Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

y glow o

y dimple

thy heart

cold an

hall change

have done

y cheek t

er in th

e lamps had not been lighted, but the blaze from the back-log threw a cozy glow of comf

ristmas Lady" had not worn her violet gown. He said it always took him half an hour to say

gh your hair makes you look like a saint. Little Saint Lucinda!" he said tea

in mock surprise; "then an icebe

he was very tall and straight, and his face retained m

y grown serious, "I wish yo

what is it

and on his, and looke

she said. "I wish you woul

. "You aren't afraid t

t, Robert, it makes people think such wrong thin

and together they stood lookin

ttle girl; what have

t they said. I knew it wasn't true

ear it, anyway

Orleans; they asked if I knew you-said they

said R

tinue. "They said some horrid things the

ere the

er than his; that-forgive me, Robert, for even repeating it. It made me very angry, an

s ago, when those people knew me, I was just what they said. Dick Harris and I went to New Orleans straight from college. Neither of us had a home or

, and she had slipped to the opposite side of the

ever like Dick!

ull, and Heaven only knows how I struggled. I never quite saw the use of it all, until I met you six mo

s crying. He sprang forward, but she shrank away. "No, no, don't

e the less for having conque

b. "I honored and idealized you, Robert I can nev

y one year out of my life; too much, it's tru

promising standards of girlhood; life was black or white to her, and time had not yet filled in the canvas with the m

give you," she said, tremulously; "but you must p

. "You know Dick's my chum; that he hasn't the least influe

but I don't want people to see you

go back on him? Dick has a big

d straighten up if he wanted to. He likes to drink and gamble, so he does it, and you keep

been chums since we were boys. He came to Kentucky three months ago, sick and miserable. One day he came into the office

has hardly drawn a sober breath since." She looked out of the window across the snowy landscape,

have no right to draw such a conclusion. He is weak, nobody denies it; but what can you know of the str

fell on

choose M

ess; it is not like

s worse than useless, but to have you persist in a friendship with a man who is beneath you in every way is more than I

as a white line about Reddi

he said, with simple digni

habby woman stood looking at them with wild eyes; her gray hair had escaped from t

er. "I will speak to you

owed, each waiting fo

, without looking at her, and, turning abruptly,

nd started forward, then

?" she aske

d to steady herself against the door; her fa

if I needed you. It's

Aunt Chloe, the old colored servant, and gone home with Mrs. Wiggs, relieving as far as possible the immediate need of the family. Then she had come home and written their story, telling it simply, but with the passionate earnestness of one

s for the Wiggs family. Money had arrived from all over the State, and from every class of society. Eichenstine Bros. sent fifty dollars, and six ragged newsboys came to present thirty cents. A lavender note, with huge monogram and written in white ink, stated that

was saying. "I sutenly do feel sorry fer he's maw. I ain't got much, b

ch and poor, paid their substantia

ndred and sixty-five dollars!" she exclaimed; "and

f being duly exalted, put her head on the desk and wept bitterly. Now that the need of t

and she was beginning to realize the