Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1875 — Page 3

RENSSELAER UNION. HORACE E. JAMES, Proprietor. RENSSELAER, - ' INDIANA.

THE HERITAGE. The rich man’s son inherits lands, And piles of brick -and stone and gold; And he inherits soft; white hands And tender flesh that fears the cold; Nor dares to wear a garment old; A heritage, It seems to ane. One would not wish to hold in fee. The rich man’s son inherits cares; The bank may break, the factory burn; A breath may burst its bubble “shares, And soft, white hands could scarcely earn A living that would serve his turn; A heritage, it seems to me,' One would not wish to hold in fee. “What doth the poor man’s son inherit ? Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, A Learty frame, a heartier spirit; King of two hands, he does his part In every useful toil and art; A heritage, it seems to me, A King might wish to hold in fee. “What doth the poor man’s son inherit 1 ? Wishes o’erjoyed with humble things, A rank adjudged by toil-worn merit. Content that from employment springs, A heart that in his labor sings; A heritage, it seems to me, A King might wish to hold in fee. What doth the poor man’s son inherit ? A patience learned by being poor; Courage, if sorrow come, to bear it; A fellow-feeling that is sure To make the outcast bless his door; A heritage, it seems to me, A King might wish to hold in fee. ■O! rich man’s son, there is a toil, That with all other level stands; Large charity doth never soil, But only whitens soft, white hands— This is the best crop from thy lands; A heritage, it seems to me, Worth being rich to hold in fee. O! poor man’s son, scorn not thy state; There is worse weariness than thine, In merely being rich and great; Toil only gives the soul to shine And makes rest fragrant and benign! A heritage, it seems to me, Worth being poor to hold in fee. Both heirs to some six feet of sod, Are equal to the earth at last; Both children of the same dear God, Prove title to your heirship past By record of a well-tilled past; A heritage, it seems to me, Well worth a life to hold in fee. —James Russell Lowell.

TWO THANKSGIVINGS IN ONE.

“‘lt never rains but it pours; and •when there’s a plenty there’s always a feast,’ ” ejaculated Miss Susan Napp, as she entered the long, low kitchen where her two sisters,"middle-aged spinsters like herself, with their cousin, Miss Prissy Prosser, were busily occupied with the preparations for the morrow’s Thanksgiving feast to be celebrated in their own home, the old stone house on the hill, known and designated by all the old Burndaiers as the “ Napp girlses.” “ Aunt Mandy Pomfret’s sent this, with her.regards,” said Miss Susan, depositing at the same time upon the .soap-stone pieboard a heaping pan of poultry-livers, hearts and gizzards. “ Salt’em over, Betsy. ’Twon’t do lor me to leave my pump ; kin sauce another minute.” “ Dear sakes!” exclaimed. Miss Betsy; “ the third great pan o’ killin’s this blessed day. I sit’d think it was a dpnation party. What does it mean, I wonder?” , “ Yes, Betty—yes, Patty and Prissy,’’ answered Miss Susan, wiping her hands, and grasping the sauce-ladle. “Justwhat Isay—a feast or -a famine. Here’s Capt. Gobble ready stuffed and trussed, between a brace of ducks and chickens for company’s sake, and no end of pigeons and partridges for the pie, not to speak of the vegetables and sauces and the dessert; and lot here first the Timeses must send over a load of sassidge and spare-rib, and then the Bellses bring down enough head-cheese and pig-feet souse to keep us all a month, and now Aunt Mandy’s giblets! It beats all. I don’t wonder you want to know what it means. It means something , depend upon it, if we can only find out; ’Twon’t do to let victuals go to wasteland I don’t see but that we’ll have to keep two Thanksgivings in one, and send up and bid that lank-looking crew lately come to Bijali’s forty.” “ Deary me!” sighed Miss Patty, the gentle and timid one of the. “Napp girlses';'"’ M there’s such a host of them. And I don’t believe the spoons and the little glass preserve-dishes would go ’round. Wouldn’t it be better to send them a portion V Bijali says they’re as poor as Job’s turkey.” “ How things do happen!” chirped Miss Betsy, who was briskly salting the fresh giblets and quite heedless of her timid sister’s suggestion; “ all in bunches, so to speak. You wouldn’t may be think, Prissy Prosser, judging from present appear-, ances, that we three girls have seen the days, right here in this kitchen, when a plateful of either sassidge, spare-rib or giblets would have been as welcome to our eyes as it’s possible for any good dishful to be to the tolks on ’Bijah’s forty, and they as poor as they may be. It’s true as preachin’, though. While we were carrvin’ on all that lawin’ with the Pitkins heirs about that disputed claim that is never likely to be settled how, and I s’pose we shall be in hot water over it to the end of our days—seems that paper never can be found—yes, while we were stintin’ and scrimpin’ and screwin’ to pay lawyers for provin’ what one sight at that missing paper would have made as clear as day, “I ‘ assure you, Prissy, many’s the night we’ve gone to bed hungry and wakened up faint, to our sloppy tea and butterless bread, and no son or daughter of Adam ever sent us a scrap or a bone.” , “ But, Betty,” said gentle Miss Patty, “ why should they have sent in things? They didn’t know we were so cramped.” “To be sure—to be sure,” responded Miss Betty. “ Folks can’t be omniscient. I was just tliinkin’ how queer things happen. Well, there’s Scripter for it—- ‘ To him that hath shall be given,’ you know. But, land’s sake! it’s anything but agreeable to lack good food when a body’s hungry. How many was it we reckoned the two long tables would seat comfortably ? Let me see—five and twenty, wasn’t it? And we’ve asked nineteen, outside of ourselves. We couldn’t squeeze in thePullums edgewise, no way?” Miss Betsy turned her dapper litle figure toward her sister, and every line of her rosy face as well as,the tones of her cheery voice were interrogatory. The Pullums were that lank crew on ’Bijah’s Forty, j 0 "The little glass preserve dishes wouldn’t go ’round, I’m certain,” began Miss Patty, with a sigh.

