How Mrs. Moreton Escaped Poverty.
"Good morning, Mrs. Moreton. I just run in a moment to inquire if a bit of news I have heard be true. It is too incredible for me to believe; for with all your practical ideas of life, I cannot think you would carry your peculiar notions to such a length as this." "Pray, what have I been doing now, Mrs. Ellis?" said Mrs. Moreton, as she quietly arose and offered her visitor a chair. "Your words and looks are ominous. Have I committed such a breach of propriety that Madam Grundy has found it necessary to hurl her thunders of excommunication against me?" and with a pleasant smile the lady awaited her visitor's revelation. "Why, I am told that you have actually apprenticed Belle to a publisher, in order that she may become a compositor. Every one was talking about it last evening at Mrs. Wilson's party, and all thought it a great pity that so beautiful and accomplished a girl as Isabel Moreton should be withdrawn from that society she is so well fitted to adorn, and immured within the walls of a dingy old publishing house, simply because her mother chooses to sacrifice her child to that Moloch of hers—work. Belle has just graduated with the highest honors; and with her lovely manners and fresh, young face, might command a most eligible match. It is absolutely cruel to sacrifice the sweet girl in this way!" "Well, Mrs. Ellis, I take up the gauntlet society has thrown down, and I shall fearlessly perform what I conceive to be my duty, though I am never again recognized by one of those with whom I am accustomed to associate. Out upon these aristocratic notions about work, imported from lands where despotism grinds with its iron heel the laborer and his offspring! What business have Americans harboring such ideas? It is my aim to make of Belle an independent, self-reliant woman. As to marriage, I am not at all concerned about that. The man who would scorn her hand because that hand was able to earn its fair possessor's support, I would scorn to receive into my family. It is my desire that she may grow up a noble, useful woman, fitted to reign a very queen in the hearts of a true husband and children, should Heaven bestow such priceless gifts upon her. At the same time, I want her character to be so symmetrical, that should she never meet one who appreciates her, she may cheerfully fill out her life by devoting herself to some noble pursuit. I think parents commit a grave error in not practically educating their daughters as well as their sons. In more than in legislation may be found the solution to the vexed question that is now agitating our sex all over the land and breaking out in discontented murmurings everywhere." "Oh, it is all very well for people to work whose necessities require it," said Mrs. Ellis; "but Belle is your only child and will inherit your fortune. What need has she to work?" "Because she will be happier if she is usefully employed. Besides, the wheel of fortune is a revolving one; and though to-day we may be rolling in luxury, to-morrow may find us crushed beneath misfortune. Listen, while I briefly relate the story of my early womanhood. I would might write it as with a pen of fire upon the brain of every mother in the land. Oh, I cannot tell you what an intense interest I feel in the young girls growing up around me! My heart yearns to urge them to make a specialty of whatever their inclinations prompt them most to do, and then concentrate every effort upon that one pursuit until they excel in it." "But to my story: 'I was the daughter of wealthy parents, the youngest child by several years, and of course a great pet. Of an extremely delicate organization, my kind and indulgent mother shielded me from every hardship, and I grew into womanhood a novice in the art of housekeeping. From a child I was passionately fond of reading, and at school excelled in all my studies. Pleased with the progress I made, and proud of my attainments, parents and teachers urged me forward, stimulating my ambition with words of encouragement, until at the immature age of eighteen I graduated, the most brilliant girl in Madam B—'s school, and carried off amid the plaudits of friends and acquaintances, the honors of my class." "But alas! I was superficial in many things; for while it had been easy for me to commit my lessons, I found it equally easy to forget them. Keenly did I feel this defect, and in order to perfect myself, I wished, after leaving school, to teach, but so bitterly did my parents oppose this that I yielded to their wishes and returned home. I plunged into a round of gayety and amusement, and from this whirl of excitement I emerged the bride of one whom my parents did not look upon with favor. The young man was an employee in a wholesale house in the city of N. He was poor, but possessed a well-cultivated mind. Unfortunately, however, he had no chosen trade or avocation. Idleness had made me a dreamy, visionary being, and there was a sort of charm about beginning life in poverty. It would be so delightful to toil with and for him I loved so fondly. This is all very well in theory and in practice also, where there are four strong hands to perform the labor; but close application to the desk, and breathing the unwholesome city air had seriously impaired my husband's health. We had married at a time when neither was strong enough to battle with the stern realities of life. Dependence upon the salary of a clerk or book-keeper in a large city is very precarious