The Other Girls

rning in the he

and untouchable,-with the world itself frying in the fervid blaze of a sun rampant for fifteen hours a day,-saw in the windows early peaches, cool salads, and fresh berries; yellow and red bananas in mellow,

d them good; it is all

uzzing; cutters were clipping at the tables; the forewoman was moving about, directing here, hurrying there, reproving now and then for some careless tension, rough fastening, or clumsy seam. Out of it all

in from the country seats, where gay, friendly circles were amusing a

arfully hot a

peaches. I believe that was the way she thought the petition in the Litany was answered,-"Preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, that in due time we may enjoy them;" after the luckier people have had their fill, and begun on the new, and the cans are cheap. There are ways of managing things, even with ver

and quick, knew how to run a "Wilcox & Gibbs," and had "some perception," the forewoman said, grimly; with a delicate

to get exactly the "lay of the land." Then she went t

e down, resolutely, against all her disclaimers, in a corner of the very best w

p her mind whether she would go back to it or not. Miss Bree's nose grew apprehensive; it drew itself up with a little, visible, trembling gasp,-her small eyes glanced timidly from under the drawn, puckered lids, it was evidently all she could do to hold her gr

it had t

ether in an opposite quarter of the room, keeping

ort in her endeavors to make it take up the middle of the

and if there hadn't been, Aunt Blin must have a good light, and have it over

lower tone, to Eliza Mokey, as she settled herself in her own seat

" "I'm glad somebody has taken Mat Meane down at last. She needed it. I

ecisively. "Not under any circums

re in clover, comparatively. 'Chaters'

in, one evening lately, when there had been w

elp yourself if you

well as she? She had a nice p

and a quarter a day, and five dollars a week for your room. Where's your muff

Hamburg edging,"

s a week, and out of it I pay six for my share of that miserable sky-parlor, and my ends of the crusts and the cheese-parings. No place

e was by herself; but she had the home comfort. And, truly, now, I shouldn't wonder if there was real nourishment in just

egular busy click of the machines, as the tucks ran evenly through. Miss Tonker was hovering in t

dozen, or twenty, take a flat, or a whole house, and have

cts, it may be that her step-mother need not have had to complain that "there was no spunk or snap to her about anything." It was not in her to "whew round" among tubs and whey,-to go slap-dash into soapmaking, or the coarse Monday's washing, when all nicer cares were evaded or forbidden, when chairs were shoved back against each other into corners, table

hought of a presence in a place that God had let her make that He might abide with her in it,-than to live as these girls did,-even to have been young like them; to have put on fine, gay thing

ive." "I should like to see you, with girls like Matilda Meane. Yo

e "catching your hare," which is the impracticable hitch at th

lars, every time. There's some fun in it, after all, especially to see Matilda Meane come to the table. I do believe that girl would sell her soul if she could have a Parker House dinner every day. When it's a little worse, or a little better than usual, when the milk gives out, or we have a yesterday's lobster for tea,-

ate Sencerbox, leaning over from her table

k, or both, Bel's hair, as usual

ly, and it all gets straightened out prim enough as the day's work comes on. It's like the grass of the field, and a

it so," said Elise

t?" asked Kate. "Seems to me you c

anything to laugh at, if you

handy, at any ra

making worse than it is," s

imes as bad as it is, so that it's perfectly ridiculous and impossible, and then laugh at

d Miss Proddle. "Hommerpa

as another of those old girls who, like Miss Bree among the young ones, have outlived and lost their Christian names,

ace Toppings, who had been at a H

cerbox, shortly, "you've stitched tha

eard, and cam

uddle. Head-tucks half an inch too near the bottom! No room for your flounce. If you can't keep to your measures, you'd better not undertake piece-wo

inches," muttered the mathematical Grace, as she began the slow ripping of the

s, sharp, good-natured Kate. "Look here; I'll help

ed short, and could not spend strength even in listening, amidst the conflicting whirr of the feeds and wheels,-and the old, sobered-down, slow ones, like Miss Bree and Miss Proddle, button-holing and gather-sewing for dear

slowly, and drew her shoulders p

a sign on it, and I've got my wish! I'd rat

low, faint tone, moved to speak by some echo in that inwar

e! Be a kitc

very long. I should like to f

at it came to, or what there was left of

y own," said Kate Sencerbox. "But you won

lly is, when you've sifted it, and h

responded Kate, "and the dust that got

away out of their health and prettiness into "old things like Miss Proddle and Aunt Blin,"-to take their turn then, in being snubbed and shoved aside? Bel liked her own life here, so far; it was pleasanter than that which she had left; but she began to see how hundreds of other girls were going on in it withou

shion in which she recurred to the s

ross it rather, since unless they really leaned out from their fifth story, the line of vision could not strike the base of the oppo

n this world? What would you have fo

eatre tickets every nigh

as hungry," said Matilda Meane, speaking

y," said Mary Pinfall, who sat on a box with a cracker in o

rls sh

ortimers don't grow in this country. We must take the kind that do. And so we will, every one of us, wh

me, instead of working my head and feet off making them for o

ither, I suppose,"

rding. "I only hope she'll hold out till I can! Won't I have a black silk suit as thick as a boa

and the gores, and the gathers, and the travelling round and round with the hems and trimmings and bindings and flouncings. If I could get out of it, and never hear of it again, and be in a place of my own, with my time to myself! Wouldn't I like to ge

gly. "Why don't some of you wis

"I think we have wished f

f those chromos of little round, yellow chickens. A best china tea-set, and a real trig little kitchen; pies to make for Sundays and Thanksgivings; just enough work to do in the m

laces, and a regular scrub and squall and slop all the week round, and silk and snow and ordering other folk

n her pretences, after all. She

d crowded out. When I go round through Hero Street, and Pilgrim Street, and past all the little crammy courts and places, out into the big avenues where all the

sten. Washington, sitting on his big bronze ho

eally want the houses to move up, I suppose. It's good to have grandness somewhere, or else nobody would have any p

wn out of New Hampshire! What a probl

d majesty that these important functionaries get, who take at first hand the magnificent o

er last mouthful of the four cream-cakes which she had valorously demolished without assistance, and hastil

mething, always. They force in and in upon the soul its own pulses of thought, or memory, or purpose; of imagination or desire. They weld and consolidate our moods, our elements