Year: 1877

and moved into two rooms of our own:
and I worked hard at sewing and knit
ting and anything I could get to support
us. Will did not improve, though he
was never unkind to me; and one morn
ing boy brought me crrmpled note
from my husband telling me that he had
gone to California, and that he would
never come back unless he came a sober
man, and with money to support me and
our boy. His father had been harder
with him than ever, and he said he was
sick of it all; and as he was of no use to


us, he would not stay to be disgrace.
I nave mover heard from him since. .


"WilPs mother came to me and said
that she should look upon the boy as
hers now, and we must go home with
her at once. But 1 put her<of, to gain a
little time; for was young, you sec, and
ignorant, and 1 was afraid that she had
the power to make lis go; and when she
left me, 1 just packed my clothes and
Willie's, and went off to the depot, and
came to l.. had this friend living
near herc-wc used to 60 to school to-
gether-and she got me place in a
store. But I couldn't pay my board and
Willie's and clothe us both out of that;
and finally I concluded to leave the boy
with Ellen, and get place at service.


"And now don't know whether Will
is living or dead; but I can't help think
ing that if he was living he would have
written tome and sent me some money,
for he always loved me-"


1t struck Mary's audience that he had
a very stfange way of showing his love;
but then they were old maids, and could
not expect to understand such matters.


Mary presently produced photo.
graph, which was just the opposite OF
what we expected; for her Sweet William
was fine, manipulating young fellow,
and we felt drawn to him at once. But
then we felt drawn to the postman too;
and it was absolutely essential to the
latter's happiness that number one
should have departed from this terres-
trial scene. Until there was sufficient
evidence of this, however, there was rea-
son to fear an Enoch Arden denouemcnt:
and we assured Mary that it was posi-
lively wrong for her to give MIR. Blu
menthal any encouragement.


1t was probably owing to this disin-
terested advice that we were honored by
a regular call from our hitherto taciturn
friend. We were nearly as much sur
prised to hear him speak rs though we
had known him to be dumb; and when
he propounded the somewhat startling
question "if + did not think the man
who had married Mary ought to be dead
by this one time,' it did appear MS
Thought the person in question had a
due regard for the fitness of things--he
would be; but the point at issue was
not SO much whether he ought to be as
whether he was.


Mr.. Blumenthal, however, simply i'll
tended to express his firmly grounded
opinion that William Murphy was dead,
and that his widow would show her
good sense by abandoning her present
position of maid-of-all-work, and becom-
ing Mrs. Blumenthal without delay. 1t
seemed impossible to convince him that
California was not out of the world, and
that travellers did occasionally return
from that bourne. His own views of the
region was evidently embodied in the be-
lief that people who went there because
they could not live here, ended by giving
up the attempt at living altogether. He
was certainly very much in love; and it
would be an excellent match for Mary,
even if he had not the regulation amount
of limbs and belongings.


Brunhilda was quite carried away by
the postman's eloquence and good looks.
81 believe he is-right," said she, when he
had gone; "it is not at all probable that
Murphy is living, or he would certainly
have written to his wife" Adding, with
her usual happy disregard of logic:
"And why should two lives be spoiled
with this uncertainty about q man who,
after all, isn't worth it ?"


I began to entertain private opinion
that Herr Blnmcnthal kept back our let
ters from mail to mail for the pleasure of
bringing them singly, and having a mo-
mcnt's confab with Mary several times
in the course of the day; for she had de-
clined receiving visits from him until
she could be assured that her husband
was really dead. Poor girl! she was
certainly very much to be pitied; and it
seemed quite ine1cusable in William
Murphy to give her SO little satisfaction
either in living or dying.


But one morning something happened.
Mary received letter from her mother
in-law, that came through her friend
Ellen, in which she was sternly sum-
moned to attend her husbands funeral.
He had died of fever in hospital, and
the remains, by his own dying request,
had been sent on from San Francisco to
be laid III the family burying ground.


The poor little widow was nearly be-
side herself at this news; and it was rs
much rs we could do to get her and the
boy off properly. She promised faith
fully to return to us-nothing, she de-
clared, would induce her to remain with
old Mrs. Murphy; but it was with heavy
hearts that we saw her depart.


I am sorry to say that our Teutonic
postman, instead of sharing his manor
ata's sorrow, was evidently in state of
confused bliss-not much to be wonder
ed at, perhaps, in the existing state of
things but somewhat inconvenient in
it's results, as we were constantly favored
with letters never intended for us, while
our rightful correspondence wandered
elsewhere. We took a genuine interest,
however, in this strange love affair, even
while selfshly congratulating ourselves
that the inevitable catastrophe of losing
Mary would not occur for some months
yet.


Alas it was nearer than we dreamed.
On the third day, instead of Mary, rs we
had expected, there came letter and
the letter began with the astounding an
nouncemcnt that our cidcuant hand
maiden was so happy that she scarcely
know how to write to lis


People have different ideas of happi-
ness but it really seemed to us that a
slight degree of unhappiness would have
been more becoming in Mrs. Murphy
just then.


We went on with the letter in sort
of blank amazement, and read that, on
the writer's arrival ut the Murphy man