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Las diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICTOCOFV RESOLUTION TBST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2) 2.2 3.6 .^•^ 1^ 1.8 1.6 ^ /APPLIED IIVHGE '653 Eost Uoin Street 1*7, "^rf"".'; '*'* "'"■'' '*609 USA (716) «82 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288- 5989 -Fa, PS8VS 9 Ce^7l^t^MJfy^^4^^ Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year one thousand nine hundred and one, by Oliver Mowat Edtoii, in the office of the IMinister of Africutture. RODNKY AND FRANCES. i)< CHAPTER I. Ko(lney'» imrrntri Uisciiiis 'xin |iiimii<( ik with KraiKi's ■, Thr Utter leinvt i ami 1 eclinesu pmiiniiul yThv |>Hrents,,f FrmnfH rxprtiiH mixifly fm thv fuuiri-of their ilaiiter 4. Whi.. diirmif that fveninx, eonttm tlie nriiinisc „t her iiunil to Rodiify - 5, KemtlnK tre itiL-ident to hi-r Krundiiiothtr when Hlit remlicx hniiif Section i. Durin« a certain eveninR in winter, a woman was sittiiiK in tlie dining room of her home, and was speaking as tolic .s, to a man wlio lay on a lounge nearer the stove : " You take a peculiar stand in regard to clerny- men, Henry, in allowiuK to them the rite ot votiuK- A measure of such kind could onh produce trite in the various circuits." " I do not criKinate the plea," replied the man ; " I simply appnve the agitation it is receiving in other (piarters." " What can yo" adduce in support ? " inciiiired the woman. The man replied : "The clergyman falls into that general class to whom is extended the franchise by Laurier's ministry. He is over twenty-one, and a British subject." "But it would be prejudicial to the han.iony of a congregation," rejoined the woman, "if, the fiame of partial spirit existing latent there, a mmister became prominent on one side to the disnaragement of the other." The man replied again : " The riame of partial spirit should be extinct. Therein lies tho force of the argument. It is conceded by niany of the present day, that partyism should die, and that the puerile and vituperative editorials propagated by partial organs, should give place to unbiased renorts of the doings of government. " " But they say that the governmental members need a check, ai: opposition," retu'-ned the woman. The man answered by say' >g : " That, Arietta, is= the best argument for partial government ; but people are now showing it to be fallacious and untenable. The house of commons should be of one paity. Mem- bers ire sent to parliament to promote the weal of a country, and not of apaity. Only when the specious claims of partyism are annulled, will the e.ectors in constituencies begin to vote on the ground of merit. .\ny body of men can be ruled, can I)e restrained, bv its majority. Why should there be a party in parliament to oppose systematically the minis- terial designs, tho these be obvioi ly for the public good ? " •In the relation of thi» utory, it will be observed that :,■.:■ and /■'. arc elided from words wherein they ure silent; and when haviri; the sound of /, me replaced by that letter. Thus, •■da,.A'«ter " ^ives " dautcr "; v/,t " Rives " rit," which is lensth- ened by a hnal "e" to •' rite " ; " thouf/i " gives • cho," by throwinK away the suuer- nuous "u ; etc. r. ^ ,- —a— 'Vhile thin was b«inK 8ai,|. the woman ::«d triseii, rci.lrtiigheil the 8tov< *ith w,H„l. tt,u| r.Miiove.l her chair nearrr thi- loiitikf. SfatinK hersell in this new sitnafion. arul .IrawinK an nhstnirl,..! I.rralh she rep.u-u : •• I comIbsh myselt iin«<|iial to that prohU-in. I iu|,)ul.t,.,|lv '.. h< .nea«,.re. tho no other pa.ty shonl.l hf the. to oppos,-. Hnt. hull. a , pohtus are not for women. Let us talk of clonu tie-, an.l not " "xo concer..s. Let nx sn.ak of our rhildren. They are „,y parliament. An.l when we sit alone, ,|„nn« eveniiiKS like this, I feel that our parliament is proroKue.l not to assemhle anain in full. I think of the time wh -n we were altoKether alone, i>efore our chil.lreii were horn." '• .\u(l I. sometimes.- replied her huHhaml ; "( )ur chiKlren are around us tor a season and are j{one not to return." " Sydney will depart in the sprinn," continued the daiue ; " he is our VOi.'.^e8t, the heir ot our late maturity. Only Kodnev and Horace are elt ; and Rodney is piirsuinK that path which will convert the son into the IlliStlnlllili The man answered : " That is true." The wife resumed : " He has attended Frances since Dominion Day ol last summer, when they went up the river to Urockville. ( )f such lone attendance soinethinK should come. We did not iro together so lone t)etore we enRa),'ed. ^' " Your memory. Arietta, is sinRularly retentive." replied the occupant H tie ti'^nlT •«,', **' ' "ot venturesome to euKa^e so much, in such settled, for a youth is restless, and impatient of control, when fired hy Cupid and by early inanhoixJ." ^ The woman .said : " What will you do for him, if he should marry ' " ♦ ».„ . '^'•"'^I^ L'l'' ?" *'"'h.we are planning tr erect a house during the summer, is eliKible tor a newly married couple." replied her husband You remember your sayiuK of the other day. that a youne man with a youuK. healthy wife should be williuK to carve for hiinself a home troin primeval nature. Let our son perform the dictum of his mother " The dame vouchsafed no reply, but sat looking into her lap and fu un y. whereupon her husband continued : " Hut of our children whom relentless Hymen has beKUile.l from their home. I miss most our daufer our dark-eyed Susan. DuriuK the entire course of her mrdenic years and after she became a woman, she responded with air uy to the demands of affection and duty. It is .sad. Arietta, that o. r children, in going from us, take with them the life of their parent... Hut we, my w f c will never separate, never part ; and our youth remains still, .'or love can not grow old. The wonian responded with a tear on either cheek. The husband saw them glistening in the lamplite. assimed a sitting posture, and bend- ng forward kissed the descending drops away. The many which began to follow their benited predecessors were checked by a handkerchief, and l)y a sound of steps in another room. Presently a door in that direction 'Sli/» '"*."•. * r""'? " ^"'^u* «'■"' ^"''^'■^^ "'« diningroom, and the marital tetea-tete shrank into the silent past. Section 2. i,-.*^".*.t^ following day a woman was sitting in a parlor, on a sofa while at the o.gan a man and woman were singing. The words they sang at this point, were as follows : ^ * [•> ';■"">< u,U think md ii^titk/or tht( Mill 1,1 mt guard lli( holy fhf AnJ shll si-r uh thy gi/t m nu. hruJy for all lh<' ttrfnt uill. Thy acts of faith miU l„ve r,-\,i, I ill ilti, h thy ohlliSi iiuni, „al, ■'^"'1 I'Mke tht Siurijict lomt-Uit. i.. .he bass a„.l contSo! th?- "'-..' Zl^lZnl ^'^''l^ '"""«*^' outrivallei. for this morni.iL' l.v .1,. ■ . * '" ' ' **ra"fe'<. is Pardon rne fur sperkiro/'setr a whW^^^^^^ ''T^ ' '" •""' '"»''"- tery. and excuse my li-av . ^so S.S /''*' "" 'l'l'«"»^»'"-- '" Hat- I wish to speak with I urr'-ha • ^'""'''''^' ''''' •"^""'^ '" '"V enchantment. the wonmn by C a .d "'xh ' da . 'iT""" • '°^?' ?'" '""" "'"''"^'t'-'S after they were seatecf. sai.l " Is if nn .'*'"?. '' ''""^ .'" '"^ ^'^'"'"''J' leave ns"^ no opp„rtu ,itv to r.M J M.' ' ^"' •"*' «^=""'"""her shonid modestv." ' ""''''' '"sidio.is attacks u|)on o>ir are dIt.Ci\'aH",'nd o,f ''"P'r- "'"' '".^ -"J-anion continued : •• Vou youwhhTy whofeheaTt'lS I'Jt""''-:' ^«P'ieJ 'he u.an. •' that I love of the"r"and paS; to inf' ^ ike 'vou' S S"'"'' '^'^ ^? >'^" ^P^"^ your atteufve^indncss, b"ut I io'ttS So" io .e'J^u'"" ^''^^^^'^ "'"' on hS yelfd" '"Frances' s.^t"'-' ? V""^ "".'^ 'V '^^'^"^ ^^^^^ "^'anced Carl. doV waste a tear non 1 J '^ *"^ '^"""^'^ = " ^''^■• ■ne from the sJcref place '^Rp.i,''''° T- "".' ^'^^'P ^ ^'="'"' '^ J^i*^*-'' scne other wonS lover " '"^ ^"^"'^' '"^ ^^'^'-'Panion, but' he ist. ••\rnow rrat'rcSnVt marrv'tf ' '" '"^•*=^^^-" ^^""'"' "^ *-'- hoped that you mitrove look fs 7h« '"'' '"^'^IP'-ocate in love. But I word to my simple otferinT" ^°" ""^ '^'"'■" '°'"^ ''°P*^^"' not a?o'bSci:! ' Tirhmn'L':res:''o; " ""^ r;"'"*^' ^'"'^h ■-" p-^-B - ish true love i.1 woman " ""'" ' "^"°" '" '"^ "" "°' d"""'- barr^/;:^.;:- Oo^Sol^'^.SliJ^- /?■!- "^^"- ^-^ '-^t is — 4— The woiiiati replied : " I must not r.ay." Tlien her companion said : " At least, Frances, in remembrance of former times, of the years duritif; which we have shared a common roof, and, as I hoped, matched our thaiits to a common groove, let me kiss your lips." As he spoke he raised hrs left arm, and was about to put it about her neck, but Frances stayed the sacreligious hand with one of hers, and said : " Would you violate, Carl, the chas'.ity of my Ups ? They must not be kissed but by an accepted lover." The suitor's face fell, his hand came back to its former place, and thus he replied : " This brite forenoon you have made dark, my cruel love. Shall I believe that you would ruthlessly dash my hopes asround ? Your winsome voice bears contradiction to the tenor of your words, and makes refusal sweet. Concede to me the gift of your love, and I will treasure it as no other would." " I must for your sake speak frankly, Carl," returned the woman ; " I can not bid you to hope. Hut we are young. Shed not the tears ot dis- appointment at this tender age. Save your heart for one more matured. You want a woman, Carl, not one whose maidenic days are scarcely accomplished." But Carl replied : " Do not belie yourself. You are a woman, and have that maturity which years do not bestow." He winked his eyelids as he spoke and shook off the irrepressible tears. His companion said : " At least, Carl, do not let this momentary unsuccess unman you. On my life I would kiss away thosetrue tears, if my lips were not constrained by holy vow. Deracinate the pang. Let not a silly virgin wound you to the death. Lead to the kitchen, Carl, and assist me with the dinner." She arose as she concluded her reply. He followed suit, and kissed without prevention the hand which he still retained ; afterward he said : " Pardon this liberty, dear Frances ; even your hand is of precious value in my site. How much then do I not long for yourself complete ! " Frances smiled, and said : " I forgive this petty indiscretion, in the memory of your many virtues. Lead me hence." As he lead her from the room, the suitor repeated : " / come to bear thee from a wild Where ne'er before such blossom smiled ; By this soft hand to lead thee far, From frantic scenes of feud and war. But you, my love, are fairer than Ellen of the raven hair." Section 3. During the afternoon, Frances and Carl with three other persons, were seated about the dining table. A clock on the wall sounded one stroke. Then the woman at the foot of the table said : " The clock has divided between one and two. If, Ludwig, we shall arrive in Adams by thirty minutes past two, we must start in fifteen minutes." At her words a youth arose, and donned his overcoat and cap, mean- while saying : " The cutter will be at the door to receive you in ten minutes." Ludwig left the room, a sound of bells was heard, the man at the head of the table turned in his chair to look out, and said : " Rodney has come." -5— "I will go," said Carl, risinR. " to assist in the care of his horse." The speaker donned his hat and nil)liers and left the room. As he was goinK, tlie man at the head of the table said to hiu. : " He not' too long gone. If you intend accompanying me to the schoolhouse." withhiT "France"'^' ^°"'' '"''"" * '"''" ''"'' ''"'"'^ "'""« f*""'" ^ ™°'" granSroth^ calls:".- '" '°°' °' ^"'^ '^'^'^ ""''''' ^"'^ ^-'^ = " ^ '^ ' >-- Frances arose with some alacrity, and left the room. When gone ;?rcerouVS:,!i:?.^.°' ^'^ '^"^ '''' ■ " '*°'^"«>- -^ -«"•- - ^Is atfend.