THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 " We're coming to meet you, Uncle Randolph, Baby and I."
 
 HOUSEHOLD PUZZLES 
 
 BY 
 
 PANSY (MRS. G. R. ALDEN) 
 
 Author of "WANTED," " STEPHEN MITCHELL'S JOURNEY," 
 "TWENTY MINUTES LATE," "ESTER RIED," ETC. 
 
 M,*,", a *'*< ) AIJt 
 
 *. 
 
 BOSTON 
 LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1875, 
 
 BY 
 D. LOTHKOP & Co. 
 
 PANSY 
 
 TKAUE-M\KK KBOISTKBBD JUNE 4. 1835.
 
 ?s 
 
 2520 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Two PETEBS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MOURNING AND DRESSMAKING 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 LIGHT WITHOUT LOGIC ..... 
 
 CHAPTER 5TI. 
 MISTAKES GREAT AND SMALL. 
 
 2135324 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 11 SPIJT THINGS." ......... s 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 17 
 
 RAISINS ........... 
 
 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THEORT 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 A SERMON ^ 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 SMOKE AND BEWILDERMENT. 62 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 "WHAT is THE DIFFERENCE?" 76 
 
 89 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 DKBTS AND DOUBTS. ........ ^
 
 ^ Content*. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. PAGB 
 
 WMOHTT MATTERS IN SMALL SCALES. .... 140 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC UW 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 BJfTIMENT AND DUST Jfi? 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WATS AND M KAN'S. 180 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 PTTTZLING PEOPLE 194 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 OPPOSING ELEMENTS 209 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 THE FORCE OF ARGUMENT 223 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 REAL OR IMITATION? . 238 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 A PROTECTOR. 26? 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 A PUZZLING DISCUSSION 268 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 LIGHT 279 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 A DISCUSSION CLOSED 393
 
 Content*. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 THEOLOGY JN TBS KITCHEN. ...... 805 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 GOD'S MTSTEBY OF GRACE ........ 819 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 LACES AND DUTY .......... 833 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 STOKM AND "MOONSHINE." ....... 846 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ......... 258
 
 HOUSEHOLD PUZZLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "SPLIT THINGS." 
 
 :RMINA RANDOLPH drummed listless- 
 
 ly yet gloomily on the window pane ; she 
 was watching the snow as it came down 
 in wandering flakes. " Spitting snow," 
 Maria called it. Maria was in the 
 kitchen, making cookies. They mostly used 
 cookies in the Randolph family, in preference to 
 other kinds of cake ; not that they preferred them 
 either, but they wore better. You could " split 
 them thinner," Maria said, and " work in plenty 
 of flour, and flour cost less than butter and 
 eggs." This was the genius of the Randolph 
 family at least it was the necessity to "split 
 things thin," and " wear " them as long as pos 
 sible. 
 
 6
 
 b Household Puzzlet. 
 
 Helen came in from the white world outside, 
 bringing flakes of snow on her cloak and sodden 
 lumps of it on her rubbers. 
 
 " One rubber leaks," was her announcement ; 
 " one foot is as wet as water. I do wish I had a 
 new pair." 
 
 "Of feet?" queried Ermina, turning from the 
 outside snow. " Now, I should like a new pair 
 of almost anything conceivable, except feet; I 
 am very well satisfied with the ones I have." 
 
 A glance at her trim, well-shapen foot would 
 not have led you to feel surprise at this conclu 
 sion. 
 
 " Why don't you have a better fire ? " was 
 Helen's only answer to this sentence. 
 
 "Coal is dear," Ermina said, with a shrug of 
 her shapely shoulders. 
 
 "What isn't?" Helen answered, and there 
 was a little spice of tartness in her voice ; " I'm 
 not going to freeze to death to accommodate the 
 price of coal." 
 
 Then she put forth her wet foot and slipped 
 back the under slide with decision; the dingy 
 leaden mass of coal instantly glowed nt the 
 change and the air seemed to feel warmer. 
 Helen dropped her bundles on an empty chair, 
 herself into another, and sighed forlornly as she 
 held up both hands to view her finger ends 
 gaping from each separate glove finger.
 
 "Split Things." 7 
 
 " Isn't that an elegant pair of gloves for one's 
 best to wear in making morning calls ? " she 
 said, with quiet sarcasm. 
 
 " Especially when you have the baker and the 
 butcher and other elite of the town to call on," 
 Ermina answered, in the same tone. "What ar 
 rangement did you make about bills, Helen ? " 
 
 " Don't ask me! " said Helen, in a tone of dis 
 gust. " For pity's sake let me forget for five 
 minutes that there is such a thing as unpaid 
 bills in the world. I made the only arrangement 
 I could, of course. Got them all to wait another 
 month ; though I felt tempted to ask them what 
 earthly good they thought that would do them. 
 Unless some of this horrid mud turns to money 
 or some equally wild thing happens, I don't 
 know how they are ever to get their pay." 
 
 " They always do, though," Ermina said, 
 thoughtfully. "Father brings it about some 
 how." 
 
 " I know he does, after puzzling and twisting 
 and borrowing, until he doesn't know which way 
 to turn next. Such work as we have! I'm sick 
 of living, Ermina ! " 
 
 "Well," said Ermina, "you had better shut 
 that damper, because the coal bill is increasing 
 with every lump that falls, and I'm afraid you'll 
 be sicker of living before it is paid. Come into 
 the kitchen ; Maria is baking cookies, and I pre-
 
 8 Household Puzzles. 
 
 sume it will be hot enough there for you to bake 
 your foot if you want to." 
 
 This Randolph family belonged to a represent 
 ative class. I think when you have made their 
 acquaintance you will be on familiar terms with 
 perhaps one-third of our American race. Fami 
 lies who live in well appointed houses, with very 
 neat and appropriate parlor furniture, somewhat 
 the worse for wear, it is true, yet whose defects 
 are skillfully concealed families who are on 
 terms of intimacy with half the neighborhood, 
 who are invited to tea at Mrs. Harvey Smith's 
 who keeps a second girl, and lives in serene in- 
 differencs to her kitchen expenses families who 
 exchange bows with Mrs. B. Lawrence Liver- 
 more, who lives on Belton Avenue, and hardly 
 so much as knows that she has a kitchen attached 
 to her house yet these same families live in a 
 state of perpetual unrest and unhappiness, their 
 occupation a frantic stretch at the family purse 
 to make it meet the necessities, to say nothing 
 of the comforts of life. Of this class were the 
 Randolphs people who sat down in utter des 
 pair on Saturday nights, who brooded over ways 
 and means during all the long Sabbath day be 
 tween, faint efforts " not to think their own 
 thoughts," and who rose up to the burden of life 
 again on Monday morning with its problem ali 
 unsolved. Mr. Randolph was a merchant at
 
 "Split Things." 9 
 
 feast he had been one of the unfortunate, 
 struggling, disappointed ones, borrowing of this 
 friend to-day to meet the demands of yesterday's 
 lender. With him there had hardly been a yes 
 terday to look back upon when he was free and 
 fearless of to-morrow's claims ; not at least since 
 he was a boy, and that he thought must have 
 been a hundred years before. He commenced life 
 too early, did Mr. Joseph Randolph, just as many 
 a hot headed young American will do after him. 
 It had not always been thus with his family; 
 they had not known of his struggles ; pity they 
 had not. It is not entirely the fault of the 
 women that they are, many of them, the help 
 less extravagant mortals that society has made 
 them. The Randolph household had eaten and 
 drank, and slept and dressed, in blissful indif 
 ference as to how the bills were paid. Economi 
 cal they were to a certain extent, at least they 
 thought so ; though in these latter days they 
 would have smiled over their former ideas of 
 economy. They had never considered them' 
 selves wealthy, indeed they always spoke of 
 themselves as poor; but a new dress a-piece 
 when they needed it, and fresh hats and bonnets 
 when the seasons changedrand fresh gloves and 
 ribbons and laces at their pleasure, this was 
 economy ; as for the butter and sugar and meat, 
 * those three awful whirlpools into which so much
 
 10 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 capital is sunken, Bridget the maid of all work, 
 attended to them, unmolested by any of the fem 
 inine heads of the household. Ermina was only 
 sixteen when the change came ; first a long, 
 serious illness on the father's part; then months 
 of invalidism for the mother: then Tom came 
 home from college in disgrace and untold diffi 
 culty, requiring among other things much money 
 to be raised, and suddenly it came to their 
 knowledge what the father had known for a 
 long time, that he could not pay that money nor 
 any other. It was a very quietly managed mat 
 ter. Mr. Randolph could not even fail on a 
 great scale ; the failure must be third rate, as 
 his business hud always been. There was no 
 red flag or immense sacrifice of goods; the fami 
 ly had not even the excitement of a great change 
 outwardly to involve and interest them. Mr. 
 Randolph merely slipped quietly and meekly 
 from his position of master to that of subordi 
 nate. His principal creditor took the business 
 entire, and the former owner as his clerk, at 
 a fair enough salary for a clerk, but not one 
 equal to supporting a family of seven. This, 
 then, was the problem for the family brain, how 
 to make a hundred dollars do five times as much 
 as a hundred dollars will do, and have a surplus 
 for incidentals unceasingly worked at it was, 
 but not as yet solved. Mrs. Randolph helped
 
 "Split Things." 11 
 
 feebly at it sometimes, but Mrs. Randolph had 
 no head for figures, never had had even when 
 she was " parlor border in Madame La Blanc's 
 seminary." When she said this she always 
 sighed. Mrs. Randolph was one of those unfor 
 tunate beings who had come down. Now that 
 is a very difficult thing to do. You may talk of 
 the impossibility of making a graceful ascent 
 in the social scale, but unless you are a very re 
 markable woman you will find a graceful descent 
 at least equally difficult. Mrs. Randolph, for in 
 stance, had no real conception of what economy 
 meant. In a general way it meant to use as 
 little point lace as could be reasonably got along 
 with, and to buy no new jewelry for awhile; 
 but when one never bought point lace and jewel 
 ry, how were these rules to be reduced to practi 
 cal use ? To Mrs. Randolph her daughters were 
 absolute wonders; nothing that had happened to 
 her girlhood, sheltered as it was in the home of a 
 New York millionnaire, where she reigned an 
 only daughter, could be used to help her house 
 hold in their troubles. The millionnaire indeed 
 had gone to absolute ruin years ago, but not un 
 til he had carefully finished itis daughter's edu 
 cation in the art of spending millions, and 
 married her to a man who had no millions for 
 her, which, by the way, is one of our American 
 puzzles. Meantime she looked on in helpless
 
 12 ffoiuekold 
 
 bewilderment, while the young ladies turned and 
 and darned and colored, remarking now and then 
 in a helpless, dazed sort of way, 
 
 "There's my lavender silk, girls; it is trimmed 
 with thread lace. You might do something with 
 it. You do such wonderful things, all of you." 
 
 And Ermina would respond good-naturedly, 
 
 " Spare us that affliction, mother, I beg, in ad 
 dition to all our other trials. Don't send us up 
 and down the earth in a frantic hunt after some 
 thing that will do to wear with lavender silks 
 and thread lace." 
 
 The young ladies were very unlike in charac- 
 acter. Who ever saw four young ladies, chil 
 dren of the same parentage though they be, who 
 looked or acted alike in any but minor points ? 
 Helen was the nominal head of the party, being 
 one of those persons who are prompt to express 
 an opinion and act upon it, and who get the 
 name of being quick in their conclusions, noth 
 ing generally being said about the amount of 
 time they have to spend in repenting afterwards. 
 So Helen did a good deal of the talking; she 
 could do it well. She fretted a goocf deal about 
 the state of things; was sorely tried over the 
 rips in her gloves, yet mended them faithfully, 
 and made them last just as long as possible, and 
 made every one aware that she did. When 
 Helen sacrificed her own convenience you were
 
 "Split Thing*." 18 
 
 sure to know it; and as she was in a c*ontinual 
 state of doing without things that she did not 
 want, there was an uncomfortable sense of mar 
 tyrdom abo\\t her. Ermina took things philo 
 sophically ; the ragged glove-fingers, and faded 
 ribbons, and mended collars, might try her soul 
 us fully as they did Helen's, but it was natural 
 for her to be gravely comical over them all. 
 Surfacely you would have supposed Ermina to 
 be perfectly indifferent to existing troubles, that 
 is, as a general thing. There came, howeyer, 
 to her horrible days when life was worse than 
 leaden, absolutely black. Wretched days were 
 these in the Randolph household days to be 
 remembered and shivered over. There was one 
 comfort, they came rarely, and between their 
 coining Ermina tugged at the family snarl and 
 was good-natured over it. Grace was a little 
 past seventeen, was the family beauty, had the 
 name of being utterly thoughtless and light- 
 hearted, was merry and bright, and the least bit 
 hoydenish from morning to night, day after day, 
 and week after week. "It was a wonder,*' 
 Helen said sometimes "that she didn't think a 
 little. I'm sure I had a great deal of thinking 
 and planning to do at her age." But on the 
 whole they seemed willing that Grace should do 
 the laughing and merry-making, and let thinking 
 alone ; nor ever noticed that Grace's gloves had
 
 14 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 
 a way of lasting longer than other people's, at 
 
 least she applied less often than the others for 
 shillings from the carefully guarded fund; that 
 the fashion of arranging her hair was changed 
 whimsically often they were apt to discover. It 
 required closer sight to find that when the 
 brown hair" ribbon was hopelessly soiled, a plain 
 black velvet band became the style, and when 
 the black velvet grew rusty, severe simplicity 
 suddenly became her best, and her hair was 
 combed back straight and plain without band 
 or bow. Little sacrifices, very trifles in their 
 way, nobody thought of noticing them. She 
 herself did not name them sacrifices, but she 
 was very steady about them, and if she had been 
 one who ever did any thinking they would have 
 had the appearance of being premeditated and 
 systematic. 
 
 The other daughter was Maria.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EAISINS. 
 
 OW we will go to the kitchen and see 
 Maria. You think you know all about 
 her. Confess, oh, most wise and far-sight 
 ed reader, that between the time of clos 
 ing the last chapter and opening this you 
 have said something after this wise : " I know 
 what sort of person Maria will be. She will be 
 an old maid real old with a crooked nose, 
 cross-eyed very likely, and sour oh, as sour as 
 vinegar, but gifted with all the excellencies in 
 the calender." Yes ! Well, Maria is just exact 
 ly fifteen, this happening to be her birthday. 
 She is engaged in making cookies, perhaps you 
 remember, for while we haVe been going back 
 over the history of the Randolph family for a 
 period of forty years or so, Helen and Ermina 
 have made their transit from sitting-room to 
 kitchen. Maria has her head in the oven, her 
 curls are gathered into a net, and the net is 
 
 Iff
 
 16 Household Puzzle*- 
 
 dusted with flour. - Maria always 
 thin", from her net to her shoes, Emma says, 
 ^nT that is why the ^.**3*2fi 
 How nice and warm it is here, * 
 
 shivering and squeezing between the -all 
 
 th Cookies take a fearful amount of wanning 
 material," Maria said, emerging from the ovei 
 very glowing cheeks, "That and the,, 
 durance are the two faults they 
 vSL don't you think that heartless flour 
 
 have 
 
 r Helen said, in dismay. 
 
 to have told her," she said. 
 She has the blues now, and she's cold. Inia 
 fire just suits her. She has been wasting coal i 
 a i,ckless manner. As many as three pieces 
 fell into the grate while we were there. 
 Maria turned toward the shivering woman 
 
 hind the stove. 
 
 M Now, Helen Randolph I " she said m tragic 
 tones, you haven't been and opened that slide I 
 " "After all, it's not so bad as your making 
 cookies out of an empty flour barrel," laughed 
 Ermina, as Helen vouchsafed neither wo, 
 
 didn't," said Maria. I have that mira 
 cle yet to perform over the bread."
 
 Raisins. 17 
 
 The outer door opened, and with much stamp 
 ing and kicking of snow the son of the house 
 came in. A tall, finely-formed, fair-faced, curly- 
 headed young man quite young he was, hardly 
 nineteen, and looking even younger. You 
 couldn't help being attracted by his face despite 
 a certain look of recklesness that it had about it. 
 It was one of those faces that are picked out in a 
 crowd, and a student of human nature would 
 find himself wondering whether its owner was 
 going to be prominent for his good or evil life 
 prominent in some way he was pretty likely 
 to be. 
 
 "A woman's rights convention," he said, toss 
 ing his cap on a chair and taking a corner of the 
 wood -box for a seat. "What's the subject un 
 der discussion, feathers or flounces ? Let me 
 have the bearings of the question and III make 
 a telling speech on the popular side." 
 
 " We have so many of either to discuss," 
 Helen said, sarcastically. " We are much more 
 interested in hearing whether you have secured 
 that situation." 
 
 " Never a sign of a situation has this fellow." 
 
 " Didu't you apply for it ? " 
 
 "I did, ma'am," rising, and making her a pro 
 found bow, probably out of consideration for ^.Ue 
 sharpness of her tones. 
 
 " Then what was in the way ? " 
 2
 
 18 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Well, several things. I might have been 
 too tall, for instance. He undoubtedly observed 
 that it took an unusually large pattern to make 
 me a pair of pants." 
 
 41 1 wish we could ever secure a sensible an 
 swer from you on any subject." Helen said this 
 with increasing irritation, and Ermina spoke 
 eagerly, 
 
 " Tom, do tell us what was the matter. We 
 were so certain that you would succeed this 
 time." 
 
 Thus appealed to, Tom answered with great 
 apparent seriousness, 
 
 "The main difficulty was that he did not seem 
 to appreciate the peculiar cultivation of my 
 tastes and appetites, and insisted on a style of 
 article to which I am not accustomed." 
 
 " What on earth does he mean ? '* said won 
 dering Ermina. 
 
 " It is very plainly to be seen, I should think." 
 This from Helen, in her loftiest tone. " He ob 
 jected to a clerk with an everlasting cigar in his 
 mouth, just as any sensible man would. It has 
 turned out just as I expected." 
 
 Tom seemed immensely amused. He laughed 
 until the wood-box beneath him shook in sym 
 pathy. 
 
 " Upon my word, Helen," he said, when he 
 speak, "your name ought to nave been
 
 Raisim. 19 
 
 *Just As I Expected' instead of 'Helen.' What 
 a vivid imagination you have ! " 
 
 " If I had to depend on a salary for a living I 
 wouldn't smoke it up." 
 
 "Not until you had one at least. Never was 
 u fellow less likely to smoke up a salary than I 
 am, so, far as I can see at present." 
 
 "It's too bad, anyway." began Helen again. 
 "Poor father has the burden of us all resting 
 upon him. I wish /were a young man." 
 
 " Just be the wife of a young man, Helen ; 
 that will help father immensely. I might speak 
 to Horace about the occasion for haste if you 
 would like to have me." 
 
 Whereupon Ermina laughed. That girl al 
 ways had to laugh at things which seemed to her 
 laughable, no matter what the consequences. 
 The consequences at this present time were that 
 Helen flushed angrily, and darted sharp glances 
 at her from her very black eyes as she said to her 
 brother, 
 
 " If I were reduced to the condition of hanger- 
 on, supported by my father, I would at least try 
 io be a little less insulting to my sister." 
 
 Tom opened his mouth to speak, but Maria 
 came to the rescue with a change of topic. 
 
 " Tom, have a cookie ? " And Tom. filled his 
 mouth with cookie, arid was necessarily silent. 
 
 " That's economical! " Helen aid, with energy
 
 20 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Whereupon Tom laughed until he choked. The 
 conversation had suddenly, taken a ludicrous 
 form. 
 
 Mrs. Randolph's voice was heard in the dis 
 tance calling Ermina, and as she went to answei 
 the summons, Helen quietly departed by way of 
 the hall door. Tom swallowed his cookie and 
 seemed lost in a reverie. 
 
 " I did try for the situation, Maria," he said at 
 length. 
 
 " I know it," said Maria, with her head in the 
 oven, from whence she presently emerged with 
 the last tin of cookies. " What was it all about, 
 Tom ? " 
 
 " Why," said Tom, brushing the crumbs of his 
 cookie into the wood-box. " the horrid old fellow 
 wanted me to sell wormy raisins. I did get the 
 place, you see, and set to work as large as life : 
 and about the second thing that happened was 
 Horace Webster coming after raisins those 
 small, sticky, seedless things, you know, Maria, 
 that look just like a mess of gum that somebody 
 has chewed. Well, there were worms in them, 
 the horridest little wretches that ever squirmed 
 and I told Horace about it, }*ou know, just as 
 any decent fellow would. 1 thought the box had 
 been left open, and so the raisins got spoiled ; so 
 I opened another box and there were some more 
 of the vile little kickers I So Horace went away
 
 Raising. 21 
 
 without the raisins, and old Colby was in a tre 
 mendous rage. So \ve had a worm and raisin 
 talk ju&t then and there, and the upshot of it all 
 was that I came away without my situation. 
 Now don't you see. I ought to be put in a Sun 
 day-school book for a good boy who was a martyr 
 to my principles ! " 
 
 " I see," Maria said, laughing merrily. "But, 
 Tom, why couldn't you have told the girls about 
 it just as you have me, instead of talking such 
 nonsense?" 
 
 " There's a difference between you and the 
 girls, you see. Did you believe the nonsense 
 that I told them ? " 
 
 " No, of course I didn't." 
 
 " But they did, you see ; and therein lies the 
 difference between you. There is no use in ex 
 plaining things to them, when people think you 
 are the worst fellow in town. Let them think, / 
 say, if it's such a comfort to 'em." 
 
 "They don't think anything of the kind ; and 
 you were rude to Helen, you know." 
 
 "Not till she was rude to me, though ; be 
 sides, she ought to be as good as gold, no matter 
 what I was she professes to be so good, you 
 see, and I don't." 
 
 " Because she isn't always what she professes 
 is no reason why you should be as wicked as you 
 can."
 
 22 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 " Look here, Maria, don't you take up preach 
 ing ; two of that profession are enough in one 
 family. Helen and Ermina are equal to all that 
 is needed in that line." 
 
 Maria laughed good-naturedly. 
 
 " I'm not preaching," she said, " I'm talking 
 common sense. You make too much of what 
 Helen says. I don't mind her in the least. She 
 is tired this morning. She has been out on very 
 ugly business, trying to pay bills without any 
 money ; and besides, Tom, the flour barrel is 
 empty, and naturally enough, she is worried as 
 to how it is going to be filled." 
 
 " Why don't she have faith ? " Tom said, with 
 sober face and a gleam of mischief in his bright 
 brown eyes ; " she believes that all things work 
 together for her good, and, unless she considers 
 it for her personal advantage to be starved, she 
 must think that the barrel will be filled some 
 how." 
 
 " Of course it will be filled ; but it's not very 
 pleasant to think that Mr. Hammond will never 
 be paid for it ; and I don't see any way to pay 
 him." 
 
 " I don't know about that," Tom said, medi 
 tatively ; " if it's for his good to be paid why, 
 he will be, won't he? Isn't that the doctrine? 
 And if it isn't for his good, ought we to wish 
 him to receive evil? Isn't it a delicious muddle, 
 Maria? I declare it is just ludicrous."
 
 Raisins. 23 
 
 " One would think that you had a very differ 
 ent father from the one that you have," said 
 Maria, with great gravity. " You don't suppose 
 his religion is all pretense, do you ? " 
 
 " One would think you were my grandmother, 
 at the very least," Tom said, half in mockery 
 ani half testily. " I don't pretend to think that 
 any of it is pretense. I only say that you and I 
 have said a hundred times, that it is a contradic 
 tion and confusion, so far as my brain can follow 
 it. There's Helen, and Ermina, and Grace, and 
 you. Now, suppose you ask father which ones 
 are helps and comforts to him. You are not so 
 lowly-minded but that you see for yourself that 
 father depends on you to manage things, and to 
 help generally, and that Grace is comfortable to 
 have around him. As for Helen and Ermina, 
 the sooner they are married and settled the more 
 comfortable father will be ; and yet those two 
 profess to have something to help them in their 
 every-day affairs, and you and Grace have to 
 help yourselves. A fellow can't help thinking 
 that things are mixed." 
 
 " MJ T cookies are and baked," was Maria's 
 prompt response ; " for which I am duly thank 
 ful. It's time for potatoes and onions now, and 
 you know you hate the smell of onions, though I 
 think myself they are superior to tobacco ; otic 
 on the whole, I would advise you to leave.
 
 24 Household Punk*. 
 
 Don't go to supposing that I don't understand 
 and appreciate your harangue, and I don't see 
 through things any better than you do the 
 only difference is, that I don't see any use in 
 trying to see what I can't see. Only I do think 
 that you are h;ird on Helen. She tries to help, 
 and she economizes ; and she has been out in all 
 this snow, looking for drawing scholars." 
 
 Tom whistled. 
 
 " Why didn't you go out and look for French 
 scholars and let the cookies slide," he said, sol 
 emnly. 
 
 "Now, Tom, what's the use of talking so. 
 Helen can't make cookies, nor peel onions ; she 
 just doesn't know how. There are things that 
 she could do if she had the opportunity." 
 
 " So there are things that I could do. I 
 could take a sleigh ride, or go skating, or eat 
 a turkey a good share of one, anyhow; all 
 I lack is opportunity. Yet Helen wanted me to 
 leave these things that I know I can do, and try 
 to sell tobacco and things." 
 
 "You are too absurd," laughed Maria. "You 
 know very well that Helen could teach drawing 
 if she only had some scholars. How can she 
 help it if there are none to be found ? " 
 
 " How much shoe leather is she going to 
 waste hunting afler them? One would think 
 *he might have decided about a year ago that
 
 Raisins. 25 
 
 they were not available material. I know a few 
 things that you could do if you had a chance* 
 You could walk through algebra and geometry 
 and Latin with great pleasure. Why don't you 
 sit down behind the stove and glower because 
 you can't devote yourself to such pursuits in 
 stead of to onions ? Oh, how they smell." 
 
 " It just resolves itself into this, Tom ; if you 
 can't get the situation in the bank that you 
 wanted why, you are willing to sell tobacco." 
 
 " But not worms," Tom interrupted. 
 
 " Well, since you can't get an opportunity to 
 sell tobacco without worms, why don't you try 
 for a job at wood-sawing, for instance ? " 
 
 Whereupon Tom whistled a little, and then 
 was silent. After a little either the argument or 
 the onions were too much for him, and he left 
 Maria in solitary possession of the kitchen.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TWO PETERS. 
 
 T family worship that evening the Ran 
 dolph household were all together. 
 They had a very pleasant custom of 
 coming together for this service, imme 
 diately after tea. Mrs. Randolph sat in 
 the low rocker in front of the stove, with her 
 feet on the hearth, and around her shoulders a 
 small bright shawl. She nearly always sat with 
 her feet on the hearth and a shawl around her. 
 She shivered occasionally, which was also a 
 habit of hers. She was a frail, fair little 
 woman ; a few lines were on her forehead and 
 about her month, brought there by her hopeless 
 attempts to *o~mi at tho f&jaiiy problem ; her 
 pretty gray hair waved gracefully above the low 
 forehead ; her collar was a bit of rare lace, 
 remains of her early grandeur ; and her alpaca 
 wrapper was faced with pretty plaid ilk this, 
 also, was a remnant of early days. Altogether
 
 Two Peters. 27 
 
 she seemed a dainty, well preserved picture 
 of an effeminate, loving, lovable woman. How 
 it happened that she was mother to five hearty, 
 strong-limbed, strong-willed beings was a puzzle 
 to some people. It spoke well for the heart 
 of the Randolph juniors that they had, every 
 one, a petting, protective care over this mother. 
 Tom might be rude to Helen, and wild with 
 every one of them, yet his voice invariably put 
 on a caress when it addressed the little mother. 
 Father Randolph sat apart from the others and 
 took up the family Bible immediately, as if he 
 either had no time to tarry, or else no heart to 
 bring to the household reunion. He was a tall, 
 thin, pale man, with deep-set, earnest eyes, and 
 a sensitive, finely cut mouth. He had not hand 
 led the problem with gloved fingers; he had 
 tugged at it, wrestled with it, sometimes with 
 fierce and determined energy, and yet it had con 
 quered him ; and there was that in the sunken 
 eyes which said, " I am vanquished ; the battle 
 was too fierce for me. I have failed." Grace 
 sat at the piano. The young ladies of this 
 family played the piano as well educated young 
 ladies should that is, they played at it. None 
 of them had that beautiful gift for it which we 
 call genius. Helen, in her childhood, had either 
 to be driven or coaxed to her practice hour. Er- 
 mina had gone through the ordeal more bravely,
 
 28 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 simply because of her talent for yielding to the 
 inevitable. Later in life in their early young 
 ladyhood they had been comparatively faith 
 ful, because " everybody played," and of course 
 they must; and their father, so long as they had 
 the money to do it with, had unflinchingly paid 
 Professor Fero's awful bills, because he had been 
 educated to believe that " they " would think it 
 strange if his daughters did not take lessons. 
 Grace had never accomplished much with Pro 
 fessor Fero. They did not get on well together, 
 and, by means best known to her father and her 
 self, she early escaped from his tuition. Yet 
 Grace was the only one who could play, at 
 family worship, the sweet and tender hymns that 
 her father invariably selected. I said the young 
 ladies played. Peihaps at fifteen Maria is not to 
 be counted under that term. Maria did not play 
 at all. Great was the little mother's consternation 
 when she announced her determination never to 
 take A music lesson. What would " they " think? 
 she plaintively asked her daughter ; but that 
 daughter being hopelessly indifferent to "their" 
 opinion, persisted in her headstrong course, af 
 firming that there wasn't even any "drumative" 
 powers in her; and her father, taking secret 
 pride in his youngest daughter's determined spirit,, 
 recognizing a something akin to one-half of his 
 own nature, upheld her in her decision, and
 
 Two Peter*. 29 
 
 thereby several hundred dollars were saved. 
 Grace waited at the piano while her father read 
 aloud one of his favorite hymns. 
 
 " "When gloomy clouds across the sky 
 
 Cast shadows o'er the land, 
 Bright scenes of bliss illume my path, 
 For Jesus holds iny hand. 
 Safe will be my rest, 
 "With his presence blest, 
 If on sea or land 
 Jesus holds my hand." 
 
 Tom, meantime, with his chair tilted back 
 against the wall, listened and made his mental 
 observations. There was one other person, who 
 for the time being, belonged to the household: 
 young Peter Armstrong, who was errand-boy in 
 general in Mr. Freeman's factory ; and it suited 
 Mr. Freeman's convenience to have Peter boarded 
 at his neighbor Mr. Randolph's. " Just, as a mat 
 ter of accommodation," Helen was wont to ex 
 plain, not with intentional uutruthfulness, but 
 with that long-cultivated habit of smoothing over 
 family matters. "Just because we like the 
 money that he pays regularly every Saturday 
 night," the more strictly truthful Maria would 
 add when opportunity offered. 
 
 Peter Armstrong wore his pants tucked inside 
 his boots, and his jacket was patched at the 
 elbows; also, he never had his hair parted 
 evenly, and often forgot to part it at all. He
 
 80 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 was one of Helen's trials. She considered it 
 very queer in him to want to come in the parlor 
 to prayers. It was certainly rather awkward; 
 suppose somebody should call! 
 
 However, Peter did most decidedly like to 
 come in to prayers, .and it suited Mr. Randolph 
 to have him come, and he sat, on this particular 
 evening, near Maria, who was his firm friend and 
 ally, and joined a very low voice to the singing. 
 After which, Mr. Randolph read, in subdued, 
 sad tone, the psalm commencing, " He that 
 dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 
 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my 
 fortress : my God ; in him will I trust." On 
 through the blessed triumph of faith and truth 
 embodied in the psalm read Mr. Randolph. 
 There was no change in the sadness of his voice, 
 and if the lines on his face became less drawn, 
 the change was too slight for Tom to discover it. 
 He looked at his mother. She was yawning be 
 hind her thin hand and looked too sleepy to heed 
 what was being read. Helen had discovered a 
 rip in her best gaiter, and -was looking down at 
 it with frowning face. " I'll wager a box of 
 cigars that she hasn't heard a word father has 
 said," was his mental comment, and he turned 
 his attention to Ermina. That young lady was 
 stretching her neck out of the window to look
 
 Two Peters. 81 
 
 after the movements of Sarah Freeman, who was 
 passing on the other side of the street. A wicked 
 laugh shone all over Tom's face, his eyes danced, 
 and it was with difficulty that he could restrain 
 himself from whistling, so certain was he that 
 four who professed to be guided by the words of 
 inspiration were totally indifferent to their import 
 now ; and then he chanced to glance at the 
 rough-looking boy who sat next to Maria. There 
 was an air of reverent attention about his face, 
 and withal such deep and solemn appreciation of 
 the holy words, that Tom's face instantly sobered. 
 " That fellow thinks he knows what ail that is 
 about. I wonder if he really does ? I declare 
 his face fairly shines, and he's a dull sort of fel 
 low, too, I always thought. I just wonder, now, 
 if he does get something from the reading that I 
 don't?" 
 
 " ' He shall call upon me, and I will answer 
 him ; I will be with him in trouble ; I will 
 deliver him, and honor him,' " read Mr. Ran 
 dolph. " That is a precious promise," he said, 
 and Tom, turning suddenly to him found that 
 the heavy lines were smoother, and something in 
 his prayer made his son think that he, too, had 
 gotten hold of the inner meaning, if there wns 
 one. .There was always that troublesome "if" 
 coming in to perplex Tom Randolph. 
 
 They scattered their various ways directly
 
 82 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 after the prayer. Tom, intent upon the thought 
 that Peter had suggested to his iniud, followed 
 him through the kitchen. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " he queried of 
 Peter, in the absence of any thing better to 
 say. 
 
 " Nothing particular. I've got it all done for 
 to-night," was Peter's somewhat ungrammatical 
 reply. " I'll help fix the kindlings and things, 
 if you like." 
 
 This last was a very satisfactory sentence to 
 Maria, for Tom was so much given to waiting 
 for convenient seasons for preparing kindlings 
 that it often fell to her lot to split a bit of board 
 for herself as best she could. Thus admonished 
 Tom repaired to the woodshed and commenced 
 a vigorous attack on the woodpile, preparing, 
 meantime, to attack Peter Armstrong and find 
 the meaning of that reverent face. 
 
 " Did you notice the words that father read 
 this evening ? " he asked, at last, plunging into 
 the midst of the subject. 
 
 "Did I notice them?" repeated Peter, driv 
 ing his axe into a knotty stick. "I reckon I 
 did." 
 
 " What did you think of them ? " 
 
 " Thought they were true." 
 
 This answer Tom revolved for some minutes 
 in surprised silence, it was such a strange thing
 
 Two Petert. 83 
 
 to hear a simple expression of belief in anything. 
 His college bred ears were unused to it. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you feel just as 
 that expressed," he said at last, returning to the 
 charge. " Like, for instance, that verse, ' There 
 shall be no evil befall thee and well, some 
 thing else.. I don't remember the rest. But do 
 you pretend to say that you are not afraid of 
 anything happening to you any more ?" 
 
 "'Not that exactly," Peter said, slowly and 
 thoughtfully. " I meant, I believed that people 
 could feel so; could be sure, you know, that 
 everything was just right. If I was as good, 
 now, as the man who wrote that verse I could 
 feel it." 
 
 " Pooh ! " said Tom, contemptuously, " he 
 wasn't very good. I happen to know something 
 about him. He did several things that weren't 
 .exactly perfect." 
 
 " Most people do," Peter said, splitting a 
 stick into delightful kindling wood. 
 
 "Then nobody is good, it seems. So what 
 does your explanation amount to?" 
 
 " It amounts to their trying after it pretty 
 hard." 
 
 " And never getting there," said Tom, paus 
 ing in his splitting. " I should think that was 
 pretty stupid business, always trying after a 
 thing and never getting it ; never being satisfied 
 3
 
 34 Household Puzzles. 
 
 with one's self, even after one bad tried. What 
 is the use ? " 
 
 44 They do get satisfied," Peter said, earnestly. 
 "There's a verse your father read yesterday 
 morning, 'I shall be satisfied when I awake with 
 thy likeness.' Then's when it is." 
 
 Tom whistled. 
 
 44 That's a long time to wait," he said, with a 
 queer little laugh. 
 
 " Maybe not." 
 
 44 Anyhow, a fellow is perfectly willing to 
 wait; that's a time that a body don't like to 
 think about." 
 
 44 1 do," Peter said, splitting vigorously. " I 
 like it first rate. It is my opinion it will be 
 a splendid time." 
 
 Tom laughed immoderately, and then sat 
 down on a stick of wood to meditate. 
 
 44 Peter," said he, presently, "it's my opinion 
 that you are not much like your namesake." 
 
 44 My namesake! Who is he? 1 don't know 
 another Peter anywhere around." 
 
 44 He isn't 4 around,' but he was once, consid 
 erably." 
 
 44 Peter who ? " 
 
 44 Ah 1 there you have me. I'll be hanged if 
 I ever even heard of his other name.'' 
 
 44 And you knew him ? " 
 
 44 Well, not intimately, except by reputation.
 
 Tom laughed, and sat down on a stick of wood.
 
 Two Peters. 85 
 
 You see, he was rather before my time. I'm 
 talking about the individual who had so much to 
 ay in Bible times." 
 
 u Is there a Peter in the Bible ? " queried Pe 
 er Armstrong, pausing in his work and speaking 
 with animation. Whereupon Tom laughed 
 Icuder and longer than before. 
 
 " You needn't laugh," his companion said, 
 with gravity. "Though I suppose it is queer 
 not to know things. BuC I never had a Bible of 
 my own until a few weeks ago, and I don't 
 remember reading anything about any Peter in 
 it. I do know that there is a book in it named 
 Peter ; did he write the book ? " 
 
 u I think it is altogether likely that he did, 
 though I'm not very well posted." 
 
 " Well, I mean to know more about the Bible 
 one of these days. I never went to Sunday- 
 school till I come to this town to live. I never 
 went much of anywhere, I tell you now! A 
 chance is a good deal to a fellow, and I missed 
 mine ; but I'm going to get along wi.bout it the 
 best I can." 
 
