From hand to mouth

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CHAPTER II. “Myself against the level of mine aim.”

All’s Well that ends Wel

Ten years had passed with Joseph Durant and his sweet wife Bessie. Their first-born baby, little Joe, had gone back to heaven. In the Medford churchyard a tiny cross marked his burial-place. Other babies had been added : the changes of the j^ears and the times had gone over them ; but, on the whole, they had been very happy.

The aspects of trade were altering rapidly. Foreigners came in, and did exquisite work at ruinous prices. Machinery, with its tireless iron fingers, took the place of a dozen men here in this branch, there in that. Wages increased for skilled labor ; but rents rose every year ; provisions became higher : and the test of respectability was not honor and honesty, but the manner in which one lived.

A business opportunity came to Joseph Durant. One of the first friends he had made in the city, a journeyman then, was in business in a neighboring city. He wanted a partner and a little more capital. He called in the factory, and saw in Mr. Durant just the man he would like. Mr. Durant made him a visit.

“ It is all as Travis represents,’’ he said on his return. “He is a good, reliable man, and his business character excellent. The trouble with him is, that he bought the property rather than remove ; and his money is locked up in that. If I had the capital, I should not stand a moment. And Northwood is a pretty half-city, half-country place ;

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while New York grows worse every year. There will soon be no room for nice middle-class people.”

“ Rents are getting exorbitant. Mother and I have been talking about Harlem or Brooklyn ; but there again is car-fare and ferriage. I should so like to have the children somewhere else, and, if we could ^ live in a house by ourselves.”

“ I wish we could, indeed,” and Durant sighed. “You would like Northwood so much, Bessie ! Nice cottages are renting there at two hundred dollars.”

‘ ‘ And we pay two hundred and forty dollars for this floor! O Joseph! isn’t it possible?” and she looked at him beseechingly.

“ Travis wants flve thousand dollars. That would make a man equal partner in the business, he pa;ydng as rent half the interest of the property.”

“ And in ten years we have only been able to save up twelve hundred dollars,” said Bessie dejectedly. “ Three dollars a day seems fair wages : but flve dollars a week for rent, and somehow I can’t get through on less than ten dollars for household expenses ; and that leaves three for sickness, savings, and extras,” with a sad, sweet smile, as it meant, for the most part, babies. There were four now, — one boy and three little girls. “And yet we have not been extravagant. Our parlor- carpet is only three-ply, when so many people have Brussels. We have never taken an expensive journey, never gone out to the country to board, and I do all my own sewing. How is it?”

“ There is not much money to save on so small an income.”

“ Hetty has done much better.”

“But how have they lived? — and, as mother would sa}^, not a chick nor a child.”

“ If 3'ou only could go into business ! ”

“ I may meet with some other opportunity/*” he replied

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with a comforting smile. “ If I did not have to go to business so early, we might live in a suburb, and have a httle garden.”

“O Joe dear, how happ}^ five thousand dollars of our very own would make us ! ”

“ Are we not happy as it is? ”

She kissed him tenderly for answer.

“ Joseph,” his mother said that evening, when Bessie had gone to put the children to bed, “ I want to talk this Travis offer over with you. It seems to you an excellent chance, you say.”

“Yes, mother. It isn’t every day that a practical man is wanted : I mean a working-hand. Now, our firm have taken in two of the salesmen since I have been with them. Neither of them learned the trade. But Travis wants a man who can attend to the manufacturing.”

“ Northwood will be a pretty place to live in. I used to visit there. Your father had some connections. And now, son, I want you to take my money. You can pay me the interest. I shall always have my home with you, and that is worth something.”

“ Oh, don’t speak of that, mother dear! You pay for your keep a dozen times over. What could Bessie do without you I But to risk your money ’ ’ —

“ Then you would have to take care of me all my days,” and she gave a fearless smile.

He seized her wrinkled hand, and kissed it fervently.

‘ ‘ Why should you not begin for yourself ? It is hard for a man to get along on journeyman’s wages, if he has any thing of a family. Bessie is a thrifty house keeper, and a treasure with her needle ; but she cannot make fiour or beef cheaper, nor lessen house-rent if she lives at all nicely. Your poor father used to think a trade was a man’s best inheritance ; but surely you work much harder than Robert, who has a thousand a year. And James is a rich man already.”

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“ Eobert’s accident was a lucky thing for him. He has an easier berth, dresses like a gentleman, and earns more money.”

“And now you ought to have a little luck, my good, generous-hearted Joseph.”

