Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1881 — TAKING BOARDERS. [ARTICLE]

TAKING BOARDERS.

“It was a scandal,” the neighbors said, “that Miss IMa should be obliged to take hoarders, after all she’d been through; and heaven knows boarders did not help a. bo Jy to work out her salvation. And so much money in the family, too, taking it by small and large. Was’nt her Uncle Eben, over at Doves,well to do, and not a chick of his own to care for, except the boy he had adopted, who'was no credit to him? It was odd, now, that a man with poor relations should take to a stranger. When his own flesh and blood was needy; but-sometimes it did seem as if folks had more feeling for others than foriheir own kith andklp. Then there were cousins in the city, forehanded and fashionable, who were never worth a row of pins to Delia, and there was her Great-uncle John's widow a larkin’ on the con tinea t,a-gamboling at Baden Baden, at trying the waters of every spring in the three kingdoms, for no disease under the sun but old age. She'd been known to say that her folks were too rich already, and probably she would endow some hospital with her property.” Plainly, wealthy relations were of no value to Miss Delia. To be sure, she had never seen her great aunt since she was a child, when her Uncle John had brought her into their simple life for a month’s\ visit, with her French maid and dresses, her

jewels and fallals,which won the heart of her little nameeike. Since then Uncle John’s widow had becomea sort of a gilded creation, always young and always beautiftil; for, though Delia had received little gifts from time to time across the seas for the last fifteen years, she had neither heard nor seen anything of the I'eing who bad inspired her youthful Imagination, and was Quite uncertain if such a person asMrs. John Bogerson was in the land of the living.,. Dead or alive, she*seemed to have made no material. difference in Delia’s humdrum life. After having nursed her father through a long s-lek-ness, Della found that he' had left a heavy mortgage ou the homestead, and her mother and herself on the high road to the poorhouse, unless they should bestir themselves. As her mother was already bedridden, the stirring naturally fell upon Delia, and elie advertised for summer boarders* Good board in the country, by the. river side, at seven dollars a week. Large chambers, broad piazzas, flue views, berries,and new milk. One mile from the station. Address. Delia Rogerson, Crofts borough, Maine. “Cheap enough!” commented an elderly lady, who happened upon It. “Delia Rogers. An old maid, I- suppose, obliged to look out for herself. I’ve a good mind to try her broad piazzas, and new milk. If I don’t like it, there’ll be no harm done.” And so Delia’s first boarder arrived—an old lady, with a false frontiof hair, browfi, wrinkled skm, faded eyes, a block alpaca gown, and a hair trunk* Delia made her as welcome as if she nod been a ductless; lighted a woouert fire in Sirs. Clement’s room, as the night was’damp, and brought out her daintiest cup and saucer, with the hide-' less old roses wreathing them. “Wonderfully kind,” reflected Mrs, Cleiuent, as she combed out her wisp of gray hair and Qunfided the false front to a*box. “Wonderful kindness for seveu dollars a week! She’s new to tile trade. She’ll learn better. 'Human' nature dpes not change with latitudes. She’ll Aud it doesn’t pay to consider the comfort of a .poverty-stricken old creature.” “But, in suite of her worldly wisdom, Mrs. Clement was fdrceil to confess that Delia had begun as she rnent to hold out. though Other boarders came to demand her attention, to multiply her cares. The fret' and jar of conflicting temperaments uufler her roof was a new experience to Delia. When Mi#> tiresome complained of the mosquitoes, with au air as if Miss Rogersoii were responsible for their creation; of the* flies, j as if they were new acquaintances; of want of ap-petite;-as though Delia had agreed to supply it, along with berries afld new milk; of the weather, as if she had pledged herself there should be no sudden changes to annoy her boarders; of the shabby bouse and the antiquated furniture, "too old for comfort and not old enough for fashion”—then Delia doubted if taking boarders was her mission. - “Wbat makes you keep us, my dear?," asked Mrs. Clement, after a day whenfeverything and everybody bad to go wrong.* 1 Why didu’t you ever marry? You had a lover, I daresay?” i “Yes; a long, long time ago!” “Tell me about him—it?” * “There isn’t much to tell. He asked *me to marry him. He was gojng to Australia. I couldn’t leave father and mother, you know—they were both feeble—and he couldn’t stay here. That-was all.” t “Ami you—you—” 1 “Nqw all men besides are to me like the deSd!” “And you have never heard of him since?” . ‘

“\es. He wrote; bat where was the use? It could never come to anything. It was better for him to forget me and marry. I was a millstone about his neck. I didn’t answer his last letter.” • ‘‘And supposing he should return some day. would you marry him?” “1 dare say,” laughed Delia, gently, as if the idea wtre familiar, “let the neighbors laugh ever so wisely. I've thought of it sometimes, sitting alone, when the world was barren and com-mon-place. One must have recreation of some kiud, you know. Everybody requires a little romance r a little poetry to flavor everyday thinkingaud doing. I’m afraid you’ll thihk me a silly old maid, Mrs. Clement. ‘‘No.. The heart never grows old. The skin shrivels, the color departs, the eyes - fade, the features grow pinched j but the soul is heir of etern&l youth is as beautiful at fourscore as at ‘sweet and . twenty.’ Time makes amende for tbe ravages of the bodv by developing the spirit. You didn’t* tell me your lover’s name. Perhaps you would rather not.” . , “His name was Stephen Langdon. Sometime Capt Seymour ruus against him m Melbourne, aqfi brings me word how he looks and what he is doing; though I never ask, and Stephen never asks for me, that I can hear.” Delia’s summer boarders were not a success, to be sure. If they took no mon*y out of her pocket, they put none in. She was obliged to eke out her support with copying tor Lawver Duumore and embroi iering for Mrs. Judge Dorr. Oue by one her boarders drooped away like autumn leaves; all bat old Mrs. Clement. “I believe I will stay on,” she «ud. I’m getting too old to move often! Perhaps you take winter boardev s 'at re-/ duced rates. Eh? ’ > /

