The Portion of Labor

f her childish imagination; she peopled all her air-castles, and sounds of wailing farewells floated from the White North of her fancy after t

he heard sounds and saw signs in her sky which indicated more beyond. Andrew and Fanny watched her more anxiously than ever, and decided not to send her to school before spring, though

ten years behind, if sh

just returned from the shop, and had entered the room bringing a fres

an do," continued Eva, with a radiant nod of triumph. "There ain't many grown-up folks round here that can read like her, and she's studied geography, and she knows her multiplication-table, and she can spell better than some that's been through the high-school. You jest wait till Ellen gets started on her schoolin'-she won't

nough," said Fanny, looking a

m," she thought, but she did not speak. "Well," said she, "folks must do as they think best about their own children. I have always thought a good deal of an education myself

There was nothing covert about her, she would drag an ambushed enemy forth in

e Stebbins?" she demanded. "You are hintin' that Fanny

ult," said Fanny,

ve with empty heads, but they can't with empty stomachs. It had to be one or

cared and injured air. "I'd like to know what you're ma

l an' run, I'd stick to it about one minute and

t so true as you and some other folks may think, I can tell you that. If Eva and me

some folks that has had a good deal more chance to read. Fanny and me have taken

s. Southworth has ever written," said

ider Haggard's," decla

alter Scott, and George Macdonald, and Laura Jean Libbey,

he likes poetry, but I don't very well. She has read most all Tennyson a

a paper once that that was a complete education. We made up our mind

nd The Rowe Gazette, and The

phy and spellin' and 'rithmetic, till we k

said Eva, with a gay laugh. She was so happy in those days that her power of continued resentment was small. The tide

you both so," she remarked again. "If I've said anythin' that riled you, I'm sorry, I'm sure. As I said before, folks must do as they are a mind to with their own children. If they see fit

ng woman stared with a motion of adjustive bewilderment, as one might before a sudden change of wind, then she looked, as a shadowy motion disturbed the even light of the room an

child's face, with its clear fairness, seemed to gleam ou

egard at that time which no woman could resist. Suddenly the visiting neighbor laid a finger softly under her chin and tilted up her little face towards the light. Then she said with

in, they looked at each other, then at Ellen. "That little girl that died favo

k like her; there ain't none round these parts. I wish you could have seen folks stare at her when I took her down

Fanny said, in a hushed voice, with a look o

lf-consciousness, or because she was so accustomed to adulation that it had become as the breath of her nostrils, to be taken no more account of. She had seated herself in her favorite

ouse her almost roughly. "What be you thinkin' about, settin' there so still?" she

a wide surface of reflection. However, the moon was behind clouds, for it was beginning to snow again quite heavily, and the white flakes drove in whirlwinds pa

tting-room was not lighted. Ellen began to smell the fragrance of tea and toast, and there was a re

as going to make a fire in the parlor-stove, for Jim Tenny was coming that evening. She laid a tender hand on Ellen's head as she passed, and smoothed her hair. Ellen had a sort of

othes made, you littl

er at work upon a new little frock for

r," sh

, ch

king that new dress

rse I a

me a new coa

I did, Ellen; w

ke me a petticoat and pu

len Brewster, what

ther?" asked Ellen, with the strangest

up Ellen and gave her a toss to the ceiling, a trick of his which filled Ellen with a sort of fearful

a handsome fellow, and much larger and stronger than her father. Ellen liked him; he often brought candies in his pocket for her, and they were gr

as soberly. "Mother says I

t w

many new clothes as

are gettin' ready to be

her wants to surpr

n convulsively as if with mirth, bu

was closed upon Jim and Eva, Ellen

led it, she thought to herself that Jim Tenny was coming, that they would be shut up in there all alone as usual, and then she looked out at the storm and the night again, and the

is forehead and pitiful compression of mouth. When she had finished and ran into the other room to show a great orange to her aunt, he drew a heavy sigh that

ewster, what be you groanin'

