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The Brussels Post, 1909-12-09, Page 2Between Ourselves >> feet OR, WAITING THROUGH WEARY YEARS. preceding Christmas, that Marie very nearly succumbed to her weak­ ness. One afternoon when the last batch of pies was put into the oven, Marie dropjied exhausted into her chair, and nearly fainted. Her hard tasj;-mistress applied the moral spur immediately. "I’ll tell you what, Marie, if you can’t do better than this, you must find another place, and I must find another servant!” Marie’s thin cheek, an instant be­ fore flushed deeply with the fire of hectic fever, now grew pale as ashes, as she faltered: "I will try—indeed I will try. And she staggered to her and went to work again. "Now mind you, Marie! I give you till New Years. If don’t do better between this then, you go,” said her mistress. "I will do my very best, ma’am, indeed I—” began the poor girl, but a violent fit of coughing stop­ ped her words and nearly choked her breath. And she kept her promise so well that it was nearly twelve o’clock at CHAPTER IX.—fCont’d) The Berger people were not very intelligent, not very much given to thinking or speaking of any other subject than such as related to money-making or money-saving; but even they, in the course of time, had come to the conclusion that the whole of Marie Serafinne’s life, before she arrived among them —a life of which she never spoke— was a secret that she did not care to tell. Nor did they care to inquire. She was too useful, indeed, tod neces­ sary to them, to make it politic to question too closely into her past. If there were any secrets in her life that rendered her more help­ less and timid, more patient in la­ bor and humble in demands, why, so much the better for them. She would work all the harder, and for less money. And so, as years passed, they put more and more work upon her, and paid her less and less for it. For long years she bore her in­ creasing burdens bravely. She arose at four o’clook every morn­ ing, two hours before any other ____ member of the family stirred, and ’ night when she stopped work, and she worked incessantly until ten ‘ crept up to her hard bed in the cold 0 clock at night, and sometimes attic. even until twelve midnight. She Exhausted as she was, she could ne\er got more than six hours’j not sleep. She was too anxious, sleep, and often not more than j feverish and restless, and the sea- four; but so great was her fatigue cnvu . -Pull 1^,.Vt-»RZir» 1—4-n ac the end of every day’s hard work, that, as soon as she dropped upon her bed ’ each night, she fell instantly into a profound and dreamless sleep, that, in its depth, was like a temporary death. Each morning she awoke from this state with a start and shudder, and a great diread of the day’s burden to be instantly taken up and borne through eighteen or twenty hours of painful, profitless, thankless la­ bor, and she would rather have closed her eyes, and fallen into the ■ sleep of death, than have roused and goaded her weary, aching body t> the agony of new exertion, for which she was growing more and more unfit and incapable. But the law of necessity was upon her, and each day, with a greater effort, she conquered her weakness and pain, "And took up her burden of life again.” will you and Did her mistress notice her failing health and strength 1 Be sure she did; but only with anxiety on the subject of her own interests, and not at all on that of . the girl’s sufferings. And whenever she would observe Marie looking unusually pale and weary, and moving with unusual languor and slowness, she would say, hardly: "I’m afraid you ain’t strong enough to do my work.” This acted upon the failing and fainting woman as it was meant to ' act, as a sharp lash to a jaded mare, stinging her to fresh exert- tions. It continued a covert threat, un­ derstood, and meant to be under­ stood, by Marie—a threat of dis­ missal, to her old life of homeless solitary wandering about the coun­ try. Sooner than brave this fate again, poor Marie would work un­ til she should drop and die at her work. son was too full of heart-breaking associations. ■Rt was now only two days till Christmas. And on this night . twelve weary years before, her clffld had been born and strangled in Cliff Cottage! That memory' alone without fever, cough and care, was enough to have kept her awake all night. She rolled and tossed from side to side, and called on the Lord to pity and forgive and help her. Towards morning a feeling of ut­ ter exhaustion, a faintness unto death, came over her; set the hour being so near daylinght, she feared