Gratia's Trials — page 42: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GRATIA’S TRIALS. 33 been in the fall, but the change had been so gradual that Gratia scarcely perceived it. Mrs. Kempfild’s persecutions and petty tyrannies were as unremitting as ever, but the sister and brother bore them together with Spartan valiantness, looking forward to some conquering future—what, or when, the poor things scarcely knew—that was to deliver them from this galling bond- age in due time. ‘«Sister, sister |” cried Raymond, jumping up to look out of the window, ‘‘there comes Joe Johnson down the road.” Joe Johnson it was—a gray-haired, erect old peddler, who traveled the country through, every spring and fall, with his japanned cases of silks, jewelry, and knickknacks, for the benefit of the farmer’s wives, daughters, and sisters, who were beyond the reach of other than village finery. He was a good-natured old man, popular enough wherever he went, and he never for a moment doubted a welcome under any roof which happened to shelter him at the moment when the shades of night over- took him. . Mrs. Kempfield bustled in from the back room, and stretched her neck to look out of the window over RKaymond’s head. ‘«Sure enough, it’s him,” said she, ‘‘and he’s come just in the nick of time. My black silk is getting too shabby to be decent, and your father promised me a birthday present of a new pair of ear-rings.” The black silk dress was duly purchased—a cheap, shiny silk, which Mrs. Kemfield judged was likely to make the most show for the money, and it was not until evening, when Ira himself was at home, that the peddler revealed the glories of what he called his ‘‘ joowalry department.” ‘‘Now,” quoth he, solemnly wagging his head, ‘‘ them ear- rings is just about what Mrs. Kempfield wants for her style of beauty. Gold pendings with a bar of real coral across each, and a gold fringe all the way round—they’re elegant—real gems in their way.” (G(0) Gomicboo =|