Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1901 — LOTTIE'S INVESTMENT [ARTICLE]

LOTTIE'S INVESTMENT

Lottie wished so much to do something to help the little boy across the way who had been ill all the winter. As soon as he was able to sit up he had been put In a large chair with pillows all around him and drawn up in front of the window. Lottie did not know this little boy; that is one of the ways of city life, not to know one’s neighbors—a very hard way, too, for strangers, who miss the old friends of the old home, and long for words of sympathy and a friendly call now and then. The sight of the boy’s thin, pale face touched Lottie’s loving heart. When the snow was on the ground she got her young friends to help her build a snow man where the little fellow could look at their work from his window. There were some very cold days when Lottie’s mother would not let her

play out-of-doors; then she would hold her pet pigeon up to the glass where the little boy could see it. She wished many times she knew that little boy and her mamma knew his mamma; she would like to lend him her picture books. Lottie had some money given her for valentines. She was a great favorite with her young friends, and she thought to divide that money into sums that would buy a valentine for six of her dearest friends. “It was such lovely fun to send valentines,” she said, and still more fun to hear those who received them guessing and guessing again who sent them. The day before Valentine’s Day Lottie stood in the store selecting her valentines, and as she looked over them all she was attracted to one which was a handsomer one than she had ever seeti in her lif&_ She asked the price, and found that it would take all the money she had in her ' little purse. Oh, if she were only rich! she thought. A great many people older than Lottie have wished just as she did, when they have seen things they wanted very much and had not enough money to get them. It would be such a lovely valentine to send-to that little boy across the way who fc» d been in the house all winter and lost all the outdoor winter fun. But if she bought it, her other friends would not get nny valentines from her. She stood thinking it all over in her mind. “I know this one will make that sick boy very happy,” she thought, “and the other girls and boys will have some valentines sent them, I am sure. Besides, they are all well and have lots of fun every day, and they really don’t need valentines, That little sick boy does need a large, pretty one to cheer him up, and he does not know me nnd he will wonder who sent it; it will be lots of fun for him and lots of fun for me. I'll take this one,” Lottie said, as she counted out all her money. She skipped and hopped along the street on her homeward way as happy children often do. ' But when she reached home she remembered that she did not even know the little boy’s nnme. How should she address it? Somehow where there is a will there is always a wuy. When she talked the mutter over with mamma, she told her to nddress it in these words: “For tlio boy who is ill,” nnd take it over after dark the* night before St. Valentine’s Day, ring the bell, and leave it right oil the mat before the door. This Lottie did. running dpwn the steps ns fast as she could after pulling the bell. The next dny what was her delight to see the large chair drawn up before the window, the little invalid in it, und in his hands the valentine. He took It out of the envelope and looked at it for a long time; then his mother came and leaned over the bgck of the chair and looked at it, too. They smiled and talked about it, but of course Lottie could not hear what they snid, but she knew by their looks that thyy were very much pleased with it. Lottie had made the child very happy. A few days afterward Lottie saw a carriage standing in front of the house, and soon a gentleman came down the steps with the little boy all wrapped up in furs in his arms. They got in the carriage, and then a lady came 'down the steps with bags and bundles; she got in, too, and the driver stnrted his horses and off they went out of sight. Then moving wagons 'came, and men carried out all the furniture. The house was shut up after that, and the sign, “To Rent,” was put up on the door. , Lottie never knew the little boy’s name,

but she speaks of him as her “No name valentine,” and hopes some time to meet him somewhere in this great world and get really acquainted with him. She says it will be just like a story book if she does.—The Evangelist. ' *-» ABE LINCOLN IN HIS HOME. One of Hia First Servants Tells Some . 'Nice Things About Him. In a modest Chicago cottage lives Mrs. Mary Gaughan, a washerwoman, who is proud of the fact that she was a domestic in the Lincoln household while the martyr President was yet a struggling lawyer at Springfield. Mrs. Gaughan tells some interesting things about Lincoln’s home life. “Mr. Lincoln was very regular in his habits,” she says. “He was a great reader and would be generally found at home nights with his books and papers. He used to like music, too, and was very fond of listening to his wife while she played the piano. The family was popular with all classes of people. When the Catholics were trying to raise funds to build their church at Springfield, Mrs. Lincoln baked a cake, which brought $5 at a church fair. She was a famous cook, and would prefer to prepare her own pastry rather than patronise the bakeries.

“Mr. Lincoln was kind to everybody. Just the winter after his election to the Presidency and before his inauguration he used to keep a cow. In the extremely cold weather he used to insist on milking the animal himself, because he did not think I ought to expose myself. His wife, however, used to object to his doing the milking. She was a good woman, too —a smarter woman than he was a man. She would often help me wash, iron or bake, so that I could get off and play with little Tad. He used to love to play blind man’s buff, and Mr. Lincoln often shared in the game. We used to tie a handkerchief around his eyes. Many a time while he was playing blind man he would tumble over a chair in order to give Tad an opportunity to escape capture. “When -Mr. Lincoln went to Washington he used to write back to Mrs. Dr. Todd, his wife’s sister, for whom I was working, that since he had been at the capital he was not able to have his laundry work done as neatly as Mary used to do it, and the cook at the White House was far different from Mary, and he did not enjoy the latter’s dinners as much as the famous meals that Mary used to prepare.”