Year: 1859

a" IT | proml ed you, Harry, certain


sure, as you say, why I'll DO them, tho


| was going to do something else to-day


| need a new dress, about as badly as you


need new pants, aud | was glad when |


saw the show, because thought | should


have good time to finish that one Aunt
| Lizzie sent me, and which has lain now,


cut and basted, these three weeks"


| The liltlc son did not answer right off,


and the mother felt gush IF great warm


tears drop on her face she was about to
speak, and say if he felt so very bad, she


would yield her case TO him-for nothing
would touch true hearted mother quick
er than the wet eyes and suppressed sobs
of her children-when mastering his emo
ton, which was to him a mighty effort,
Harry said half sadly, half cheerily -
/" Well, mother, won't be stingy; I'll
give up again; but you did promise" )" and


he walked off quickly, lest she should see
the great hood Of tears that rolled down
his checks.


Left alone, the mother sat for some time
iircsoIute. The case stood thus She


was the wife of worthy man, but of one
whose pccuniary means did not allow her
to employ much help, and having four
children, all too young to be of much as
sistance, she found it pretty difficult to
perform all her duties as a housekeeper
and seanlstress to "a family of six. Stormy
days were blessing to her, because then
her husband, being of rather a delicate
constitution, always carried his dinner,
and cold luuch suticing for herself and
children, she had double the usual time
to devote to sewing She remembered


now perfectly we'll that she had promised
Harry she would make his pants the next
stormy day. and she certainly meant, at


the time, to fulfill her promise, both be


cause of the JOY it would give her boy,
and because he greatly stood in need Of
them But last evening, Squire Mason $


wife had called and invited her to 4 party,


which vas 10 come off the following Tues
day, and the very little pride she had left


made her desire to appear at that time in


her new dress. 1t was notall pride, either
she argued to herself, as she sat there
alone in the kitchen, her cheeks yet damp
with the tears of her disappointed boy,
for it was almost Spring, and her merino.
after two winters wear, did look rather
bad ; IN fact, the velvet trimming was
quite threadbare in several places; it was
not fit to wear t. Mrs. Masons. No in
deed and then her new delaine, sent from
Boston, was "such love of "a pattern" d" and
of such a becoming color, that she must
make it up, and wear it then Hadn't
she sat up till midnight. the evening be
fore, after Mrs Mason left the invitation,
to make the skirt? And wouldn't it be
silly now, just because she had PROMISED
Harry his pants, to stop and make them,
and 60 to the party in her old Merino, all
the rest of the guest wSuld be clad most
likely in silks? Yes, 1t would do so, and
Size resolved to make the dress that day,
and on Wednesday, after the party was
over, to make Harry's pants, storm or no
storm.


Forthwith, the sewing basket came in
to rcqui>ition, and the bundle with the
waists and sleeves was unroled, and pres
emily her fingers were diligently plying
her needle aud thread. But somehow sho
did not feel as happy as she expected. Do
what she could to fix her thoughts on the
party, they would not stay there, but wan
der off after the little sorrowful face that
had looked into hers and said, [ won't
be stingy." And nusing on that little
face, sOmehow-she could not have told
how if she had tred-but somehow, an
old long slunberng memory was awaken
ed. and she saw little girl mat her long
cnrlg over her wet eyes, aud steal off with
smotherea sobs to a dark room, and hide
herself in its shadows, and there weep
silently, and get as though her very heart
would break. And why 0. her moth
er had promised her that Saturday even
ing, when she went out to do errands.
that she would buy her a pair of b 1ght
red shoes, and she should wear them to
church next day, but had come home
without them, not because her purse had
failed, but because she had forgotten them
And she remembered, that the little girl
had said, the next Monday morning, when
the shoes we're tossed into her lap 9 I'm
glad to get them now, but | amt half SO
glad as | should have been, if | had got
them when you promised them If ever
[ get to be woman, and have a little boy
or girl, and make them promise, III
keep it just when | said would, because
there is 10 use in promising you don't"


Memory is a beautiful mouitor some
times Ii was now. The echoes of her
own sobs. of her own voice, came pealing
back to Mrs. Lee, through the long dim
aisles of the past; aud as they swept the |
chords of the heart, they woke such low
sweet music tones, that the good angel