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The Letter Of Credit Chapter III - Jane Street · The Susan Warner Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER III. JANE STREET Mrs. Carpenter's patient face, as she
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  Speaker 1: sat by the window from morning till night, and her restless,
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  Speaker 1: busy hands, by degrees, became a burden to Ratha. Mother,
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  Speaker 1: she said one day, when her work for the time
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  Speaker 1: was done up, and she had leisure to make trouble,
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  Speaker 1: I do not like to see you doing other people's sewing.
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  Speaker 1: It is my sewing, Mrs. Carpenter said. It oughtn't to be.
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  Speaker 1: I am very thankful to have it. It takes very
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  Speaker 1: little to make you thankful, seems to me. It makes
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  Speaker 1: me feel angry. am sorry for that well if you
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  Speaker 1: would be angry I wouldn't be but you take it
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  Speaker 1: so quietly mother it's wrong what for you to be
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  Speaker 1: doing that work which somebody else ought to do if
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  Speaker 1: somebody else did it somebody else would get the pay
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  Speaker 1: and what would become of us then I don't see
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  Speaker 1: what's to become of us now mother you said I
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  Speaker 1: was to go to school yes And Mrs. Carpenter sighed here,
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  Speaker 1: I have not had time yet to find the right
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  Speaker 1: school for you. When will you find time? Mother, I
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  Speaker 1: think it was a great deal better at Medwayville. Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Carpenter sighed again, her patient sigh, which aggravated Ratha. I
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  Speaker 1: don't like New York, the latter went on, emphasizing every word.
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  Speaker 1: There is not one single thing here I do like.
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  Speaker 1: I am sorry, my child. It is not our choice
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  Speaker 1: that has brought us here. Couldn't our choice take us
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  Speaker 1: away again, Mother? I am afraid not. Ratha looked on
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  Speaker 1: at the busy needle for a few minutes and then
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  Speaker 1: burst out again. I think things are queer, that you
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't be working so and other people have nothing to do. Hush, Ratha.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody in this world has nothing to do. Nothing they
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  Speaker 1: need to do, then. You are better than they are.
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  Speaker 1: You speak foolishly. God gives everybody something to do in
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  Speaker 1: his hands full, and the work that God gives we
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  Speaker 1: need to do, Ratha. He has given me this, and
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  Speaker 1: as long as he gives me his love with it,
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  Speaker 1: I think it is good. He has given you your work, too,
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  Speaker 1: and complaining is not a part of it. I hope
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  Speaker 1: to send you to school as soon as ever I can.
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  Speaker 1: Before Ratha had got up her ammunition for another attack,
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  Speaker 1: there was a tap at the door and Mrs. Marble
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  Speaker 1: came in. She always seemed to bring life with her.'
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  Speaker 1: What do you get for that?' she asked, after she
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  Speaker 1: had chatted a while, watching her lodger. Mrs. Carpenter was
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  Speaker 1: making buttonholes.' A shilling a dozen.' Mrs. Marble inspected the work.'
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  Speaker 1: And how many can you make in that style a day?
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  Speaker 1: I should like to know.'' I cannot do this all day,'
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  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Carpenter.' I get blind and I get nervous.'
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  Speaker 1: I can make about two dozen and a half in
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  Speaker 1: five hours. Twenty-five cents' worth, I declare, said the little woman.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder if such folks will get to heaven. What folks,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Marble, inquired Ratha, to whom this saying sounded doubtful.
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  Speaker 1: The folks that want to get so much for so little,
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  Speaker 1: they wouldn't be satisfied with any heaven where they couldn't
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  Speaker 1: get a hundred percent. The Lord gives more than that,
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  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Carpenter quietly. a hundredfold in this present world,
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  Speaker 1: and in the world to come, eternal life. I never
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  Speaker 1: could get right hold of that doctrine, said Mrs. Marble.