Fanny stood before him. "Now, look at here, Andrew," said she, "you 'ain't goin' t

said; then in a low voice, "Let

o tell me now. I'm goin' to

after sup

ain't no trouble that can come to you in this world that I can't b

ew. Then suddenly he leaned his face close to her and

led and loo

he

n gave noti

long? Did

old story. Unless I'm mistaken, Llo

not like to think that, after the fine marriage she had made, she needed to be as distressed at a temporary loss of employment as ot

enough for anybody,"

-bank, and all that's your mother's is yours in the end. Of course we ain't always thinkin' of that,

suddenly as he heard Ellen and his sister-in-law coming. He shook his

know?" sh

Do for Heaven's sake keep

d Andrew, and the lines of melancholy on his face, wh

rew?" she burst out, finally. "

all tired out," she said; "he's got a little cold. Eat some m

sudden pallor. "It ain't anythin' about Jim, is it?" she gasped out. "Because if it is, there's no use in your wa

way you mean, Eva," her sister said, soot

ean by that? J

ou; don't be

been anywh

ith than that in a man, I'd give him up. I don't think you're fair to Jim. Of

may do again, and I can't help it if I think of it, and he shouldn't be surprised. He's brought it on himself. I've go

ter supper, Eva," Fanny said. "

t out of him afte

. "Now, out with it," said she. Ellen, who had followed them, stood looki

, if you want to know,

e of Andrew's pure New England stock would have so expressed herself. He sat down beside the lamp and took up the evening paper. Eva stood looking at hi

l Andrew it ain't so bad for us

"It's goin' to make me put off my weddin'; and if I do put it off

ou have to put it o

ddin' fixin's, and Jim, he's got his mother on his hands, and she's been sick, and he ain't saved up an

be Lloyd's won't be shut up long," Fanny said, co

." Eva's face was curiously set; she was not in the least loud nor violent as was usu

hadn't a roof to cover you," she said, "for you've go

live on Andrew l

I declare, I'm ashamed of you, Eva Loud. I thought you had more sense, to give up discourage

Eva said, with unconscious imagery. Then she lit a lamp, an

e involved in Lloyd's shutting down, but she saw that her father and aunt were disturbed, and her imaginings were half eclipsed by a shadow of material things. Ellen dearly loved this early evening hour when she could stare out into the mystery of the night, herself sheltered under the wing of home, and the fancies which her childish brain wove were as a garment of spirit for the future; but to-night she did not dream so much as she wondered and reflected. Pretty soon Ellen saw a man's figure plodding through the fast-gathering snow, and heard her aunt Eva make a soft, heavy rush down the front stairs, and she knew the man

omin' in the window?" she

m," repli

ickly. "You're sure

, s

ame between the reflection and the window, then another. Two men treading i

aid Ellen, as a knock,

'twas?" Fanny a

o m

Fanny said, and Andrew tossed his pa

s opened Ellen h

that way," murmured Fanny. "I do believe it's Joe Atkins; sounds like his c

d, in his melancholy voice, all unstirred by the u

-chair in which she had been seated to Joseph Atkins, who was a con

self down in a straight chair far from the fire. The other man, Nahum Beals, was very young. He seated himself next to Joseph, and the tw

such a night as this, I'm af

'n't git their gold harnesses and their shiny carriages, an' their silks an' velvets an' ostrich feathers wet. The poor folks that it's life and death to have to go out whether or no, no matter if they've got an extra suit of clothes or not. They've got to go out through the drenchin' rain and

f it did," said Joseph Atkins, chokingly,

oom, and now she returned stirring

Atkins; it's real good for a cough. An

his world, but it's better for me, I guess," s

," Fanny said. "You had ought to

nsured," said

er to leave them we love-all we've got to leave 'e

t my life insure

ndrew," Fanny cri

very next summer I worked up under that tin roof, and came out as wet as if I'd been dipped in the river, into an east wind, and got a chill. It was the only time I eve

annex under that tin roof, you'd be as we

used to strip like a gang of convicts, and we stood in pools of sweat. It was that awful hot su

the shop that night I to

vely and timidly attentive at her window, jump. "It seems sometimes as if the Almighty hims

any change for the bette

e longer the fall, and the longer the fall the sorer the hurt." Nahum Beals sprang to his feet with a strange abandon of self-consciousness and a fiery impetus for one of his New England blood. He had a delicate, nervous face, like a woman's, his blue eyes gleamed like blue flames under his overhang of whit