 " I've missed mine, too." Tom said it a little 
 bitterly. " You're just as well off without it. 
 Chances ruin fellows, sometimes ; mine did me " 
 
 * Ain't you rather young to be ruined ? " 
 
 This question seemed to amuse Tom immense 
 ly. He went off into another hearty laugh.
 
 86 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " I declare, I don't know but you're like him 
 in some things," he said, when he could speak. 
 
 " What about him ? what did he do ? " 
 
 "Oh, my! Don't ask me. What didnt he 
 do ? He was an irrepressible fellow, I tell you ; 
 always doing something. I advise you to mako 
 his acquaintance." 
 
 " I shall," said Peter Armstrong, with a de 
 termined thud of his axe into the knotty stick be 
 fore him ; and Mr. Thomson Randolph knew 
 just about as much what his gay words had 
 accomplished for Peter Armstrong's future life 
 as the most of us know what our words are 
 going to do for us or others.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THEORY. 
 
 if HERE was a storm without ; a regular 
 January storm wind, and snow, and 
 gloom. The sitting-room was cosy and 
 bright, or would have been but for the 
 solemn faces gathered there. The wind 
 was so high that ordinary comfort absolutely de 
 manded the opening of the slide, despite the 
 frightful waste of coal ; so the stove glowed. 
 So did Helen's face ; not because of the .warmth 
 of the room so much as of the fire within. Hel 
 en was in absolute ill humor. Some heavy trial 
 had evidently crossed her path. She sewed 
 industriously, but with that ominous click of the 
 needle against her thimble, and an angry snip 
 ping of her thread by the pert little scissors, that 
 plainly indicated a disturbed state of mind. 
 Ermina sewed too, but in a listless, weary, look 
 out- of-the- window manner that did not partic- 
 
 87
 
 88 ffou**lolJ 
 
 ularly advance the hemming. Occasionally she 
 grumbled at her cruel f.ue in having to hem 
 at all. It would look ever so much K 
 stitched lied every thing now-a-days 
 
 anylunv. And ev, that trot anybody 
 
 mn\ had amachr. those Paddocks 
 
 across the way, poor as church mice, had a Gio- 
 ver Jt Baker machine. 
 
 :t she earned it. Ermine, taking iu |>lin 
 ng i ;irl did, 1 mean; that 
 
 one who sits at the end window so much." 
 
 This from Grace, in deprecating tone, as 
 if half ashamed at herself for taking the part 
 of "those Paddock 
 
 You seem to be very familiar with their 
 affairs. Are the Paddocks supposed to be 
 urs?** 
 
 Helen's tone was sarcasm itself. 
 
 " Why, I see Alice Paddock every Sunday in 
 Bible-class, and occasionally \re walk home to 
 gether. Of course we have to talk a little.** 
 
 " Where would be the harm, if they were 
 friends ? " Ermina said, being in a belligerent 
 mood. 
 
 u Oh, no farm, certainly, if there is a congen 
 iality between them 1 should imagine that 
 there miglxt have been some difference in their 
 education and surroundii 
 
 " Alice Paddock is a real sensible girl."
 
 Theory. 89 
 
 This was Grace's final sentence, for she turned 
 to the piano and began her drumming. 
 
 Helen jerked her thread through the cloth 
 in expressive silence. 
 
 " Where is Maria ? " questioned Ermina at 
 last. 
 
 " Gone after sugar," Grace said, from the 
 piano. 
 
 " Jt seems to me that Maria is always gone 
 after sugar," said Ermina, with a sharp laugh. 
 t% The grocers will think that is the chief of our 
 diet. I wonder where so much sugar goes to? 
 And we never have much of anything to eat, 
 either." 
 
 Mrs. Randolph sighed. 
 
 " I never had to go for sugar in my life," she 
 said, plaintively. 
 
 'iX'or to turn dresses inside out, I presume?" 
 Helen said, eyeing her work with disdain. 
 
 "No, never!" Mrs. Randolph answered sol 
 emnly. 
 
 Helen interrupted the musician. 
 
 " What do you propose to wear to that absurd 
 party ? " 
 
 " Why, my blue skirt and polonaise, I sup 
 pose. That is all I have, you know." 
 
 " Then 1 should certainly have sense enough 
 to stay at home. You look like a dowdy iw 
 that."
 
 40 HoH#ko!d Pwuk*. 
 
 Grace laughed cheerily. 
 
 44 Now, I think I look very nice," she said, 
 brightly. 
 
 'It's well to hare a good opinion of one's 
 self." 
 
 This Helen said, speaking very sharply. Mrs. 
 Randolph looked distressed, her eldest daughter 
 was a trial and a puzzle to her. She never 
 spoke sharply, nor hid covert double meanings 
 inside her words. 
 
 Helen had most of the conversation to herself!. 
 No one seemed inclined to talk. 
 
 ** I would have a little respect for my own sis* 
 ters, if Mrs. Marshall had none,*' she commenced 
 again, as the tone of Grace's music lulled a little. 
 'If she doesn't know that she is very rude, I 
 would endeavor to teach her something." 
 
 M Helen Randolph, what are you talking 
 about?" 
 
 This from Ermina, spoken somewhat snappish- 
 
 lj- 
 
 M I was speaking of Mrs. Marshall. I thought 
 
 I spoke with sufficient distinctness to be under 
 stood. Mother, is that your idea of politeness 
 to invite one daughter, and she almost the 
 youngest, and ignore the existence of the 
 others?" 
 
 The distressed look on Mrs. Randolph's face 
 deepened.
 
 Theory. 41 
 
 ** Why, I don't know," she said, hesitatingly. 
 "I had no sisters, you remember. Bat Judge 
 Harlowe's family lived just across from us, and 
 the two young ladies almost never went out to 
 gether. I have known Carrie to go to a large 
 party and Susie to go to prayer-meeting on the 
 same evening. Tes, Helen, I really think it used 
 to be done by the very first families." 
 
 Helen bit off her thread with an impatient 
 jerk. Evidently her mother's lapse into the past 
 disturbed her. 
 
 " I shouldn't allow Grace to go out this evening, 
 anyway, if I were you. It storms furiously, and 
 there is every indication that the storm will in* 
 crease," she said, emphatically. 
 
 She had touched the right chord at last. Mrs. 
 Randolph was personally very susceptible to 
 changes in the weather, and imagined all her 
 children to be equally so. She roused into some 
 thing very like energy and poor Grace's chances 
 for an evening entertainment were diminishing. 
 At this opportune moment there occurred a break 
 in the discussion. Maria came in, fresh from the 
 outside world, with glowing cheeks and energetic 
 movements. 
 
 " How warm you are here," she said, and gave 
 the slide a push. "Mother, your cheeks are 
 becomingly rosy. I think you must look just as 
 yon did the evening father tells about the fiist
 
 42 Household Puzzles. 
 
 time he ever saw you. Grace, don't thump now, 
 I want to talk. Helen, did you know Mrs. Mon 
 roe was going to have company to-night?" 
 
 Helen gave a visible start, and her flushed 
 cheek turned a deeper red, but she controlled her 
 voice to answer, with dignity, 
 
 " I know nothing about Mrs. Monroe's move 
 ments. She may have company every evening in 
 the week." 
 
 " I can't say as to that. I'm only speaking for 
 this evening. I met her in the store. I told her 
 1 was certain you knew nothing about it, and she 
 said she was certain you did, for she sent you a 
 note this morning by little Kate. But I felt per 
 fectly certain that little Kate had not delivered 
 it, and told her so ; and she entreated me to see 
 about it the minute I reached home, and assure 
 you that she was depending on you. Half a 
 dozen friends to tea at seven. That means at 
 least thirty friends, and tea at nine ; but I didn't 
 tell her that. I only assured her that I would 
 do my best to retrieve little Kate's blunders." 
 
 " Didn't she say anything about me ? " inter 
 posed Ermina, quickly. 
 
 " Not the first thing." 
 
 " How excessively rude ! Helen, if she has no 
 rsspect for your sisters, and doesn't know that 
 she is rude, I would endeavor to teach her." 
 
 Helen's face was scarlet.
 
 Theory. 43 
 
 " At least she had propriety enough to invite 
 the eldest instead of the youngest," she said, 
 coldly. 
 
 " Such an awful storm as it is," continued 
 Ermina, " and likely to increase by evening. 
 Mother, you won't think of letting Helen go?" 
 
 A rarely good quality had Helen. When the 
 laugh was manifestly against her, if meantime her 
 own prospects had brightened, so that she could 
 afford to laugh too, she made no effort to hold on 
 to and nurse her ill-humor, but joined merrily in 
 the merriment at her own expense ; so she made 
 merriment in the household by suddenly joining 
 in the ringing laugh with which Grace greeted 
 Ermina's words, and the little frail mother looked 
 with puzzled face from one to the other of her 
 four daughters, thought for the twentieth time 
 that they were all enigmas to her, then smoothed 
 the wrinkles from her forehead, and laughed 
 pleasantly with the rest. It was in this fortunate 
 mood that the awful puzzle of dress came up. I 
 wonder if there is a woman in America, who, the 
 question of going or not going being settled iu 
 the affirmative, does not think next, What shall 
 I wear? 
 
 " I've a great mind not to go, after all," Helen 
 said, the gloom returning. " Nothing decent to 
 wear. The rest will be dressed in black silk at 
 the very least."
 
 44 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 " You might wear my polonaise if I were not 
 going out." This from Grace, who had given up 
 all attempts at thumping. 
 
 "Aren't you afraid she would look like a 
 dowdy in it?" queried Ermina. 
 
 " Why, no," laughed Grace. " She didn't say 
 she would look like a dowdy. I think myself it 
 is quite becoming to her ; and to me too, for that 
 matter." 
 
 Meantime Helen had had opportunity to run 
 over the articles in her somewhat limited ward 
 robe, and was back in the depths of ill humor. 
 
 "What's the use of talking such nonsense!" 
 she said, in intense disgust. " You are going 
 out, and that settles the whole question. I don't 
 mean to go a step. I haven't the least desire to 
 go out in company, if I can't go without being 
 the subject of remark." 
 
 " Isn't your black silk suitable, dear ?" This 
 in a meek voice from Mrs. Randolph. 
 
 "Suitable! I should think not. Why, mother, 
 the overskirt is a third longer than they wear 
 them now. They don't wear overskirts much 
 now, anyway ; they make everything into polo 
 naises. It's too ridiculous that Grace should be 
 the only one in the house who has anything that 
 they wear." 
 
 " Of all the absurd and ridiculous people in the 
 world, I think 'they* are a little the worst.
 
 Theory. 46 
 
 
 
 What earthly right have *they' to say what we 
 shall wear and what we shall not?" 
 
 Maria's outbursts were greeted by the several 
 members of the family according to their several 
 natures. Mrs. Randolph looked at her in puzzled 
 surprise. Ermina said sharply, 
 
 " I wish * their ' responsibility didn't end there. 
 If they would only agree to furnish the articles 2 
 would wear them." 
 
 Grace laughed, a merry, fun-loving laugh, and 
 Helen said with an air of dignified superiority, 
 
 " Don't be so silly, Maria." 
 
 Silence after that for a little, only for Grace's 
 fingers touching the keys softly and lightly here 
 and there. Maria went back to the kitchen or 
 the quiet might not have lasted. Presently 
 Grace spoke her thoughts, at least some of them. 
 
 " Helen, you truly may wear my polonaise if 
 you care to. I've decided not to go out this 
 evening. Susie Truesdell is coming in, and we 
 are going to practice for the concert." 
 
 " Why ! " said Helen, in softened tone, and a 
 little touch of a smile, '-that's a sudden resolu 
 tion, isn't it?" 
 
 " Not very," in cheery tones. " I told Susie 
 if I decided not to go I would send her word, 
 and Tom will run in for me after tea." 
 
 " Well," Helen said, after a moment's hesita 
 tion, " if you have quite decided not to go I wiJU
 
 46 . Household Puzzle*. 
 
 wear it. You know it is more becoming to me, 
 because I wear it with a black silk skirt; and 
 I'm very much obliged to you, I am' sure ; but I 
 don't want you to stay at home on my account." 
 
 " There isn't much time left before the con 
 cert," was Grace's relevant answer, and she 
 dashed into the merriest of waltzes. 
 
 After tea, while the family wailed for Mr. 
 Randolph to come in to prayers, Ermina to'd 
 over to Tom with great apparent relish the his 
 tory of the day, with-its mistakes and be wider- 
 ments as regarded invitations, detailing Helen's 
 share in the conversation with all the more vivid 
 ness perhaps because her heart was a trifle sore 
 at having been left out of both parties. Also she 
 was just a little vexed at Helen for accepting her 
 sister's pretty little sacrifice. It would not have 
 been Ermina's nature to have done this. 
 
 " It all shapes itself beautifully," Tom said, en 
 tering into the whole subject with great glee. 
 " Theory and fact agree this time." 
 
 "What do you mean, my son? ".Mrs. Ran 
 dolph questioned. 
 
 "Why, the 'all-Uiings- work- together' notion, 
 mother. I say they have come out right this 
 time. It isn't often I discover it; but the thing 
 is very plain to me, that if Helen had been in 
 vited to Mrs. Marshall's, in all human probability 
 she would have accented, and then she would
 
 Theory. 47 
 
 have been too late for Mrs. Monroe; and it's 
 twenty -nine times more genteel to be invited to 
 Monroe's mansion than it is to go to Marshall's 
 two-story abode, even leaving Horace Monroe 
 out of the question, and I venture to say he is 
 in it." 
 
 " My son ! " said Mrs. Randolph, reproof in her 
 voice and an amused smile on her face ; but some 
 thing had jarred exceedingly on Helen. Hei 
 voice was sharp and indignant. 
 
 " Tom, I would make an effort not to be quite 
 so irreverent, before my mother at least." 
 
 The entrance of Mr. Randolph, Bible in hand, 
 checked the reply that Tom was aching to make. 
 
 " How came you to give up your party and 
 your dress, for Helen's benefit to-night?" This 
 was the question Ermina asked as she and Grace 
 wetit up to their rooms together, the evening 
 being over, the practicing done. 
 
 " How came I to ? Why, it came itself just 
 as easy." 
 
 "No doubt. Things do to you, apparently. 
 But /mean what was your object? " 
 
 Grace laughed.' 
 
 " Most everything has an object," she said. 
 lightly. " Well, let me see. Helen thinks 
 twice as much of parties as I do. She wouldn't 
 have found any fun in staying at home, and I've 
 managed to have considerable. Then it's a
 
 48 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 horrid storm, and it's a trouble to dress for a 
 party, you know. Why, dear me ! I just hap 
 pened to think I wouldn't go, so I didn't." 
 
 " That child is heedless and indolent even with 
 her pleasures," Erraina said, as Grace bade her 
 good-night, and went on to the room which she 
 shared with Maria. 
 
 And Grace opened her drawer and lifted the 
 lid of her collar-box to pat lovingly a dainty 
 white ruffle. 
 
 " You're all ready for next time now," she 
 said, brightly. " And very likely there will 
 come a 'next time' in which things don't clash 
 so. Who knows?" Then the thoughtless child 
 went to bed. 
 
 44 1 wonder if it was irreverent?" Tom said, 
 lingering in the kitchen while Maria sponged 
 bread. He had just seen Susie Truesdell home 
 through the pelting storm, and was waiting to- 
 wavru his feet. Some chance word of he*rs had 
 suggested the conversation early in the evening, 
 that had been so sternly rebuked by Helen. " I 
 wonder if it was irreverent ? I suppose it was 
 in me since I meant it for pure fuu. But 
 can't you see how, if you believed it at all, 
 Maria, you would like to have a wholesale be 
 lief?" 
 
 44 Wholesale ? " said Maria, pausing in her 
 tirring.
 
 Theory. 49 
 
 "Yes; go away down to the bottom of things 
 believe it through and through things work 
 ing right for parties as well as for " 
 
 " Bread-making, for instance," suggested Ma 
 ria, as he hesitated. 
 
 " Yes, that's it exactly bread-making, wood- 
 sawing, anything. Nothing too small, you 
 know. I'd believe the whole of it or none of 
 it." 
 
 "Do you mean to say you believe none of it?" 
 
 " Well, no, not exactly that. I'm not pre 
 pared to turn iundel, in theory at least. It's 
 enough for me to practice it. Theory and prac 
 tice don't agree in this life, Maria, and that's the 
 trouble, except in bread-making. I'm willing to 
 admit it in that instance." 
 
 " You may theorize about bread-making, 
 though, till next week, and if I don't get up 
 in the morning and mix it you won't have any 
 bread." 
 
 " I know it. That's where they agree, you 
 see. Theory and practice then you get re 
 sults. I wonder where the world would be, 
 how far advanced, if people made the two things 
 match everywhere as they do in bread?" 
 
 41 For instance, in regard to going to bed," 
 said Maria, tucking her bread up in flannel and 
 setting it behind the stove. 
 
 "Yes'm; your instances are striking. I'll 
 4
 
 60 
 
 Household Puzzles. 
 
 practice on that last one." And Tom lighted 
 his lamp and vanished. 
 
 44 If I had known anything about it myself I 
 might have helped him." This Maria said to the 
 itove just before she left it for the night.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 fo 
 
 |f O go back to the earl}' hours of that 
 stormy evening. The storm continued, 
 and indeed increased in violence, proving 
 Helen to be a true prophetess. Much 
 debate arose over the projected tea-par 
 ty, and the propriety of Helen's braving the 
 storm. 
 
 "Ladies are curious beings," was Tom's com 
 ment. " No man would venture out this even 
 ing unless he was obliged to do so." 
 
 "Nonsense!" Helen said, energetically. "Ev 
 ery gentleman who received an invitation will 
 be present. You'll see if they are not." 
 Tom's answer was not soothing. 
 "Bless me! I was speaking of men^ not of 
 the be-whiskered, perfumed fellows that my lady 
 Marshall gathers about her." 
 
 " She moves in the very best society," Helen 
 
 51
 
 62 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 said, with quiet dignity. . " People consider it ar 
 honor to be invited to her house." 
 
 " I'm glad I wasn't considered worthy of 
 the honor, for the wind is too much even for 
 me." This from Ermina. 
 
 "What a commotion about a little snow!" 
 Helen said, fretfully. " I've been out worse 
 evenings than this." 
 
 "Not this winter," Mr. Randolph said, speak 
 ing on the question for the first time just as 
 he was about to leave the room. " This is de 
 cidedly the most severe storm of the season ; 
 nothing but necessity compels me to face it. 
 You will do well to think twice, Helen, before 
 you decide to go out." 
 
 " I shall go," said Helen determinately. " I 
 am not going to waste half the day getting 
 dressed for nothing." 
 
 " Gro! Of course you will. Who doubts it? 
 You would go if the snow was piled three 
 feet above your head, and you had to go through 
 a tunnel. The fellows are tunneling down by 
 the bridge, anyhow." 
 
 Mrs. Randolph looked horrified. 
 
 "Is it really so bad as that, Thomson? I 
 wish you would conclude not to go, Helen. I 
 shall feel distressed about you." 
 
 Helen's voice was more gentle, as it always 
 was when she addressed her mother, but quite 
 decided.
 
 A Sermon. 63 
 
 "There is nothing to distress yourself about, 
 mother. Only Tom chooses to annoy you. 
 There will be good paths, and they will send me 
 home in the sleigh if it is necessary. Tom, it 
 is unfortunate that you can find no better em 
 ployment than making mother feel uncomforta 
 ble. I really wish you had something to do 
 with yourself in the evening. Some boys study, 
 but I suppose we must give up all hopes of you 
 in that direction." 
 
 Tom gave a lugubrious sigh. 
 
 " I suppose you must," he said, in a solemn, 
 nasal tone. " I was the pride and joy of my 
 eldest sister's heart, the very apple of her eye, 
 she lived and breathed only for me ; but I have 
 fallen from the high pedestal whereon her high 
 hopes placed me, and now it is sadly to be feared 
 that I shall bring down her brown switch with 
 sorrow to the grave." 
 
 Ermina and Maria were convulsed with laugh 
 ter, but Helen's eyes blazed angrily ridicule 
 was a thing that she could not meet pleasantly ; 
 and Tom, having finished his sentence in a 
 sepulchral voice, saw fit to vanish through the 
 open door. Words sent at random sometimes 
 stayed by that young man. "Something to do" 
 he heartiiy wished it for himself. Maria's at 
 tempts to stay up the falling fortunes of the fam 
 ily, to economize the very pennies, kept him
 
 54 Household Puzzles. 
 
 from very shame from the many convivial pleas* 
 ures in which his heart delighted, and which had 
 been the bane and the cause of the sudden clos 
 ing of his college life. Fortunately for him such 
 pleasures cost money, and money he hadnt; 
 neither was he willing to "join the fellows" 
 and " trust to luck " to meet his share, as had 
 been his college habit. Maria was too constant 
 an example for that. He had failed thus far 
 in obtaining work of any sort he had lost 
 all heart for study. " What was the use of 
 study ? " he asked himself, grumblingly, now 
 that college doors were closed against him. 
 There actually seemed to be nothing for Tom to 
 do but to " lounge arouud and be a nuisance." 
 This was what Helen in one of her petulant 
 moods had said of him. On this particular 
 evening he "lounged" out to the kitchen. 
 Maria had left it in neat array but in^reat lone 
 liness. Tom drummed on the tin pan that 
 was turned over the bread sponge, and wished 
 that the sponger thereof would come out so they 
 might have a talk. That not happening, and 
 the kindlings having been made ready early in 
 the evening, there seemed absolutely, nothing 
 to take his attention. He opened the doo; 
 and stepped out on the piazza, 10 view the 
 weather. From the wood-house chamber win 
 dow there came the rays of a modest light oo
 
 A Sermon. 65 
 
 the snow. It suggested to Tom an escape from 
 his wearisome self. He would go and visit 
 Peter. Quite delighted at this novel idea, he 
 went three steps at a time up the back stairs, 
 aad knocked loudly at Peter's door. Receiv 
 ing a low-toned preoccupied " come in," he 
 pushed open the door, and the inmate was re 
 vealed to him, perched on a high stool, his elbow 
 resting on the liltle old table, his head in his 
 hands, gazing at an open book. He expressed 
 neither surprise nor bewilderment at seeing 
 his unusual visitor, but glancing up, said, grave- 
 
 iy,- 
 
 "I've found him." 
 
 "Have you, indeed?" Tom answered, brisk 
 ly. " That's lucky, I suppose. Who might he 
 happen to be ? " 
 
 " Why, that Peter you told me about. I've 
 looked off and on for him every night since you 
 told me ; but as I didn't know in what place 
 to look, it took considerable time to find him. 
 I've got him now, though the very first of 
 him I guess. It reads as though they hadn't 
 told anything about him before." 
 
 Tom sat down on the side of his host's bed 
 and gave himself up to laughter. 
 
 " What are you laughing at?" said Peter, in 
 surprise. 
 
 " Well," Tom said, quieting a little, " if the
 
 66 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 truth must be told, I was laughing at you. 
 You're about the drollest chap I ever heard 
 of. So you've been hunting up Peter evor 
 since ? " and Tom went off into another laugh. 
 
 "Well, now," said Peter, gazing at him 
 in undisguised astonishment ; "I declare I can't 
 see anything in that to laugh at. I can't, now, 
 to save my life. Wh} 7 shouldn't I hunt him up? 
 If there was a chap of your name in the Bi 
 ble, wouldn't you kiud of like to know what he 
 did ? " 
 
 " There is," said Tom, with suddeu energy ; 
 " I'll be bound if there isn't. Thomas his name 
 is; just what my name was at first, until there 
 were so many of the same name in the family 
 that father changed mine to Thomson. It's just 
 another form of the same name, I presume, 
 though." 
 
 " What did Thomas do ? " 
 
 " I doubt if I know. Some pretty scaly 
 things, if I remember rightly. One of these 
 times we'll hunt him up. Let's hear about 
 the other one now." 
 
 Thus invited, Peter turned with alacrity to his 
 Bible, and read, in slow, laborious tone, 
 
 '** And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, 
 saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and An 
 drew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for 
 they were fishers.' I tell you I think that's fine,' 1
 
 A Sermon. 67 
 
 he said, pausing in his reading. " When I read 
 about him walking along and seeing folks, and 
 folks seeing him, seems to me I can't stand it. I 
 want to be along with 'em and have him see me." 
 
 " There's undoubtedly a difference in men," 
 Tom said, meditatively. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "I was speculating as to what you thought, 
 and what I thought." 
 
 " What do you think ? " 
 
 " Several things. Never mind ; go on. Fish 
 ermen, were they ? I didn't remember that. I 
 suppose it was fine employment iu those days. 
 What happened? " 
 
 " ' And he saich unto them : Follow me, and I 
 will make you fishers of men.' Now, you see," 
 Peter said, speaking mournfully, " he spoke to 
 them. They was nothing but poor fishers, and 
 he stopped in his walk and spoke to them. 
 Where's the sea of Galilee, Tom ? " 
 
 " Haven't the slightest idea. I can tell you 
 about as little on this subject, I fancy, as any 
 body you could apply to." 
 
 " Well, never mind. I'll find out somehow. 
 Wasn't it fine, though ? What would you have 
 done if you'd been one of them fellows ? " 
 
 " Can't say. What would you ? " 
 
 "Well," said Peter, meditatively, "I ain't 
 sure. You can't never be sure, I suppose. But
 
 68 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 it's my opinion that I'd have done precisely what 
 they did." 
 
 " What was that ? " 
 
 " Oh, you haven't heard the whole story. 
 Well, I'll read the rest of it. 'And he saith 
 unto them: "Follow me, and [ will make you 
 fishers of men. And they straightway left then 
 nets and followed him.' ' 
 
 "Now, you see, there's a trouble. I don't un 
 derstand what that means. I'm bothered a good 
 deal in that way." 
 
 " What of it ? " Tom asked, listlessly. " You 
 are not that Peter, you know, so it's of no con 
 sequence what was said to him, ages ago." 
 
 Peter shook his head decisively. " That won't 
 do it's a thing that came up in the class last 
 Sunday, and it was made pretty clear to my mind 
 that there ain't much in the Bible but what was 
 wrote there for us ; it stands to reason, you see. 
 Why would folks want to keep reading the Bible 
 over and over again, if it was all about folks 
 who've been dead and gone a thousand years 
 ago, and didn't mean nothing to us? It's just 
 what I was anxious to hunt up Peter for, because 
 it's likely enough that the very same things he 
 said to that Peter might mean me too." 
 
 "But he called on Peter to follow him, and 
 you can't do that." 
 
 "What's the reason I can't? Ain't it exactly
 
 A Sermon. 69 
 
 what Tin tiying to do? If there's anything thai; 
 I'm working at in this world, it's that 'follow 
 ing.' " 
 
 k> Oh, well," said Tom, " I meant follow him 
 literally, as they did, along the sea-shore of Gali 
 lee ; they left their nets and followed him." 
 
 "No," Peter said, mournfully; "I can't go 
 and follow him as they did. Ain't that exactly 
 what I said ? But, then, I can follow ; folks can 
 do that. lie went to heaven, you know, and 
 that's what I'm after. But about that 'fishers 
 of men ' now, that's a poser ; I can't take it 
 in, and it's a pity ; there's no telling but it 
 means me. I wonder how I'll go to work to find 
 out?" 
 
 Tom's conscience smote him ; intellectually he 
 understood perfectly what it meant, but it was 
 such a new thing for him to attempt an explana 
 tion of Bible language. He leaned against the 
 foot-board, and yawned, and pretended not to 
 have heard ; but Peter's grave, troubled face was 
 i reproach. 
 
 " What put you into such a strange way of 
 thinking?" he asked, at length. 
 
 Peter looked up with a stare of astonishment. 
 
 "What way?" 
 
 " Why, hunting through the Bible for people 
 and things in a way that no other mortal fellow 
 would think of doing, I'll venture to say."
 
 60 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 " Why ? " said Peter, blankly. " The Bible's 
 true, ain't it?" 
 
 " I don't deny it. What has that got to do 
 with the question ? " 
 
 44 Humph ! a good deal, I should think. If 
 the Bible's true, and it's about me, why shouldn't 
 I want to find out about it? You fellows study 
 away at arithmetic because it's true, and you 
 want to use what's in it to help yourselves along. 
 What's the reason a body shouldn't work at the 
 Bible for the same reason ? I think it's enough 
 sight iuterestinger than arithmetic, too but 
 them ' fishers of men ' is a poser." 
 
 Tom laughed uproariously, then yawned, then 
 sat erect, with, 
 
 44 Well, now, my beloved Peter, I presume I 
 could read that riddle to you if I tried. Do you 
 know how to fish ? " 
 
 His congregation nodded. 
 
 " Well, then, you know that there's a thousand 
 different kinds of fish, more or less, and they 
 have to be caught in about as many different 
 ways : some you have to coax, you know, and be 
 very easy with ; and others you have to be very 
 spry over; and some require entirely different 
 bait from others ; and that's the way with men, 
 I take it; it requires about as much skill to 
 catch men as it does fish ; and He was goiu^ to 
 teach them to be just as skillful. Do you see ? "
 
 A Sermon. 61 
 
 Peter drew a long breath, and answered 
 
 slowly, 
 
 "Yes I guess I see yes I know I do. I 
 take it in. Why, yes it's plain; and it's grand 
 too. Ain't it now ? " 
 
 " Jolly I you are worse than St. Peter was to 
 ask questions, I venture to say. Well, sir, I've 
 preached a sermon to-night the first one in my 
 life and I must say I had a very attentive 
 audience." 
 
 And Tom immediately brought his visit to a 
 close. It was the lingering of this conversation 
 in his brain that suggested that little talk with 
 Maria, of which I told you in the last chapter.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SMOKE AND BEWILDERMENT. 
 
 1 T was the evening after the party. There 
 was no family worship at the Randolphs' 
 that evening. The head of the household 
 was stretched on the bed in his chamber, 
 his head done up in brown paper, wet in 
 vinegar, of which there was a stifling odor pene 
 trating even to the sitting-room. Maria sat at 
 his feet like a statue, keeping guard just now at 
 the sitting-room door, out of which hovered Mrs. 
 Randolph every five minutes for the purpose of 
 driving the poor victim on the bed half an inch 
 nearer distraction by asking him "How he felt 
 now ? " He had the sick headache. The little 
 table at his side held a cup of salt and water, a 
 cup of strong tea without milk or sugar, a cup 
 of soda-water, a cup of brandy and water, and 
 I don't remember what else ; being the result of 
 62
 
 Smoke and Bewilderment. 63 
 
 the united efforts of the family to help "settle hia 
 stomach." Of course they did no good. I wish 
 with all my heart I could have been there to 
 whisk his feet into a tub of hot water and wring 
 out a cloth with cold water to lay on the poor 
 abused stomach, covering it closely with two 
 or three layers of flannel then the Randolph 
 family would have learned two new things ; but 
 I wasn't there, neither was any one else possessed 
 of sufficient knowledge or common sense to un 
 derstand that there is hardly any limit to the 
 power of hot and cold water over nearly every 
 sort of pain. I have often wondered if water 
 were to be procured of the druggist for two dol 
 lars a pint whether it would be used occasion- 
 ally. 
 
 The door opened very softly, and Tom, beck 
 oning with his finger, held a low-toned, brief 
 conversation with the statue, and was about 
 departing when Mr. Randolph turned on hia 
 pillow. 
 
 "Take this vinegar thing off, Maria; it doea 
 no good. Is that Thomson ? " 
 
 " Yes, father. Will you have a spoonful of the 
 brandy?" 
 
 "No, the spoonfuls don't help me. Tell Thom 
 son to get the envelope addressed to the church 
 treasurer, out of my left hand corner drawer, and 
 send it by one of the girls to the prayer-meeting.
 
 64 Household Puzzles. 
 
 I ought to have been there myself to-night," and 
 Mr. Randolph sighed heavily. " Someway 1 
 never seem able to be anywhere when I ought 
 to be." 
 
 Tom appeared in the sitting-room ten minutes 
 afterward. 
 
 "Here's a paper father wants taken to prayer- 
 meeting to-night. It's addressed to Mr. Prime. 
 Who's going ? " 
 
 "I'm not," Ermina said, promptly, "are you^ 
 Helen ? " 
 
 Helen shivered. 
 
 " Dear me I no, I'm not. I feel more like 
 going to bed ever so much ; and it storms 
 dreadfully. Just hear the wind blow." 
 
 Ermina laughed. 
 
 " Why, Helen ! it doesn't begin with last 
 night'a storm. Does it, Tom ? " 
 
 " Not by a long shot," said Tom, mercilessly. 
 "But last night there was a party. Don't you 
 know that circumstances alter cases ? " 
 
 " I know if I had gone to a party in last even 
 ing's storm I wouldn't plead the weather against 
 going to a prayer-meeting this evening." 
 
 " Why don't you go, then ? " This from 
 Helen, very snappishly. 
 
 " Because I don't want to. No other earthly 
 reason. I'm not afraid of the snow any more 
 than you are, when you want to go to a place.
 
 Smoke and Bewilderment. . 66 
 
 But I don't feel in prayer-meeting humor to 
 night ; so I stay at home." 
 
 " /go to prayer-meeting from a sense of duty,'* 
 Helen said, coldly. 
 
 Tom laughed mischievously. 
 
 "Ermiua stays at home from prayer-meeting 
 because she doesn't want to go ; and Helen goes 
 when it is pleasant, and there isn't a party, and 
 she feels like it from a sense of duty. What 
 is the difference between them, mother?" 
 
 Mrs. Randolph looked puzzled and pained, aa 
 she always did when any words seeming to be 
 sharp or uncomfortable reached her ears; and 
 Tom hastened to add, 
 
 " Never mind, mother ; don't puzzle your brain. 
 * T-t-that's o-one of the t-t-things t-that no f-f-fel- 
 low can f-f-find out,' as the fellow says in the 
 play. I tell you what, Ermina, you'd like to go 
 to the theatre. Well, how is this important doc 
 ument to get into Mr. Prime's hands ? I know ; 
 I'll send it by Peter." 
 
 "Does Peter attend the prayer-meeting?" 
 asked Mrs. Randolph, great surprise in her voice. 
 
 " Bless you, yes ; as regularly as the minister. 
 I'll deliver this into his hands." 
 
 " But perhaps he will not go out this evening, 
 Bince it is so stormy and " 
 
 "No danger, mother," Helen interrupted. 
 " That class of persons always think that religion 
 6
 
 66 Household Puzzles. 
 
 consists in going to prayer-meeting, no matter 
 how severe the weather is." 
 
 "But people of culture and refinement know 
 enough not to go, except when they feel like it, 
 and there are no parties." 
 
 With that sentence Tom wisely closed the door 
 on further conversation, and went off in search 
 of Peter. 
 
 The little light was burning over the wood- 
 house chamber. He took note of that before he 
 went stumbling up the dark, steep back stair-case. 
 At the chamber door he paused ; there were 
 voices within. 
 
 " He's got company," Tom said, hesitating 
 whether to enter. " No ; I declare I believe the 
 queer fellow is talking to himself. It's his voice 
 and no other. Reading aloud about his friend 
 Peter, perhaps. It doesn't sound like reading, 
 either." 
 
 He stepped nearer the door, then stepped back 
 and instinctively raised his hand to remove his 
 hat. It was the force of habit for Peter was 
 praying ! What there should be strange and be 
 wildering about a young man kneeling in prayer 
 to God I can not pretend to say ; but Tom had a 
 very queer feeling come over him as he waited. 
 A curious desire to know what Peter could find 
 to say, or what motive prompted him, mingled 
 with a courteous sense of the impropriety of lia-
 
 Smoke and Bewilderment. 67 
 
 tenins: to what was not intended for his ears. Ha 
 
 o 
 
 leaned against the stair rail and whistled softly to 
 drown the sound of the earnest words, and waited 
 until the voice ceased and Peter was moving 
 about the room ; then he gave a ponderous 
 knock. 
 
 *' Here's a document to be intrusted to your 
 care that is if you happen to be going to 
 church. Father wants it given to Mr. Prime. 
 Are you going out ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I'm going to the prayer-meeting. 
 What if you should go along with me, Tom? " 
 
 If the invitation had been given under any 
 other circumstances, I feel sure Tom would have 
 been prompt in declining ; but in spite of him 
 self he had a feeling of respect for Peter, new 
 and undefinable. Peter had just been praying. 
 Tom was not an idiot. On the contrary, he was 
 an intelligent young man. He sometimes thought 
 he could not fail to know that it was a strange 
 honor to be permitted to speak to God. Why 
 he did not avail himself of this honor can not be 
 answered any easier than we can tell why hun 
 dreds of young men of intelligence refuse the 
 same privilege. Still he felt the instinctive re 
 spect natural to a refined nature for one who had 
 just come from the Holy Presence. He could not 
 quite laugh, even at the idea of his going to 
 prayei -meeting.
 
 68 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Why should I ? " he said, absently. 
 
 " Why shouldn't you ? " Peter asked, quickly ; 
 and then Tom laughed. 
 
 " Sure enough ; one question is as easy of so 
 lution as the other, but 1 suppose the main reason 
 is I don't want to." 
 
 Peter was not a logician. He didn't know 
 there was such a thing as logic. He was not 
 sharp at a retort, or he might have involved Tom 
 in endless bewilderments as to why a being pos 
 sessed of common sense shouldn't naturally want 
 to go where the King of kings held audience. 
 He was a simple, earnest-hearted boy, his answer 
 was thoroughly simple and undiplomatic, so far 
 as intention was concerned. 
 
 "I wish I ever had a fellow to go with me 
 anywhere, like other boys. It's awful lonesome 
 to be forever alone." 
 
 Tom's brain was equal to any amount of 
 youthful argument. Tom's heart was tender. 
 
 " Poor fellow," he said, sympathetically. He 
 understood that feeling. He sometimes felt very 
 much alone. " Would you really like to have me 
 go with you, for sort of company, you know ? " 
 
 "I'd like it awfully," said Peter, with great 
 earnestness. 
 
 " Then I'll do it ; there's nothing to hinder, 
 and I might as well be there as anywhere else." 
 