- " His attentions are ill-timed," replied the wife, " since thev prevent her ^ing to a place ot worship, during the Sabbatic afternoons." ^ The man responded by saying : " She will accompany him to the evenal service in Adams; and were she at liberty to go during this alter noon, she would not know whom to attend, her mother to the Hornerite chapel or her father to the Methodistic schoolhouse " „n>.o"„ * l^^"! to-day," replied the woman. " should we discuss that unhappy subject. Some day will harmonize. I trust, our religious differ ences^ But ell to .ne George, if Rodney is your ideal gen.lre " H»r husband replied : " I do not expect perfection, Lucretia nor did we mipart that state to our son. Moreover, the affect onso Frances pSnt'sT '"■ *'"'''• ^"'^ "°' '^''' conjectural considerations o^ her "I agree," replied the woman ; " and thus it is that a child, a eirl and a maiden shou d be reared with great care and with gentle culture hat the instincts of the budding woman may be alive to the presence of rue worth in man and lead her to reject the pseudo and embrace tl?e hi7T- -^ '^^'!"^' '''°"'^ ^^''^ ^^^'"'"^ during all of her pubert c vears that the virginal state must not litely be bartered away, that t is he; peculiar endowment of God." ^ ro^reJo^g^^tfe fr'uu:"^'^" '^^ ^^^"^^ '-^ ^p!'-^^-^ '^ Sata-^rln^.'; rnn JiHirTr^^iV""'*',!'^' ^"'^'"■?^ *^** Opinion," replied the man. " I consider that children belong, universally, to the Lord " At this point in the conversation. Frances returned, and Ludwie mite be seen driving to the door. The man and his wife arose from table ad he latter assumed with rapidity the externals of her costume Whle hus engaged, Carl and Rodney entered, to the latter of who." he man the woman, and their d luter said : "Good day " Rodney replied : ■ Good day to all." Then the wife, while she secured her bible and t inebook. said • " Lav aside your coat and cap. If you, Frances, will gather the d shes and pile^them for washing on the other table, I wifl dispose thSn "after if you L*e readT we^illS""'' ^"^''' '"' '^^^^'- ^"'^ ^''^ = " Cari. Carl was ready, and they went. Frances replied to her mother • assist*" '^ "'' d'shes, mother; your apron will enable RoSv[o " I am wholly at your service," observed the man. motherT^*''' "°'' ^^"^ '^^'""^ ^'""^ *'*^°"* = "A" *« i" waiting. The woman said : " As yoii will, mv daiiter," and hastened to join her son. Section 4. During the evening of that day, Rodney and Frances were driving in a cutter, and as they rode, Frances said : " Tell, Rodney, in what season ot the year is one happiest. Is it not when spring is first suggested by a bahny February day ? Or is it in later spring, when the birds are singing in the woods, the streams are pnriing by their mossy banks, and the leaves come out in verdant beauty on the trees ? What says the poet, as he describes the seasons dancing before Tiine ? First, in green apparel dancing, The young Spring smiled with angel grace." Rodney answered by saying : " But what says the poet of autumn ? More remote and buxom brown. The queen of vintage bowed be/ore his throne ; A rich pomegranate gemmed her crown, A ripe sheaf bound her zone. Autumn is a favorite season to me; but I think, Frances, that the season aiTects very remotely our happiness ; as also the environment. Many men are basking in the sun of Italy, miserably wretched ; while perhaps on the frozen fiords of Norway the youths and maidens are supremely happy." Frances maintained a silence, and the man resumed : " It is love, Frances, that makes all seasons glad, and all places beautiful. It is love that makes the heart of man invulnerable to all operations of time and situation. And of that quality, my own Frances, would I speak tonite. Why should I longer conceal my love ? Permit me to repeat the old story, to say to you that your personality has enslaved me, and that my heart is at your feet. Tell to me, Frances, if you will accept the humble oiifering, if you have lost as well as won." During the speaking of these words, Rodney was looking intently into the face of his companion; but the damsel had sat with downcast eyes, and now exuded from them tears, but she made no reply. Rodney perceived the drops of emotion, and put his arm about her shoulders, saying : " Weep not, my dariing Frances, but say that you return my love." ■' Frances wept harder, but managed to say in broken accents : " I do return your love." Rodney clasped her then in passionate embrace, and with tears suffus- ing his own cheeks, he kissed repeatedly the woman at his side. Presently he said : " You have made me very happy, Frances, very happy ; for I had fears that your tender, pure heart would not bestow itself on such as I. But be composed, my love ; let not those beauteous eyes, that have in them the very blue of heaven, be thus submerged in tears." Frances wiped away her tears and said : " How you awaken, dear Rodney, my whole being to the music of love ! " The lover kissed away her pause, and she resumed : " My life is now interwoven with yours, for when your strong arms entwined me, I loosed my last faint hold upon myself, and surrendered all. And my heart is in pain, Rodney, being so full of love and joy." •' Then seal the compact by the soft impression of your lips," replied the man. —7— is the poet's line ? ^ "^ ^'^^ "^ '^''^''*^ ^"'' '"violal.Ie love. What In amity and everlastinf; love " stai.,S'£.7li;:'i„irr^"^S "'^ '''''''' 'y ^°- '°-'>- 'ear. And /J«rf fow ,s loveliest when embalmed tn tears. Cvnthra^LlIinTin'rtuS sSd'r"^'!,"' ^'^'^^ .-•^'""«- -'"'^ life of love, Frances!" "°"'"^"*' splendor, a happy and beautiful life, a ' Until when I am dead. I "So let us, Rodney," replied his love quickt pee Sr4K'hlnd'^„trd ^'^'"" "^4^^^'' — '^ ^ and the iove;s sped r'apidly' alo;;'g trb:atn'Jra"ck' °"'^' " '"'"' ^*'^*^^'"'' Section 5. During the same nite, a woman wac: ci»Hn„ k i ^ l, arge bible opened thereon. Whil" ^he rSd the ^In "J" ^f^\ ^^^'^'"^ ^ immediately afterward, a door oneLrl J^ i.- ""^ ^"■'"='' '^^ ^ and. The inconier surveyed the reader^ a,?d sa"d • 'M?,n '"*"" •'^ \^l '•°°"'- have not retired, grandmother " " " surprised that you Th'?"di3r^esmne'd°:"^':Cvti'r LT"aid"""r^ ^° ^^^''• coat, hat and gloves, I will return and sneal ^ hh '^''; '" ""/ '■°°'"' '"V grandmother, after your rwdine k fi„,Xt '^"^,yo" ^r a few minutes, for further sitting." ^ ^ '' finished, and if you are not too sleepy Fran^L'retredi^rd^t'he^'eTdeV'cZ'^^ "''^T ^,?'-- Thereupon returned, carrying a lamp The vo. nier *° '^^^^''', ^^' g^anddauter that which the other occunied ?hrri 1 '^"'V^'i *?°'* * "^hair close to checked a slip of Ser!anrc osS thfl.H "'.'^•■^d the book with a pen, ted both. Then%resaTd '"ofi'it^'^"^^ dauter ? " ^* *^^* '^o yo" ^'sh to converse, my The younger woman answered by savine- "nf«,h,t„ j l-, Rodney and I were returnins? from ohnrrh^h "^* occurred while fal. :^^^^^r^ treatlii^-^S ^ ll^Sl^ 1^-'--- wee^ll^S - - ,0^ -y C-- -. H_er the one ofYher„rnrg;;dr^ra\t;.eX°n'th!t*''^ fandmother, .>for "With all my hlart," ^aid France; "Vt'/°"-'°r.e ^^'- Cozmel." with his. My young being had Vo>?efnrfh ^ i^^ " "j^i^solubly bound to-nite, it returned bringing Sir^noS'"^ grandmother, and now <.■ BuTtl^rdS^ ElSrl-dotou^^^i^d t tfJr^s /^T ^^^f ' joyfnl congratulation-if, inde;d, yo.rip7rove my chofce " '"P""'*^'^ " — 8— with me in the little parlor at home— my father's home— and how he told in my ear that sweet story of conjuKallove. I wept, Frances, as he re- lated to me the depth of his devotion. He chided my tears, but mingled with them his. How recent all seems, yet how sadly, how immeasurably remote. The poet has beautifully said : Dear as remembered kisses after death, A nd sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others ; deep as love, Peep as first love, and wild with all regret — O death in life, the days that are no more ! " The woman took a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her eyes. Frances surveyed and wept too, saying : " 1 thaut not to awaken by my words your fons lachrymarum, the sacred fountain of feeling ; but tell to me, grandmother, if life is smooth to them who truly love." To this query the grandmother returned : " It has been said : The only folks who give us pain, A re those we love the best. Your tender heart will often ache, my child. God's curse, too, upon Eve was not spoken in vain. Woman must endure sorrow, and travail of body and soul. But love, my dauter, overcomes all." Frances did not reply and the speaker continued : " Sleep with me to- nite, Frances. I am lonely, and the dead will not return to cheer and visit me." The woman rose as si.e spoke, as likewise the one addressed. Stand- ing visavis, the elder woman placed her hands on the shoulders of her companion, looked into her face, and said : " You are beautiful, Frances, in that beauty which emanates from a tender and womanly soul. A perfect woman, nobly planned." The damsel dropped her eyes, and replied : " I will sleep with you, grandmother, if you wish it." " Go then," replied the dame, "and bring from your room a nitedress, while I wind the clock and secure the damper." The speaker turned as she concluded her speech, and began to per- form these duties, while the damsel took the lamp she had braut and left the room. CHAPTER II. Frances confers with her friend on religion— 9, continuinK the discussion with her tnother at home— 3, the mother of Frances discloses to her husband the design of the e-'enine— 4, and, on her dauter's return, executes the same— 5, Frances afterwards relating to Rodney. Section i. During a pleasant afternoon, Frances was walking with a companion on the road. The latter, as they walked, put her hand upon Frances' shoulder, and said : " I must remark upon the beautiful effect produced about the neck and shoulders, by your double cape. It adds greatly to the jacket's finish." But Frances replied : " HIu soul is roeora of ma life. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, dear Phoebe ? What is your recipe for a genu- ine conversion ? " — 9— Du ". ^°"..^l7'°^* '''1°'^'' "r ''>' >'"'"■ sudden transitions," answered Phoebe. yVe are pleasantly discussinK tiie attire of the Reniis, iniilier. and lo, you launch upon me Job and Shaliespeare." " Your recipe," said Frances." . ..P'l^^b^ ""eplied by saying: "Take for your guidance— since yon per- sist in desiring to be a rehgeuse-the text of Mr. Duncan for this aifernoon • and Per«n iio 3 exercise myself lo kave always a conscience Pot& of offence toroaros ©oo an& toroar&s men. Exercise yourself spiritually." P'rances responded : " Your directions are not explicit, Phoebe " "". >'°" ^'■^ serious," answered Phoebe, " I will reply in kind. Decide for Christ. Accept Him as your personal Savior. Lead a new life " " You advise me, then, to turn a new leaf," said Trances. " But can one turn the leaf without assistance, and keep it turned ? " Phoebe replied by saying : "mu grace is sufficient for tl^ce." Frances resumed: " Your recommendations are acute, Phoebe and dovetail in a manner to suggest that you have warned fellow creatures before to-day But permit me to confess myself unsatisfied. Luke l"f»?K!f? i,'^°*'"u*^%^*P'''* ^^y'".«= *^"' ""isDtier tUan 3 cometl), the lu'^l* ?^ ^l"" ^^°'J ^- ?•" "'* """♦^B *" ""'<'<'« i »?« sl{all baptize yon roitb tlje £jolB (Sljost anb mitl) fire. Or, as translated by Jerome, it reads • leniH fortior me, cujus nun sum dignus solvere corrigiam cakeamentorum ejus ' Ipse vos bapttzabtt in spirit,, samtu, et igni. John promised to all -the original has a/.