Year: 1861

J with his years. lie loved money, and rs the
, aesthetic part Of his nature had never been
cultivated, he regarded it as wastefulness and
extravagance to indulge in much grace OF
beauty Of surroundings.


Still there was another side to the man
. his affections were deep and tender, and a
!. judicious and loving woman could have
reached and influenced him to almost any
degree through these. But Mrs. Parsons
never understood her husband. She was an
impulsive, high-spirited, and really warm
hearted woman, with good deal Of petty
social ambition, and she and her husband
were constantly jarring each other.
His obstinacy always infamed her anger,
while her imperious temper only hardened
him into fresh stubbornness, and so the cur
rent of their lives ran most inharmoniously y,
and were constantly interrupted by jars and
chickering's, and angry alterations. That
once fair and precious lily Of tenderness,
whose grace and beauty filled her youth with
fragrance, cast its leaves, and at last only the
root was left and what dews or sunshine
should nourish it in soil that grew more
barren year by ycar--a soil overgrown with
thistles, and rank noisome weeds?


Yet all these years the barns and store
houses, the lands and gold oi Isaas Parsons
increased. and God sent chldren-two boys
and girl-to soften the hearts Of the father
and mother, and to be to them angels Of a
new covenant Of household peace and ten.
dcrness. But, alas alas the sweet faces
and all tho beautiful ministrations Of child
hood never accomplished their mission and
with hearts and tempers frctted, and sourcd,
and worn, Mr.. and Mrs. Parsons counted the
years going over them, and both felt that
their marriage had been mistake and
misery, and with blind eyes that would not
see, and with hard hearts that would not un-
derstand, each blamed the other, and mutu-
al recrimination only produced fresh bitter
ness.


At last crisis came. Mrs. Parsons had
set her heart that autumn upon a new parlor
carpet, which was in no wise unreasonable,
and in which her husband ought to have in
dulged her, but the manner OF her request,
which was in reality command, at once
reused the inherent stubbornness Of the man
and he fatty refused her. Then followed
passionate words and angry rotorts, till the
husband and wife separated with mutual bit
terness and rage.


But as Mrs. Parsons took up her dcnudcd
chicken and plunged it in a pan of hot wa
ter, her eyes glanced on weekly papcr,which
lay on the table, and they settled upon this
passage, which completed short sketch
"who, when he was rcvied, reviled not
again, but committed his cause to Him that
judgcth righteously."


And those words stole, in still, serene,
rebuking voice, through the stormy soul OF
Mrs. Parsons. She had read them innumcr-
able times before, and they had had for her
no special message nor meaning, but how
God had sent his angels to drop them in her
heart and in moment something OF the
real sin and wrong of her life rose up and
confronted her.


She sat down in a low chair by her kitchen
table, and rested her forehead on her hand.
The hard, iretful, angry look went out from
her face and was succeeded by asoft, thought
ful expression and the sunshine lowered in
ycarning, golden. shifting beauty about her.


And the years ofMrs. Parsons rose up like
pale, sorrowful faces from tho dead. and
looked reproachfully upon her, and sudden.
ly, in sharp, clear, strong features, stood
revealed to her reused conscience tho heavy
part she had borne in all the sin and misery
that had blasted her married life.


And then the woman's memory went back
to her first acquaintance with Isaac Parsons.
He had chosen her from among n score oil
Others who envicd her that good fortune and
now those early days Of their courtship came
over the sOitened heart of the woman, rs the
first winds of spring came up from the South,
and went softly over the bare. dispairins
earth. Then she saw herself once more q
shy, trrmulous, joyful bride at the altar, to
whom she gave herself gladly and trustingy,
as woman should.


And she remembered that morning little
later, when her proud and happy young hus-
band brought her to tho house which had
been his fathers, and how for little while
the thought Of her being mistress Of the great
old farmhouse fairly frightened tho wits out
of her.


She meant to mako II a sweet and happy
home for Isaac Parsons. She remembered,
us though it had all happened yesterday, the
little plans and contrivances she had made
for his surprise, and their mutual comfort.


But the quarrel came. How well she re-
membercd it, and how clearly she saw now
the foolish and sinful part she had borne in
that. If she had controlled her temper then
il she had only been gentle and patient, for
bearing and forgivins,-instead of being
proud and passionate, fretful and stubborn
| IL she had only borne her woman's burdens
and done her woman's duties Here the
wife and the mother broke down; she buried
her face in her apron, and cried like a
child.


Mrs. Parsons was an energetic, determined
woman, and when she had once made up her
mind on any course Of action, she would not
shrink back from IL. What went on In tho