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  Speaker 1: Folks talk about it, but I never could find out
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  Speaker 1: it was much more than talk. Try it, said Mrs. Carpenter,
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  Speaker 1: then you'll know. Maybe I shall, if you stay with
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  Speaker 1: me long enough. I wished I was rich, and I'd
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  Speaker 1: do better for you than those buttonholes. I think I
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  Speaker 1: can do better anyhow, said the little woman, brimming over
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  Speaker 1: with goodwill.' Have you got no friends at all here?' Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Carpenter hesitated, and then said,' No.'' What schools are there
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  Speaker 1: in this neighborhood?' she asked then immediately.' Schools? There's the
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  Speaker 1: public school not far off.'' The public school? That is
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  Speaker 1: where everybody goes?'' Everybody that ain't rich, and some that be.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think they had ought to. There's enough without them.
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  Speaker 1: Twelve hundred and fifty in this school. Twelve hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty children? All that. Enough, ain't it? But they say
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  Speaker 1: the teaching's first-rate. You want to send Ratha. You can't
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  Speaker 1: get along without her at home, can you? Not unless
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  Speaker 1: you can get something better than them buttonholes. Mother, said
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  Speaker 1: Ratha when Mrs. Marble had gone, you wouldn't send me
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  Speaker 1: to that school, would you? That's where all the poor
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  Speaker 1: children go. I don't think anybody but poor people live
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  Speaker 1: all about here. then it is a proper place for us.
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  Speaker 1: What are we but poor people, Ratha? But, mother, we
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  Speaker 1: were not poor people at Medwayville, and losing our farm
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  Speaker 1: and our home and all don't make any difference. Don't it? No, mother,
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  Speaker 1: not in us. We are not that sort of people.
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  Speaker 1: You wouldn't send me to such a school. Take care,
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  Speaker 1: my child. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, and
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  Speaker 1: one is not better than the other. One is better
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  Speaker 1: off than the other, said Ratha. Mother, how comes Aunt
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  Speaker 1: Serena to be rich and you to be poor? Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Carpenter hesitated and seemed to choose her words. It was
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  Speaker 1: because of the way she married, she answered at last.
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  Speaker 1: I married a poor man, and her marriage brought her
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  Speaker 1: into riches. I would not exchange with her for all
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  Speaker 1: the world, Ratha. I have had much the best of it.
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  Speaker 1: You see your judgment is not worth much. rotha was
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  Speaker 1: not satisfied by this statement and as time wore on
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  Speaker 1: she thought she had less and less reason mrs marble
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  Speaker 1: did succeed in finding some different work with better pay
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  Speaker 1: for her lodger that is she got her the private
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  Speaker 1: sewing of a family that paid her at the rate
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  Speaker 1: of seventy-five cents for a gentleman's shirt with stitched linen
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  Speaker 1: bosom and cuffs it was better than the button-hole making
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  Speaker 1: yet even so mrs carpenter found that very close and
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  Speaker 1: diligent application was necessary if she would pay her rent
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  Speaker 1: and pay her way. She could hardly do without Ratha's assistance.
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  Speaker 1: If she tried, with natural motherly feeling, to spare her child,
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  Speaker 1: she made her fingers rough and unfit for delicate work.
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  Speaker 1: It would not do. Ratha's hands must go into the
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  Speaker 1: hot water and handle the saucepan and the broom and
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  Speaker 1: the box-iron. Ironing made Mrs. Carpenter's hands tremble, and she
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  Speaker 1: must not be hindered in her work or made to
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  Speaker 1: do it slowly if she and her child were to live.
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  Speaker 1: and by degrees Ratha came thus to be very busy
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  Speaker 1: and her days well filled up. All errands were done
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  Speaker 1: by her, purchases at the market and the grocery shop
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  Speaker 1: and the thread and needle store. The care of the
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  Speaker 1: two little rooms was hers, the preparation of meals, the
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  Speaker 1: clearing of tables. It was better than to be idle,
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  Speaker 1: but Ratha sighed over it, and Mrs. Carpenter sometimes did
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  Speaker 1: the same. If she had known just what a public
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  Speaker 1: school is, at all hazards she would not have kept
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  Speaker 1: her child at home. Ratha should have had so much
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  Speaker 1: education as she could get there. But Mrs. Carpenter had
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  Speaker 1: a vague horror of evil contact for her daughter, who
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  Speaker 1: had lived until now in so pure an atmosphere bodily
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  Speaker 1: and mentally. Better anything than such contact, she thought, and
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  Speaker 1: she had no time to examine or make inquiries. So
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  Speaker 1: days slipped by, as days do where people are overwhelmingly busy,
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  Speaker 1: the hope and intention of making a change kept in
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  Speaker 1: the background and virtually nullified by the daily and instant pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Ratha became accustomed to the new part she was playing
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  Speaker 1: in life, and to her turn of mind there was
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  Speaker 1: a certain satisfaction in the activity of it. Mrs. Carpenter
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  Speaker 1: sat by the window and sewed from morning to night.