«s«. Is this baptism for me, Phoebe ? Is not this the new birth ? " " These experiences come afterward," replied Phoebe. '.' I^i't why should one enter the vineyard, till prepared for labor ? " inquired Prances. " For this experience the apostles waited " To this Phoebe made no reply, and Frances resumed : " Will vou pardon me, Phoebe, If I ask: Wert you ever baptized in the Holy Ghost ? in spirito sancto ? en Pneumati Agio ? " Phoebe replied : " I have at many times been blest, Frances I think such blessings mite be called baptisms." By this time the damsels had come to a corner, and now they stopped hereon and Frances said : " When Christian, in his journey from this to tlie other world, surveyed the wondrous cross, he felt his burden cf sm dropping from his back. Did you ever, Phoebe, feel your sins to fall en^ Ihould be "'° '"^' '"^' '"^"''' *^'*' ^ '"^^' """""^ ^^^^ "^^ °'*'" ^"P^"" Phoebe replied : " We must not trust our feelings, Frances. We must believe that Gcd's word is true, and that our sins are forgiven when we have accepted Christ. Yon should trust him, Frances, for a perform- ance of these things. Rely upon the promises." pertorm "I ani not wholly convinced by your argument, Phoebe," observed Frances; "but I am constrained to admire your spirit of christian patieTice that has enabled you to bear with my bolu inquiries. Yet inform me, Phoebe, how you distinguish the love between God and man from the love between husband and wife." Phoebe took the left hand of her friend, and separating a fineer turned upon it a ring, saying: " This stone of satfire tells to me what your lips leave unsaid. You cannot love God ritely, if too much con- cerned tor a human lover." thi. f/"F"'"f<=es answered : "I confess that Rodney is my all, and that this stone of saffire does not misrepresent ; but I trust that sometime I may love my Savior, tho my heart should be filled with human love For — lo- hiiinan aff(>ctioii should l>e purified, and not ex- A lul life is thorny ; I believe, Ptiopho, that pelled, l)y tliat ihvino." As Frances spoke, the)' sep'arated somewhat, one continiiinR on the strait road, the other diverKing to the left. Stopping, however, Phoebe halted her couipa.iion. who was walking backward, by saying : " You are a sophist, Frances, the a beautiful one. Is it vain to ask that you will sup with uie, on this cool Aprilic evening ? " Frances replied : " yuite vain, my dear friend. and youth is vain. Goodbye." " 1 flee from your jioetic rage," said Phoebe. " Goodbye." The women separated without further conversation and saut their respective homes. Section 2, Later in the afternoon, Frances and her brother were in the kitchen of their home, and Frances was saying : "You had better get the cows ready lor milking, Ludwig, belore supper." " Shall I have time ? " inquired the youth. "You can eat when you return," replied the sister; "father and mother are driving in now. Since you will not wait for to milk, you can bail the cows and eat afterwards." Ludwig replied : " I will go," and left the room. Scarcely was he gone, when his mother entered by another door. To her Frances said • " Did you stop at Mr. Dutrellan's for help with the milking ?" The woman laid aside her garments of travel and her books, as she replied : " We stopped. They will assist us after supper. Is Ludwie gone tor the cows '. " ' b Frances replied : " Yes, he will eat when he returns." "That /ill do," responded her mother; "Your father and I w^th the assistance of Henry and Joan, can handle them easily. Will Kodnev sup with us ? " ■' " He will not arrive till after supper," replied F^rances. Her mother not speaking, she soon resumed : " I must tell, mother, of my conversa- tion with Phoebe during this afternoon. We were returning from the schoolhouse, where Mr. Duncan preached to-day, and we conversed on the subject of conversion. I felt drawn by a spiritual influence to speech ; and, for that matter, I feel so yet. I therefore asked Phoebe to to tell to me a rite method of conversion." Frances paused, and her mother inquired : " What course did Phoebe recommend ? " The dauter replied: "The refrain of her words was, decide for Christ; namely, turn a lew leaf, and accept Christ as a p sonal savior " " You doubtless suspected," replied the dame, " thai Phoebe's re- commendation did not comprehend all. Did she observe that you should be ridden of your load of sin ? " " She cautioned me not to trust my feelings," replied her dauter, but to believe that my sins were pardoned alter I made the start I instanced, tho in vain, the experience of Christian." ^^ J}}^ mother answered by saying : " I believe that the experience of Christian is truly typical. This does not, of course, admit that Bunyan situated the cross in a proper adjacency to the wicket gate ; but the coming to Christian of the three shining ones is symbolical of a rite experience. .My sins, dauter, fell from me as the devilfish fell from Oilhatt, enabling me to see with what a horrid incubus I had been — II — delite." * ^'^''^'"^ ''^ ">" ""tpourinKs ol ecstacy and setting K,S"ltove""7sa!d "'".^ /'' '"*" "V^ *''.^''"»' -"> — -ater. Her .not her reXd .Tiiave h3r '^V f^/^er will bain soon." one of God's childre but I Jn^Z ^ ' f . • '7 / "" ''■■• "'** >°" '"'^ be the present, at east 1 wmdV prefer' v'r'V ''"'-'" "^"^••■'=^" ♦''«'• f"-" making a n-eaningle a a,urm,?,g assise star "^u"^* ^ '"'""'" *° >-''"^ the pardon that God grants t„ all ^if . u > ^" <^" >o"r knees for at a repentant perkTd of lilc nL ""Z" """/esolved. Von are divineinflnences! And do not mar V iZ'. ''"'I'n ^"*'"' «"«<^eptible to for I ,1 has said that If neither pa /t i/ born'; 'c^d "the' oS? *"^" ' unclean, are not of God " t""cm ib oorn ot God, the children are to seek this inesti.nable^ft whkh3 Tllf" """,'' '"■'^' "^^^^ f^^«""«. conm^ial relations. I w^l[ a^'a^y^n'in^'i'.VeVarlor'" ""''*" ^°'" '^'•^' ^"'^ Francl^e'nT^redTh: So'nf '"l^^l^tl^ir"'' ^""^ ,P--ntb the father of sit at table now George? H.dwL wilf -'^ '^''^ =, " "^'1 we not better cows in time to ekt with us and s^ f »n^ '» ^'^' '''^ returned with the milking. For we LiS yeTcS^'oufcbttles"" ' ^^^^^"^'^'^ ^^^^' ''^ ♦'^^ Lucretl""'""' "'"°^"' ""'' """^ -'^ gloves, saying : "As you will. the p^aSL^sTnd'^^oUtoe^'S S: TeT an^d 't'h' '"°*'^^^'^ P'^'^' ^^"^ proper suit by the 'man. assumed thdr^ac^s'af tLe^aZ'.""' '°"^^^' '" Section j. ,., a sot. : her son .„d hU wi,f w.r. li;. ill: Srst'.' .i J^t follS , "' ™ "The shepherd with his wife reclined Keside their tent, at duskv even, And w ■■•lered in their dual' mind Wha. name the new-born child be given. "Then while Zipporah nursed her bov And KMidled in her soul the flame (Jt motherhood's peculiar joy. The shepherd found him out a name. " ' Be called, my son, a name to tell How your sad father hither hied. In Midian's lonely land to dwell ; To you be Gershom's name applied ' — 12 — "Tims, pilgrims, we recill the home W'c Irii t(. cross hic's ocean wild ; 'rhenci l.iukwaril, at the last, we roam, Aiul find ttie heav'n we left a chikl. " And may some kind Zippoiahs soothe Onr saddened r.pirits while we rove, And Ciod at last t>esi;onrd of shelt'rinK love." Finishing their hynm, the man led his wi! to a donhle chair, while the elder lady remarked : " How beautiful an .lynms on the eveninx of Sabbat'i. Surely we should be grateful to prolific Wesley, Watts, Cowpcr, and ad infinitinn, tor their melodied words that have so widely evanjjelized. And when onr souls are in harmony with the concorded sounds, the pleasure is greatly enhanced. Inform me, George, of the hour." The man consulted his watch, and replied : " It is a quarter after nine." " I will retire," said the occupant of the sofa, rising. " Allow me to thank you ijr the nmsic. Good nite, Lncretia; good nite, my son." " Good nite, mother," replied the younger woman. By this time the elder woman was about to pass out ; her son held open the door, and said : " Good nite, my mother, I wish for you pleas- ant dreams." He shut the door behind his mother, returned to the double chair, and, taking his wife upon his lap, said : " I love my mother, but you, dear wife, are my strength and my song. How iadefinable is that tie •vhich conjoins man and woman." His wife, with her rite arm about his neck, kissed him and replied . " I trust that we may live together beyond tliis life, dear husband ; that we may be one in heaven." " They do not marry in heaven," replied the man. The woman answered by saying : " Where ntme die, none need to be born, hence obviating marriage. But what of the spirits that have interwoven on earth ? will they not remain bound in heaven ? For God has joined them." " That is a beautiful hope," replied the husband. " My prayer is, that my Lucretia may be mine during all eternity." The wife replied : " We grow sad to think how evanescent is life terrene; yet who would live always in the valley of Baca? " " VVe live for our children," replied the lower occupant of the chair. " We wish to pilot them as far as we may, over the tempestuous ocean." The wife responded : " I feel sad to-nite, George ; a sadness that resembles sorrow as the mist resembles rain. I wish that I mite ever sit within your arm, and that our whole Ule mite be one sweet Sabbatic evening." " I will exorcise your sadness," replied her husband kissing her lips. The wife continued the conversation by saying : " Frances, our dauter. made a retiuest at supper time, that when she returned from Adams she mite find me waiting in this parlor." " For what ? " inquired the husband. " To seek a baptism in the Holy Ghost," replied the wife. — IJ— The lu.sban.1 sai,! : " 1 have not known so much as that implies If It lb t e, as yn have Irecm.M.tIv sai.l, \vi me HMuain." '^ I siK.uhl not be," rcplie.l the woman. " She mite not l)e so nnre served m yonr presence. I wish to prove by her that tl is bapti/hfe accoM.pan.es, an.l shonld not be left to Tol low, conversion Teh s^ band, will you not seek ? " -vi-iaion. i ntn, iuks- The husband replied : " I desire all that there is for man " finds?!^ - "^^'*" ■'"" ""• '"■°""''-' ''^ «'-•*''' *"»' "'« i' she "But you must not coerce .ler," replied the husband. The wile answered Uy saying : " I will not. Promise, GonrL-e " I promise wife," replied her husband. The woman pressed her face to his, and kissed him twice savmr- "Then God will hear n.. I have prayed for you so n.uch Geor^ ^ "do not believe we could hve tofjetber nmch louder without yon findiin: or me losmK. . A loving husband and wife must have two heart" tha beat' as one, or their love wanes This ,s all that separates ns, and now r.od w II remove, hor since la.st December 1 h^ve praved, as Elijah Traved when he besaut Heaven for rain; and now. Dehold the li«le dffd " ^ The man now released himself from his wife's embrace, and mit her from h.s ap. say,n« as they arose : " Come, anv way, to our room ano assist ,n the evenal devotions. If you will not surfer\ue to "6..'^^. at the sacred seance, put me safelv into bed, at least " remain at the The woman turned down the flame in the hanging lamp took the sT„T-" %?Tr'"^ with the other hand leaned o.^.e'r h'land'sa m! bfinm: n In ""^.."o' '"-' 'appy, George, in a mutual lo- e ? 1 w lean upjn you till we die. dear husband." The wife accompanied her husband from the room as she spoke. Section 4. During the same evening the mother of Frances was sittine aeain in h" Tf\\ ^'" T ^""''"' ^ ''"°'' '^'^' '^y °P«" °" t'"' table ^andwhie .she read the sound of approaching steps disturbed the si'ence Then F.ances c^me to the door, and looked in, saying : " I believe mother ;irrot£' tire.?" ^'" ""^' '°^ ^^^^^^ and^see^ing. Mitr^; noJSe; " Lay off yonr cloak, hat and gloves, but retain voiir iarket " r^ni.^^ her mother, " for the fire is dead and we are stHI in April '•■^' '^''''^'^ onn"'now?"'' ""'"'^'""'' = " »"' why, mother, sinc^ the spirit is not "I would speak with you," replied her mother closing the book po^et aTe^mnrr."' "" ^"■" '"'^ '" '^'^^"^^'"^'' '^ "°' '" --"""«• -^ pro'.' As the dame concluded, a clock in another room struck ten Frances aid as.de her removable clothes, and entered the parlor! Sping near the conch. Her mother arose, and approached tiking her hand and observing: "Since your departure for the vdlage I have prayed that — 14— hn.L."