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hands, and burst into tears. The old school- quitted the house of sorrow; and it was with master, deeply moved, turned towards Ve- very full hearts that they repaired to the hosronica. pitable banquet which had been prepared for them by their fellow-citizens.

"Kunkel," said the schoolmaster, in a tone of deep solemnity, "here is the very hand which, twelve years ago, you were so cruel as to burn. This hand is now held out to you in token of forgiveness: and see! no trace remains of the wound you then inflicted; and no unkind thought harbours in the bosom of her who has now come to minister to your wants."

Kunkel raised his head, and looked at Veronica. "No! no!" he replied, sighing heavily; "it is impossible; that fine lady cannot be the same as the poor child whom I so cruelly injured twelve years ago. You are mocking me, M. Rossel.”

Believe me, Kunkel, what I have told you is true. Through God's goodness, that burning penny has turned to a mine of gold in the hand of Veronica Madel; and here," added he, laying a pile of crowns upon the table-"here is a share of her gains, which she has brought to you."

Kunkel, with an air of bewilderment, gazed alternately at Veronica, at his wife, who stood weeping by his side, and at the money which lay upon the table. "I wish I could believe what you tell me," he exclaimed; "but it seems to me impossible. Do you remember, lady, the song that was sung beneath my window that Christmas Eve? That song, and the cry of anguish which followed it, still ring in my ears. If you can repeat it to me now, I shall believe

that what M. Rossel tells me is indeed the truth."

Veronica, with a voice tremulous from emotion, sang the well-known miner's song; and, as she sang, the little infant's cry was hushed, the broken-hearted mother listened in admiring silence, and the sick man, folding his hands across his breast, and raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed, "God be merciful to me a

sinner!"

Veronica seated herself by his side, spoke to him of pardon and of peace, until, at length, a ray of hope beamed from the sufferer's eye. He stretched his wearied limbs, as though seeking that repose which had long been denied to him; and then, with a gentle sigh, he fell asleep.

The schoolmaster, familiar by long experience with scenes of suffering and of death, quickly perceived that the vital spark had fled. He laid his hand upon the marble brow of the dead man; and, repeating the burden of the miner's song, he said, turning towards the weeping widow

"Cheer up, sad hearts, cheer up!'

"I trust, my poor friend, that your husband is at rest after his long struggle; and you and your children shall not be forsaken. Put your trust in the God of the fatherless and the widow, and to-morrow I will come again, and see what can be done for you."

Veronica Madel and her old instructor now

THE MAIDEN'S DOWER.

BY ANNE A. FREMONT.

"If you think I'm dower'd with golden store,
Your wooing is vain," the maiden said;
And she lifted to his her calm, sad eye,
And proudly erect rose her queenly head.

He smiled as he answered, "I love gold well,
And I hold that man unwise, at the best,
And the light of rare jewels I dearly prize;

Who the value of either good gift denies !"

At his words lowly droop'd the bright young head,
As the hopeless tears she strove to hide;
While slowly and calmly she meekly said,
"Farewell, God be with thee, whate'er betide!"

He has taken her hand, clasp'd her close to his heart:
"Yes, jewels and gold do I dearly prize;
But 'tis the rich wealth of thy golden hair,
And the loving light of those earnest eyes!

"But more costly than all this earth contains
And may I not hope that its love is mine?
Is thine heart, in its truth and purity;
Then give thyself and thy dower to me!"

TROUBLED.

BY ADA TREVANION.

October has tinged the skies with grey,
And the year is hastening to its death;
But the trees are dressed in rich array,
And the late blooms breathe a balmy breath.
I stand at the door, and watch the gleam
Of this still and golden afternoon;
And hear, in a kind of waking dream,
The distant waves and the winds aswoon.

And suddenly, like a swift surprise, Which touches me with a troubled joy, A river and bridge before me rise,

And I watch an angling shepherd-boy So ntently that I do not turn, When a god-like form comes o'er the lea, Till I feel my cheek and forehead burn 'Neath the gaze of one who watches me.

'Tis gone: far as can range the eye

The landscape billows to hills of thyme ;
The birds, preparing for flight, flock by,
And the herdsman chants a quaint old rhyme;
And around me are the balmy bowers,

Beloved of the dragon-fly and bee;
But I scarcely note the ling'ring flowers,
And the golden calm brings no rest to me.
1865,

PLAIN CHRISTMAS STORY.

A PLAIN

(From a Minister's Wife.)

BY ALICE B. HAVEN.

How well I remember the excitement of the evening when my husband returned from the Annual Conference, and told me that he had been transferred to this large and important chapel.

We had been living in an obscure country village, among an agricultural people, on the one hand, very plain, very uncultivated; and on the other ignorance, hardness, and low vice that always prevail near a manufacturing town. The church was poor, and the salary small; the parsonage a plain two-storey house, where my husband's only study was a sleeping-room, little better than an attic, with the children's bed in one corner. We always call Clark and Wesley "the children," though there were three babies besides them; but they were all gathered in our own chamber. The kitchen opened from the little parlour, and in the kitchen we ate, because we were liable to interruption at any time, and visitors could not be shown up the crooked stairs to the attic study.

It made little difference to me how the parlour was occupied, for I scarcely ever sat down through the day, unless I was putting a child to sleep. A crown a-week was one-sixth of our little income, and could not be afforded for a woman-servant, and of course the half-grown girl could not manage washing, or ironing, or even a single meal, unless it were tea, without my assistance.

I hardly know how we did manage; but the children wore Holland pinafores and patched trousers-and an apple-pie was a treat. I have dreaded to see a neighbouring "brother" come into tea many a time, because the piece of butter on the table was so small, and there was no more in the house; or nothing to replenish the bread-plate with, for the flour was out, and I had not the courage to tell John of it, for such news always made a gloomy meal to me.

However, that was all over-for two years at least! The sermons studied in that little attic chamber had been heard of far beyond our circle, and the diligent spirit that was faithful over a few things had been called to " come up higher." I shed tears of joy and thankfulness that night I had not been so happy since Maria engaged her first five scholars.

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believe anyone ever went into a husband's family with clearer ideas of new duty among them than I did when I went into John's. I have worked for them, and sought opportunities for relieving them in trouble; I have sympathized with them, and prayed for them; but they never have taken the place of those who belonged to me before I had ever seen him.

Sarah's quick spirit accused me of it; but she lived, poor girl, to find that, though her taunts hurt and wounded me, they did not change my course among John's family or alienate me from her in the least. She had never been a wife, and could not understand how sacredly I accepted every duty the change of relation brought. After her death, when only mother and Maria remained, my heart went out to them more and more. I was a mother then myself, and began to realize the early struggles to rear and educate us which my mother passed through, and to grieve that her old age should have any care. As for Maria, when Sarah was no longer there to assist, the burden all came upon her, and my longing to help her has been at times positive anguish-to feel myself so helpless, tied hand and foot by my own cares, and not able to lighten their burthen by a feather's weight! There is one thing-I believe this intense but ungratified desire has helped me to bear my own, by drawing my thoughls away from it; and perhaps this is one reason why we are charged to cherish sympathy as a Christian duty, to "rejoice with those that do rejoice, and weep with those that weep." So, when Maria's little school was fairly established, I had been so eager about it that it was like a great, good fortune happening to ourselves, and now our turn had come.

A rich chapel, a handsome parsonage, and two hundred a-year-nearly twice as much as we had lived on, and managed to keep out of debt. It was a fortune to us in prospect, and I felt as if all the petty, wearying cares of my life were at an end. I threw my arms around John's neck, and laid my head on his breast, and cried, as I have said. Sleep seemed impossible that night, so many vague plans and calculations crowded my brain. Mother should have the warm shawl I had been longing to give her, and Wesley a new Sunday suit made out of his father's second-best, and John shine in the glory of new broadcloth, with seams that did not require a weekly sponging with ink, to keep them at all respectable!

There are some women who seem to me as if they had ceased to belong to their own families from the moment they marry. They are either absorbed in their new connections or in their husband and children; all their cares, and anxieties, and sympathies run in these new A full-grown servant could be afforded now channels; but I am not one of them, I do not-in fact, our changed position would require it.

Alas! that is the secret of all the troubles that came upon us. It was another matter to do the work of the family in this house, with a regular study, and parlour, and sitting-room, and broad hall and staircase to be kept in order, and liable to visits, that were not meant to be intrusions, at any hour of the day.

When we lived at Factoryville, if good old sister Miller dropped in with a few fresh eggs or a basket of sweet apples, she always came where I was, and I could go on with mixing my bread or patching a jacket, and talk at the same time; but how could I ask ladies who never see the interior of their own kitchen more than once-aday, to sit down in mine? or how could I take Mrs. Strong where I had not asked Mrs. Steele, when she was so jealous of "the rich members of the church," although her constant cry was "Christian simplicity"?

Everything had to be different here: no more going out to tea at four o'clock in the afternoon, and taking my work and children with me, coming home in time to put them to bed, and have a good long evening with my needle, and maybe John running out of his study to read to me for half-an-hour, if there was no evening meeting; and then, having mother and Maria so near us, I could save from the little household stores the kind farmers brought in, a few apples, a peck of potatoes, meal, and milk for them-a great help to such a small household.

We had been here nine months, and in all that time not so much as a peck of potatoes had been sent in. Hothouse flowers, and grapes from Mrs. Steele and Mrs. Lovett, more than once; but they did not replenish wasting "meal and oil," or help me in saving towards that shawl which my mother's stiffened limbs required. So far from saving, we were for the first time in all our lives in debt! I hate the words. O how the miserable fact hung over me! but it would not do for the minister's wife to go to church all winter in a straw bonnet with dyed ribbons, and sit in the very front pew, to be criticized by all the congregation. How I grudged the money a corded silk one cost me, and the set of muslins that this constant going out to tea-which means a party of from ten to eighteen people arrayed in their best-demanded to keep my five years old black silk in counten

ance.

Then I could not be as much in the kitchen, and groceries did not go more than half as far, or meat either, and I missed the spare ribs and cuts of fresh beef or veal that were brought us when any of our people were killing stock. I used to weary of their lack of cultivation, at the dulness of their lives and minds, and long for educated, congenial society; that was one of the great charms this change seemed to promise us-that John would be more appreciated, and I should have friends I could really enjoy; but in all this community there is not one who enters into a single joy or care of my life.

When Maria's school was certain, I had to fly round to Mrs, Miller, and tell her all about

it; and she knew how heavily the doctor's bill weighed on my mind, for fear we should not be able to meet it, and the expenses of John's illness last year. It was even better in Middlefield, though we were poor enough there; but I knew that was the beginning, and we had everything to look forward to, and I was young and strong; and Sarah was here to work for mother and help Maria.

Poor Maria, with her feeble health! and now, this last quarter, there has been another school set up, and she has lost some of her best scholars, and they are in a great deal of trouble!

I have known it all along! I felt it from October, when she only mentioned that the new school had commenced; her letters have been less and less cheerful, though she never complained, or asked for anything, or hinted that mother had a right to expect some help from me, till December came. I know how I must seem to them utterly selfish; for feeling so powerless, I have avoided the subject, as if I was indeed guilty; and poor Maria did not upbraid me then; she only said

"I have not made as much by twenty pounds as I did last year, and it has cost us rather more to live, missing your kind help, though you know that nobody can manage better than mother, and indeed we have often not bought any meat for weeks together, and managed to do without butter since it began to be so dear, and mother has not been to church since the cold weather came, for you know I wrote you how unfortunate it was about the moths getting into her cloak. Sometimes I hardly know how we shall get through the winter. I dread to go to the shopkeeper's for anything, for fear they should refuse to trust me any longer, for you know it is sometimes two and three months before people pay up school bills."

Yes, I know from sad experience that school bills and a minister's salary are the last debts people ever pay, and even then both are grudged, while the value of physical service is recognized and discharged at once.

Hothouse grapes-and my mother and delicate sister starving themselves! I gave my portion to the children, and John wondered that I did not enjoy them. I could not trouble him with the letter, but I brooded over it all the more; it was a shadow that never left me. How could I help them? what could I give up? what spare? what sell? Alas, nothing! My ingenuity was already exhausted in economies, and every shilling that could be saved must go towards our own debts; how much they were we did not ask each other; it was a subject avoided by mutual consent. I envied the seamstress stitching away in Mrs. Steele's sitting-room; she toiled hard, but she earned something, and had the comfort of ministering to her lame sister. I worked harder, for my long vigils began when her day's work was ended, and for all that my sewing was never finished.

A minister must always be well dressed, you know; it is expected of him that he should ever be seen in the broadcloth which many a

man in his church of twice his means does not feel able to afford for daily wear. Then his linen must be spotless, and in the midst of other things John's shirts wore out all at once, and I had to leave the children's clothes and go to work on them. I never set about any task with a heavier heart; we had not the money by us to pay for the calico, and that must be added to our account at the draper's: it was only putting off the evil day, for the bills were sure to come in at Christmas. The shop-keeper was very polite, and anxious to please me; but I felt like a thief when I saw him cut off his goods and do up the parcel, and I told John so when I came home.

