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A Happy New-year's Day

A Happy New-year's Day image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
January
Year
1875
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

In the middle of September, 1873. the lgeria steamed iuto tie New York waters with a cornpany of summer abentees, joyful at their nearness to lome. The passage had been less comortable ïhan could be wished ; but this ay was bright and fair, and the few Suropeans on board were being told, n every variety of form, that " We wero dow getting into Nsw York weathr." The pilot was eagei-ly looked for, nd at length came on board, among be cheers of the well-dressed gronp ou eek. He brought a few newspapers, which were soon dintributed and leadings read. What a charige of ,one they produced ! " Panio Continuing ! Hotjse Afteb House Down ! The 1'ollowing Suspended !" etc. 80 he words ran. A gentleman etood up nd read aloud for all ; and one miglit see the effect on liiis and that countenance, of successiye announcements. Some never uttered a word, but dropped away from the crowd. There was a newspaper in the writer's hand. A gentleman stepped np and timidly asked a look at it. I sliall never forger ,he expression cf that face as he handed i back without a word, and crept away o his cabín, as if he had done soinehing criminal. Indeed, I shall never forget that wLole scène. Perhaps becausa its impression was so strong ; perhap3 bncause subseqnent eventa have so oiten recalled it, "I had a dream which was not all a dream ;" but how much was dream and how mueh reality, it is not needful to say. At least ï am wide awake now, when putting on paper what I hope may he, in spirit and essence, if not in form, realized in many a home on New-Year's day, 1875. Mr. Charles G. Henslow seemed, if ot a rich, at least a " comortable " man, as he brought back his family, arly in September, 1873, from a pleasnt run to the White Mountains, and jat lake which it is more agreeable to ail over than to spell or pronounce - ie smiling Winnipiseogee. You oould ot help thinking that a happy group lat enteied his snug up-town resience - his comely wife, a grownup auf;hter, Oarrie ; Henry, who meant to e an artis% and two little girla, who an up stairs and down, shoutiDg to ach other and to all the house, reports on the canary, the cat, the cook, and their own little room. Tom, who was well through his course, had gone directly to college. Mr. Henslow soon got "under way," down town ; but one week at home seemed to undo all the benefit of the summer trip. Pale, sileat, and moody. he strove in vain to respond to the gladness of his children, when he was at home in the evening. It was one week from the day of their return that he carne back earlier than usual and called his wife to his room. She had feared something very bad ; ühe was not surprised when he said, with a choking voica, " The worst has come ; rny darling, we are poor, almost penniless. The house has suspended, and we junior partners, who had little in it but our labor, have nothing." Mrs. Henslow neither shrieked nor fainted, nor feil into hysferics on his neck. She kissed him quietly, patted his shoulder a bit, and said. " Well, Charles, we did all for the best, and we are in God's hands. He will set you right again. We need not fear his goodness failing." "The poor children!" said he. "How shall I teil them? Must we let them know?" And various contingencies and considerations were hurriedly talked over, coming back to the question, "Shall we teil them?" " Why, certainly," said the mother. "We never hid anything from them that they could understand, and, thank God, there is nothing the;; ought not to know." We shall not follow the history of many a sad family council held that fall ; nor the negotiations that led to quitting the house, and flnding another at a manageable distance from the city, at a small rent. Nor shall we linger on details that seemed formidable at the first blush, but with which "familiarity bred contempt." ThatCarrie's Germán and music lessons should be stopped ; that Tom should not be able to traverbe Europe, nultivating the acquaintance of old masters, and new ; that "the girl3 " should not have the maid who did the pewing aud waited on them ; these things looked mere trifling privations in a month. Happy is it for us that a loss that looks gigantic when set up and looked at by itaelf, is dwarfed and lost in a crowd of calamities. By the end of the ycar the little rented house was very home-like - that nioiher could have made a home in " 8. hollow beech tree " - and every one had a niche, f;nd v.as tolerably happy in it. A letter had been peut to Tom caüing him homo, and fiiving the reason. Bat the newspapers had bpen beforehand ; a kind -heartcd professor had told a friend of what was likely to coiïï'! ; : ; he had offered to advane the money for Tom's eipenpcs till he graduafed"a.-.d could repsy it. Mr. Henslow took a situation as book-keeper, and gave his af honra' timo to worVing ou the accounts of the embRiTüsset! fina. Carrie wanted to "go ont" and teach. " Certainly you can 'go out ' and teach." "Certainly yon can teach," said hor mother. "I ani going to engage vou for two little girls I bave, callod Bessie and Bertha, and aíter lessona you shallhelp me with the sewing. ' Salary uot so mnch an object a3 a pleasant horae,' yon know, dpar ;" and, partly lauRhing and partly crying, she hugged Carrie, according to the approved wnmanly way of expressing deep emotion of a tender kind. Henry, like a manly, good follow as lie was, tnrned his back on dreams of Italy and the oíd maatera, and was maatering the art of converting hardware into paper cnrrency, in th oíd establiahed house of Brasay & Co., ina Western city. Please to imagine the months of 1874 come andgone. There were no " parties," to be f-ure, yet Beasie and Bertha had good health, and did not seem to miss the pantomime. There was no trip to the mountains ; so no consultations were Deeded with the Jady who had sucu "sweet thing in silk" for t'e country. Carrie did the work of governess well ; and her mother'sdeïterity intransíormiog dresseswas the perpetual amazement of her evenings. Tom and Harry never before received, or wrote such home letters, and tho amount of petting lavished on Charles Henalow, when he returned in the erenings, was perfectly amazing. He did not