Year: 1870

1t was cold, raw, cheerless day
with a dark and clouded sky, and
great rain drops falling like heavy
tears upon the soddened snow. A
dismal day for a funeral, for surely
it is better to lay our loved ones in
the grave while the bright sun
shines and the birds sing, and the
Heavens to which they have gone
is fright and clear and blue. There
were many looked up with shiver
at those brooding clouds, as the
procession began to form before
the open doors of Margaret Sea-
ford's home. Old friends and
neighbors were there, who had
known her as little toddling child
who had watched her as care
less .naiden-who had consoled and
pitied her-yes, pitied her as a
mother and a wife! For over and
over again had an infant been laid
upon that gentle breast only to be
snatched away just as it was bloom
ing into intelligence and beauty /;
and he who should have enabled
her to bear such trials meekly, by
his devotion and his love, had been
but careless husband in the main


He had never openly wronged, had
never abused or ill treated her. No
one could point to an overt act of
unkindness or infidelity on his part.
But he was busy and a successful
man, engrossed in his gigantic
schemes of speculation, and so alb
sorbed by his business and his plans
for its advancement, as to have lit
tie leisure inclination for that pleas
ant home intimacy with which other
and wiser men take time to embel-
lish and brighten their lives. Home,
to this man. had been a place to
eat, drink and sleep in-a house
for which taxes were to be paid,
and which must be beautified and
adorned outwardly and inwardly, Sc
far as money and taste could ac-
complish it. And he bought new
dresses for his wife as often as she
needed them he gave her furs and
jeweld and silk attire; he gave her
everything, in fact but those two
things for which she pined-his at
tention and hi love. For years she
had enyied the commonest laborer's
wife who could pass the house lean
ing fondly on her husbands arm,
discussing with him the way to
make three shillings do the work OF
five. For years she had done her
duty faithfully, with the hope of its
reward on earth growing less and
less bright before her. Now she
has gone to seek that reward in
Heaven. And the happy matrons
who had been her playmates and
companions years before, glanced
pityingly down upon the pale, pa
tient face in the coffin, and then,
with feeling of inward resentment.
turned from the stately, dark haired.
dark eyed man, who sat with folded
arms and compressed lips in silence
at the coffin's head.


.'Not one tear did he shed, even
when she was lowered into the
grave. I stood close beside him
and watched him all the time" said
Mrs. Grundy to her friends that
evening. so, it was a hard, sad
life for that poor thing, and 1 only
hope and pray that he may take
another wife who will wiring his
heart as hard and as long as he has
wrung hers %


"But surely he must have loved
his wife once, in the early days of
their marriage" said a pitiful young
girl.


"Aye-it was a love match, if
that was ALL" said Mrs. Grundy,
with sage nod of the head.


''You can see now, my dear, how
they turn out! Stephen Seaford
was tired of his wife long before
her beauty began to fade, and he
has gone on, growing more and
more tired year by year, this is the
end! l have no doubt that, in his
heart, he is thoroughly glad that she
is gone"


Was Mrs. Grundy right? Was it
all of truth, and nothing of false
hood, that dreary sermon that she
preached above the grave where
the broken hearted wife was lying? !?
Let US pay visit to the home of
the widower, and see.