puxgeislojr—” _ -“Yes, I know. Do stay at your price. 1 can’t spare you.” She had grown such a fobdnew for the eld lady that toroflaae her at her own terms would •himm seemed like taming her own mother out of dooroj"beside, one month man would no* signify. Bat she found it hard to make both ends meet, and hsr mother and Mfy. Clement might enjoy enough, without there appearing to be “just a pattern.” At Christmas, however, came a ray of sunshine for Delia, in the shape of a hundred dollar tint from an unknown friend. “It can’t be meant for me,” die cried. “it’s directed to Delia Bogerson,” said hep mother; “and there’s nobody else of that name, now that your aunt Delia’s dead. ” We are not sure she’s dead,” objected Delia. “Horrors! Don't you know whether your own aunt is dead or alive?” asked Mrs. Clement, in a shocked tone. . •‘ltisn’t our fault She is rich and lives abroad. I wss named for her. I used to look in the glass and try to believe I’d inherit her beauty with the name, though she was only our great uncle’s wife.” .“She ought to be dolDg something for you.” “How can she, if she’s dead? I don’t blame her, Any way. Her money is he* own, in use according to her pleasure. Uncle John made it himself and gave it to her.” “But if she should come back to you, having run through with it, you’d divide your last crust with her. I’ll be bound.”

“I suppose I.ahould,” said Delia. The winter wore away, tw winters will, and the miracles of spring began in fields and wayside: and Delia’s boarders-reiamed with tne June roses, and dropped away again with the falling leaves.and still Mrs. Clement stayed on aod on. Just now she had been some weeks in arrears with her reduced board. No money had been forthcoming for some time, and she was growing more "and more feeble daily, needed the luxuries of au invalid and the attention of a nurse, both of which Della bestowed unon her, without taking thought for tne morrow. “I must hear from my man of business to-morrow, Delia. I’m knfee-deep in debt tdfyou," she began one night. “Don’t .mention it!” cried Della. “I’d rather never see a cent of it than have you take it to heart. You are welcome to stay and share pot-luck with us; you are suoh company lor mother and me.”

. “Thank you, my dear. I’ve grown as fond of you as if you were my own flesh and blood. There,turn down the light, please. Draw the curtain, dear, and put another stick on the Are,please. It grows chilly, doesn’t it? Yon might kiss me Jiut once, if you wouldn’t mind. It’s a hundred years or so since any one kissed me.” And the next morning, when Delia carried up Mrs. Clements breakfast, her boarder lay cold and still upon'the pillows. The first shock over, Delia wrote directly to the lawyer of whom she had heard Mrs. Clemment speak as having oharge of her affairs, begging him t> notify that lady’s relatives, if she had any. In reply, Mr. Wills wrote: ‘The late Mrs. Clement appears to have no near relative. Some distant cousins, w*ho, have an abundance of this world's goods, yet served her shabbily when she tested their generosity, as she has tried yours, are all that remain of her family. In the meantime L enclose you a copy of her last will and testament, to peruse at your leisure.” “What interest does he Tnink I take in Mrs. Clement’s will,’’thought Delia; but read, nevertheless*

“Being of sound mind, this 16th day of June, 18 —,I,Delia Bogerson Clement do hereby leave one hundred dollars to each'of my cousins and I bequeath the residue of my property—viz. :thirty thousand dollars invested in the Ingot Mining Company, fifty thousand dollars iu United States bonds, twenty thousand in Fortune Flannel Mills,and my jewels, to the beloved niece of my. first husband, John Bogerson. Deliaßogerson, Of Croftsborough, Maine. “ ‘For I was a stranger, and ye took me in; hungry,and ye fed me;slck,and ye ministered unto me.’ ” “Goodness alive!” cried tne neighbors. when the fact reached their ears, “what a profitable thing it is to take boarders! Everybody in town will be trying it. Of course Steve I*ngdon will come home and marry, her if she were forty old maids. You may stick a pin in there!” ’•Delia did not open her house to boarders the next season. she found enough to do in looking after her’money and spending it; in replying to letters from indigent people, who seemed to increase alarmingly; in receiving old friends, who suddenly found time to remember her existence. And, sure enough, among the reet appeared Steve Langdon, and all.the village said: “I told yon so.”

“It’s hot my fault that you aud I are single yet, Delia,” he said. “And we are too old to think of a. change now, Steve.” “Nonsense! “It’s never too late to mend. "I’m not rich, Delia, but I’ve enough for two and to spare.” .“I wouldn’t be contented not to drive in my carriage and have servants under me now” laughed Delia. "Indeed? Then, perhaps, you have a better match in view. Capt. Seymour asked me. by the way, if I had come to interefere with ’Squire Jones interest” * “Yes! Squire Jonee proposed to me last week.”

“Now, see here, Delia. Have I come all the way from Melbourne on a fool,s errand? There I was growing used to my misery and loneliness, when the mail brings me in a letter in a strange hand, which tells me that my dear love, Delia Rogerson, loves and dreams of me still, Is poor and alone, and needs me—me! And the letter is signed by her aunt, Mss. Clement," who ought to know. I packed my household goods and came—” “I’m glad you did.” “In onier that I may congratulate Squire Jones?’ “But|l haven’t accepted him. In fact—l’ve refused him—because—” “Because you will marry your old lover, like the lass iu the song. Delia?” , In Crofts bo rough people yet ired of telling how a woman made tmoney by taking boarders.