Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-06-19

j
suffer, and die. 1t isn't so. You were
born to grow into q perfect manhood
which viii overcome. Blessed is he
which overcometh!' a1sit
$50 this is the word Jesus Christ left
you: Come TO me, friend who is OF
flesh, and kno,cs 1t all; let us bear the
heavy loads Of this world together; and
let us overcome
"You see the Lord of Glory, who went
through the world by the hard way, and
knows it's the best way for you, after all,
makes you His comrades!"
These words were not much, but
through them the preachers martial soul
touched the men. He lifted them on the
keen, magnetic points of his eyes. When
he burst out again with his song about
bearing the cross, their voices joined him
with mighty bass.
He spread his hands over them with q
short, loving benediction, and leaped
down from the cask to shake hands all
through his congregation, and ask special
questions. A1
1t was dusk. Tom could scarcely de-
fine the young apostles face; yet when
that ardent hand pressed his, he felt he
had found friend in the dark; he wrung
it; wrung its fire and JOY into his own
arm; lifted his forehead and squared his
shoulders; turned his back on the river,
went back to-Ada and failure
"Whether hope and happiness are for
me or not" said Tom, "I'll get some good
out of life for somebody"
He stepped up the clearinghouse
stairs with martial step. Hollow-eyed,
his hair damp with fog, you might have
taken him for warriors ghost.
He opened his chamber door, and
stepped just inside, seeing Ada bundled
down by the window. Wished with a
| longing, strong as his manhood, that he
| could make soJs of her. Then re-
| preached himself that he expected so
much of kitten. Resolved that he would
make the best and most of it, and notle
her fret him any more.
But the face which Ada turned to him
was not like any other face she had ever
shown him. Now whether God did visit
that woman and breathe into her living
soul, know not. People have strange
mental changes. Hers might have been
growing for years, like the century plant,
but it suddenly burst into flower.
She got up and came to meet her hus-
band. AS general thing Ada was not
demonstrative, though she expected GER
| tullI dHouhb VI chS pun hSi
hands on Toms elbows-she was too little
to reach his shoulders-and looked into
his eyes with long, steady, tender look,
which made the tears swell out to his
lashes, man though he was.
ooh, my darling!n breathed Ada, II
haven't ever been real wife to you"
Not another word Was it Ada or an
| angel in her body?
Tom sat down and drew her on his
shoulder He heard her breathing close
| to his ear in the dark-long drawn breaths
gurgling, sobbing breaths-and ground
her to him. pressed her almost into his
heart; his aoife; who at last knew the
selfrenunciation of love.
| Did she hold her husbands hands up
| afterwards? Did she divert him when he
failed, sparkle proudly into his eyes when
| he succeeded? renounce new dresses with
continual Lenten humiliation? care little
where they tented for the time, if Tom
were not hampered for money? Did she
take hold Loyalty with him, and give her
king the glory when victory was wong
She did. She actually did. If you
were to see that dear, stylish, charming
little Mrs. Tom to-day, bewtching her
husband, bewitching every man who APP
! preached her, with the honest charm of
an admirable womanhood, you would be-
lieve it of her. For women can change
themselves, though in nine cases out OF
ten, they will not. Therefore, the safest
investment is in the woman who doesn't
need changing.
AS for my Tom, when he is on a wave
top, he's waving his hat TO cheer those
who aren't; and when he is down in the
trough Of the sea, he shuts his mouth
tight and does his best.
Life isn't rest" says Tom, shaking
sour-looking crabs by the hand, "but with
all its knocks, there's something royal in
holding out courageously till the last, in
stead of just stiffening and going down
Glad ] didn't. Woods Household Nag
asine.