“ Of course they wouldn’t, when there’s only twenty-four of ,’em,” injected Miss Sukey, vigorously squeezing her pumpkin sauce through the colander.. “ I don’t s’posc it’ll hurt them, however, to go without victuals. Thanksgiving Day only comes ohce a year, and bcin’,Bo poor once ourselves ought to make us iqpsre considerin’ o’ these Pullumses, just because they’re poor. Put on your wraps, Patty, ami step up there and invite them. ’Tain’t best to think twice when you mean to do a kind deed. Tell ’em the minister’s folks and some of our kinspcople are coming home with us from meetin’ to-morrow, and we’ll be glad to have them all join the party.” “ Just as you say, Sister Sukey,” meekly replied Patty, untying her great checked apron and preparing to car,ry the hospitable message. “We can borrow Miss Cap’n Hovaker’s spoons, most likely, and maybe the laylock and green flower’d chany saucers ’ll do for the blue damsons and sweet pickle. There’s eight and twenty of them left out o’ the three dozen, and the little glass preserve dishes can go round with the coffee cups. Children don’t take coffee, so there’ll be plenty for that purpose.” “Yes, said Miss Susan, “the very thing. And now there’s no earthly hindrance to asking the Pullums, for we can stretch out the table by using those two half-circular stands from the parlor—one at each end.” So, complacently, Miss Patty set out upon her errand, and the sisters and cousin continued the line of duties. The low-ceiled kitchen exhaled odors rich and spicy, and the»rapidly-filling pantry shelves gave abundant promise that the morrow’s feast would prove no niggardly affair. • “I’m happy glad you thought to mention the Pullumses, Sister Sukey. Now I pome to think, I remember Jared Biggs teilin’ ’Miah’s folks how they’d all been down with the jaundice since they’d moved on the forty, and their sweet ’tatoes had got touched with the frost afore they was any of ’em well enough to dig ’em,” Miss Betty was saying, as she drew her sixteenth steaming, fragrant mince-pie from the great oven, when the door opened, and in stepped Miss Patty, her withered cheeks glowing like roses, and her soft, dark eyes shining like stars. “Sukey! Betty! Prissy Prosser!” she exclaimed, breathlessly. “Only think! ‘ Two Thanksgivings in one’ was what Sukey said when she first mentioned calling in the Pullumses to help us eat up the extra killin’s. And Betty said ‘How things do happen!’ But none of us ever could have thought that such a thing would happen as that, setting out to ask a lot of poor strangers to share our feast tomorrow, should he the means of finding that which puts an end to all our perplex: ities and makes not two but twenty Thanksgivings in one for us poor girlses.” And Miss Patty actually broke down in tears and sobs as she drew from under her shawl the yellow, creased, bat oh! wellremembered paper so long searched for, so earnestly prayed for, the loss of which had caused all the expensive lawing with the Pitkins heirs, and the findingof which would make the Napp girls the richest landholders in all Burndale. “You know the little shaving-glass father used to keep on his light-stand,” sobbed Miss Patty, as the trio crowded around and plied her with questions. “ Bijah got it ’long with his share of the effects, you mind. Well, when he moved off the forty into his new house, he left the glass, light-stand and all, in the old house, and made Miss Pullum welcome to the use of ’em. In the shaving-glass drawer there was a bit of paste-board fitted to the bottom. Nobody’d ever have thought ’twas put there to hide anything, but it was. Miss Pullum, she’s a master hand to clean, and she thought she’d scour out the drawer, and she’d het her lye, and had torn out the pasteb.oard just as I knocked at the door, and she’d found this paper folded under that pasteboard, and without ever suspicionin’ that it held a mortal speck of value she was just about to toss it into the fire as my eyes fell upon it in her hand. I never shrieked so in my life, girls. The woman jumped as if she was shot, but when I showed her what that paper meant for us you never sawanybody gladder than she' was about it. And to think,” added Miss Patty, self-re-proachfully, “ I wasn’t altogether cordial about my askin’ ’em on account of the little glass preserve dishes not going 'round. It does seem as if the Lord is gracious to us in spite of Ourselves.” “ All things work together for good,” repeated Miss Sukey, her eyes tilling with tears. “ ’Tis the leadings of Providence, Betty. Even those dark, hungry days of ours were steps by which God was leading us to this. For they helped us to ‘ consider the poor.’ And somehow, when Mandy’s pan of giblets came I seemed to think they w-ere meant to serve some purpose ; they set me thinkin’ wliether’r no we oughtn’t to seek out some needy persons and share our, abundance with them, and of a sudden I bethought 1 me of these new-comers on ’Bijah’s forty. Surely, surely, ‘ God moves in a mysterious way,’ ” said Miss Suky, reverently. “In feast or in famine His watchful providence is always over His children and He leads them by ways they know not. Bless His holy name.” And Miss Betty and Miss Patty and Miss Prissy Prosser whispered, “Amen.” Upon Thanksgiving Day, around the lavishly-spread board within the old stone house on the hill, as the good pastor offered thanks for the mercies of the day and of the year, and for the especial blessing granted by kind Providence to the worthy and happy hostesses, in the establishment of theif lawful rights, it was difficult to say whose w-ere the happiest hearts around the festal table, the poor Pullums, whom the leadings of Providence had brought to share in', the good cheer and good fellow-ship of the “Napp girlses’ ” Thanksgiving, or the “Napp girlses” themselves, to whom, in the same leadings of Providence, the Pullui#s had brought such glad cause for joy in.their happy celebration of two Thanksgivings in one.— Mary E. C. Wyett, in Chicago Advance.