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  Speaker 1: Both of them began to grow pale over their confined life,
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  Speaker 1: but they were caught in the machinery of this great
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  Speaker 1: restless evil world, and must needs go on with it.
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  Speaker 1: No extrication was possible. One needleful of thread after another,
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  Speaker 1: one seam after another, one garment finished and another begun.
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  Speaker 1: That was the routine of Mrs. Carpenter's life, as of
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  Speaker 1: so many others, and Ratha found an incessant recurrence of
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  Speaker 1: meal times and of the necessary arrangements before and after.
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  Speaker 1: The only break in change was on Sunday. Mrs. Carpenter
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  Speaker 1: suddenly awoke to the conviction that Ratha's going to any
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  Speaker 1: sort of school was not a thing at present within
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  Speaker 1: the range of vision. What was to be done? She
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  Speaker 1: thought a great deal about it. On their way home
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  Speaker 1: from church she had noticed a small book-stall, closed then,
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  Speaker 1: of course, which from its general appearance and its situation
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  Speaker 1: promised a tariff of prices fitted for very shallow pockets.
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  Speaker 1: One afternoon she resolutely laid down her work and took
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  Speaker 1: time to go and inspect it. The stock was small enough,
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  Speaker 1: and poor. In the whole she found nothing that could
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  Speaker 1: serve her purpose, save two volumes of a broken set
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  Speaker 1: of Rollins's ancient history. Being a broken set, the volumes
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  Speaker 1: were prized at a mere trifle, and Mrs. Carpenter bought them.
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  Speaker 1: Ratha had been with her, and as soon as they
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  Speaker 1: reached home subjected the purchase to a narrow and thorough inspection.' Mother,
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  Speaker 1: these are only Volume I and Volume V.'' Yes, I
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  Speaker 1: know it.'' And they are not very clean.'' I know that, too.
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  Speaker 1: I will cover them.'' And, then, what are you going
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  Speaker 1: to do with them? Read them? You have no time.'
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to make you read them. Well, I would
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  Speaker 1: like to read anything new, said Ratha, but what shall
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  Speaker 1: we do for all that goes between number one and
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  Speaker 1: number five? We will see. Perhaps we can pick them up, too, sometime.
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  Speaker 1: The reading Ratha found she was to do aloud while
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  Speaker 1: her mother sewed. It became a regular thing every afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: all the time there was to give to it, and
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  Speaker 1: Ratha was not aware what schooling her mother managed to
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  Speaker 1: get out of the reading. Mrs. Carpenter herself had been
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  Speaker 1: well educated, and was able to do for Ratha what
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  Speaker 1: was possible in the circumstances. It is astonishing how much
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  Speaker 1: may be accomplished with small means, if there is sufficient
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  Speaker 1: power of will at work. Not a fact, and not
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  Speaker 1: a name in their reading, but it was made the
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  Speaker 1: nucleus of a discussion, of which Ratha only knew that
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  Speaker 1: it was very interesting. Mrs. Carpenter knew that she was
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  Speaker 1: teaching her daughter history and chronology, not the history merely
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  Speaker 1: of the people immediately in question, but the history of
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  Speaker 1: the world and of humanity. For without being a scholar
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  Speaker 1: or having dead languages at her command, Mrs. Carpenter had
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  Speaker 1: another knowledge which gives the very best key to the
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  Speaker 1: solution of many human questions, leads to the most clear
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  Speaker 1: and comprehensive view of the whole human drama of life,
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  Speaker 1: and gives the only one clue to guide one amidst
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  Speaker 1: the confusions of history into its ultimate goal and termination, namely,
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of the Bible. It is marvelous how that
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  Speaker 1: knowledge supplies and supplements other sorts. So Ratha and her mother,
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  Speaker 1: at every step they made in their reading, stopped to
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  Speaker 1: study the ground, looked back and forward, traced connections of things,
