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Show BETTY'S TALENT. "And Betty is the only one of you girls who isn't a wage earner," said Mrs. Devon to her oldest niece, Katherine Lowe. "How does it happen that she hasn't chosen a profession?" "Che has never displayed a talent for any special spe-cial line of work, and as the rest of us manage to keep the exchequer large enough to cover expenses, we have never felt it was necessary for her to try to get anything to do." "I think it's very generous of you girls,'" returned re-turned Mrs. Devon, who had just come from a long distance to visit her widowed sister and daughters for the first time in many years. "Probably," she reflected, "there is a pet in nearly every family, but I do hope Betty isn't being made selfish." Betty was her favorite niece, perhaps because she was her namesake, but more probably for the reason that she had long been her correspondent and kept her well informed about the family doings do-ings in bright, newsy letters that came with delightful de-lightful regularity. She could not bear to think that Betty was an idler in the household hive, and she watched her with particular interest during her visit. "Do you know, Katherine." she said the evening before her departure, "I think we have both been mistaken about Betty? When I first came, you said she had no talent, and while I didn't say so. I feared that she was being spoiled, and the truth is, she has a great talent, and it is for spoiling other people." "Spoiling other people. Why, what do you mean ?" asked Katherine, laughingly. "Perhaps helping would be a better word. She has a perfect genius for giving assistance. Why, in the short time I've been here I've grown to rely on her help, and it seemed perfectly natural and right to let her pack my trunk today. I allowed ner to do it just as freely as you girls let her do so much of your work." "Katherine looked greatly surprised, but said nothing, and Mrs. Devon went on: "Her helpfulness helpful-ness has become a matter of course." "Why, aunty, wdry do you say that?" "You aren't surprised, are you, when you find .one of your stories or newspaper articles neatly "copied, on the typewriter?" "Xo, but Betty loves to use the typewriter." "1 es, and she likes to mark arithmetic papers, too. I suppose, for I often see her correcting and marking the ones that Grace brings home from her school every day. And I've no doubt she is equally equal-ly fond of housekeeping, for she is your mother's right-hand man. "from the number of buttonholes she has made in the blouses the dressmaker left unfinished I'm led to suspect that she has quite a fancy for sewing; sew-ing; and she must like ironing, for I notice that she presses Xan's office skirt two or three times a week. How fortunate she is in having such opportunities op-portunities for indulging her versatile tastes!" "Oh, aunty, what a realistic picture you draw of the family! You see things clearer than we do, and it's time our eyes were opened. I always thought Betty had no talent, but she really seems to be the only one of us sisters to whom were given the ten talents." Catholic Tribune. |