“ But, oh, if I should lose it ! ”

“ Don’t think of that. Come, dear, put aside any foolish scruple. Let your loving old mother help you to a little good-fortune. You always were my favorite, and you have been more thoughtful of my comfort than any of tha others. And it is not absolutely necessary that the money should be saved up for the rest : they are all prospering. Come, take courage. — Bessie, help me to persuade him.”

Bessie entered the room at that moment, and sat down on grandmother’s footstool, leaning her arms over the kindly knee, as she had often done in childhood. They went carefully over the ground. She was too well pleased to see many difficulties in the way.

“ If you only could make a little money for old age, Joe ! We would be rigidly economical. We might find a lower rent : you said rents were more moderate at Northwood. Oh, do let us try ! ”

Their united pleading conquered him.

“We might take a holiday, and go to Northwood to look about. Mrs. Kane would see to the children. I shouldn’t hesitate a moment in risking my own money ; but, mother, if I should be unfortunate, Bessie and I will try to pay you interest in the best of love and care.”

“ Do not feel troubled about me.”

The holiday took place the ensuing week. Mrs. Kane came one day to do the washing, and ironed all she could in the afternoon. Now she offered to finish, and to mind the children. It was a bright, crisp October day, with the glory of autumn still lingering in bits of country-places.

Northwood was a manufacturing city, less than an hour’s ride from New York ; rather slow, but pleasant and old-

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fashioned, with some wide streets lined with magnificent trees, several small but beautiful parks, and edged on one side by a winding river, while at the back rose a high ridge of ground that overlooked the town, and was filled with handsome residences and gardens. There were pretty suburbs in almost every direction. Only the centre of the town and a mile or two along the wharf was closely built ; and most of the rows of detached houses and gardens gave you a sense of freedom and roominess.

Business-people were solid rather than showy. Few flaring signs and outward displays of rivalry in the shops and stores ; and the continual hurry and bustle of her larger sister was entirely lacking. The churches were handsome and well ordered, a substantial post-office, a city library into which they strayed, and were well received, some sohd-looking banks, and grave business-men going to and fro.

They found Mr. Travis’s warerooms ; and the ladies rested while the gentlemen talked. Then Mr. Travis insisted upon their going home to dinner with him, and afterward he drove them about the city.

Bessie was dehghted. “I shouldn’t be a bit homesick,” she declared. “ I really covet one of these pretty cottages with an actual garden. How splendid it would be for the children ! And you really do not mean, Mr. Travis, that they let for ten and twelve dollars a month ! ”

“Yes, many of them. Now here, Durant, is some cheap property. You might almost call it out of town ; and yet it is very near one of the railroad-stations, and the horse-cars going to Montrose pass within a block or two. A Mr. Allen who owned all this property — it was his father’s farm, in fact— has built up this row of cottages, and offers them for sale at twenty-four hundred dollars apiece. The lots are twenty-five feet by one hundred and thirty.”

Bessie looked at her husband in blanlt amazement.

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“ I suppose he could get more for them ; but he makes these an object to sell off the rest. A friend of mine has just purchased one.”

“We couldn’t go through them, could we?” asked Bessie.

“ Why, yes, I think so. Some are not quite finished. And, oh ! there is Mr. Allen.”

They dismounted, and were introduced. Mr. Allen insisted that they should inspect one cottage.

The gable-end stood to the street. There was a little courtyard and porch, and an alley- way ; a nice parlor with a plain marble mantel and grate ; a pretty dining-room ; and a spacious kitchen with a great roomy pantry, sink and water, and convenient back-stairs. Over the parlor, space had been taken for two nice clothes-rooms ; and it left a very fair-sized chamber. There was a small hall room ; but the two other chambers were large. Over it all an unfinished attic spacious enough to make two more rooms. And the yard seemed almost a farm.

The terms were veiy easy, — one thousand dollars down, and the rest could remain for five years.

They came home tired as much with new ideas as the fatigue of the jornmey.

Bessie Durant had a second floor of five rooms, three of which were small sleeping-rooms. The yard had once been ver}^ nice ; but the owner had taken off twenty feet for a tenement-house between this and the next street. The rear of it was toward them ; but it darkened the windows, and spoiled the current of air. To be sure, there were better places for a higher rent ; but, when they first came here, this had been really pleasant.

The conclusion of all the talk was, that Mr. Durant resolved to go in business with Mr. Travis. And then if they only could buy the house !

“ If business is any thing, I shall make at least two thousand dollars next year by Mr. Travis’s showing ; it

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maybe more. And, although owning a house at present would hardly be as cheap as pa}ing rent, in time to come it might be cheaper. We shall have two hundred dollars left over. I think I’ll see if Frank won’t lend me some.”