---The old “ pine-logs” that are still occasionally dug iffp in excavating Hartford streets are as sound to-day as they were seventy or seventy-seven years ago, when at the close of the last century they were laid for conveying water into the city, and to look at them where some sewer excavation ’Unearths them one would not suppose they had been buried five years. The Supreme Court of New York has got to decide whether in its opinion, derived from tlie testimony of experts, the lactometer, whose use is made imperative in New York city, will tell ojdmmedmilk from unskimmed. TiiE proper-beliaved little girl, who is afraid she has not quite got her lesson, may be seen on"* these glorious autumn days going to school with a gigantic red apple in her hand for the teacher. — Danbury Metes’.

VARIETY AND HUMOR.

—Philadelphia added 6,000 to the number of her dwelling-houses last year. —ls all things are for the best where do the rations for the second-best come from? —The Jackson (Miss.) Times says: “ The loss of cotton this year, for want of picking, is estimated at $5,000,000 in gold.” U-uv —The hdme emigration of the past year has ben almost exclusively to California. That State has gained at least 70,000 good population. —A prominent land-owner on Detroit street, Cleveland, recently refused $4,000 per acre for his entire tract of eighty acres, that is $320,000 —The friends of Samuel Saugner, of Schuylkill County, Pa., lay his death to five drops qf croton-oil, administered to him by a physician. —The Arctic Ocean is said to be warmer now than for many years before, and everyone having real estate bordering on that pond will rejoice over this information. —At a Georgia hanging, the other day, a chap in the crowd took offense at some remarks by the doomed man on the scaffold and tried to get at him with a bowieknife. —One hundred thousand trade-dollars were recently delivered by the coiner to the Cashier of the Carson mint. This is the largest delivery of this coin yet made at one time. —Tiie New York Graphic says: “Anonymous attacks are indecent and cowardly.” And some one else says* “Theyemanate?' from liars, w-iio lack the nerve to write themselves as such.” t —The mules in the Pennsylvania coal mines, hundreds of feet below the surface, are said to have the epizootic, although none of them have been aboveground for months. —A man named Peace was stopped in the road through a piece of woods in Otisfield, Me., the other evening, by a man who demanded his life or his money. He ran three miles and saved both. —As a colored man w-as walking over a lull back of Perryville, Md., the other evening, he saw a large eagle sitting in the grass some distance off, leisurely eating the carcass of a rabbit. Picking up a stone he threw it with considerable force at the eagle’s head; his aim was perfect, and the bird dropped dead where it sat. —Moses L. wheeler, convicted of arson in 1860, and sentenced to imprisonment for life in the Charlestown (Mass.) Prison, has just been pardoned. There is now satisfactory evidence that he was not guilty of the crime with which he was charged. His sister, on whose testimony he was convicted, confessed on her death-bed that she had perjured herself in order to get him out of the way and obtain control of his properly. —A fair young couple of Rutland, Vt., went on their bridal tour as far as Poultney before the ceremony. They went in search of the cheapest and best private means whereby to become one flesh. Having secured the services of a Justice, the happy pair were united, and, handing the officiating gentleman ten cents, were joyfully departing, when the polite Justice observed that, as the bride appeared dowcrless, he would bestow the marriage fee upon her. —At the close of the Pittsburgh Industrial Exposition a wedding took place, as extensively advertised, before an immense throng of people, who crowded upon the pair after the ceremony, until they had to be rescued by a charge of the police force. The managers gave the half-smotliered couple several elegant articles of jewelry and silverware, sent them on a wedding. tour, paying a week’s expenses, and then made several thousand dollars out of the operation.