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  Speaker 1: and without any parade of learning got deep into the
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  Speaker 1: philosophy of them. History was only one branch of the
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  Speaker 1: studies for which Rollin was made a textbook. Mrs. Carpenter
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  Speaker 1: had an atlas in her possession, and she and Ratha
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  Speaker 1: studied geography. studied it thoroughly too, traced and fixed the
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  Speaker 1: relations of ancient and modern, learned by heart and not
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  Speaker 1: by head, which is always the best way. And Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Carpenter taxed her memory to enable her as far as
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  Speaker 1: practicable to indoctrinate Ratha in the mysteries and delights of
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  Speaker 1: physical geography, which the girl took as she would the
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  Speaker 1: details of a story. Culture and the arts and industries
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  Speaker 1: came in for a share of attention, but here Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Carpenter's knowledge reached not far. far enough to excite Rotha's
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  Speaker 1: curiosity very much which of itself was one good thing. That, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: may be said to have been one general result and
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  Speaker 1: fruit of this peculiar method of instruction. A grammar was
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  Speaker 1: not among Mrs. Carpenter's few possessions, nor found on the
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  Speaker 1: shelves of the bookstall above mentioned. Here, too, she sought
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  Speaker 1: to make memory supply the place of printed words. Rollin
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  Speaker 1: served as a textbook again. Ratha learned the parts of
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  Speaker 1: speech and their distinctions and inflections. Also, as far as
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  Speaker 1: her mother could recollect them, the rules of syntax. Against
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  Speaker 1: all this branch of study she revolted as unintelligible. Writing
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  Speaker 1: compositions went better, but for the mechanical part of this
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  Speaker 1: exercise Mrs. Carpenter had no leisure. She did set Ratha
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  Speaker 1: a copy now and then, but writing and arithmetic for
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  Speaker 1: the most part got the go-by. What Mrs. Carpenter did
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  Speaker 1: she must do with her fingers plying the needle and
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  Speaker 1: her eyes on her work. It helped them both, all
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  Speaker 1: this learning and teaching, reading and talking. It saved their
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  Speaker 1: life from being a dead monotony, and their minds from vegetating,
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  Speaker 1: and diverted them from sorrowful regrets and recollections. Life was
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  Speaker 1: quite active and stirring in the little rooms where they lived. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: their physical nature did not thrive so well as the mental.
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  Speaker 1: Ratha was growing fast, and shooting up, slender and pale,
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  Speaker 1: living too housed a life, and her mother began to
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  Speaker 1: lose freshness and to grow thin with too constant application.
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  Speaker 1: As the winter passed away, and warm weather opened the
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  Speaker 1: buds of the trees which in some places graced the city,
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  Speaker 1: these human plants seemed to wither more and more.' Oh, mother,'
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  Speaker 1: said Ratha, standing at the window one day in the
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  Speaker 1: late spring,' I think the city is just horrid.' Never mind,
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  Speaker 1: my child. We have a comfortable home and a great
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  Speaker 1: deal to be thankful for. If I could only see
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  Speaker 1: the butterflies in the fields again, sighed Ratha. Her mother
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  Speaker 1: echoed the sigh, but this time said nothing. And I
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  Speaker 1: would like a good big tumbler of real milk and
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  Speaker 1: some strawberries and some of your bread and butter, mother. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: my child. Mother, how comes it that Aunt Serena is
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  Speaker 1: rich and you and I are so poor? You have
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  Speaker 1: asked me that before. But you didn't tell me. I
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  Speaker 1: told you. It was in consequence of the different marriages
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  Speaker 1: we made. Yes, I know. But you were not poor
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  Speaker 1: before you married father, were you? No. Then that is
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  Speaker 1: what I mean. What has become of it? Where is
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  Speaker 1: your part? Nowhere, dear. What became of it, then, mother?
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  Speaker 1: I never had it, Ratha. You had better get your
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  Speaker 1: book and read. That would be wiser than asking useless questions.
