HOW A MISER WAS CURED

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2322, 28 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW A MISER WAS CURED

Jonas Pray was born stingy; ho hid sweetmeats from his little brothers when he was a child, and smoked his cigars alone when he was a young man. By the time he was forty he was a very rich man, though he lived as plainly as ever, and nomehow about that age the first tender feelings he had ever known , crept into his heart. He fell in love with a buxom, good-tempered young woman named Sara Woolwich, and offered himself ; to her. He was not an ill-looking man, and when he choose could make himself agreeable. Sara liked him and accepted 1 him. Jonas meant to be liberal to her at first, but after a brief honeymoon, his old habits resumed their sway, and at last, the second -winter of their married ' life coming on, Sara found that all her remarks about her shabby summer hat ' had no effect whatever, and that she might wait a long time without having sachi a thing as a comfortable cloak suggested to her. She had been a poor girl and had no trousseau to speak of, and she found it neccessary to put her pride in her pocket and ask for what she needed. It was hard enough for a wifb to do that, but to be refused was something she had not calculated on. • She knew that her husband had a large bank account—that there was no reason why she should not bo dressed as well as 1 any lady in the land. But when she bad said, playfully, 'Jorias, shall I buy myself i pome winter things to-day? I need a shawl dreadfully,' he had answered, ' I 1 thought you were too sensible a woman, to'run after the fashions, Sara ; I'm sure ', you have very decent things that you might wear a long time yet.' ' Jouas, dear,' she said, ' I don't want to be unreasonable, but look.at these; see how shabby they are. They were nice i when we were married, but they were cheap, very cheap, and cheap things fade so. i have made everything I had do for ! two years. I did not like to ask for clothes. You know you gave me two pairs ' of ttloves in our honeymoon ; I have them still.' ' ' What a good, careful girl,' said Jonns 1 caressing her dark hair, as she came and sat on a low stool besido him. 'Yes, I have been careful, it is my ■ nature to be careful,' said Sara. 'Few ' rich men's wives would have done so much. Now look at these things, my : dear.' Jonas looked. There came a time after--1 ward when it seemed to him that the ' leaves of yellow brown, and the wilted flowers and shabby ribbons of the bon- : net had been soared iuto his bruin. Ho lookod at them long , and linareringly. He knew that his wife was reasonable, and that the things were, and long had been, unfit for her to wear. But his money tugged at his heavt-stringrs. After a while bis wife got her old bon- '< net and shawl and said! ' Jonas, I am going to spend the day 1 with my sister-in-law, but I shall be homo 1 before dinner time' ' ' I hope you will enjoy yourself, my 1 dear,' said Jonas. 1 He saw her eyes were heavy with ■ weeping, aud looked away ashamed of ' himself. Thou he betook himsef to the office ■where ho ground out his money and during the day compromised with himself, lie would do no extravagant , thing, but when he wont home he would give his wife what was necessary. Aud : after all, as he said to himself, it would ! have been better to doit. Ho. hid grieved her, and she was the only thing he loved c n earth. ... He went home earlier than usual 'that evening, to make what amends his soul would consent t'>, and as he walked briskly along, being light upon his feet yet—for who ever heard of a miser growing fat ?—he thought he would never : again bring the tears to those good, kind eyes. Never, never again, aud then—what was that crowd? People wpro coming his way, looking backward as they came. Men, boy*, women, all the riff-raff that an accident or an arrest will collect in the city. And now he was inthe midst of the throng and close to four policemen, who, with set faces, marched in time, bearing between them a stretcher on which lay a human form. It was covered —covered with a shawl. Jonas looked. Oh, heavens ! he knew the pattern of that shawl; only a few hours before its dingy palm leaves of yellow brown, its faded fringe its shabby brown centre had been spread out before him. It was his wife's shawl! 'Stop—stop—stop!' he cried Let me see her—let me see her.' 'Do you know her?' asked a policeman. 'Let me see her face,' said Jonas, growing so faint that a kindly man, near by supported him by the arm. ' You would not know her face ; a telegraph pole fell on her ;it is crushed all out of shape,' said the policeman. ' But shawls are alike ; keep up your courage. I do not think this is any relation of yours ; she's too shabby. See here, this hia her bonnet, you don't know that ?' The policeman held up a bonnet. It was crushed and soaked with blood ; but Jouas knew it—the streaked ribbon, and a flower—among the other flowers had lost its petals. He had fingered it as it lay on the table beside him. ' Yes, I know it!' he cried, ' she is Sara it's my wife!' Then he pulled away the shawl from the crushed face, aud fainted outright. Just as his senses left him he heard some one say: ' Plis wife ? Why, I thought she was a beggar. And another answered ; ' Like enough, —they call him a miser. I know him. His name is Jonas Pray. , They curried the poor woman to Jonas Pray's old house, helping him to follow, as ho became himself. Sho was laid upon her bed, and there was a coroner's inquest and then women prepared her body for burial, talking among themselves of the shame it was that she, a rich man's wife, should be so clad ; and then their work finished ; they went away, that ho might bo alone with her, if he would. But before the time came he had a cab called and wont away iu it. He was driven to a large dry goods store where he asked to see the manager, and was shown to his oJlice. 'Ho has como to beg,' thought the manager, and hi.s ' what can I do for you?' was curt. J3i.it Jonas cured nothing for anyone's manner now. Ho answered, sadly : ' I want to buy a shawl.' ' A salesman will attend to you, sir, said the manager. 'No,' said Jonas," I am too ill, too broken to talk to a salesman, I can trust you. I want the costliest shawl you have. 'A madman,' thought the manager, ' our costliest is §3,000,' said ho, repressing a smile. ' Havo it put up for me, , said Joiuie.