He took a journey to Medford. Frank and Hetty were going on in the same industrious, pinching manner, and living in two rooms.

Frank would have obliged his brother willingly ; but Hetty hesitated and objected, and finally admitted that they had let her uncle have the most of their savings. He was to pay eight per cent, and, as soon as he could get his partner out of the business, Frank was going in ; for he found his mason’s emplo}Tnent severe ; and sitting so much in the winter gave him a pain in his side. They might want the little money they had.

Mr. Allen finally agreed to sell the house, and take the first thousand dollars in monthly instalments. They paid two hundred down, and had the deed made out in grandmother’s name. The 1st of January he completed his business arrangements, and left his old firm. His fellowworkmen regretted him warmly, and, together with his employers, presented him with a gold watch.

When Bessie found that her rent was to be raised three dollars a month, she announced triumphantly that they had bought a house of their own.

“You’ll find property does not pay in the long-run,” said her landlord. “ There’s such hosts of repairs and taxes and insurance.”

But Bessie thought she should like to try it.

They moved on the Ist of April. The children were wild with delight ; and Bessie could hardly keep straight, she said to Joe.

“ We are to take two thousand dollars apiece out of the business this year, and divide the profits at the end. I shall have to pay three hundred and fifty for interest on the buildings. We shall have to manage very closely for

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a year or two. I don’t count on being a rich man ; but if I could have a little for you and the children at the last.”

“ You foohsh old darling, why will you persist in dying first ? I shall not let you ; ’ ’ and Bessie gave him a fond pinch. “ I expect us both to live to a good old age.”

“I hope so, I am sure.”

“ I do not know how we can ever spread the furniture around,” cried Bessie, as she took a survey of her new house the next morning. “ But oh, to think of the sunshine, and the fresh air, and the garden, and a nice large grass-plot! Why, it seems like beginning hfe all over again.”

They had put up the kitchen- stove, and one up stairs, to take off the chill of the sleeping-rooms. And now Bessie sat down in the midst of her household debris, and began to consider.

The interest, taxes, and insurance that Joe will have to pay this year, amount to about eight hundred, without this first thousand that he is to pay by instalments, two hundred having been paid on that : so I shall have just four hundred to live on this year. That will not bu}^ me many new carpets. Oh I we have undertaken too much, I fear.”

“But he need not pay my interest this year,” said grandmother. “ I have about a hundred dollars by me, and will be your banker, dear, if you fall very short. And, Bessie, think how nice our great kitchen was at Medford, with its painted fioor.”

“Oh, deUghtful 1 I shall paint mine. And why not the dining-room for the summer, and two or three of the chambers? They are so much larger than ours in New York ! ”

Joe laughed a little at first, and then admitted that it was a good idea for the present. They could manage with the parlor-carpet. It was not long enough, and too wide. Grandmother insisted upon buying herself a new

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one, and, by dint of resewing and piecing, they looked quite tidy. The paint cost but a trifle, and then they had their great drugget to lay down in the dining-room.

Mr. Durant was to come home to a noon-dinner, and take a little lunch for tea, as three evenings a week he was to remain in the store. The elder children were sent to school ; and Bessie was the busiest of bees that summer. She borrowed five dollars from grandmother on her own account, and bought a running rose and honeysuckle for the front-porch, half a dozen standard roses, garden and flower seeds. Archie helped his mother ; and Mr. Durant now and then took a half-hour’s turn at the harder work. Some of her neighbors sent her in geranium-slips ; and she made excursions to the woods, where she found ferns and various pretty wild flowers. Now and then they had Mr. Travis’s carriage, and that was the highest point of delight.

The first of October they took a survey of affairs. Bessie had not exceeded her allowance of thirty dollars a month ; she had raised many of their smaller vegetables ; she had bought no new clothes save shoes for the children ; and she had done sewing for her washerwoman that amounted to nearly the whole of her bill.

“ I have made arrangements with Mr. Allen to let the remaining two hundred stand until January,” said Mrs. Durant. “We must get in coal, flour, and potatoes. I think I shall send to Medford for a winter supply of vegetables ; we can get them a little cheaper. Then you and the children must have some winter clothes.”

Bessie made over hats and bonnets and dresses again. She had taken in a number of plants ; and her windows were bright with flowers. No one was sick, no extra expense anywhere. And when account of stock was taken at the store, and the last profits divided, Joseph Durant found there were about three hundred dollars coming to him.

