CONFIDENCE

New Zealand Tablet, 28 April 1910, Page 647

CONFIDENCE

After the dishes had been washed and put away, Mrs. Pratt and her married daughter, Mary, sat down to discuss those things which they really wished to talk about. It is true that ever since Mrs. Pratt’s arrival at noon the conversation had never once halted — was indeed only natural, for mother and daughter had not seen each other since, the latter’s wedding day, seven years before. But while they had sorted oyer a wealth of conversational'odds and ends, they had tacitly laid on one side all the pieces that interested them the most, until at last, when the evening lamp shed its radiance over the room, mother and daughter sat down and looked at each other attentively. Very much alike were Mrs. Pratt and her married daughter, Alary. The same perpendicular line marked their forehead, the same tight lines compressed their lips, and each had the same firm chin. But Mrs. Pratt’s eyes had twinkles lurking in them, and her month displayed many a tender —twinkles and smiles which were not visible in Mrs. Pratt’s married daughter, Mary. ‘Mary,’ said Mrs. Pratt, ‘John doesn’t look so contented as I’d like to see him.’ John’s footsteps were still echoing from the sidewalk as he made his way to the grocery store where he had worked for the last ten years. ‘ No, he doesn’t,’ said Mery, shaking her head and setting her chin, ‘ though I’m sure I’ve done everything I can to help him. But somehow poor old John doesn’t seem to get along like other men.’ ‘ AI-m-m-m,’ said Airs. Pratt. ‘ln the first place,’ said Alary, ‘when I saw that his money wouldn’t be enough for comfort, I’made up my mind that I’d help, too,, for when we got married I had ray heart set on two new hats every year and a woman to do the washing. Anyhow, I got John to build me a coop, and I kept chickens and sold the eggs. ‘ It didn’t pay, though. In winter, when eggs were eggs, the chickens wouldn’t lay, though you can be sure I did ray best to make tftiem, and in the summer eggs were so plentiful and cheap that it didn’t make much difference whether the hens laid or not. Sixteen chickens I had, and when I found out they didn’t pay, they lasted us sixteen

weeks — every Sunday, John declared - at last that ’he wouldn’t eat —but he ate them.’ It would have been difficult to say whether Mary looked the more determined when she told of trying to make the hens lay or when she mentioned that John continued to eat chicken. _ ‘ Then I went into a sort of partnership with Mr. Valentine, who keeps the big grocery store where John works,’ continued Mary. * I was to supply him with home-made pies and cakes, he was to sell them, and the profits were to be divided between us.’ Mary’s lips tightened at the recollection. First off,’ she said, ‘I made too many, and they nearly all went stale, and when I made only a few it didn’t pay.’ ‘What did John say to all this?’ ‘ He ate the stale ones, but I don’t remember that he .-.aid anything. I was too busy to notice him much because I was opening the millinery shop just then. 1 wrote you about that.’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘Of course, if I’d had a proper stock it would have been different, but I had .to do the best I could with what I had. The first two months I paid the rent out of it, and along toward the end of the third month I had a rummage sale and sold everything out. Most women .would have been discouraged at that, but I wasn’t.’ asked her mother. ‘ Yes, I wrote you about that, too. But only font joined, and twenty lessons at three dollars a course was only fifteen cents each, or sixty cents for the four, and sometimes they’d spoil a dollar’s worth of .food in a single lesson. Of coursh, John ate some of it, but I finally thought it best to give the class up. If I could only give him a little of my ambition ‘ Alary,’ said her mother, ‘ I do believe there’s only one thing you haven’t tried, and if I were you, I’d try that, too.’ What is it?’ Looking attentively at her, Mary’s mother was silent a moment; then she said, ‘ Mary, I’d try to make him happy.’ They both sat silent for a time. ‘ Well,’ said Mary, slowly, at last, ‘ I suppose I might even try that.’ And as Mary’s mind busied itself with details, the faintest possible twinkle appeared in her eyes. The night following the departure of Mary’s mother, John came home and found his slippers waiting for him. It was a little thing, but John’s expression was a study ns he put on his slippers, and when he walked into the dining-room he held his shoulders back like a man whose slippers had been found for him, and who was consequently conscious of his worth. The next night John feasted on his favorite vegetable —which was cauliflower regaled himself with his favorite dessert — was cottage pudding. He was still at the pudding when a neighbor’s dog came and howled unpleasantly under the dining-room window. John opened the window and spoke to the dog with such a stone of authority and decision that the dog ceased and went away, abashed. The next night John found a fire in the open grate, and when he had finished his dinner Mary produced a cornpopper and a bag of corn, and professing ignorance on the subject, she let John teach her how to pop the corn. A month or so passed, and one noon John came in with the step of a conqueror. ‘ Mr. Valentine called me into his private office to-day,’ he said to Mary. He said that Mr. Wilcox was leaving, and he asked me if I could take his place. The salary is just twice as much as I have been getting, and it didn’t take me long to say I’d try it.’ Before Mary’s mind rose a vision of two new hats every year, and of a woman doing the washing. Hope, long deferred, swelled in Mary’s heart. Air. Valentine said he’d been watching me the last month,’ continued John, ‘ and he said if I kept on as I had been doing he’d be satisfied.’ ‘John,’ said Alary, her voice shaking a bit, do you think you can do it?’ ‘Do you think I can, Mary?’. he asked. ‘ I know you can!’ cried Mary. ‘Mary! Mary!’ whispered John. ‘And so do I know I can!