d not to the rich and great-the time will come. There's knives to sharpen to-day, and wood for scaffolds as plenty as in the days of the French Revolu

cked; he was not one to be blindly swayed by another's fervor even when his own wrongs were in question. He would not have made a good follower in a revolution, nor a leader. He wou

rong that's to blame for it, but I dunno but you go most too far, Nahum; or, rather, I dunno as you go far enough. I dunno but w

don't care a darn about the rich and the poor," he proclaimed. "I'm willin' to leave that to lecturers and dynamiters, and let 'em settle it if they can. I don't grudge the rich nothin',

so," s

e case, but the reason for the facts, whic

I'm out of work maybe till spring, with my mother dependent on me, and not a cent laid u

as very pale, except for b

ke, and silk dresses, I expect," Jim Tenny sai

than that," Eva cried, sha

ied out, shaking his lean, muscular arm at them; "look at that muscle, and me tellin' her that I could earn a livin' for her, and s

" declared Na

round's froze hard," Eva

ake a pickax

in' to pay you for the dig

man to support a wife with an arm like that," said Jim

rst in order to get the diggin',

whether I lived or died; but if it's true what McGrath said to-night, we've got to use common-sense in lookin' at things even if it goes a

y as well as we?" dem

ried Jim Tenny, with a hard laugh, and

comedy. One could imagine his face of intense melancholy and denunciation relaxed with la

s I my poor little home? Why shouldn't he lose his purple and fine linen as well as Jim his chances of happ

Andrew said, slowly, "and I suppose it

very dollar of it, by the sweat of our brows, and it's for us, not him, to say wh

see it," sai

d his wife rustlin' in silks so you can hear her comin' a mile off, and shinin' like a jeweller's window-look at 'em all-all the factory bosses-livin' like princes on the money we've earned for 'em; and look at their relations,

Lennoxes left except that

d Norman Lloyd's her own brother-in-law. Why don't she give him a little money

ght to do as she pleases

pressors of the poor. They are accursed in the sight of the Lord, as were those women we read about in the Old Testament, with their mantles and crisping

of base when his sense of humor was touched, "you don't mean

thing that was bought with her money, her money or any other rich person's. I want what I earn. I don't want a gift with a curs

in' in a circle, Nahum," A

on the side of the rich, why

ed Fanny-"you know

of 'em than you do, and I don't want any favors of 'em-all I want is pay for my honest work, and that's an even swap, and I ain't beholden,

to become of us," said Jo

im Tenny sai

she sat down in the nearest chair, flung

s by leaving open the sitting-room door for a while before she went to it, and she was afraid of cooling the room too much for Joseph Atkins, and had not ventured to interrupt the conversation. Now, seeing the child's fevered face, she made up her mind. "Come, Ellen, it's your bed-time,"

't you see she's all wrought up? She ha

rvent and protective love. "Don't you worry, father's darlin'," he whispered. "Don't you wo

you let your big ears ache, you little pitcher," said he, with a gay laugh. "Little doll-b

erns," said Nahum Beals, when Ellen

le nervous thing hear all this, if I

a sheltered corner near the stove when sh

et much sense of it," he remarked.

it," said Andrew, "and the Lord only knows what s

. "I know just what that child is. She'll find out what a hard world she's in so

when she went down-stairs after Ellen had been kissed and tucked in bed and the lamp put out. "I guess she didn't mind mu

She knew naught of the substance behind the shadow, but the darkness terrified her all the more, and she cried and cried as if her heart would break. Then she, with a sudden resolution, born she could not have told of what strange understanding and misunderstanding of what she had heard that ev

your dolly?" her

ook her. "You have been naughty," she whispered-"yes, you have, dreadful naughty. No, don't you talk to me; you have been naughty. What right had you to be livin' with rich folks, and wearin' such fine things, when other children don't have anything. What right had that li

the dark closet. But she was firm in keeping her there, since, with that strange, involuntary grasp of symbolism which has always been maintained by the baby-fingers of humanity for the satisfying of needs