°lill'7h''"' i*":;'"^" \^" occasional li. or move.,,. .U of their bodies, ti I the clock was heard to strike the clovcnth hour. Then Frances, her face Huftused with te.irs. attempted tho vainly to arise, crv inK out : " Let me jjo. mother, let me ko. I cannot find Him.' Hut the mother replied : " I can not. dear child ; I dare not. Must I resign you now to Satan ? My God ! My God ' " As she spoke, she kiised her dauter' with passionate fervor, and bcKan to weep copiously. As she wept, the damsel cried : " My Savior • My Savior ! Thou hast heard me, Lord ! " Both women were now • ^'H' me. dauter. for ihe baptism of your lather. Lift to God, mv husband, your voic- in ii' -ut prayer ' The man kneeled between them ; they cIuhk ' K^oRraphical difficulties. Besides, Rodney, you should not ask concerning that which you already " Point me f- n to Sirius," answered the jungling. " Its manner of location from the polar star I have forgotten, believe me " ""'""'"^ °' His companion then replied : " The canine star is t' 3 most brilliant of all in the • y, and thus needs no other inde.x to its situation. But the burden of my mind tonite, is not of an astronomical character " Rodney answered by saying : " There's not the smallest orb which thou behuldest But in his motion like an anf^el sings. It is not wonderful that Lorenzo mused so sublimely, « hile the fair Jewess sat so closely besule him." " Name not Jessica and her charms," replied the damsel, " when the wlJiri*'; irT'/'^' • "'"t'^'«'" »>"- -'"« «tory. But listen, my lover! Sunday " occurred, after your departure on the evening of To which Rodney replied : " Did another lover appear ? Had von like Portia, a swarthy Moor to encounter in amatory combat ? " ' "Allow me to indulge a serious vein." replied the damsel. " The experience of my life transpired on the last Sabbatic evening " eyenfng'oTiastfenia;;.."'"^' °" ^''^ ''"''''^''^ """-'^ ^ ^ ^-^^atic " You are in a witty groove, tonite," replied Frances; "on that nite we discovered ourselves, but on this later nite I discovered Christ — '5— what concerns von i. in e rest' to 'i"""'.*;" ''"'*''' ^i^*"*^ ^ '•"« explicit narration of your .^xpenencc • * """ "'"'■'""''' ^*"l"''«< » ""'re And Lecause. dear Km L vo i.^ ' """•• """'"« ""■ ^f'"''- -v.'ninK sion o, ,ny life. I an, "nx io.is' to ? nTnL'le' nT' ""' *'*'""' ''"««-• endeavor to have you healed as I warhealeU • " ' ""' '^"("'"'^"•^e. »nd Fi^nl^^lSed hil^ZtlS'- "^i!:V^'TTl '" 1^"^ ^«^'^ ^ •• par-or, and for an hour or n.ore we nraved i,? 'i"''"'''' 'V *''" '^""'^'' '" »'>« still kept entreatiuK.a Kreastn^-le In m .'"''*' 1 '^"'" ' f^"- ^'"le I the Lord. An.) I e\t drawn bv £ a. " Jr '' ""."' ''.'"^*^''" ^»<«" a-"! my pleading, and arise, a n7 flee from God\?';'' '""'^ 1° '^"''" f^°'" about ,ne. which I than" at tht t\nJ t^^ '., '* "'^' '"other's arn. was And tnen a ,reat waves:;e ,' over nTsinI "an'rirtT T' °^ '">• ''^•-^^'°^- were washed awav. ieavini' .no ,iio ^°"'' "'^l '" that moment my sins Kreatly moved. Th;, father came from'f ''1 'f""'- ^'^^her. too. was Loots, ot vest and of oa knee ed be wi^^^ '"droon. and. innocent of clnnK to hi.n and prayed to God Sb n, r . i'"^' •"°"j^'' «"^ '"«• We be baptized ; and 'soon the soft cT'ntaC.n^of '"'" "" '"'' '°"' ^'^"'^ were with the Holy Ghost .novedriM , .°"'' ,l"-<;Sence. tilled as we had never seen ,na'n weep 'before thaut har,*" '^"''""-^■' H "^^^ *« ' pnv.e,e of women, but tie was a snl..!!dy'ofSrs "" """' '^' "^'''^*^« love^ro.:;;:';^;:!;';^^.^-^'^,,^:};^';- clisen«a«ed.ha„d of her and will ponuer over if I ,7 astonished at your narrat on. Frances my blond^-'v^'brs a ery wa mra'^an T'!. ?' '''"^- ''>'^-'' ''^''- "> than gold." ^ ^"" "^*'^f' *"d *'ll be (o me a treasure more hekiSnlt^&^llij'^^Ilt,;^-^'- w-t while speakin.. and now ^e ";\Sr 'ThJ^r^l^tf^ ^%f'« supported her to the ground, had, w'ould be discredited as she^"^^^*" '^' «"" '" '''"^^''^'^y = '"^ 'f I CHAPTER III. ^"^r^'^'^V^Ui!:!^^::^ -..arna^e-., wh,. in turn consults table s.anUKamins K-lni-y's assent thereto, """""« 'f"* ''<''"""« '" "er Jksa? Section i. saying: "You have not in or,ned Vn- V 1 '^''air and Rodney was our friend Carl. I am interested ii hU caret." ""'""""^ '^' '^'''^'^ °^ .yjKrs — Ift- Koiliirv held In r ham] while Uv spoke, anil while i»he repMH : " Carl ha8 now Im-l'II ahst-iil lor ahniit a iiio.ith. I'alhiT rei oived a Icttiir from him (luriiiK latit week, which infurmuU iih that he Ih doiiiK well, aiiJ hat> hail no hail luck to date." Kmliiey answered hy sayinn ; "The iiibm at Montreal have these yoiiiiK clieeMemakers at their mercy, and can nip them when they pleaHe. Yonnn men like Carl should have a repre..entative in the Mont'-ealic market, to save theii product from unmerited and irregular con- demnation." The damsel observeil : " You nmst not deliver a dis(|ui8ition on cheesemakers' riles during the Lord's day ; tho I am delited to see you concerned for that fraternity of which Carl is a unit." " I have indeed lincied in the ( 'den time," oiiserved the lover, " that I had a daiiKerous rival in Mr. Jones; hut suhseipient events have ren- dered extremely improbable the supposition that you allect him liously." " I trust. ' said Frances, " thai 1 may ever regard Carl with friendly fee ''nj;, tor he was ever respectful and obli^inK to mc. 1 an .lot indeed love him with that mysterious love by which I am drawn to one who is nearer, but — " Kodney interrupted by saying : " I-et me pay for this ingenuous coniphnient before it becomes overdue." He spoke, and, drawing her nearer, kissed her on either cheek. She continued : " Hut this is because I have ordy one heart." " \oi. are bound to maintain a continuity of thaut," said Kodney, " in spite of my rude interruption. Hut tell to me, my pet with the tawny hair, what would be Carl's oidv course, if he had chanced to be ensnared in your soft and pliant net 'f Could he afterward lo- e another ? " Frances replied : " I cannot answer tor der maun, whose love for woman, they say, is only one feature ol his existence • but die weib can love once alone, that love being her very life." To this Kodney said ; " You do our sex a consitlerable injustice, snrelN You do not observe the injunction : luillier extenuate nor set Unun aut ti malue. Let uie instance Komeo. Was he not bound in the easy cii mis as titely as Juliet ? " liances replied: "Wl\at 3 i\ave tptitten 3 hace loritten, said the procurator. But it does not become me to enter argument with my luture lord." " Ti uly, Frances," said Rodney, "the gentle wOii.an ever surprses and Jelites l>\ the sweet affability of her speech. But say, dear Frances, when I am to claim you for my own. When is the legal to confirm the psychic liond ? " " Sum, Kodney, I hope," n plied the damsel ; " but yet I should not wish to say when, today." Kodney answered: "Will you tell when I come again? That interval will allow to you time for cogitation. And let me bespeak an early date; for tndy, Frances, man is very incomplete, very weak, with- out the --iibtle support of woman." " When you conit uKain," said Frances, " 1 will tell the time when I shall place niv cipher after your one, forming ten." Kodney replied : " I thank you for these sweet concessions, F^rances. At many times I wonder that one so fair, so goo^ shou'd have yielded to mv ruf entreaties Shall I tiot ever owe lo you ua unpayable debt ? For you gratuitously concede what with Kockfeller's gold I could not buy. -17- M rihpd chair. I.pt me have all of the chair, my love." ^^^^^l; ranees replied: •' And to me be only assigned your nnspcakablc neck. Th«n she renumed : " 1 a,r. trn« i/ not compHmentary ; vour lap IS an imspeakal)lv happy place." i^m-iy . vour up Section a. During the forenoon of the next day. Frances was in the kitchen of her home, engaged in preparing pies tor the oven. Her mother sarneS mixing seeds of pumpkin into a bucket of corn. While the dauter rolled dr'rfnl'hehAme ''a'^^ \^"'"''' '° "'«. "-other, your simenU on dress in he home. As you know, we are not dressed today, as perhaoH we would wish to be if visitors were present. How thinY y^u'^regard ^nnf^f "'"l^*'' '■e*l'""'le«l : " For my part, I feel mysel* to be well en If dressed for company. People, when visiting, prefer to see the aiii'fi'Tit'ml' nl'^ "" '^"""'^ ''^"y '^'^y- •«' ' »^'°'' " t« h« my " • and find it my pleasure, to appear as neat and tasteful before mv hus band ana children, as before other people." ^ "Then we may infer." said Frances. " that people whom we find whenTnfamiire"'' "■""' "'"'' ""'^'"«- '^" '"''' »" oPPOsite ext'reme .r mother answered : " You may deduce as much." visitor^shotenVcor" •'''"'= ordinarily." said France. •• suitable for «Mffin'i!l^^°*^" /''P''*,'' : ".^* y°» '""«» have noticed. I have it set andthe beLIIr'^'l''"'' m abundance, to be alike ready for the v Lito dooVandSTo Jekome'"""' ""' ^'** U.arus should come to our Altera pause the dame resumed: "Repeat, my dauter ti.n ,„ost appropriate verses that you have in memory^ouchfng the pu!,nug o! The dauter replied by saying : " It was written by Carlyle : Old mother, receive this corn, The son of six thousand golden sires ; All these on thy kindly breast were born. On' more thy poor child requires. i"j' y*""^/'' '" ^}^ ^^^^ Oeorgic. has told when to turn the fruitful soil Z mtt;fr.^;:.XTl:ers"ef iXL':^^ °* ^-'^>' ^^ n"-ti/ns."^iie^";^ Love took up the harp of l,/e, and smote on all its cords w,tl. mite ■ Smote the cord of self , whuh tremhl.nf; passed ,n music out of site'. But. by the way. have you converted your big worldlv lover vp« i You surely will not yoke wfth an unbeliever." ^ ^^' ' P ranees replied : " Permit me to quote your own oassapp • £„, ♦!.. unbelicoing Ijusbanb is sancti«e6 by tlje i»i/e " pa-sage .-^or tlje arH "l'S%^-f"''';f ^u'^"-'" 'T''^'^ ''^'" '"°"'^'"- " ^Vl'en vour father ar..! 1 ,tood before the hymeneal altar, neither of us knew Anything of — 18— God, tho both were professing desires. What had then become of otir children, if the Lord had not spared, and was not yet sparing, them to reach the years of repentance and salvation ? I often think of Samuel's injunction to Saul : Horo go anb smite CJmaIck ; slay boti) man ani) moman, infant anb suckling, ox anb st)cep, camel anb ass. The infants and sucklings had not sinned by act, but they suffered for the sins of their parents. Likewise in Genesis xvii, 14, is said : CInb tl)e uncircumciseb man cliilb, roljosc flesl) of tjis foreskin is not circumciscb, ti^at soul sl^all be cnt off from I^is people ; Ijc Ijattj broken mu copenant. The man child could not be aware of the covenant he was breaking ; he suffered for the neglect, or the alien condition of his parents." " I am persuaded that children are placed by God in the parental category," answered the dauter. " But with respect to Rodney, what do you advise ? He tipples, uses tobacco, and until recently has danced. Should I marry him as he is, tho the husband is sanctified \n the believ- ing wife ? " The mother responded : " He will abandon these habits at your request, will he not ? " " I do not know," replied her dauter. " It pains me to think that he does not abandon them without request, since he knows tliat they cannot be agreeable to me. And he is coming here during some evening of this week, to hear me name the day on which we shall marry." " Is he so eager ? " said the elder woman. The younger replied : " I have thaut, mother, that he should be penanced with a year's abstinence from these obnoxious practices, before we marry. Yet I fear that he may not wish to wait so long, and be forced, as