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Show I finished Mr. Lessner's Bhirta, and they fined him perfectly. He says I'm the only woman he ever know who fitted him with shirts on the first trial He has saved up a little property and he wants to invest it somewhere, and Aunt Medlaw wants to sell out this store. So he's going go-ing to buy ft and I'm going to keep it on condition thnt I marry him." "Oh, Ella!" "Not such a very hard condition, either." said Ella. "Because he's very handsome and very pleasant, and I liko I him very much; in fact, 1 believe I'm in . love with him. There, now it's all out. And I do believe, Eva, we're the two happiest girls m the world, and all through Aunt Medlaw'a thread and needle store." "Well, well," grumbled Mrs, Medlaw, "so the girls ore gone, and I'm all by myself again. It ia rather lonesome. They were nice girU but the young men found it out as well as me. Young men always do find such things out." Baltimore Daily News. A BUSLNESS VENTURE. It was a Bharp October evening, the street lamps wore struggling faintly through a haze of yellow fog the dead aliantbus blossoms rattled overhead as if the tree in front of Mrs. Media w'b rod brick house had blossomed full of little rattle boxes. And Mrs. Medlaw had just sat down to her evening refection of toast and tea, when Polly, the little maid, who always wore green checked gingham and carpet slippers, came eh u filing in. I "Please, ma'am, there's two young I ladies down in the parlor as says you're their aunt." "Oh, botherl" said Mrs. Medlaw, In a sort of soliloquy, "it's Eda and Ella. I knew they'd come on mo when their j father died. As if I hadn't anything j else to do but to support a swarm of I lazy relations. Why didn't you say I 1 wasn't at home, Polly?" 1 "I would, ma'am, if I'd a-supposed ! thev was anv relations of vour'n, aforo I'd let 'em in," said unconscious Polly. "But they was dressed bo nice and looked so clipper 1 thought, of course, they was real ladies!" "And just as the tea was boiling, too," said Mrs. Medlaw. "Oh, dear me, what a world this is!" Eda and Ella Carr were sitting, polo and black robed, in tho moldy smelling little parlor, when their aunt came in. They were pretty girls, with delicate, wax white complexions, hair bo dark that it gave you the impression of being black, and great, blue gray eyes. "Well, girls," Bald Mrs. Medlaw, rather ungraolously, "so you've come here?" "We had nowhere else to go, aunt? said Eda, meekly. i " Humph I" grunted the old lady. ; "Take off your things, 1 suppose you ! calculate to stay all night? Well, and ! what are you going to work at?" I "We don't know, aunt," said Ella, trying hard not to cry. "Well, ain't It high time you had?" said Mrs. Medlaw. "FolkB can't live on airl And two great, grown up girls like you ought to be doing something to earn their salt. There'B always plenty of work for willing hands. I've had to foreclose a mortgage on a little fancy store. I want to put some one In it to sell out the stock. I'll give you a fair I commission on what you sell. Come, 1 what do you say to that?" I "I am willing to try," said Ella. I "Heaven knows I am anxious enough to J earn my own living." "And I, too," said Eda. "We know j nothing about such a business" j "But you can learn, I suppose," said Aunt Medlaw. "But we can learn," Baid Eda, hopefully. hope-fully. And In less than a week- the little thread and needle store around the corner, cor-ner, which had presented a grim and shuttered front for some days, was reopened, re-opened, and two pretty girls, dressed in j black, were posted behind the counter. Mrs. Mopeon sent her two little boys to I match a skein of green worsted and in-1 in-1 quire for peppermint taffy first. The I widow Hope purchased a little hosiery ; and three cheap pocket handkerchiefs, A small girl came to ask the time of day, and an old man bought a pair of sus-peuderB, sus-peuderB, all within the hour, and Eda and Ella began to think they might, in time, develop into commercial characters of note. ' To be sure, business waxed rather dull toward the end of the day, but just at dusk a tall, nice looking young man came in to buy a card of pearl shirt buttons. but-tons. Ella took down a box, and they were quite a long time iu selecting the prettiest pattern and the most appropriate appropri-ate size. "1 forgot one thing," said the young man after he had contracted for an eighteen cent Investment. "I must liave them sewed on. Could you do It?" "I'll try" said Ella, laughing, "if you'll bring the shirta around." I So the young man brought his eliirta and sat down to wait, while Ella's needle ! flew deftly in and out. He was in a hurry, he told her. He was foreman in the printing office of a great daily paper, and worked at night, when the rest of the world was asleep, like a bat or an owL In the meantime Eda was trying to suit an old lady In green spectacles, who wanted some ribbon whose color she didn't exactly know, whose width ehe wasn't certain about, and whose quality he had yet to make up her mind con-earning. con-earning. But Eda's patience, tact and good temper were inexhaustible. At last the old lady was suited, and went away rejoicing, leaning on the arm of her nephew, who had manifested extraordinary extraordi-nary interest in the shade of drab ribbon. "That's a nice girl, Oswald," said she. "Do you know 1 almost think nha might suit me as a companion? She seemB so very good humored! I wonder if it would do to ask her If she would like a situation?" "I don't see why not," said Oswald Grey, thinking he never had seen softer gray eyes or prettier hair. "Shall we go backJ" "To-morrow Is time enough," sold Mrs. Marti guy, On tho morrow she came back. "Didn't the ribbon suit?" asked Eda. "Oh, yea, the ribbon was all right, but there's something else I want." "What is that?" asked Eda, innocently. "A companion to read to mo, takecare of my canaries, and play drowBy old tunes on the piano when 1 feel sleepy. 1 give $500 a year, Saturday afternoon and board. Will you come?" Eda looked at her sister. Five hundred hun-dred a year seemed a great um for the girl who had never yet earned Pve for ' herself. "Yes, go. Eda," said Ella; "1 can manage man-age the store by myself easily enough. And," In a whisper, "I've taken a contract con-tract to mako half a dozen new shirts for Mr. Lessner, we to find the material." "Who is Mr. Lessnerl-" "Oh, the printer. I can do It at odd ' minutes, when there is no one in the store," At the end of the month Eda came to report to her sister. "Well, Eda, how do you like it?" asked Ella. "Oh, bo much! Mrs. Martiguy is queer, but she is bo kind. And and Mr. Oswald Grey, her nephew, la very polite," "Is be?" "Yes," said Eda, fingering nt a box of hooka and eyoa; "1 like him ever so much, and he likes me. To tell the truth, Ella" "1 see," Bald Ella, putting her armi around her sister; "ho wants you to be his companion for lifo, ch, Eda?" "How did you know?" faltered dim-plod dim-plod Eda, "Oh, I'm not quite a fool," said Ella. "But now I've got something to tell you. |