Year: 1877

Beside you, plants whose juices heal;
The antidote grows near the i'll
In all Gods ordering and still
Home surest for home care.


"May Linton sweet May Linton +
he murmured, as he went home from his
business


Home it was only dingy boarding
house, ruled over by dwarfed and
wizened landlady in a purple worsted
shawl But May dwelt there-sweet
May, with her girlish grace AID ready
laugh, and her braids twisted around a
high comb ON the top of her little head.


She met him In the hall.


"I'm so glad to get home i'' he said.


Her face flushed little, and her eyes
grew more full of light. 1t was so easy
to see why he was glad.


81 only came myself a moment since, -
she returned, and stopped, embarrassed
at having answered his meaning rather
than his words.


But the young men are less observing
of these little inner shades than youDg





the expression of their feelings, and Har-
ry Bender was too happy to notice, or, if
he did, it sounded quite right.


They were drifting toward that hour
when some word or look would prove the
"Opera, sesame" to their untried hearts,
and then there would be silence full of
speech, into which a kiss would come of
its own accord, to be remembered ever
after as the awakening from a vague,
sweet dream into tho sweetest reality on
earth.


So the two were a little shy with each
other now, and in their game of back
CANNON, if their hands touched by mis-
take, they would feel how very awkward
they were, and pretend to ignore their
awkwardness, and remember it with
dreamy smiles upon their pillows that
night.


1t all happened just so and there
were few happy weeks Of extra work
and much planning of days in store
One morning, with light hearts and the
unspoken conviction that not even a
moral earthquake could unsettle their
well-secured happiness, Harry Bender
and sweet May Linton, accompanied by
Mays Aunt Dodo, went to church, and
were married with the same ceremony
which the strange minister used for the
uniting of coupl whom God or Nam
mon had joined together.


There was precious little Mammon in
this case. Nobody took any bridal tour.
They never thought of the little expe-
dent practiced by the steady young
business man, who, seeing that his bride
had set her heart on conforming to the
custom, sent her off alone for two or
three DAYS, while he worked in the Office
as usual.


Even had they thought of this ingen-
ious compromise, they would only have
laughed at it. There was plenty of
laughing in the pretty room, al
hung with the nice spatter-work and
chromos and photographs which May
had practiced upon in learning her little
art.


How blonde the babies were which
she painted what rose-madder lips they
had, and sea-shell checks, and ultrama-
! rine eyes


ST am always happy" exclaimed May,
"when have a baby to paint


And then they both laughed, like two
happy young IDIOTS as they were TO,
now the year had crept away from them,
and May did not expect to paint babies
much longer.


The wizened landlady had hurt their
feelings by raising the rent of the room
prospectively.


GA family is great disadvantage, u
she had said.


But Harry and May thought family
was just the incest thing in the world,
and, after their wrath had died down,
tried to pity the landlady for not seeing
the matter from their stand point.


At last the family was born. 1t was q
very small one, and Harry addressed it
as couIeur dc rose.


Three or four months later they
moved, for May declared she would not
live "where darling baby is considered
a nuisance"


Harry wrote to Aunt Dodo about this
time, and May put in postscript.
| Tx LETTER.


DEAR OLD ANGEL: Nothing particular i:
happening except perfect happiness We ars
living in nasty little piggy room, twelve by
twelve, which May keeps as nice, or nicer, thar
can be expected; and we don't often conde
scend to pay attention to the outside bar
bariaEs.


May is the prettiest picture at this moment
! She has got Miss Bender in the bath tub, and