it mite seem, to abandon what doubtless he does not consider very wrong." " If he strongly loves," replied the dame, " he will endure much at your hand; and surely more before, than after, marriage." "Would you then advise," inquired the dauter, "that I probate him for a year. I love him, mother, with my whole soul and with my whole strength ; but that makes me willing to endure a delay that will make him like mysflt." The mother responded : " A rigorous course is best : but yet go gently, F'rances ; gentleness is very becoming in woman, and her chief weapon. I will get the potatoes for dinner. I think you are wise to act with firmness, dauter. Pray for guidance. Be ductile in the hands of God." The dame arose, while she spoke ; her dauter replenished the fire. Section 3. During an evening later in the week, Frances and Rodney were driving on the road. " Whither shall we go ? " said Rodney, as they emerged from the gate. " Shall we descend with the Nation and pass the Horneritic assemblage, or do you decree that we ascend towards Adams ? " " Draw the dexter Hne," said Frances. " Let us not disturb what we can not join." Rodney turned to the rite, the mare assumed a lively trot, and the lover said : " But why can you not participate in their devotions? They pray to the same, and thru the same, deity that you address and invoke. Is it the contiguity of the wicked swamp where, as in ancient Saxony, the —19— and^deterl^'youV"'"'''"^' '"'^ "^^^hinafng their dark designs, that repels Frances rephed : " Mr. Horner's vorship is in the rite spirit but scarcely w.h the rite expression. Hornerism is an an mal deforn ed and unshapely, but instinct with life ; Methodism is a creature of sv^nnetrical and exact proportions, but not yet a living soul." i'>nnnetncal "Neither then, it appears," said Rodney, "is lii- ; ^"d "°-. with your and unanhZs r/.'f Ipf ,'°"' ^ ^'" 'V'^-V ^ ^"^J^^^ °" ^^ich we are more unanimous, or at least more evenly informed." ;' What subject is that ?" inquired his love. "WilinT '^'""•''"f'' «^' as the VVelclnnan said," replied Rodney. Wil not your womanly modesty permit you to adint a knowine that I thaut formed a considerable part of your whole knowledge ""^ I obse'rTe!''^' answered by saying : " You ascribe to me great intelKct, rlpnfh °.'l"if^ replied: " Goethe has said that man never loves woman for the depth of her understanding and the measure of her intellect but for her tVel'd finable nron 'f '"/^"^^* ' ^""^ *^^ ^^^^ '" wSf what he Tacks tiie indefinable property of womanhood. This in you won my love • tho lect arsVrsVrte an^c"""' 'f ^^^;» ' ^'" ''^'"^'^ ^° find thatVour Intel iei.[ aiso is acute and commanding woman Tid norr,*;^' ^^7 *'"P"*^'' /^'^ *" «'^"«'->''" '•^1'"^^ 'he young woman, had not my Rodney warned me of the error." its lu^tfe"^^Bnr-^n''f ^'^' u"' '' " \°""" ^''' ^^ "^"=''' ^'«=P"ves mine of celebrated.'^ '"^' '■^"''''' "'^ '^^^^ ^''^" °"'- ""P"*'^ ^^-^ to be in mi'ndinVw1;h^wh"f^''" i'^^'*^^ ^'' '°''*'' " '''^* the disagreeable persists dispeHed luM J 7^. IS pleasant. Our easy chitchat must now be rudely I sTear dear Rn n. 1 '^."i!>' *"^ °^ Prudence. Vou ask me for the day. me^ to uiorrni ^^iU^y '^1 P^ecious stone, that if the conditions were en Ho fr Ln L. H ^''""^ /ou displeasing to woman ■.' uaut that would tend to triten away the sensitive presence of connubial love'.'" m dale tliTt Zl ^ ^■'"". *?^*' ^*"'^" '"^P"^'^ the jungiing ; " I thaut, nnnl i^ ^' ,'"^ imperfections had been overlooked. I perceived de^ervUT'' ^"'^ """^' ' hoped, you had accepted with whatever was i.npeyfectionTmI,.t'"'n^rh "'^ ^ "Constitutional defects, and acquired cZsuupive h k' , I ' c°"/°""'led- If 1 found my healthv lover a thTl nitTc^^^^^^^^ 7""'1 '°''".^ ■' ^'^'^^^'^ ^^^y- or^voo it to myself, la o sho l.n n T ?' ^*'°"i ' '?^'"'^' l^"t P^'"''t "'^' t" "-euiind you HnL 'f rve i , 1 / n-K^' ^'^^'^*'"" '*'^ P'"« °f tobacco and tho dis- o vou bv Wrth ir h^^'i ^u^'^ "^ '''°^''' ^""^""''y ■' tl'^v do not belong lo >ou by birth, nor should they to me by adoption." —20 — " You surprise and pain me, Frances," said her lover. Frances replied : " Rather, I communicate to you the pain at my own heart. You awaken at once my love and my antipathy. Can you sacrifice always on the altars of Terpsichore, of Bacchus, and of Nicotin, and not grow neglectful of Cupid's and Hymen's ? " "Is my dancing arraigned also ? " inquired Rodney, "in which I have not indulged since last February. And with regret I hear you condemn what the ancients approved, and what the voUries of graceful physique have ever recommended." Frances replied : " If you have quitted, I have ceased to condemn. I too admire the lore of the ancients, as of Pan who Knit with the graces and the hours in dance, Led on the eternal spring. But the promiscuous contact of man and woman in the dance is prejudicial to the contactial purity of one man and one woman. Take a year, Rodney, a year from this day; and, having remained exempt from these objectionable habits till May 25, 1901, take me then for your own absolutely." " Can ycjii be earnest," inquired Kodney ; " say that you jest, that this is pleasant raillery. Insist not, my love, on a so long delay." The tears came to the eyes of Frances ; she clasped his arm and said : " Why are we so far apart, Rodney ? Why can not purity pre- vail, and goodness triumf ? " The damsel continued to weep, and her lover replied : " Anything but tears, Frances ; you break my heart with these crystal outpourings." He released his arm, put it about her neck, and kissing her said : " Let the day be deferred, my love ; let me at least have time to reflect. Hush your weeping. Your affection, my darling, is boundless and aggressive, and I am impure in its lite." At this moment a bycicle met them on the road, the mare sheered to one side with suddenness, and Rodney braut both hands to the work of restraining her. Section 4. At noon of the next day, P'rances, her father, her mother and her brother, were sitting at table, tho Frances at the moment was serving a pudding, and was saying : " Ludwig, I beg to quote for you the words of an old poet : — The board with varied plenty crowned, May spare the luxuries of sound. " I must repeat however," said Ludwig, "that my sympathies are with the form of go rnment which obtains in the United States." As he finished his speech, his father handed to him his cup and saucer, saying : " Another cup of cocoa, wife, if you please." The wife received the cup from her son's hand, refilled, and returned, saying to Ludwig, while Frances resumed her seat : " Your approval, I fancy, is suggested by the approval of your father. For my part, son, I feel to esteem as a blessing a so benignant sovereign over us as Victoria." The husband replied: "To Victoria as a woman, none can deny the most unbounded praise ; as a monarch she is nihil, and her presence at St. James a superfluity. The monarch of England to-day is Lord Salisbury ; he declares and closes war ; Launer is our ruler, not Lord ■W? w^'^m — 21 — Minto ; therefore we admire a system of rule that gives to a man of talent the nominal, as the real, power. McKinley is the chief executive in the United States, and no figurehead is placed above him." " Have you not said, dear mother, before to-day," observed Frances, " that woman should not be vested with authority over man, publicly or privately ? " Her mother replied : " While I remark upon the excellence of your pudding, Frances, let me remind you of Deborah, of the Queen of Sheba, and of Candace, the Ethiopian sovereign." " I profess," remarked Ludwig, " only an intellectual knowledge of the bible, and that imperfect ; but was not Deborah the prophetess and Harak the real leader ? and let us not go to the barbarous Ethiopians for examples of government. The successors of Solomon were males ; and of Augustus." " And notice, mother," added P'rances, " how our esteem for the Amazonian warrioress, Clorinda, is lessened by the prominence which Tasso gives to her masculine prowess and animalic courage." The dame replied : " Are all against me ? Then I surrender to superior numbers. ' hall not attempt to surround you, as the Irishman did the three Russia But your father is without pudding." " Not so much as before, Frances," said the husband giving to his dauter his plate. " Vou have carried the argument from republicanism versi monarchy to kingship versus queenship. There are many at the pres day who desire that Canada should be independent and repub- lican; that as a damsel when matured should lea\ 3 her mother's house, so a colony, when self-supporting, should be an independent unit. Wit- ness the remarkable growth of the United States since the regime of Washington." His wife replied by saying : " But republicanism, like monarchy, is convulsed by partyism, and its elections disgraced by civil faction." The husband rejoined : " True, and not till the fatal error propa- gated by the politicians of William and Mary is eradicated from the mind of statemanship will the blessings of uni-partyism be diffused among the countries. The deliberations of a W.C.T. U., or a Methodistic conference, are swayed by a major vote, without any preexistent division among its numbers ; and so, we believe, mite parliament legislate by its majority, and be divested of bi-membership. Never will christian repre- sentati,ves be sent to parliament, while the unchristian qualities of obse- quiousness and vituperation are requisite in a candidate for his election. But, Ludwig, the time approaches when we must meandi- to the field and the hoe, and Frances has not yet finished her exordium of the morning concerning her determination with regard to Rodney and his eccentricities." Frances replied : " When you pull down monarchies, father, and erect on their ruins the fabrics of republicanism, your female listeners are unconcerned ; but when your satire falls upon the fabric of feminine love we risp -n arms. I can only repeat now what your haste would not per- mit yon to hear in the morning ; that, with your and mother's approval I will delay for a year my exit from the parental home." " You are trying him, are you ?" inquired her tather. Frances replied : " Yes, sir." " What think you ot it, wife ? " inquired the husband. The dame replied : " She is not of twenty years till June, and Rod- ney lacks some months of twenty-four. A year will benefit their imma- 'laTjiysn '•■.J. J — 22 — tnrity. relieve the lover of his unfortunate habits, and confirm or dissuade our dauter in her choice." ,,-,,, ■ i " Has Rodney acquiesced in this probationary delay ? uuiuirea the man. . , • - ^-n Frances replied : " He has asked me not to press for a decision till the next Sunday, which is to-morrow." " I believe,' observed her lather, "that your womanly intuition and good sense will teach you to secure a happy issue. Before marriage is the time for disagreements and readjustments. Get the oatmeal ready, Ludwig." • , , r , r i His wife replied : " I have prepared a sort of beer for your post- meridiau drink ; thus you may have variety now. and sufficient porridge in the morning." , -, .. r i The husband arose ; the others followed suit ; the former said : " The resources of a good wife are infinite and unrepavable." The men assumed their hats, the women began at the table, and the labors of the afternoon were shortly under way. Section 5. On the following afternoon Rodney and Frances were sitting in the parlor of the latter's home ; Francer was seated on the lap of her lover and held her arm about his neck, while he said : " You must be insane. Frances, to insist seriously upon a so long delay. I cannot wait, niy darling • I want you now. Mv manhood is arrived ; and why should it be permitted to slip by in wasteful dissatisfaction and delay ? Do not, my love, ask too much of frail humanity." . , r, • * Frances replied: "You are not frail, but determined. Promise to wait abstemiously tor the year, and I will chance the lifetime. We are not alike. Be patient, and, bearing my apparent caprice, wait till next May " " I can not wait, my darling," replied her lover, drawing her to him with impatient energy. " Why be so cruel ? .