The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-04-27

mucb humber home. A much happier
one though; for these terrible changes
had at length reversed the natural order
of things. When Stephen was utterly
bowed down, suddenly Lydia Thirske
rose M. and took her true and natural
nosition as comforter and helpmate. 1t
almost consoled the weary husband for
all his losses to have found at last his
true wife.
Antony also had written loving and
hopeful letters; and it was likely that he
would be able to come for Mary the next
summer. They were all sorry now to
think of parting from her, for she had
been so helpful and cheerful in these
dark days, that it was hard to imagine
the cottage without her.
Adversely has many learned disciples,
and Ada had not been to its school with
out benefit. 1t was impossible for her
not to reproach herself with her fathers
ruin, and though no one else had done it,
the voice of society universally con-
demned her. She remembered, too, that
however lrevengeful and hateful Aske
had been, she herself had done her best
to call forth those qualities--he had at
first tried TO be very patient and kind to
her.
One morning as she was sitting sewing
to some such bitter Thoughts as these,
she lifted paper and read this para
graph
" On Monday last, Aske, of Aske hall,
while hunting with the Towton hounds,
was thrown, and, it is feared, fatally in
jured."
She sat still thinking a few minutes,
and then, without a word to any one but
Mary Hutton, left the house. Two
hours afterwards she wss in Aske Hall,
helping to soothe the rawlings of its delir-
ious master. Calmly but resolutely she
took her place, and in the long, dreary
weeks of watching and darkness that fol-
lowed learnt many wholesome lesson.
Her great fear now was that the in
jury to the brain was permanent, and
that her husband wsuld never know her
long enough to pardon her. But one
night, as she stood looking tenderly at
the pale, shrunken face, he slowly opened
his eyes and said in a whisper:
Ada?'
George, dear GeorgeI' and the kiss
that sealed her forgiveness was the re-
of their hearts and lives.
But Aske was many months helpless
invalid; and it was almost a year after
wards that Ada was going gently about
the room, packing things for a journey
with him to the sunny skies of Italy. He
watched her some time, and then said
Ada, 1 may never come back; feel
very weak. 1 wonder if your father
would see me before 60"
The next morning Stephen Thirske
stood by his enemy's side, and his eyes
we're fuII or tears.
"You are much changed, George"
" Yes, Thirske, you have won at last.
Let us shake hands. The mill we fought
about 1 have given to Ada, and she gives
t to you. The papers are here; 1 want
% see them signed"
"But, Aske--"
Don't deny me this grace, Thirske /;
# have to die, shall die the easier for
t. If l live to come back, l want to
come back among friends. 1t is your
own. No blessing has come to me since I
quilt it."
So when Antony came to Mary he did |
not go back again. He joined his father
N the Aske Mill, and in ten years the
irm of " Thirske & Son were the lead
ng manufacturers of Airedale again
There are evils that happen for good.
stephen and Ada found in poverty and |
anxiety the true relation of man and |
wife. Stephen never again said, Any |
hing for peace;" and Ada learnt that
t is better to win a husband than con-
luer him; better to rule with him than
o rule over him.--N Y. Ledger.