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Show MRS. McORERY. swept the snow from the steps of her boarding house with vicious vi-cious strokes, all the time keeping up a stream of grumbled protests about everything in general. "A fine start for a New Tear. Work, work, work, same as last! Hang that confetti, how it sticks! What is there to life, anyway? Work all day, and half the night, and for what? What difference does it make that I'm alive? Nobody cares. What do I do that's worth while? Nothing! Might just as well be dead." She had come to the end of the , walk, and now she knocked the snow off her broom and turned back. "And I thought once that some day I'd be a great lady." All morning Mrs. McCrery spent in a maze of abuse and self-pity, but when lunch time came she bethought be-thought herself of Dora Pike, third floor back. "Poor chick," she thought, "no work yet I'd better fix her up a bite to eat." She set a tray and covered It with a clean napkin. "Shame on me," she went on, as she climbed the stairs, "grumbling at my work, when that poor girl would give her arm for a job. Guess she isn't everything she would like to be either, but she doesn't go around bawling like a calf. She's "Me?" "Yes. I Was Feeling Sorry for Myself." an inspiration, that's what she is, and this coming year I'm going to try to be more her way. If I had to put up with what she has to, maybe I'd have some right to mope and complain." She paused, panting, and then knocked. "Here's just a bite " she began, as the door opened. "Why, what's the matter?" Dora Pike's eyes were red with weeping, and now they brimmed again. "Oh, it's you, Mrs. McCrery I Come in," she said. "I'm in a bit of a funk," she apologized, "what with New Year's, and alb In fact, I would have ended It, If It hadn't been for thinking of you." "Me?" "Yes. I was feeling sorry for myself not having any work, and so on, and then I thought of you and how brave you are about all the things you do have to do, that I was right ashamed of myself. But I dont know what I might not have done, if there hadn't been you to think about" "Well, dearie," said Mrs. McCrery, McCre-ry, as she gathered the girl In her arms, "maybe that's what we're here for, darlin'." Western Newspaper Uulon. |