-Accept me at my word. I renounce the habits which offend ; but do not play the inquisitress, and bigot me to ruin." ^u r- a c Frances kissed him, and answered by saying : May the God ot Heaven teach to me the rite course, if I have not already learned. I am voung, dear Rodney ; can I enter the sacred precincts of wifehoo4 before n.y years number a score ? Let time do its preparatory work. Our love must be subjected to its excoriation. Be patient." The lover bowed his head and replied : "Who can contend with women and the gods ? You use me rufly, Frances, and make me *o sus- pect that your heart is not an aching heart, as mine when in its times of yearning. But I yield, peerless woman. One year of life with you would compensate a lifetime of waiting. Much more then a litetime a year. Your obedient slave." He kissed her as he concluded his speech. She replied : " Say not my slave, but always my dear lord." Saying this she put her other arm about his neck, and pressed her lips to his. Then she continued : ' And you have braut gladness to my heart ; the strong has bowed tc the weak ; the stable to the capricious. I rejoice that my liege is not deaf to en- treaties ; that he has forgone at my request, the present to the tuture. May I then be very loving and ministrive, that our heavenly bond may enlar>"- refine, and strengthen. And if the God of Abraham, of Isaac —23— and of Jacob is the same to-day, our human love will ere lone be irradi- ated and intensified by that which is divine." " But your very goodness, your warmth, and tender protestations," replied her lover, " make it doubly hard for me to live so near you. vet wholly apart." ^ ' " And for me," replied the damsel, letting one arm fall to its former place. "Woman longs for man more than man for woman My heart too is an aching heart, and will be so fitfully till it reposes at last and for aye, beside your own. Woman is weak, very weak, my Rodney! Without man she is a reed. Frailty, thy name is woman.'' The jungling replied : " Her weakness is the potential element with man. But what if I trespass during this year, this fiscal year, as I may say. ^ " The celebration of our nuptials," replied the occupant of his lap, will then be dated from the period cf your fall." Rodney assumed a look of terror, and responded : " How martinetic is your discipline! I am horrified at the prospect. But seriously trances, only your prayers can prevent my transgres.=ing. And, by the way, I thaut some of making a start during the present ensemble of the Hornentes." , . ' ' this Frances answered by saying : "Talk not of a start so super- ficial. I will during this year, dei gratia, start you with the needed iinp^tus. What is my religion if it cannot communicate itself to you ' or what must you be ? I anticipate, my lover, that we shall yet be happy! with a happiness that we have not known. So come, and give vour basest bass to my favorite tune, Irish." They thereupon arose, and going to the organ, prepared to sing." CHAPTER IV. TV,, w.^"*^ falls before the tempting bottle-2. Confessing the same to Frances-j The latter consults with her mother and grandmother-4, Acquaints Rodney wkh the he?demion '^'"" "^P^cting him-5. And relates to her folks St tab°e how he bore Section i. On a certain morning Rodney, hlo father and three other men were standing beside a stack of straw, and one of the three men was speakine as oUows : " Go, Bertram, and see if the engine is in readiness ; and call when sufficient hands have arrived to begin work." A younger man departed at his word, whereupon he continued : " Yo-i have heard I presume, of the question now before one of the etatic legislatures across the ine, concerning the riddance from cities of the two urban evils most deplorable. As you know, the cities of to-day are troubled with the problem of slums and impure air. The state in question proposes to legislate away these evils." f f <■ "By offering what remedy? " inquired Rodney's father. The first speaker replied : "By enacting that in future no house shall be erected in a city, town or village, within nr rods on any side of another house ; and what respects a house is also applicable to a shoo a theatre or an mn. " '^' One of the other men now replied by saying : " We should have no cities, towns or villages, if h'-- es wore broadcasted in that ir.-"iner." —24— " It is known," continued the first speaker, " that tenemental ai adjoinetl houses are the nurseries of violence, rapine aiul harl(^tr\ . Tl niiiltiplicity of the sluniniers prevents their apprehension ; for to arrt the suilty would depopulate one street and hmiinize anothe:. Hut separation of the houses reduces the nuniher of the inhabitants p square mile, and renders possible the execution of law. And with tl reduction of the population on a given area, is an increase of oxygen the circumjacent air." The father oi Rodney replied: "What would become of the rur districts ? Would all becouie suburban ? " Another of the men now spoke up, saying : " A mi u under in suburln lanes furlorn," The first speaker replied to Rodney's father as follows: -'A suburban. The open country would be urbanized, and the cities rura i.-!ed. But this remedy is to be offered as a local option, like the suppre sing of traffic in liquor." A voice was now heard, calling: " All is ready." The first speaker replied to the call : " Yes." He added in a low( tone : " The threshing will now begin." The speaker departed as he spoke, followed bv Rodney's fathe One of Rodney's remaining companions then went to 'a part of'^ the stac farther along the side, saying : " Now is our time." He soon returnei carrying a bottle. He offered first to Rodney, saying : " Partake." " None, thanks," replied Rodney. The carrier of the bottle replied : " I will pass then to one les punctilious ai more sapient." Saying this, he passed the bottle to the other man, who accepted an drank, observing : " That is powerful, as the negroes say, but likewis oily and palatable." He passed the bottle to him from whom he received, who, aftt drinking, offered it again to Rodney, saying : " Have you recovered yoi former good sense and bonhomie ? " " Why press me ? I do not want it," replied Rodney. The one who had first produced the bottle passed it again to th third man, saying : " You, Horace, are not the slave of a woman." Horace was about to accept the proffered bottle, when he who hel it drew back the extended arm, and again holding it before Rodney, said " Drink of this, the nectar of the gods, the elixir of hfe." " What spirit of hell is in yon, to press me over the precipice ? " sai Rodney, taking the bottle ; " and in me to accept ?" He drank, tho with some hesitation, passed to Horace, and Arde drar'i agam. The latter offered the bottle to Rodney once more saying : " Finish and secrete the bottle." The speaker, accompanied and imitated by Horace, took an impale: fork from the ground, and departed. Rodney drained the bottle, an( grasping it by the neck, dashed it in pieces with needless energy upon ai adjacent rock. Then, taking his fork, he likewise withdrew. Section 2. During the evening Rodney and Frances were driving thru the gat( that led from the barnyard of her tiome, and Rodney said : " Whithe shall we drive to-nite ? " —25— on.e lost my life." especiall> dear to nie, beranse in its way I Kodney t„rned li.e mare to the rite, and Frances co, cn.ued : " ^'%f'^'^ °/ summer nite did fall ■ J he muon (sweet regent of the sky) Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall And many an oak that grew thereby. Hermit me to drive the hnrs*. tr, r.i.= .. n- and resumed: " If I waL nL °ani conlJo^T'h "^'"""''' '^^ ""«• of life, I would immortali J wUh the hn =h "^'^^ "" ^^nvas the forms Honheur. I would represent admals with the .if7 f"""'"/"" ^''^^- ^'ke pansed in her speech, but as Rodney nade'^'o^repl J 'T^' ^^'^ '^^'^^^l ^p^Si: '^^^i^ s tS ^^-^-" -^'> '^--y. Kodney now put his arm about the waist of hw a ■ and said : " I have a confession to make before vm p "''"^ ^^ompanion. man so wicked and so unfortuna e as I ? i „? ^ "' .^ "■*"""• ^as ever betore I begin to relate." ^ ' ^** '"^ ''^^P^ak forgiveness Kn,in°°^'''''f" ''' ■' '"'I'"''^'^ ^^^ damsel. P^^£^^S^'^s.^:i!.^^:^^J:^r 'T^^ ^his naming. , is violated, darhng." ^ '"^'^ ""P"'^^' ^y year of abstinence her ;S^"^^' ' ^"' -"^ ^- 'his." said Frances, with tears starting fron, Kodney replied : " Say that you forgive." dear|oVn:;"%rn7ra'KK^^ '"^0 -y heart, pone the nuptialic day til, my heart i^^^out 71 f^o^gi^el^S^'j. ff , agai;' ?" sakrK^Xeyfand 'fesinT heV'ber '°'"h' °^ ^-"'^«« '« yours too that this shall not be counted • that fh^ '^\^'K ^^^"«^- ''Say! :^t:^.^^i^i.j- '^ "^" • ""- =^ "':r;^- ^^^ I not tjiaut P-that we were drawing s;;;o?hl'?°'' V."'^''- "^y ^°''^'' have the damsel. '. SureTy c^-munL wfth'^' d '' ^r^^f^^ '° 'hink'," replied advance one step in the rite Hfr^.V- .'^'" "°' harden me. Let us dubious road." ^ "*^ direction, rather than a thousand on I '^? «"ust'r?,''''' = " ^^'" >'°" "«♦ °^'^^Jo«i< now ? ' I ".ust reserve my verdict," replied his companion. ^^^W- —26— " You are obstinate, Frances," said Rodney. " Would you rule, anc remain a woman ? Consent to forgive as I have been frank to confess." " I rsk time," replied the one who drove. " I cannot ^ive it," responded the lover, withdrawing his hand fron lier waist. " Do you think me a god or a brute, that I should forbear an( wait forever ? That I have erred is true. But one stumble should no interrupt a progression. I cannot wait for you till I myself shall becom( a saint. Let your goodness leaven me ; do not hold me aloof, to wiihe like a wormy cabbage. Tell to me, Frances, your ultimatum " Frances replied : " I arTi confused by this evening's disclosure, ain not fit to decide. And is it not rite that 1 should seek diviiiC guid ance ? Mistake not my allegiance to God for obstinacy. I must love m; Savior more than my lover, njore than my life." " How can we longer be engaged," answered Rodney, " when I an not the one most deir to you ? We may as well dissolve the bond tha can be rendered lax by a stronger, titer bond." To this Frances returned : " We will never part at my bidding ; but as God is in heaven, I will not encourage in you this Satanic spirit Would you have me ? deserve me. Would you enjoy the good ? culti vate it." " You surprise me, Frances," replied the lover. " I came to yoi confessing a wrong. I asked you to obliterate it from the record of th year. You refuse. You talk of God's mercy ; where is yours ? You tal of religion ; what irreligion is this ? " " Take these lines and drive toward home," said the damsel, handmi to him the lines, "before that is said which may not be -ecalled. I as you for time to think; the devil within you clamors for present compli ance. .'