—A man in Lyme, Conn., was preparing to blast a rock. Two of his nephews were seated on the top of the rock, quietly,, eating raw turnips, and waiting for their uncle to get ready. The powder got ready before the uncle, and in an instant those nephews were turning somersaults at a fair elevation. Luckily there was but a moderate charge of the powder, and the two nepnews came down uninjured, and without losing their grip on the delicious esculents on which they were feasting. —The last one comes from Warren. He came all the way to get a tooth pulled that had robbed him of four nights’ sleep. He sat down, and just as the. doctor was applying his forceps changed the expression of his face, and said ; “Look here, Doc,Low much is this business going to cost L fellow?” “ Fifty cents,” replied the doctor. “Can’t you do it for less?” said the man with the toothache. “ No.” “ Then we can’t trade,” said the sufferer, and lie rode back to Warren County.— Scottsville ( Ky.) Argus. —The other evening a young man with a cigar in his mouth" and a young lady on his arm entered a Memphis theater and took a seat in the parquette. , One of the ushers induced the young man to dispense with the cigar and take off his hat, but the verdant youth was a little surprised at. the request. lie was not aware that he was in a theater, but thought he had come to a stationary circus. In a few mjnutes he put his arm around the young lady, who lovingly rested upon the brachial member of her escort, unconscious of the critical glances of the audience. The usher finally induced the youth to withdraw liis arm, but this request seemed to astonish the boor, who said: “ You’ll next ax me to take off my coat, and I ain’t going to do any such thing. So away, and don’t bother me with politeness.” —A new device for the confusion of the thieving street-car conductor has been in use for some time on the Philadelphia and Boston lines. The invention, which is called the “passenger fare enumerator •and classifier,” consists of a nickel-plated metallic case some -six inches long, two inches wide and three-quarters of an inch deep, whose interior contains a system of wheels and dials somewhat like a gas or water-meter. From the top of it project three finger keys, by pressing upon which a signal is given and a fare registered. The first is the “ ticket” signal and a register, another is that for “ cash,” while the third is for “half-fares.” The pulling of a knob at the bottom of the instrument provides similarly for “ transfers.” Pressure upon tlie ticket and cashkey's strikes a clear-sounding gong, another bell for the half-fares gives forth a muffled ring, while the transfer-ticket signal is a click and a ring. Every night after his hist trip tlie conductor surrenders the register which had in the morning been given him locked and sealed in such a manner as to surely reveal any attempt at tampering with recorded fares. He also simply turns in all the tickets and cash in his possession after deducting the caslf he started with in the morning. Then deducting the standing of tlie several dials in the ihorning from their record at night shows the railmad officials just how much and What tmgWrplyr.tnr should turn in.