' Certainly mad,' said the manager to himself. But Jonas had taken a cheque from his pocket, and with trembling hands was filling up the blanks. The manager looked it over carefully. ' Jonas Pray,' he said, more respectfully. Then it flashed upon him that lie had read of a fatal accident to this man's wife that day. It was a strange proceeding altogether. Secretly he called others to look at his customer. One knew him; financially he was ail right. ' And 6he rest is none of your business, , said the manager, as ho saw the bundle of splendour curried' down stairs after Jonas Pray. ..' They spoke of him as a miser, in the paper. That is a pretty purchase for amis?r.' Moanwhile Jonas was driven home. From the door floated long streamers of black crape. No sweet face smiled a greeting. Carrying the ehawl under hi« armhe went up stairs to the darkened room, whore under straight folds of white drapery, seemed to lay" the form of his wife. A watcher sat there; ho sent her away ; and then, alone in the room he knelt down beside the bier. 'Sara, , he said, 'Sara, can you hear me? I loved you Sara ; but I was euch a miser—such a miser; but I're bought you a shawl at last. Oh ! Sara, Sara ! I paid as much as I could for it, my dear. You shall bo wrapped in it in your coifin ' At that instant a voice cried : 'Oh ! Jonas, Jonas, dear! 'Oh, my poor Jonas! , And turning he saw his wife, either in the spirit or in the flesh, standing behind him. His knees trembled under him. But the figure came clofier. It was no ghost, but a living woman, and she took him in her arms. ' Oh, how ill you look,' she said. ' Did you really love me so? And this is all my fault. I went to my sister-in-law's, and there in a fret—oh, I was so angry, Jonas—l gave away my drees, my shawl and my bonnet to a beggar woman, and vowed to sit in ray sister's dressing gowns until you gave me decent clothes to come home in. And the poor woman, who was tipsy, too, my dear, was killed two hours afterwards, and I never knew that she had been taken for me until this morning. Oh, such a dirty creature, my dear, the papers described her. And for a little while I was glad you had a fright, but I am sorry now that I was so unfeeling. 1 For an answer he picked up the costly shawl and wrapped it about her, and took her, folded in it like a mummy, in his arms, ' The miser is dead" he said, c but Jonaa Pray will show his wife how he can cherish her.' He did; and if afterwards Sara detected symptoms of a relapse, all she had to do was to wrap herself in the wonderful shawl. The sight of it inevitably recalled the moment when he learned how little, after all, is the value of money. He may, indeed love his money yet, but he knows that he loves his Sara more.— Yankee Blade.