^s God is my hope, I shall not grant it to him." Rodney took the Hnes while she was speaking, and now he replied " I have wounded you, my darling. I am dark and sinful. Let us driv on and be reconciled." She began to weep copiously, and Rodney pu his arm about her saying: " How strong is your emotion ; how obtus my heart." The lover kissed away the tears from his companion's face, and fel the feeling in his own eyes; but now the curvetting of his horse demande his attention, and gave a passage to the silence. Section 3. During the following forenoon, F'rances and her grandmother were i the latters dining room, and Frances was reading. She came to th following lines : Oh, the blessed woods of Sussex, I can hear them still around me, With their leafy tide of greenery still rippling up the wind! Oh the cursed woods of Sussex! where the Hunter's arrow found me. When a fair face and a tender voice had made me mad and blind ! In that ancient hall of Wycombe thronged the numerous guests invited, A nd the lovely London ladies trod the floor with gliding feet : And their voices low with fashion, not with feeling, softly frated All the air about the windows with elastic lafters sweet. As the damsel concluded this stanza, her grandmother said " Finish at some other time, Frances ; the story is too long for one rea( noble deed. She rerognized —27- iriK. But I think that the gentle lady did the eciuah^MiK power of love." Frances closed the book and rpniio.l ■ .. i{,.> a • She did not stoop .„uch. I would ha^i■ rati . r fill'^T ,'' ' .'''"■'-■ ''r''"-'- Hathaway than of yueen Elizabeth.'^ «l'c place of Anne The Krandiiiother replied : " Fossiblv liera.ie„ r.f a„ . state, rather than because she was a noef« IT i '^""^'s married either of these, have been the o.Te to w'hom he wrote : """''^' '"''^^ '*>"" Sot marble, nor the gilded monumtnU O] princes, shall outlive my powerful rime " ° • a wa's trn^i^ "r T '°, r'!'^^ '-W y-rcllruhip i ' krr^ •' But Ihe": es of Ima^ .S'S^d'forTotf""'^'" '^k'^'' ^''•-"- my relations with Mr cLmel? I may sa that^ ^ Kegarding strained." ^ ^*> *"*' at present they are "You alarm me," said the grandmother. I '.av;?^s';^:co;^;.^;^^-'^i^,;j;^ is&'"[^''^t\ was too hi, or the winds too violent " ""^^ "'*'' '*"«"■ Hus pedestal Frances rep ed by savin? • •• t h„l '"omer. vertebrate animal " ^ ^ " ^'^ ^''^^^^ supposed him to be a ^? hIv-Si-t coS?. ^ SS »;.''vo., p,..„e , ■■ three Mel a half, are past " ' " ' ^'"" "">»"" »' 1''^ year, or as yoSart","? ■?" ^ " ""™ ""' "•« P««"- >■> P'oce.d with hi,n Her grandmother said : " I th=nk tha» vr,., ,,^ j i " 'TwisK'f!;..''^ "°;"^".^^-^ -' ^^'^^^^^^^^^^ Frances '" *° '°"°" °"'>' »^« ^^i^^ates of a rite consdence." replied smok"d7n"?pS''lU;rh"e?te'Sa^^^ ^°"'- fj-^father, Ludwig, band. He became weaned from 7L i *♦ t°u-^- "^ ^^s a good hut to disapprove the fomer." *^^ '*""' ^'^•"*' ^""^ ' f°""d no reason The mother of Frances nhspn^o.^ . u i that Frances is nmralK courteous XVnn^^^^ "ot but rejoice, mother, weak; she should obey^.UnotTar" "''^ ^^ meek but not you."dUTm'otet S to ^of ^C it' "i^^'^^L " ^°^ ' "^^ -"^"s to rebels against waUinrapHSeofn/anHr'^S*^^ ""^ ^^^^^ strongly i-n„ , .*rraigDing, and the adversary urges me to take dk«»»'»e- —28— him as he is. I vearn for my Kodiipy. I loiiKto t)e his wife. Why is love so RtrmiKi wIkmi rtitiiiiiiK coiiiittT to purity anil priidenie? " Tears wtre iri the speaker's eyes as she toiifluilcd her speech. Her mother replied : " I am Klad. my daiiter. that the Holy (ihost was Riven til you in abundant nuasure; else, you woidd have yielded to present soliiitatiuns, and sec aside considerations for the future and the still small voue of conscience. The Lord loves you, and therefore chastens; and when you have been tried, dear Frances, you will be as gold. Take courage, my dauter ; yet hold hin> not to all ot the time, but divide the unhappy period between him and your rite." The Krandmother now observed : " V'ou speak «f religion, Lucretia, in a new way. We spoke not thus of the Holy Ghost in the old days; and then' were many good people living then, -iiany good people. We have believed that they went home since then ; yet they talked not thus of the Holy Ghost." The motluT of Frances replied : " I would not presume to doguja- tize before you, on religion ; but truly, mother, the Holy Ghost is a blest gift, and tree to all." Her motherinlaw answered by saying: "What say you is the reason, if it is 'ree to all, that so few receive it, that it so rarely descends?" The niOili ■ ot Frances replied : " The hindrances are : ignorance of its readinesi o come on application, and indisposition or inability on the part of man to acquire that repentant earnestness which alone can induce its descent. Let us, Frances, complete our forenoon's work." Frances and her mother arose as the latter was concluding her speech, whereupon Mrs. Harding also arose, saying: " 1 will accompany you; I have been lonesome during this morning. The finite longs for infinite. I long for that enlarging paradise where we shall live the life that never dies." As the oldest of the three women finished speaking, they left the room. Section 4. Later by three days than the time in which the preceding event trans- pired, Kodney and Frances were driving on the road, and Kodney was saying ; " Tell to me what will ensue if 1 again offend." "You shall not offend again," replied his companion. " How will the possibility be averted ? " inquired Rodney. " I will lead you to conversion," replied his companion. ■' Will religion quench the fires of delayed love ? " inquired Rodney, Frances replied : " Religion is the only balm for telluric wounds, the only preventative of human error. 1 entreat you to be persuaded tc seek your Savior to-nite." Rodney answered thus : " I am not in the vein. As Richard said tc Buckingham : / am not in the giving vein to-day." ' Repentance may be wooed," replied his companion; " and therefore like woman, it may be won." Rodney answered again by saying : " I have found woman a ver> evanescent and elusive creature. When I had supposed her won in ate months she loomed up farther away by sixty days." " I entreat you to be serious, Rodney," replied Frances, " I can nol bear this unlike relationship for another day. I will renounce my relig ion, waive my rite to Heaven and our ten months' delay, and be youi submissive, wormeaten wife ; or you shall seek and find divine forgive —30— ncM. Mv mother awaits our return. I roiucstcd h^r t,^ .it ..ntii ca,ne ; and I pron.ise.I to hnnR >.„. with ,,'e.' I mentally reso Tv'e 1 ' the same time that if you did not k-> in, I would not ' ''■"•"ved at the •• 'k our (letrrmmation is unwarrantable." replie.l the lunL-liuK " Shall K.n::^^'r:^'^Xe"^l!j^Sr.::::i r^r'^llS ^rilleeJ'-l^-l'f ^j^t:r \£rr ;paiile-krs;.- iir Ji --7:1 -~ & tearst.tSj;';;<:::n':VJ;:^'"n/:r,:l;^,;£:^!';;i ^^-^^ -'■ head, having dropped the llnei. a^Id ^h!^^ ^B"*^":? j*^^ IX'S Frances . vou know not what you urse. nor l!ow uttcri; aliVJi I 'an^o horse""'"' '''"' ""■" '"P""'' ^'"""«' "'Irive inside, and tie your RodneTSn'" '*"°*« her part, and you." replied Frances. tr.ad th s path^ I ike Fi^. t^TnI""*^""'f ' f ^r'"'' ' ^now not how to is yc^S;/^ ^^.1:?^^- •;;^,s^-cl.^:-^- -''"'^ ■ " -- ^- suppoi.^'"""'"'" '■"^'""^ ^'' '°^^^= "•"'» ''i^^ '"«=y«"r aid and tender IZIT '''f ^'^ *]'? *"'' '■^''''^'^ = " ' ^o"'d 'lie for you. Rodney " Rodney returned her warm caress, saying : «oiiney. " What mill not n'oman dare, IVIwm youth and beauty lead like thee, Gulnare? Conduct your corsair to his fate " they?alkeTt?ward th'houYe'*'^'^^' ''''''"'" '>' ^*^ '-«' -^ 'og^^'her Section 5. were^aVtab]™Mh^T"' '''' ^^t'ler, mother and brother of Frances ma'serS'fe 'p^ f you pfeaT; T^ ^.n'"""^ '"^ ''" ^"" = '"- the apple and one of the bkckb;rry " ^^ '"'"'' ^^^'^ P"' * P'^^^ °f fathe^'r-st™? sauce? ind iSsT';''" °" '''^ '^'"^' P^^^^' *" "- '- ... '^ ""^ ali> with twn ntati.. >>». »r.i i yie..i'il^,!:^::ral;;;ii;:i?';: •..;;;.:" """•""' ^ - -''^'-^ """^- -» -» My this time Lii.JwiK had rciiimeil his chair ami nankin a.ul whil.. with fork and hisni.t ho attacked the hter colore.l o hi ?£« o Ta ^ 111 must tell to 118 more of the hanneninL-s o L«. ./ v^ ' i ' ' ..... l"• ^*»'lly fnlrtalincr repeated the woman, by way "Hut we pray you." xaiil the hiuband. " to inform mt of the im.lcr. »tanilm« to which the ovem arnved. re^pectinK Rodneys probation." The danu- replu-d : "His indiscretion cont him a delay of two mon h8. He now « ,t» for ten monthn from yesterday, thus fixiuK the weddniK at July 9, i.>i,i." ** •' Their inarriaRe will fall on auspicious times.' observed the hu«band .hIr,h""''./T'Vir """"^^ »>)• «he dawn. And beautiful is the thaut that he K. tt which they jwssess they ran tr.insmil to their children, an.l put the httle ones into God's care till the days of their accountability. Ch Mren, as you have said should experience the spiritual circumcision. an h wT'l ili"'7 *" T '•'"°"- . " >■""• '-"*>^iK. will attend the horses and hoK's. 1 will return directly to the cornfield and the side.' Tlie husband arose while concluding his speech, and the others im.tate.1 his example. While the^- stoo■ "'"^ ""^^tisfied must CHAPTER V. OMeiTtR'TAmi M"i"""°""''*'" ^"^"'y* Piolwti.m en.lf««»,! -n. ui J, H» i* dotted by his ''he weddinc dinner i» di»- Section i. , K.,V." * "T^^? ''*y '" """""er Rodney and Frances were sitting beneath a butternuttic tree, on a large stone, and Rodney heUi her by the wais lover is 'X \l ^''"'"■.'^7'7r«»«*"" he was saying f ■• The burien of your fon Thl f ^ "c°^ °^ ''!' ^^''^ynR i'^ within three days of comple- tion. The warfare of Jerusalem is welini accomplished." ' Are three days wanting ? " inquired Frances. " So says the bond." replied Rodney. "Take me !I'nw"n!'^ '*'■'''''* ^'T ^^^ computation." said the damsel. »hl 1 A • ""'*•"> 'o^^"" : yo>' 'lave maintained vour integrity. 1 cancel the deficiency of time, and am yours irrevocably.- I am yours fro.n now 7a'c:&l°^°rNeTo ■•'^°'"""'' '^"""« '^^'^ '''^^ clays^Ze irmitl^s "Would you marry a bloody man and a tyrant ?" inquired the lover Frances replied: "I would marry you a one., my Rodney I , ass over where stood the barriers of prudence and of ourity. and offer nlseTf at your feet, at your feet, my lord." ^ my sen " In so young a bosom," said Rodney, kissing her brow, "how treat how comprehensive is the heart. You combine the passion of t YevS rite fo ^u A^^y' ^"'' "'^ -^"ntinence of norlandic damsels. Hu, r" Ihl in • *^^ designs your mother ha., e.ite. tamed re our wedding Has she in view the tnumfs of magnificence or the conquests of simphcity ? " sm^mmjw^ssf. ■ 'fW^- (^1 —32— Frances replied : " She has in view a table for forty persons conipris- Imbors'"' "" "^ '"^' *'*"■"'''• ^^^'' "■""«Iiate relations and the nearest "Our menage, then," replied Rodney, "will not be enriched with the " of nmnerous guests, as falls to the lot of many marriagers." .„c 1 V*i""^ l*"" f '^'^'^•'Jed on that point." answered Frances. " Shr is resolved that the feast which she prepares shall fill, and not deplete, her triends and nabors^ Vet this method will not prevent the unsolicited offenngs of friendship during the first days. Hut the suffing o he ^xor'ciJe" n^r.netnchii;^"'^ '''^''- ' ''">■ ^^^ ^" ''^^^' '">' -^'-^ -^ Rodney drew her yet closer, smoothed the hair that was ruffled by the wmd, and said: "These are not the melanchc.lv c'avs. And, for thaiMn •"life""" "°' ''''^'"''' '^''''" °" '"^' ^''^''^ reclines one'dearer to me Ttu- damsel looked into his eyes, and responded : " I am impressed dear Rodney, with the transitoriness of life. We marry, we rear we god-' speed, and we die. In heaven, in heaven is permanency. ' And constancy lives m realms above, And life is thorny, and youth is vain." lowan'^'oet p'^'''''''"' ^^ raying: "Remember you not the lines of the There is no death ; the stars s;o down To rise upon some other shore ; And brite in Heaven's jeuclled croun. They shine forever nwre. Talk not then of life, my love, as that which has an end " I-rances replied: "But, in rebuttal, I point you to Rachel. She an( Jacob were one, yet frequently she was sorrowful, she died voune and what seemed like a beautiful and extended prospect of life, con' tracted to narrow and precipitous limits." To this Rodney answered : " We can only pray to our God, Jehovah ot armies, that he will lengthen and illumine our days." " Hut to enlarge, to season, our natures." replied Frances. " He will subject us to suffering. If it mite be so, would life not be ideally tiaj)py, with the wife always f. eling about her the husbandic arm. hear ing his strong tones (or imbibing his stronger silence) and remaining iorever the clinging clematis around its majestic oak ? " "The man must sometimes part from his wife," replied Rodnev • but partings only intensity the bliss of reunion. Had we noi recentlv braved a winter, we could not so fully enjov these estival days and halcyon hours. ' ^ _^ " May we perfect ourselves in love, dear Rodney," replied Fiances, 1 long to be free from .sin ; for sin alone is the cause of sufferintr, and when without sin we cease to suffer." Rodney replied: "I beg to question ycr ratiocination. If I oS •"" *" ^' "'^' """'"' ^ """'"^ ''''''" ' --^^ ^ ""'*' "°' ""-'=^" '" " 'M '*;'«;"'• intuitively," answered Frances, " that the pressure was the result ot too much love. I would forget the pain of n-y ist.l him, saying: "To ook into your eyes where the sc 1 shine. lorUi, .v J to press y^n.r lips thru which the soul finds utteran' • , vill ever .