American citizen., 1873-08-09

ashamed to tell me plainly that MIR
Rogers made the gift, and she ought to b
ashamed Yes, | say it exceeds anythin:
| ever knew of in the line of eXtrava
gancei''
t Certainly Mrs. Testers statement seem
ed most plausible, yet her husband grew
strangely interested in the minister's littl
helpmeet during the recital, and the man
ly resolve in his heart to purify the tom
of his own wife's thoughts was thorough,
. rooted. In Il firm but gentle voice, h
, replied:
Edith, till you knop that Mr. Roger
gave his wife the vase you have no righ
to say he did. Imagination is one thing
evidence another. 1t may be very appa
rent TO our acquaintance that you have al
a woman could desire to make her lif,
happy; yet, is it a woman's highest pleas
ure to SANDER her brothers and sisters
You resent the idea of having any inten
to SANDER, but already Mrs. Pratt ha:
listened to what you have told me, anc
she has or will repeat the story in ii fuller
dress. l beg that tomorrow, instead o
spreading, you will try to check the evi
you may have done. If Mr.. Rogers do
give the vase he had his reasons for so do
ing and it is none of our business how
he spends his money. Unless | am mis-
taken, he and Mrs. Rogers will endeavor to
rid our village of this sin of gossip, and
my wife we will aid them all we cam"
Mrs. Lester was subdued, if only by
the stand her husband had taken. a wo
man of no mean disposition, she had
merely succumbed to the custom. of the
| society in which he moved, forgettul that
owing to the position she held, word OF
hers weighed a great deal in the estima
| ton of others. Her husbands rebuke
had touched her, and for the first time in
her life she realized how deep an in Jury
II. ,s.rI,f Il
All! the unj lust word had been spoken
that day, and on the morrow, while Mrs
Lester shopped in the city, the ministers
| wife received an unusual number OF
callers.
Harry" she said, ''they all noticed my
vase and admired it SO much. One lady
told me that antique was quite the style
now, and concluded my present must have
been very costly. 1t is beautiful, isn't it
but not half so beautiful rs the true love
| that gave it to mer'
At that moment Mrs. Lester drove up
to the gate, and through the open window
saw the minister with his arm around his
wife standing before the bracket. 1t
looked like another proof toward the
truth of her story; but recalling her hus-
bands words, she entered the parsonage
with more kindness in her heart than she
had ever carried there before.
| I'm just home from town, Mrs. Rogers,
and stopped TO leave this small parcel !;
the fall goods were being opened, and
| this is pretty shade that will suit you,"
and she did not wait for thanks.
"Ohi Harry dear, new dress. Now
you can do what you wished you could
this morning-get chair for poor Teddy
Burns. I'm so glad! Why. it's like your
sermon on Sunday: All things working
together for good"
In the Lester home that night there
was happy change. MIR. Lester wonder
ed why his wife was so tender in her
greeting, so softened in manner, never
dreaming that his good deed was already
springing up; it had not been sown upon
barren ground, but in soil that simply
needed cultivation.
OH if man would oftener seek to rule
in love! if, finding us guilty of many
faults, he would try to lift us to nobler
ideal of womanhood instead of sneering
at our weaknesses, the result would prove
his effort to be a grand one.
OH if woman, the true woman, seeing
in her sex this disposition to bicker, TO
slander, would rprove by silence or
gentle rebuke, society would be
the atmosphere of our homes would
be purer, and lives of mother, wife,
and daughter would breathe of the love
that lis kind and thinketh no evil"
Mrs. Lesier's eyes were full when her
little one said at bedtime, Mamma, sing!''
But the voice was too tremulOuS to lull
the child to rest with the customary song,
and she answered:
Birdie, you sing to-night-sing some
thing Mrs. Rogers taught you in the Sun
day-schoOl."
Yes, mamma, me sing wee bit prayer
she say God love us to sing Him prayer
sometime" and two tiny hands were
clasped, two white lids closed, and the
clear voice sang softly:
Saviour bless little child, |
Teach my heart the way to Thee;
Loving Savior, care for me
''Birdie, Birdie, darling sing that erery
day to mamma, will you?'
And as the mother watched the sweet |
sleep of the little one, the evening air
seemed to Whisper of peace all strange
and new, and the tones of the lisping voice,
:. pure and miId,'' made music in her soul
that should echo through her whole life.
Had she not once learned something about
g first pure and then 2eaceable," where
was it? She was going to the parsonage
to morrow, and Mrs. Rogers could tell
her.
Whatever Mrs Lester did was done ear
nestly; but the night before she had en-
ployed her energy in attempting to mis-
judge her neighbor, now her heart was
opened to her sin, and she would confess
in the minister's home all the evil she
had thought. She had talked only to Mrs.
Pratt, but with that recollection came the
fearful knowledge of the rapidity with
which the news, evil or good, spread
through the village. Mrs. Lester was bit
Ierly humbled as she remembered all the
past and unnumbercd words she had
spoken against one and another not lnean-
ing harm ut the time-oh! no. But the
harm had been done; it was too late to
undo it now. Edith Lester was changed
woman that night, and she determined
to use her whole influence hereafter to
check, if might be to kill, this deadly
sin.
The morrow dawned, and over the par
sonagc hung a cloud. There was "a trcmor
in the little wife's voice as she said good
bye TO her husband when he started for
he study; then it rose clear and steady
while the hand detained him Harry,
ny husband, in our joy last night we
said, all things worked together for
good; in our sorrow we believe it, too"
Mrs. Rogers was dusting the parlor
when Mrs. Lester came in with Birdie.
The minister's wife looked wearicd, and
perhaps Brides loving kiss and clinging
,rms were too much for her, for she laid
Ter head down on the table and wcpt.
'weetly fitted to be the comforter now,
md she must know the cause of such sor-
'ow.
II could bear it, Mrs Lester, but to
nave Harry wrongedi Harry, so gener-
'us, so true. L kept up before him. but l
must talk to somebody. What do | mean ?
hara |