208 CHARITY'S SECRET.
"Yes- zephyr work. It pays well- over a dollar a day. Your husband got me a place in the factory, and leave to bring my work home. " Her face brightened quickly. It was naturally cheerful, intelligent, and, as I have said, true. Her mother was, as I afterward learned, a north country Irishwoman, with better cultivation than most of her class.
Dr. Brettler sat talking as he but seldom exerted himself to do. I saw that so deep was the feeling for him with both of these women, that his visit was more helpful, and more of a cordial than any which money could buy.
"You have your tea drawn, Margaret," he said, glancing at the kettle on the stove. 66 Will you spare us a cup? My wife will tell you our supper was anything but cheerful."
Margaret's face flushed with pleasure as she handed us the cups. As we drank the tea, I gave her mother a slight outline of the day's history. She listened gravely. She had a shrewd, thoughtful face.
"That's the way! That's the way !" shaking her head." And then the kindest-hearted people get discouraged, and hardened, and wash their hands of the poor!"
"What is wrong, then, Mrs. Lennox ? Why should these people have been generous and helpful to each other until this public aid was offered? The first appearance of help from the rich seemed to rouse the worst passions of their nature. They were greedy, envious, ungrateful. "
"I don't know if I can say rightly what I think. But it seems to me, ma'am, as if the rich and poor never could understand each other unless they changed places. You give, thinking you are generous- and so you are ; but you don't see that the poor take it with a feeling they've had secretly all their lives, that it is their right; that you cheat them, so long as you wear your silk dresses, and they wear rags. The more kept down a people have been, the more they feel that. But don't give up, madam- don't give up!"
We bade her good-night soon after, and walked slowly home. Ann had aired the parlor, removed the dusty drugget from the floor, and rade a fire in the open grate, which cast a soft, red light over the pretty room, more heartsome than any other could be. Before it sat Charley, keeping his eyes open with staring at it.
I was not tired now. When I sat down, happy and thankful for my pleasant home and the loving faces opposite me, I did not forget the friendly, Irish heart of Ann, with her quick insight and sensitive nature. It only made the riddle deeper that puzzled me. George romped with Charley awhile, and then sang for us. Soon Charley fell asleep, and we were left alone.
"How could you do so much for Mrs. Lennox, George?" I said. I knew how straitened he was.
"I could do but little myself; but there is a systematized machinery of charity here, sufficient to relieve all the need that exists. It only requires to be set in motion.”
"Well!" I sighed, "I want to be a helper in the world, but I am disappointed, George."
"I am sorry , Lou."
"This was but a little matter, I know, but it is an index; and it seems to me there's a great gulf between the two classes, even in this country, that charity will never bridge over.”
"Alms-giving will not. "
"What then?"
"I think old Mrs. Lennox had partly seen the truth; the poor need to have their birth, their education, the generations of vice and oppression that went before them, to be considered before we can understand them. Sympathy and help are more wanted by dwarfed minds, and warped consciences, than starved bodies; though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. " "But their minds are not always dwarfed, Mrs. Lennox is a far cleverer woman than I, I doubt not. Generally, when that is the case. they are rough, impertinent. They assert their equality by ill-breeding. And again; are you to go on trying to help, when, in nine cases out of ten, you will be misjudged or imposed upon."
"Isn't it worth the risk?”
"I don't know. Well, at all events, I am glad you persisted in helping Margaret Lennox, impostor as she was at first. She had a sterling nature, her face speaks it. And you saved her, dear George!" my heart choked me. "You know what is promised to him who converts a sinner? he shall save his own soul alive'—is not that it?"
"No. But, dear Lou, " he said with an effort, " would not this gulf you talked of be bridged over, if we thought less of our own generosity, or danger of being cheated or misjudged, and met every man, the rich as the poor, on the simple platform of God's creatures, sure to need help for something as we ourselves do. We should fear neither impertinence from the one class, nor aggression from the other, in that case. Our brothers -isn't that the secret?"
Now this all happened a long time ago. But I often ask myself now, seeing how His suns shine and rains fall on all alike, not heeding their response, " God's creatures-is that the secret?"