The Bible and the Humble Classes.

[Extract from a Recent Sermon by Prof. Swing, ot Chicago.] To the multitude the 'sacred volume tells a straight-forward story. They see in it the picture of the human heart in all its sinfulness and in all its divineness too. • They see the dark destiny of sin and the bright destiny of virtue. One is called hell, the other heaven. They do not descend into particulars about tiie region of sorrow dr the region of joy. They feel that the. one is to be dreaded, the other loved. There on the open page lies the doctrine of repentance, far more impressive in Peter and in Magdalene than in any system of abstract doctrine. There lies the doctrine of faith in Christ, sweeter in the group around Jesus, in the apostles and martyrs, than in any confession of any church. There in the Gospels lives and moves and dies and rises again the Redeemer in a charm and power to which the learning of commentators can add nothing. In fact, one may perhaps be glad that there is an army of earth’s inhabitants, old and young, white and black, hidden away in the obscurity which ignorance and poverty bring, to whom human wisdom in the form of “ eternally begotten,” and “eternally proceeding,” and “ limited atonement,” and “ inability” has never come, but to whose hearts the Bible tells its simple story as a mother talks to her confiding child. Much of modern theology is only great banks of cloud rolling up between the human family and the moral sun. As the damp vales of earth and the bitter ocean are always exhaling vapors that keep our sky clouded and that expose the beautiful earth to perpetual storm, bo from the intellect, in its extravagant vanity, clouds arise that hide both Creator and Savior from the. upturned faces of mankind.* Upon Goat Island, in the Niagara, upon a Sunday, years ago, I found, hidden away at the root of a tree, a servant from the hotel reading in his Testament about the crucifixion. He was an old, emancipated slave. Upon being questioned as to whether he loved that passage above all, he said he always cried over the idea that for even black men a Christ should have died.; I wondered whether any of the formulas of men about that death could ever entice from a slave’s heart such tribute of weeping. Here an humble fttgiy f ive slave came to fulfill the image of Tennyson :

All subtle thought, all curious fears, Borne down by gladness so complete, lie bows, lie bathes the Savior’s feet With costly spikeuard and with tears. Thus, doubt it not. the common people glean from the sacred page the very golden sheaves which the Lord let fall for man. They find them in all the wide field reaching from Abraham to St. John. Not the entire multitude will thus be found extracting- lioney from tins great field of flowers. Man will never move in a solid phalanx toward any form of good. Many are called but few are chosen. The downward path is always broad, the upward path narrow. Facilis descensus Averni. Hence, when I speak of the blessings which the common people draw from the Bible I am not dreaming of an unbroken Host poring over a divine book, but of many souls, many indeed, which in youth and in old age, in joy and in sorrow, in darkness and in light, are at times taking up the Bible to trace in it the patli of hope for time and eternity. Could you call all these together this day from all the corners of our land and from the lonely ships on pur seas they would come in such a multitude, and so pressing the book to theif hearts, that even were you an infidgl you would bless God that so many souls were drawing so much happiness from the two Testaments. The hardest heart might weep for joy that so many had found infinite peace.

Moody’s Bible.

Mr. Moody’s Bible is an interesting '‘book. It was given him by a friend, and hears on the fly leaf the words: “ D. L. Moody, Dublin, December, 1872—‘God is Love.’ W. Fay.” The Bible is an Bvo. volume, with flexible black morocco covers and turned edges. Though given Moody in the last month of 1872, it appears as if it might have seen ten years’ service. Some of the leaves are worn through with handling. But nearlyevery page gives another and more positive proof of the study Mr. Moody has given llie book. In the Old Testament many portions are annoted on nearly every page. Especially is this true of those parts treating of the history of the Israelites, the chosen people of God. But in the New Testament; open the book wherever one may, the passages are marked and annotated in black, red and blue ink to a wonderful extent. Sometimes certain words are underscored; again a whole verse is inclosed ir. black lines, with mysterious numbers of a single letter of the alphabet marked opposite. All around the margins and at the chapter heads are comments on certain passages—an idea embodied in two or three words, with the more important word underscored. Turning to the texts ot the sermons Mr. Moody lias preached in Brooklyn, one finds the burden of liis themes often embodied in one of those magical notes. Thereis: scarcely a page in the New Testament where a dozen such notations could not be counted; while, in some instances, every space in the' margin is filled, and hardly a sentence lias escaped the evangelist’s pen.—JV. Y. Tribune.