to yield herself to sleep, lest she should not wake early enough to rise and get the breakfast ready. But battling with this overpowering drowsiness was like battling with death. There could be but one is­ sue. She soon fell into a deep and dreamless sleep like temporary an­ nihilation. Some hours later she awoke sud­ denly, and found the morning sun shining full into her face! A great terror seized her, exag­ gerated by her own low nervous condition. She heard the-family stirring. She knew that they would all be downstairs soon for their breakfast. And she had done no­ thing! Not even, made the fire to boil the kettle. And she reflected, as she started up, and began to hurry on her scant clothing; on all that she had to do, at this late hour! Bread to make, hot forbreak- r. eggs act on her threat, and to turn me out of doors, Well, I1—I cannot say a word! I have nothing to say! If I could only die I” Her miserable mourning was in­ terrupted by the entrance of Mrs. Berger and several of the men, Marie Serafinne looked up timidly to read her fate in her mistress’s face. But Mrs. Berger was looking around the kitchen in smiling ap­ proval. "Well, Marie,” she began, "you have got before hand with your work this morning. And you did it by getting up an hour earlier. I heard you bustling about down here before daylight. Now if you would always be so smart I wouldn’t want a hotter girl!—‘Come! put the breakfast on the table,” she added, taking up the steaming coffee-pot and setting it upon the board. Mario Serafinne looked at her mistress in consternation. Was Mrs. Berger making game of x-erf Marie did not know, and she was too much frightened to inquire. She placed the hot dishes on the table, and stood silently waiting while the large family gathered around it and sat down. "You were up so early, Marie, and you have done so much work this morning that you must want your breakfast too. Sit down now with us and take it. When you real­ ly are smart I like to reward you,” said Mrs. Berger, still smiling. This was a very unusual favor, and Marie, wondering more and more-what her mistress could pos­ sibly mean, sat down, and took the cup of coffee that Mrs. Borger pass­ ed out for her. "Was all this a mockery?” she asked herself. Would Mrs. Berger presently turn on her and send her from the house? Marie did not knowu She was thoroughly mysti­ fied. But she was very hungry, like all consumptives. And so, not­ withstanding her mortification and anxiety, she ate a good substantial breakfast, and felt better and stronger for it. After breakfast the men dispers­ ed to their field work, and the mis­ tress harnessed her pony to her lit-, tie wagon, and went off to the vil­ lage of Peakville to make some pur­ chases, leaving Marjgjip do all the housework alone. "I shouldn’t wonder if she was going there to get another girl be­ fore she sends me away. If she is, I wish she would tell me, so I might know what to depend on,” said the poor woman to herself. And, timid as she was, she braced herself to ask the question: "Mtb. Berger, are you going to send me away?” she faintly inquir­ ed, as her mistress was about step­ ping into the wagon. "No, Marie; not if you do as well as you have done this morning, 1 shan’t send you away; but if you go lazing about the house, on ac­ count of sickness, I shall have to do it. because I don’t keep a hospital, you know,” answered Mrs. Berger, as she took the reins, and started her pony. Marie went back into the kitchen, less frightened but more mystified than ever. • Who had done her work that morning? That was the question that per­ plexed her beyond all possibility of settlement. However, there was a great deal of work yet to do. There was breakfast to clear away, dinner toi nour > .bread to make, hot for fast, bacon to cut and fry, . , , - ,to beat up into omelettes, potatoesi Pufc, on to cook’ and &€ beds to And strange to say, she felt al­ most strong enough to do ft with­ out fatigue. She soon restored the kitchen to order, put on a ham to boil, and a piece of beef to roast, regulated CHAPTER X. The end drey near. When Marie Serafinne had been working out wiis worse than penal servitude for more than ten weary years. It hap­ pened that during the eleventh win­ ter, an extremely severe one, she took a deep cold that fell upon her lungs. Though very ill, she did not dare keep her bed. She knew full well that her hard task-mistress would neither tolerate an idle woman, nor be burdened with a sick one. So every morning, after a night of coughing, fever and restlessness, followed by a heavy perspiration, she would rise, weakened and drip­ ping wet, and dress in her cold and fireless attic, and go shivering down stairs to light the kitchen fire and cook the breakfast. And she would keep at work through her prostration in the morning and her fever in the afternoon and evening. Of course she grow worse and worse. And notwithstanding her best, efforts, her work went behind. It was now late in December, and the Christmas Holidays were at hand, when the married daughters, the sons-in-law and the grandchil­ dren of the family were coming home for a visit. And there was so much extra eJeansing and cooking to be done that the wovk w almost doubled. It WJ.JJ during this trying week to bake, rice to boil. AU, this, that} should have been begun two hours ' sooner, to do now, and the family p' ready to come down to the break-j' I fast that they supposed to be smok-1 ing hot and ready for them. 1 Shuddering with sickening fear as ’A • t • . much as with the bitter cold, she ; tke, flre> a°d theP ^ent “P-stairs to went downstairs. Passing down through the middle “2. ro.?ms:. . passage, she heard the young men!, . ,, walking about in their rooms, evi-1 ]a„slb®d^nd fehe lasfc room’ she felt dently ready to come down. And they were always as hungry and as cross as famished wolves. Ah! for the poor, sick, friendless woman! She expected no lighter punishment than to be sent angrily away from the house, to her home­ less wandering in search of a home, in this bitter winter weather I So, wishing for death to deliver her from the ills of life, she went into the kitchen. How great was her astonishment, and how much greater her terror at what she beheld. There was a fine fire glowing in the great cooking stove and heating all the large kitchen. ^On the top of the stove a large pot of coffee was boiling and filling the room with it fragrance; two large saucepans, one filled with rice and one with potatoes, were steaming in com­ pany; a great pail if fried bacon and eggs was covered over to keep warm, and a huge pan of hot rolls completed the bill of fare ready for breakfast. Even the table was nearly set in the kitchen, and not a spdon or a fork missing I All was quite ready, and not a soul to be seen I Marie Serafinne sat down in dis- •may. "The mistress has dono it all her­ self,” .she said, in despair, "she is tired of talking to me and hear- ........ ............ ing with me, and now she means to As e money earner it has proven Let us talk this matter over g to You want to make money 'quickly/easily atid with the least,possible investment. Taxicab per share offers 'that rare oppor- Stock at f unity for. you to make big pi-pfits. Now is the time while the Company is growing, to make the investment Some Simple You Ask—upon what do we base our prediction of big profits ? We Ans WeT-The big earnings of Taxi­ cab Companies in other cities in general, and the concrete results in particular of the operation of a comparatively small number of Taxicabs in Toronto covering a period of seven months. < The Logic is as plain as the simple proposition that two and two make four, and two more make six. If the number of Taxicabs which have been running in Toronto up to date warrant the directors in paying a dividend of 2 1-2 per cent, quarterly, or 10 per cent, per annum, doubling or trebling the number of Taxi­ cabs is bound to greatly increase the divi­ dend-earning capacity of the stock on a much larger ratio, because the overhead expenses do not increase, and the propor­ tion borne by each cab is small. Of Interest to You The Greater Scope Besides the Taxicab end of the busi­ ness, do not forget the great earning powers possessed by this Company from the marketing of commercial motors throughout the American continent. Motor driven vehicles for heavy trucking, all kinds of carting and light delivery are becoming more and more in demand. The possible scope of this side of the business is practically unlimited, for as a possible customer there is every manufacturer and commercial firm in the entire American Cc ntinent. And the Berna Commercial Mo­ tors have no peer in the field. MUSHROOM-POISONING. When one considers the frightful consequences of gathering and eat­ ing poisonous mushrooms in mistake for the edible variety, it is little short of marvellous that, one with­ out knowledge should dare go into the fields and woods and pick and1 eat any of the fungi growing there. If one is thoroughly familiar with some particular variety of edible mushroom, and can distinguish it at sight from all others, however similar in color and form, it is safe to eat that particular variety; but one