It was hard for him, too; but he tried to cheer and encourage me. Many a man, at finding himself involved where he had every reason to expect that his cares had been lightened, would have thrown the blame on his wife's bad management, and indeed it does seem like it; but God knows I have tried to do my best. When I said so to John last night, and that I wished I was back again at Factoryville, he answered-" We did not send ourselves here; it was God's own appointment, and not our seeking; we have no responsibility but to do the best we can, and I believe we shall be carried through somehow." So he took up his Bible, and read aloud-" Trust in the Lord, and be doing good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed."

But I didn't see how; and besides my own case there was that letter, which I had not the heart to trouble him with. I know it seems as if people ought to live comfortably on two hundred a year and no house-rent to pay, and I have seen the time when I should have blamed anybody that did not do it. But try it, with the expenses that grow out of keeping up a respectable appearance in a rich congregation, where you are not only expected to go to teaparties, but to give them, and are liable to have a presiding elder, or a city minister, or some one else who looks not only for Christian hospitality-which is such things as we have, and a willing mind, as I apprehend it but such things as we never should have thought of having, but to entertain them and the brethren who drop in to see them.

Then, as I said before, one cannot march a family up the main aisle into the front pew with the consciousness that they are shabbier than the children of the man who makes their shoes and sits very near the door. I kept Wesley at home for three Sundays, until I could finish his new jacket; and Mrs. Strong and Mrs. Wise came to see me about it, and said it was setting a bad example, when the minister's children were not in their places!

I felt really bitter towards John, that he could go so quietly to bed after our talk, feeling so peaceful, when I stayed up and ironed out the cloth which Bridget had shrunk, so as to have it cut out as soon as the work was done in the morning. I could have done it earlier in the evening but for going to Thursday night prayer

66

meeting; but that was expected" of me too, and the mothers' meeting, on Friday afternoon, and the Female Sanitary Circle, and the Wednesday evening lecture. It would have been a "bad example" if I had stayed at home and made my husband's shirts!

I tried to get at them the first thing in the morning, and was doing pretty well when Mrs. Steele called. I heard the carriage stop at the door in dismay, for I knew I must leave everything, baby and all, and go into the parlour. I hurried up-stairs as softly as I could, for the baby had pulled my hair out of order and rum. pled my collar, and forgot to take a shawl into the parlour, though there was no fire there. Mrs. Steele's velvet cloak and rich furs kept her warm! I think, sometimes, that if we stood more on an equality I should really love Mrs. Steele; she has such lovely eyes, and a low, sweet voice, and such a gentle way. Her manner was so friendly that an insane idea of telling her all my troubles rushed into my mind. She always reminds me of Maria-of what Maria would be if she was in her position

and I felt as if she could understand my wretchedness. To think that Maria, with so much refinement and natural elegance, shrank before a petty grocer, because he had trusted her with ten shillings!

But I recollected myself in time. This favourite of fortune, whose furs alone had cost as inuch as Maria's whole year's earnings, could have no comprehension of any such distress; besides, might she not think it was a covert appeal for assistance? So my pride sealed my lips.

She had come to ask us to tea that evening. "Only a few friends, and she would send the carriage early."

A minister's wife has not the common refuge of an apology; it is expected of her always to accept an invitation thankfully, and be only too glad to get it. I thought of the baby screaming himself to sleep, because I was not there to undress him; that Lucy would most likely have a visitor drop in, or drop out herself, leaving the house and children to their fate; of the shirts huddled together and left for another day; of the afternoon prayer-meeting, which I was expected to open; and that by six o'clock I should be tired, and fagged, and more out of heart than ever-yet I said that I would

come.

The door-bell rang as Mrs. Steele rose to go, and we met Mrs. Strong in the hall. It would not do to ask her into the sitting-room when her rich neighbour had evidently been entertained in the parlour. Mrs. Strong was "as good as anybody," to use her own frequent declaration; she would sit there and shiver first! Between them I lost the morning, and by the time I could help Lucy with the dinner things, and settle the children for the afternoon, and get dressed, it was time for the prayermeeting.