miss Lis club, or anything olse in the city. 80 the year passed, and the eve f New Year's day came. There had been many conferences about the day. Tom was coming home for vncation. Henry was to have his first holiday. That was a doublé joy. " Shall we receive, mother?" said Carrie ; " I think we had better not." She did not wish mother to think it would be a trial to her to give up " receiving." "Why, certainly, Carrie ; whynot? Are we not just as good aa ever we were? If anything, we are better, for we can all do sometbiug now. If any of our neighbors come, we ehall welcome them; and we shall be all the happier to eee j them if they come thisyear." So it was settled. That again was a pleasant group that gathered about the breakfasttable on Jan. lat, 1875, as it waa seen in the dream. It was the firet complete gatherin sinoe their reverse. Mr. Henslow took the Bible - ne had left his wifa to read Dd pray with the children when they lived in town - and read a spalm. They kult down and he prayed - a simple, thankful, lmmble prayer. They rose from their knee, Henry, who had never heord his father pray, wipicg tcars that were f uil of nothing but joy. He had joined the church iu the city in which he worktd; because "he saw he must be one thing or the other, be thoroughly pood, or go to ruin ;" and a clergyraan hom be consulted put liim into a gentlemen' Bibl class. The rest had followed. " I have some good news to teil you all," paid Mr. Heuslow, which I kept for this mornirjg. The house" - they all knew the house - " is going on again hopetully, and I begin agnin as bcforo with this year ; and )f Tom likes, after he graduates next commencement, he can get vaj place." After general congrotulations, and some of the aforesaiil hugging, it was Tom's time to akswer the lorks of inquiry. "Wel!, father, I'm not vain enough to think I coald tako your placo. They have a notion at college that there is soniethiug in me ; mostly, I suspect, because I have dropped cigars and partios, and cut fewer recitations thau I used to ; and there is a talk oL my getting an exhibition that will ei;abie me to go to Germany for a year ana atudy ; and theu I may develop iiito a lawyer, or a professor, or Bomething ' poor but honest;' for I doubt if my nerveus eyatem could stand the ' fiuctuatione of commerce ;' " and Tom glanced slyly over a broad cheht and very muscular limos, adding : " Henry here will make a pile - and one millionaire is enough in the family. " This was Tom's way of desoribing the brilliant success he won in college since he wakened up to the idea that he had to make his om way. The reader can imagine more huggidg, etc It was now Harry 's turn to say a word - taking out a roll of notes and putting it in his mother's hand. " I was to have nothing the first year, while I was learning the business ; but the Governor told me in July that I deserved something, and put me on salary ; and I brought home the most of it, and . " Poor Harry ! Ho had something else to say, but he had not got rid of the crying, in hia heart, over his father'a prayer, and he broke down. " Poor me," s'iid Carrie ; "I wish I waa a man ; I eau do nothing, and have no story to teil." "Bat you have, my daughter, and I will teil it. We paid over six hundred dollars a year for the children at school in town, and their dressing for school coat at tho very least two hundrod dollars a year more ; and you have saved all that, and a penny saved is a penny won, if Benjamin Fmnklin told the truth; and the girls nover learnt so much in a year, and never had so good a govemess." "And, mamma! sure, we'll never go to schooi again, but always learn leasons with Carrie ?" chimed in Bessie and Bertha, to whom Carrio had made lessons (shu called them her little bnsy B's ")more a pleasure than a toil. "Lou't be too sure about that, Bessie," said Tom. " There's a dreadful bird of prey I have seen prowling about this nest that I am afraitl wants to carry off your governess." We do not pretend to say why Carrie is blushing and frowning on Tom, and giviug him a blow on the upper part of his cheek that does not hurt him much; nor why a Mr. Eagle, who owned a nico mansion close by (his fatlior was the rich broker in William street), who was amoug the first newyear callera, staid so long, and appeared so awkwardand timid as ho was loaving. Your true man, as a rule, ia a little shoepish whtsn in love ; it is the empty-headed coscomb who worahips hiinself, aud imagines he honora auybody to whom ho oiïers his precióus selï, that is as easy, self posseased, aud impntlent as one of those coek-sparrows in the square. Bat Mr. Eagle leít a letter, addrensed, "Charles G. Henslow, Ejq , present;" of which we can givo the reader a oopy : '■ My Deab Fin : I bofe it wiU not soem to yon, a'ifl to Mr. Henslew, presnmptuoiu in ma to ak your OOXUsënt to my union witii your daughler. Hince you have coiub ! o reBide iir, I 'r'W dftmi t: ove her 1 03 r. a! wortii, whloh I knew cnlyiapari wheo jöo livid in the city, anrf. yef, which Iiepecied even then. Tturough líil kindn-jtB i.f my late aid dear father, I have meanu enongb to 6-ecuro corofcrt, and I do not racan to be an idle n an, If yon will givo rao this gift, I ani eure, with Gtid's LlaBBing, I shall iie happier ar.d more ueeful. and I oball try to be liko your (ther sous. I t-hall awaitaliaa from you at ymir convenionce, and bafore vpnlunuK to Bpeak to M:ss Henslow, and with wi.a' anxiety, I need not s y. Permit ma to bo, with grtt rertpect, " Youru, moet faithfully, "Fbank P. Eagle." We shall not describe the other callera ; nor intrude on another family council ; nor sny how this " bird of prey " was regarded b_v Oarrie ; but we noticed that fihe takes Tom's puns and jokes in excellent part, even when he declares " it is the E;iglo that is Carried away." There may have been more hugging ; for that mother and danghter had become more to each other in days of trial than ever they would have been in prosperity. As the family parted at late bed-timo, Mr. Henslow said, as he kissed Bessie and Bertha good-night, "This is the happiest New Yeir's day of my life." Many a family in the Uuited States is leas rioh in 1875 tban in 1873 ; but there are other sources of joy tban wealth ; and He who rules all sometí mes uses a kindly violence with us, that we may be compelled to explore theni.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus