Year: 1879

tiful home close upon him aud his dear
ones, and admit his arch enemy, the
man who had caused his ruin by heart
/ lessly refusing to grant him any time to
retrieve his affairs. This last blow COM
pleted the prostration Of the formerly
strong, vigorous man. He ceased to
take any interest in life, and would not
make any effort to find employment, or
/ to do anything for his family. His
wife had everything to attend to, and
she showed herself true woman in this
trying time, bearing their trouble with
grave patience, and making the poor
little house they had taken as hOmelike
as possible with what little they had
saved from the wreck OF their fortune.
/ The wife plead with her husband to
cheer up and try to begin life over
again. His only answer was:


"I am too old could never do any
thing again; l am crushed"


She urged that as long as they had
each other and their precious little
daughter nothing could make them so
poor but that they nigh: be happy. It
was OF no use. He would not see any
silver lining TO the sable cloud that en-
veloped them. He had one of those
natures which, though brave and strong
in ordinary times and under common
trials, prove utterly weak when con-
fronted with a great and crushing dis
appointment. He could not bear to see
the whole result Of life Of toll aud care
swept away in a day, and while his
faithful wife was trying to win him back
to hope and energy, he was daily sink
ing into a lethargy more and more pro-
found.


At length he no longer rose from his
bed, and after suffering a short time
with what the doctor pronounced in
flammation OF the brain, he died in un-
consciousness, without a word or look
Of recognition for those he had loved so
fondly, aud whose cup OF misery seemed
now full.


When the sad funeral was over, the
sorrowing widow and her little daugh-
ter left the humble house in the suburbs
that had not been their home a mouth,
for they could not pay the rent in ad-
vance. They took a room in poor but
respectable part of the city, aud the
frail, delicate woman took up bravely
aud uucomplainingly the double burden
thus laid upon her, and at once settled
up her husbands business as far as pos
sible, for ne had left things in utter
confusion. She soon found that unjust
laws aud grasping lawyers left ber
nothing. Her own little fortune, left
her by an uncle, was gone, like her
husbands, in whose hands it had always
been, for she had never thought Of such
thing as having separate interests
from his in anything. Had it been in
vested safely, it would have now yielded
her a comfortable support. But it was
gone, and when all was done she found
herself al me with her child, with nOth-
ing but what she might realize from
few jewels, only kept now because they
were precious by reason Of their assoeia-
tions. They were reserved for a time Of
need.


| Mrs. Norton was the last of ber fam
lily, but the nobility and beauty of her
/ character had secured to her few true
/ friends, who, in spite Of her changed
fortunes, would have been glad to aid
her like a relative, If she would have
permitted it. But her nature was too
proudly sensitive for that, and she at
last, after much thought, began to teach
class in music, which some of her
/ friends advised, saying they wished to
place their daughters under her tuition.
She was thought a finely-educated girl
when she married, bat she had been
really fitted for nothing but to be the
wife of a rich man. She had, in due
time, filed that position admirably
] but now, through no fault Of her own,
she could do so no longer, and,
Of all the branches she had ever
studied, music was the only one that
offered her even the faintest prospect Of
daily bread, aud that prospect was poor
indeed.


The first few friends proved to he
nearly all the patrons she could obtain,
for those who had estimated her by the
amount Of money she possessed natu-
rally had poor opinion of her now,
though they had loved her dearly in her
days Of prosperity.


at is so unpleasant, you know, to
have a person like Mrs. Norton coming
to your house as a musi; teacher, when
of course you cannot treat her as if she
were still in society"


So said these ladies to Mrs Nortou's
friends when excusing themselves.


Meanwhile, competition was sharp,
laborers were many, aud wages small ;
so it is not strange that the mother and
daughter had hard work to live in their
little room during the few months they
occupied it.


One stormy day, poor Mrs. Norton
came home wet and chilled, and that
night ElinOr listened in terror to her
mothers pitiful words to her father,
sometimes cheering him, telling him 1t
would soon be light again, then wildly
begging him not to leave her. When
the slow morning dawned, there was no
recognition in the blue eyes, and for the
first time in her life ElinOr looked in
bar ,,,otbaris face and saw no answering