Year: 1873

corn, and wait to see the tender blade
put forth, would be disheartened hut
ne knows if he plants the tiny seed,
and cultivates it as he ought, that the
harvest Of golden grain will come at
length.


Albert and Alice were married in
the spring Of 1865. 1t was on an
evening Of August, 1870, that Albert
came home out Of sorts. He had
been notified that he must leave the
cottage. They must give up the pleas
ant home, and lose the little garden
they had cultivated with so much
fOndness and care.


"The owner wishes to SELL" he eX-
planned "snd he has an offer. He
asks two thousand dollars, and must
have five hundred down.


Alice's eyes cleaned with radiant
delight. She had been thinking for
some time that she must let her hus-
band into her secret. It had begun to
wear upon her. And now the time
had come as though by proyldential
interpositiOn.


She did not make scene. She
would not add to the denOuement by
any by play. She simply got up and
went to her cabinet and when she
came back she brought little book in
her hand.


"Albert ~ said she, let's you and I
buy the cottage.


Albert looked at her in amazement;
and directly it flashed upon him that
there was too much sOlemnity in her
look and tone for badinage. Some
thing that he had noticed during the
past months came back to him, and
he trembled with the weight Of sus-
pense that fell upon him.


Alice saw and understood. At first
the great flood almost overcome her,
and she was forced to rest and wipe
her eyes before she could proceed.
And then she showed her boOk-that
had more than eight hundred dollars
in the bank. The ice was broken, she
told her story in glowing words. She
told how she had saved up little by
little, and how she had at length
found herself able 90 purchase a fifty
dollar bond. And then she told how
her uncle in the banking house had
taken charge of her investment and
how, under his management, the in
terest had accrued in amazing volume.


But the grand result was not the
chief thing. The chief thing was the
beginning-was the first little which
had been religiously saved until the
second little could be added to it.


And now, as a result of the whe's
careful and tifeless working, Albert
found something upon which his am
bitiOn could take a fair start. He
never could himself, from so small a
commencement, have reared the pile;
out with the structure started, and its
proportions all blocked out, he could
help on the work. He could not see
how it was done-and not only that,
but the demonstration was before
him that the thing could be done.


One year has elapsed since Albert
Moore received the lesson from his
wife, and joining hands with her, aQd
bending his energies in the same di-
rection, he has accomplished during the
past twelve months what would have
seemed to him a marvel in the earlier
times. He has laid by more than fif-
ty cents a day and the cigars, and
beer, and the other condiments of life
which he had surrendered to the work
are not tmissed-rather, he holds that
they are so many enemies conquered.
And Albert can improve his home
with cheerful heart, and he. can set
out new trees and vines in his garden
with bright promises, because he sees
day by day, the pretty cottage grow
ing more and more his own. The
end approaches surely, nevertheless
and there is great and satisfying joy
even in the labor and in the anticipa-
ton.