must beware of other kinds that resemble it, for however slight the difference in appearance, one may be edible and the other poisonous. There is no absolute rule for dis­ tinguishing the edible from the poisonous kinds, and it is better, therefore, to give no general rules, but to follow only one: Suspect every mushroom which you do not know positively to be edible. To tliis rule, perhaps, may be added a second: Learn to distinguish the white-spored agarics • and avoid them all; for although there is an edible species it requires an ex­ pert to tell it, and the poison of another species is deadly, and there is no known antidote for it. A The chief poisons in mushrooms are two in number—muscarin and pjhallin. The first of these pro­ duces symptoms resembling those of alcoholic intoxication; followed by convulsions or paralysis, col­ lapse, and death from heart failure. These symptoms come on soon af­ ter the mushrooms have been eat­ en. In poisoning by phallin the symp­ toms do not appear until several hours after the meal. They re­ semble cholera, beginning with se­ vere abdominal pain, soon follow­ ed by vomiting, purging and col­ lapse. In all cases of mushroom-poison­ ing, vomiting should be induced as. soon as possible, and a large dose of castor-oil may be given to has­ ten the elimination of any aS yet un­ absorbed portions of the mushroom. Stimulants are needed to support the heart, and milk containing an abundance of magnesia or bicarbon­ ate of sodium may be given. Injections of a' salt solution into the veins and—in case of" muscarin poisoning—hypodermic injections of atropin are often employed by phy­ sicians with benefit.—Youth’s Com­ panion. Your money will make money for you faster in Taxicab Stock than in any other industrial on the Toronto market. The investment is secured by what is practically two distinct lines of business, either one of which would separately pay a big rate of dividends. Thus Taxicab Stock gives you double the chance of making your money earn money that is presented by the ordinary'proposition. If you neglect to participate in this issue of Capital Stock in the Berna Motors & Taxicabs, Limited, you are neglecting your own best interests. Subscriptions will be accepted up to 100 shares in the order received at this office. _ ' > jf •! 1 ■ if you wish to participate, beforeMail us your cheque at once, this issue of stock is exhausted. Adelaide and Victoria Sts. TLngllSn^ Toronto SEND FOR OUR ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET. Al . . - , a ,, ' its great capabfEtfes »n4 to-day the and is bound to rise in value- The j Adelaide and Victoria Sts., Toron-:make up eleven beds, and clean of the 'jraTOato Taxicabs is • time to buy is now, at its present ’ to, is offering Taxicab Stock for the rooms. lone of the most interesting invest- “ ] By the time she had finished the! ments the country. With its pre- ilast bed and the last room, she felt —+ . is tired of talking to me and bear- very tired. But she went down into the kit­ chen and washed the vegetables and put them on, and set the pies on the top of the stove to warm, and then laid the cloth for dinner. Finally, she sprinkled down some clothes to iron, and then she drop­ ped into a chair to rest while watching the pot boil. The family„.all came in to dinner. It was quite ready foi' them; and Mrs. Berger’s good humor continu­ ed. (To be continued.) ‘ money in Taxi cabs. Toronto’s New Rapid Transit __ tem an Industry which Offers an Ideal Investment. Taxicabs in large centres of po­ pulation have since their first in­ troduction to the public, paid large dividends to their shareholders. To­ ronto, the first city in Canada to install a taxicab service, will prove no exception to this rule, for ever since the announcement was made in April of this year, that the taxi­ cabs were ready for business, they have been overwhelmed with orders. , Torontonians have acquired the Taxicab habit, and depend on them for keeping all their business and social engagements. Sys- lone of the most interesting invest- Eent outfit it is a success, and ir—u an increased equipment, the re­ sults will be greatly increased earn­ ings in the future. As an investment there is no of­ fering to-day before the public vidend of 10 per cent, per annum, which presents greater possibilities than Taxicab Stock. The condi­ tions are ideal, because the trans­ portation system fills a long-felt want, and furnishes the only real rapid transit service in a large and quick growing community. Its rates are the lowest on the Ameri­ can continent, being based on a fiat rate per