The Good, the Bad, the Otherwise, and a Few Laconics By L. A. L.
The Neighborly Woman.
IN spite of all the evidence we may think
we have to the contrary, there are still
enough of the old-fashioned women left to act
as a sort of leaven in a. community, and there
are, in some neighborhoods, the real brand of
neighborly women; the women who still come
to sit up with the sick, help with the unex
pected trouble, and lift as much of the burden
from weary shoulders, as it is possible to do.
There is one mousey little woman, known to
a rather limited circle, who is all the old-fash
ioned woman ever was, with the added advan
tage of having an independent fortune, and
until the Last Dav comes, and the Big Book
is opened, no one will ever know the size of
here beneficiences, nor the number of people
who have come to her for aid, and gone away
cheered.
She is the little woman who remembers, in
the autumn, that winter is coming, and no one
but the Lord and the coal man know just how
many tons of coal she sends out to people who
probably never would know what a good fire
was, if it were not for her thought.
She can always remember when to send the
little gifts that mean so much. She is the sort
of woman who thinks of flour, and potatoes,
and money, and little helps for the girls when
they are going off to school, or for the boys
when they are starting out. She never talks
about these things, and she frowns at the
word “charity,” and it wont be until she is
dead that the size of her list of friends will
be known.