 Ten minutes later the two appeared in the
 
 Smoke and Bewilderment. 69 
 
 Harvard Place Chapel. That chapel was a very 
 pleasant spot under some circumstances. The 
 carpet was bright and neat, the illuminated texts 
 profuse and appropriate and neatly hung, the 
 cane-seated, cane-backed arm-chairs were ar 
 ranged with regard to comfort and convenience, 
 the gas fixtures were handsome in design and 
 abundant in number. Why the sexton had 
 thought proper to light but three burners for that 
 large room can not be with certainty ascertained. 
 Why the minister, or the Sunday-school Superin 
 tendent, or Mr. Prime, or somebody, didn't advise 
 him to light more burners does nob appear, 
 either; but the consequence was plain the 
 chapel presented the appearance of a dungeon. 
 To add to the effect, the black hole in the floor, 
 at the northeast corner of the room, emitted more 
 smoke than heat. The other black hole, in the 
 southwest corner, gave neither smoke nor heat, 
 but was hopelessly cold and sullen. The sexton 
 had seen fit to make use of but one furnace. 
 
 "We are late," Peter had said, as they as 
 cended the chapel steps. 
 
 " Awful ! " Tom had answered, with a comical 
 grimace, reserving his answer until they had en 
 tered the chapel and discovered three women and 
 one boy partially engulfed in the twilight that 
 reigned. 
 
 44 Just enough here to play puss in the corner,"
 
 70 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 Tom further whispered ; " and they have seated 
 themselves as if that were the object in view. I 
 wonder if they could have got farther apart if 
 they had tried ? " 
 
 Peter shook his head. 
 
 " We're late for all that," he said, stoutly. 
 *' Mr. Gordon said the meeting begun at seven, 
 and it's pretty near a quarter past." 
 
 " And he isn't here himself. My ! what a barn 
 this is ; a fellow will have to stand on the register 
 to keep from freezing. If I had a match I'd light 
 some more burners. It looks like a jail." 
 
 Several more people arrived in the course of 
 the next ten minutes, and Tom, who was in 
 dustriously counting, reported nineteen in all. 
 Lastly came Mr. Gordon, looking nervous and 
 flurried. He apologized for his tardiness, said H 
 matter of importance had detained him ; then the 
 meeting was opened. That is, Mr. Gordon tried 
 to open it. He said, " We will open the meeting 
 this evening by singing the twenty-ninth hymn." 
 It was long metre, and there were five verses. 
 Mr. Gordon read them, then peered anxiously 
 over his spectacles. 
 
 " I had hoped that our chorister would be here 
 by this time," he said, in troubled tones. " Is 
 there any one present who will be kind enough 
 to lead our singing ? Miss Keller, will you ? " 
 
 Apparently Miss Keller would neit her sing nor
 
 Smoke and Bewilderment. 71 
 
 speak. She looked down at her open book, 
 nudged her companion with her elbow, simpered 
 a little, and remained dumb ; yet Miss Keller 
 was one of the leading singers in the Harvard 
 Place choir. 
 
 " I don't see but we shall have to dispense with 
 singing," Mr. Gordon said, after a distressing 
 silence. " Brother Payne, will you lead us in 
 prayer? " 
 
 Tom listened curiously. Mr. Payne was a good 
 man, given to using a large word in place of a 
 small one if a substitute could be found. 
 
 " His prayer sounds as if lie might be reading 
 it from the dictionary," the wicked fellow whis 
 pered to Peter; but Peter's head was bowed and 
 his eyes were closed, the whisper passed by him 
 unheard. Before the prayer was concluded, Tom 
 fidgeted, which was perhaps not strange. Mr. 
 Payne prayed as though he had forgotten all 
 about that duty for weeks, and that nothing of 
 probable or conceivable interest in Church or 
 State must go unnoticed now. 
 
 " A very good oration in honor of everything," 
 Tom told Maria afterward ; " but as for being a 
 prayer, why it wasrit any more than the arith 
 metic is." 
 
 Mr. Gordon perhaps being familiar with his ma 
 terial, and expecting little help, then read a 
 psalm, and spoke on each verse earnest, faithful
 
 72 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 words ; but Tom, like all young gentlemen of his 
 age and experience, was a severe critic. 
 
 " It was a good sermon, Maria; very good in 
 deed, I should say what I heard of it ; but you 
 see he appointed a prayer-meeting." 
 
 By this time the chorister had arrived, and the 
 long hymn was sung by the chorister and Miss 
 Keller to a tune unknown by any of the other 
 seventeen, " or anybody else in all creation,'* Tom 
 said. Mr. Evans prayed after that, ten minutes 
 by the watch of the wicked looker-on. What he 
 said few knew. He had chosen his corner most 
 remote from the others, and his voice was never 
 much above a murmur. A very few prayers and 
 hymns of the length mentioned sufficed to fill an 
 hour, especially when there are long drawn pauses 
 between each prayer. Meantime the room seemed 
 to grow colder, the women shivered and drew 
 their wraps about them, one or two even gained 
 courage to cross the room and stand on the black 
 hole in the floor, thereby monopolizing to a con 
 siderable extent what little heat there was. Al 
 together it was a forlorn, spiritless place. Mr. 
 Gordon struggled hard, both with the memory 
 of something which had detained him, and which 
 still evidently troubled him, and tho dispiriting 
 influences which surrounded him. A stranger 
 to earth and earthly prayer-meetings might have 
 imagined that the minister was pressing a groat
 
 Smoke and Bewilderment. 78 
 
 personal need of his own on the people, so earn 
 estly did he plead with them not to let the time 
 run to waste. 
 
 " I don't wonder at Helen going to prayer- 
 meeting from a sense of duty, and Ermina not 
 going because she doesn't want to. I shouldn't 
 think she would. I'll be hanged if I've been in 
 fiuch a dreary place before since I used to get shut 
 up in the wood-closet at school when I was a 
 youngster. Ugh! I'm chilled through to the 
 bone. I shan't get warm again to-night. What 
 upon earth do they have it so cold for ? " said 
 Tom, with energy, as soon as he was safely out 
 side the walls. 
 
 "It was cold," Peter said, thoughtfully. 
 " Yes," he confessed it was, " mostly cold ; not so 
 bad, though, on warmer nights; and one night, 
 that time it thawed, it was awful hot there, so 
 they had to open a window." 
 
 " I wouldn't have done it," Tom said. " I'd 
 have bottled it up somehow for future use. Why, 
 it's abominable expecting people to sit quiet when 
 they are freezing to death. What do they have 
 it so dark there for ? If anybody wanted to sing 
 their outlandish tunes they couldn't see to do it. 
 Nobody will ever want to, though, I presume. 
 I've heard those words that they sang first sung 
 ever since I was born, and I never heard them 
 without Rockingham before. What splendid taste
 
 74 Household Puzzles. 
 
 for two people to yell and screech and grc wl and 
 thunder through a tune like that in prayer-meet 
 ing, chasing each other like a couple of ponies out 
 on a race. I wonder how many times Miss 
 Keller sung that half a line over? I say, Peter, 
 what do they have it so dark there for?" 
 
 Peter did not know, he was sure. He con 
 fessed that his own opinion was they wanted to 
 save gas. 
 
 " Save gas ! " Tom repeated, disdainfully. 
 " And they have it like an ice-house for the pur 
 pose of saving coal, I presume. It's unfortunate 
 that there are not more men in that church with 
 hundred thousand dollar incomes. I'll tell you 
 what it's for, it's to save paying attention to any 
 thing but their precious mills, and stores, and fac 
 tories, and selves. The puzzle is solved. I've 
 often wondered why church-members didn't like 
 to go to prayer-meeting better. I never shall 
 again. The wonder is that they go at all. Such 
 a cold, smoky, dismal old hole. It's a blessed 
 thing that I'm not a minister. If I were I'd kick 
 pretty nearly every man in my church once a 
 year, at least good hearty kicks, too. Peter, 
 what do you go to prayer-meeting for ? Did you 
 have a good time to-night ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Peter, promptly. "You know, 
 Tom, He took a walk with that other Peter down 
 by the sea of Galilee. Peter**<st0 Him, and that
 
 {Smoke and Bewilderment. 75 
 
 was about all the difference, I guess ; because, 
 you see, I believe He came and stayed by me thid 
 evening all the time." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " said Tom, awe-^rickei* 
 in spite of himself. 
 
 " Why, just that He was there, you know. It 
 is His own house, you see, and He has promised 
 to come." 
 
 " It is a puzzle yet," Tom said, this time to his 
 own inner self. "The fellow is talking about 
 something that I don't understand ; and yet it ia 
 no sham, he feels it and means it. There's Helen 
 and Ermina for one class of Christians, and there's 
 father and Peter for another kind. Mother is like 
 neither of them. I wonder if there's another kind 
 still. What a muddle it is."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE ? " 
 
 'HE household had something besides coal 
 and sugar and parties to think about. 
 There came an uninvited guest into their 
 midst. Mr. Randolph had gone to Syra 
 cuse on business for the firm, and was to 
 be absent during the night. At midnight a figure 
 in long, loose wrapper, and with flowing hair, 
 knocked loudly at Tom's door, and Grace's voice 
 summoned him. 
 
 " Tom, something is the matter down stairs. 
 Ermina opened the hall door, and called to me 
 to tell you to run quick for the doctor. I don't 
 know who is sick ; I just wakened." 
 
 " Helen has the toothache, I presume," Tom 
 muttered ; nevertheless, he sprang up, and was 
 down stairs within three minutes after his SUIT 
 mons. Grace met him in the hall. 
 76
 
 "What is the Difference?" 77 
 
 
 " It's mother, Tom. Maria heard her groaning 
 
 away up stairs. She seems very sick." 
 
 Wings seemed added to Tom's former speed , 
 his mother was very precious to him. So it was 
 a very little time afterward that Dr. Marley bent 
 over Mrs. Randolph, with grave professional face, 
 questioned as to the earlier symptoms of the at 
 tack, and what had been done for her ; then 
 turned and addressed Helen as the oldest daugh 
 ter. 
 
 " I will prepare some medicine that may re- 
 lieve her; keep the warm applications to her 
 feet that is very proper. I am glad you 
 thought of it. I will step into the dining-room 
 to prepare the medicine. Thomson, you may 
 come with me, if you will." 
 
 Arrived in the dining-room, just across the hall, 
 Dr. Marley made no attempt to prepare medicine, 
 but leaned against the long dining-table, set for 
 breakfast, and said, as he looked fixedly at 
 Tom, 
 
 "Medicine will do your mother no good, 
 Thomson ; do you realize it ? " 
 
 " No good ! " Tom repeated, dazed and half- 
 stupefied, yet his face grew deadly pale. " What 
 do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean that the case is already beyond human 
 aid ; your mother is dying, Thomson. It is the 
 final attack of her old disease."
 
 78 Household Puzzles. 
 
 In utter silence, Tom glared for an instant or. 
 the speaker, struck dumb with pain ; then he 
 turned and rushed to his mother's room. Maria 
 was where she had been since she first hurried 
 down stairs, alarmed by the sounds that reached 
 her from that room bending over her mother, 
 bathing her forehead, gently fanning her, direct 
 ing that the hot flannels be wrung out afresh, 
 sending Ermina for Tom and the doctor using 
 every sense of her alert nature. Helen stood 
 ^helpless and bewildered. " I don't believe hot 
 water is good," she had said, before the doctor's 
 arrival, when Maria had remarked on the strange 
 ness of their having kept up the kitchen fire on 
 that particular night. 
 
 *' It stands to reason that when people's feet 
 are ice-cold, they ought to be warmed, if they can 
 be," Maria had answered, determinately, and sent 
 Grace for the water. 
 
 She glanced up as Tom entered. " Have you 
 brought " she said, and then stopped, and for 
 a single instant the fan, which was moving gently 
 back and forth, stopped. 
 
 Tom had no need to speak; his blanched face 
 told the awful story. 
 
 44 What did the doctor say is the matter with 
 her ? " Helen began, eagerly. 
 
 44 He did not say," Tom answered, and the 
 tones of his voice were so strange that both Helen
 
 * What is the Difference?" 79 
 
 and Ermina turned to look at him. Whereupon 
 Ermina staggered back into a chair, and Heleu 
 uttered a stifled groan. " Do something for her 
 quick, quick ! Why do you waste time ? " she 
 said, turning fiercely to the doctor, who came 
 back on tiptoe, glass and spoon in hand. 
 
 " I have something for her," he said, in low, 
 soothing tones. " You must be very quiet, my 
 dear young lady." 
 
 " Quiet ! " she said, still speaking fiercely. 
 " How can I be quiet ? My mother is suffering, 
 and you do nothing for her." 
 
 From the bedside came a low, clear, decided 
 voice. " Helen, hush you disturb mother." 
 A spoonful of the liquid was almost forced down 
 the poor mother's throat, and during a moment 
 of less difficult breathing, she looked pleadingly 
 up in the doctor's face. 
 
 " Am I going to die, Dr. Marley ? " 
 
 The doctor looked away from the faded eyes, 
 as he answered, quickly, 
 
 " Oh, we trust not, Mrs. Randolph ; don't think 
 of any such thing. I have given you some med 
 icine which I hope will cure you." 
 
 Alas ! for the doctors who shrink away from 
 death as a grim monster, and know nothing about 
 the Hand of Power that has taken away the 
 sting. No wonder that the temptation to shirk 
 or to deliberately deny the truth is too great for 
 them.
 
 80 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Tom, who stood at the foot of the bed, his face 
 rigid at the attempt at self-control, started and 
 shivered as if a blow had struck him. A lie at 
 such a time seemed awful to him. His mother's? 
 eyes turned from the doctor's face to his, and the 
 sweet, soft voice, that had always been so precious 
 to him, spoke directly to him. 
 
 " My sou, you will tell me the truth. Am I 
 dying?" 
 
 " O mother, mother, don't! " It was Helen's 
 
 voice that answered. " What makes you think 
 
 of such dreadful things? You are better now, I 
 
 am sure. Father will be home in the morning, 
 
 "and then you will get well right away." 
 
 With a persistence that had been very rare in 
 the gentle mother's life, she said again, " My son, 
 I am sure you will tell me the truth." 
 
 Tom trembled as with an ague his teeth 
 chattered, so that his lips could hardly form the 
 words, but as if each word was a groan wrung 
 from him, he cried out, 
 
 * O mother, I'm afraid you are." 
 
 Helen screamed hysterically. 
 
 " Tom, that is awful. Oh, you have killed 
 her!" 
 
 Again the firm, controlled tones of the young 
 est daughter sounded in the room. 
 
 " Helen, hush ; your loud voice disturbs her 
 Doctor, I think she is fainting."
 
 "What is the Difference?" 81 
 
 Dr. Marley came forward, and Maria, obeying 
 his directions, deftly and promptly brought back 
 the fluttering pulse once more. Mrs. Randolph's 
 first words were, 
 
 " If my husband were only here." 
 
 " Mother, he will come early in the morning.*' 
 Grace had come softly around to the other side 
 of the bed, and spoke these words gently and 
 soothingly. 
 
 " Yes, but I am going. Oh, I feel that my boy 
 told me the truth. I am dying, and I am afraid 
 to die so afraid; if my husband were here he 
 would help me ; he has always helped me about 
 everything all his life. Oh, what shall I do ? " 
 
 Maria looked around on the different inmates 
 of the room in absolute despair. She could bathe 
 her mother's throbbing temples more skillfully, 
 and lift her more carefully, and fan her more 
 wisely than any of the others. This she knew ; 
 but to help her trembling heart to seize hold of 
 the strong Arm ready to sustain her. Ah, how 
 could Maria do that? She knew nothing about 
 that Arm. The feeble, wailing voice continued : 
 
 " I don't know what to do. I am afraid of 
 death. I always was. To be buried in the grave 
 seems so dreadful to me. I need your father 
 now."' 
 
 "Mother," Maria said, with trembling lipg, 
 14 you are a Christian." 
 6
 
 82 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. I don't even know, Maria, 
 whether I am or not. It is a dreadful thing to bo 
 dying and not know. Don't you ever come to that 
 place, my daughter, without being sure of it. I 
 have never said so much as this to you before. 
 How can I have been a Christian and neglected 
 my children ? But we have prayed for you, 
 your father and I, often and often. Oh, is there 
 nobody who will pray for me now ? " 
 
 Maria looked around again, her face working in 
 agony. The cultivated, courteous, kind-hearted 
 physician leaned against the mantel, ready to use 
 his skill as doctor or nurse, ready to go of er 
 rands, ready to do any tiling, except to pray. No 
 hope of his doing that ; he had never prayed in 
 his life. 
 
 "Helen," M;iria said, imploringly. 
 
 Helen groaned in agony. 
 
 "O Maria, 1 can't, I can't! I never prayed 
 aloud. I don't know how." 
 
 " Then, Ermiua, O Ermina, can't you pray for 
 mother?" 
 
 Ermina staggered to the bedside and flung her 
 self on her knees, but she burst into such an agony 
 of passionate weeping that Dr. Marley came has 
 tily forward, and whispered her to come away. 
 She was agitating her mother, and he feared bhe 
 might faint again ; and if so they might fail to 
 rally her.
 
 " What is the Difference ? " 83 
 
 *' She should be soothed," he said, in an under 
 tone to Maria, whom lie had recognized as the real 
 head. " This agitation is taking her strength. 
 Is there no friend near at hand who would come 
 to her?" 
 
 Maria shook her head blankly. Their frienda 
 near at hand were not such as would be willing to 
 pray, 
 
 " Mr. Gordon would come," she said. " I can't 
 think of any one else." 
 
 " He is much too far away, I fear ; still 1 
 might send for him. My boy is waiting in the 
 kitchen ; it is possible he may reach here in time." 
 
 " Doctor, is it so awfully near ? " 
 
 The doctor bowed his head, then went to send 
 his messenger, more than half a mile away, after 
 the minister. Poor Tom, it seemed to him his 
 heart was bursting ; he felt as if he would have 
 given up every hope that he possessed in this 
 world if only he had known how to pray for his 
 mother. At this moment a sudden thought, a 
 sadden hope, came to him. 
 
 " Peter will pray," he said briskly. 
 
 Mrs. Randolph caught at the sentence. 
 
 " Go for him," she said pitifully. " Go quick, 
 before it is too late. Oh, I cannot die without 
 somebody to pray. Oh, my children, my chil 
 dren, what shall I do ? " 
 
 Even in this moment of supreme anguish Helen
 
 84 Household Puzzles. 
 
 was shocked at the strangeness of the proceed 
 ings. " Peter was well, it looked so singular 
 perhaps it was unnecessary her mother could 
 not, could not be going to die ; she had not be 
 lieved it any of the time. They were all fright 
 ened, that was the trouble." 
 
 ** Tom," she said, whispering as he was passing 
 through the open door, " the doctor has sent for 
 Mr. Gordon, and Peter cannot help mother ; he 
 is simply an ignorant boy. Wouldn't it be better 
 to wait just a few minutes ? " 
 
 " Helen," he said, sternly, " mother is dying" 
 and he went swiftly on his mission. 
 
 Helen dropped in a limp heap on the floor and 
 moaned. She did not believe it, but it was dread 
 ful even to think of fora moment. The unusual 
 confusion that prevailed in the house had awak 
 ened Peter some time before the doctor's boy had 
 given him the news, and he stood in the kitchen 
 waiting to be of use. Tom burst in there on his 
 way to the wood-house chamber. 
 
 " Are you here ? " he said, stopping. " Peter, 
 you aie the only one in the house who knows how 
 to pray. Will you come and pray for my mother? 
 She is dying." 
 
 Peter had not been prepared for such useful 
 ness. He had his lantern lighted ready to do er 
 rands; he had fed the fire and added water to 
 the kettle against the time that more would be
 
 "What is the Difference f" 85 
 
 needed, but this work startled him. Only God 
 had heard Peter pray ; but then those three last 
 words, " she is dying" If there was any time 
 when prayer was needed surely it was then. 
 
 " I will if I can," he said, simply, and followed 
 Tom swiftly and silently into the chamber of 
 death. He took no notice of any of the faces 
 turned to his, but bowed himself at the bedside. 
 All the others followed his example save the doc 
 tor ; he leaned decorously against the mantel, and 
 kept his eyes fixed on the face of his patient. 
 Then the Lord himself took the guidance of 
 Peter's lips, for these were the words he uttered : 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in 
 God, believe also in me. In ray Father's house 
 are many mansions: if it were not so I would 
 have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
 come again, and receive you unto myself; that 
 where I am, there ye may be also. And whither 
 I go ye know, and the way ye know. And what 
 soever ye .shall ask in my name, that will I do, 
 that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If 
 ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. 
 I will not leave you comfortless : I will como to 
 you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give 
 unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto 
 you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let 
 it be afraid."
 
 86 Household Puzzles. 
 
 There was silence in the room as the words of 
 prayer were finished. Mrs. Randolph lay very 
 quiet with closed eyes; they thought she slept. 
 Suddenly she opened them, and her voice was 
 sweet and natural. 
 
 "* My peace I give unto you.' Thank you 
 yes, thank you very much ; I had forgotten. 
 4 Neither let it be afraid.' No, I will not be afraid, 
 for he says, ' I will come again and receive you 
 unto myself.' I have been a weak, foolish Chris 
 tian; but his promise stands sure. ' I will come 
 again and receive you unto myself.' He has 
 come. ' Peace I leave with you.' Children, tell 
 your father " 
 
 Half an hour afterward came Mr. Gordon, 
 breathless with haste, to speak words of cheer 
 and help to the dying. He found only very fair 
 still clay, the spirit had been received unto him 
 self. 
 
 Perhaps this is as good an opportunity as any 
 I shall have to record the conversation which took 
 place between Tom and our friend Petor several 
 days after thi.s event. 
 
 " Do the words read in connection as you used 
 them in your prayer '/ " Tom asked. 
 
 " It wasn't a prayer," Peter said. " Only as I 
 prated in my heart, you know, that Josus Christ 
 would como and speak just such words to her, or 
 maybe more beautiful oues even, if he could find
 
 " What is the Difference?" 87 
 
 any. I didn't know how to pray words of my 
 own, you know." 
 
 " I'm glad you didn't. Are the verses con 
 nected as you repeated them ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I haven't found them in my 
 Bible yet. These were on a card that Mr. Ham 
 mond gave me with a lot of others. This one was 
 named k Words of Comfort to the Dying,' so I 
 learned it first, 'cause a fellow might have to die 
 most any time, you know." 
 
 Tom smiled. 
 
 " You're queer," he said. " Will you lend me 
 the card? I would like to learn the words my 
 self, since they were a comfort to my mother." 
 
 " Oh, I'll lend it to you and welcome ; but 
 they won't do you much good, after all. They 
 don't belong to you, you know." 
 
 " Why not, pray?" 
 
 " Why, because there's conditions. Promises 
 always have conditions, you know most al- 
 always ; anyway, these have. I asked Mr. Ham 
 mond about it. ' If you're my children,' Jesus 
 Christ said, why then 'I'll come again and re 
 ceive you to myself; ' and if you're my children, 
 why you'll do so and so. Well, now, I've met 
 the condition and you haven't, you see there's 
 the difference." 
 
 Tom arched his eyebrows. 
 
 " That's taking a pretty high place yourself
 
 88 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 and leaving me out in the cold. Rather egotist 
 ical, isn't it, as well as selfish ? " . 
 
 Peter looked at him in genuine wonder. 
 
 " Why so ? " he said. " I don't see how, any 
 more than it would be if your father should say 
 to you and me, * If you do this work I'll give you 
 each a coat.' I might do the work and get the 
 coat, and you might let the work alone, and then 
 you would leave the coat alone too, wouldn't 
 you ? And it wouldn't be my fault because I had 
 a coat and you hadn't now would it?" 
 
 Tom laughed a little. 
 
 " You better study law," he said. " Neverthe 
 less, I'll borrow the card ; it was my mother's if 
 it isn't mine, and I want to look at it."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MOURNING AND DRESSMAKING. 
 
 AS it ever been your desolate fortune to 
 move about a familiar home, doing some 
 very commonplace duty, only a few hours 
 a ^ ter some crushing calamity has fallen 
 upon the household ? Do you know any 
 thing of the utter misery of taking up familiar 
 objects associated with your everyday life, feeling 
 that the soul of everyday living has gone from 
 you, and yet that the skeleton of it is left for you 
 to work on at endlessly ? Then you can appre 
 ciate something of Maria's feelings as she went 
 down in the gray light of that winter morning, 
 to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Strangely 
 enough, none of the friends who had gathered 
 promptly around them in their sorrow thought to 
 take this care upon themselves. Most of them 
 were those who had hired help in their own 
 
 80
 
 90 Household Puzzles. 
 
 kitchens, and forgot that there were those less 
 favored in that respect. 
 
 Helen remained up stairs in her room, which 
 was closed on all intruders. Ertnina was phys 
 ically unable to leave her bed, and Grace was 
 ministering to her needs ; so, of necessity, Maria 
 went alone to the kitchen. How terrible it 
 seemed ! Here in the dining-room was every 
 thing arranged as she had prepared it herself the 
 night before the table set for breakfast, her 
 mother's place at the head, her mother's chaii 
 placed ready for her. 
 
 "Not that chair," she had said to Grace, when 
 she had been helping her. " Mother doesn't like 
 any chair but the high one ; she is such a little 
 mother, you know." 
 
 Now the little mother was in the room just 
 across the hall, but she would not come out to sit 
 in her chair that morning, nor any other. Maria 
 leaned against the table, dumb with pain. What 
 a dreadful thing life was! Only across the hall 
 her mother was lying still and white and lifeless, 
 and here was she making coffee and toasting bread 
 just as usual. If only she could go to her room, 
 and lock and bolt herself in, and give voice and 
 expression to her agony ; if she might even be 
 taking care of some one who was really suffering, 
 like Ermina ; but then Grace could do that, and 
 in kitchen work she was a novice, and they must
 
 Mourning and Dressmaking. 
 
 all eat, even though their hearts were breaking, 
 H ,d dishes must be washed and rooms swept just 
 as if that silent presence across the hall were not 
 a 1 that was leftto them of mother. Tom came 
 to the dining-room, and in hoarse tones recalled 
 Maria to outward life. 
 
 Maria, what about father ? " 
 What about him ? " she repeated, in a blank, 
 dazed way. - -Yes, the train is due in an Y >ur. 
 Oh! " and that one short, sharp word expressed 
 a volume. For one little minute she had 
 gotten her father. Some one mnst go to: 
 
 him." . 9 ,, 
 
 " Who will go ? Can you, Maria ? 
 
 Maria shook her head. 
 
 I am not the one, Tom. I can make him a 
 cup of coffee, and coax him to drink it, and have 
 his Uppers ready, but for such times as these 
 am helpless. It seems to me some one wh 
 some Christian ought to go." 
 
 u Wh ere shall I find one?" Tom asked the 
 question in a tone that at any other time would 
 have savored of sarcasm. "Do you think Helen 
 would be the person to go ? " 
 
 " Oh no," Maria said quickly. " She wouldn t 
 go, either ; and Ermiua is sick. Tom, you must 
 ask Mr. Gordon to go. Mr. Evans is here with 
 his carriage. You get Mr. Gordon to take it and 
 go for father. He is the only one to help us 
 now."
 
 92 Household Pvxzles. 
 
 " I wish," Tom said, and stopped. 
 " What do you wish ?" Maria asked, drearily, 
 going on with her toasting in an apathetic way. 
 *' I wish father had a child who knew how to 
 bo of any comfort to him now." 
 
 The muscles of Maria's face worked pitifully 
 She was thinking of that same thing; indeed, 
 she felt the need of some unseen, unknown Arm 
 to lean her own weak heart upon. 
 
 'Not but that you always have and always 
 will be a comfort to him," Tom hastened to say. 
 "But I meant, Maria, that it seems as if he 
 needed some one who felt as he does about 
 things. You know what I mean." 
 
 It was the afternoon of the same day that 
 Maria was summoned from the depths of her 
 pillow in her own room, whither she had crept 
 for a few minutes, to a consultation in the back 
 sitting-room. Helen was standing in the center 
 of the room, Mi*s Allen beside her; Ermina, 
 looking like a ghost, was propped up among pil 
 lows in the great rocking-chair ; Grace sat on a 
 low ottoman, but she had moved it away from 
 the green-covered rocker near where it alwavs 
 stood no one occupied the green rocker to-day. 
 Helen turned as her youngest sister entered. 
 
 44 Maria," she said, wearily, " what a time you 
 have been in coming. It is necessary to know 
 what you must have made up. Miss Allen is 
 waiting to report to Mrs. Akers."
 
 Mourning and Dressmaking. 
 
 " Made up ! " Maria said. She was not given 
 to repeating words stupidly, but her brain was 
 very dull that day. 
 
 " Why, ves. A dress you will need, of course, 
 and a hat, and what about a sack, or would you 
 have a polonaise, and have no outside garment, 
 until we have the heart to think a little ? " 
 
 Maria began to understand. It was the first 
 dawning of the whole terrible subject of 
 " clothes." She had not given it a thought that 
 day, but she spoke promptly enough now. 
 " Helen, I don't want anything." 
 " Don't want anything ! " It was Helen's time 
 to repeat now. " Why, what will you wear to 
 _ w hen " and Helen paused. Maria's face 
 paled, but her voice was steady. 
 
 " I suppose you mean to the funeral. I pre 
 sume I shall wear my empress, as I have nothing 
 else to wear ; but I haven't given the moment 
 ous question of dress a thought to-day." 
 
 * k But it is necessary to think. You can't al 
 ways be a child, Maria. Don't you remember 
 that your empress is brown ?" 
 
 " Yes, I remember it. I am quite willing to 
 wear brown, just as 1 always have done." 
 Helen sat down with a gesture of despair. 
 "Don't make my task harder than is neces 
 sary," she said, wearily. " You cannot think how 
 hard it is at best. Of course we will all wear
 
 94 Household Puzzlt*. 
 
 black because it is proper to do so. The ques 
 tion now to be decided is, how much we each 
 need." 
 
 " But, Helen, I don't think that is the question 
 to decide. I don't want to put on black at all. 
 If we had plenty of money to waste, which we 
 haven't, it does not seem to me that it is the time 
 to plan and twist and turn about new clothes. 
 But the main objection is that it is expensive, and 
 we have need to economize." 
 
 4. quickly suppressed exclamation of surprise 
 from Miss Allen did not escape Helen's notice, 
 and tier pale cheek flushed. She was deeply sen 
 sitive to public opinion. 
 
 " Maria, don't be so childish," she said, with an 
 impatient movement. " Of course we are not 
 rich, everybody knows that, and it will be neces 
 sary for us to. study economy, however trying it 
 may be at such a time ; but we will not fail in 
 anything that can in any way show respect to 
 mother. She was too dear a mother for that," 
 and Helen's lip quivered. 
 
 Maria only grew paler. 
 
 " Mother can not possibly care about such 
 things now," she ^aid, steadily. " I can not see 
 how one color can be considered more respectful 
 than another, and I think we ought not to burden 
 father with any unnecessary expense. He has 
 quite enough to bear now."
 
 Mourning and Dressmaking. 95 
 
 "Ermina," said Helen, facing about to her, 
 " had any other idea occurred to you than that of 
 course we would wear mourning?" 
 
 " I haven't thought of it to-day only when you 
 spoke of it. I took it for granted that everything 
 was settled. Why, yes, I suppose we will have 
 to." 
 
 " Grace, have you thought differently from 
 this ? " 
 
 Grace confessed that she supposed they would 
 wear black as a matter of course, but she was 
 quite willing not to do it if it was thought best. 
 It had always seemed to her a strange sort of 
 custom. 
 
 Helen turned back to Maria. 
 
 " You see, Maria, you are the only one who has 
 any desire to do anything strange and out of the 
 ordinary line of common propriety, and as you are 
 the youngest I think you . have detained Miss 
 Allen quite long enough ; her time is precious, 
 you know. Can you decide now as to what you 
 need ? " 
 
 No, Maria could not decide further than that 
 she believed the expense to be an unnecessary 
 one, and had quite determined in her own mind 
 to oppose it for the sake of the father who had 
 burdens enough to bear. 
 
 " Isn't it rather a trying time in which to pro 
 pose new measures to your poor father? It
 
 96 Household Puzzles. 
 
 would seem hard to intrude questions of dress on 
 him now." It was Miss Allen's decorous, smooth' 
 ly modulated voice that proposed this question, 
 and Helen promptly answered it. 
 
 " Of course it is. Even if we thought of mak 
 ing ourselves conspicuous by unusual proceedings 
 it would be cruel to force father's attention to 
 such a trivial matter now ; but ray sister is young 
 and thoughtless, Miss Allen. Ermina, we must 
 trim with crape, I suppose. Are you particular 
 as to quality ? " 
 
 Maria's face flushed. It was decided 1 ^ not her 
 nature to endure in meekness. She spoke with 
 unusual sharpness. 
 
 " Helen, you are absurd to talk in that manner. 
 You know father will not even know whether our 
 dresses are black or yellow if we don't enlighten 
 him; but he will know all about the enormous 
 bills to be paid ; and if you really want to save 
 him trouble you will take care how you lay such 
 an unnecessary burden on him. As for making 
 ourselves conspicuous that is nonsense. Very re 
 spectable people get along without burying them 
 selves in crape and bombazine; and I for one 
 shall not consent to any such thing," and Maria 
 walked majestically from the room. 
 
 "How old is Miss Maria?" questioned Miss 
 A.llen, pointedly, as the door closed after her. 
 
 "Just fifteen. She is a spoiled child, Miss
 
 Mourning and Dressmaking. 97 
 
 Allen. Poor mother's health lias been so frail 
 that Maria has been allowed to indulge her queer 
 notions, until she really forgets that she is a 
 woman. We shall have to leave the question of 
 her dress until to-morrow. Come in the morn 
 ing, and I will see that she is reduced to order by 
 that time." 
 
 Poor Maria shed the first tears that had been 
 wrung from her aching eyes after she went up 
 from the back sitting-room and the smooth 
 tongued dressmaker. In a sense her sister's com 
 ment, that she did not hear, was true. She felt 
 like a woman of forty. It was a long time since 
 she remembered feeling like a child. Helen had 
 forgot to mention that the cares and burdens of 
 life had pressed so heavily on her young sister as 
 to crush out the youthful ness. That hour spent 
 on her bed, her face buried in the pillows, her 
 self given over to bitter weeping, was an hour of 
 work to Helen, the result of which was that Grace 
 came to know if Maria could go down to father's 
 room, he wanted to see her. 
 
 "What does he want?" she asked, springing 
 from the bed, bathing her swollen eyes, smooth 
 ing her hair, and rapidly arranging her toilet. 
 Grace didn't know, only as she passed his door 
 he opened it, and told her to ask Maria to come 
 to him a few minutes. Maria had seen hin^ for 
 but a few minutes during that first terrible hour, 
 7
 
 98 Household Puzzles. 
 
 when the shock was at its heaviest with him. 
 He had grown calm now, but he looked older by 
 ten years than he had two days before. This 
 youngest daughter knew belter than did any of 
 the others of the family what the fragile little 
 mother was to him. She longed to throw her 
 arms around his neck, and rain kisses and tears 
 on the worn, haggard face ; but such had not been 
 her education, nor indeed was it her nature; self- 
 controlled Maria had been even in her baby 
 hood. 
 
 "Will you have a cup of tea now, father ?" 
 was all the greeting she gave him. 
 
 "Not now, daughter. Sit down a few min 
 utes, I want to talk with you. What is it Helen 
 is trying to explain about this dress question ? '' 
 
 Maria's face flushed. This then was Helen's 
 consideration for father. She hesitated, and 
 looked away from her father's pale face and deep 
 sunken eyes. It seemed very hard to speak of 
 crape and ribbon and the funeral, and mother just 
 across the hall in that cold sleep. 
 
 " I don't understand such matters, you know, 
 daughter. Can't it be arranged without me ? " 
 There was almost a pleading sound in Mr. Ran 
 dolph's voice. " / think it might have been." 
 
 Maria said quickly, 
 
 " But it seems Helen did not. I don't want to 
 wear black, father. It is an unnecessary ex-
 
 Mourning and Dressmaking. 99 
 
 pense, and I for one haven't the heart to plan 
 clothes at such a time." 
 
 " But Helen thinks it will be a great impro 
 priety not to. We want to do everything de 
 cently and without unnecessary talk. I wouldn't 
 want to do anything that would appear in the 
 least like disrespect to your dear mother." 
 
 "Do you think it makes any difference to 
 mother now what colored clothes we wear ? 
 Doesn't she know that I love her just as much, 
 and mourn her just as sincerely this evening in 
 my brown wrapper as I should to-morrow in 
 black bombazine ? " 
 
 Mr. Randolph moved restlessly in his chair. 
 
 " I don't doubt that you are right, daughter. 
 These things arf of no consequence to me. 
 They are trifles : \ your mother's eyes at this mo 
 ment. I have no ionbt but Helen feels differ 
 ently, and she says that Errmna and Grace agree 
 with her, and Helen is the oldest, you know ; she 
 is in your mother's place now. Let us have no 
 trouble that we can avoid. We must learn to 
 yield our own wishes, you and I." 
 
 "But, father, about the bills. Do you know 
 that it will involve a great expense, especially if 
 it is all left to Helen's management. Her taste 
 is highly cultivated in that direction. How will 
 we ever pay the bills ? "
 
 100 Household Puzzles. 
 
 A spasm as of pain crossed the pale, worn face, 
 but Mr. Randolph spoke quickly, 
 
 " We shall manage in some way. Life is very 
 hard. A few more bills more or less can not make 
 it much harder. I do not mean to murmur, 
 though. Let us have peace, Maria, at any price."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DEBTS AND DOUBTS. 
 
 r , HERE certainly must be people in this 
 [5 world who can not afford to die ! " 
 
 She did not say it recklessly, nor with 
 even the semblance of carelessness; on 
 the contrary her face expressed intense 
 and painful feeling. She stood in the back par 
 lor by the table which was half covered with 
 sheets of paper in various stages of fold and 
 crumple. It was Maria, of course ; no one in the 
 Randolph family besides Maria ever made such 
 startling remarks. 
 
 The funeral was over; indeed, two weeks had 
 passed since they laid their mother away. It had 
 been a solemn funeral, and Mrs. Jenkins, the 
 undertaker's wife, had pronounced the details 
 unobjectionable. What Mrs. Jenkins meant by 
 
 101
 
 102 Household Puzzles. 
 
 that may be obscure to the minds of some, but 
 Helen Randolph understood her perfectly. That 
 young lady had an eye for details ; she had meant 
 them to be unobjectionable. An unskilled looker- 
 on would have said that everything was very neat 
 and plain and appropriate. Ah ! to be very neat 
 and plain and appropriate at funerals means to pay 
 somebody a good deal of money. The four daugh 
 ters were shrouded in long crape vails, and about 
 the details of their dress everything was appro 
 priate also, from the perfect-fitting Alexandre 
 kids lo the wide black bordered cambric hand 
 kerchiefs. The velvet-covered casket which was 
 their mother's last resting-place was literally cov 
 ered over with rare and beautiful white flowers, 
 such as blossom in January, only for money. 
 Some of them were love tokens from outside 
 friends ; others of them were of Helen's own 
 ordering and selection. " Dear mother loved 
 flowers so much," she had said. From the main 
 entrance door floated the long crape signals of 
 death ; the arm of each bearer was festooned 
 with crape ; the hands of each bearer were cov 
 ered with decorous black kids, furnished by the 
 family. 
 
 "Everybody does it," Helen had said, when 
 Maria protested. The carriages were numerous 
 and costly ; the hearse with its solemn black 
 plumes was the new several thousand dollar one,
 
 Debts and Doubts. 103 
 
 that had only been used twice before, for Mrs, 
 Judge Westervelt and General Wallace Thorpe. 
 Certainly the most uncharitable and censorious 
 looker-on of them all could not say that every 
 possible and conceivable token of respect had not 
 been paid to that fair piece of clay which they 
 finally covered with its native dust. 
 
 Now it was two weeks afterward, and Maria 
 had been looking over and summing up the bills. 
 Do you wonder at her utterly dismayed exclama 
 tion, " There must be some people in this world 
 who cannot afford to die! " 
 
 Ermina came presently into the back room, 
 paused a moment irresolute as she saw her sis 
 ter's occupation, then slowly advanced. Ermina 
 would have preferred to shirk that business if she 
 could. " How are we ever to pay them ? " 
 
 This was the one tremendous thought weigh 
 ing on Maria's heart, and she spoke it. 
 
 "Father will probably attend to that." Er 
 mina tried to look and speak with indifference. 
 
 " Ermina, that is nonsense," Maria said, sharp 
 ly. " Don't play Helen, and pretend not to know 
 that father has nothing to pay with and no 
 strength to bestow on them. They are enor 
 mous." 
 
 " I know it," said Ermina, taking up her own 
 character again. " I am quite as much appalled 
 as you can possibly desire. I don't see our way
 
 104 Household Puzzles. 
 
 out of this labyrinth. I have wondered a hun 
 dred times within the last two weeks what was to 
 become of us all." 
 
 ' Ermina, it is late in the day to ask you about 
 this, but I do want to know, since you really saw 
 the danger ahead, why you didn't protest against 
 all this needless waste of money ? " 
 
 Ermina opened her eyes very wide. " I am 
 sure I don't know what you mean," she said, 
 gravely. " I didn't know there had been any 
 needless expense, or at least very little, none to 
 signify." 
 
 " There isn't fifty dollars' worth in all these 
 bills that would come under the head of neces 
 sary expenses." 
 
 Ermina smiled grimly. " Your idea of * neces 
 sary ' and Helen's would differ, I presume. You 
 have some queer fancies, you know. Now, I 
 hate bills as much as you possibly can, but I 
 don't see how, in our position, we could avoid 
 wearing mourning without making an outrageous 
 talk." 
 
 " What is our position, Ermina ? " 
 
 Ermina laughed. 
 
 " It might be hard to define," she said, with 
 sarcasm. " Helen wants us to be considered as 
 belonging to the first society, and so long as Mrs. 
 Monroe and the Conklings invite her to their par 
 ties I suppose we are."
 
 Debts and Doubts. 105 
 
 "Jean define our position. It is a continuous 
 scramble after something to eat and wear, without 
 defrauding people out of their just dues. Under 
 such circumstances to have worn brown or gray, 
 or any color that we happened to have, would be 
 infinitely more respectable, and make less talk, 
 than to live on the charity, or at least the for 
 bearance of our friends. I tell you I don't see 
 how we are to live at all." 
 
 "We might go to the poor-house," Ermina 
 suggested, gravely. It was evidently all the conn- 
 sel that she had to offer, and Maria turned away,, 
 only saying in the same cold, half-indifferent tone 
 that her sister had used, 
 
 "It would make an 'outrageous' talk, you 
 would find ; and, besides, ' they ' don't wear crape 
 and bombazine at the poor-house." 
 
 " You are sharp," said Ermina. " In fact, you 
 are almost cross. I wish you would leave that 
 part of the programme to Helen, she excels in it; 
 and since you are the youngest you certainly 
 won't have to be responsible for the bills, so 1 
 wouldn't worry myself into a fever if I were 
 you." And Ermina left the room and the bills 
 and went away up stairs to brood over the state 
 of affairs, and exhibit more sympathy to the four 
 walls of her room than she would have dreamed 
 of showing to her sister. It was one of the mis 
 eries of this Randolph family that they lived in 
 sheila.
 
 106 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Maria sat down again and pondered the pitiless 
 staving figures in dumb dismay ; the sum total was 
 so much more than even she, who had tried to 
 keep a sharp lookout, had imagined. She knew 
 it was much more than her father had even 
 dreamed of. " If there was only some one to go 
 to for counsel or even for pity," she said, wearily. 
 * What do the girls think, I wonder ? People 
 must think, it seems to me, even though they were 
 not willing to let any one know it. I just won 
 der what Helen would say to all these ? I mean 
 to go and ask her. She certainly ought to know 
 the result of her management." She gathered up 
 an army of bills and went up to Helen's room. 
 That young lady was engaged in retrimming her 
 hat, and as the plume she attempted to fasten 
 showed all the obstinacy and depravity belonging 
 to plumes, the owner of it was not in a pleasant 
 mood to confront. Maria did not wait for moods; 
 she marched without preface into her subject. 
 
 *' Helen, what is to be done about all these 
 bills?" 
 
 " They are to be left on the library table, I 
 presume. That is where bills are generally kept." 
 
 " But I mean how are they to be paid ? " 
 
 " With money, I should imagine." 
 
 " Helen, I wish you wouldn't be so very sharp. 
 I have come for suggestions if you have any to 
 offer. If you really have no interest in the mat 
 ter I may as well go back."
 
 Debts and Doubts. 107 
 
 " I have an interest just now in my hat. I 
 wish it was back in the shop where it came from. 
 It is the most unbecoming thing I ever had on 
 my head." 
 
 " I wish it was paid for. Have you any idea 
 how much it cost? " 
 
 " Not the slightest, and I don't care. It is just 
 as plain and simple as anything I could get, and 
 therefore my conscience is clear. People will 
 have to be decent in this world." 
 
 " But, Helen, will it be considered decent not 
 to pay for it?" 
 
 The plume stood straight up now, one end 
 poking slightly forward ; besides, Helen had 
 pricked her finger ; her patience was utterly ex 
 hausted ; she spoke angrily. 
 
 " Do, Maria, hush. You are perfectly insane 
 over affairs that in no way belong to you. It is 
 ridiculous that the youngest in the house should 
 take us all to task in the way you do. Let the 
 bills alone, and all other matters that don't in the 
 least concern you. That is my suggestion, if you 
 really want one from me." 
 
 Maria gathered up her papers, and walked with 
 steady step and burning cheek out of the room. 
 
 " If there is anything earthly that I want it is 
 a friend." This she said with dry eyes, but with 
 a strange choking in her voice. 
 
 Poor, foolish child I There was a Friend
 
 108 Household Puzzles 
 
 greater than any earthly, who was waiting for a 
 chance to suggest, to sympathize, to shield, but 
 she passed Him by and struggled on alone. 
 
 Grace came through the hall humming a tune. 
 It was a sweet, tender little tune, and Grace 
 hummed it a great deal ; and Maria with the rest 
 had imagined that this daughter sang because she 
 was by nature lighter hearted, and grief touched 
 her more gently than it did the rest. 
 
 " I wonder if it has so much as occurred to Grace 
 that there is such a thing as a debt to be paid ? " 
 Maria said, listening to the song. " I mean to ask 
 her." She went to the door and called. 
 
 " Have you any idea how these are all to be 
 paid ? " she questioned, as Grace came up to the 
 table, with the tune still hovering around her lips. 
 
 " Have you counted them ? How much is it ? 
 Does father know ? " 
 
 "You always ask three questions at once, 
 Grace. Yes, I have counted them, and they 
 amount to enough. I dread to tell father any 
 thing about it. If there were only some way in 
 which /could help him to pay them." 
 
 Grace ceased her humming, but she drummed 
 the notes of the song on the green baize of the 
 table. It annoyed Maria. A good deal had oc 
 curred to annoy her that day. 
 
 " You never think of anything but music 
 she said, irritably.
 
 Debts and Doubts. 109 
 
 " I'm thinking of it now to some purpose." 
 Grace spoke lightly. " Thinking of giving it 
 up the lessons, you know. Spring isn't a 
 pleasant time for practicing, and I have several 
 other things that I want to do. The new term 
 opens to-morrow, but I have quite decided not 
 to enter my name at present. What do you 
 think of it?" 
 
 " I think it tus very little to do with the 
 question before us, as to the paying of these 
 bills," Maria said, coldly. 
 
 " Why, yes it has, just a little. Music lessons 
 are expensive articles, and the money I have in 
 my purse ready for the ' payment invariably in 
 advance ' that is always required, will make one 
 bill smaller at least." 
 
 " It would be but a drop in the bucket," Ma 
 ria said, forlornly. 
 
 " I know ; but one drop helps to fill the buck 
 et after all. Here's Madame La Farge's bill. 
 Milliners' accounts are always the most disagree 
 able to let stand. I can pay that and have a 
 part of a drop left, and father need not be trou 
 bled with anything about it. As for the others, 
 they will have their day somehow. Don't be 
 worried, Maria." 
 
 " So Helen's bonnet is paid for after all," thus 
 soliloquized Maria. Grace's voice reached her 
 from the upper stair ; she was trilling the notei 
 of the same tender song.
 
 10 Household Puzzles 
 
 " She is as light-hearted as a b itterfly," coo 
 tinued this youngest sister. u I'm sure I wish 1 
 could be like her and let care alone. I thought 
 she was devoted to her music lessons, but it 
 seems she is tired of them, which is a fortunate 
 thing for Madame La Farge." 
 
 The words of the song that Grace sang, over 
 and over again, were, 
 
 " It may not be my way, 
 It may not be thy way, 
 But yet in His own way, 
 The Lord will provide." 
 
 There are matters wherein sharp, quick-witted 
 girls like Maria Randolph show themselves to be 
 utterly stupid. 
 
 There was just one more member of the fami 
 ly to coasult. That was Tom. It was while 
 Maria was clearing away the tea things that the 
 subject of her anxious thought came to light 
 again. 
 
 " Tom, do you know the amount of the 
 bills?" 
 
 " Not in exact figures ; but I know they must 
 be stunning, When Helen is at the helm look 
 out lor bills. ' 
 
 Well, have you any idea what we shall do 
 about paying them ? You see our necessary ex 
 penses take up every bit of the salary, and more, 
 too ; and where these extras are to come in, 
 ( 0*1. 't imagine."
 
 Debts and Doubts. Ill 
 
 "I know," he said, gloomily. "1 clout see 
 what is to become of our family, anyway. You 
 can't imagine how much I envy Peter and 
 his regular employment, whereby he earns his 
 board and clothing. I don't see ^ J *vay out of 
 it. I can't get anything to do. I've tried all 
 this week. I really am not lying idle of choice, 
 though Helen is kind enough to insinuate it 
 pretty often." 
 
 Maria was not wont to be silent, especially 
 when she and Tom were together ; but on this 
 particular evening she rattled the tea-cups more 
 than seemed at all necessary, at least to Tom, 
 but as far as words were concerned was dumb. 
 
 Tom looked steadily at her for a few minutes, 
 then at the cups and saucers, and inwardly 
 wished they were in Jericho. Presently he 
 spoke again. 
 
 " Now, Maria, on your word and honor, what 
 do you think you would do if you were in my 
 place?" 
 
 " I may be mistaken," Maria began, with un 
 usual meekness. " I dare say I am ; because I 
 know that not being in your place alters the 
 case wonderfully ; but I think that if I were in 
 your place I would saw wood for Mr. Evans, or, 
 failing in that, drive the cows for Mr. Thornton, 
 or turn the grindstone for old Pete." 
 
 " Or wear the oilcloth coat that Messrs. Cook
 
 112 Household Puzzles. 
 
 & Co. provide for that industrious employe who 
 marches up and down the street exhibiting him 
 self, to announce that T & KofE R sold here," 
 interrupted Tom, with a little sharpness in the 
 voice that ^ trying to be steady. " That's 
 what the coat says, Maria in red letters, just 
 in this style," and he held up to her view 
 the slip of paper on which he had been printing. 
 " I saw the chap who wears it to-day, and I 
 couldn't help admiring his industry. Thank 
 you for your advice, I'll take it into considera 
 tion." 
 
 " I didn't mean to be sharp, Tom," Maria said 
 in dismay. " But I do feel so troubled about 
 everything. There doesn't seem to be anything 
 that anybody can do." 
 
 " Yes, there is ; we can all worry with all our 
 might, and that helps matters along amazingly, 
 makes home pleasant, you know. Don't imagine 
 I'm blaming }'ou. I'm a worthless, useless fel 
 low ; no one knows it better than I do myself. 
 Your suggestions are not practical after all, be 
 cause Peter saws Mr. Evans' wood at odd hours, 
 and they don't drive cows to pasture in February 
 in this climate, and old Pete has tumbled on his 
 grindstone and broken his leg. I've been con 
 sidering all these avenues to employment, you 
 see ; but they are like the rest, closed to me." 
 
 Tom was evidently hurt. He went out a*"
 
 Debts and Doubts. 
 
 113 
 
 once, and Maria saw him no more that evening. 
 This, then, was all that her planning had accom 
 plished. She shed some bitter tears over her 
 troubles that night, but they only served to 
 make her eyes red and give her a headache 
 for the next day, and she could not help feeling 
 that her life, too, was out of joint. 
 8
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LIGHT WITHOUT LOGIC. 
 
 OM did not appear at breakfast the next 
 morning. Grace had seen him go down 
 Chauncy Street quite early. 
 
 " My window overlooks Chauncy 
 Street, you know," she said, in explana 
 tion, to her father. 
 
 " What can take him to that part of the town 
 I wonder," Mr. Randolph said ; and in Maria's 
 heart there was a vague unrest. 
 
 " What can take him anywhere at this hour of 
 the day ? " Helen said. " Tom isn't given to 
 early morning walks." 
 
 He came in just before Mr. Randolph was 
 ready to leave, a little flushed, with a sort 01 
 triumph in his eyes that Maria did not under 
 stand and did not like. 
 
 "What will happen next, I wonder? I am 
 114
 
 Light without Logic. 115 
 
 prepared for anything, now that you have taken 
 to early rising." 
 
 Tliis was Helen's greeting. 
 
 " Perhaps the next wonder will be that you 
 will take to doing something useful." He said it 
 good-naturedly enough, but with the usual under 
 tone of sarcasm. " / have, at least. Father, 1 
 have secured a situation at last." 
 
 Mr. Randolph's eyes brightened. 
 
 "Have you?" he said, heartily. "That is 
 very cheering in these depressing times. What 
 have you found ? " 
 
 " I heard, last evening, that there was a va 
 cancy in Harter & Wicks' store, and I rushed 
 after it this morning the first thing. There were 
 several ahead of me, but I proved to be the fa 
 vored one." He addressed his father, but his 
 dancing, wicked eyes were fixed on Maria's face. 
 
 The information he gave was variously re 
 ceived. Helen exclaimed in dismay or disgust, 
 it was impossible to tell which; Ermina laughed; 
 Grace looked distressed; while Maria, with 
 cheeks flaming, and eyes that filled with angry 
 tears, looked only on her plate, and was utterly 
 silent. Mr. Randolph's voice was full of distress. 
 
 " Thomson, how could you do anything so rash ? 
 Times are hard enough ; but we are not in actual 
 need. And if we were, we would rather all 
 starve together than to have you descend to this. 1 '
 
 116 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " And father an officer in the State Temper 
 ance Society I " Ermina said laughing. 
 
 " It's an absolute disgrace," Helen said, with 
 flashing eyes. 
 
 " I don't know," Tom said, composedly break 
 ing his egg. " Is it much worse to sell the stuff 
 than it is to drink it? There's your friend, 
 Horace Monroe, patronizes the establishment. 
 He was even out this morning. Now, if he 
 drinks wine somebody must sell it to him, and 
 why not I as well as any other? Father, I 
 couldn't help it. I had to do something. You 
 know how hard I have tried to secure something 
 decent to do. Everything failed me, and I was 
 goaded on, partly by my own conscience and 
 partly by the consciences of other people." 
 
 Even at this Maria did not raise her head. 
 
 " I would rather have lived on bread and 
 water," Mr. Randolph said, pitifully. 
 
 "Now that's pretty hard on a fellow, isn't it? 
 especially when he has done the best that he 
 could. It must be an honest, respectable busi 
 ness, or the law wouldn't permit it, and respect 
 able Christian people wouldn't vote for it nor 
 patronize it. Things are mixed, father, I'm will 
 ing to admit that." 
 
 " J don't vote for it, nor patronize it," Mr. 
 Randolph said, firmly. 
 
 " I know it, sir," Tom said, and his voice was
 
 Light without Logic. 117 
 
 almost tender. " I know that very well ; and if 
 there were more men like you it wouldn't be 
 voted for, and there would be no chanoe for me 
 to sell it ; but you see men are not modeled after 
 your pattern. Dr. Evans votes for it, you know, 
 and Mr. Wheeler, and Mr. Harris, and a host of 
 others too numerous to mention every one of 
 them members of your own church - to say noth 
 ing of the large company who have it in their cel 
 lars, and closets, and medicine cases. Don't you 
 see things are horribly mixed ? " 
 
 The sentence commenced in respectful tender 
 ness ended in good-humored mockery; but Mr. 
 Randolph's face retained the pained, grieved look 
 as he answered, 
 
 "You and I, Thomson, have nothing to do 
 with any one but you and me in this matter. 
 God doesn't require us to keep the consciences 
 of other men ; and I would rather live all my life 
 on bread and water than to have my son sell 
 rum," and Mr. Randolph went with slow and 
 feeble step from the room. 
 
 " It is too bad ! '' Ermina said, indignantly. 
 " Father has quite enough to bear without this.'* 
 
 "I think as much!" This from Helen. " Tom, 
 if you have no self-respect left, nor a partk\e of 
 regard for your sisters, one would have supposed 
 that you might have remembered your father ' 
 
 "1 did remember him, Lady Helen, and
 
 118 Household Puzzles. 
 
 fore concluded to relieve him of my support. 
 That is considerate, certainly ; at least you ought 
 to think so, lor the times that you have hinted 
 something of the sort to me can not be num 
 bered." 
 
 How long this interesting conversation would 
 have continued, had there been no interruption, 
 it is impossible to say. Fortunately the door-bell 
 summoned both Helen and Ermina to a confer 
 ence in the hall, and the family party broke up. 
 
 Tom lingered in the dining-room, while Maria 
 cleared the table. He drummed thoughtfully 
 on the window-pane and wished his solemn-faced 
 sister would speak. He had told the truth ai 
 the breakfast table, but not the whole truth 
 The situation was his, provided he choose to 
 accept it. Pecuniarily, the offe^ was a tempting 
 one. Messrs. Harter & Wicks had been liberal 
 and persuasive. Mr. Randolph, sonior, had been 
 all his life an earnest temperance man ; in his 
 prosperous days he had been a veiv Influential 
 one. To secure his son as clerk in an establish 
 ment whose main business was selling liquor 
 would be a delightful triumph over the temper 
 ance movement. But Tom Randolph, though 
 by no means a temperance man from principle 
 still hated the business of rum selling with a coi 
 dial hatred, and was by no means decided, even 
 in his desperate state, to accept the onl} posi-
 
 Light without Logic. 119 
 
 tion offered him. Maria's words had jarred on 
 his nature all the more, perhaps, because origi 
 nally his lack of employment was his own fault. 
 Mouths before this he might have secured respect 
 able places, and many a parley did he hold with 
 his pride over them ; but, latterly, when pride 
 was utterly vanquished by the need that he saw 
 pressed sorely, every avenue had seemed closed. 
 It was hard, he said to himself, " That a fellow 
 must be witted with laziness, when he stood 
 ready to pick stones for a living, if only he could 
 find any to pick." He left out of consideration 
 the fact that no one but himself knew that he 
 had made any attempt at stone-picking, and' so 
 he nursed his wrath until Messrs. Harter & 
 Wicks' place of business had seemed a sweet re 
 venge. Still he had left himself an hour in 
 which to escape. " If I am not here by nine 
 o'clock," he had said to Mr. Harter, " you may 
 understand that I have changed my mind." It 
 wanted fifteen minutes to nine. His mind was 
 almost changed. He had not remembered that 
 besides shocking the girls, which he rather en 
 joyed, he would also shock his father. That was 
 another thing. 
 
 "It won't pay, I guess," he said to himself, 
 thinking of his father's ' worn, troubled face. 
 "I'll take another look." If only that solemn- 
 faced Maria would say something. Why
 
 120 Household Puzzles. 
 
 couldn't she have known what an influence het 
 sayings had over this brother of hers ? 
 
 " You don't congratulate me on my success," 
 he said at last, resolved to make her speak, 
 which however, she didn't do. Maria rattled 
 the knives and dropped a teaspoon, but she kept 
 her tongue entirely still. "I should think you 
 might be more agreeable to a fellow after I've 
 taken your latest advice and found something to 
 do at all hazards. Can't you even wish me suc 
 cess as salesman ? " 
 
 " I have nothing whatever to say," Maria 
 said at last, and she said it with dignity. " If I 
 cannot speak a word to you about finding em 
 ployment, when you know as well as I do the 
 need for it, and when you asked me for my opin 
 ion, without your getting angry and doing some 
 thing directly to disgrace the entire family, why, 
 the more I keep my opinions to myself the 
 better it will be for you, and I intend to do 
 it after this." 
 
 *' All right," Tom said, and he seized his hat 
 and rushed off to Messrs. Harter & Wicks' place 
 of business. It was five minutes of nine. " I'll 
 do it ! " he said to himself on the way. " They're 
 all cross together ; it's impossible to please them, 
 and I may as well not try. I'll earn some money 
 anyway." 
 
 As for Maria she cried during the greater part
 
 Light without Logic. 121 
 
 of the morning, making her nose red and swollen, 
 an-l ~ v orgot to put the soda in her bread, 
 jo me lamily ate sour bread for three days ; but 
 all this did not keep her brother from soiling 
 whiskey at the corner store, and she might have 
 done it. Maria Randolph had made two mis 
 takes. She thought that what she saw in a per 
 son's life was all that there was to see, and rea 
 soned accordingly ; also she knew nothing of the 
 practical working of that grand old "whatsoev 
 er," therefore she worked without it. " Put 
 yourself in his place," a writer has chosen for a 
 title,, and no doubt he thinks it a strikingly orig 
 inal idea. Maria Randolph has never read the 
 book, and I trust she never will; to my mind she 
 is much better off without it; but both she and 
 the aforesaid author must have heard of the 
 wonderful words, " Whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
 
 All this happened on Saturday. On Sabbath, 
 Tom wandered listlessly from room to room. 
 Maria was still on her dignity, and the only con 
 versation Tom attempted with her was to wish 
 that the saloon was kept open on Sunday, to 
 which she made no answer. His wanderings 
 finally took him to the back kitchen, where Pe 
 ter Armstrong had the privilege of sitting of 
 a Sabbath afternoon. 
 
 " Well," he said, halting before that young
 
 122 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 man, "how's Peter Bible? . I see you have his 
 life there. I haven't heard anything *'*-"* him 
 for some time. Have you discovered wnuu n*,, 
 fellow's other name is ? " 
 
 "No," Peter said, "I haven't thought^ any 
 thing about that since. I've found him, though, 
 again. There's a spell where nothing is said 
 about him, and I was most afraid that he had 
 stopped following, but they speak of him again 
 just as though he had been on hand most of the 
 time, and I guess he was." 
 
 " What is he up to ? " Tom asked, taking his 
 favorite seat on the wood-box. . 
 
 " He's been having company," Peter said, 
 meditatively. 
 
 " Company ! " and Tom's tones were derisive. 
 "I didn't know he was given to that sort of 
 thing. Seems to me it was rather frivolous in 
 him, just like people now days." 
 
 "It depends some on the company you happen 
 to have, I reckon." 
 
 Tom laughed. 
 
 " Oh, well, as to that, Peter wasn't aristocratic 
 in those days, I fancy. I presume he had those 
 brother fishermen to dinner. Very likely he gave 
 them a clam-bake, though I suppose that isn't 
 mentioned in the Bible, is it? " 
 
 " No," Peter said, gravely. * But the company 
 is by name."
 
 Light without Logic. 123 
 
 "Who were they?" 
 
 " Jesus Christ." Peter spoke the name slowly 
 and reverently. The effect on Tom was curious. 
 He started from the wood-box with a half-shocked 
 face, and stared in silence at his companion for a 
 full minute before his surprise found vent in 
 words. 
 
 " You are certainly a queer chap," he said, at 
 length. " I wonder if it is superior innocence or 
 unusual depth that is at the bottom of it all ? " 
 
 " What are you talking about ? " Peter asked 
 the question with an air of unmistakable inno 
 cence. 
 
 " Where did you get that queer way of talking 
 about things of this sort as though they happened 
 yesterday, or last week, and as if the people were 
 acquaintances of yours ? " . 
 
 " What's the difference when things happened 
 if they truly happened?" questioned Peter, with 
 puzzled face. *' And as for being acquainted, 
 why I am acquainted with Jesus Christ, you 
 know. You can't think how nice it is to think 
 that he went to Peter's house visiting. It speaks 
 of it as though it was just a common enough 
 thing to do. 'And when Jesus was come into 
 Peter's house,' it says, just as though he often 
 went, maybe. I like it ever so much. It makea 
 you remember that he truly was a man, you 
 know. A fellow thinks queer things sometimes.
 
 124 Household Puzzles. 
 
 When you come out I sat here thinking that he, 
 maybe, goes visiting sometimes in heaven they 
 have houses there, you know; and perhaps 
 will actually come to my house in heaven some 
 day Why not ? What's the use of laughing at 
 a fellow? It, may be so, I tell you. Anyhow i 
 don't matter whether it is or not, because 
 comes down into our hearts now, and stays if we 
 
 want him." 
 
 . I'd like to see some heart where he stayed. 
 Tom stopped laughing and spoke almost bitterly. 
 It strikes me they must be different kinds 
 hearts from any that I know. How much of that 
 do you honestly believe, my boy? If the spmt 
 of Jesus Christ actually looks after people now 
 days, why don't he come and look after me ? ^ 
 
 Maybe he don't Jike the company you keep. 
 Peter spoke gravely enough, but his words set 
 Tom into another laugh. 
 
 "There's another of your odd^ notions, 
 said. " Where do you get them ? " 
 
 It isn't my notion at all. Mr. Gordon said 
 80 in his sermon this morning. Didn't you hear 
 
 him?" 
 
 ** Can't say that I did." 
 
 " Well, you couldn't have been listening then, 
 for he said it, and I thought of you down there 
 in that saloon, and what kind of company you had 
 gone to keeping. He doesn't like that, you may 
 depend."
 
 Light without Logic. 125 
 
 For some reason that was mysterious to him 
 self, the boy's simple words irritated Tom Ran 
 dolph. 
 
 " See here," he said, sharply, " since you have 
 studied my case so thoroughly, perhaps you can 
 tell me why I wasn't better looked after, and em 
 ployment found for me tha* was respectable, if 
 this is not ? " 
 
 " Perhaps you didn't ask Him to help ? " 
 
 Tom's good humor returned. He seemed 
 amused at the childishness of the reply. 
 
 " Oh, that's it," he said, carelessly. " It's a 
 queer kind of reason, isn't it ?^ If He cares any 
 thing about me, why doesn't He see that I go 
 straight, and keep the right sort of company, 
 whether I ask His help or not. How is that?" 
 
 Peter's answer was ready. 
 
 " I don't know," he said, simply. " I've 
 thought about that myself, and wondered why 
 He didn't. There must be a good reason for it, 
 or He wouldn't have fixed it so. He just chooses 
 that we should ask for His help if we want it ; 
 and that's all fair and square enough, as far as I 
 see. If we don't want a thing bad enough to ask 
 for it, after it's been promised for the asking, why 
 don't that go to show that we can't be awful 
 anxious to have it at all ? As to why He fixed 
 it that way I'm sure I don't know, and it don't
 
 il.8 Household Puzzles. 
 
 make no kind of difference whether I know the 
 why of a thing or not, if I know the thing itself." 
 Thomson Randolph was puzzled. How was 
 he going to answer this simple boy's simple, " I 
 don't know ? " This wasn't logic nor argument, 
 aiid yet it was unanswerable sure enough. Who 
 did know ? God had a right certainly to do as 
 he ^leased. Very likely he had reasons for his 
 pl?ns. There used to be a great deal to be said 
 on this subject when the boys in college dis- 
 cupsed theology; but before Peter Armstrong's 
 ignorance discussion fled away and left the col- 
 laf boy speechless.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MISTAKES GREAT AND SMALL. 
 
 ARVARD PLACE CHURCH was large 
 and handsome, frescoed, upholstered, car 
 peted, organed, in the latest and most ap 
 proved style. The congregation was in 
 keeping with the church, large, well- 
 dressed, cultivated. In fact, the Harvard Place 
 Church was the fashion. Into this church, on 
 the evening of which I write, sauntered Thomp 
 son Randolph, not from any special desire to be 
 in church, but because it was customary to go, 
 and he didn't know what else to do with himself. 
 His sisters, Helen and Ermina, occupied promi 
 nent seats in the choir, and were very beautiful 
 singers. Tom watched them as they fidgeted 
 through the opening prayer, settling their over- 
 skirts and buttoning each other's gloves, and 
 afterward finding, with some rustle of leaves, 
 their places in the note-books. 
 
 137
 
 128 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " I wonder what they will do next ? " he 
 whispered to his friend Germaiu Wilcox, whose 
 seat he occupied. " How much prayer do they 
 faucy they have heard ? " 
 
 " They are getting reaoTy to perform," whis 
 pered Germain behind his glove. " They can't 
 be expected to be interested in anything so com 
 monplace as a prayer. They are going to have a 
 stunning anthem, to-night. Sis has been squeal 
 ing it all the afternoon." 
 
 Sis Wilcox was one of the leading sopranos. 
 The anthem was very beautiful, tender, and 
 sweet. Whether some of the effect of its sweet- 
 ness was destroyed by the previous fidgets in 
 which the choir had indulged can not perhaps 
 be ascertained with certainty. Tom Randolph 
 very rarely paid close attention to the sermon. 
 " Sermons were not his forte," he was wont to 
 say ; but on this particular evening something in 
 Mr. Gordon's manner arrested his attention. 
 " Ye will not come unto me." This was tho 
 text, and the sermon fitted it a siufple, solemn, 
 earnest setting forth of the strangeness of the 
 sinner's position before God. There had been 
 much prayer spent on that sermon. I might 
 almost say that Mr. Gordon had written it on 
 his knees, so anxious had he been to say just the 
 right thing in the most straightforward way. 
 A good and earnest man was Mr. Gordon, whose
 
 Mistakes Great and Small. 129 
 
 heart was at times utterly weighed down with a 
 sense of the responsibilities of his position and 
 his longing for the salvation of souls. Early in 
 the evening Torn ceased his running comments 
 on everything that was said and done, and sat 
 erect with eyes fixed on the preacher's face. 
 The style of sermon was one particularly calcu 
 lated to arrest the attention of a sensible young 
 man, there was such a calm, close, direct appeal 
 to common sense. 
 
 " There is no getting around some of his 
 positions. The world is made of fools anyhow, 
 and it looks as though I might be one of the 
 number." These were some of Tom's mental 
 comments. However, during the closing prayer 
 he allowed his thoughts to rove over the church 
 and the village, and succeeded in a measure in 
 shaking off the sense of personality. In the 
 closing hymn he joined with unusual energy, 
 partly because the tune was a particular favorite, 
 and partly because he was aware that the choir 
 preferred to do their own singing without assist 
 ance from the congregation. This was a view 
 of matters that always exasperated Tom, and 
 having a powerful voice he did his best to 
 express his opinion. 
 
 " How happy every child of grace, 
 Who knows his sins forgiven; 
 This earth, he cries, is not my place, 
 I seek my place "v heaven." 
 
 9
 
 130 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Such was one of the verses, put in striking 
 contrast with the main idea of the hymn, the 
 contrast between the state of those who have 
 "come" and accepted of the promised "life," 
 and those who will not come. Very little atten 
 tion did Tom Randolph pay to the words; he 
 did not discover their appropriateness to the ser 
 mon; the tune was the main point with him. 
 Catching at the words a line at a time, and 
 while he sang it letting his eyes rove through 
 the church, it is no wonder that the words 
 became confused in his brain, and his voice rang 
 out loud and clear, "I seek no place in heaven." 
 
 Germain Wilcox laughed. 
 
 " That's true enough," he whispered. " But 
 it's not quite the idea that Parson Gordon wants 
 sung. Can't yon read ? " 
 
 Not another line sang Tom. It was not em 
 barrassment ; few, if any, besides Germain would 
 be likely to notice the mistake, if they did Tom 
 was naturally too unconcerned to care; but 
 there came to him a sudden overwhelming sense 
 of the truth of the sentiment as he had sung it. 
 44 1 seek no place in heaven." It was one thing 
 for a young man morally, nay, Christianly 
 brought up, to quietly ignore the facts of death 
 and hereafter ; it was quite another to boldly 
 declare that he sought no future home. If the 
 line had read as he imagined, "I seek no place
 
 Mistakes Great and Small. 131 
 
 but heaven," his tongue would have glided 
 smoothly over the poetic falsehood without a 
 thought, but the true sentence that he had 
 unwittingly sung filled him with a feeling almost 
 like dismay. He did not saunter home with 
 Germain as he had at first intended, but left him 
 immediately and turned his steps homeward. 
 Peter Armstrong was just ahead ; he halted as 
 he recognized Tom. 
 
 " Going home ? " was all he said ; and it 
 chimed in with Tom's thoughts, " I seek no 
 home." 
 
 " No," he answered, with a sharp laugh, " I'm 
 going to destruction." 
 
 Peter was silent and astonished; he was not 
 quick-witted; he did not quite take Tom's 
 meaning ; he would not have known what 
 answer to make if he had, so he made none ; 
 but presently said over the two lines of the 
 hymn that had stayed with him : 
 
 " This earth, he cries, is not my place, 
 I seek my place in heaven." 
 
 The truth of the rendering this time struck 
 Tom forcible. Undoubtedly Peter was seeking 
 a place there ; no one who came in daily contact 
 with him could doubt it. 
 
 " I made a new version of those lines to suit 
 my own case," he said, with an attempt at a
 
 132 Household Puzzles. 
 
 laugh, and then he repeated them as he sang 
 them. 
 
 " Well," said Peter, gravely, " that's so, ain't 
 it?" 
 
 " Nothing could be truer ; only a fellow don't 
 enjoy singing it out before a congregation, you 
 know." 
 
 " Might as well sing it as live it," Peter an- 
 Kwered, speaking very gravely. "It's a dreadful 
 mean way to live. I wouldn't do it if I was 
 you." 
 
 Tom laughed. 
 
 " You come to the root of things almost as 
 promptly as Mr. Gordon does," he said careless 
 ly. But I am about as well satisfied with the 
 way in which I live as I am with the most lives 
 I see." 
 
 This sentence was the embodiment of Tom's 
 hobby ; it had in it the great beam behind 
 which he hid while he pointed his finger at 
 the motes in other people's eyes; but Peter 
 did not know this he knew nothing about 
 hobbies anyway so he continued his own train 
 of thought. 
 
 " It's queer how folks live, ain't it now ? " he 
 said. " Knowing that some things are true 
 there's that line, ' This earth, he cried, is not my 
 place.' Now, everybody can say that. Who 
 ever heard of a man finding a place to stay here
 
 Mistakes Great and Small. 1U3 
 
 on earth? He goes off somewhere, that's plain 
 enough ; he's sure to die, and he knows he will. 
 Now for them that sing the next line as you did, 
 and there's lots of 'em, where are they going to 
 live? no place on earth, and they won't have 
 one in heaven. Now wouldn't you think it 
 would be kind of natural for them to wonder 
 where they would stay ? " 
 
 " I wish Charles Wesley had found some 
 other place to live in before he wrote that 
 hymn," muttered Tom, "I never was so 
 haunted." 
 
 Then he and Peter both went in the front 
 way to the parlor to wait for family worship. 
 Mr. Randolph had gone to his room, would be 
 ready in a little while, Grace said, so the family 
 lounged in various attitudes awaiting his coming. 
 
 " What a very long sermon Mr. Gordon had 
 to-night!" Helen said, folding her crape vail. 
 " I got so tired. I wonder if it wasn't an old 
 sermon? Someway it sounded like one to me." 
 
 *' I'm sure / don't know. He might preach 
 an old sermon every month and I should be 
 none the wiser. I can't remember Mr. Gordon's 
 sermons ; they don't interest me." This from 
 Ermina. 
 
 " I think this one was interesting ; there were 
 a good many illustrations." This was Grace's 
 timid protest
 
 134 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "I'm tired of his illustrations," Helen said, 
 wearily. " He has about twenty for every 
 sermon. I don't see the use in a minister telling 
 stories all the while, as if his congregation were 
 a parcel of children." 
 
 " Nevertheless it is generally considered the 
 most acceptable style of sermonizing," Tom said, 
 as he stretched his handsome self on the lounge, 
 and laid his curly head on Grace's lap. 
 
 Helen turned and looked at him in cool sur 
 prise. 
 
 " Who ever imagined that you had any idea 
 concerning the most acceptable styles of ser 
 monizing? I didn't know it was. in your line." 
 
 " It has been in my line to hear Beecher and 
 Talrnadge and John Hall, perhaps you know ; 
 and I heard several illustrations used, I can 
 assure you." 
 
 " Oh, well, I've no Objection to illustrations 
 wuere they are needed to explain truth to 
 those who can not understand it without. I 
 only wish you had profited by all those you 
 have heard." 
 
 " I wish I had, with all my heart," Tom said, 
 gloomily. " I think, myself, that patterns are 
 needed as well as illustrations." 
 
 Maria here took up the conversation. 
 
 " I wish Mr. Gordon would leave his hand- 
 ker chief at home ; how nervous that man does
 
 Mistakes Great and Small. 135 
 
 make me, winding it around his hand and twist 
 ing it in all sorts of shapes. I'm always afraid 
 he will forget where he is and make an out-and- 
 out rabbit, as I presume he does at home for 
 the children." 
 
 " His handkerchief doesn't trouble me as 
 much as his continual fidgeting," Ermina said. 
 " Squeaking boots, too. If I were Mrs. Gordon 
 I'd soak them in grease for a month ; and he 
 shrugs his shoulders worse than ever. Helen, 
 did you notice him to-night? It's for all the 
 world just as his baby does, when it wants 
 something it can't have." 
 
 " He is so wretchedly nervous, anyway, that 
 it is a trial to watch him. Sis Wilcox says he 
 gives her the fidgets." 
 
 "She has them, any way, ".Maria said. "She 
 acts like a simpleton. If I were going to whis 
 per and laugh as much as she does, I should 
 choose some less conspicuous place than the 
 choir." 
 
 "Well," Ermina said, "she is a simpleton; 
 why shouldn't she act like one ? " 
 
 " She is a member of the same church with 
 yourself," Tom said, pointedly ; and Helen made 
 emphatic response, 
 
 " What if she is? That doesn't insure perfec 
 tion." 
 
 " So I perceive. I was simply interested in 
 observing how you all loved each other."
 
 136 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " I wonder who pretends to love her ? I'm 
 sure /never did." 
 
 " But I thought that was one of the articles 
 of your creed ? " 
 
 " That only helps Lo show how limited your 
 knowledge of church matters is. Maria, how 
 many colors had Laura Fox about her this 
 evening V " 
 
 " I'm sure I dont know. I haven't an eye 
 for colors. Besides, my post of observation is 
 not as extended as yours and Ermina's. I 
 listened to the sermon this evening." 
 
 " That's a wonder. It was less worthy of 
 attention than usual. I don't like such ser 
 mons." 
 
 " I don't either," Tom said, laconically. " I 
 never heard a sermon in my life that I thought 
 was more of a nuisance." 
 
 " That's a strange word to apply to a sermon, 
 Tom. I thought it was very solemn." It was 
 Grace's soft voice that now interposed. 
 
 " I think so, too," Tom answered, quickly. 
 " It is solemn sermons that Helen and I don't 
 like." 
 
 " I didn't say any such thing," Helen said, 
 sharply. "Tim, what is the use of making 
 fun of everything? You don't know anything 
 about sermons, and therefore you ought not to 
 criticise them."
 
 Mistakes Great and Small. 137 
 
 Tom laughed sarcastically. 
 
 "Perhaps I don't know anything about 
 church- members, and therefore ought not to 
 criticise them." 
 
 " No, you ought not. People do not profess 
 to be perfect because they are members of the 
 church." 
 
 " That's fortunate ; because they are so far 
 removed from it that no one would believe them 
 if they did. I'll tell you what I believe," and 
 he sat erect and spoke excitedly. " I believe 
 the whole thing is a humbug. Here you girls 
 have been to church this evening, listening to 
 what, if it is true, is as solemn as death itself; 
 and you come home and discuss the preacher's 
 handkerchief, and boots, and gestures. Part 
 of you profess to be on the safe side of the line, 
 and to think that the other part of us are on 
 the very brink of destruction ; and neither you 
 nor we appear to care. Now how is a fellow 
 to believe there is any truth in any of it?" 
 
 " Tom Randolph ! " Helen said, in dismay. 
 " I didnt know you were an infidel." 
 
 "A fiddlestick! If I'm not, it is not the fault 
 of the burning and shining lights that I see 
 around me. Take your own case, Helen. Do 
 you believe your own doctrine?" 
 
 " Of course I believe it, or I wouldn't profess 
 to."
 
 138 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Then you believe that Maria, here, i8 in 
 danger of everlasting destruction ; and yet, in 
 the face of such a sermon as Mr. Gordon 
 preached to-night you ask her about the colors 
 that Laura Fox wears. If your doctrine means 
 anything, you ought to be begging and pleading 
 with her to escape for her life." 
 
 " I'm uot a fanatic," Helen said, coldy. 
 
 " No, you are not. I'll answer for that. But 
 you are either self-deceived, or the whole thing 
 is a humbug. If there is religion at all, it must 
 be something different from this milk-and-water 
 stuff, that consists in dressing up in one's best 
 and doing the praising for the rest of the con 
 gregation, and then coming home and picking 
 to pieces what sounded like a solemn sermon. 
 I don't believe in any of it, and I think I'm 
 justified in my conclusion. 1 tell you I think " 
 
 The sitting-room door opened and Mr. Ran 
 dolph came in. He went directly toward his 
 accustomed seat, took up the family Bible, and 
 there sounded in the room, on the very breath 
 of the sharp sentences that had filled the air, 
 these words : " Wherefore, laying aside all mal 
 ice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, 
 and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire 
 the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow 
 thereby : if so be that ye have tasted that the 
 Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a
 
 Mistakes Great and Small. 
 
 living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but 
 chosen of God, and precious." 
 
 Then Mr. Randolph prayed ; and he prayed 
 for his daughters and his son in such a manner 
 that Tom Randolph was left no chance for 
 believing that to his father, at least, this thing 
 was a humbug. He laughed a little as he met 
 Peter's earnest look half an hour afterward as 
 he went to the kitchen for some water. 
 
 " It's a great muddle, Peter," he said. " I 
 don't know how to put it. My father means it, 
 I guess, and I think very likely you do ; but as 
 for the rest " 
 
 " I know one other who means it," Peter said, 
 interrupting him. 
 
 " Who is that ? " 
 
 " The Lord Jesus Christ."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WEIGHTY MATTERS IN SMALL SCALES. 
 
 WONDER if things are becoming serious 
 in that quarter?" This Maria Randolph 
 said, nodding her head toward the closed 
 parlor door. 
 
 44 Nonsense I " Ermina said. 
 44 Well, this is the second evening this week, 
 and I think that looks like more than common 
 courtesy. I'm naturally anxious, for if there is 
 one thing more to be dreaded than another in 
 this family it's a wedding ; financially speaking, 
 that would jast about ruin us." 
 
 Meantime the closed pauor doors screened 
 from view Helen Randolph and the object of 
 Maria's solicitude, Mr. Horace Munroe. They 
 were standing by the table near the door, she 
 nervously fingering the contents of the card- 
 basket, he looking at her earnestly, searchingly 
 140
 
 Weighty Matters in Small Scales. 141 
 
 as though he would give much to know exactly 
 what she was thinking. 
 
 " Then you need time to consider this mat 
 ter?" he said at last; and Helen lifted her 
 drooping eyes to his and spoke quickly : 
 
 " I must take time, Horace ; it is so sudden, 
 so very unexpected." 
 
 "That seems strange to me," he said, smiling 
 a little, " when I have thought of it so much 
 and so long. Don't you know your own mind, 
 Helen ? " 
 
 But Helen turned quickly away from his 
 searching look. 
 
 " Indeed I can not answer your questions to 
 night, Horace; my mind is in a whirl of bewil 
 derment. You must give me time. To-morrow 
 evening I will talk with you." 
 
 Then she went directly to her own room 
 without joining the family party in the sitting- 
 room. 
 
 " It was rather a short call," Maria said. 
 " I guess I needn't groan over the wedding-cake 
 yet." 
 
 But there was wedding-cake in prospect; at 
 least Horace Munros meant to have some if he 
 could bring it about. This was the important 
 question for Helen to settle, and she worked 
 hard at the problem most of the night, and 
 awoke in the morning heavy-eyed, the question
 
 142 Household Puzzles. 
 
 still unsettled. There were important difficul 
 ties in the way. In the first place, did bhe love 
 Mr. Munroe well enough to marry him ? She 
 liked him very well indeed, enjoyed his society 
 'but Helen Randolph, in common with every 
 well-trained, pure-hearted young lady, had ei- 
 alted ideas of the love that justify marriage. 
 To enjoy spending an occasional evening with 
 a gentleman, and to have that feeling for him 
 that would make his failures and shortcomings 
 endurable for a lifetime, were two different 
 things. Helen Randolph hud grave doubts; 
 they were very unlike in their views and feel 
 ings; some of his ideas thoroughly exasperated 
 her ; she had come from his society feeling that 
 she never wanted to see him again. How would 
 it be, bhe wondered, if it came to spending 
 weeks and months and years in his society. She 
 shrank from it. " Leaving all others, cleave 
 only to him." So ran the marriage service. 
 Helen knew it and thought about it. " Of 
 course I should do that if I were his wife," she 
 said ; yet even as she said it she was conscious 
 of feeling that it would be a trial to spend no 
 more pleasant evenings with Mr. Harper. If 
 Mr. Harper should come to her with such a ques 
 tion and her face flushed as she realized that 
 ihere were points about that coming that she 
 vhould not hesitate over. But then he never
 
 Weighty Matters in Small Scales. 143 
 
 would come ; he was nothing to her ; had never 
 been. Why in the world should his image come 
 before her now ? " Helen ILirper," she said, 
 dreamily. " It is a very pretty sounding name, 
 but it will never be my name, and the question 
 to be settled is, whether I shall be Helen Munroe. 
 Oh, me ! I wish things didn't have to be settled, 
 or could be unsettled again in a lifetime if one 
 happened to make a mistake. What a horrid 
 thing a divorce would be. I should never do 
 that, anyway." Does any lady reading this 
 have the least doubt as to Helen Randolph's 
 duty in the matter? There were other points. 
 As her eye rested on her dust-covered Bible, 
 certain old-fashioned directions found therein 
 came to mind. " Be ye not unequally yoked 
 together with unbelievers." She remembered 
 it. Now Horace Munroe actually made light 
 of all religious beliefs. Not in a coarse, offensive 
 way, but with a good-natured sarcasm, putting 
 things so aptly that she had more than half 
 laughed at things that should make a Christian 
 blush. "But he isn't an infidel," she argued. 
 " Not so much of a one as our Tom is, I verily 
 believe. He goes to church quite regularly 
 evenings ; and he would go mornings with me 
 of course. Yet, after all, what a strange way 
 it would be to live for a Randolph; no family 
 worship, no blessing asked at table. Dear me I
 
 144 Household Puzzles. 
 
 I don't believe I could live so. Perhaps he 
 might be different if I were his wife. I might 
 lead him. He isn't easy to lead, though, and it 
 isn't my nature to do things of that sort. I 
 never was designed for a missionary. I suppose 
 I need help myself rather than to be planning to 
 help other people. It would be nice to have a 
 strong, good man to look up to constantly." 
 And again visions of Mr. Harper, a "strong, 
 good man," stole over her thoughts. "Horace 
 ' is strong enough about some things," she mused, 
 "and he is good hearted. Very likely I might 
 coax him into almost anything, only he would 
 change his mind as soon as he was out of my 
 sight. He is very fond of me." And a very 
 tender feeling came into her heart as she thought 
 of the tremulous earnestness of his usually gay, 
 careless voice as he urged his claim. ' I hope 1 
 think enough of him so that he wont be disap 
 pointed in me that is, if 1 decide not to disap 
 point him. Dear me ! I'm tired of thinking it 
 all over and over. I wish I could go to sleep. 
 I wonder what the girls will say? It will be 
 nice to live in a handsome house and have what 
 one wants without counting the pennies ten 
 times over before making any purchases. Hor 
 ace is as generous with his money as any man 
 can be ; that feature of it is absolutely bewitch- 
 
 ing."
 
 Weighty Matters in Small Scales. 145 
 
 In this delightful fashion Helen Randolph 
 spent the night, tossing and tumbling, dragging 
 the clothes from Ennina's side of the bed, and 
 being impatiently requested to "for pity's sake 
 lie still," turning her pillow and thumping it 
 into one corner of the case to get a cool, high 
 spot for her throbbing head. It wasn't often 
 that Helen Randolph's cool, calculating head 
 was caught in such a whirl. It was in the 
 morning when she was dressed and nearly ready 
 to go down stairs that she suddenly sought 
 counsel, or at least sympathy. She drummed 
 on the window-pane and watched Tom hurrying 
 down town, as she said, abruptly, 
 
 "Ermina, Horace Munroe has asked me to be 
 Mrs. Horace Munroe." 
 
 " My patience ! " Ermina said, pausing in the 
 hurried arrangement of her hair. "Maria was 
 right then, after all." 
 
 " Maria ! What on earth does she know about 
 it?" 
 
 " Why, she was fretting over the expense of 
 wedding-cake, in view of his numerous calls. 
 Well, Helen, are you going to marry him ? " 
 
 Helen laughed a little. 
 
 " How you do pitch into things," she said, 
 as she turned one blushing cheek a little to 
 ward her sister. " What is the use of being so 
 blunt ? " 
 
 10
 
 116 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "Blunt?" said Ermina, going on with her 
 blushing. "I don't see anything very blunt 
 about that. I suppose you know whether you 
 want to marry him or not, and I just asked for 
 your decision." 
 
 This was precisely what Helen did not know, 
 but she did not choose to say so to her sister. 
 
 " I haven't given it yet," she said, quietly. 
 " I took time for consideration ; and then, of 
 course, I shouldn't give a positive answer with 
 out consulting father." 
 
 " Father won't like it," Ermina said, posi 
 tively. 
 
 " Why not, pray ? " and the ready flush of 
 indignation mounted on Helen's cheek. 
 
 "Because he thinks Mr. Munroe is dissi 
 pated." 
 
 "Oh, nonsense! father musn't expect young 
 men in these days to be made after the pattern 
 of a generation back. Horace is as good as the 
 most of them." 
 
 Erraina finished her toilet in silence and went 
 down stairs, and Helen lingered, unwilling to 
 meet the family in her undecided state of 
 mind. Grace came in search of stray goblets, 
 and Helen, in sheer desperation, stated the case 
 ' to her, just to hear what she would say. She 
 Eaid nothing for some minutes; she was doubly 
 astonished: first, Horace Aluuroe was not in the
 
 Weighty Matters in tfmall Scales. 147 
 
 least the sort of man she had thought Helen 
 would fancy ; and, second I} 7 , it was such a new 
 experience to have the confidence of her oldest 
 sister that she did not quite know what to do 
 with it. 
 
 " Do you like him enough to marry him ? " 
 she asked at last, speaking gently, almost timidly. 
 
 Helen laughed a little. . 
 
 " How much is it necessary to like people 
 In order to marry them, according to your code 
 of propriety ? " she asked, with a sort of playful 
 sarcasm . 
 
 " To single him out from all others as the 
 only man in the world that it seems to you 
 possible to marry, and to marry him seems just 
 the best lot that God could have given you." 
 
 " Grace spoke solemnly, and the smile faded 
 from Helen's face ; a flush came m its place, and 
 she spoke coldly. 
 
 " I am not sentimental like yourself, Grace. 
 I never was ; and you must remember I am not 
 eighteen." 
 
 "' I don't think it is sentiment," Grace said. 
 "It is just plain, common sense. How can 
 people spend happy lives together unless they 
 would rather be with each other than with any 
 one else in the world ? " 
 
 " How many marriages do you suppose there 
 are in this world constructed on that plan ? "
 
 148 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " I don't know. A good many, I think ; or 
 there would be more misery than there is. 
 Anyway, that would make little difference with 
 me. / should never marry unless I had such 
 a feeling." 
 
 "Well," Helen said, lightly, "you may dem 
 onstrate all your theories when you are married ; 
 but, in the meantime, J am not disposed to wait 
 until I make the acquaintance of every man 
 living to see whether i find anybody that I like 
 better than Horace ; because, after I found him, 
 he might not like me, you know, and that is an 
 item not to be overlooked." 
 
 Nevertheless, her heart was heavy, and she 
 went restlessly from room to room, and from one 
 occupation to another, all that day. It was 
 such an apparent trifle that decided the question 
 at last. At the tea-table Tom, knowing nothing 
 about the state of affairs, blundered on Horace 
 Munroe as a subject for conversation. 
 
 "He is just about half drunk, father. If he 
 were a poor man he would be called so; but, 
 happening to have some money, people content 
 themselves with sa}*ing he is a little wild." 
 
 " Did you sell him his liquor ? " Mr. Randolph 
 asked, pointedly. 
 
 "Why, yes; as to that, I suppose I did. But 
 I can't see that it has much to do with the 
 question. He doesn't drink whisky for the
 
 Weighty Mutters in Small Scales. 149 
 
 purpose of accommodating me with custom, by 
 a great deal." 
 
 " ' Woe unto that man by whom they come,' " 
 Mr. Randolph quoted solemnly. "I would 
 rather that it were not my son." 
 
 Helen played with her knife and napkin 
 restlessly. 
 
 " Tom likes to make a great deal out of a 
 little," she said at last. " I don't believe 
 Horace Munroe was ever intoxicated in his life." 
 
 Tom laughed sarcastically. 
 
 " My dear sister," he said, solemnly, " what 
 ever else you may know, and I am willing to 
 admit that you are very wise indeed, you do not 
 know the habits of 3'oung men as well as young 
 men, and I happen to know whereof I speak." 
 
 Helen left the table abruptly. But it was not 
 until the rest of the family had scattered, leaving 
 Tom with Maria, between whom and himself 
 peace had been declared, that she enlightened 
 him as to the state of affairs. 
 
 " The least you say about Horace Munroe the 
 better, perhaps, until you discover whether or 
 not he is to be }"our brother-in-law." 
 
 " The fates defend me from any such disaster. 
 Why ! is there any danger?" 
 
 "He has asked Helen to take the oversight of 
 him : though she has not promised. She wanted 
 tim to consider. Ermina said : ' If ever a man
 
 150 Household Puzzles. 
 
 asks me to marry him, I want to be so certain 
 that he is just the individual, that I can safely 
 jump at conclusions.' ' 
 
 " I am sorry," Tom said gravely. " I wish I 
 had known it. I wouldn't have said what I did 
 for the world, if I had." 
 
 " Why not ? I should think she ought to 
 know about such things, especially since she is 
 undecided." 
 
 Tom shook his head. 
 
 " Not with her temperament. If she were un 
 decided before, she is settled now, you may be 
 sure. It doesn't need a dozen words of opposi 
 tion from me to convince her that there is a con 
 spiracy to ruin Horace Munroe, and she'll stick 
 to him now through anything. I wish I had 
 held my tongue ; because, I tell you, Maria, that 
 fellow is going to ruin." 
 
 What further assistance Helen needed, in order 
 to come to a decision, Maria unwittingly gave. 
 
 " Mrs. Curtiss has sent her bill," she said, com 
 ing into the sitting-room where the girls were. 
 "And it is enormous. How three dresses could 
 be made to cover so much evil in the way of 
 charges I can't imagine. I do believe I'll run 
 away and be a nun. I am actually growing a 
 coward over bills. How they are ever to be paid 
 passes my comprehension." 
 
 "And there's another awful season coming,"
 
 Weighty Matters in Small Scales. 151 
 
 Ermina said, with a groan. "If the seasons 
 hadn't that foolish habit of changing every three 
 months, we might wear our muslins or merinos, 
 as the case might be, until they wore out. We 
 need pretty nearly everything in the way of hats 
 and ribbons and gloves that girls very well can. 
 I don't know how it's all to end." 
 
 Mr. Horace Muuroe was a merchant. He kept 
 gloves and ribbons and merinos and muslins in 
 endless variety. Moreover, his taste was very 
 highly cultivated. He disliked anything like 
 shabbiness. Helen stood looking out upon the 
 moonlighted earth, apparently looking at the 
 April mud, but in reality thinking of the rows 
 and rows of well-stocked shelves in the three- 
 story building on Albany street ; thinking, also, 
 what a trial it was to wear ties when " they " 
 wore narrow ribbon, just because you could not 
 afford to change. They had ribbons at Munroe's, 
 in the lovely new shades. She had been in the 
 store but a few days before with Mrs. Munroe, 
 Horace's mother. That lady had selected some 
 elegant laces for her now black silk. Both silk 
 and laces were entirely beyond anything that 
 Helen Randolph ever expected to have; but 
 they were not beyond Mrs. Munroe. 
 
 "Helen," Grace said, breaking in on the 
 moon-lighted reverie, "Mr. Munroe is in the 
 parlor."
 
 152 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 And Heleu went to him immediately. He 
 held her hand for a moment as she gave it for 
 good evening, and said, with genuine tremulous- 
 ness of voice, 
 
 " Helen, is it to be yes, or no ? " 
 
 In one hand he held his Alexandre kids, of a 
 pale stone color ; the faint odor of a rare and 
 costly perfume floated around him. Helen's 
 gloves were out at the fingers. She hated glove 
 mending ; besides, they always looked shabby 
 after it. Real, genuine perfumery she could not 
 afford. She looked up into the earnest eyes 
 bent on her, and her voice was low and clear as 
 she said, 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Up stairs, in Helen Randolph's room, the dust 
 still lay on her Bible, and she had been too rest 
 less and unsettled for her customary prayer that 
 day. So the question of a lifetime was settled 
 without so much as a glance toward her cove 
 nanted guide, whose counsel she had promised to 
 seek at all times. Gloves and ribbons and laces, 
 truly you have weighty responsibilities, and al 
 most omnipotent sway.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC. 
 
 AD you made one of the Randolph house 
 hold about the time of which I write you 
 would have pitied Maria. There was a 
 wedding in prospect. Now a wedding in 
 a family where the bride with no income 
 at all wants her wedding dress, and her wedding 
 cake, and her wedding presents to outshine those 
 of Mrs. St. Ilusted, when Mrs. St. Husted's 
 father's income is at least fifty thousand, becomes 
 at once a formidable thing. Maria, as we meas 
 ure time, is older by a year than when we saw 
 her last. It is four weeks or so since she cele 
 brated her sixteenth birthday in doing up the 
 bride's sixteen-tucked, double-puffed white skirt. 
 Measured by the weight of responsibility and 
 care that it has thrown on her young shoulders 
 that fear might count ten to Maria. Helen, by 
 
 153
 
 154 Household Puzzles. 
 
 virtue of her new plans and prospects, has 
 thrown off all home anxieties, and Maria is now 
 the acknowledged as well as the nominal head 
 of the household. " Making brick without straw 
 is not my forte," Ermina had said, briefly, with 
 a most expressive shrug of her handsome shoul 
 ders when it was faintly suggested that she was 
 the next oldest daughter, and nothing further 
 was said about her assuming the family reins. 
 
 A very busy household had they been. " Mak 
 ing brick without straw " had become the con 
 stant occupation .of each one of them, as the 
 days intervening between the wedding grew less 
 in number. Busy with hands, and brain, and 
 tongue. 
 
 " Every spot in this house is historic ground," 
 Ermina declared one morning, after a closely 
 contested argument had been held. " Helen 
 and Maria have a battle in every room and on 
 every chair." 
 
 "I know it," said Helen, somewhat plain 
 ly. " I am not. like most brides. What little I 
 have must be obtained grudgingly." 
 
 Then Maria. 
 
 "Now, Helen, that is nonsense. You know 
 we don't grudge you anything. I only can't see 
 the propriety of a person in your circumstances 
 having three new silk dresses." 
 
 " What is the use of constantly twitting me
 
 Practical Arithmetic. 155 
 
 about my circumstances? I'm glad your oppor 
 tunity for saying that is lessening." 
 
 At this point Ermiua considered it well to in 
 terpose a sentence. 
 
 "It is very inconsiderate of you, Maria, when 
 you know that in less than two weeks she will 
 cease to be in circumstances that is a term 
 which can never be applied to her again." 
 
 " At least I shall be in circumstances to have 
 a silk dress when I need one, without having the 
 matter discussed and exclaimed over until I am 
 sick of the very name of it." This Helen said 
 coldly. 
 
 This is only a specimen conversation. Maria 
 resisted bravely, hoping to save her father at 
 some point from the weary rneshes of debt in 
 which he was struggling. But her fighting was 
 in vain, for Helen had a powerful argument on 
 her side, none other than the pale little mother 
 who had been sleeping her quiet sleep for quite 
 a year. 
 
 "Helen," Maria would say, "what is the 
 need of dressing twice for a morning wedding ? 
 It just makes such a confusion, at the last minute 
 changing your dress; and you have such a beau 
 tiful traveling dress, too. Why don't you 'just 
 be married in that, as you are going to start im 
 mediately, and then you won't need anothel 
 light silk?"
 
 156 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Because I am not going to do it " This was 
 Helen's favorite argument. "Nobody is mairied 
 in a traveling dress ; that just shows your ignor 
 ance of the ordinary proprieties of such an 
 occasion, or else your indifference to my comfort, 
 I'm sure I don't know which." 
 
 Ermina helped a little. 
 
 " So far as comfort is concerned, I should vote 
 for the traveling dress in preference to one of 
 those horrid light silks that will spot if you look 
 at it. Nobody will be able to shed a tear for 
 fear it will drop on your dress." 
 
 " No danger of any one shedding one. You 
 will all be too glad to get rid of me, I verily 
 believe ; but as for making a dowdy of myself on 
 my wedding day, to please any of you, I just 
 shan't do it." 
 
 ** Susy Perkins was married in her traveling 
 dress," Grace said, in quiet, retrospective voice ; 
 and Helen answered her in triumph, 
 
 ".Of course she was. It is girls like Susy 
 Perkins who do those outlandish things. I pre 
 sume they had molasses ginger-bread for refresh 
 ments, and Maria would like to have me copy 
 that style, too, no doubt." 
 
 "'It would be more wholesome, as well as 
 cheap3i," Maria answered, promptly, and while 
 she dul so Grace finished her sentence, 
 
 *' And so did Augusta Hoi ton."
 
 Practical Arithmetic. 157 
 
 Ermiiia clapped her hands. 
 
 "Now, Helen, Helen! Do you hear that? 
 It is only girls of Susy Perkins' sort who do 
 those outlandish things, you know I and here is 
 Augusta Horton, whose father is worth at least 
 a million, actually having the boorishness to get 
 married in her traveling dress." 
 
 u That's of no consequence," would Helen 
 reply, coldly. " If Augusta Horton, on the 
 strength of her father's wealth, presumes to do 
 strange and unfashionable things, I don't court 
 her notoriety." 
 
 Then Maria. 
 
 " I wish we had some of her father's wealth to 
 pay the bills. Our father's life will be utterly 
 worried out of him. I'm sure I'm ashamed to 
 meet him now." 
 
 And at this point, with the sound of her 
 father's footsteps in the hall, Helen's eyes would 
 brim with tears, and as her father opened the 
 door her tremulous lips would be framing sen 
 tences like the following: 
 
 " There is no one for me to appeal to, who 
 will understand and enter into my feelings. If 
 mother were here she would know all about it, 
 and explain things to you that I can not. Now 
 is the time that my loss falls the heaviest." 
 
 Then Maria, a torrent of pent-up indignation 
 swelling within her, would leave the room,
 
 158 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 slamming the door behind her; and Grace, in 
 great grief and dismay, would follow her, leav 
 ing Ermina to come in a more leisurely fashion, 
 as became her nature ; and then Helen would be 
 mistress of the situation. Such scenes ended 
 generally in Mr. Randolph's detaining the three 
 sisters, after Helen had left the table, to say, in 
 tender, trembling tones, 
 
 "Don't cross Helen any more than you can 
 help during these days, girls. None of you can 
 understand how much she misses her mother 
 now, until you are brought to the same position 
 in life with herself. Her mother would have 
 managed everything. As for the extra bills, we 
 will get along with them in some way. We can 
 scrimp a little, after it is all over." 
 
 " Scrimp ! " Ermina would exclaim, but never 
 until her father was out of hearing. "Does the 
 dear man imagine that we have done anything 
 else for the last sixty-five years of our lives? 
 Not but that it comes natural to do it; and I 
 wouldn't make any more uproar over silk dresses 
 and things if I were you, Maria. What is the 
 use? The snarl will all come out light some 
 how, and we shan't care a hundred years hence 
 whether it did or not." 
 
 Now this talk was none the less sincere per 
 haps, because these daughters knew in their 
 inmost hearts that the little mother whom they
 
 Practical Arithmetic. 159 
 
 mourned would have done no planning for them 
 if she had been there. Had they not planned for 
 her from their very childhood, and shielded her 
 in a peculiar manner from the confusion and be* 
 wilderments of life ? And yet in a sense they 
 knew that their father's words were true, and 
 Helen's tears were real. The gentle, sweet- 
 spoken mother, who never by any chance grew 
 angry and slammed doors, or talked in a loud 
 voice, had unusual influence over the harassed 
 household. She did not know how to pay bills, 
 but she knew how to sweeten the labors and 
 soothe the weariness of those who worked to that 
 end ; and it was true enough that she would 
 have sympathized in all Helen's plans and pro 
 jects as not one of them could. So while the 
 sisters were vexed they were also softened, and 
 Erinina worked industriously on the light silk. 
 There were little personal matters of dress to be 
 worried over. Of course it would not do for the 
 bride to appear in light silk and the sisters in 
 mourning robes, and this necessitated what Er- 
 mina called " bran " new dresses for each one of 
 them. 
 
 " It is resonable to suppose," said that young 
 lady, " that if we were not in mourning, between 
 us all there would be some kind of garment that 
 might be worn on this occasion ; but as it is, we 
 shall all have to blossom out from the dress 
 maker's hands."
 
 160 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Atide from the bills that this would make, 
 there was a view of it that jarred ou Maria's 
 heart. She had fought bravely against the put 
 ting on of mourning ; she was equally averse to 
 taking it off. 
 
 " I was willing," she said, " to have it under 
 stood that I didn't consider black clothes a nec 
 essary token of grief; but having yielded to the 
 general notion on that subject, it is dreadful to 
 me to say in effect, ' There ! it is a year since 
 we buried our mother. Yesterday we wore 
 crape for her, but to-day we have packed it 
 away and are in blue and scarlet, or anything 
 else that we happen to wear. The time of 
 mourning is over, and we miss her no more.' I 
 hate it," she finished, fiercely. 
 
 44 How foolishly you talk," Helen said. 44 Of 
 course we miss her; no one xealizes that better 
 than I do. Because we find it necessary to 
 change the color of our dress, is no sign that we 
 have forgotten our mother." 
 
 " Then I hope you see the sense of our wear 
 ing black dresses in the first place to prove to 
 people that we missed her." And this talk 
 ended like the others, in sewing industriously ou 
 silver gray dresses for the sisters. Thus with 
 their endless differences of opinion in regard to 
 every subject under the sun, time had finally 
 brought them up to the marriage morning, to
 
 Practical Arithmetic. 1C) 
 
 that exasperating moment when the coffee must 
 be left to itself, to boil over if it will, .or to 
 get cold if it will, while every one troops to the 
 parlor to hear over again those words which 
 have been repeated in some form ever since 
 creation, and yet which never wear out, nor 
 sound stale and uninteresting, but which people 
 listen to with eager face and beating hearts from 
 the first formula, " Do you promise," down to 
 the important, "I pronounce you." Great had 
 been the trials in the Randolph kitchen since an 
 hour before daybreak. Among the earnest dis 
 cussions had been those involving guests and no 
 guests. Ermina took up the debate with en 
 ergy. It was certainly proper enough, and, for 
 the matter of that, aristocratic enough, to have a 
 strictly private wedding ; the only difficulty 
 being that Helen did not want it. "She did not 
 believe," she said, " in acting as though one 
 was ashamed of being married. She did not 
 care for a large wedding, in fact no one gave 
 large morning parties ; but a few, their most in 
 timate friends, and Mr. Monroe's partners, ic 
 was no more than ordinary courtesy to invite 
 those." 
 
 Now if you have never tried it, just please sit 
 
 down and make out a list of the people that you 
 
 and Mr. Linkenfelter would have to invite to 
 
 your morning wedding, provided you invited 
 
 11
 
 162 Household Puzzles. 
 
 any one. There are, first, your most intimate 
 and particular friends, yours and his ; you will 
 be astonished at the number who have to be put 
 in under that heading. Then come Mr. Linken- 
 felter's business friends; they are not particular 
 ly intimate, but they have accommodated him in 
 a business way several times; he may want 
 them to do so again ; they must be invited. 
 Then there are the Snyders; you don't care a 
 straw for them, but then they invited you to 
 their Kate's wedding when they had very few 
 other guests ; it will not do to pass them by. 
 There are six of them, counting the married 
 brother and the two married sisters. They 
 make quite an addition to your list, but there is 
 no help for it; down they go. Of course you 
 must ask the Rowlands, for they are living only 
 next door^ and have accommodated you in a 
 neighborly fashion several times; and across the 
 way are the Smiths, who will get offended at 
 something if they possibly can ; it won't do to 
 slight them. And by this time you say, " Well, 
 the Jones' live right next door on the other side, 
 and they invited us there to tea last month ; I 
 must ask them. Dear me I what a long list we 
 are getting." Presently Mr. Linkeufelter sa} T s, 
 " I don't know about this, Fidelia ; if we invite 
 the Carroltons, and we ought to, you know, for 
 Carrolton sent me that elegant traveling case.
 
 Practical Arithmetic. 163 
 
 Well, if we ask them, the Burtons live right next 
 door, and are quite intimate, and the Burtons are 
 iny heaviest customers. I don't know them 
 much except in a business way, but I think it 
 will be policy to invite them." And the next 
 evening he says, " I've been thinking about the 
 list, Fidelia. Don't you think we ought to 
 ask John and Susy Colvin ? John has been in 
 my emyloy before this, and he is a good fellow 
 enough. He is doing quite a growing business, 
 and his store joins mine." Of course you think 
 they ought to be invited, and the next day you 
 receive a note from Mr. Linkenfelter, which 
 -eads, 
 
 " MY DEAR FIDELIA: I find that two of my 
 old chums are in town, stopping at the Claren 
 don. They will be here on the twenty-seventh. 
 I could do no less than to invite them to our 
 wedding. I am sorry to swell that formidable 
 list, but I know you will see that there was no 
 help for it. 
 
 " Ever yours, LINKENFELTER. 
 
 "P. S. One of the boys has a wife with him, 
 and I have just learned that a cousin of the fam 
 ily is traveling in company with them. Four 
 more ! " 
 
 In the evening Mr. Linkenfelter and yourself
 
 164 Household Puzzles. 
 
 count the list. Now weren't you astonished ? 
 Well, this is precisely the manner in which 
 Helen and Mr. Munroe made out their list, and 
 they were astonished. And Maria had to make 
 the wedding-cake, with Ermina to beat the eggf 
 and advise her to put in just a very little more 
 butter, which was just enough to make the cake 
 as heavy as lead. She didn't make the bride's 
 loaf. 
 
 "I can make it," she said, when that question 
 was up for discussion. " It is just fruit-cake, 
 and fruit-cake is easier to make than any other. 
 You put a pound of everything under the sun 
 into it, and it can't fall if it tries." 
 
 " Oh, well, you can't make it look like a 
 boughten cake," Helen said. " They do some 
 thing to them that makes them look so different 
 from home-made cakes. It isn't possible to make 
 a loaf that looks like theirs." 
 
 " Or tastes like theirs," Ermina said, point 
 edly. 
 
 " Well, they don't taste as well as home-made 
 cake. I'll admit that ; but every one has a bride's 
 loaf from Hackley's. They ornament them 
 beautifully, and one done at home looks deci 
 dedly dowdy after seeing those." 
 
 " But, Helen, they cost so much," was Maria's 
 perpetual rejoinder. " You can't get a loaf from 
 Hackley's large enough for your purpose for lesa 
 than ten dollars, I presume."
 
 Practical Arithmetic. 165 
 
 "Nonsense! I don't believe they cost so 
 much as that; and if they do, how can I help it? 
 Jf I am to have a wedding at all I want things 
 decent. You are always saying ' they cost so 
 much.' You might as well be a parrot." 
 
 The bride's loaf was ordered, and two days 
 before the great occasion Tom brought it home. 
 
 " It's intolerably heavy," he said, setting down 
 the mountian of gleaming frost on the dining- 
 table with a thud. "But I've got something in 
 my thumb and finger that is heavier." And Maria 
 left her raisins and Ermina her ruffle to come 
 and look over his shoulder at the weight of the 
 bride's loaf expressed in dollars and cents 
 $19.62. Those were the amazing figures. Not 
 one word said Maria, she went back to her 
 raisins very quietly ; but Ermina, looking at her 
 face, burst into a sharp, keen laugh, in which 
 Tom joined. 
 
 " Helen," he said, calling to her as she was 
 passing the door, " Mr. Gordon sent a message 
 to you, that Abby something or other, who is in 
 your class, Kelley ' her name is, isn't it ? has 
 tumbled down stairs and broke her neck, or, no, 
 it's her back. They are poorer than poverty, 
 it seems, since the father was killed, and the 
 young ladies are making up a purse for them. 
 They meet to sew for them this afternoon at 
 Mrs. Granger's, and the little muff wants to sea 
 you, it seems."
 
 166 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Mercy on me ! / can't go to see her. 1 
 haven't time ; and as for sewing for her I can't 
 get my own sewing done. That lavender silk is 
 going to fit elegantly, girls. I'm sorry for that 
 poor little thing. I wish I had a cent of money 
 for them. That is one of the delights of being 
 poor ; never have a penny to give away. What's 
 that, the cake ? Oh, isn't that beautiful! I de 
 clare, Ermina, it is larger than Fanny Stuart's 
 was, and more nicely ornamented, too. I'm 
 glad of it. They thought hers was something 
 wonderful." 
 
 " Helen," called Grace, " Miss Evans wants 
 you to try on your dress," and Helen vanished. 
 Tom's eyes danced with fun. 
 
 " I'm glad I've found an appropriate wedding 
 present for Helen," he said, wickedly. 
 
 "What is it? " Ermina asked, with eagerness. 
 
 " It is a copy of an illuminated text, like one 
 that Hammond got for his sisters the other day. 
 It will be eminently appropriate : " Pure relig 
 ion, and undefiled before God and the Father, ia 
 this, To visit the fatherless fcnd the widow in 
 their affliction, and to keep h'mself unspotted 
 from the world."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SENTIMENT AND DUST. 
 
 iIJT about Maria's trials during that early 
 morning. In the first place she had se 
 cured for "help" Mrs. Charlotte Dick- 
 son. Now, if you never had the pleasure 
 of Mrs. Charlotte Dickson's help, she de 
 serves an introduction. She isn't an ordinary 
 hired girl, far from it ; she doesn't as a general 
 thing go out to service. Only occasionally, as a 
 matter of special accommodation, can you secure 
 her valuable assistance, during which time you 
 must speak and act and step with caution, for if 
 you chance to remark that the steak is tough 
 or the potatoes not of the best quality, Mrs. 
 Dickson is straightway of the opinion that her 
 services do not suit, and sighs and sheds a few 
 tears, and is sorry that she does not give satisfac 
 tion. Also she is an early riser ; has the 
 
 167
 
 168 Household Puzzles. 
 
 potatoes baked and the eggs boiled at a quartei 
 past six precisely, and the breakfast hour is 
 seven ; of course everything is delicious. Maria 
 nad passed through trials unnumbered during 
 the week preceding the eventful morning. Dur 
 ing the cake-making, Mrs. Dickson had actually 
 Deemed to be an avenging spirit, hovering over 
 open dampers that ought to be shut, and closed 
 .slides that ought to be open ; whisking one loaf 
 oi cake surreptitiously out of the oven JUJL in 
 *ime to have it pass through that interesting 
 process known as " falling," and leaving the 
 jext one to grow brown and hard while she took 
 An impromptu lunch in the pantry. Oh, the 
 horrors of that horrible week, culminating in the 
 indescribable confusion of that morning. Iwas 
 mistaken in saying that Mrs. Dickson was always 
 an early riser ; she sometimes overslept. On 
 this particular rooming she did so, and Maria, 
 coming in haste to the kitchen stove, found it 
 fireless; then Mrs. Dickson pronounced the wind 
 in the wrong direction, and the kindlings damp, 
 and the coal soft the fire wouldn't burn. Did 
 you ever stand waiting Cor a coal fire, and occa 
 sionally give it a despairing poke while you 
 waited? Then 3'ou can appreciate Maria's feel 
 ings. She decided to set the table while she 
 waited, during which process the following con 
 versation ensued :
 
 Sentiment and Dust. 169 
 
 " Mrs. Dickson, where is the other sugar 
 bowl?" 
 
 " I don't know, I'm sure." 
 
 " Why, haven't you seen it? " 
 
 "Not that I remember;" and Mrs. DickjOL 
 composedly tasted the wing of a chicken. 
 
 * Well, won't you please help me find it ? It 
 is getting late, and we must be at work at some 
 thing." 
 
 44 Well, Miss Maria, I'm sure it is not my 
 fault that the fire won't burn. I've poked at it 
 r or half an hour." 
 
 " I didn't say it was. Won't you please look 
 
 t that bowl ? " 
 
 Thus entreated, Mrs. Dickson wiped her 
 fingers on the cloth spread over the biscuit, over 
 turned a chair with a couple of plates set on it, 
 and went to ransacking among the china dishes 
 for the missing bowl. Ten minutes were spent 
 in this helpful employment, when the lady's wits 
 came to her aid. 
 
 " Oh, I just remember, that bowl got broke 
 the very day after I came here. Strange that 
 I forgot that." 
 
 u How did it get broken, Mrs. Dickson ? " 
 
 44 Why, I was settling the china closet, the 
 dishes were all out of place ; your Grace set 
 them up, and she is no hand at work, anybody 
 knows ; and I just got down that sugar-bowl to
 
 170 Household Puzzles. 
 
 see if it was all right, and Ermina she can, 
 out of the door all of a sudden, and kind of 
 startled me, and down went the sugar-bowl. 
 It wasn't my fault, you see." 
 
 " I see," said Maria, dryly. " Well, put some 
 sugar in a common bowl, and hurry, please, for 
 it is getting very late." 
 
 " Oh, there'll be time enough," Mrs. Dicksou 
 said, testily. " I never knew a bride to be 
 ready in time ; it flurries me dreadfully to have 
 to hurry. ' Don't hurry me and I'll work the 
 cheaper,' my old man used to say, and there's a 
 good deal of truth in it." 
 
 * I had to leave," said Maria, in detailing 
 her experience to the girls afterward. " I ran 
 down cellar to get composed. I was so warm 
 and so provoked that I was afraid I might flurry 
 her if I stayed." 
 
 Added to the sense of responsibility and care 
 that rested on her young shoulders, Maria's 
 heart was sad. The four sisters had never been 
 very congenial in their tastes and pursuits, bat 
 then they were sisters, and had lived under one 
 shelter all the days of their lives. The first 
 creak was to be made to-day, and life would 
 never be again just what it had been. The 
 sense of change came home to her more forcibly 
 because of that one grave in their lot at the 
 cemetery. She had found during the last year
 
 Sentiment and Dust. 171 
 
 what the word " change " meant. Maria waa 
 not sentimental in the common acceptation of 
 that abused word, but she was true-hearted and 
 loyal. Grace came to the kitchen in search of 
 her. Grace had been crying; this sister had 
 those traits about her that the family unhesita 
 tingly pronounced sentimental. " Helen has 
 snubbed you every hour since you were born, 
 and here you are making your nose red and 
 puffy because she is going around the corner to 
 live in a house of her own." This was Tom's 
 indignant remonstrance; yet Grace's tears were 
 not stayed. 
 
 "Come," she said to Maria, "almost every 
 thing is done. Can't you spare a few minutes 
 to go up and see Helen ? " 
 
 " What should I go there for ? " Maria asked, 
 bluntly, preferring not to understand the tender 
 ness that prompted the petition. 
 
 " Oh, I hardly know," Grace said, timidly. 
 "She is dressed, I suppose, by this time, and 
 she will never be in her own room up there 
 again for us to go and visit. Let us go up a few 
 minutes." 
 
 " Pooh ! she will be in her own room for us 
 to visit a thousand times, I presume. What 
 difference does it make?" Maria answered, 
 rubbing vigorously on the silver spoon she waa 
 polishing. Nevertheless, she finished the rest in
 
 172 Household Puzzles. 
 
 haste, and, wiping her fingers, said, "Well, 
 come on, then, I can leave for a minute.' 
 
 " We have come to take our last peak at 
 Helen Randolph," she announced, as Helen 
 answered their knock. 
 
 " Very well ; look critically then, for I believe 
 this drss doesn't hang as nicely as I thought 
 it did. I've been provoked about it all the 
 morning." 
 
 " So you are dressed and ready ? I don't see 
 but it hangs all right. How do you feel ? " 
 
 " How do I feel ! why, just as I always do. 
 How should I feel ? Only I'm better dressed 
 than I've had the pleasure of being in somo 
 time, and I like the feeling of that very well." 
 
 Maria turned away abruptly. " It's all 
 clothes," she said. " Helen, you didn't dust 
 your room very well after sweeping." This 
 was an after sentence as she took up the hand 
 somely bound Bible that lay on the upper shelf 
 of the book-rack. 
 
 " Mercy on me ! " Helen said, shortly. " I 
 wonder if you think I've been sweeping thir> 
 morning. That is precisely like you. Maria 
 if you ever are married you'll sweep and dus^ 
 your room and mend your stockings fiitee 
 minutes before the ceremony is performed. I 
 haven't swept my room since the day before 
 yesterday, and I didn't dust it then."
 
 Sentiment and Dust. 173 
 
 Maria laughed. " I was wondering when this 
 dust accumulated," she said, as she drew her 
 fingers over the dusty Bible she herself only 
 read the Bible occasionally, on rainy Sundays 
 but it jarred upon her that this professing Chris 
 tian should leave her Bible neglected for three 
 days, especially on days so fraught with life as 
 these. I have often been struck with the 
 promptness of the unconverted part of the world 
 >o see the duties that their Christian neighbors 
 ought to perform. 
 
 Helen glanced up quickly, and her face 
 flushed a little. " When you marry, I presume 
 you will retire to your room and do nothing but 
 read your Bible for three days beforehand," she 
 said, dryly. " I hope you will have time for it. 
 I am sure it will be much more pleasant than to 
 hurry and drive through the days as I have had 
 to, doing nearly all my own sewing." This last, 
 considering the fact that the three sisters had 
 sewed with and for her, from early morning late 
 into the night, every moment that they could 
 secure from other duties, was somewhat trying 
 to the sort of flesh and blood that is constituted 
 as Maria's was, and she spoke with sharp sar- 
 .casrn: "Perhaps I will have twenty-one tucks 
 on my third best white skirt, instead of twenty- 
 three, and snatch the intervening time for read 
 ing a few verses, that is, if I have by that time
 
 174 Household Puzzles. 
 
 discovered, judging from the example of the 
 Christians around me, that the Bible is the ' only 
 infallible rule of faith and practice.' " And then 
 Maria went back to the spoons and Mrs. Dick- 
 son. You see what a consistent young woman 
 she was. She was actually provoked at, and dis 
 appointed in Helen, for neglecting for three days 
 what she had been neglecting ail her life. 
 Something of the absurdity of hei owii position 
 came dimly across her mind, and that lovely 
 being with whom we so delight to take counsel, 
 furnished her with an immediate solution of her 
 position. " But you make no profession, you 
 know." 
 
 Oh, wise and wily Satan ! There is a com 
 mand in the Bible that all Christians should 
 study it, and all who do not profess to be Chris 
 tians should let it alone, isn't there ? Or, if not, 
 how do you contrive to impress such an idea on 
 your votaries? 
 
 " Maria is queer," Helen said, as the door 
 closed after her. "Don't you go to being like 
 her, Grace. Strong-minded women are incon 
 venient and unfortunate beings. I wonder how 
 we came to have one in our family ? Grace, do 
 you think my dress hangs well ? " 
 
 "I think so," Grace said hesitatingly, her 
 Uioughts far away. " Helen, do you dread it ? " 
 
 44 Dread what ? "
 
 Sentiment and Dust. 176 
 
 "Why, the new life, the responsibility, you 
 know; the planning to have everything come 
 out right." 
 
 "I've nothing to plan, child, everything is 
 done for me. My house is nearly ready to move 
 into, except curtains and a few ornaments, which 
 I'll risk, but that I can plan when I have a purse 
 to back my plans." 
 
 " Oh, I don't mean those things. I know you 
 can plan curtains and vases, but I mean about 
 the well, the making him happy, the doing 
 your exact duty about the promises, you know 
 they use so many solemn words in the marriage 
 service it means so much, it makes me shiver 
 all over to think of trying to live that service." 
 
 Helen laughed. " You are a sentimental little 
 puss, and I am not," she said; "that is the 
 difference between us. I'll risk but that one of 
 the parties will be happy ; he will get what 
 he has been planning for several years so he 
 says. Grace, do you think my gloves are a good 
 match ? " 
 
 " Very," said Grace, gently. " Can I do any 
 thing for you, Helen ? " And then she, too, 
 went down stairs. 
 
 Helen, on her part, was not so entirely unim- 
 pressible as she chose to appear. As faithful 
 and single-hearted a Christian as her sister 
 Maria imagined that she herself would be, she
 
 176 Household Puzzles. 
 
 was not, neither was she so tender in her sen 
 sibilities as Grace, yet she had both thought and 
 felt, during these busy days ; fill her mind as she 
 would wilh thoughts of her elegant lavender 
 silk and kids to match, and real lace in neck 
 and sleeves, there was an undertone of unrest, 
 of wonderment as to whether these things would 
 last, rather, whether the lasting things would be 
 as real and as satisfactory as these. She went 
 over to the book-rack and took up* the little 
 Bible, dusting it first with a common handker 
 chief which lay near at hand ; then handling it in 
 a very gingerly manner lest it might soil the 
 lavender kids, she turned the leaves, saying, 
 with a little sigh, 
 
 " I shall really be glad to get settled, so I can 
 resume some of my old habits of living. At the 
 same time she was conscious of a curious mixture 
 of feelings a little shiver of regret, and a thrill 
 of satisfaction both of these over the one 
 thought that the old habits of living could never 
 be resumed. Then, as her eyes caught certain 
 words, the pink flush on her cheek paled a little 
 it was so strange to have this thought thrust 
 into the midst of all her roseate plannings, 
 
 " Whereas ye know not what shall be on 
 the morrow. For what is your life? It is even 
 a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and 
 then vanisheth away." She closed the book
 
 Sentiment and Dust. 177 
 
 suddenly, and laid it back in its place. If this 
 were all there were of life a vapor of what 
 use were lavender silks and real lace, after all? " 
 
 And now we have got back to that important 
 moment when Maria said to the coffee, " Well, 
 if you are determined to boil over, you must. 
 Come, Mrs. Dickson." And they went to the 
 parlor. It was all very elegant ; the bride looked 
 lovely ; everybody said lavender silk and real 
 lace were becoming to her, and she could afford 
 to wear them now. The refreshments were 
 elegant, too, and the bride-cake equal to Mrs. St. 
 Hudson's any day. Mr. Randolph shivered visi 
 bly, though the room was uncomfortably warm ; 
 but he saw before him, in vision, another bride 
 in white silk and orange blossoms, over whom a 
 May sunshine shimmered twenty-five years ago, 
 and over whom the snow of February was piled 
 only a year ago. Helen thought of it, too- 
 of that white grave and her face grew paler; 
 over and over in her brain she repeated the sen 
 tence, ' k It is even a vapor, which appeareth for 
 a little, and then vanisheth away." 
 
 " Mrs. Munroe, let me present to you my con 
 gratulations and earnest wishes for your future 
 I will not say happiness, because that word is 
 secondary and must have a foundation, let me 
 rather say faithfulness." 
 
 It was Mr. Harper's clear, distinct, cultured 
 12
 
 178 Household Puzzles. 
 
 
 
 voice that addressed the bride. It startled her 
 from her unwelcome thoughts ; it startled her 
 into her new life. She was Mrs. Munroe, then, 
 positively. She had not realized it before, even 
 when she felt the tremble of her father's lips as 
 they pressed hers. Then there came to the new- 
 made bride a flash of her old dream that she 
 used to dream. "Helen Harper," she said 
 again to herself. Well, it never could have 
 been. How silly I am," and then Mrs. Munroe 
 aroused fully to the sense of her position. She 
 was Mrs. Horace Munroe, in point of wealth 
 quite on an equality with any of these, her 
 friends and neighbors, who surrounded her. No 
 danger but she could conduct herself in a manner 
 befitting her position. She had always longed 
 to show some of these dowdy women of wealth 
 what a lady of taste could do if she had their op 
 portunity. The opportunity was hers now. 
 She would show them. Then she wondered 
 what kind of a house Mr. Harper had in New 
 York, and if he really were worth two millions, 
 as people said, and what sort of a lady he would 
 marry. " He will never murry any lady in this 
 town," she said, emphatically ; and this bride of 
 an hour was conscious of a thrill of satisfac 
 tion over that thought. She vould not have en 
 joyed the elevation of any of her acquaintances 
 to the height that she had lost. Lost ! And
 
 Sentiment and Dust. 179 
 
 she had just avowed that the man whose name 
 she bore was all in all to her ; else what did the 
 marriage service mean ? How dared she dese 
 crate it by letting it mean less to her than this ? 
 Helen Munroe was woman enough to be ashamed 
 of herself. 
 
 An hour later she drew back from her brother 
 Tom's parting kiss with a gesture of disgust. 
 Tom saw the movement, and knew the cause, 
 and sneered at both. 
 
 " She will have to get used to something 
 stronger than the smell of wine," he said to 
 Maria, still sneering. " It won't do for a lady 
 who has just married a gentleman drunkard to 
 be too fastidious." 
 
 " Tom ! " said Grace, in utter dismay. 
 
 " I tell you, my innocent young sister, he's no 
 more nor less than that; and Helen knows it, 
 for I told her." 
 
 "Perhaps your own condition was such that 
 she couldn't depend on your evidence." 
 
 This sting of course came from Maria ; she felt 
 full of stings. 
 
 " Thank you," Tom said, bitterly enough, and 
 dashed out of the room.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WATS AND MEANS. 
 
 'N the multitude of counsel there is safety.* 
 Is that quoted just right, Ermina? You 
 ought to be posted on Bible verses. I'm 
 needed at this council, I presume. Give 
 us the subject." 
 *' One would think you might know it by 
 instinct," Ermina answered, looking up at the 
 handsome, saucy face of her brother. " It is the 
 everlasting question of wa} r s and means. I'm 
 sick of it." 
 
 " Ways in which money has flown during 
 the last six weeks, and the means by which it 
 can be got back again. Is that it? " 
 
 "Not by any means. It is ways in which the 
 bills have accumulated, and where the means 
 are to come from to pay them with." 
 
 "Then I'm off; you don't need me. Here is 
 Maria, who has studied that question ever since 
 she sucked her thumb, and looked wise when 
 180
 
 Ways and Means. 181 
 
 she was two days old, and we wondered what 
 she was thinking about. Her wits will de 
 velop the question in some way; if they don't 
 it isn't worth while developing. ' There's a 
 time to walk,' Solomon said, and my time for 
 that has evidently come." 
 
 " How does Tom get hold of so many verses 
 from the Bible, I wonder ? " Maria said, looking 
 after him with a smile and a sigh, both smile 
 and sigh being called forth by sight and thought 
 of him. 
 
 The year had brought changes upon him. He 
 looked older by far more than one year, and his 
 form had developed into manlier proportions; 
 but Ah, me! that little word and the blank 
 after it means a great deal. " I am not afraid 
 of myself" had Tom Randolph said in pride 
 to the earnest caution of the less self-sufficient 
 Peter. If he only had been ! If our young 
 men of to-day could only learn that important 
 lesson to be afraid of themselves. Among all his 
 Bible verses had he never discovered that one, 
 44 Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
 lest he fall ? " Well, he had fallen. The wine- 
 stained breath was a common thing in the Ran 
 dolph household now ; they had even grown 
 to be thankful when a month passed with 
 nothing harder to endure than the odor of wine. 
 They watched his home coming nightly of late,
 
 182 Household Puzzles. 
 
 either Grace or Maria, or faithful Peter, lest the 
 father might hear the stumbling steps and the 
 thick tongue. Ermina utterly scorned such 
 vigil, and Helen protested that their father 
 ought to know about it, and she should certainly 
 tell him, but she never did ; and yet all were 
 equally sure that he knew about it, and that his 
 step was slower and heavier and his hair grayer 
 in consequence. A sad, hard life Mr. Randolph 
 led. What wonder that he sometimes looked 
 with wistful, longing eyes to that vacant spot 
 beside that one grave in his lot at the cemetery. 
 " There remaineth therefore a rest to the people 
 of God." Maria Randolph was not given to 
 going to the Bible for comfort; she had not 
 attained to that degree of common sense ; but 
 she knew that verse, and whenever she thought 
 of her father she thought of that, and rejoiced 
 over it; for him there remained a rest, she 
 was sure of it. I do not know what those 
 who are content to live all their days without 
 any hope of the "rest that remaineth" would 
 do without that blessed rest in which to consign 
 the blessed fathers and mothers who, they know, 
 have met the conditions. Maria had no heaven 
 for herself, did not seek for it, but she craved 
 a heaven for her father, and would not have 
 been content with less. 
 
 "Well," she said, turning away from the
 
 Ways and Means. 183 
 
 window as Tom passed out of sight, " ways and 
 means, as Tom says, here are the ways, piles of 
 them ; thirteen different bills that father knows 
 nothing about, and must not be told about. 
 Now what is to be done ? " 
 
 " What is the use of asking that ? " Ermina 
 said, composedly. " What is the sense in going 
 all this over every time an extra expense comes 
 up? There is nothing to do, and we never do it. 
 We might save our breath." 
 
 " Speak for yourself, Ermina. Sometimes we 
 succeed in doing it. We paid three bills last 
 fall without a word to father." 
 
 " Yes, by starving the cat and freezing us all. 
 I'm sick of retrenchment and everything else. 
 We can't retrench unless we die, so we won't 
 need clothes or bread in the future, and I'm 
 nearly ready for that expedient." 
 
 "Oh, come, Ermina, don't be blue; that isn't 
 your forte, as Helen would say. Doesn't it 
 seem queer not to have Helen present at our 
 family snarl ? " 
 
 *' I wish her bills were not present for us to 
 snarl over." 
 
 " So do I with all my heart. Girls, suppose 
 we send them around to the store directed to 
 Horace ? Imagine Munroe senior putting on his 
 glasses and examining them : ' To cutting, fitting 
 and trimming three dresses, thirty-five dollars
 
 184 Household Puzzles. 
 
 and eighty-seven cents ; to three pairs kids, six 
 dollars and seventy-five cents ; to one pair extra 
 Alexandre's, three dollars and seventy-five cents, 
 and so on indefinitely. Now, what would he 
 think of his new daughter, do you imagine ? 
 Wouldn't it be rich ? " 
 
 In arranging and laughing over this plan, that 
 neither of the sisters would have carried out if 
 their very bread had been the alternative at 
 stake, Ermina's non-committal good humor re 
 turned. Many and varied were the schemes 
 proposed for raising money, some of which were 
 unhesitatingly laughed down, and some disposed 
 of with sighs, as nice but impracticable. 
 
 " There is nothing to do for three- respectable 
 young ladies, who can't drum on pianos with 
 sufficient force to be justified in teaching drum 
 ming, and who have no one talent in particular 
 to emphasize, as people in books are always 
 doing." This Ermina said. 
 
 " I have read somewhere," said Grace, 
 thoughtfully, " that every human being had one 
 special talent, sometimes undeveloped, but 
 always there, ready to be called forth in emer 
 gency. I have often wondered if that were true, 
 and what mine could be." 
 
 " The emergency has certainly arisen," Maria 
 Bciid. tk The question is, where are the talents ? 
 I wish they would start into notion soon, for I 
 am tired of plodding on without them."
 
 Ways and Means. 185- 
 
 An interruption occurred. Their neighbor, 
 Susie Truesdell, tapped on the door, then opened 
 it and put her head in. 
 
 " Good morning," she said, brightly. " Ex 
 cuse me, I'm in a hurry. I've been to the post- 
 office, and I saw a letter in your box ; it is right 
 next to ours, you know, so I took the liberty of 
 bringing it to you. No, I can't come in, thank 
 you. I must run along ; mother is waiting for 
 these hops." 
 
 So the three girls put their heads over the 
 letter. 
 
 44 Who can it be from? " Grace said, curiously. 
 " It is addressed to Miss Randolph. That must 
 mean you, Ermina, nowadays. I wonder if it 
 is frcm some one that knows Helen is married?" 
 
 44 I should think much the easier way of find 
 ing out would be to open the letter," said 
 matter-of-fact Maria. 
 
 Thus reminded, Ermina clipped the end of 
 the dainty white missive, and disclosed a closely- 
 written sheet in a dainty feminine hand. 
 
 "That miserable running Italian!" she said, 
 in disgust. " I wish she had taken lessons in 
 respectable penmanship before she wrote to me, 
 whoever she is." 
 
 44 It isn't to you especially," Maria said, look 
 ing over her shoulder. " It says 'Dear Cousins.' 
 Who on earth can it be from ? Let'a look at the 
 signature."
 
 186 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "No," said Ermina, positively; "we'll look 
 at the signature when we get to it. Sit down, 
 Maria ; it makes me nervous to have you look 
 ing over my shoulder. I'll read it aloud." 
 
 "DEAR COUSINS: I hope you will let me 
 call you such, though I am only your mother's 
 cousiu ; but I remember you all very well, only 
 I can't think which of you is the oldest, so I 
 have to direct my letter awkwardly enough to 
 'Miss Randolph.' I've written it on the en 
 velope, and it looks ridiculous. I hope you 
 won't laugh at it, because there is really nc 
 other way to do. I can't remember your names, 
 only Maria, and it seems as if she were a baby ; 
 she was, when I saw her, a very quick-motioned, 
 mischievous baby ; she had beautiful eyes (' who 
 in creation is it ? ' here interpolated Maria) ; but 
 I suppose she is a young lady now, for that was 
 nearly sixteen years ago. I am twenty myself. 
 Auntie Faye says it is utter nonsense to suppose 
 that I remember Maria, but I do distinctly. 
 
 " But you don't know who I am, do you ? 
 And you don't know what I want. That last is 
 a difficult thing to ask, so I will hurry and ask 
 it just as quick as I can. I want to come and 
 board with you all summer. Now isn't that 
 a breathless idea? Then there is another 
 thing you must know right away, and that
 
 Ways and Means. 187 
 
 is, there are two of us, baby and me! ('My 
 patience!' ejaculated Maria. 'Ermina, I do 
 wish you would look and see who it is.' Er- 
 mina read on.) Baby is all mine, and he is all I 
 have now in the world ; my little brother, Perc} 
 Halsted, he is a perfect little darling. I know 
 you would love him everybody does. Mamma 
 died when he was three weeks oltj, and papa 
 died just before he was born, so little Percy is all 
 I have. I have taken care of him always, and 
 every beat of his precious little heart is more 
 precious than a diamond to me. He is a year 
 and five weeks old, just the age that Maria was 
 when I saw her; at least Auntie Faye says she 
 could not have been more than that. I want to 
 get out of the city with my baby this summer. 
 A untie Faye, with whom I live, is going to close 
 her house and go to Newport with her son. I 
 don't want to go to Newport ; it doesn't seem as 
 though baby could breathe there. I want to 
 find some friends some relations, you know, 
 who are really and truly our own. I do belong 
 to you, if it is ever so distant, and I want to 
 know you. Won't you take us to board, baby 
 and me ? We would be as little trouble as 
 we could, and we would pay you well in love 
 and in money. I have enough of the latter 
 stuff for all that baby and I will need in this 
 world. I am William Halsted's daughter, you
 
 188 Household Puzzles. 
 
 know, and he left me a fortune ; and a fortune is 
 a cold, hard thing to have. I don't think much 
 of it ; if I only could have kept my dear ones ! 
 I can't talk about that just yet. Well, may I 
 come ? I wish I could think of your names and 
 how you look. I remember that one was tall 
 and fair, and seemed to me like a queen. I 
 know your dear mamma is dead, like mine. 
 Your papa wrote to Auntie Faye when she died. 
 I feel very sorry for you. At first I thought I 
 would write and tell you so at the time, but 
 1 didn't, because written words look so empty 
 and soulless. I know just how lonely you are, 
 because I have experienced it for myself; but 
 then there are four of you, and only one of me, 
 and, besides, you have your father ; but then 
 1 know that a mother's grave is something that 
 can never be closed over. Say I may come, 
 please. I want to very much. I would like to 
 come in about three weeks, if you will let me. 
 " Your loving cousin, 
 
 "FAITH HALSTED." 
 
 "Well I" Maria exclaimed, when the last 
 word was read. " Who ever heard a letter like 
 that before ? " 
 
 " I think she is rightly named," said Ermina. 
 "She seems to have unlimited faith in every 
 body."
 
 Ways and Means. 189 
 
 " I tbiuk it is a beautiful letter." Grace said, 
 warmly. " It sounds as though she sat here talk 
 ing with us." 
 
 " Who is she, anyway ? " said Maria. " Er- 
 mina, do you remember her?" 
 
 *' Of course I remember her a little white 
 creature, in white muslin dresses and blue rib 
 bons. She came here with * Auntie Faye ' as 
 she calls her that is mother's aunt on the 
 germaiu side. Helen and she and I used to 
 play keep house, and she was our little girl. 
 She was a year or two younger than I, perhaps 
 more, and ever so much smaller ; but she used to 
 manage to have exactly her own way. We 
 never could quite tell how." 
 
 "Well, she evidently has some of the * stuff* 
 that is very scarce in this house. If she will 
 pay a good price for her board, I move that we 
 write to her to come." This was practical 
 Maria's conclusion. 
 
 " It will be soothing to Mrs. Horace Munroe's 
 nerves to think that she is really a cousin, 
 provided we do have to descend to taking 
 boarders. Peter Armstrong has been almost too 
 much for her constitution." This was Ermina's 
 expression of opinion. 
 
 " It would be nice to have a darling little 
 baby in the house," said Grace ; hereby indica 
 ting her character as plainly as her elder sisters 
 had theirs.
 
 190 Household Puzzles. 
 
 There was a general discussion of the impor 
 tant subject at the dinner table. Tom's opinion 
 was that there were girls enough in the family ; 
 that it would be poky to have another one, 
 and that babies always squeaked in the night, 
 and pulled hair and whiskers in the daytime. 
 But during these days Tom Randolph's opinion 
 had as little weight as it was possible for an 
 opinion to have, and it was passed over in 
 silence. There was a show of appealing to Mr. 
 Randolph, who declared nervously that the mat 
 ter was in safe hands. He should asquiesce 
 in any decision that they chose to make, and 
 added, 
 
 " We must invite her to make us a visit 
 anyway. Her Aunt Faye was your mother's 
 favorite aunt." 
 
 Maria's comment on this sentence of her 
 father's, was, 
 
 "It seems to be impossible for a Randolph to 
 give up the idea that we are well-to-do, hospita 
 bly-inclined people. I wonder if it wouldn't 
 utterly surprise father to know that we rejilly 
 haven't a cent of money in the house, and 
 haven't had for three weeks. When Faith 
 Halstead gets invited here, I'm inclined to think 
 that it will be on condition that she pays a good 
 round sum for her board every Saturday night." 
 
 44 Where are you goincj ? " questioned that
 
 Ways and Means. 191 
 
 rame sister aii hour later, as Ermina came 
 through the kitchen dressed for the street. 
 
 " Going to walk out for my health," said Er 
 mina, gathering up the silver-gray dress lest 
 it should come in contact with the coal scuttle. 
 Perhaps it was not in human nature not to 
 feel aggrieved, for the afternoon was bright and 
 sunny, and the kitchen was as hot as a furnace. 
 There were piles of dishes on the table, wait 
 ing to be washed, and the kitchen was to under 
 go that horrid process known as mopping. 
 
 " It wouldn't particularly offend me if she 
 should take hold and help with this work," Ma 
 ria said, energetically, as the silver-gray dress 
 rustled by and vanished. 
 
 "Perhaps she has the headache," said gentle 
 Grace, who was ironing Helen's black and white 
 striped calico, with three ruffles on the skirt. 
 
 "Headache!" said the lady at the dish-pan, 
 rattling cups and saucers fiercely. " So have 
 I the headache, and the heartache too, maybe 
 if I have any heart. What if / should put on 
 my gray dress and walk out this nice day. I've 
 a great mind to do it sometime, and see how my 
 lady would enjoy it." 
 
 Two hours afterward both mopping and iron 
 ing were done, and Maria was resting from 
 her labors in the old-fashioned rocking chair,
 
 192 Household Puzzles. 
 
 reading the local column of the daily paper, when 
 Erraina walked gravely in. 
 
 " I have been in search of ray mission," she 
 said, dropping on the lounge, and using yester 
 day's Standard for a fan. "You will doubtless 
 be charmed to hear that I found it." 
 
 " On the street ? " said Maria, coldly. 
 
 " No, in a back room whose windows look 
 out on a coal-yard. I concluded that if I had 
 any undeveloped talents, they lay in managing 
 a Grover & Baker sewing machine. So I have 
 engaged myself to Madame Roller, as a machine 
 hand. Her advertisement, perhaps you ob 
 served, has been in the paper for several days." 
 
 Maria dropped the paper and sat erect. 
 
 " Ermina Randolph! " she said, her voice full 
 of exclamation points. 
 
 " Yes, just so," answered Ermina, gravely. 
 "How do you imagine Mrs. Horace Munroe will 
 enjoy me for a sister now ? " 
 
 " How came you to do it ? " 
 
 " I wanted to develop my talents, as I ob 
 served, and I never discovered a hint of said 
 articles in any other direction. I went on this 
 particular afternoon because I don't mind tell 
 ing you that I preferred to be in the full 
 exercise of my gifts before the arrival of Faith 
 llulsted, if she is to come."
 
 Ways and Mean*. 193 
 
 Be it known that this was a triumph over 
 Ermina Randolph's proud and indolent self, 
 which was understood and appreciated by her 
 youngest sister. 
 
 "It is twenty times harder for her than for 
 me," she soliloquized ; " because she cares for 
 what ' they ' say. It is her nature to care, and I 
 really think I rather enjoy shocking ' them.' It 
 was real noble in her. And to think that I 
 grumbled about her not staying to help with the 
 dishes! " Then, aloud, she said, 
 
 " Well, you walked out for the health of other 
 people as well as yourself, I think, this time. 
 As for Helen, she can't expect us to live on the 
 strength of her grandeur. It will be easier for 
 father, Ermina." 
 
 That evening Ermina wrote to Faith Halsted 
 that they would be glad to welcome her when 
 ever she should choose to come. 
 13
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PUZZLING PEOPLE. 
 
 HERE was an air of expectancy about 
 the Randolph household; they were in 
 what Maria called "a state of cleared- 
 upness," and gathered in the back par 
 lor at an unusually early hour in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 Tom had gone to the station to meet the new 
 comers Faith and Baby Halsted. He had 
 gone rather against his will; in fact, this innova 
 tion was not of his appointing. 
 
 "I don't want to go prowling through the 
 depot in search of a strange girl with red hair 
 and a baby," he growled, when the arrangement 
 was being made. "She will be dowdy-looking; 
 women with baules always are. And I shall 
 be expected to carry the baby, and it will have a 
 stick of candy in one hand arid a hunk of ginger 
 bread in the other." 
 194
 
 Puzzling People. 195 
 
 " All of which will be much more respectable 
 than a great many positions in which you 
 must have found yourself of late," Ermiua ob 
 served, serenely. " At any rate, you will have 
 to go; we can't expect father to do it, and as 
 we have a brother, it is supposed to be his place 
 to be courteous to company." 
 
 "Especially the boarders," chimed in Maria. 
 "Don't let us lose sight of the fact that this 
 ' company,' is going to pay a wholesome price for 
 her board, every week of her life." 
 
 " You would have been considerably wiser 
 if you had allowed her to set her own price 
 for board. She is worth five hundred thousand, 
 to speak within bounds. Horace is acquainted 
 with their business lawyer, and we met him in 
 New York ; he says this girl has as much as that 
 in her own right, and that she is Auntie Faye's 
 heir ; besides, she would have paid you a splen 
 did price for her board, for they have the name 
 of being liberal people." 
 
 This bit of advice and information came from 
 Mrs. Horace Munroe, who was at home spending 
 the day, overlooking the arrangements for re 
 ceiving the new comers, and giving advice freely 
 on all subjects. Ermina's lip curled visibly, and 
 Maria, as usual, spoke her thoughts. 
 
 ' We haven't reached as low a notch as that, 
 Helen, if we are poor. She asked us to name
 
 196 Household Puzzles. 
 
 our price, just as any lady of delicacy of feeling 
 would have done, and we did it ; a good fair 
 price it is, too, more than she would have to pay 
 in hundreds of places where she could have gone ; 
 but it no more than pays us for the extra ex 
 pense and trouble it will be to us, and I for one 
 wouldn't have taken a cent more than that. 
 When I take to begging for a living it shall be 
 out-and-out begging; 1 won't whine around any 
 one and say, ' you are rich and we are poor, and 
 you are our twenty-third cousin, you know, so 
 please give us five times the worth of your living, 
 for sweet charity's sake, and call it board, you 
 know.'" 
 
 Mrs. Munroe laughed. 
 
 "You are ridiculously fastidious in 3*our no 
 tions, child," she said, with infinite patronage 
 in her voice ; " but you will recover from some 
 of your follies by the time you have rubbed 
 through with as much life as I have. Take 
 what you can get, and have as nice a time as 
 you ca*h in this world, is my motto." 
 
 She spoke serenely much more serenely 
 than Helen Randolph was given to doing. She 
 looked well, too ; black silk dresses and real 
 lace ruffles were undoubtedly becoming to 
 Helen Munroe. She seemed made to adorn 
 them. 
 
 "One would never imagine that she had
 
 Puzzling People. 197 
 
 turned her dresses upside down and wrong side 
 out, and darned forty holes under the ruffles." 
 
 This was Ermina's comment on the serene, 
 faultlessly-dressed lady ; and this just expressed 
 it. She looked like one born to the position 
 which she was now filling, so easily and grace 
 fully had she slipped into the " real " things, at 
 least so far as lace and silk and velvet were 
 concerned. 
 
 Many were the surmises concerning the ap 
 pearance of the coming lady. 
 
 " I think she is tall and thin and pale," Grace 
 said. "Don't you believe she is, Ermina?" 
 
 "I don't believe anything about it. She was 
 perhaps three }'ears old when I saw her; or 
 four, didn't she say? and I must have been very 
 little more than that. It is a poor age for de 
 termining whether one is, ' tall and thin and 
 pale.' She was a pretty little thing ; wasn't 
 she, Helen ? " 
 
 " Not particularly pretty ; but she contrived 
 to make every one imagine that she was. I 
 never quite liked her. Everybody humored her 
 so continually that it gave me a sense of never 
 having my own way." 
 
 *' That must certainly have been trying to 
 your disposition," Maria said, merrily. " I can't 
 conceive of there having been a time when you 
 didn't try pretty hard for your way."
 
 198 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "Maria," said Mrs. Munroe, as she finished 
 one of the little crimson wheels that she was cro 
 cheting, and laid it against the black ground of 
 her dress, to try the effect ; " I hope, for your 
 sake, that she won't be * sharp' Two sharp peo 
 ple in one family would be very . asping to the 
 nerves, and, as I remember her, I should say 
 that it was the most likely thing in the world 
 that she is sharp. I'm glad I don't live here." 
 
