Year: 1876

istence Is increment, she felt poor in


deed in all the resources most earnestly
to be desired. Was it not possible tha


she and Frank might be all to each othel


what these two friends were? At any
rate she would talk with Mrs. Bank
and find out, if she could, just how sh,
had so perfectly won and kept her hus


bands heart, and how with all the care
of growing family, she had managed
to keep her mind bright and full.


So, one day as they sat together. sh,
introduced the subject cautiously, les
Mrs. Banks might suspect that she and
Frank were not so near to each other a!
they might be.


81 don't see where you get SO much
time to read and find out everything
said Mrs. Merwin; "you seem to be a.
fresh as if you had just left school, while
l have forgotten almost everything
knew, and yet don't see but that you
have as many cares as l have"


81 neglect good many things" said
Mrs. Banks; ''my tides are all bought,
while dare say you knit yours your
self; my children's clothes are perfectly
plain, and so are my own. I've often
wanted to ask you where you got SO
much time TO make all the pretty
clothes Minnie wears"


''Oh, make them at night, after the
children are quiet; Frank is away at
the club, and l have all the evening to
sew"


''Mr. Banks doesn't like to have me
sew or knit when he is at home; he says
it doesn't seem as though l was enter
tanning him when / am intent on the
needle, and so I've never done it except
when compelled to by stress of circum-
stances.


sand you always devote yourself to
him as you have done since l have been
here?"


eyes, always; 1 talk to him or pet
him till he's rested, and then he talks
to me, tells me all the news and every
thing that has happened during the
day; sometimes talks over his cases
with me. often find on the envelopes
of his letters a memorandum of items to
tell her;' and 1 half feel as though /
have been wherever he has been during
the day. If he sees q new picture he
describes it so vividly to me that it's
really better than seeing it with my
own eyes; if he reads a new book he
goes over the points of it with me, and
it has been this way ever since we were
married, so that do feel that my mind
has grown almost as much as his,
though have been so full of household
and family cares"


Mrs. Merwin sighed audibly, and
then came up in memory many a day
when Frank had come home weary,
and evidently longing for just this in.
terchange OF sympathy with his wife.
How had it been met? Was there not
something better than this laborious
superfiuity Of Ornamentation? Could
not the tongue and the eye have knitted
finer and more valuable fabrics than the
busy fingers had done? 1t was not
too late to hope that even now she
could win him back again and enjoy the
pure content that made her friends life
so blessed. Now was indeed the golden
opportunity, and how diligently she
improvedi it. Laying aside the embroid-
cries on which she had intended to spend
so much time, she spent all her leisure
time in reading the choice volumes
which were discussed in the evening
conversations, to renewing her ac-
qucintance with the classics she and





him long letters, full of wifely sympa-
thy in his labors and successes, of COM
ment on the books which occupied her
thought, and of anticipations of the
happy associations they would have
when she got home again.


To Mr.. Merwin the occasional Sab
baths he spent with Mary in Vermont
seemed like oases i'm the desert. To-
gether, as i'm the days of their courtship
and early marriage, with little to inter-
rupt, they slipped back into the old easy
of thought and feeling
which clothed those bright days with
sunshine and joy. Mary could not rest
until she had told her husband all her
heart, and how she longed to be to him
all that wife could be, keeping step
with him i'm his intellectual growth, as
well as shining In the honors which it
brought him.


"Do you remember" she said, "the
letter in which you asked me to be your
wife? 1 committed it to memory at the
time, and since have been here it has
all come back to me, especially the pas
sage, you would be a companion for
me. We could spend our evenings in
beautiful readings, i'm mutual commun-
ings with the master spirits of the
world We will spend them SO when
we get home, won't we?"


And they did. Whatever annoyances
came to Mrs. Merwin in the manage
ment Of her household, or to Mr.. Mer
win i'm the conduct Of his business dur
ing the day, was not permitted to mar
the cheerfulness of their evening re-
unions. When he came home, eX-
hausted by unusual labors, the quick
eve of his wife read in his face and
manner the need of his spirit, and by
reason Of her perfect sympathy with
him, she knew just how TO sOOthe and
restore him. Or, if he found her de-
pressed and weary on his return, he,
zoo extended the hand of ready sympa-
thy, gentle forbearance and CHEEKY
words. The club was forgotten for the
fireside; the crochet and embroidery
needle were forgotten, and yet the
CAV as when their loving mother ar
rayed them in garments covered with
choice needlework. Though silver be-
gan to mingle with Mrs. Merwin's
chestnut tresses, and crOw-feet traced |
on a face no longer young,
MIR. Merwin declared that every year
but added to her personal charms, and
made her a thousand fold more dear to
him than ever. And thus, like the
asympsote lines. ever approaching,
never to meet, they are going hand in
hand to where, though there may be
brief parting, they shall live and love
orevermore.-Phren0 Journal.


Duty.