"Jenny."

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14015, 25 September 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

"Jenny."

" Lok alivo with the sausage and masheii! " What about that rasher ?" —" I'int o' eawfy anil three slices." — "Call this a bloater, missus: —'know what I call it?— Buck up, Jenny do! " So it wont on all through tne meal in the cheap eating house, where Jenny hold "her court. She was the life of the business; and the anaemic proprietor and his burly spouse would iinally have starved in the midst of their rud plenty but for her. For she not only served the customers, but kept them thorn in order with rebuke and repar tee. She stood up to the " imperdent fellers," and made the importunate wait their turn. No" man could "ta 1 the-change" out of Jenny. Her word and the blow at need, were. one. and the same thing, for her tongue in the chastisement of insolence, or the suppression of foul speech, could cut liko a whio.

It was a trade perhaps more depressing in its nature tliau any other known to civilised man. Humanity never quite at its best when ea'tmg and drinking; and when it eats by a time limit, and yells for its food like a hungry puck", it is seen at its warst. The associations wore repellent to the last degree. Tho steam rose to the blackened ceiling, alike from the kitchen in the rear, and from the hutches in tiie front shop where the customers perspired at their messes. The only quiet and self-possessed person in the place was Jenny,and this in suite of the .occasional'crack of her whip. She had to be so, for all depended on he/- knowing perfectly what she was about. It was her duty to keep all the. reckonings in her head for the time of settlement, and to take care that the suspicious-looking customer near the door did not "do a bunk'' behind her back before the settlement arrived.

She had a customer of that sort .n her eye on the very day on which »ve make her acquaintance. A forlornlooking man safc ravenously, worrying his bite and sup by the entry; and her business instinct told her that his glance was never so intently fixed on

tho waitress'' as when her back v» aa tinned.

lie forgot tjio mirror at the far-md of the, shop, so ho had hardly gained tho street in-the act of evasion when Jierhand was al. his elbow in a gentle but compelling touch, with her p.ilm extended for her due.

A policeman hard by, who happened to have taken stock of the proceeding, straightened and squared for nil ion, and seemed only to wait her nod. ' "Cash, please," said Jenny, 'OI,O small cup' couplo o' slices—two an J a, half."

The defaulter coughed, turned dci'h ly pale, fumbled in. his pockets, then coughing again, cast a glance on her in which here was all the pleading of hunger and unutterable woe. The policeman looked towards Jemy and now, in confident .expectation, of the decisive word, advanced one step nearer to his prey. Tho word came at last, but t was a disappointment to the man -r law.

" All right sir," she said to the delinquent. '"No small change, J. M-a. Next time you are passing. Good day, brother, an' God bless yer. Du.l day, perlieeman; expoc' wo shall 'ave rain. ' "And God : bless you,"said thd debtor ; and in another moment ho was gone. "Silly, I call it," said the "onstabli; "you'll never se him no mors '' '" What about Heaven, ' said Jcr.ny, as she hurried hack into 111 3 shop, where her first care was to transfer from the left, hand pocket, in which she kept her slender tins, Mia sum of tuppence ha'penny to the right nana pocket .where she stored the takings for the day. The whole scene admits of an extremely pimple explanation —Jennys membership of the Salvation' Army. All through the week she toiled as wo have seen, to cam her full day off on Sunday, when she blossomed into the sainthood and glorification that made-up for all. . In midweek too, after hours, thero was the interlude of the prayer-meeting at headquarters which brought her again in touch with the soul of things. . Days passed and there was no sign of the defaulter, but what did Jenny care for that? It was Saturday now, a blessed day in this instance, as the one that came before the Sunday of the ecstasy of perfect fruition. The shop was closed all the day because the factory was closed, and the.chanco trade, of the neighbourhood was an item of no account. Sunday at last, and Jenny m full uniform, and early astir for'a field day against the Enemy of Mankind. He was to be routed, horse and foot — there was no doubt of that by tho forces under whose banner she marched. The result was always tho same, yet still it admitted of the exhilaration of hope, for Jenny might still bo spared to witness Ins final overthrowin tho decisive "encounter that would! herald the reign of the saints. The uniform became her. Sho seemed transformed .in the flesh, as in the spirit* by the trim serge, with its fringes of spotless linen, nnd by tho poke bonnet that framed tho pale yet healthy complexion, the ordered masses of hair, and the mellowed firo of the eyes, into a picture, of exultant bliss. Jenny's Maker is notoriousl--110 respecter of persons in. the bestowal of the supreme- gifts of the spirit. A duchess may enjoy them, biit tho slavey of the coffee house is not shut out. , ' The policeman, happened to be at hand again, as she set forth, and it gave him a, -welcome opportunity or submitting a claim to a place among the minor prophets. ''■.„,' "Seen that party again? " What, party?" for a moment the incident, had. passed quite out of her mind, under tho stress ,-of higherthoughts, • ■-■„,. , •"Old Cawfy and two Slices. Any sign of a dividend yet?" ••Are you salvy, brother?" asked Jenny, with her sweet smile, and sho was "gone— it was' her colloquialism for " saved." [t was a great day. The march, behind the band, in full blast of what seemed the music of heavenly hosts—tho battle of the penitent forms —the. rallying erv of the hymns that marked its "ups aiid downs—the exhortations that were the saving forces of its moments of crisis.. . You have these excitements,' or you have them not. Ihe lady Theresa liad them, and,: her name is enshrined for ever in the calendar. Jenny was of : the same sisterhood or. election, though she was but. a servi 7 tor in a slap-bang shop. ■ , The day passed all too quickly, with hardlv a' break .in the holy war between the battle array of the morning and the final-roll-call, of the saved in the mission ball at night, amid the tumult of the shouts ,of. victory. i Jenny was in. fully cry- oil;the flanksof the routed enemy, -when suddenly she became aware of a sinner advancing towards the penitent form .with, steps that halted and stumbled, because his eyes were fixed, in a sort of magnetised, stare; full 'on her face. It was the insolvent of the coffee shop looking up, up, up at. her, with the dazed surprise of absolutely unexpected recognition. . Jenny flew to him, and seized his trembling hand. "Salvy. Salvy. Glory. Hallelujah. No, brother; not that way." . ': , ■ , And in a gust of pity that was mrely'divine, sho spared him tlfe humiliation of the sinner's form, and led him straight to-the door. - "Next time you pass. brother, next time you pass. Come and settle it. with me, hud iveMl settle-.it with God together. I'm in no 'hurry, for your ha'pence, but oh, I'm Jiungry for your soul." ■ , When it was all over, Jenny sped back to her garret, folded up her uniform for the next field day, entered the portals of Paradise,in,her dreams, ■and then, 'sharp on the stroke of haltpast five next morning, rose radiant for the drudgery of the week and the Jay. : ,