Year: 1873




II can not bear this drudgery any
longer, it is wearing my very life awayp
and the weary teacher laid her head
upon the desk in her dependency while
bitter tears fell over her cheeks. Awhile
she sat thus, then raising her head she
gazed round upon the vacant seats in the
dusty little school-room with an express
sion fully as determined as the words
she murmured.


Yes. will do it. Andrew Jones will
ask me to marry him if i only give him
an opportunity. Though there Is not a
spark of love in my soul for him, will
accept him; for a loveless marriage is
better far than the cherries life of the
old maid teacher am past twenty-five,
and this wearing toll is s4pping my very
existence, and l will marry Andrew
Jones'"


Yes" she repeated, "I soW marry him.
Men must open some other avenues for
women to earn their bread, or be forever
content to take to their arms unloving
wives When were truer words ever pen
ned than these? There is no other al
tentative for me. and will accept that
which fate offers.


With this resolve she put on her bon
net and passed out; but as she locked
the door of the school-room and dropped





had locked up all the brightness of the
future; locked forever in her heart all
the cherished dreams of future good, all
the sweet visions of happiness which,
sunshine over the verdure and bloom of
spring has made life beautiful


Oh, Mary Lee, dive down beneath the
surface of your labor, and see what a
great and holy work is intrusted to you'll
Minds which shall live on through the
infinite cycles OF eternity Desponden-
cies and disappointments a0iU crowd the
pathway of the children of earth; hopes
will wither, sweet pleasures pass away,
leaving only the dull, dreary routine of
actual existence. Yet not dull, not use
less and dreary. if we rightly employ the
gifts which God has given, and do not
waste this life in vain repinings for the
glittering baubles shining ahead, and
which may turn to dust in our grasp.


Shall we describe Andrew Jones Then,
reader, mine, see him: short in stature.
awkward in motion; coarse, black hair,
growing low upon his forehead, and
pointing out in every direction as though
endeavoring to free itself; little. bead
like eyes, which look not like the win
dows of great and noble SOUL" that
sparkle not with the force of mighty in
tellect; a voice coarse and unmuscal, fit
accompaniment to the remainder of his
organization.


And this man Mary Lee had resolved
to marry to free herself from the toll she
thought drudgery.


AS she sat alone in the little parlor at
home that evening, she saw him come
staggering in and take the seat beside
herself. She smiled faint Good even
ing" smile like wave frozen in its
course. The silly man was almost be-
side himself that she deigned to wreathe
her proud lips into a smile for him, and
seizing her slender white hand in his
brown chubby fist, stanmered-


Mary, you're the best girl / ever saw
won't you marry me Pa


Yes, Andrew will, she replied, in
tone SO cold, so void of any tremor of
feeling, that it almost startled her. Her
determination was fixed, and she reso-
lutely shut out the picture of future
spent with this man. Her promise had
gone forth, she was weary of work and
she would abide by her decision.


This. then. was the ending of all the
bright, sunny visions she had that night
locked in her heart forever. Forever
All they will come back sometimes, and
be so much brighter by contrast with the
dismal reality. Often, when you think
them forgotten, with suddenness they
will flash over you, and the labor you
now SO much despise would be happy
rest for your tired heart.


Could we brush the dust of forgetful-
ness from the innermost chambers of
many busy brains. what sunny pictures
would smile out at us from behind long
years of toll and sorrow and diappoint-
| ments!


But Mary Lee was married. Married
in name only, for none of that congen-
iality, that oneness which make up so
much the bliss of welded life, was theirs
AS each day passed over them, she
drifted farther and farther from her hus-
band, until she came almost to loathe
bersek snd him. He. Poeg' simple