mile, and all charges are made automatically by the taxi­ meter which prevents all disputes between the driver and passen­ ger. Money" invested in Taxicab stock is money that works. Every dollar invested in it will be a working dol­ lar. Its earning capacity has been proven and after six ' months of successful operation, it can pay, beginning January 1st, 1910, a di- or %%, per cent, quarterly. With the equipment doubled or trebled the percentage of dividends will in­ crease in larger proportion, be­ cause the fixed charges are no more for a largo equipment than they arc for u smaller one, and the in­ creasing of the number of cars run is bound to decrease the propor­ tion of expense. Taxicab stock has a great future the safest SPOT. - Said to be the Deck or Cabin of a First-class Ocean Liner. Probably, the majority of people, —- if asked what they considered to be the safest spot for them to be in, would reply, "In bed. or in an arm­ chair by the side of the fire.” But they are quite mistaken. The risk of injury is much greater than if one was travelling by ship or rail. The curious fact is mentioned that, according to statistics, 60 per cent, of accidents happen while the victims are at home or in the street, the explanation being that a man when going a journey, or entering upon a hazardous undertaking, ex­ ercises special care, thus escaping injury, but while at home, or talcing exercise, vigilance is relaxed, fa- '"-3— miliarity with common dangers breeding contempt. Probably the safest place on land or seals the deck a: cabin of a first- class ocean liner. A first-class rail­ way carriage is also an exception­ ally safe place. This is so clearly recognized that accident insurance companies can afford to double the compensation when accidents occur on railways or tramcars. Certain companies will insure commercial travellers at premiums appreciably lower than those charged by gen­ eral accident insurance companies. A man may undertake a journey round the world with a compara­ tively light heart. But extreme care and vigilance are needed mado of' should he venture to hang his pic- v.jlcihYw j?b I tures or walk down his own stairs. Many persons are now taking The perils of the streets in dur big La Grippe, Colds. CouehR. WM- ! ... 1 « . • ... 0«.uu n is uxways saie.-~ft j c)wes Evre) 01 course, so wen Known ^’BelSaiwnMviSAa80«Gen3? f!’om the .body: that there is no need,to comment 1 public subscription at $6.00 per share. A JsW price, before the rise. Mr. E. A. English As, this very remarkable preparation is now called, is the greatest Constitutional Remedy ever known for Brood Mares, Colts, Stallions and all other horses; also Distemper among Dogs and Sheep, This compound is made of the purest ingredients and not an atom of poisonous or injurious nature enters Into Its J-arry persor^ uru now taking SPOHN’S for-La Grippe^ Colds. Coughs, Kid- ’ • ’ • „ • ■ ii iney Trouble, etc., and it is always safe. It 1 c)tles a're» coursc’ a° well known from the^body; that there is no need,to comment acts directly on the Blood and Glonds. I nr j i ♦ it jSPOHN’S is now sold by nearly every drug- i feereon. Most people imagine that trist find hnrnnino A'a'aIam _-1 _I— tX-X’•riTdr* *•-*■« .■“■•'•‘“t aujr uuu,y ju,uu xu/aaujt oau.cj.jijj xpu1 ?iL0oe?he dozen,1*00 * accidents happen even there. Not g!®1 ?eal-™Jn the Iand> and uny they must be fairly safe in bed. Yetgan ger it for you. Fifty cents and $■> J ..bottle,, and $6,00 and $11,00 the dozen. Record of Annual Sales. lst Year ........................ J.053 Bottles gold Jcar ........................ 4,364 Year ...................... 0 250 « <• Year ........................ 10,150 “ « 40,284 « “ . 72,380 '• « .100,532 . 124,500 “ « .172,485 " « .221,700 “ « .287,620 " « .878,962 « a .508,720 a « ..............548,260 a w --W ........................607,354.......“ aSend' for our Booklet of twelve good rcclnes tor family and stock medicines, FREE. Distributors All Wholesale Druggists oiin Medical Co. CHEMISTS ANO BACTERIOLOGISTS GOSHEN, BNDIZtNA, 6J. S. A, long ago a wealthy man was seri­ ously injured by being burned by a hot-water bottle after he had re­ tired to Test. The moral is, ol course, that whether a man lie, sit, walk, drive, or engage in any occupation or sport, he is always exposed to the risk of accident and should take his precautions accord­ ingly. loth SOMETHING IN IT. "Do you believe there is anything in luck?” queried the shiftless per­ son. "Yes,” rejoined the hustler. "There is more or less intelligence and perseverance in it.” It’s easy to gob rich -after veu havo hhc first million.