American citizen., 1873-08-09
8.

home, and you can get a basket of fresl
| eggs for ycur dear teacher"
| Only two days and yet the little wore
from her lips had spread, and here was
| the result:
| "REvEREND SIR: 1t is commonly reported
| in our village that you are growing extremely
| cXtravagant. That you a minister of the Cos
| pei should indulge in making unwarrantablt
| gifts, when we find it difficult to collect YOU
salary, is beyond consistency. Evidences ar,
| against you, and this is but warning that
| your congregation highly disapprove of youl
| been heretofore irreproachable, l consider il
| my duty, interested IN yorT' ,reifat'e, tt
inform you of the public opinion, that you
| may prevent further talk.
"A FRIEND"
Edith Lester had been humblcd the
night before and had asked to be kept so
but in Mis way? She deserved it, though
the punishment was severe, and did not
spare herself; at the last, Mrs. Rogers
face Frightened, and she actually laughed
amid all the tears. Oh, it was the vase,
then, and | showed it to every lady who
called yesterday! l wanted TO tell where
it came from, but shranl from saying So
much about myself. l saved The life of a
poor Outcast once (sometime you shall
know how, and she has never ceased be
ing grateful. When we came to house
keeping she sent me the only thing she
had kept from being pawned during all
her wanderingS-that old vase, an heir
loom in their once respectable family
She is a happy woman now, and married
to Swiss, who carves beautifully; he
made the bracket. And the card you
saw dear Harry laid it on my plate with
only bunch of violets, because-because
violets led us to know each other. /
flushed to think l had left his sacred
words where stranger eyes might see
them"
The minister could not study that morn
ing, consequently the call from two ladies
did not interrupt his usual busy hours.
And after the long talk, as the three walk
ed to the parsonage, Mrs Rogers repeated
slowly:
"AlI things work together for good to
them that love Him"
'Oh, yes,' said Mrs. Lester 'tor if it
We're not so, l might have gone on in my
old way, and ruined myself as well as
others. But l have not yet made full
reparation."
The sewing society met at Mrs. Testers
the minister's wife was not there, and
Mrs Pratt looked acsOss the table to Mrs
Hill in IA most significant manner. The
hostess was SO very still and white some
one questioned if she were i'll.
NO, thank you; but, ladies, | have a
Z,
resolution to offer"
Then she went over the whole story, i'm
plicating no one but herself; and there
was more than one moist eye as the
usually naughty lady pleaded with her
sisters to aid her in her new resolve to be
first pure, then peaceable.'
Mrs. John Testers money never wicld
ed such power in The society as did her
love that day.
Mr.. Lester had been proud of his wife,
of her beauty, her grace; but a new pride
was kindlcd in his breast when he listened
to all she had to say The wife he had
looked for and wanted so long had come
to his home. Birdie sang her prayer to
both father and mother in the quiet twi-
light-the prayer that had been so quickly
answered.
The minister's bookshelf did not stand
empty for new commentaries; nor did he
and his wife want for true friends. And
Teddy, poor Teddy in the tenement house
One morning he awoke to find the coveted
chair by his bedside, and on its cushioned
seat stood the old teapot, with pennies
out of the spout-hole, there were
so many: wee slip of paper told him it
was "all from Birdie" and when the
Birdie stopped to give him a ride in her
" own dear mammals carriage" he
thought an angel had surely come to take |
him hOmei |
Yes, Teddy, Mrs. Testers teapot was
full of pennies, but, better than that, her |
heart was filled with the love that ere
Oiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in
-he truth. ''-Hedrth and Home.