Year: 1876

and came rather hard at first, but wa
satisfied it was the best way, and so
: kept schooling myself into it till in 4
little while 1 wondered how ever die
otherwise.


81 am always ready for company
now, and always ready to receive my
, husband with smiling face to plea.
SAINT and orderly home.
81 know he has been a great deal
happier since the first year, and l never
half enjoyed anything then.


"The effect upon our children i:
: much better than if we taught them il
is no matter how things are if there are
no visitors, for they learn now how to
behave with propriety at all times, and
how to use those things that are worth
preserving.


81 always pity people when l see
them trying to make little display be-
fore their company, pity them for the
thankless labor they are giving them
selves, and for the glimpse of their pri-
vate life which is just opened up to me,
because am quite sure such folks live
about as it happens when alone"


Mrs. Lanes face had changed ex-
preston several times as she listened,
and when her friend ceased speaking
she gazed at a picture on the wall op-
posite her for full half minute i'm
silence.


"YOu would be surprised" Mrs.
Darling went on, anticipating her first
objection, elf should tell you that this
mode of living is a matter of economy,
too, but such is the fact.


You see we set plain table, and our
food is simple all the time, instead of
getting expensive luxuries for COM
pany, and then pinehing ourselves in
the vain effort to make it up.


''This makes our table expenses actu-
ally less, while we treat ourselves as
well as We do our guests, which is per-
feet justice, as you will see.


"GOod, substantial furniture will last
a long time with little care, even
when in constant use, and if our ex-
pense in this particular are little more
than our neighbors who keep every
thing for company, L am sure our
greater happiness much more than COM
pensates," stroking little Georges head
tenderly as he came up to her with
some childish request.


The subject was dropped here, but in
the few days that Mrs. Lane remained
with her friends, she thought the mat
ter over a great many times.
1t was hard for her to realize that she
saw the family just as they always were
in their common everyday life; that
with them there was no such thing as
company manners" or company
things"


'I enjoyed my visit great deal bet
ter, though, than if had made them
turn aside from their beaten track"
sine admitted; ''and 1 believe they do,
| too"


"WOnder if Mr.. Lane loves me as Mr..
Darling seems to love his wife?" she
would query; cor if our children think
as much of their father and mother as
theirs dO?'


''HOw devoted to each other they all
are; one would think they each re-
garded the other members of the family
as the very best of company" and one
day she even went so far as to ask her
self, "Why shouldn't they?"


Mr.. Lane and the girls came at length
to spend the last day of their visit with
her; and when Mrs. Lane saw how
thoroughly they seemed to enjoy it, she
almost reproached herself that such days
were so rare to them.


"Perhaps might make their home a
little pleasanter for them," she unused.
81 am afraid our meagre life will seem
emptier than ever nOw."


The two friends were sitting in the
library alone that last night, whitner
they had gone for confidential chat
after the others had retired.


.'Nellie," said Mrs. Lane, at length,
81 believe l shall try an improvement
when get home"


GAS you say, it does seem wrong to
treat company so much better than your
own folks, and / am so charmed with
your more excellent way that l mean to
try it myself" and tears came to her
eyes as she thought of the better things
that were in store for her good husband.


The Lanes went home on the follow
ing day, and if they turned back re-
luctantly, Mrs. Lane did not wonder,
for she thought she had herself passed
one of the happiest weeks i'm her whole
life.


She laid her tea table with unusual
care that night saying to the girls that
she could not quite yet bear so strong
a contrast to what she had been accus-
toned to lately, 81 think we will sit in
the parlor tonight" she remarked
when the lamps were lighted; "we are
so tired, perhaps it will rest us little"
When Mr.. Lane came home to dinner
next day, he was surprised to see the
front door standing invitingly open,
and his astonishment was still greater
as he passed on into the dining-roOm
and found a tempting dinner waiting
there with plates for only four.


''I thought We would begin to eat
these pickles while they are good this
year," said Mrs. Lane, as she passed
the dish to her husband, "instead of
keeping them to spoil as we did last
year"


''This is such a pudding as Nellie
makes sometimes" filling Jennie's sau-
GER; ''isn't it nice? And it isn't at all
expensive"


"I think, girIs," she said, when Mr..
Lane had gone out, wondering in his
heart what had come over his wife, 81
think we won't use those cracked frag-
ments of so many different sets of
crockery any more, at least on the Ia
BILE. believe the dinner tastes better
when eaten from the white dishes, and
there are enough for ourselves and COM
papv fon. we can he little careful of