Hoboken, half veiled in the golden haze of a bright June morning, rose before her like soft glimpses of the fairy land she had loved to read about. Never in her life had she been in that portion of the city before; and she forgot everything in the strange beauty of the scene, which few ever looked upon unmoved. The steamb

distance; but it came up with the force and swiftness of some wild steed of the desert, and each moment its vast size became more visible. Up it came, black, swift, and full of majestic strength, ploughing the waters with a sort of haughty power, as if spurning the element which had bec

nd flee from the water's edge. But curiosity, and something akin to superstitious dread kept her motionless. She had heard of these great steamships, and knew that this must be one; yet it se

" she said, for her childish dread of strangers w

lance at the mild, blue eyes

oth together; but arter all, a clean rigged taut merchantman for me-that's the sort of craft for an old salt that's been brought

harf; but while she was occupied by the steamer, a crowd had gathered down to the water's edge, and she shrunk

d-natured tar, observing her terrified look; "only ta

the Battery, and came up to her berth with a slow and measured beat of the engine, b

ectation. Most of them were evidently from the higher classes of society; for their rich attir

d her attention in a most singular degree, drawing i

e black wood-work seemed to start the blue veins up to the snowy surface of a hand, whose symmetry was visible, even from the shore. Julia could not remove her eyes from the strange and beautiful face of this woman. Deep, but subdued agony was at work in e

sing-case and a small embroidered satchel, came a tall and singular looking man. Though his form was upright enough in itself, he bent forward in his walk; and his arms, long and awkward, seemed like the members of some other body, that had, by mistake, been given up to his ungainly use. His dress was fine in ma

that he observed, and after his fashion shared the anguish visible in her features. His own face deepened in its expression of awkward sadness with e

rom her shoulders, trailing the dirty wharf with its embroidery. In the whole crowd there was no object but this woman to the girl. With a pale cheek and suspended breath she watched every look and motion. There was something almost supernatural in the concentration of her whole

your

illed with tears, drop by drop, and the eyes of that strange, beautiful woman filled also. Still she gazed upon the child-her clean, pover

upon the man who stood close by her side; but the uncouth friend, or servant, whatever he might be,

with a caressing motion-"give me some of these roses; it is a

ady's hand trembled as she drew forth her purse, and drop

re so ripe and cool!" said the little girl, l

nd taking the little basket, poured a few

ing the basket with its scarcely diminished contents

homestead, thousands and thousands on 'em!" cried the man, with a strong Down East pronunciation

isturbed her greatly. She gathered the shawl about her, and m

bear to see that strange, beautiful wo

little bunch?-some people love

seemed choking her. She drew down the folds of

disappointment were saddening her heart. When she looked up again, the la

trembled as the simple blossoms were placed in it.-"Heaven forbid t

ars trembled in her voice, and that voice lingered upon Julia Warren's ear man

oung heart. Never, never would she meet that beautiful woman again. The thought filled her soul with unutterable loneliness. She was unconscious that another carriage had driven up, and that a Southern ve

-those beautiful, beau

ood a few paces off, with her hand grasped by a tall and stately looking man, approaching middle age,

ager girl, who had withdrawn her foot from the carriage steps. "Come, come, l

carriage, followed by her impatient com

basket, "give me those buds, quick, and then g

rified by the impatience that brok

smile: kiss them for my sake!" said the man, gently be

t also; and while the tones melted into her memory, she shuddered