 This last with a complacent glance at the 
 house nearly across the street, with its lace 
 curtains at the windows, and its body Brussels 
 carpeting that her mind's eye beheld. Mrs. 
 Munroe had always looked with longing eyes 
 upon body Brussels carpets, now she trod on 
 them with satisfied feet, every day of her life. 
 
 Futher comment was interrupted by the roll 
 of carriage wheels, and the exclamation from 
 Grace, 
 
 " There they come ! " 
 
 " In one of Smith's hacks," said Mrs. Horace 
 Munroe. "That's just like Tom, when he 
 knows Stuart's are ever so much nicer." 
 
 " Why, she isn't larger than a minute," Er- 
 mina said, peering from the window at the 
 small creature who sprang briskly from the 
 carriage, after giving a parcel carefully into 
 Tom's hands. 
 
 " Tom has the baby I " exclaimed Grace, in a
 
 Puzzling People. 199 
 
 tone of intense satisfaction. " He declared he 
 would not touch him." 
 
 "What else could he do with him?" Maria 
 said, composedly. " Why don't they bring him 
 in, and not stand bothering over the baggage ? " 
 
 "Stand back from the window, Maria," Mrs. 
 Munroe said, authoruatively. " It is in wretch 
 ed taste to stare at people. Grace, do sit down. 
 Ermina, aren't you going to the door to meet 
 her ? You forget that you are Miss Randolph, 
 now." 
 
 " On the contrary," said Ermina, coolly, " I 
 have a realizing sense of it ; you are the only 
 one who seems disposed to ignore that important 
 fact. Please to remember that we do not live 
 in a stone house, with lace curtains and lambre 
 quins, so we have a right to stare just as much 
 as we please. No ; I'm not going to the door, 
 as if we were slaves and she our queen. Tom 
 knows the way in." 
 
 Apparently he did, for at this point the door 
 swung open and Tom set a bundle down in the 
 middle of the room. Said bundle shook itself 
 and revealed inside of its white cloak, a small, 
 fair, blue-eyed baby, who looked around the 
 room with a delighted smile, clapped a pair of 
 small, fat hands, and said, emphatically, 
 
 " Ta, Tare ! " 
 
 " Oh, the little darling ! " said Grace, i ushing
 
 200 Household Puzzles. 
 
 toward him, and the rest were welcoming his 
 sister Faith. 
 
 " Which is which ? " she said, looking earnest 
 ly from one to the other. " Oh, you are Maria 
 now aren't you ? There, what a triumph ! I 
 told Auntie Faye I remembered your eyes; now 
 I have proved it. And this is Helen or, no; 
 Mrs. Munro3. You live nearly across the way, 
 Tom says. Isn't that splendid ? baby and I can 
 call on you every morning. Oh, isn't my babv a 
 darling?" 
 
 Altogether, Mrs. Munroe's dignified reception, 
 in which she was to prove to this young heiress 
 that sAe, at least, was equal in position and 
 culture to herself, seemed not to fit the present 
 occasion. One might as well have to be ceremo 
 nious with a robin. Some way they all forgot 
 dignity and propriety, and were in full tide of 
 eager talk when Tom came from the trunks and 
 the hack-driver. 
 
 " Isn't she a case ? " he said to Maria, follow 
 ing her to the kitchen for a confidential chat. 
 " I don't know whether she is as ' harmless as & 
 dove ' or as * wise as a serpent,' or both, or* 
 neither; I know I never met such a creature 
 since I was born. Why, Maria, she knows 
 more about our neighbors than you do ; she 
 asked all manner of questions concerning them,, 
 and was as interested in the number of children
 
 Puzzling People. 201 
 
 each of them owned as if she meant to start 
 a select-school in this neighborhood to-morrow, 
 and live on it the rest of her days." 
 
 "Indigestible living," said Maria. "Tom, 
 won't you get me a pail of water? she might not 
 think it aristocratic in me to go myself, and she 
 stands looking out of the window I see her." 
 
 They had a very merry tea. 
 
 Mr. Randolph came home early, dreading the 
 presence of a stranger eager to have the meet 
 ing over and to get back to his office. 
 
 The new-comer stood at the window as the 
 gate clicked. 
 
 " Is that he ? " she asked, eagerly. " Is that 
 Gncle Randolph ? Who is that other gentleman 
 a young one?" 
 
 " That is my husband," Helen answered, with 
 conscious pride. 
 
 Mr. Munroe was a handsome young man 
 she expected him to make an impression. 
 
 "Oh," Faith said, "then it's all in the 
 family. We'll go and meet them. Where's my 
 baby?" 
 
 And catching him from Grace's arms, she 
 perched him on her shoulder, and ran gayly out 
 to the hall. They heard her clear, ringing 
 voice, 
 
 "We're coming to meet you, Uncle Randolph; 
 baby and I. We are going to call you ' Uncle
 
 202 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Randolph,' both of us, because we have no uncle 
 of our own, and we've always wanted one- kiss 
 the new uncle, Pearly. You don't mind being 
 our uncle, do you, sir ? " 
 
 Baby touched his cool, pink tongue to Mr. 
 Randolph's sallow cheek, and immediately there 
 after seized upon his gold-bowed glasses by way 
 of recompense. 
 
 " Yes, I mind it," said Mr. Randolph, heart 
 ily ; " I shall be most thankful to have a niece 
 and nephew. You don't remember my wife, I 
 suppose," and his voice faltered. " You are 
 just her size." 
 
 " I remember her distinctly" Faith said ear 
 nestly. "Not her face, you know, but her 
 kisses. I was homesick, and she kissed me like 
 mamma. I never forgot them." 
 
 Mr. Randolph bent over and kissed her on 
 cheek and lip, leaving the touch of a tear on her 
 face. He was not given to caresses, was not 
 a demonstrative man ; but he, too, remembered 
 tender-clinging kisses that he used to have and 
 received no more. Faith Halsted's place in his 
 heart was secured. Mr. Munroe had meantime 
 been divesting himself of his duster and making 
 silent advances toward friendship with the bright- 
 eyed baby. He turned to Faith now. 
 
 *' I am not to be left out in the cold I trust," 
 he said, with a winning smile. " I think, ac-
 
 Puzzling People. 203 
 
 cording to the compact which has just been 
 formed, I must be a cousin." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Faith, heartily. " You are 
 Helen's husband ; she told me so ; she said it as 
 if she thought you were very nice ; and as foi 
 baby and me, we are glad of all the relations we 
 can get ; we have been alone a long time. DC 
 you like baby kisses? Pearly, have you a kisi 
 for Cousin Horace ? "' 
 
 But Pearly was seized with one of those obsti 
 nate fits peculiar to babydom, and would neither 
 kiss nor shake hands nor make a bow; in fact he 
 ignored the gentleman completely and tugged 
 mercilessly at Mr. Randolph's whiskers. But 
 the introductions, which Mrs. Munroe had 
 planned to conduct with due ceremony, were 
 over, and the whole company went gayly out at 
 Maria's call to the table. In the little sitting- 
 room that same evening Faith made the acquain 
 tance of Peter Armstrong. The early spring 
 evenings were cool for baby natures, and at 
 sunset a fire was built in the cosy back sitting- 
 room, which, with the large room adjoining, had 
 been given up to Faith. Tom's business calling 
 him elsewhere, Peter volunteered to be fire- 
 builder, and was bent down in front of the stove 
 when Faith's clear voice addressed him. 
 
 " You are Peter Armstrong, I think, and I am 
 Faith Hulsted. Shall we shake hands on it ? "
 
 204 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 Peter stood up suddenly in great surprise 
 a small white hand, on which a single diamond 
 gleamed, was held out to meet his red, rough 
 one ; this was an utterly new experience to him, 
 nevertheless he held his red hand out for her 
 to do with it what she would, and she clasped it 
 cordially. 
 
 Pearly sat in the middle of the floor, gravely 
 watching the operation, and at this point he 
 laughed, showing half-a-dozen dainty pearls, and 
 clapped his small fat hands. 
 
 " Baby approves of our acquaintance," said 
 Faith. "You must consider that a compliment; 
 he doesn't like everybody." 
 
 Peter smiled broadly and snapped a clumsy 
 thumb and forefinger at baby, whereupon that 
 small being went into a perfect ecstasy of laughs, 
 and crows, and spatting of hands. Baby be 
 lieved in Peter. Faith's next sentence was as 
 unexpected and quite as bewildering to her new 
 acquaintance as the hand-shaking had been. 
 
 " I'm much interested in your method of read 
 ing the Bible," she said, simply. Peter stared. 
 
 " My method I " he repeated, in a dazed sort 
 of a way ; he hadn't the least idea that there 
 was such a thing as method about his reading. 
 
 " Yes, Tom told me. I like it ever so much ; 
 if my name had been Mary or Sarah I should 
 have done the same. How did you happen to 
 think of it?* 1
 
 Puzzling People. 205 
 
 Now, Tom's information had been given on 
 this wise : Finding his companion interested in 
 every man, woman, child, and even animal, that 
 they saw during their ride from the depot, he 
 had said, among other things, as he chanced to 
 see Peter crossing the street, " There's Peter 
 Bible." 
 
 And she responded, " Peter Bible I what a 
 very queer name." 
 
 " He's a queer fellow," Tom had said ; " that 
 name is one of my coining; part of it at 
 least ; his name is Peter, but the Bible part 
 grew out of the fact that he has lately taken to 
 hunting up the old fellow who figured in those 
 days, and comparing notes with him." Then 
 Faith had asked numberless questions concern 
 ing Peter Armstrong, and secured his history, so 
 far as Tom could give it. So now she said, 
 *' how did you happen to think of it ? " 
 
 "Tom told me about him," Peter said, simply. 
 "I don't know much about the Bible, ma'am. 
 I'm reading it over for the first time ; but he 
 mentioned to me that there was a Peter in 
 the Bible, and I naturally wanted to know about 
 him." 
 
 " Well, how do you like him ? " Faith asked, 
 as she rescued a match and a pair of scissor,, 
 from Pearly's grasp. 
 
 " I'm disappointed in him," Peter said, grave
 
 206 Household Puzzles. 
 
 ly, the sad, perplexed look which she had first 
 noticed sweeping over his face as he bent down 
 again to the fire. Faith tried to suppress a 
 laugh ; one of her propensities was to laugh 
 at inconvenient times, but it certainly did seem 
 funny to hear this rough-faced, roughly clothed 
 boy express his disappointment in St. Peter with 
 his eighteen hundred years of glory about him. 
 
 " What has he been doing? " she asked, when 
 she could command her voice. 
 
 Peter sighed heavily. " He's so queer," he 
 said, gravely. " He does things when you least 
 expect him to. Now, night before last I was 
 reading about the wondeiful things that Jesus 
 suid to him, how he called him blessed and said, 
 * Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
 build my Church,' and I thought how happy 
 Peter must have been, and it seemed to me 
 he could never do anything wrong again, and 
 last night, only a few verses after that, I came 
 upon this one: 'Then Peter took him, and began 
 to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord; 
 this shall not be unto thee.' And he was speak 
 ing to Jesus himself! Only think of that now. 
 ' Began to rebuke him ! ' That does beat all 
 J ever heard of. I don't know who could help 
 being disappointed in him." 
 
 The laugh was gone from Faith's face ; in 
 its place was sadness. " I know," she said, 
 musingly, " how like ourselves it is."
 
 Puzzling People. 207 
 
 " Ma'am ! " said Peter, in wondering amaze 
 ment. " Do you think it is the way folks would 
 do now? I can't think it. I know I wouldn't 
 speak that way to the Lord himself." 
 
 Faith smiled. " I am thinking of one part 
 of the words and you of another," she said. " I 
 was thinking of ' This shall not be unto thee.' 
 How often we say it in spirit; I have done it 
 myself, and gone away and forgotten it." 
 
 " I don't understand," said Peter, humbly. 
 
 " Why, have you never promised the Lord 
 'this shall not be; thou sbalt not have it to 
 bear ; I will not bring this reproach upon thy 
 name again ; I will not grieve thy spirit any 
 more ; ' and before the day and perhaps the hour, 
 was past, have done ' that thing,' or worse than 
 that, again and again ? " 
 
 Peter laid down the armful of kindlings he 
 had been gathering up preparatory to departing, 
 and, rising to his feet, ?;tood looking at Faith 
 with earnest, searching eyes. " I see," he said, 
 at last. " Why, yes, I understand you, but I 
 never thought of it, never; but Peter didn't 
 mean that way though ; it wasn't respectful 
 in him." 
 
 " I know it ; I am not excusing Peter ; I 
 think he repented bitterly, but I was thinking 
 of myself as being led through different steps 
 into a like boastf -Iness of faith and devotion."
 
 '208 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 "I see," Peter said again. "There's two 
 ways of reading that story ; one way is to 
 find fault with Peter who is in heaven and out of 
 all the fuss and trouble forever, and another way 
 is to measure my own heart by it and see 
 whether it will stand looking into. I Under 
 stood about the faults of Peter, ma'am, but I 
 never thought anything about the other part 
 until this minute, and I am truly obliged to 
 
 votl."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OPPOSING ELEMENTS. 
 
 is the merest act of commonplace cour 
 tesy," Mrs. Muuroe said ; and she spoke 
 authoritative!} 7 . She stood in the kitchen 
 doorway ; time a warm spring day among 
 the closing ones of May. It was eleven 
 o'clock, and Maria was in full tide of preparation 
 for the noon-day dinner, her sleeves tucked 
 above her elbows, a large calico apron covering 
 her neat calico dress, and she pared potatoes 
 with an energy that betokened a perturbed state 
 of mind. Her cheeks were red, too, but that 
 might have been from the fire, for the kitchen 
 was insufferably hot. Mrs. Munroe lifted her 
 straw hat from her shapely head and fanned 
 herself leisurely while she talked. Her dinner 
 hour was one, and the dinner itself was in the 
 hands of Becky a pattern cook, who had Jrvjd 
 
 209
 
 210 Household Puzzles. 
 
 in some of the Munroe families since babyhood 
 So Mrs. Munroe, in her blue and white plaid 
 wrapper, with linen cuffs and small standing 
 collar, fastened with the spray of lava which 
 was one of her husband's gifts, looked the pic 
 ture of refinement and leisure. She continued 
 her sentence, unmindful of the glow on Maria's 
 cheeks : " I don't see how you can avoid it. 
 Everybody does such things." 
 
 " But I tell you, Helen, we have got to avoid 
 it. We haven't the money to waste in any such 
 senseless way." 
 
 "Senseless! You are very sweeping in your 
 condemnations. If you live in the world you 
 must act like other people a little, even if you 
 do feel yourself superior to them ; and that has 
 always been your trouble having too high an 
 estimate of }~ourself. As to money, that is non 
 sense ! How much will it cost, I wonder, to have 
 half a dozen friends to take tea with you? You 
 needn't make a great flourish. In fact, it would 
 be in bad taste for persons in your circumstances 
 to do so; but a few intimate friends. I'm sure 
 I don't see how you are to avoid it, unless you 
 girls mean to decline all invitations for your 
 selves. While poor mother was living she was 
 BO much of an invalid, that people didn't expect 
 to be invited here, and of course they didn't 
 expect it while we were in mourning; but now 
 it is different."
 
 Opposing Elements. 211 
 
 Maria splashed the potatoes about in the 
 rinsing water with such energy as to give her 
 apron a shower bath, and spoke with unusual 
 sharpness. 
 
 " I wonder, Helen, if getting married has 
 destroyed all the common sense you ever pos 
 sessed. You know that mother was never so 
 much of an invalid but that she would have 
 enjoyed company if we had been able to afford 
 it, but we weren't, and we aren't now." 
 
 " Well, don't talk so loud. How you do fly 
 into a passion over every trifle. That is a very 
 unlady-like trait. You ought to break yourself 
 of it before you are older. I wonder how yoa 
 came to be so mercenary, Maria ? I'm sure there 
 are other things ot importance as well as money. 
 You talk as if that was the only thing worth 
 any consideration." 
 
 " I have to consider how to get along without 
 it so constantly, that it is no wonder it is often 
 in my thoughts." Something had calmed Maria. 
 She spoke more in her usual tone of cool indif 
 ference. 
 
 "I know," said Mrs. Munroe, thoughtfully. 
 "You have had a hard time of it, and 1 thin* 
 you have managed very well, considering yorr 
 age ; but I should think things must be very 
 much better with you now. Tom receiving a 
 salary, and Ermina working in that horrid shop
 
 212 Household Puzzles. 
 
 but they give her very fair wages and Faith 
 pays a good price for her board. There's con 
 siderable coining in." 
 
 "And considerable going out," said Maria ad 
 she lauded the wire full of potatoes into the 
 bubbling kettle. " There are old bills to pay, 
 and Ermiua has undertaken to help pay them. 
 Father's quarter's salary won't begin to do it; 
 and we were out of everything under the sur, 
 from flour to brooms, to say nothing of clothes. 
 There are ways enough for the money, I cai> 
 assure you." 
 
 " But for all that," said Mrs. Munroe, going 
 back persistently to her first idea, as such natures 
 do, "/think you ought to give a little company 
 Of course I don't speak for myself, although it 
 is common for brides to be invited to their former 
 homes for entertainment, and I presume Horace's 
 folks think it strange that we are not ; but 1 
 could get along without it only there is Faith, 
 coming here a stranger, our cousin, and it is so 
 singular not to pay her any attention; besides, 
 you girls owe it to yourselves. What society 
 will you have if you ignore its claims upon you 
 as we have been doing ? " 
 
 " The claims of society are a humbug," said 
 Maria, basting her roast beef until its savory 
 odor filled the kitchen. " I always tliougnt so. 
 Here we, as poor as mice poorer for that matter
 
 Opposing Elements. 213 
 
 must twist and turn, and scrimp, and make 
 pourid-cake and other stuff, and invite a company 
 to jam into our dining-room, and make fun of 
 our nicked dishes and our tin coffee-pot, so that 
 they will invite us to similar shams if they are 
 poor, or show us how unutterably shoddy our 
 efforts were if they are rich. That's society." 
 
 " Oh, well," said Mrs. Munroe, fanning herself 
 with more energy, "you can't have the millen 
 nium come right away, even if you want it ; and 
 I get along very well with the world as it is. 
 It is nonsense in you to talk about a jam. Your 
 dining-room is large, I'm sure, and its very re 
 spectably furnished, and a few friends to tea 
 would be very pleasant. You could have spoons 
 and napkins and such things from my house, 
 and Becky to help you. She would show you 
 just how to do everything ; and as to the silver, 
 why, you could have my coffee-urn and cake- 
 baskets." 
 
 "I should never do it in the world," sputtered 
 Maria. "If we were foolish enough, in our cir 
 cumstances, to give a tea party, I would insist 
 upon its being. according to our circumstances, 
 and not yours. I'll serve no coffee from bor 
 rowed urns, you may be sure of that. Spoons 
 and napkins are bad enough, but they are com 
 mon necessities." 
 
 " That's pride," said Mrs. Munroe, compla 
 cently.
 
 214 Household Puzzles. 
 
 It was not this conversation, nor a dozen 
 others like, held when the combined forces were 
 gathered, for both Ermina and Grace took ear 
 nest bides with Maria, that finally settled the 
 question of company. It was Mr. Randolph re 
 turning, after he had started for the office, to 
 say, in hesitating tones, to Maria, who occupied 
 the dining-room alone, 
 
 " Could you manage a little company to tea, 
 Maria ? Helen and Horace, and a few of their 
 friends. Helen feels as if her new family re 
 lations ought to be recognized, I presume. 
 Could you bring it about, daughter? " 
 
 " Why, yes, sir," Maria said, speaking slowly 
 and hesitatingly, with a glow on each cheek. 
 Helen married was worse than Helen at home 
 among them. tl We can, if you think best, but 
 we don't consider it at all necessary ; and, father, 
 having company is rather expensive business." 
 
 Mr. Randolph winced, as he always did when 
 finance was the subject of conversation. Poor 
 man, there was nothing he would have liked 
 better than a fortune unless, indeed, it were to 
 be at rest somewhere, where money was never 
 mentioned. Mr. Randolph's tastes, like his 
 daughter Helen's, were royal." 
 
 "Never mind," he said, hurriedly. "A few 
 shillings more or less can not make much dif 
 ference in the end. I would not try to do muck
 
 Opposing Elements. 215 
 
 Something very simple, and within our means. 
 People know we are poor. They must take the 
 will for the deed. I do not like to hurt Helen's 
 feelings by passing her new connection over en 
 tirely. You will manage it right, daughter; you 
 always do," and then Mr. Randolph went away, 
 leaving Maria the picture of dismay. She had 
 not meant to yield this point. She knew " they " 
 were in the habit of making company for a 
 married daughter, but she was personally very 
 indifferent to " them," and she had reckoned 
 on battling the matter out with Helen. She 
 had not counted on the half dozen words that 
 Mrs. Monroe let drop sadly in her father's hear 
 ing, " If mother were here, Horace, your mother 
 and father would be cordially welcomed to this 
 house. We miss mother in everything." 
 
 So the cake making and the discussions com 
 menced again. Maria having yielded against her 
 will, did it with a very ill grace, and made her 
 self extra trouble, as angry people are apt to do. 
 Three several afternoons did Becky present her 
 self, her hair done in the neatest little knot 
 imaginable, her apron large and clean, and 
 announced herself ready to make cake, or do 
 " anything that Miss Maria wanted of her." 
 Miss Maria wanted nothing. Not an egg would 
 she let Becky beat, not a raisin was she allowed 
 to touch. Mrs. Munroe came over and stood in
 
 216 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 the kitchen door, in cool, summery toilet, and 
 fanned herself, while she told Maria that she was 
 certainly very silly ; Becky knew how to do 
 everything much better than she did ; and that 
 she (Mrs. Munroe) had put herself out, in order 
 to let Becky help over here. 
 
 "Put yourself in again,'' said ungrateful Ma 
 ria, " as soon as 3*011 choose. We have lived 
 thus far without any of Becky's assistance, and 
 we shall continue, for a little while." 
 
 "But you are not accustomed to entertaining 
 company," persisted the eldest sister ; " and you 
 are nothing but a young girl. Now, she knows 
 how ' they ' arrange everything. She has as 
 sisted some of the very first fumilies in town." 
 
 " Did you ever hear of the man who told his 
 transient boarder that if she couldn't stand, in 
 the eating line, for one week, what he had to 
 endure all his life, it was a pity? I might say 
 the same to my guests. I am sure I have done 
 the cooking for you ever since I could talk, 
 nearly, and you are still alive. We'll venture it 
 one night longer." This was all the reply that 
 the inexorable Maria had to make, and she 
 burned her cheeks and her finger, and made all 
 the cake herself. Delicious cake it was, too. 
 She had that accomplishment, I think no one 
 who has ever attempted to compound the de 
 praved stuff will deny. There were other things
 
 Opposing Elements. 217 
 
 about which she obstinately insisted on her own 
 way. 
 
 " How on earth came you to think of inviting 
 Nettie Thatcher ? " was Mrs. Munroe's exclama 
 tion on one of the aforesaid afternoons. 
 
 " It wasn't a very hard thing to think of,' 
 Maria said, composedly. "I've performed more 
 severe mental labor than that many a time." 
 
 " Don't for pity's sake try to be funny, Maria; 
 it is too warm for that. But what possesses you 
 to think you must mix people up so ? " 
 
 "I'm not mixing them up. It is entirely your 
 work. If I could have had my own way I 
 should have left them all in peace and quietness, 
 to get their suppers at their usual hours, instead 
 of coming here and waiting for it until bedtime. 
 But since it had to be done, I thought Nettie 
 might as well wait as the rest of you." 
 
 " Well, I thought you had more sense than 
 that. She never expects to be invited in our set. 
 You certainly couldn't havt thought that you 
 would hurt her feelings by leaving her out, foi 
 no one invites her ? " 
 
 "Why don't they?" 
 
 " Well, for several reasons. In the first place, 
 she doesn't belong, as I said, to our set in so 
 ciety." 
 
 " Why doesn't she ? " 
 
 " How do /know V I don't suppose she has \ 
 suitable thing to wear."
 
 218 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "That's her concern, not mine. I don't have 
 to clothe the people, only to feed them, for that 
 matter. I've heard you make the same remark 
 about yourself many a time, yet you didn't con 
 sider it a reason why people should ignore your 
 acquaintance." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe laughed complacently. It was a 
 source of unceasing comfort to her that she 
 would never be obliged to make that remark 
 again. Then she turned to the charge. 
 
 " What is the use of talking this nonsense. I 
 insist that there is no sense in your thinking 
 of inviting Nettie Thatcher. She is not in our 
 circle of society, and we can't put her in." 
 
 " She is a member of the same church with 
 yourself, Helen." 
 
 " Oh, well, now, that has nothing to do with 
 the subject. People may talk about equality 
 and all that sort of thing to the end of time, and 
 there will still be classes, or grades, or sets, or 
 whatever you please to call them." 
 
 "But what shall make them, Helen educa 
 tion, or worth, or money ? For instance, Nettie 
 Thatcher is a good-principled, noble-hearted girl, 
 with a very fair education, as good as yours or 
 mine certainly, and she is refined and gentle in 
 her manners. The entire difficulty lies in tha 
 fact that she works in a mill. Now, what com 
 mon sense is there in that ? "
 
 Opposing Elements. 219 
 
 Mrs. Munroe sniffed energetically, and her 
 reply was very much to the point. 
 
 'You are burning that cake, Maria; I smell 
 it. Scorched cake is horrid stuff. Becky never 
 has the least bit of burn on hers. What a sim 
 pleton you are not to let her help you! Some 
 thing horrid will happen, just because of your 
 obst/.nacy. I expect to fairly die of mortifica 
 tion." 
 
 " In that case, your troubles, so far as my 
 cake is concerned, will certainly be over," Maria 
 said, composedly. 
 
 " Well, at least I hope you won't insist on 
 mortifying Nettie Thatcher with an invitation 
 which she won't know what to do with. You 
 can't make the world over, and it isn't worth 
 while to try. Nettie seems well enough satis 
 fied with her own sphere. Don't mix things " 
 
 Maria closed the oven door with a bang. 
 
 " It's of no sort of use to hold an argument 
 with you," she said, hotly. " You would dance 
 around in a bandbox all day, and never discover 
 that the bottom was out ; but you can compose 
 your mind on one point. Nettie Thatcher has 
 been invited, and has accepted the invitation." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe's cheeks reddened angrily. 
 
 " Then all I have to say is," and she said it in 
 a somewhat high key, " I think you are a very 
 headstrong, obstinate girl, and you take a great
 
 220 Household Puzzles, 
 
 deal on yourself for one of your age. I am sure I 
 don't see why Erurina don't control you bottei. 
 I would rather not have any company than to 
 have people who never saw each other before, 
 mid never will again, sit stiffly around trying to 
 make talk, when they have nothing in common. 
 I wonder what Mr. Harper will think of such 
 a company. I guess he will wonder where you 
 picked up Nettie Thatcher." 
 
 " I will clear out a clothes-press for the gen 
 tleman, if you think he can not breathe the 
 same air that Nettie does for one evening," Ma 
 ria said, now thoroughly exasperated ; and her 
 sister gathered herself up in wrath and went 
 home, leaving the kitchen in outward peace for 
 the rest of the day. 
 
 There was one redeeming feature of Mrs. 
 Munroe's character. She never stayed angry. 
 The next morning's sun found her as peaceably 
 disposed toward the family across the way, and 
 as ready to aid them as ever. She came over 
 iust before the dinner hour. She had a new 
 
 * 
 
 scheme, which she brought before Ermina, who 
 was slicing cold meat for the hurried dinner; 
 for it was the clay of the coming entertainment. 
 
 " Dinners are of no account in this house to 
 day," ac she shaved the great pinky slices. " It 
 is the supper toward which our stomachs are 
 eagerly looking. This is simply to stay them 
 until seven o'clock."
 
 Opposing Elements. 221 
 
 Mrs. Munroe, thus remindeo^of the tardiness 
 of her plans, came to the point at once. 
 
 " 1 wish we could have a little currant wine 
 to serve with the cake this evening." 
 
 Errnina, in her astonishment, forgot the ma 
 tronly name, and exclaimed, 
 
 " Why, Helen Randolph ! " 
 
 '* Well, I do," said Mrs. Munroe, firmly. " It 
 is simple, and at the same time elegant. They 
 have it at a great many little parties where 
 other liquors are considered objectionable ; and 
 your cake is so ridiculously plain you need some 
 thing to set it off. You humor Maria so, in 
 all of her whims, I wonder at you," 
 
 Ermina laughed. " It is she who humors me 
 in mine, when she occasionally allows me to 
 have my own way," she said, good-humoredly. 
 " But I consider it no more than fair that the 
 one who does all the work should do some of the 
 managing. As to currant wine, you might as 
 well propose a glass of prussic acid all around. 
 You seem to have forgotten father's opinions?" 
 
 " Oh, father ! I could coax him over to my 
 side in less than five minutes. I really think 
 you ought to have something of the kind, and 
 that is so simple that the most morbid temper 
 ance people use it. City people don't look at 
 these things as we do, anyway in large cities, 
 I mean. Mr. Harper now is a temperance man,
 
 22 Household Puzzles. 
 
 quite an earnest one, I've heard, and I've no 
 doubt that he would think father's ideas ridicu 
 lously narrow and strait laced. We have some 
 splendid currant wine that Horace's mother 
 made two years ago. It was Horace's idea to 
 offer it here this evening. He thinks it will 
 make things more free and easy. If it were not 
 for Maria we might bring it over quietly, and 
 serve it without saying anything to father ; but 
 I suppose she would make an outrageous fuss." 
 
 " If it were not for Maria, and Ennina, and 
 all the rest of us, you would better say. That 
 will never be done in this house, I assure you. 
 You are welcome to get father's consent if you 
 can, though I think he has trouble enough with 
 out bothering his brains about such things; but 
 everything that has to do with him shall be fair 
 and square no slipping in and doing things 
 quietly. I won't consent to it." 
 
 " No one thought of asking you to. You are 
 as bad as Maria. I'm not afraid but that I 
 could get father's consent to it in two minutes." 
 
 "Very well," said Ermina, composedly. "Try 
 it, and I wish you joy in the undertaking. He 
 is coming. You will have an opportunity to 
 vanquish him before dinner if it is only to take 
 two minutes."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE FOKCE OF ARGUMENT. 
 
 ATHER," said Mrs. Munroe, turning to 
 meet the weary, sallow-faced man, " you 
 don't look as well as usual to-day. Are 
 you feeling badly?" 
 
 "No worse than usual, Helen," ha 
 said, trying to smile cheerily. " I haven't much 
 to boast of in the way of strength." 
 
 " I think you need a tonic of some kind. 
 Horace's father has been real miserable for sev 
 eral days, and Dr. Marvin ordered wine bitters 
 for him. He thinks they are helping him. 1 
 wish you would try currant wine, father ; that 
 is harmless enough, and it is real strengthening. 
 I'm going to bring some over to-night for the 
 company, and I want you to try it. Will you ? " 
 From the time of her earliest recollection her 
 father had worn to Helen Munroe the same 
 
 223
 
 224 Household Puzzles. 
 
 kind, patient, tender face ; easily moved, easily 
 coaxed, apparently; one of those men whom 
 nature:) like Ermina's and Maria's shrank from 
 wounding or jarring in anyway : hence his wish 
 hud grown into being their laws one of those 
 men whom natures like Helen's wheedled into 
 doing dozens of things which he did not want to 
 do to which his higher nature objected 
 simply because he shrank morbidly from argu 
 ment, from strife, from scenes of any sort. Very 
 rarely had Mrs. Munroe seen him either excited 
 or determined. She did not understand her 
 father. He turned toward her now, a bright 
 red spot burning on the sallow cheek, and his 
 voice was slow and low : 
 
 " Helen, it is very seldom that I assert my 
 decided views in regard to things. It is very 
 seldom, indeed, that I issue any commands: but 
 I thought my children understood my position 
 in this matter. There can no currant wine ever 
 be served in my house to guests of mine. Don't 
 forget it." Then he turned and went with 
 quick, trembling steps out of the room. 
 
 " There ! " said Ermina, angrily. " I hope 
 you will enjoy your dinner ; you have spoiled 
 father's. Do go home." 
 
 And Mrs. Munroe immediately went. 
 
 " You will have to give up your currant wine 
 plans," she said to her husband when they met
 
 The Force of Argument. 225 
 
 at their late dinner. u Father is really fierce 
 about it. He actually frightened me." Then 
 she told him her attempt and its result. 
 
 Mr. Horace Munroe laughed. That thin, pale 
 old man, old before his time, with not business 
 capacity enough to have risen even yet above 
 clerkship, "with not mental power enough to care 
 to converse for half an hour with anybody the 
 idea of being cowed by him, or of not doing as 
 one liked in spite of him ! He did not say all 
 this to his wife; he did not say a word of it. 
 He was learning Mrs. Munroe's nature. There 
 were things that it would not bear. She could 
 get thoroughly exasperated with her sisters. 
 She could feel at times utter contempt for he* 
 brother Tom. She could even lose patience 
 with her father; but woe to the foolish being 
 who dared to sympathize with these feelings ! 
 To be out of sorts with her own flesh and blood 
 was one thing, to allow any one else to do so 
 was utterly another. Mr. Munroe was wiser, 
 therefore he kept all his thoughts to himself, 
 and laughed, and said, 
 
 " Well, their loss is our gain. Never mind," 
 and then dismissed the subject. 
 
 Very early in the evening Mrs. Muuroe crossed 
 
 again to her father's house, ready dressed for 
 
 the reception which she had gotten up for 
 
 herself. She was dressed in the much-talked- 
 
 15
 
 226 Household Puzzles. 
 
 over lavender silk, with its elaborate trimmings 
 and elegant laces. She felt called upon to 
 apologize to Errnina's stare of astonishment. 
 
 '* You know I am a bride, Eimina, and they 
 always expect brides to dress a good deal the 
 first few times they go out in company." 
 
 "I'm glad there's no prospect of my being a 
 bride," Ermina said, coldly. " ' They ' seem to 
 expect them to be guilty of all sorts of absurd 
 and preposterous things. What are you going 
 to wear to parties, Helen ? " 
 
 " I really don't believe you ever will be one, 
 Ermina. You are altogether too blunt and 
 sharp." The question she ignored. 
 
 Ermina laughed. 
 
 "Both blunt and sharp. I should think I 
 might be about right then, as they are both 
 extremes. But I don't know that you are any 
 sillier than I am. I expect to swelter in this 
 gray dress; but I must wear it, because it cost a 
 dollar a yard, and my comfortable one was only 
 twenty cents. We are all fools together. That's 
 the conclusion that Peter Armstrong has arrived 
 at, and I agree with him." 
 
 This suggested a new trouble to Mrs. Munroe. 
 
 " What have you done with Peter ? " she 
 asked, anxiously. 
 
 " Done with him ? Ironed his best shirt to 
 the last degree of smoothness, and cut the fringes
 
 The Furce of Argument. 227 
 
 off his cuffs, and made a new bow to bis necktie. 
 He is in very good order for the occasion, I 
 assure you." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe stood aghast. 
 
 " He isnt going to be bere witb tbe company? 
 Now, is he?" 
 
 " Why, of course he is. Jsn't he one of the 
 boarders, and hasn't he as good a right to his 
 supper as any of us ? " 
 
 Mrs. Munroe sat down in the nearest chair, in 
 speechless indignation. 
 
 *' I never saw such works ! " she managed to 
 say at last. " You are quite as wild as Maria. 
 Why, I used to think that you had common 
 sense. The idea of Peter Armstrong being at a 
 tea party ! He never knows what to do with 
 his feet nor his hands." 
 
 " His feet are all right this time. He has 
 made them shine beautifully; and as for his 
 hands, no doubt he will make them useful he 
 generally does. Dorit fret about things, Helen. 
 Tm Miss Randolph, you know ; your responsi 
 bility in this family has ceased." 
 
 " That is very evident," Mrs. Munroe said, 
 tartly. 
 
 Then both ladies went in search of Maria. 
 They found her in the dining-room, busy over 
 the table, which was fragrant with flowers and 
 leaves.
 
 228 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "This table really looks very pretty," Mrs. 
 Munroe said. "Who arranged it? It must be 
 Grace's work. She has the most tasteful hands 
 of any of you. Why, Maria Randolph ! " 
 
 " At your service, ma'am. What can I do for 
 you ? " 
 
 "I should thinly it was quite time you were 
 dressed for the evening." 
 
 "Dressed! Hear the woman I and I've been 
 prinking for the last hour." 
 
 " And arrayed yourself in a calico dress at 
 last!" 
 
 " English cambric, ma'am ; cost twenty-five 
 cents a yard, and cheap as dirt at that. I have 
 the clerk's word for it." 
 
 " Maria, what is the use of being so disagreea 
 ble? I'm sure I don't like to do things to 
 mortify you. Why should you care to treat me 
 BO?" 
 
 Maria turned toward her in genuine astonish 
 ment. 
 
 "I hadn't such an idea, Helen," she said, ear 
 nestly. "I didn't think it would make any 
 difference to you what I wore. In fact I didn't 
 think about you at all ; and I had several reasons 
 for choosing this dress. In the first place my 
 poplin is insufferably hot warm doesn't express 
 it and, besides, it's too long for table serving. 
 Then I remembered what you said about morti-
 
 The Force of Argument. 229 
 
 fying Nettie Thatcher, and I determined that I 
 wouldn't mortify her by appearing better dressed 
 than she might be." 
 
 44 You are very considerate," Mrs. Munroe 
 said, coldly, turning away as she spoke. But 
 she said no more against the pretty cambric 
 dress. 
 