"What is Self Denial? This: For a young man so placed that for liim to allow himself some indulgence lawful to liim might he to tempt some companion to an indulgence to him unlawful and dangerous, to give up that pleasure, to close permanently all the avenues of his nature which lead in that direct ion, for the sake of the benefit to be hoped to another from that transaction; as Paul declared his willingness to eat ho meat (to him lawful, and, in itself, strictly expedient) while the world should stand, if for him to do so would be to make his brother, of weak conscience, to offend. Total abstinence from intoxicating drinks may he to you, friend, a self-denial. If so, by all means exercise it. That exercise may react in blessing on yourself, while, almost surely, it will help (and may save] others. — Uonyrcqatioruiliit. Tiie best name by which we can think of God islj Father. It is a loving, deep, sweet, heart-touching name: for the name of father is in its nature full of inborn sweetness .and comfort. Therefore, also, we must confess ourselves children of God ; tor by this name we deeply touch our God, since there is not'a sweeter sound to the Father than the voice of the child.— Martin. Luther. In this life we cannot get higher than to be assured of that which in the next life is to be enjoyed. All saints shall en,; joy a sfrtTft?' saints enjoy a heaven whilethey arc here On, earth.— Jvaeph. Caryl. ’ --

Our young Folks.

NEL ALTON’S MOTHER. “ Mamma! O mamma!” cried an eager young voice, and Nel Alton, a plump, rosy school girl of twelve summers, rushed into her mother’s room, and flinging her text-books on the sofa she seated herself on an ottoman at her mother’s feet. Mrs. Alton looked up from her sewing with a quiet smile and said, as she pushed back the tangled curls from Nel’s uplifted forehead : “ What is the matter with you, my girl ? Has anything serious occurred at the institute?” “ O mamma,” said Nel, half reproachfully, “ you can’t have forgotten,that it is just a week ago to-day I received that invitation to Minnie Shelburne’s party. You said at the time that you didn’t know whether I might accept, and I think I’ve, been awfully patient not to tease you about it, while it’s all the talk at school, and I’m just dying with anxiety and ” “ Really, Nel, i did not know that you were in such a critical condition. We will have Dr. Howe called immediately,” said Aunt Kate, who had just come in. She was a young girl of sixteen, and dearly loved to tease her high-spirited niece. Nel flushed up to the temples at this reminder of her besetting fault—exaggeration. “ Of course I don’t mean just that,” she said; “ but, any way, I’m crazy to go, and “ I believe lunatics are well provided for at the ” “ Yes, Kate, let the child have her say,” interposed Mrs. Alton. That young lady smiled gfaeiously and left the apartment with a sweeping courtesy. ' '“There, dear, proceed,” said Mrs. Alton, laying down her work, so as to devote her whole attention tq this one dear, little daughter. “ Thank you, mamma. I wanted totell you that almost all the girls are going. Mrs. Dressup has bought the loveliest silk for Carrie and Jessie; and Mrs. Showoff lias three women sewing on Emma’s dress. Here I am, not knowing whether I can go. Cousin Sue said she thought my ‘ mother a woman of great deliberation.’ ”