for a family. It was a year of unprecedented hard times, necessitating great economy in business. Hundreds lost their situations, and my husband among the rest." "Ah, then began the vain search for employment! For every vacancy there were scores of applicants, and you invariably received the answer, 'Persons of experience wanted.' Oh, I can never forget the weary tramp, tramp, up and down the streets, jostled by a crowd as cold and heartless as the very stones under one's feet! I envied even the servant-girls; but alas! the mysteries of the cuisine were as Greek to me, and I dared not apply for so menial a situation as theirs. My poor husband was in wretched health, and almost frenzied at the thought of the misery and degradation he had brought upon me. For his sake, I hid my aching heart behind a smiling face." "One night after he had retired, in hanging up his coat, a vial drooped from the pocket. Picking it up, I found it labeled 'Laudanum,' and then I knew he was beset with the terrible temptation to take his own life. Flinging the vile drug into the street, I sank on my knees, and 'O, my God! lead him not into temptation, but deliver him from evil,' was the prayer that went up from my agonized heart. How desolate I felt! In the midst of a great city—friendless, well-nigh penniless, and, worst of all, haunted with the dreadful fear that my husband would commit suicide. From the time we would separate in the morning until we met again at night, I lived in a state of absolute torture." "At length, despairing of finding anything in the city to do, we turned our faces countryward; feeling that our slender stock of money would last longer than in town. After many weeks of painful anxiety, my husband found a situation in a small village, with just salary enough to keep the wolf from the door. How I longed to do something to better our condition; but alas! what could I do? I might have had a fine music class in the village, but while I played and sang well, I was not proficient enough in music to teach it successfully. Oh, how I wished I had given the time to it I had spent on French and Latin! Many an hour of hard study had I given to these branches, and of what practical advantage had they been to me? I never met any French people with whom I could converse, and had never been able to secure a class in either language, while all the while my knowledge was becoming rusty by non-use. It is painful to recur to this period of my life. I was so unhappy, I expected every day would be the last my husband would be able to attend to business. Finally driven to desperation by our misfortunes, I resolved to do something or die in the attempt." "Attached to the house we occupied was a large lot for gardening purposes, and I made up my mind that out of that bit of earth I would dig our fortunes—or at least, a living with my own hands. I made horticulture and floriculture a study, and brushed up my little knowledge of chemistry. It was hard work and small profits the first year; but having once put my hand to the plow, I never turned back. Our table was bountifully supplied with fresh vegetables and fruits, and what was better, my step had grown elastic, my eye bright, and my cheek rounded with health. My husband, too, found many a spare moment from business to assist me, and in doing so found himself growing stronger and well again. Oh, how happy we were! Surely there is dignity in labor unknown to ease! How proud I felt when I received the returns from my first shipment of vegetables to the nearest market! I counted it over and over. It seemed to possess a value that I had never attached to money in the old days when father had lavished it so freely upon me. Then I would have thought nothing of spending such a paltry sum upon the trimmings of a single dress; now every penny was hoarded with miserly care, for we had resolved upon having a home of our own." "Well, to be brief, each year I attempted something more—first a poultry yard, then the culture of bees, and so on, until, before we were hardly aware of it, our home was paid for. I had carefully concealed any trace of our adversity from my parents. I think I would have died rather than gone home—a beggar. Now that the dawn of prosperity had set in, I wrote, asking them to come and see the little silken-haired girl that, like a sunbeam, danced through our home. They came. Father, accustomed to his broad acres, was astonished at the products of my small plot of ground. He declared I was the best farmer he knew, and should have greater scope for my powers. He bought a fine large tract of land adjoining our grounds that happened to be for sale just then, and made me a deed for it. This is the origin of the country-seat you visited last summer and admired so much. Belle is a fine horticulturist and an accomplished housekeeper. Should she ever be thrown upon her own resources in the country she could make a living, and I wish her to be equally independent in town. We came to town to superintend her education. She thinks her forte is journalism, and desires in addition to this, to become a practical printer. And now, can you wonder, Mrs. Ellis, after my experience, that I am trying to have her avoid the errors that well-nigh made my young life a failure?" "No, indeed, Mrs. Moreton, and I honor you for it. I have been greatly benefited by the narration of your early troubles, and I think you will see the result of it in the future training of my own daughters.—Unknown."