The weekly Anglo-African. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1859-1861, 1859-10-08

before the eyes of his mind, and he could
not look away from them. But he was
not ready for this yet. He still felt moody
and unforgiving. The expression of his
wife's face he interpreted to mean ill ma
ture, and with i'll nature he had no patience.
His eyes again fell on the newspaper that
lay spread out before him, and he read the
sentence:
"A kind, cheerful word, spoken in a
gloomy home, is like rift in a cloud that
lets the sunshine through"
Lee struggled with himself while long
er. His own will had to be conquered first
his moody, accusing spirit had to be sub
dued. But he was coming right, and at
last got right as to will. Next came the
question as to how he should begin. He
thought of many things to say, yet feared
to say them, lest his wife should meet his
advances with cold rebnff AT last, lean
ing towards her, and taking hold of the lin
en- bosom upon which she was at work, he
said, in a voice carefully rlodulated with
kindness:
"You are doing that work very beauti-
fully, Mary"
Mrs. Lee made no reply, But her hus-
band did not fail to observe that she lost,
almost instantly, that rigid erectness with
which she had been sitting, nor, that the
motion had ceased
My shirts are better made and whittier
than those Of any man in our shop" said
Lee, encouraged to go on.
Are they 2"-Mrs. Lees voice was low
and had in it slight degree of huskiness
She did not turn her face; but her husband
saw that she leaned little towards him.
He had broken the ice of reserve, and was
all easy now.-His hand was among the
clouds, and a few feeble rays were already
struggling through the rift it had made.
''Yes, Mary" he answered, softly, land
and Pve heard it said more than once, what
a good wife Andrew Lee must have"
Mrs Lee turned her face toward her hus-
band. There was a light in it, and light
in her eye; but there was something in the
expression of the countenance that puzzled
him.
"Do you think So" she asked, quite Sob
erly.
"What question: calculated Andrew
Lee, starting up, and going round to the
side of the table where she was sitting.
"What question, Maryp he repeated as
he stood before her.
'Do your" 1t was all she said.
"Yes, darling" was his warm-spoken an
swer, and he stoopee down and kissed her.
"How strange that you should ask me such
a question:
"Ifyou would only tell ME so now and
then, Andrew, it would do me good" And
Mrs. Lee and, leaning her face against the
manly breast of her husband, stood and
wept
What a strong light broke in upon the
mind of Andrew Lee. He had never given
his faithful wife even the smallest reward
of praise for all the loving interest she had
manifested daily, until the doubt of his love
had entered her soul, and made the light
around her thick darkness. No wonder that
her face grew clOhden, nor that what he con-
sidered moodiness and ill-natare took pos
session Of her spirits.
'You good and true, Mary, my own dear
wife. am proud of you; love you, and
my first desire is for pour happiness. Oh,
if could always see your face in sunshine,
my home would be the dearest place on
earth.
GLOW precious to me are your words of
love and hraise," eaid Mrs. Lee, smiling up
through her tears into his face. with
them in my ears, my heart can never lie
in shadow
How easy had been the work for And
rev Lee. He had swept his hand across
the cloudy horizon Of his home, and now
the bright sunshine was streaming down,
and flooding that home with joy and beau
ty.--T. S. Arthur.