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  Speaker 1: But why didn't you have it, mother? Did Aunt Serena,
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  Speaker 1: did your sister get it all? Get your book, Ratha. Mother,
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  Speaker 1: please tell me. I shall know the answer if you
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  Speaker 1: do not tell me. Your aunt had it all, Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Carpenter said very quietly. Why? Your grandfather thought there were
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  Speaker 1: good reasons. Were there, mother? I do not think so,
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  Speaker 1: but let it be, Ratha, and never mention the subject
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  Speaker 1: to me again. Different people have different ways of looking
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  Speaker 1: at the same thing, and people are often very honestly mistaken.
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  Speaker 1: You must not judge others by yourself.' Mother, I think
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  Speaker 1: that was very unjust,' said Ratha, in immediate disregard of
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  Speaker 1: this precept.' You must not think it was meant so.'' But, mother,
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  Speaker 1: if a wrong thing is honestly meant, does that make
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  Speaker 1: it right?' There is but one rule of right and wrong.
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  Speaker 1: It is God's rule. What difference does it make whether
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  Speaker 1: it was honestly meant or no? A good deal, I
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  Speaker 1: should say. Don't you think it does? I do not
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  Speaker 1: believe Aunt Serena means it honestly, though. If she was
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  Speaker 1: a good woman, she wouldn't keep what belongs to you.
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  Speaker 1: She must know it is wrong. Ratha, you are paining me,
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  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Carpenter, the tears springing to her eyes. This
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  Speaker 1: is very foolish talk and very improper. Get your book.
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  Speaker 1: I don't wonder that you don't want to go and
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  Speaker 1: see her, said Ratha indignantly as she obeyed the order. Oh, mother,
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  Speaker 1: if I could just once roll in the grass again.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: At this moment came a cry from the street. Strawberries!
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  Speaker 1: What's that? exclaimed Ratha, springing to the window. Mother, it's
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  Speaker 1: a woman with a basket half full of something red. Strawberries!
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  Speaker 1: It's strawberries! The accent of this word went to the
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  Speaker 1: mother's heart. It's early yet, she said. They will be
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  Speaker 1: very dear. By and by they will be plenty and cheap. Strawberries,
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  Speaker 1: repeated Ratha, following the woman with her eyes. Mother, I
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  Speaker 1: think I do hate New York. The sight of those
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  Speaker 1: strawberries makes me wild. I want Carlo, and the ducks,
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  Speaker 1: and my old pussycat, and the garden, and... Oh, I
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  Speaker 1: want father. The natural conclusion to this burst was a
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  Speaker 1: passion of weeping. Mrs. Carpenter was fain to lay down
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  Speaker 1: her work and put her arms round the child and
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  Speaker 1: shed some tears with her, though even as they fell
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  Speaker 1: she was trying to soothe Ratha into patience and self-command.
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  Speaker 1: Two virtues of which, as yet, the young girl knew nothing,
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  Speaker 1: except that her mother was a very lovely and constant
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  Speaker 1: exemplification of them. Nobody ever expected either from Ratha, although
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  Speaker 1: this was the first violent expression of grief and longing
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  Speaker 1: that her mother had seen since their removal to New York.
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  Speaker 1: and it took her by surprise. Ratha had seemed to
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  Speaker 1: acquiesce with tolerable ease in the new condition of things,
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  Speaker 1: and this was Mrs. Carpenter's first notification that under all
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  Speaker 1: the outside calm there lay a power of wish and pain.
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  Speaker 1: They wept together for a while, the mother and child,
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  Speaker 1: which was a sort of relief to both of them.
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  Speaker 1: Mother said Ratha as she dried her tears and struggled
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  Speaker 1: to prevent more coming, I could bear it, only that
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  Speaker 1: I don't see any end to it. Well, my child,
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  Speaker 1: what then? said the mother tenderly. I don't feel as
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  Speaker 1: if I could bear this always. There might be much worse, Ratha.
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  Speaker 1: That don't make it one bit better, mother. It makes
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  Speaker 1: it harder. We must trust God. For what? I don't see.
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  Speaker 1: Trust him that he will keep his promises. I do.