“ In years to come you will rejoice over the truth of that remark, my darling. ” “But, mamma, please decide now, won’t you?” “ I have decided, my dear. Last night your father and I had a long talk about the matter, and we agreed ” “To let me go!” cried eager Nei. “No, dear. Anxious for your truest good we were sorry we should have to disappoint you. But we cannot grant you harmful pleasures.” Nell bit her lip, while her brown eyes filled with tears. “ May I ask ycur reasons, mamma?” “Yes, dear; and I feel that my sensible little daughter cannot but be satisfied with them. All the advantages you are now having tend to make you at some future time a useful woman in society. To obtain their full benefit your ipind must remain undiverted from yourself, kept free from excitement and everything that will detract from your health and strength. Parties will excite you, deprive you of sleep, fill your mind full of foolish fancies, retard you in your school work, and make you thin, pale and irritable. We would sadly miss our bright, blooming Nel. Do you wonder we refuse to let you attend the party?” “But only just, once cannot hurt me,” pleaded Nel. “ The one party, my child, will be followed by a score of them. If you go to Miss Shelburne’s, the other girls will wonder why you cannot attend theirs, and ill feelings -will arise. We will talk no more about it now. Some time you. will thank me for my course. Are you satified?” “ I’ll try to be, mamma,” said Nel; but there were a few suspicious drops on her eyelashes. The night of the party arrived. Nel had had a very trying week at school, for the. girls thought of nothing else besides their fine preparations. She bore it bravely, and after tea sat resolutely down to her lessons, which were unusually difficult. Half-past eight found her strapping them up with the air of a conqueror, while she exclaimed; “ Now, mamma, they’re all done, every one. May I run over and see Cousin Sue off?” Consent was given, and Nel entered her uncle’s vestibule just as Sue was descending the stairs in a cloud of lace and pink silk. She felt a little choking in her throat, but said, with a spice of wickedness: “Sue, you look lovely; but to-mor-row’s French exercise is terribly hard.” " “ And Miss Propriety Stay-at-home has prepared for it, I infer. Aren’t you sorry you can’t go?” said Sue, settling her flounces with a satisfied air. “Mother knows best,” said Nel, decidedly; then she went home. While her sixth hour of sleep, sweet and restful, was passing by, poor, tired, cross Sue returned home, and wearily climbed the stairs to her room. Next day Nel came home, saying: “ I am at the head of all my classes. Some of the girls were late, others had headaches, all of them were disagreeable, and none of them had half-prepared their lessons. Prof. Marslily was very angry, but he thanked me for my good example to the others. You dearest mother! I’ll trust vou as lbng as I live.” And Nel sealed the compact with a kiss. Years afterward two ladies were seated in a pleasant room engaged in conversation. One of them reclined on a sofa, and her sallow features and restless, dissatisfied manner marked her an invalid. The 'face of the ofher was bright with health and vivacity. Her sunny smile and cheery voice showed her a stranger to sickness and pain. “ Nel, my dear,” sighed the former, “ you can have no idea of the dreadful condition of my nervous system. I spend the greater part of the day on the sofa. The children are a perfect worriment, everything about the house goes wrong, and Baipli looks so discontented I cannot enjoy.society at all. In fact the doctor says I had too much dissipation when young and ruined my constitution with parties and late suppers. I would give my fortune for your good health.” “ Cousin Sue, I remember when you used to drive oft' to parties and think scornfully of my quiet home evenings.” ' “I remember, Nel.. Do hand me the hartshorn and another cushion, and please lower the shade a little. There, thank j’ou. Now, will you inform to what you owe your healthy, happy life?”^, At this moment the door opened, and a silver-haired, sweetfaced Nel rose to meet her, and twining one arm atk>dt the lady’s waist, “ Cousin Sue,” she said, “my perfect health; my tbugood I am enabled to do for God and humanity, ihe comfort I succeed in giving to my hus-

band and children; the knowledge I have of my Heavenly Father and the love I bear Him I owe to the wonderful care, the wise counsel and the tender love and prayers of my mother.” - And like a coronet of glory these words rested on the head of the woman at her side.— Christian, at Work.

Tide-Marks.

It was low tide when we went to Btisftol; and the great gray rocks stood up bare and grim above the water; but high up on all their sides was a black line that seemed hardly dry, though it was far above the water. “ VV hat makes that black mark on the rocks?” I asked my friend. “O! that is the tide-mark,” she replied. “Every day, when the tides comes in, the water rises until it reaches’ that line, and, in a great many years, it has worn the stone until the mark is cut into the rock.’’ “Ot” thought I, “that is all, is it?” Well, I have seen a great many people that carry tide-marks on their faces. Right in front of me was a pretty little girl, with delicate features and pleasant blue eyes. But she had some queer little marks on her forehead; and I wondered how they came to be there, until presently her mother said: “Drawdown the blind now, Carrie; the sun shines right in baby’s face.” “ I want to look out,” said Carrie, in a very peevish voice. But her mother insisted; and Carrie drew the blind, and turned her face away from the window. O dear me! what a face it was! The blue eyes were full of frowns instead of smiles; the pleasant lips were drawn up in an ugly pout, and the queer marks on her forehead had deepened into actual wrinkles. “Poorlittle girl!” I thought. “How badly you will feel, when you grow up, to have your face marked all over with the tide-marks of passion! for these ever illtempers leave their marks just as surely as the ocean does; and I have seen many a face stamped so deeply with self-will and covetousness that it must carry the marks to the grave.” Take care, little folks, and, whenever you give wav to bad temper, remember the tide-marks.’ ’ —London Friend.