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“ That is ever so much better than journey-work,’’ he - said gaj^y. “Why, I feel as if I had Aladdin’s Lamp. We have increased om' stock and machinery too, and shall do much better next year. And now, little woman, you must take it easier. It grieved me to see you work so hard last year.”

James came on to make them a visit. He was a portly, prosperous man, and talked of thousands as if they were the merest trifles. His wife had died. He had sold out the mill, and bought property, and would fain have persuaded Frank to go back with him ; but Hetty said , let well enough alone, she had no faith in people who talked so largely.

Meanwhile one of the partners in Robert’s establishment had died, and he had bought out the share. But I do believe grandmother was prouder of son Joseph and daughter Bessie than any of the rest.

Then Hetty’s uncle died suddenly ; and it was found that his estate would not begin to pay his debts. The eight per cent had so tempted her, and now nearly all their hard earnings were swept awa}^ Frank took a severe cold, and was laid up all winter, and poor Hetty bewailed their bad luck loudly. Joe and Bessie asked them down to Northwood for a yisit.

Frank had broken ver}^ much, and Hetty looked years older than sweet, motherly Bessie, with her httle troop about her. There had been one more baby added, — another bo3^

“ Though how in the world you manage with so many children, I don’t see,” said Hett}^ in a fretful manner.

“ They would drive me crazy. And then the expense ! ”

Bessie laughed cheer^.

“ That is counterbalanced b}^ the interest and pleasure. You live your 3"oung life over again in your children. And I don’t believe, Hetty, that I have worked a bit harder than you.”

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“And that we should lose all our money!” at which Hetty wept afresh. “ Though what I should do with such a raft of children now, in Frank’s poor health, I’m sure I don’t know.”

Bessie could hardly imagine, in any case.

Joseph Durant heard of a position in a factory at shoecutting, and obtained it for his brother. They took a few rooms, and set up housekeeping again. Hetty bought a machine, and went to work to help.

“ Bessie,” she said one day, “ Frank and I were talking over a little matter the other evening, and it will be a grand good thing for you, a real relief, in fact. I wouldn’t so much mind having one girl ; for she could help a good deal. Now, I’d as lief take Chrissie ; and I could train her to much more useful habits than you will be likely to do. So many girls are in each other’s way, and you don’t get half the work out of them that you can with one alone. She’s plenty large enough to leave school, and to be piit at something useful. I never went a day after I was twelve. It makes such great girls regular tomboys.”

Bessie Durant opened her eyes wide, and gazed at her sister-in-law with the utmost astonishment.

“ I’m in real earnest,” continued the obtuse woman. “ I should teach her to do every thing about the house, and give her a trade. Dress-making is real good, I think.”

“Thank you!” returned Bessie, very angry, as she afterward confessed. “ So far, we have been able to support our large family ; and we hope to succeed in educating them. I think Chrissie will have as great variet}^ of house-work here as she could possibly have with you.”

“ Well, you needn’t get in such a huff. I daresay one of my own sisters would be glad of the chance for any of their girls.”

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“ Ask them, then,*’ said Bessie indignantly.

“ You needn’t be so grand, because you are able to own a house. We could have bought one a dozen times over. It’s a long lane that has no turning ; and Chris may see the day when she’ll be glad of so good a home, though I am sure I hope you will be able to bring your girls up ladies.”

With that. Madam Hetty flounced out in high dudgeon. Bessie caught her baby to her heart, kissed it rapturously, and cried a little over it.

“As if there was one too many! As if you were not all welcome to the last penny!” she said passionately.

But Hetty told grandmother that she considered Bessie “ a very foolish and short-sighted mother.”

In the course of five years Mr. Durant was able to clear off the mortgage, improve his house somewhat, and to furnish it neatly. The business was fairly good. James had besieged him to come out West and make a fortune. He had married again, — the pretty daughter of an ex-governor ; and was now mayor of his adopted city, president of a railroad, bank-director, and certainly spent money lavishly.

“If I could be quite sure,” said Joe thoughtfully. “ I am afraid I couldn’t trust to luck sufficiently. I have not the dash and vim of James. I must see my way pretty clear before I start.”

“ And we are very happy as it is,” returned sweet, contented Bessie.

Robert Durant married the widow of the man he had succeeded in business. She was both rich and handsome, a year or two his senior, and had two little girls. He stepped at once into stylish housekeeping. Joseph and Bessie were invited over for a Sunday, and were entertained in a very elegant manner, being taken to drive in the park, and feasted on all the delicacies of the season.

