Year: 1874

! There is touching little story in the
: Apocrypha about young man and wo-
: man who were just married and ready to
J start together On their untried career,
and this was their first cry to heaven,
a when the wedding guest had gone and
= they were left alone in their chamber
! 'Mercifully ordain that We may grow
aged together"


). The man had come long way after his
= wife and knew very little about her, ex-
, cept as her father had told him they were
Z a good and honest stock. She was to go


back with him and live with him under
the eye of her mother-in-law, and how
] the experiment would succeed, as the
years swept on, he had of course no idea.
His mother was woman of very notable
= qualities. When her husband went blind
once, she turned out and made the living
! with her spinning-wheel, and they were
; so delighted with her work in one place
that they gave her a kid in addition to


her days wages But when she brought


it home and her husband heard it bleat-
\ ing, he wanted to know where she got
: | that kid. She told him it was present,
) but he did not believe her. He said she


had stolen itl Well, she could go out
2 and work for him, but she could not and


would not submit to a charge like that,


so she turned on him and gave him such
. piece of her mind as l suppose he never
: ! forgot as long as he lived, and after this
J they got along very well, until better


days came, and there is no hint in the


family history that she ever referred to


the thing again. She had it out with him
: then and there and made him ashamed
y OF himself no doubt. And then, as she
I knew he was a true man and he knew


she was true woman, in the face of this


grim convulsion, they did not rush into


the divorce court or threaten to do so,-


he did not turn brute, or she vixen; the


sky cleared when the storm was over,


and never clouded up again; and how
the story got out, | have no idea-per-


haps the man told it, long time after,


against himself.


This young man was their one child,


the pride and joy of their life, and this


was the home into which he was to bring


his wife. What would come of it, he


could not tell. Whether he would set


tie kindly in the new place, or be all the


time fretting after the home of her child


hood; whether such woman his


mother was, and as his wife ought to be,


could so blend their supremacy as to


make one music, as before, instead OF


discord that would make him rue the


day he brought them together, like the
< elements of galvanie battory All this


was unknown to him, but he knelt down


with her and prayed "Mercifully ordain


that we may grow aged together"


1t was one of those weddings, too, for


which we sometimes predict a leisurely


repentance Love at first sight, followed


by very brief courtship, and then the
:. wedding, friends organizations, kisses,


tears, laughter, and supper which they
II ate no doubt, looking slyly H each other


and wondering whether it could be possi-


BILE they were husband and wife Was it
- dream that had come true, or only
= dream-a drama, or that out of which all


dramas are made-a mirage of sun and
st mist on the horizon of their life. or the
le essence and substance of realities Poor
= things, they are both quite young; they


did not know much of the world they had


lived in, and nothing at all of the world
they were entering. Since they first met
Z, it had been Eden unfallen, with the dew
ar of heaven on it-did they wonder wheth-
ID er a brief space would find them outside
. their Eden, in among the thorns and
e, briars, with flaming sword at the gates
o forbidding their return? 1 can only
1e wonder, l cannot tell; but this is worth
;; more than all such surmise they knelt
lg down together, in the STILL sweet sanctity
k of their chamber, with the light of Eden
re on their faces, with its sweetness and
y purity like an atmosphere about them,


and then the man prayed and the woman
N N said amen to this prayer.


$ 1t was natural, also, that coming to-
% gether as they did, they should know


very little of each other in regard to those


details of the life before them, on which
. so much must depend in the course of
w time. There was a story in their sacred


books about fore-elder who had made
III just such a match as this, and it didn't


turn out well at all. They were unre-
y, lated souls, and as time went on it re-
- vealed the difference so fatally that when
n, he was an old man and blind, she prac-


ticed gross deception to gain blessing
for her favorite son he had meant to be-


stow on his own. They may have thought
- of this and wondered whether their trust


in each other would ever come to such


an end as that. He had swept suddenly
N. into the circle of her life, a fine, stalwart


fellow, filling up the picture she had in


her heart of the man she would marry.
= But she really knew no more about him
o' than he knew about her. Could he hold
Ill his own as bread-winner, and she as
IS, ad-maker? Could he keep home


over her head, and could she make it
. bright and trim, as q man loves to see his
~ home when he comes in tired and wants


to rest? Would he turn out selfish or
self-forgetful, or she a frivolous gossip, or
: woman he could trust like his own


soul2 Would the sunshine break out in


his face, as he entered his own door, and


meet the sunshine breaking out on
g hers? Would she cry, Husband, here S
% your slippers, little Anna has been toast


ing tn EN- this half hour" and he reply,


"Ah, wife, you're the woman to think of
?. man. Where are the childrenY p or


would he save all his snarls until he had


shut the door and sat down to supper,


and gave him his own back his own with


usury. There it all lay before them, the
q. vast unknown possibility, leading to
- heaven or to hell by the time they get


their silver wedding. There was but one


wish resting in their hearts come what
o. would, resting there as the lark in my
no old homeland, rests among the heather;
nd and then it scared, as the lark scars,
singing into heaven; and this was the


burden of their spring time melody