Year: 1878

had been bubbllng two nours she mixed
it and set it in the warm sunshine, and
then started fire and made feed Of skim


milk for the noisy. frolicksome calves that
ran in the dooryard. Then she swept and
picked up playthings after the children,
hung up their coats and aprons, aud set
their old shoes away, and moved their
sleds and wagons from about the doors.
While the dish water was heating she
hurried up stairs and made the beds; then
washed the dishes, and went down cellar
and skinned the milk. There was cream
enough for churning; the churn was seal
ded and then left with pail Of cold wa
ter standing in it, SO as to be fresh and


ready. BY this time the baby woke and
cried, and the tired little mother was com
PEELED to sit down and take him in her
sheltering arms.


i In half an hour he was ready to sit
down on the floor on quilt, and she left
him long enough to carry three or four
pals of skinned milk to the pigs-two
pailsful at time, and she went on run.
She always fed the pigs when she asked
her husband once to carry the milk to the
pen, on his way out to his work, he said,
That belongs to a woman's work a
man whose name is put up for commits
sioner shouldn't be asked to slop pigs
that's little too steep"


1t was no trifing job to feedthose pigs;
the pen had been made out of some old
house logs, and theopening through which
the pals had to be lifted before they could
be emDtied was SO high up that it came
just even with her neck, and was only
wide enough to admit the pail with the
aail lying down. Twice when she was
dressed up clean she had the unsteady
poised pail tipped back and poured the
contents upon her, from her neck down to
her little feet as by a water spout.


Withal the little mother was quite pa
tient and almost every day could her un-
trained voice be heard, even down to the
lower field and the school house, singing,
"a charge to keep | have" or God
moves in 2 MYSTERIOUS way


But before another year change camesrr
The strong, hard man, her husband was
stricken down with typhoid fever, and for
long weeks he lay balancing between life
and death. His recovery was very slow,
and his confinement irksome no prison
walls could have been gloonlier than were
the home walls that held him prisoner.
Day after day the patter of his wife's pa
tient little feet fell upon his ear. He
could hear them up stairs and down, now
here, now there, her voice always kind
and tender, her hand ever ready to minis
ter to her dear ones, her words full of con-
ISOLATION, love and cheer.


John Jones was not wholly unimpres-
sionable; slowly the scales fell from his
eyes, the light came, and he was as one
born into a higher and better life. He
drew his bony hands across his eyes; often
the sighs made him catch his breath sus-
piciousIy, and he marveled much that he
had walled beside this little woman for
fourteen years and not known that hewas
mated wdth can angel unaware" His
voice grew softer, tenderer; his great tai
ony hands touched her forehead and her
hair lov hgly as would woman 's-touched
her as though he was afraid she would
fade away white mist.


Weeks afterward, when he was able to
ride out, the old whimsical buggy that
had done service in the days of his church
going parents, was made comfortable by
soft wooden blanket and an armful of
sweet-smelling oat straw. John did not
tell where he was going but he looked
wise, and his mouth had jerky look
about the corner that seemed to say, "You
Just let me alone, / know what I'm about


1t was evening when he came home


He was still as wise as when he went
away. His cup Of tea was waiting, and
his toast and the tender little pullet fried
nice and brown. He seemed really hap
py-jolly. He trotted the baby on his
foot that NIGH, and called his wife ''Jeny,"
as in the days when he won her, and he
let Johnny play horse with his boot, and
there was such contented, rich expression
on his face, that his wife couldn't help