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  Speaker 1: What promises? He has said that none of them that
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  Speaker 1: trust in him shall be desolate. but not desolate. That
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  Speaker 1: is not enough, said Ratha. I want more than that.
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  Speaker 1: I want to be happy, and I want to be comfortable.
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  Speaker 1: Are you not comfortable, my child? No, mother, Ratha said
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  Speaker 1: with a sob. What do you want? Mrs. Carpenter spoke
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  Speaker 1: with a gentle soft accent, which half soothed, half reproached Ratha,
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  Speaker 1: though she did not mean any reproach. Ratha nevertheless went on.
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  Speaker 1: I want nearly everything, mother, everything that we haven't got.
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  Speaker 1: It would not make you happy if you had it.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Why not? Why wouldn't it? because nothing of that sort
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: can there is only one thing that makes people happy
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: i know you mean religion but i am not religious
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: and if i was happy i should want those other
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: things too if you were happy you would be happy
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: mrs carpenter said with a slight smile that would not
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: hinder my wanting other things I should want, as I
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: do now, nice dresses, and a nice house, and books,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and not have to cook and wash dishes, and to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: take a ride sometimes, and walk sometimes. Not a walk
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to market. I want all that, mother. I would give
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: it to you if I could, Ratha. If I had
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: it and did not give it to you, you would
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: know that I had some very good reason. I might
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: think you were mistaken, said Ratha. We cannot think that
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of the only wise God, Mrs. Carpenter said with that
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: same faint, sweet smile again. So we must fall back
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: upon the other alternative. Ratha was silenced. We know that
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: he loves us dear, and they that trust in the
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Lord shall not want any good thing. As soon as
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: it would be good for us, if that time ever comes,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: we shall have it. As for me, if you were
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: only one of those that trust in him, I should
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: hardly have a wish left. Ratha dried her tears and
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: went at her work, but the summer, as the days passed,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: was a trial to both of them. Accustomed to sweet
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: country air and free motion about the farm, the closeness,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the heat, the impurities, and the confinement of the city
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: were extremely hard to bear. They made it also very
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: difficult to work. Often it seemed to Mrs. Carpenter, unused
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to such a sedentary life and close bending over her needle,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: that she must stop and wait till it grew cooler,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: or till she herself felt a little refreshed. But the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: necessities of living drove her on, as they drive so
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: many pitilessly. She could not intermit her work. Rents were
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: due just the same in summer as in winter, and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: meat and bread were no cheaper. She grew very thin
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and pale, and Ratha, too, though in far less degree,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: shewed to the wilting and withering effect of the life
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: they lived. Rarely a walk could be had, The streets
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: were hot and disagreeable, and Mrs. Carpenter could but now
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and then dare to spend twenty cents for Carr to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: hire to take her and Ratha to the park and
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: back again. The heats of July were very hard to bear.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: The heats of August were more oppressive still, and when
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: September came with its enervating, moist, muggy, warm days, Mrs.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Carpenter could scarcely keep her place and her work at
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: her window. All day she could not. She was obliged
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: to stop and lie by. Appetite failed, meals were not enticing,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and on the whole Mrs. Marble was not at all
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: satisfied with the condition of either of her lodgers. The
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: cooler weather and then the frost wrought some amendment. Yet
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: all the autumn did not put them back where the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: spring had found them, and in late November Mrs. Carpenter
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: took a cold which she could not immediately get rid of.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: A bad cough set in, strength rather failed than grew,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and the thin hands which were so unceasingly busy with
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: their work became more and more transparently thin. Mrs. Carpenter
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: needed rest, and the thought came to her that it
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: might be duty, and even it might be necessity, to
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: apply to her sister for help. Surely it could not
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: be refused. She was often busy with this thought. One
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: day she had undertaken a longer walk than usual to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: carry home some articles of fine sewing that she had finished.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: She would not send Ratha so far alone, but she
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: took her along for company and for the air and exercise.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Her way led her into the finer-built part of the city.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Coming down Broadway she was stopped a minute by a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: little crowd on the sidewalk, just as a carriage drew
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: up and a lady with a young girl stepped out
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of it and went into Tiffany's, crossing the path of Mrs.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Carpenter and Ratha, the ladies she recognized as her own sister.' Mother,'
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: said Ratha as they presently went on their way again,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Isn't that a handsome carriage? Very. What is the coachman