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And Bessie admitted, that Mrs. Eobert was a much more enjoyable woman than Mrs. Frank. Even when she came out to visit her husband’s relatives, she was gracious and ladylike, not half as captious and critical as Hetty.

“ Eobert seems to step into luck,” said Joseph Durant ; but it was with real pleasure in his tone. No man ever rejoiced more over the success of others.

CHAPTER m.

“ Oh I she that hath a heart of that fine frame,

To pay this debt of love.” — Twelfth Night.

Another decade passed over Joseph and Bessie Durant. He was all out of debt now ; his house had increased somewhat in value, and been much improved. Bessie had it loaded with flowers. At the back was a row of currantbushes that gave them a bountiful supply, two fine apricottrees, a magnolia that paid for itself in fragrance, a little garden-bed, where she still raised her own cucumbers and tomatoes (they were so much better fresh), and then a beautiful long grape-arbor that almost groaned with luscious fruit.

His eldest son had gi'aduated from the Northwood High School when barely seventeen. What should they do with him ? He had no special taste or fancy, no mechanical genius. Uncle James said, send him out West, and, if he was a smart lad, he could soon put him in the way of making a fortune.

“ He is so young ! ’’ pleaded Bessie.

“ I used to be very enthusiastic about trades,” said Mr. Durant; “ and poor father considered a trade a fortune. But I don’t know : every thing has changed so much in twenty years ! Machinery has revolutionized labor. I could not make ten dollars a week at my trade as I learned it twenty years ago, and in the next twent}^ years aids and appliances may change again. The disposition now is to centralize. A man learns just one branch, and 28

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keeps in one groove. And most trades are very sensitive to the fluctuations of the times. When a man has a contract now, he forces every kind of workman into service, hurries it through, and discharges half his men afterward, because there is nothing for them to do. There is a great deal of lost time in so many trades. I could put him in the store a while ; for he would make a good salesman : but young Travis is there, and he would not be a desirable associate.”

A friend offered him a position in a bank.

“ As well that as any thing,” said Archie, “ if I can’t go out to uncle James. That is just what I would like to do, — speculating, and changing about, and trjdng different things, but, most of all, making money. I don’t want to plod all my life, and have nothing.”

“ I am not sure but going in a bank will be an excellent discipline,” his father said afterward. “ He wil be busy from eight until four or five every day in the year, except when he takes his summer vacation. Apprentices are seldom bound nowadays ; and their time is their own if they choose to lose wages. The first six months he gets one hundred dollars ; the second, two hundred, and after that regular promotion. By the time he is thirty, he will probably be earning twice what I did. To be sure, he may get out of employment ; but hardly a week passes that some man does not apply to us for work. I declare, sometimes my heart quite aches to refuse them. Many of them have famihes ; and going to other towns or cities is not such an easy matter.”

So to the bank Archie went, — not from any pride on his father’s part : a mechanic was to the full as much to be respected in his estimation. But if a man could earn the same amount of money by not working as hard, if he could have steady employment month by month, instead of being ofl* a week now and then, it was much better. He had taken a trade under very favorable circumstances ; yet in

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his time several men had gone into a business they knew nothing about, except as they caught it by shrewd good sense, and made money.

He did not want to trust his honest, true-hearted boy to uncle James, whose great watchword was success by almost any means save glaring dishonesty ; who laughed over sharp transactions, and told them as good stories ; not a scrupulous man, certainly, although generous in many points ; not a man to chng to the upright, simple faith of his father.

Christabel, the eldest girl, was a promising scholar, and very ambitious.

“ I mean to be a teacher,’^ she had announced. “It will be so nice to have money of my very own to take journeys with, and buy the things papa thinks he cannot afford. I want to see Niagara and the lakes, and all the large cities. And if I could save up money enough to go to Europe !

“ Why, you might go on a bridal tour,” laughed Archie.

“ I don't feel it ‘ in my bones,’ as grandma says, that I shall be married. I would rather be a famous woman, and do something out of the every-day track.”

“Harriet Martineau, for instance; but I hope you won’t get deaf. Or you might cast in your lot with Miss Anthony, and lecture ; only don’t take up women’s rights.”

“ I wish I could lecture, or be a doctor, or write ; but I can teach school : so I shall begin with that.”

“ Good for you ! ” declared Archie.

Bessie Durant was a proud little mother. Her children were healthy and well looking, Archie ever so much taller than she, and Chris stretching up rapidly. It seemed queer not to have a baby toddling about ; and it gave her so much more time, though she still kept busy with that tireless, old-fashioned industry. Her girls brought in a whiff of broader living. There was so much more in the world than she had any idea of at twenty ! The old