Only One Brick on Another.

Edwin was looking at a large building which they were putting up just opposite his father’s house. He watched the workmen from day to day, as they carried up the bricks and mortar, and then placed them in their proper order. s His father said to him: “My son, you seem to he very much taken with the bricklayers—pray, what might you be thinking about? Have you any notion of learning the trade?” “ No, sir,” said Edwin, smiling; “ but I was just thinking what a little thing a brick is, and yet that great house is built by only laying one brick on another.” “Very true, my sqn. Never forget it. Just so it is in all great works. All your learning is only one little lesson added to another. If a man could walk all around the globe, it would be only putting one foot before the. other. Your whole life will be made up of one little moment after another. Drop added to drop makes the ocean. “ Learn from this not to he discouraged by great labor; the greatest labor becomes easy if divided in parts'. You could not jump over a mountain, but step after step takes you to the other side. Do not fear, therefore, to undertake great things. Always remember that the whole of yonder lofty edifice is only one brick on another

How a Young Man Was Swindled by an Omaha Girl.

About a month ago, or perhaps longer, a young, good-looking woman came to this city from Plattsmouth, in search of employment. She soon found work in a boarding and lunch houseon Tenth street as a waiter-girl at the table. Being convenient to the Union Pacific Railroad, overland travelers frequently take a lunch there while waiting for the train to start. One day there came to the bouse a map named Sol. Jenkins, from Missouri. He made arrangements to remain here a few days, as he wished to purchase a span of horses, as he said. The truth of it was that he became captivated and fell in love with the pretty waiter-girl on sight. The bachelor Jenkins easily made the acquaintance of the girl, and soon declared his love in the most fervent terms. That love was seemingly reciprocated, and when Jenkins proposed marriage he was accepted. He also suggested a trip to San Francisco, where they would lie married, and the girl acquiesced. He seemed to have plenty of money, and acted very liberally. As the story is told, the girl was all the time in “ cahoots,” so to speak, with her empployer, who had kept himself well informed as to the progress of events. It was arranged that the deceptive maiden should' get all she could out of the victim, start with him for San Francisco, and at Papillion station, just as the train resumed its westward course, step from the cars, and return to Omaha in a buggy with her employer, who would be there for that purpose. She needed a ’complete outfit in the clothes line'and she easily secured it from Jenkins, at a cost of about S2OO. He also presented her with some money and jewelry. The day arrived for the departure. They took their seats in the cars, side by side, after she had obtained possession of a first-class ticket to San Francisco, worth, we believe, about sllO. Her trunk had been placed in the baggage-car and checked through. That trunk was a fraud, as it contained only worthless ballast, subsfituted 'fbf 'ler cTotHTng. which had been left behind. The train arrived at Papillion, some fifteen miles from Omaha. The girl was taking a drink of water at one end of the car while her victim, was at the other, looking over some papers, having not the least suspicion that the idol of his heart would, as the train started up, step out on the platform and oft’ on the ground. But she did and, as the train went rapidly to the West, she was soon in a buggy with her employer, driving toward Omaha at a very lively gait, every step increasing the distance between the two. —Omaha Bee. —An undeniable case of “ broken heart” occurred in New Jersey the other day. Mrs. Jane Atkins dropped deauwhile preparing for her husband’s funeral. A postmortem examination revealed an actual rupture o’s heart, which w-as undoubtedly caused by the emotional excitement consequent upon her husband’s death. —The chicken and egg crop of France is worth annually $80,000,000. Eggs-actly how many hens are engaged in the business is not stated. Although it requires a good deal of scratching to' get along in this fowl treadle, the managers are determined to pullet through.— Timet.