I was thankful it was only my part to read; I could not have prayed without mockery;

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the dull room, the poor fire, the scanty table they were enduring; and when Mrs. Steele said, "You are not well, I am afraid; you do not seem to eat," I forced myself to taste what my soul loathed, and to smile when it seemed as if my heart was breaking.

felt that I was committing sin to kneel down with the rest, and appear to listen. My mind was so full of my troubles, and, above all, of those who were dearer to me than myself. Was God a God of truth and love when my mother's old age seemed so forsaken? she who had served Him so faithfully, who delighted so in I was bitter enough before I came upon the "the courts of the house of the Lord," deprived knot of ladies in the library, an hour or so after. of her one great comfort for lack of a garment I had been loitering by myself through the to shield her from the storms of winter? I rooms, escaped for a little while from playing a looked round when they were singing a hymn. part I could ill sustain, and envy and jealousy I counted six thread lace veils, either of which for the first time in all my life assailed me. would have bought my mother a shawl; be- But it was my own doing; I had broken down sides Mrs. Steele's, there were as many more the defences of my life by indulging in murmurs expensive velvet cloaks in the little circle, and and distrust, and the Adversary is not slow to furs and French walking boots, and rich silk t take advantage of every departure from our only dresses. Did they serve God better than the safety and defence. Yes, I looked at the rich humble, prayerful woman who was denied the hangings, and costly pictures, and heavy furninecessaries of life? What a hypocrite I felt to ture. All this and heaven too!" I repeated be sitting there with such a grave, decorous face to myself bitterly. "No wonder that people when my thoughts were like these! forget the wants of others, when they have not one left to be gratified! They dole us out a pittance, and it is no fault of theirs if it does not meet our wants!"

It required all the force I could put upon myself to go out that evening. I had not the slightest interest in any one or in anything. When I stepped into the luxurious carriage Mrs. Steele sent for us, I thought of Maria walking to her school-room twice a day, in cold and sleet and drenching rains; its ease was torture to me for her sake. We entered a hall as broad as the parlour of the parsonage, brilliantly lighted, and up a staircase so easy that the ascent was scarcely felt. The rich carpeting was soft and warm to the tread; the carved furniture of the chamber to which I was shown was so polished that it reflected light instead of absorbing it; and the drawing-room always bewildered me with the variety and elegance of its appointments.

I came suddenly upon the group in the library; the draperies of the arch and the soft velvet carpet concealed my approach. They were speaking loudly, too; discussing some matter with eagerness, and I heard some one say: "It does not look very well for a minister's wife in a congregation like this to dress poorly."

"O Mrs. Lovett!" Mrs. Steele began, and then some one cried "Hush!"-looking up and seeing me between the curtains.

They wished to spare my feelings, but it was too late. Angry, vehement words rose to my lips; I burned to defend myself, when I knew that not one of them was denied a coveted obIject, and their lives passed in a dream of ease while I toiled! But I did not; I would have gone away, but they had seen me, and began to address me with some confusion, and a great show of warmth, on "a subject they had been discussing when I came up-a Christmas tree for the Sunday-school!"

So, they could stoop to falsehoods to cover their uncharitableness! How I despised them all! and sat there with a burning face, wishing "myself with my children, or back to the once undervalued friends of our late home, for they were true at least.

I had worn my black silk on every visit had paid since my brown lawn became too thin for the season, for my new mousseline de laine was part cotton; and, besides, no one among Mrs. Steele's friends wore anything but a silk on these occasions. They dropped in one by one till the room was comfortably full-full of flounces and lace collars and sleeves, and more than one diamond brooch flashed in the gaslight; a great change since our communion first stood up against "putting on of apparel." Then we were ushered into supper, the long table, shining with silver and glass and china, covered with the finest damask, and filled by every delicacy of the season. There was game, and salads, and delicately arranged dishes of ham, and tongue, and cold chicken; crisp, delicious celery rising from its cut-glass vase; jellies quivering from their tasteful moulds, and rich cake heaped in silver baskets.

I set down my porcelain cup, with the fragrant aroma of Mocha coffee, coloured by the golden cream; I could not drink it, I could only seem to eat the costly viands with which my plate was loaded. "We who often have not bought meat for weeks together, nor tasted butter since it became so high," rang in my

ears.

The glittering scene, the hum of pleasant conversation died away from before me; I saw

Our denomination had never made much of Christmas, they said, but it was becoming so general to notice the day, and the children, seeing others, remembered and rewarded for good conduct, might feel it, and grow dissatisfied! So, after many arguments and a playful appeal to the purses of the gentlemen who came in soon after, the thing was decided on, for there was but a week for preparation, and measures must be prompt. They intended to provide a book, or a toy, and bon-bons for every child in the Sunday-school. Trifling as the remembrances might be, it would cost-the calculations varied-but every one mentioned a sum large enough to pay our debts, as I thought to myself, and it seemed such a waste! I could

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