 The guests began to assemble, few in number, 
 and, for the most part a choice selection. Mrs. 
 Horace Munroe was conspicuous in her lavender 
 silk, even her mother-in-law wearing a plain 
 black one; but she drew consolation from the 
 thought that she was a bride, and was expected 
 to be conspicuous. Not the least interesting 
 among the young faces was that of Nettie 
 Thatcher. Her dress, too, was certainly unob 
 jectionable. It was one of those soft, still grays, 
 of a material so vague that even Mrs. Muuroe's 
 practiced eye failed to determine to what class it 
 belonged, nor how much it mr_>ht possibly have 
 cost a yard. Her ornaments were rare and 
 exquisite enough ; they were small, blue wild- 
 wood flowers. Mrs. Munroe, standing near her, 
 moved dexterously forward as Mr. Harper en 
 tered, and her voluminous skirts and ruffles and 
 puffs served to hide the quiet little wildwood 
 flower beh-md her. " There is no necessity for 
 performing conspicuous and disagreeable intro 
 ductions," she said, in undertone, to Grace who
 
 230 Household Puzzles. 
 
 sought her shelter. " He will not know there is 
 any one behind me. He is fastidious in hia 
 tastes, and extremely inconvenient in his ques 
 tionings." He came very soon to her corner 
 and greeted her with a cordial shake of the 
 hand, and almost his second sentence was, 
 
 " Whom are you hiding behind you, Mrs. 
 Munroe ? " Then, as his eye caught a view 
 of her, " Ah, Miss Nettie ! " he said, and there 
 was unmistakable pleasure in his voice. Imme 
 diately he held out his hand to her, and Mrs. 
 Munroe had the pleasure of hearing their conver 
 sation: "I haven't seen you in an age, Nettie." 
 
 "Not since Saturday evening." 
 
 Mr. Harper laughed. 
 
 " Was it so recent as that ? Well, it seems 
 longer. How are matters progressing?" 
 
 " Very smoothly, so far as I can learn." 
 
 " How does it happen that you have been be 
 guiled out of your retirement? " 
 
 " It doesn't take much to beguile me, when 
 people give me a chance to come." Her laugh 
 was low and sweet. 
 
 " Who gave you the chance ? Was it Miss 
 Randolph's invitation ? " 
 
 "No; Maria's." 
 
 " Oh, I don't think I know her." 
 
 " Don't you ? Come with me, then, and we'll 
 find her."
 
 The Force of Argument. 231 
 
 And immediately the soft gray dress was 
 shaken out, and Nettie Thatcher crossed the 
 room with the only very distinguished guest they 
 had. 
 
 This Mr. Harper, about whom so much has 
 been hinted, deserves a more extended mention. 
 He was not a resident of the little city where the 
 Randolphs lived. In fact, he was the junior 
 partner of one of those mammoth firms in New 
 York. He had charge of the foreign branch es 
 tablishment, and lived abroad. He was spending 
 a year at home that is, in this country send 
 ing out one of the confidential clerks of the firm 
 to take his place, while he attended to various 
 outside business matters. And ever and anon he 
 came back to the old homestead, situated in this 
 little city, spending days, and sometimes weeks, 
 with an old aunt, the sole remaining branch of the 
 old family tree, and the only mother he had ever 
 known. Great was the estimation in which he 
 was held in the city. Thus much about him. 
 What sort of a man was hidden behind all this 
 external of wealth and importance you may dis 
 cover for yourselves as chance makes you ac 
 quainted with him. Later in the evening he 
 stood beside Ermina. 
 
 " You are looking weary," he said, bending a 
 little and speaking in a low tone. 
 
 " Am I ? " she said, gravely. " That is an un-
 
 232 Household Puzzles. 
 
 pardonable offense. As hostess I ought to look 
 as fresh as a June morning, no matter if I have 
 been on my feet since daylight; but I cant. 
 Even my looks refuse to be hypocritical." 
 
 " Have you schooled them not to be ? " he 
 isked, earnestly. 
 
 " Not I. They schooled themselves. Hypoc- 
 visy was left out of my nature. I can plead 
 gtilty to every other sin in the calendar, but I 
 Vwen't enough of that to get on comfortably with 
 i^ this flattery-loving world." 
 
 v - What a pity." He said it quietly, and ap- 
 psiently in perfect sincerity. 
 
 Something prompted her to answer him with 
 >-qual gravity. 
 
 " What do you mean ? What is a pity?" 
 
 " Do you know Burns ? and are you acquainted 
 with that honest bit of life he wrote, commencing, 
 ' Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us ? ' I was 
 thinking what a pity it is that he was right, that 
 people know so little about themselves.'' 
 
 " Do you mean me to make a personal applica 
 tion of that remark ? " 
 
 " I hoped you would," he said, with a bright 
 smile. 
 
 " Then I should think you meant that / waa 
 hypocritical without knowing it." 
 
 " If I mean just that, what then ? " 
 
 "Well," said Ermina, in undisguised astonish-
 
 TJie Force of Argument. 233 
 
 ment, " I certainly don't think you are one. I ana 
 sufficiently interested in myself, however, to make 
 my acquaintance; so if you really mean just that, 
 will you tell me how ? " 
 
 " I beg your pardon," he said gently. " I think 
 I am presuming a great deal on a first acquaint 
 ance ; but I have imagined you to belong in a 
 measure to that class of persons who vail their 
 better selves, who hide their tender and gentle 
 and sympathetic feelings under a mask of cold 
 ness or brusqeness." 
 
 " People are educated into doing that," she an 
 swered quickly, "because there is so much sham 
 tenderness and mock sympathy." 
 
 " Because there is counterfeit money in circu 
 lation, Miss Randolph, you and I must counter 
 feit some for ourselves. Is that it?" 
 
 Ermina laughed a little. 
 
 " I believe I am a poor logician," she said. 
 "But, Mr. Harper, don't you think hypocrisy is 
 the besetting sin of polite society ? " 
 
 " One of them ; and the want of it is the be 
 setting sin of some people ? " 
 
 " What can you mean ? It is certainly not one 
 of the Christian virtues in any case." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that. There is a kind 
 ness of spirit, a gentleness of manner, a willing 
 ness to yield to the feelings of others, that by 
 many would be termed hypocrisy, that to me is
 
 234 Household Puzzles. 
 
 one of the Christian graces. I have seen just 
 such lovely characters, and have heard their 
 owners denounced as hypocrites, simply because 
 they did not speak all that they might think. 
 What do you imagine Paul meant by becoming 
 all things to all men ? " 
 
 " I don't remember ever having given it a 
 thought." 
 
 " Haven't you ? It seems to me that he de 
 sired to cultivate that grace of sympathizing with 
 other people's views and feelings, and even whims, 
 so far as it was possible." 
 
 " But don't you think there is danger of carry 
 ing the theory too far ? " 
 
 " Not if we adopt the other part of Paul's doc 
 trine, * That I might by all means save some. 
 The Christian who takes that as his motto, works 
 for that, prays for it, will not be likely to get far 
 astray in regard to it." 
 
 " How many people live according to that 
 standard do you imagine ? " 
 
 "Let us hope that many do; let us be sure that 
 you and /do." 
 
 " I am sure that I do wof," she said, emphati 
 cally. 
 
 " But you wish to ? " 
 
 " No, I cannot even be said to wish to, since 
 I have never thought of the subject in that light 
 before."
 
 The Force of Argument. 235 
 
 " You are a Christian, I think ? " 
 
 " Why, I am not even sure of that. At least 
 not in this hypocritical sense. I am a member 
 of the church, if that is what you mean." 
 
 " I do not mean that," he said, quickly. " In 
 one sense it matters very little what I profess if 
 I do not possess." 
 
 " Your talk about St. Paul reminds me of St. 
 Peter," she said, with a sudden change of tone. 
 " We have him here to-night ; that is he leaning 
 against the side window. He don't know what to 
 do with his hands nor his feet, nor the rest of hia 
 body, for that matter. I think I ought to go over 
 and talk to him not to carry out your theory, 
 however, for I would rather have a talk with 
 him than with two-thirds of our guests." 
 
 " Who is he ? " asked Mr. Harper, very much 
 amused. 
 
 " He is our boarder," she answered him, with 
 sparkling eyes. " Hypocritically, we take him 
 because it is convenient to have some one to do 
 errands for us, and because we were sorry for the 
 poor boy, and wanted to give him a pleasant 
 home ; but honestly, because Mr. Evans, for 
 whom he works, pays a fair price for his board, 
 and we needed the money." 
 
 " Will you take me to see him ? I have no 
 ticed his face; and there are reasons why I am in 
 terested in him."
 
 230 Household Puzzle- 
 
 So the next thing Mr. Harper did was to Across 
 the room to Peter Armstrong and shake 
 
 Maria's cake was certainly appreciated the 
 daiotv little supper was thoroughly neat in a 
 o U appointments, and Maria herself was fe 
 that if it were not for to-morrow, and 
 Mis, and the folly of trying to be hke wl Mo-do 
 people when you were poor people, , she would 
 
 /o I,' len a diversion occurred at the ot er^ 
 Her brother-in-law. Mr. Munroe, came f.om t 
 f a trlwith a tray and glasses, and the glasses 
 Ce glowing with wine ! Maria set the spoon- 
 
 ^rr\ra"e: 1 s D o e meo\ us, at least not this 
 evenfng ; but this is a very rare quahty, and 
 
 ^
 
 The Force of Argument. 237 
 
 A sudden hush fell on the guests, for Mr. Ran 
 dolph had risen from his chair at the other end 
 of the room, and those who were nearest him saw 
 that his sallow face was very pale. 
 
 " There is some mistake," he said, speaking 
 steadily and in a voice sufficiently clear to be 
 heard by every one in the room. ** My son-in- 
 law is a new member of my family, and may pos 
 sibly be excused for not knowing my views. But 
 it were discourtesy to my guests not to make 
 them acquainted with them. I am known in 
 this place as an advocate of temperance, of total 
 abstinence. I do not believe in wine made of 
 any kind of fruit, whether it be of currants or 
 grapes. I never offer wine to guests of mine, and 
 never mean to." 
 
 " Randolph," said Mr. Harper, touching Tom 
 on the shoulder, as the elder Mr. Randolph sat 
 down, " be proud of your father." 
 
 " I am," said Tom, his eyes glowing. " I'll be 
 hanged if I don't like square out and out inde 
 pendence, even when it fires a shot right at me."
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 REAL OB IMITATION? 
 
 next thing they did was to go shop 
 ping Ermina and Faith and Mrs. Mun- 
 roe. The last-named lady was fond of 
 shopping. Once it had been a trial to 
 her, because of the windows and shelves 
 and cases full of beauty that she must needs pass 
 by ; but nowadays her purse was well filled. At 
 least it always seemed so to her, unless she came 
 in contact with Faith Halsted. Mrs. Munroe's 
 wealth would always be that of degree. When 
 in the presence of her sisters, with their carefully 
 counted pennies, she felt rich ; when she was 
 with Faith, in view of that young lady's half 
 million, she was poor, and somewhat discon 
 tented. It was this feeling that served to put 
 238
 
 Real or Imitation t 239 
 
 her in a petulant, argumentative mood whenever 
 she came in contact with Faith. Ermina went 
 shopping because she had a half holiday, with 
 nothing in particular to do ; and she said it was 
 refreshing to look on occasionally and see other 
 people spend money, even though she had none 
 to spend herself. Faith went of necessity, be 
 cause things would wear out and must necessarily 
 be replaced. In her haste to get settled for the 
 summer she had left much of her summer sewing 
 to do after she reached her new home. Mrs. 
 Munroe went because, as I told you, she enjoyed 
 it. They were a pretty trio in their cheerful 
 summer toilets. A trifle overdressed Mrs Mun 
 roe was for the street. It was her besetting 
 temptation. But Faith was as simple in her 
 toilet as Ermina herself; and that young lady 
 was wont to remark that " severe simplicity " be 
 came her complexion and her purse. 1 don't 
 remember whether I have ever told you how Er 
 mina looked. I am anxious that you should 
 know. She had large gray eyes, and hair so 
 brown that sometimes people imagined it to be 
 black. She had a somewhat large mouth, in 
 which one caught glimpses of rows of white 
 teeth. And no\v you know almost nothing 
 about how she looked. As if eyes and hair and 
 teeth told anything about the look. I wonder 
 what it is. Everybody has eyes, and quite a
 
 240 Household Puzzles. 
 
 good many people have hair and teeth of their 
 own, even in these days ; and yet we never get 
 mixed up, mistaking other people for our sisters, 
 or our husbands or fathers the look is there, 
 the distinguishing something that makes each 
 person distinct from every other person. Er- 
 mina had the look, in a marked degree. No one 
 ever said of her, " There goes one of the Ran 
 dolph girls." She was Ermina Randolph to 
 everybody that knew her. On this sunny after 
 noon, as the three ladies took their seats in a 
 street car, Ermina in her plainly made silver- 
 gray dress looked every inch a lady. Mrs. Munroe 
 was, as I said, just a little too much dressed, and 
 Faith was so small and slight that every one 
 thought her a fair young girl not out of her teens 
 by some years. The cars filled rapidly and 
 there presently occurred that interesting condi 
 tion peculiar to street cars more people than 
 seats. Among the standers was a woman be 
 longing to that class to whom belongs the term 
 "common people" whatever that may mean 
 in this country of free schools and republican 
 principles. I think it generally means that the 
 women wear calico dresses, where the .other class 
 wear some other material. A refined distinction 
 you will observe. This particular woman was 
 in clean, neat, recently starched calico, of a 
 auiet, neutral tint. In her arms she carried a
 
 Real or Imitation f 241 
 
 plump, well-to-do baby, whose head bobbed 
 from side to side incessantly, partly because of 
 the jar of the car, and partly from his intense de 
 sire to see all that was to be seen. She stood 
 opposite Erniina, who indulged in a mental cal 
 culation on the probable weight of the child, 
 and then glanced down the car at the row of 
 fashionably dressed young men, who were mak 
 ing merry over the personal appearance of some 
 of the passengers. Suddenly Ermina arose, and 
 as the car had stopped to receive a package and 
 a message, her voice could be heard distinctly. 
 
 " Take my seat, madam. It is difficult to 
 stand and carry a child," and, as the woman ob 
 jected, " I insist, madam. I am abundantly 
 able to stand." Instantly the three young men 
 were on their feet, and the nearest one tendered 
 his seat in unmistakably pressing terms. 
 
 " No," said our gray-eyed lady, coldly and 
 proudly. "No, thank you. I am quite able to 
 stand, and the lady to whom I gave my seat wag 
 not." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe took her to task for it afterward. 
 
 " What is the use in being so different from 
 everybody else, Ermina. It certainly isn't your 
 business to provide women and babies with seats. 
 You spoke out so rudely, too, to those gentle 
 men. The one who spoke to you was General 
 Thointon's son. Did you know him ? " 
 16
 
 242 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 "No," said Ermina, decidedly; "and I don't 
 want to. A gentleman would offer his seat to a 
 woman and a baby, provided he felt able to 
 stand at all. I am uot quenched, Helen, eveo 
 by your disapproval. I am glad I spoke out." 
 
 " Well, /say you were bold, and unnecessarily 
 rude. Don't you think so, Faith ? I was morti 
 fied. It does seem as if we were fated to have 
 something ridiculous or mortifying happen when 
 ever Mr. Harper is present to look on." 
 
 "Mr. Harper!" Ermina repeated, with a 
 little start. " Where was he ? I am sure he was 
 invisible to me." 
 
 " He was standing on the platform, and saw 
 and heard the whole proceeding, I know by the 
 appearance of his face." 
 
 "Oh," very composedly, "you studied his 
 face, did you ? I am glad he had no seat." 
 
 " Why in the world are you glad of that ? " 
 
 " Oh, simply because I consider that posture 
 beneficial to health and strength, and I have a 
 benevolent interest in his welfare." 
 
 Faith laughed. 
 
 "Jam glad, too," she said, in an aside to Er- 
 imina. " I like him." 
 
 " Well, I'm sure I hope you are rested for our 
 shopping, after standing for half an hour in a 
 street car. Utterly unnecessary it was, too. I 
 presume that woman is used to standing at the
 
 Real or Imitation f 243 
 
 TC ^-ill-tub all day. Faith, did you notice the 
 cotton lace on thit child's cloak and hat? I de 
 clare, it perfectly disgusts me to see how such 
 people try to iir/itate us." 
 
 " Me, for rj.'fcance," said Ermina, utter uncon 
 cern in her roice. " I have an imitation lace 
 ruSfto in my dress this minute.' 
 
 Faith rjdghed again. 
 
 "So bave 1," she said, brightly; "and /think 
 I look very nice in it." 
 
 " I wonder if you wear imitation lace I " Mrs. 
 Munroe said, utter surprise in her voice. " I am 
 sure it's very pretty. I thought it was real." 
 
 "That's the beauty of the imitation. I am 
 obliged to judge by the price of it half the time, 
 which proves that the imitation is almost as 
 pretty as the real." 
 
 " Oh, I can tell it as a general thing," said 
 Mrs. Munroe with marked emphasis on the " J." 
 (N. B. If you know any fashionable lady, who 
 never bought half a dozen yards of "reaZ" lace 
 in her life, you may be sure she will be the one 
 to declare her ability to distinguish the real from 
 the counterfeit, even in the dark.) " But yours 
 is a remarkable good imitation. Ermina's, now, 
 is almost as bad as that ridiculous woman's. 
 Don't you dislike to see such attempts to deck 
 out a baby? The child would have looked 
 better in calico."
 
 244 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "I don't think so," Faith said, stoutly. * 1 
 liked the poor woman just because she had taken 
 such evident pains to make her baby look pretty. 
 If she can not have the real things for her 
 darling, she gives him the best that her purse 
 will afford." 
 
 "That is mere sentiment," Mrs. Monroe said, 
 in an oracular tone. 
 
 Then they both went into Caswell & Hollis- 
 ter's store. Those gentlemen kopt a line of 
 goods not to be found at Munroe's. Ermina 
 was staid at the very entrance. 
 
 " What lovely calicoes ! I think I never saw 
 any prettier. Helen, they have none like these 
 at your store ? " 
 
 Mrs. Munroe surveyed them coldly. 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know whether they have 
 or not," she said, in an indifferent tone. "They 
 are common, ten-cent prints. I don't patronize 
 that class of goods, and never notice whether we 
 have them or not/' 
 
 Ermina's interest increased. 
 
 "Are they only ten cents?" she questioned, 
 eagerly. " That sounds as if it might come 
 within the bounds of my purse, and I really 
 need a couple to sew in. I believe I'll buy 
 some." 
 
 " Ermina, what nonsense ! Cambrics are only 
 twenty cents, and English calicoes you can get 
 for fifteen."
 
 Real or Imitation f 245 
 
 " But if I can get what will answer the same 
 purpose for ten cents, why shouldn't I ? " 
 
 " They won't answer the same purpose. No 
 one wears those common things." 
 
 " I do," said Faith, emphatically. " I have 
 two. Paid ten cents a yard for them in New 
 York. No, I declare, one was nine cents; 
 and I have them made up beautifully. They 
 are the prettiest dresses I have in their sphere, 
 you know." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe gave her rich cousin a stare of 
 genuine astonishment, and questioned her ener 
 getically, while Ermina reveled in buff and gray 
 tints, among the ten-cent calicoes. 
 
 " Why in the world do you buy such cheap 
 things, Faith? I'm sure you can't plead econ 
 omy." 
 
 " Why not ? " Faith asked, good-humoredly. 
 ** Why should I waste money because I happen 
 to have more than some people ? " 
 
 " But do you consider buying cambrics a 
 waste of money ? " 
 
 Faith laughed merrily. "What a logician 
 you would make this afternoon ! " she said. 
 "We were not talking about cambrics you 
 were denying me the duty of economizing." 
 
 " Well," Mrs. Munroe said, drawing her 
 Paisley shawl about her shoulders with an impa 
 tient jerk, " I suppose you are not so obtuse but
 
 246 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 that you take my meaning. Do you pretend to 
 say you think common, coarse calicoes are as 
 good as cambrics?" 
 
 " I don't remember having said anything of 
 the kind, Cousin Helen. There are places to go 
 to where I should rather prefer a cambric dress 
 to a calico ; but there are also places where the 
 ten-cent dresses fit in beautifully, and I won't 
 be so silly as to keep myself from buying them 
 merely because they only cost half as much 
 as some other goods. I detest that sort of shod- 
 dyism." 
 
 Ermina laughed. " That is good," she said, 
 heartily. " I think you have touched the root 
 of the question. I am just waking up to see it. 
 The price per yard marks the importance of 
 American costumes, and not the 'pretty,' at all. 
 Now, for instance, I'm sure anybody with eyes 
 must see that this pale sea-green ground, with 
 dots of deeper green all over it, would be very 
 pretty, if it were not for that fatal ten-cent 
 ticket on it. Helen, I'm sorry to shock your 
 taste so deeply ; but I must have a dress of this ; 
 it suits me and my pocket-book two im 
 portant matters." 
 
 " There might be another reason given fo r 
 economical dresses," Faith said, with the far 
 away look in her eyes. " This whole question 
 of dress is a misterious, and sometimes a painful
 
 Real or Imitation f 247 
 
 puzzle to me. Where to draw the line how 
 far, as responsible stewards, to spend money 
 that is intrusted to our keeping, for the simple 
 purpose of adorning our own bodies I'm sure 
 I don't know. Whether to buy any real lace at 
 all, when there is actual starvation in the world, 
 both of the body and the soul, is a strange 
 query. What do you think, Ermina ? " 
 
 " I never thought about it at all," Ermina 
 answered, bluntly. " I never had any money to 
 buy real lace with, nor real things of any sort, 
 and never expect to have." 
 
 "But do you never try to make other people's 
 duties plain to them ? " Faith asked, with a 
 merry twinkle in her eye. 
 
 " Plenty of times, so far as their duties toward 
 me were concerned; but I never troubled myself 
 about their relations to the heathen. I should 
 think, though, it would be rather an easy ques 
 tion to settle, if one wanted to settle it conscien 
 tiously it would simply involve a little close 
 looking into things, to discover which was really 
 of the most importance, lace or soul." 
 
 " What a startling way of putting it ! " Faith 
 said, thoughtfully. 
 
 " What an absurd way of putting it I " Mrs. 
 Munroe said. " Ermina, you are tumbling 
 those prints about in a shocking way. Do coma 
 on I"
 
 248 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " I can't," said Ermina. " I want to buy a 
 dress, I'm sure. I am waiting to be served. 
 The clerks are all busy lace is uppermost, you 
 perceive, this afternoon." 
 
 " But, Ermina, if one really takes that view 
 of the question, where will it end ? " This Faith 
 said, speaking earnestly. " Since there really is 
 starvation in the world, why should we have 
 any of the things that we do? It is not a ques 
 tion of real lace and silk and velvet simply, but 
 of merino and popHn, and carpets and pictures, 
 and music and flowers, even. Where is the 
 dividing line ? " 
 
 Ermina laughed. " I don't know, I'm sure," 
 she said, lightly. " It is a puzzle. I think 
 about it as little as possible, and buy my ten-cent 
 calicoes because I can not afford any better, and 
 for no other earthly reason." 
 
 " You are a ridiculous couple I " Mrs. Munroe 
 said, shortly. " If you really are going to stay 
 here and tumble over horrid prints, and moraliza 
 all the afternoon, why, I'll go on. I came tc 
 match blue silk." 
 
 Mr. Harper had a way of appearing to people 
 at unexpected moments. It was when the 
 green calico had been purchased, and the ladies, 
 returned from a vain search after the right 
 shade of blue silk, halted again before the 
 calico counter, while Faith picked out a dainty
 
 Real or Imitation f 249 
 
 norning slip for Pearly, that he came over to 
 them. 
 
 " Didn't I hear you puzzling your brains over 
 abstruse questions of starvation and plenty?" 
 he said to Faith, in a familiar tone. He and 
 Faith had been friends since the latter's early 
 childhood. 
 
 " We didn't know that you heard us," she 
 said, brightly. " But since you did, perhaps 
 you can help us." 
 
 "Not very materially, I fear. You must ask 
 my sister about that. She is in town. Did 
 you know it? When will you ladies call on 
 her? There is one sentence, Faith, that might 
 help, I should think : ' Whether, therefore, 
 ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all 
 to the glory of God.' Have you thought of 
 that ? " 
 
 "Yes, and it increased the puzzle. We just 
 don't live it. How can we ? " 
 
 "Ask my sister." 
 
 " \Vho is his sister?" Mrs. Muiiroe asked/ 
 as they went down Chester Street. 
 
 " She is Mrs. Laport, of Boston, daughter 
 of Kenneth J. Carlton, of Washington. I don't 
 know her ; they have been abroad since her 
 marriage." 
 
 " Thev are immensely rich, are they not ? "
 
 250 
 
 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Mrs. Munroe'a tones were respectful; they 
 always were when she spoke of riches. 
 
 " Very," Faith said, simply. 
 
 "Humph!" said Ermina. "What can sh 
 know about the subject of silks and souls ? "
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A PROTECTOR. 
 
 was a beautiful room, not small, Mrs. 
 Munroe disliked small rooms, and had as 
 little to do with them as possible, but 
 it was so daintily furnished with house 
 hold conveniences and comforts as to give 
 an idea of cosiness and diminutiveness. The 
 walls were hung with a delicate tint of buff, bor 
 dered with a deep maroon, rich maroon carpet 
 on the floor, chairs and sofas and little cunning 
 ottomans all in rich maroon rep, even the 
 spread for the tiny round table was of the same 
 glowing color. It was Mrs. Muuroe's sitting- 
 room. There were little corner stands, with 
 ftooks and papers, and sewing materials ; and 
 brackets, with vases and flowers ; there was 
 everywhere that beautiful, systematic, unstiff 
 
 251
 
 252 Household Puzzles. 
 
 ness of arrangement which a tasteful lady knows 
 how to bestow upon the family room. In the 
 center of this fair room sat the lady of the house, 
 her toilet quite in keeping with her surroundings, 
 the colors of her dress blending harmoniously 
 with the prominent colors of the room. Mrs 
 Munroe had an eye for details. Sometimes, Low 
 ever, the most fastidious lady is obliged to endure 
 contrasts. Mrs. Munroe's companion was a con 
 trast. He sat in one of the luxurious maroon 
 chairs; his hat, tipped on one side, showed plain 
 ly that a blow or wound of some sort had black 
 ened his left eye ; his coat was torn away in front, 
 as if he had rescued it from a rude grasp ; his 
 boots were thick with black, filthy looking mud; 
 his face was flushed, ah unnatural red ; and his 
 breathing, or rather snoring, had a strange, un 
 natural sound. Mrs. Munroe had let her Java 
 canvas slip from her silken dress to the floor, and 
 t>at with clasped hands, looking steadily at the 
 sleeping object before her. It was perfectly plain 
 to any looker on that his sleep was that which is 
 caused by taking a glass too much. A drunken 
 man ! Well, if he were only Jim Smith, living 
 over the wretched little corner rum-hole, that 
 would be the proper name to use ; but inasmuch 
 as he was Mr. Horace Munroe, of the firm of 
 Evans, Munroe & Co., people hesitated, and geu- 
 jrally said that he was a little overcome with
 
 A Protector. 253 
 
 liquor. There were no tears in his wife's eyes. 
 Helen Munroe was not one who had tears to 
 spare for many occasions this one did not call 
 them forth ; but if you have never pitied her in 
 your life, I hope you do now she needs pity. 
 
 It is an old story, it has been repeated until it 
 is familiar to every one, and I think we American 
 people must enjoy its recital, we take such pains^ 
 to manufacture just such homes as these. I sup- 
 pose it never grows commonplace to the suffering 
 wife. There were features about this family life 
 that made it peculiarly terrible. Mrs. Munroe 
 had in the place of an absorbing love, such as the 
 marriage relation should be built upon, only a 
 composed, quiet friendship for her husband. 
 Perhaps you think that would make the trial less 
 hard. I tell you I don't think so. I have known 
 drunkards' wives clinging to their husbands with 
 almost Godlike pity and patience as they sank 
 from one depth to another, and those wives wer$ 
 sustained by that blessed love that God had given 
 them for their husbands ; it enabled them to beai 
 up under trials that would otherwise have crushed 
 them, to cling where they would otherwise have 
 spurned, to hope when others despaired. I say 
 it was harder for Mrs. Munroe because she did 
 not love her husband. She liked the position 
 that he had given her ; she liked her beautiful 
 home, and all its tasteful appointments , but sit-
 
 254 Household Puzzles. 
 
 ting there that evening, looking at the red-faced, 
 swollen-eyed, filthy creature whose name she bore, 
 whose wife she was, she h;ited the very sight of 
 him ; and if there is anything more terrible in all 
 this pitiful earth than that, I don t know what it 
 can be. I have heard people tell of what strange 
 and queer, and sometimes trivial, thoughts came 
 .to them when they believed themselves to be 
 drowning. Some of the thoughts of this young 
 wife were equally strange. She sat, 'with dry, 
 wide-open eyes, and stared at her husband. How 
 strange that such a pitiable wretch should bear 
 that name ! * Love, honor and protect" she said, 
 repeating a scrap of the marriage service which 
 came to her just then, repeating it with curling 
 lips of scorn. The city clock struck nine. She 
 counted the strokes from the force of newly-ac 
 quired habit; she compared the time with her 
 little gold watch, that was a present from her 
 husband. Always, in the house nearly across the 
 street, as the clock struck nine the head of the 
 house took down the family Bible and the house 
 hold gathered for prayers. Suppose it was their 
 custom in this family, how would they manage 
 it this evening? "He is much too drunk to 
 kneel," she said, uloud, and then she laughed 
 a terrible laugh. Such natures as Helen Mun- 
 roe's are sometimes brought, through heavy trial 
 and pain, to kneel in utter self-abnegation, and
 
 A Protector. 255 
 
 fiiid peace. Sometimes such natures as hers are 
 brought to mad-houses through like trials. Her 
 laugh was like that. She went on with her half- 
 insane thoughts. " What if he were not my hus 
 band ? What if he were some miserable street 
 loafer who had blundered in here, I wonder what 
 I should do with him ? I should probably scream 
 to my husband to protect me from him ; but who 
 is there to protect me from my husband?" Then 
 she laughed again. " Perhaps I should kill him; 
 perhaps I shall anyway , then I should be a widow. 
 I don't think murder would be a very hard thing 
 to do. I can think of worse things." The front 
 door-bell rang, there was a slipping of bolts, and 
 voices in the hall, the girl's (a foolish young sec-, 
 ond girl, it was Rebecca's evening out) and a gen 
 tleman's. Mrs. Munroe heard neither bell nor 
 voices ; she heard her husband's breathing. The 
 girl knew that her mistress was in the sitting- 
 room, and that Mr. Munroe had recently come in 
 that was all she knew. Nothing was more nat 
 ural than that she should throw open the door of 
 the sitting-room to Mr. Harper. He came forward 
 with quick step and cheerful voice. 
 
 "Good evening, Mrs. Munroe. I fear I am 
 intruding on the quiet of family life ; but I have 
 a little item of business of some importance. Can 
 I see your husband ? " 
 
 Mrs. Munroe was a woman of two natures
 
 2o6 Household Puzzles. 
 
 one was made up of fierce, strong pride. She 
 sprang to her feet, her first impulse, to take Mr. 
 Harper by the shoulders and thrust him from the 
 room. Anyone but him! Oh, for that man to 
 know the depths to which she had fallen, was the 
 bitterness of horror. Her second thought, was 
 the utter impossibility of keeping secret their 
 dreadful condition and the utter incongruity of 
 his errand. She laughed in his face that fearful 
 laugh. 
 
 "It is an infinite pity to have disturbed such 
 delightful family communion as ours. I hardly 
 know how to forgive you. Oh, yes, you can see 
 my husband. I presume he will be very happy 
 . to discuss important business with you. There 
 he is." 
 
 All this in almost a moment of time, and she 
 pointed her scornful finger at the sleeping man. 
 Mr. Harper wheeled in bewilderment, following 
 the pointing finger. One glance at Mr. Munroe's 
 face and dress and position, and he comprehended 
 the situation. Then an almost infinite pity took 
 possession of him, and an almost equal embar 
 rassment what to do, what to say, rather, what 
 not to say. He stood iu utter silence and dismay 
 until a glance at an opposite mirror, in which was 
 reflected Mrs. Munroe's stony face, recalled to him 
 the necessity for doing something. He turned to 
 her.
 
 A Protector. 257 
 
 " Mrs. Munroe, nothing can justify my iutru 
 Bion upon you, but the hope that I can do some 
 thing for you. In what way can I best help 
 you?" 
 
 " I want no help," she said, with hardness in 
 her voice. " What help is there for me ? " 
 
 " May I bring some one to you, your brother 
 or sisters ? " 
 
 Atrain Mrs. Munroe laughed. 
 
 o o 
 
 " My brother ! " she said, in an utterly scorn 
 ful tone ; " he is probably in the same delightful 
 condition. They have been on a pleasure excur 
 sion, you understand. As for my sisters, they 
 are the last persons on the face of the earth that 
 I want to see. No, thank you, my husband is my 
 legal protector. I must look to him for help." 
 
 Mr. Harper actually shivered. 
 " Don't," he said, in a pleading tone. " It is a 
 bitter trial, but don't receive it in this way ; you 
 are only making the burden heavier. May I help 
 him to his room, and make him comfortable?" 
 
 " No," she said, fiercely, " you may not. Com 
 fortable ! What does it matter ? " 
 
 " But what are you going to do ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; let him finish his nap. I hope he 
 will waken in a refreshed state of mind." 
 
 " But, dear madam, he is your husband" 
 
 " I know it," she said, in a husky voice. "God 
 pity me.'' 
 
 17
 
 258 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Still Mr. Harper stood irresolute. To leave 
 her in loneliness, and in such a state of heart, 
 seemed impossible- ; to remain longer with the in 
 sulted wife and the drunken husband, seemed 
 equally impossible. 
 
 " May 1 not go for your father ? " he asked, 
 with a sudden hope in his heart. 
 
 Mrs. Munroe's lip quivered, but she resolutely 
 shook her head. 
 
 "Not for the world. This would Tcill my 
 father ; besides he warned me. No, Mr. Har 
 per, I am utterly alone." 
 
 "Never that," he said, earnestly. " You have 
 the unfailing, ever-pre&ent Friend, the One who 
 knows your sorrow. May I not beseech you to 
 carry this burden to him ? " 
 
 " I never understood such talk," she said, bit 
 terly. "It never comforted me in the least it 
 doesn't now. God has everything in his hands; 
 he can control the world. Why does he permit 
 such burdens to come upon people ? Why does 
 he allow my husband to make a beast of him- 
 Belf ? Would yvu allow it, if you could help it? 
 and are you more humane than God ? " 
 
 Mi'. Harper hesitated it was such a strange 
 time for the discussion of theological questions. 
 
 " Dear madam," he said, speaking very gently, 
 41 when you accepted Christ as your Friend, did 
 you not engage to take some things on trust, to
 
 A Protestor. . 259 
 
 believe that what you could not see> was yet clear 
 to the eye and the heart of your Saviour, and that 
 he ruled?" 
 
 " No," she said, passionately, "I don't see it at 
 all ; it seems to me exactly as though Satan ruled. 
 Who but he could make such an object of my 
 husband as that? And if his plans succeed, in 
 stead of God's, which is the greater?" 
 
 " They will not succeed," he said, quietly, " un 
 less you let them. God is on your side, he will 
 surely deliver you if you trust in him ; if you turn 
 from him how can he help you?" 
 
 She had quieted again, but answered him sul 
 lenly, 
 
 " I know very well he needn't have made a 
 brute of himself unless he had chosen ; but having 
 chosen to do so, I don't see how I can help it." 
 
 " Have you tried to help it? " he asked, eager 
 ly. "Mrs. Munroe, your husband is not a Chris 
 tian, but he has a Christian, wife. God has put 
 u powerful weapon into your hands ; do you use 
 it lo the utmost?" 
 
 " I suppose you mean do I pray for him ? " she 
 said, coldly. " Why, yes ; of course I pray for 
 my husband ; but you see how much good it has 
 clone thus far. There is something besides pray 
 ing to be done in this world." 
 
 " That is painfully true. I wonder if you and 
 I are doing our very utmost. Until we are, we
 
 260 Household Puzzles. 
 
 should not dare lay the unfinished work upon God, 
 Mrs. Munroe, may I not go for your Cousin 
 Faith ? " 
 
 Mrs. Munroe shivered visibly. 
 
 " Not for the world,'' she said, with energy. 
 "She is the last person that I want to see tri 
 umphing over my downfall. I will have no one; 
 and if you please, Mr. Harper, I will not detain 
 you longer. Some things are better endured 
 alone." 
 
 " Alone with God," he said, gently ; and then 
 the bell pealed through the house again. Mrs. 
 Munroe roused suddenly to outside life. 
 
 " Mr. Harper, I beg you to spare me from 
 seeing any one. Say anything we are sick, 
 dying, anything you hke ; only don't let any one 
 into this house." 
 
 More and more bewildered by the strangeness 
 of his position, Mr. Harper moved promptly to 
 ward the hall ; but the watchful servant had pre 
 ceded him, and was admitting Ermina and Maria 
 Randolph. 
 
 "Good evening," he said, going toward them. 
 " Miss Randolph, you are fortunately just the 
 person whom I wish to see in regard to a little 
 business matter. Will you both oblige me l>y 
 stepping into the parlor a moment? That will 
 do," he added to the girl as she turned on a flood 
 of light.
 
 A Protector. 201 
 
 " Where is Helen ? " asked Ermina, wouder- 
 ingly, as Mr. Hiirper closed the door after the 
 retreating servant. 
 
 lie turned toward her. 
 
 "She is in trouble," he said, briefly; "and, 1 
 am afraid, does not want to see even you." 
 
 " That would be an extraordinary state of 
 mind '' Maria began, lightly, but her sister 
 interrupted her. 
 
 " Has Horace come home ? is he " Then 
 she stopped. 
 
 Mr. Harper bowed in utter silence. 
 
 " Oh, poor Helen ! " Ermina said ; bu.t Maria's 
 voice had no tenderness. 
 
 "She was warned,", she said, hoarsely. "She 
 must have known what would come. It is not 
 as hard for her as it is for father, with his only 
 son. Mr. Harper, do you know anything about 
 our brother Tom ? He and Horace were to 
 gether." 
 
 Mr. