1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
599 
The Reformation of a House. 
“The best girl you ever hired? Well, 
1 knew she was just the one for you, 
and it’s a good place for her, too. I’m 
always glad when I can bring folks to¬ 
gether that has need of one another. It 
makes me think of the time we reformed 
the Curtis house. 
“Yes, houses can get bad names by 
going in bad company, just the same as 
folks. The Curtis house made me think 
of a young man of good family, that’s 
gone to the bad, but really has lots of 
good in him, if he’d just turn round and 
be respectable. But in such cases de¬ 
cent folks generally care too much for 
their own reputation to do anything 
about it. That’s how it was with the 
Curtis house. There’d been some pretty 
bad goings on in it, and nobody that was 
anybody wanted to live there, even if it 
was a real nice house, for them days. 
“When it was built, the Curtis family 
lived there and it was full of lively 
young people, and it did make me feel 
bad to see it empty and all closed up 
and going to rack and ruin. It was 
across the fields from our house and in 
plain sight, and every time I looked over 
there I’d wish I could do something 
about it. Did you ever notice how if you 
want something for a long time it will 
generally come to you after awhile? I’ve 
noticed it a good many times. Well, that 
was the way it was about the Curtis 
house. 
“It was one Monday morning, I re¬ 
member. and I was doing my washing, 
that it kept running through my head 
about the house. I was worrying about 
the three Joslyn girls, too. You know, 
when you get to worrying you generally 
have two or three things on hand, and 
so you can go from one to the other. 
Sophia had been over that morning to 
tell me that she and the twins had about 
decided to go into the factory to work. 
‘You and mother have fought against it, 
I know,’ she says, ‘but something’s got 
to be done. There’s a big family of us 
and we’re as poor as Job’s cat, and 
there’s just nothing else for us to do.’ I 
could see there was truth in what she 
said, but it did make me feel awful. I 
thought the world of them three girls, 
and I had a feeling they was made for 
something better than the factory. 
“While I was thinking about these 
things, Deacon Greer went by and I see 
he had a letter for me, so I run out to 
get it. It was from Dr. Burrell, she that 
was Emily Turner. We’d been school¬ 
mates and she always spent her vaca¬ 
tions with me. It was July, then, and 
I’d been expecting to hear from her. The 
only thing I remember in her letter was 
this: ‘I’m coming out Wednesday for 
my two weeks. Dr. Gaynor will take my 
patients. There are two of them that I 
feel very anxious about. They have 
melancholia, are rich as Croesus, and I 
can’t seem to do what I want to for 
them. How I’d like to bring them with 
me. 1 believe you would cheer them up.’ 
“I forgot to read the rest of the let¬ 
ter, I was so excited. I could see, just 
as plain, how the reforming of the Cur¬ 
tis house, the keeping the Joslyn girls 
out of the factory, and the curing of Dr. 
Burrell’s patients, all went together. 
“I left the washing just as it was and 
harnessed old Dick into the buggy, and 
then I got into another dress, locked the 
house, and started. I was thinking so 
hard I don’t believe I’d know it if I’d 
met my best friend. First, I went to the 
Joslyns’. Sophie was just starting out 
to make her application for a place in 
the factory, so I was just in the nick of 
time. 
“ ‘Sophie,’ I says, ‘if you and the twins 
could keep out of the factory, would you 
be willing to live in the Curtis place?’ 
“She looked at me surprised for a 
minute, then her face lighted up. ‘Aunt 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs.Wins- 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
Asenath,’ she says, ‘I see you have got 
something on your mind, and if you 
wanted us to live in Mr. Snell’s old 
empty piggery, why, we’d do it.’ 
“ ‘That’s settled, then,’ I says. ‘Now 
I’d like to have you three come over to 
my house at one o’clock. Wear your 
worst clothes, and bring a broom 
apiece.’ And then I drove on, feeling 
pretty good. You can’t help being 
pleased when folks show right out that 
they think a lot of you. 
“I found Dr. Norton—he had the let¬ 
ting of the place— and I says to him: 
‘How much will you give me if I’ll re¬ 
form the Curtis place, so decent folks 
will be glad to live in it?’ 
“He answered just as prompt: ‘I’ll 
give you three months’ rent, Aunt Asen¬ 
ath,’ and he handed me the keys. 
“ ‘And can I use my own judgment 
about destroying any old trash I find 
there?’ He said I might, and so I start¬ 
ed on again. 
“I went to the depot and sent a tele¬ 
gram to Dr. Burrell. ‘Don’t come till 
Thursday, on the 2.35 train,’ I says, ‘and 
bring the two melancholy patients with 
you.’ 
“After I’d sent that message I felt as 
if I’d really begun to accomplish some¬ 
thing, and-I did my other errands as 
quick as I could. 
“I went to the furniture store and or¬ 
dered four cheap but comfortable beds 
and mattresses to be sent out, and some 
other furniture—not very much, because 
I had a good many things I could spare 
for awhile. Then I found a man to haul 
a load of our wood over and saw and 
split it up, and I went to the hardware 
store and told ’em to send a man over 
right away to see if the hydraulic ram 
that supplied the house with water was 
in running order. I waited till the man 
started, too, because I knew we’d want 
water and plenty of it, to clean the 
place, after all the villainy there’d been 
there. It was 11 o’clock when I come 
home, and I got my washing out of the 
way in a hurry, and cobbled up some 
kind of a dinner. When John came in 
he looked at the table kinder surprised 
like. ‘Well,’ he says, ‘what great scheme 
have you got on hand now, Asenath? 
You never have this kind of a dinner 
unless something is going to happen.’ 
“Some men would have said that so’s 
to make a woman real mad, but that 
wa’n’t John’s way, and even if it had 
been I knew by that time that ’twa’n’t 
no use for married folks to fly out at 
every little thing. 
“Well, when I told him what was up, 
he give a big sigh and looked so dole¬ 
ful that I asked him what was the mat¬ 
ter. 
“ ‘Matter!’ he says, ‘why, there’s go¬ 
ing to be more fun at the old Curtis 
house this afternoon than a circus and 
county fair put together, and here I’ve 
got to be down in the medder making 
hay.’ He really did feel bad not to be in 
the fun. You see, he knew the Joslyn 
girls, and I believe you said you never 
see ’em. 
“They was on hand prompt at one 
o’clock and we started across ihe fields 
for the Curtis house. Anyone might 'a’ 
thought we was a company of witches, 
seeing we all carried brooms. Besides 
them we had a couple of water pails, 
some cleaning cloths and dusters. 
“We come to the house, and I unlock¬ 
ed the side door and we went in. It al¬ 
ways gives you a kinder creepy feeling 
to go into an empty house like that. It 
seems like a dead thing, somehow. But 
I can tell you it wa’n’t dead long. We 
opened all the doors and windows, so’s 
to get rid of that old musty smell, and 
then we went up to the attic. ‘We’ll 
begin at the top,’ I says, ‘and work 
down.’ 
“There was considerable old rubbish 
—broken chairs, old papers and boxes 
and empty bottles and pieces of old iron 
It wa’n’t long before we had a bonfire 
started in the backyard, and we piled 
up the bottles and old iron for the junk¬ 
man. 
“Oh, but we did have a good time! 
When you get four capable women that 
likes to work, and likes each other, 
started on a job of that kind they’re go¬ 
ing to have a good time and things are 
bound to move, and it’s lots of fun to 
see ’em move. 
“At first the Joslyn girls was kinder 
quiet, being in a strange place, so, but 
before long they was singing and laugh¬ 
ing, and it did seem as if the evil spir¬ 
its that was haunting the place just had 
to get out, because they couldn’t stand 
that pure and innocent happiness. You 
see the Joslyn girls was dredful jolly 
and full of life. There wa’n’t a thing 
coarse or vulgar about ’em, but they did 
love to train and carry on among them¬ 
selves, and that was one reason why I 
wanted to keep ’em out of the factory. 
I knew if they went there, they’d grow 
loud and slangy and just a little coarse, 
and I couldn’t bear to see it. But their 
loveliness and training was just what 
was needed to cure Dr. Burrell’s melan¬ 
choly patients, and I knew it. 
“I can’t go into all the particulars, but 
it’s enough to say that we had an awful 
good time, and by Thursday noon the 
house was sweet and clean, from garret 
to cellar, and it was furnished—kinder 
scanty, to be sure, but so anybody could 
be comfortable there, and there was 
some good wholesome food in the pan¬ 
try, too. The girls was wonderful good 
cooks. 
“We was waiting for Dr. Burrell and 
her patients to come, and i was giving 
the girls some final instructions. ‘Now,' 
I says, ‘it an depends on you whether 
Dr. Burrell’s patients get cured and the 
house gets reformed and you keep out 
of the factory. What you must do is to 
act just as ridiculous, and train and 
carry on just as hard, as you can. You 
must chase each other around, and have 
pillow fights, and laugh just as hearty 
as you know how, and tell all the funny 
stories you can think up. And here they 
come now,’ I says, for I see John driv¬ 
ing in at the gate with Emily and her 
two patients. 
“When I see them well-dressed wom¬ 
en’s woe-begone faces, I begun to be 
kinder doubtful as to whether the girls 
would be able to ever make ’em smile, 
and I’ll admit that as John and I jogged 
home around by the road I did feel a 
little bit tired and discouraged. 
“But, land! I had no need to have wor¬ 
ried. Why, the very next day Dr. Bur¬ 
rell came over to see me. ‘Actually, 
Asenath,’ she says, ‘after those frisky 
girls had helped the patients to bed, I 
heard both Mrs. Atwater and Mrs. Cor- 
thell laugh softly to themselves. I’ll 
have a sanitarium here through the 
Summer. It will make my fortune.’ 
“She went back to the city when her 
fortnight was up, but the two patients 
stayed till the middle of October. Not 
that they needed to, for they was all 
cured in less than a month, but they 
liked the place, and they had all their 
friends and relatives come out and visit 
’em, and they paid the girls high-priced 
board. 
“Well, when October come, Mrs. Cor- 
thell took Sophie to the city with her 
for a companion, and they traveled down 
South that Winter. Sophie had a good 
deal of musical talent, and Mrs. Corthell 
gave her advantages and had her voice 
cultivated, so now she is leading soprano 
in a big city church. Mrs. Corthell 
thinks the world of her, and would 
adopt her if she hadn’t got a father and 
mother already. 
“The twins went with Dr. Burrell and 
took a course at the hospital and got to 
be trained nurses, and good ones, too. 
Emily wanted to hire the Curtis place 
the next Summer, but long before that 
it was sold to a rich man—and good, re¬ 
spectable folks have lived there ever 
ever since. 
“Yes, as I said in the beginning, it’s 
lots of satisfaction to bring folks to¬ 
gether that has need of one another, 
and I s’pose there’s just the right place 
for everybody if only you could find it.” 
SUSAN BROWN ROBBINS. 
TRY GRAIN-0! TRY GRAIN-01 
Ask your Grocer to-day to show you a package of 
GKAIN-O, the new food drink that takes the place 
of coffee. The children may drink It without Injury 
as well as the adult. All who try It, like It. GRATN-0 
has that rich seal brown of Mocha or Java, hut it Is 
made from pure grains, and the most delicate stomach 
receives It without distress. the price of coffee 
16c. and 36c. per package. Bold by all grocers 
At one 
HALF THE COST 
Lion Coffee 
has better strength and 
flavor than many so-call¬ 
ed "fancy” brands. 
Bulk coffee at the same 
price is not to be com¬ 
pared with Lion in quality. 
In i lb. air tight, 
sealed packages. 
M) WURLITZER 
Brass Band 
INSTRUMENTS, DRUMS, ETC. 
Reduced Prices. Don’t bur untilyou see 
new 80-pp. Oat. B. MAILED FREE. 
The Rudolph Wurllteer Co., 
178 K. 4th 8*., CI8CI8JUTI, 0. 
Banner Lye 
The best help in cleaning household 
and farm utensils. 
Makes pure soap without boiling. 
A Farm for You 
California 
The Santa Fe will take you there 
any day in September or October 
for only $33 from Chicago, or $25 
from Kansas City. 
Corresponding rates from East generally 
—tickets good in tourist sleepers or chair 
cars—enjoyable ride on the shortest, 
quickest, pleasantest line. 
Also one fare, plus $2, round trip to Great 
Southwest, first and third Tuesdays, 
August, September, October. 
Exceptional opportunities for homeseek- 
ers m magnificent San Joaquin Valley, 
California. Money-making investments. 
Write to Geo. C. Dillard, Gen. Agt. 
Santa Fe, 377 Broadway, New York, 
for California land folders. 
Cheap Excursions 
A ROMANCE OF THE RAIL. 
A bright and amusing little story told 
in a way that will interest everyone who 
believes the course of true love can 
sometime run smooth ; handsomely il¬ 
lustrated and beautifully bound. The 
booklet will be sent free to anyone who 
will mail two cents in stamps to cover 
the cost of postage. Address T. W. Lee, 
General Passenger Agent, Lackawanna 
Railroad, New York City. 
THE 
THOUSAND 
ISLANDS 
There may he somewhere on the 
earth a more delightful region 
than that of the Thousand Islands, 
hut if there is, it has not been dis¬ 
covered. It is the Venice of 
America, hut also has good hotels 
that can be kept warm if there 
shall happen to be a cold rainy 
evening. It is as fine as the Bay 
of Naples, with 2,000 picturesque 
Islands scattered along the 25 
miles of one of the most beautiful 
rivers in the world. You can find 
out a great deal regarding it in 
No. 10 of the "Four-Track Series,” 
"The Thousand Islands.” Copy 
will be mailed free on receipt 
of a two-cent stamp by George 
H. Daniels, General Passenger 
Agent, New York Central & Hud¬ 
son River Railroad, Grand Central 
Station, New Y’ork. 
