Year: 1877

4
ticipated, preferred to seek his own
companions and pursuits.


Each evening he stayed little Ia
ter away from the room that II wss
mOckey to call home, and gradual.
IL he found himself drawn into
friendly games of cards, that were
more interesting if there was small
stake, though it was long time be-
fore he called his amusement by the
ugly name Of gambling.


Worse still, in the fevered excite
ment of the game, the glass was too
often lifted to his lips, and Lulu
shuddered at the thick speech and
haggard eyes that told the story of
deep drinking. For her own part,
the pleasure she had anticipated
proved far greater in imagination
than in fact.


1t was not pleasant, when her
friends came to spend an evening,
to have them comment pityingly up
on the fact that they never saw Mr..
Gordon.


1t became annoying to depend up
on other escorts than her husband
when she wanted to go out, and she
was thrown into companionship with
those that were far from pleasant.


Although the housekeeping had
been somewhat extravagant, there
were but three to provide for, and
after six months Harry found his
balance at the bank was smaller than
it had been before since he was mar
ried.


Beefstakes did not cost as much
as cards, and his pretty nick-nacks
did not involve SO great an outlay as
Lulu's dress was costing, to keep
place with the others in the house.


A dinnner-party to few friends
was given at less expense than the
treating" for one at the billiard
rooms, and Lulu could but acknowl-
edge there was certainly no saving.


Her own neat dress, that was so
suitable for a morning in her little,
quiet home, looked cheap and COM
mon beside the elaborate cambries
and frilled percales of the other Ia
dies, and her best dresses were soon
worn out by the constant shopping
and visiting, undertaken to pass the
time.


Too late the young wife realized
that her husband was yielding to
temptations that had not presented
themselves to him in the first years
of their married life, and regretted
the steps she had taken.


"You were right, aunt" she sob
bed one morning, when Mrs. Hen
derson was in her room; "Harry sell
dom comes home perfectly sober,
and he is unkind to me, and he never
was before. When l reproach him,
he tells me it is ali my fault, that he
never was tipsy when he had home
to come to-"


"Can you not go back?"


"No. Father says he cannot al
ford to furnish a house for me
again, and certainly Harry cannot.
Indeed, he would not, for he is still
sore about the contemplate price
the goods brought at auction. Oh,
aunt, what can do?"


"You must try to coax Harry to
stay more with you. And Lulu, you
might soon save money for inxpen-
sive furniture. If Harry saw you
were in earnest, he would soon feel
tie old interest again"


But the advice was never to be
followed.


Harry Gordon was seized with the
delirious fever, brought on by the
Sudden change in his habits.


He had a disgust for boarding
house cooking, even of the best, and
had neglected regular meals to satis-
fly his appetite with late suppers or
stimulants.


The fever finding a weakened sys-
TEN, was very violent, and Lulu
found every hour taxed with nursing
duty.


Aunt Lucy came at once to the
assistance of the young people who
filed the warmest place in her kind
heart, sharing Lulu's watching and
care, her fears and hopes.


She could not share the agony of
self-reproach with which Lulu heard
the doctors opinion of the cause of
Harry's illness, but only to soothe 1t
as far as possible.


Six weeks of alternate hope and
despair, of wild delirium or stuPOr,
followed the first anxious hours, and
then, without knowing his danger,
ignorant of Lulu's agony of Lucy's
tears, Harry Gordon passed from life
to eternity.


Just a year ago this May-day upon
which l write, l attended the sale
where poor Harry Gordon's house
hold goods were ruthlessly scattered,
and saw the house closed after the
young couple took final leave of the
bare walls.


Only to-day l saw the pale, re-
morseful little widow making her pill
grimage TO plant flowers upon the
graves of husband and child.


"But for my selfish persistence"
she told me, weeping bitterly, 'i
might to-day have happy home, a
loving husband, instead of weeping
a widows tears over the graves here"


And while l spoke words of COM
fort, | knew that the self-reproach
was bitterly truthful.


Her punishment was sudden and
overwhelming, but the danger turks
more or less wherever the home love
is destroyed, the home interest weak
ened.


No matter now poor the house, how
mean the surrounding, if once a mar.
ried mans heart is centered upon his
home, and the love his home holds it
is his safeguard against all outward
temptation, his comfort in trouble,
his sweetest, safest happiness on
earth.


SAVED BY LIGHTNING.


at looks like a shower, don't it,
Reuben?" said a young, fair-faced
matron standing in the doorway of