>e uie delite ol yo Ime' and the privilege ot your wife. " ^ Rodney rephed : " I would quo;. s;..:-),.n5 on kissine if the .mush was propitious. By the way, how is this of the iath, poet y' Still Kould I steep my lips in bliss, And d'udl an uf^e on ivery kiss ; Nur then my soul would sated be, Still icould I kiss and cling to thee." "I would say," replied Frances, as they walked away, "that vour latin friend was passably gallant, and hily poetic." ^ Section 2. Later by three days than the foregointr event Mr anri Mr= r„,„ 1 were in the kitchen of their home; and tL atteV, while she roi°T a cambric shirt, was saying : " What reasons did Cy^s adduce supDort his argument tor the maintenance of standing armies ,..""' '"PP^-^^ The husband replied : " H. .couted the idea of keepine a countrv de ended by mihtia alone, nor would he allow himself^ tempo % between the mihtial and the regular systen.s. For I argued tha^To' a Zf"l'^ should have diciphne and art for its delense, that die pi ue and that art should be divested of the licentiousness and debauchery peculiar to a regular army. As mankind, when subdued by religion w?ll^end To an equality, the business of the soldier should be practise,! hvAi 1, and the blacksmith, the merchant and t^ .I'^L' pScL s^ Th^ an int 'm'^ ■"^fi"^"'^»t ^",'^. 'l'^ leavening influence of respectable Vomen and intelligent wives should be introduced therein ; and that as in Ge, many, military service should be the lot of all, ^nd tlie contemp^'of "Mankind will never be equal," replied Mrs Tnymni ..tk k * n„.e '"'°''" "<'''"' "" "">"■»"■ >•"' «"' "I'l-e ihe S iron to .he .h. ,rs„t,S',i ,s ^^i sts ■"- '""" °''-™- ■■ " "■ en,o,"|:;r«'rc1.U;l''iC;ll,'c''ceer"' '■ """"'"• ''- 'h^ tell von s)^n^^''?"'■•" '^''^ ^'' "•'°*^'^'' "^''l the bond be affixed? I can !o d^eourth'e'tlr; -" ^^"'^""^ ^ '^'^^""'^ ^'-- -^ -->• --otau^rs speaking f^m"thrw"e°l':^'ndpo'!m' Th '°"' i' ^''}- P^^'^^P^ ^^ -«= spoken L noon. ThrdLLTis&atoIe.--'""'''''^^"^ ""^'^^ "'" ^^ '^: M —34— "We will try to arrive in season," said Mrs. Coirniel the non-observance of this rule •• '^' '"t^'-^^o^^^e arise largely from have'Si::%..;^lr^„:Ji3i'iy\.;^^^ ^°" -•" ^"'^ ^'-" -"^emal .ho not h^'it^'-r.^s^pSili^Juh'^nucfeUlidtr^^ ' have mendable restraint .n wa ing acjuie "en 'tilM ^'°> ^T 'h°"" ^ '^°'"- our intentions. But now it is Droner fn?nf ""ite choose to divulge and the house erected thereon wiH^ he t J?, f ' ^i°." ^'^^^ ^'^^ ^°°^^^ '°t said document will await yoT re urn Lmhl'h'" ^'°'"'^ ^""'^- "^^^ you will find the house preoared for v™^^^ ^^^ honeymoonic journey ; and upholstery to which your ?wentv Zr J '^^'^fP !°" '" that sin.ple style of The land is as NatureTft i^ h,^; ^^7 °* ''^^ ^^^"^ accustomed you. ance a„3 m^rove iL ISue " '°"'" ""'"'''^ "'" ''^"^f°^'" '^^ ^PP^^- the l£rafty^o? y^u^r s'l^remet 1^°" ^'T"'' 'f ''^'"^ "-' -' -^h the „,anner recornn^rnced to"*;,/^,^^''^;.^ ^/^ff '° '^';"'"« '"^ '*^'"« '" father. My fiancee is a woman fantfn^fh' r ^'"' ^"'^ P'actised by my her parent^ w.th fru.ljLrardTndu^tHou^s tti'otTlir-' ^"' ^"^^^^^^ ''>• and hmnility'r ele'atr oTTar;;:r an.Hoie^f''^'''^'' t^ ^.^fi~' is a rare preparation for the w fe nf . . ^•^°'' '.'"''^ Phvsical labor, nothing to^h^, her^'ot is al^rea^ n^.-^cnt^'BuTHo L^h ^^^"'^1 '"" ready at the door so I resign yo'u to a.Xr. a'Sl' a^/rrndSVoth •'°"^ room; his parents followed ^^^"'""'8 ^is hat and rite glove, left the Section 3. lor of^'th'e f-^rme^'fh'ome"aSt^^^ ''"""f, ^^^^'^^ -^-^^^ ^^e par- " How long before we d;ess?"^ ^ ' °" "'^ '°f*' ^^^^^e inquired: "As soon as mother comes," replied Franrp.;- "ch^ Jo -x ,. the cu.sme till the arrival of your mother " ' superintendmg children. If they^are givefrnxiWies r^-^" "u^" '■"P*"^ ^°^ '^^^ of the grave encloses our discontent ""'""■ ^"'^^""'^ ^"^"^= ^"^^ ^^'V ausp;;s^;j;^ij^'^S,r^i;^^,:,s^^S;vi^bSrr' ff^^--'-^ '^^ the possibility of being childless!" husband, should not mourn who —35— UV /ir-./ ^;i-^. then ptty, then embrace." to catch tny breath and wipe away a tear " trousseau. 1 wish bv hPr''?H!:n?l'''xr ''"i ''''''"« ^'^'" '"°*'^^''' l*^" the rootn accompanied b« a once the epuoine and the summum l.onu.n of lite° ™n wis o?Jv leaving to you the management of the ground floor." ^ ^ ' VVhen w^rre^nZred T vi'",? P'^' = " ' "°^^ ''^^ ^^^^^"^^ °f P-«e"ts. the roe^cerm^nmcenc'e of ^ur gl'est'r' "' "^" '°'^'-^'''>' ^"'^-'p^^^ ''^ davZouK'aS'o^iy.'^" "^^''"^- "^^" ■">' ^-'"'-adding Another woman now entere. rlor .ind ■•■ -'j' icrtorl™ °.,*'."- """'»« • a s»nf °' ■.',''LaT;o'!,'',T;l's;t?E"-' "''■ """""■■ °^— '■ -'"> •■ B,,, s.r, *7r„«/LT„7 °afa°sE;..-""'^ -^' °'^"- As they left the room the other renlipd ■ " r* ic ^ „i anyway, enlivening the monotonv of .Sral and a^ric'uS n'r"'/ attend you, Martha, but I distrusf-my powers of di^rectiw" ^ Section 4. blessing!' "• '"''"'' "" '"'"'""• ■■ »•" -'"S "'"■ i.»plo™"o7'r ti;. k%."l^i>>.-:^l If -36- AIl arose who were sitting, and sang as follows : Be present at our tabh. Lord, Be here and evervu'here adore i These creatures bless, and f;ru: that ur May /east in Paradise icilh Thee biscuits' into their ro.p 'or l.uZed the .■'^^/"iVn"'^ "k"' '^7 """"''*^^ ceive, Mrs. Harding, that the table is ft 11 ^^^^^ observed : " I per- Tn this Mrs. Harding replied ■' A V '° "^""'^ '?"'''^" "'"''•" Mr.:, jenwig." ^ ' '^ " '^" '^^■"^' «"• excepting your wife, repheJ5}njL°wig""-*'^''""'"'*^'""^'-'" '^ - --"-t substitute." to me another sadness." anueU , but God has permitted Jenwig!°'V;r'lh'rh''aplT°the': ' ^'^.^""« "'"' i-"-v^ness." saic Mr. deeped; tinge of sadneT ' ''" "'''''''' '"'"'' °^ °'"- '■^'-^ have the '^''^ ''['''"t W'A's '"■^ //'OS. //,<,/ tell of saddest thaut. for\L'';n';^'Vu :?asToTnvitfonr",h'"^T^''' '"' >•- ^-'^ -''"-«« present from elch-^ 'nvite only the elite, and to expect a suitable I rem'emberra'l^d': p'es'^m'Jme wth' S^"'*"^" " ^' "^^' "-" -^'l-«. finger, I fancy, f)omS wbkh ca" es if 'hnTrf "'"I'^f,^ for a ditferent of conjugality loose and hav^ worn'rhriady' s^ ftt'g ar'it'"""^ '^^"^ wearhUTng afiong'"--'^"^'^'"*'^^^ >-' ^-''^IcI-tYr' Opposite may of thL" getk\ion':Ve'not';n:r 'for ""■"•' •' " ' ''''' '^'' ^^^^ '^e women Harding and I belong." ''^^""«' ^' ^^'^ ^^at to which Mrs. Mrs. Coiairmany ^'altiallar c^^^'', 'I""* '^^"^ >-- "P*"-". of yo<,r supposition Mrs »lr^.t u , '^"'^^"PPort to the tenability promise equalto any in he^LnLrf f^ ^'^T ^^'""^ ^^' ^randdauter is o^f young women of to-dLy on the whoril! the matter of longevity. The health, and grace with Ididity " ' '"""""'' '" combining form with not worn:;; i\ to tv^^th^: cj^tShn^or: T'' I" ^K^p'>' ■ " «-'* -« with bookish lore so that tbpr.nfn^ maidens who have been stuffed the fitness of cr^l'm for butteTot pSs^r thr''"'^' incapable to discern board of ironing ? " ' ^ '""^ ^'^^ °''^"' °^ °( clothes for the " John is a confirm- ed wImanTat'e" °' "^^'""^ °''^^"'^'^ ^' ^^is point : nomSTh:t^i'gem'^de?'frr"^"\^" '^"^'J V° -'P""-. ^ut by dog and her toilett?therfare\wen?y Vho°ofr"tt v" "'^'^ °" ""'' '^P their mothers for direction But nt/nn^l , ^he.r young energies to by Cupid, she is not r"eular in hpr = ^' '''"'" a '"aiden has been shot mothe? censure the forgetfulness." ""' "°'' '^°'' '^"^ sympathising lay —37— The mother of Phoehe now arose and said : "The soup has hra.it with .t a ,rac e against woman, who is. after all, an indispensahle con modify ; ,e pleased to finish, that we may usher i^ the veSlbles and t?,^ .neats whtch, I trust, will turn the tables on stern man '• ^ At her word several other women arose, and beean to tather th^ emptied plates, or to refill them, while the rp7nain?W ^f ?h^ leaned from the table or hastened^hr'lLcJssio" of the[r food "'"^'"^ Section 5. •'Married life,' said Koduey, "should be introduce by some novel niture. Hesules, the honevmoonic excursion allows the neonle ahnnf home to effervesce and grow calm again " '^ '^ ' to disclss"' 'Mfr'TiC wifn.^ .f l^""^?: " '^^? P^"P'« ^t home are prone ,1, „! .u 1 " ''« "shered in auspiciously, too, if the remainin,- spent Thrrr taMi"feT^" '^ '"'.'^''''^ "'^ hours we h^ve TeadJ France, '•' wl! ,a? Sar.'h;"''"'/r ' "" ""■"■'" ""' "«"" ' " "P»= " ^ Kodney replied : " Yet not belong To me the arroms of satiric song. f^mirT '^So'l'°av;r7Hf .h".°"'' P^-'J"*' ^"^ ""' ^'^^'fi^^ "" the past and corpletefVride Thln'f am^rineinf^ir'" .rT-- ''IV^' ^^^uKu^on a arKiiment " """^mg- If you deny this I will cease all v^m k : ! I. 1! -38- who have passed historic Kingston on their route of bliss, beRan the'r first married morning with God's word and godly thanksgiving." " Your calendar is in error," replied Rodney. " Yesterday, love, was our first married day, tho the morning was not ours. We should have ended our first dpy with reading and prayer, I have no doubt, to have done the strict r-te. ' Frances replied : " Your unspeakable punctiliousness will persist in risiiH' up, like Banquo's ghost, to bring on admired disorder. Let us strike from our conjugal calendar that piece of a day as one altogether unprofitable. And in truth, Rodney, let us endeavor to keep in view, as we view the river adown this lovely street, that time in our lives when the unfortunate and the disagreeable will have been eliminated, and naut but happiness be our portion. And is not that woman unfortunate who mar- ries a man whose nature does not command her own. What a delite for woman to obey whoui she loves and honors ! May God make brite in every woman's soul her divine inheritance of trusting and obeying." " Nature indeed gave to you, my love," said the young husband, " that obedience which commands, and that sweet compliance which is powerful to subjugate. Like Eve to Adam, you render your service uitit s'.eeU reluctant, amorous delay. But, Frances, the car of Phcebus is rolling rapidly toward the zenith, and we must be ready with the westbound at 9:45 ; so lei us turn off this beautiful street ; on which if ever a princess ;rod. It was my sweet bride ichcse hair was like to sunlit gold, and blue as heaven her eye. Our way lies here." As Rodney finished speaking, they turned to the rite into another street, and hurried onward tc their hotel. Finis (labor coronat). i'! their M^' 1 I ■;t ■Jb'AM EPILOGUE. Who wishes turther to explore the fate, Of patient Rodney and his prudent mate ; How well they journeved on the dual road, And carried siinsjiine to tlieir new abode ; What h.ippv toils, what pic.isant sweet repose By day succeeded and with eveuiiiK rose ;— Who all would know, the nation's stream descend, By Adams' town, and to their dwelling wend. Tliere, while my hero, like Ulysses wise. Informs the celibate what makes a prize, Frances to virgins warm will have begun A recipe to win, while being won. ■j^