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: dressed so for? That is what they call a livery. Well,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: what is it? He has top boots and a gold
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: band round his hat. What for? I see a great
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: many coachmen and footmen dressed up so or some other way.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: What is the use of it? No use that I know.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Then what is it for? I suppose they think it
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: looks well. So it does. But how rich people must be, mother,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: when their servants can dress handsomer than we ever could.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: And their own dresses. Did you see the train of
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: that lady's dress?'' Yes.'' Beautiful black silk, ever so much
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of it sweeping over the sidewalk. She did not even
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: lift it up, as if she cared whether it went
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: into the dirt or not.'' I suppose she did not care,'
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Carpenter mechanically, like a person who is not
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: giving much thought to her answers.' then she must be
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: very rich indeed. I suppose, mother, her train would make
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: you a whole nice dress. Hardly so much of it
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: as that, said Mrs. Carpenter. No, no, I mean the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: cost of it, mother. I wonder if it is right
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: for that woman to trail so much silk on the ground,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and you not to be able to get yourself one
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: good dress. It makes no difference in my finances whether
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: she trails it or not. No, but it ought. How
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: should it? Rother worked a while at this problem in silence. Mother,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: if nobody used what he didn't want, don't you think
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: there would be enough for the people who do want?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I know what you mean,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: but how should the surplus get to the people who
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: want it? Why, that's very simple. Not so simple as
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you think. Mother, that is the way people did in
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the second chapter of Acts that we were reading yesterday.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Nobody said that anything he had was his own. That
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: was when everybody was full of the love of Christ.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I grant you, Ratha, that makes things easy. My child,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: let us take care we act on that principle. We
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: have nothing to give, said Ratha. Mother, how that girl
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: was dressed, too, that came out of that same carriage.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Did you see her? Hardly. She was about as old
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: as I am, I guess. Mother, she had a feather
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: in her hat, and a beautiful little muff, and a
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: silk frock, too, though there was no train to it.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Her silk was red, dark red, Ratha added with a sigh. Mrs.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Carpenter had been struck and moved, as well as her daughter,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: by the appearance of the figures in question, though, as
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: she said, she had scarce seen more than one of them.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: But her thoughts were in a different channel. When she
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: got home, contrary to all her want, Mrs. Carpenter sat
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: down and put her head in her hands instead of
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: going to work. She said she was a little tired,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: which was very true. but the real reason was a depression,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and at the same time a perturbation of mind which
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: would not let her work. She had been several times
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: lately engaged with the thought that it might be better,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that it might be her duty to make herself known
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: to her sister. She felt that her strength lately had
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: been decreasing. It had been with much difficulty that she
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: accomplished her full tale of work. Help, even a little,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: would be very grateful, and a friend for Ratha might
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: be of the greatest importance.' it was over with those thoughts.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: That one glimpse of her sister as she swept past
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: had shewn her the utter futility of such an appeal
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: as she had thought of making. There was something in
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the whole air and style of the rich woman which
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: convinced Mrs. Carpenter that she would not patiently hear of
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: poor relations in her neighbourhood, and that help given, even
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: if she gave it, would be so given that it
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: would be easier to do without it than to accept it.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: She was thrown back upon herself, and the check and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the disappointment shewed how much, secretly, she had been staying
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: herself upon this hope which had failed her. She said
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: nothing to her daughter, and Ratha never knew what that
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: encounter had been. But a few days later, finding herself
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: still not gaining strength, and not catching at any thread
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: of hope or help, Mrs. Carpenter took another long walk,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and delivered at its place of address the letter which
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: her English guest had left her. She hardly expected ever
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to hear anything from it again, and in fact it
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: was long before she did hear either of the letter
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: or of its writer. The months of winter went somewhat
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: painfully along. Mrs. Carpenter's health did not mend, and the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: constant sewing became more and more difficult to bear. Mrs.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Carpenter now more frequently went without work herself, leaving Rotha
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to make up the lost time by doing some of
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the plainer seams, for which she was quite competent. End
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: of chapter 3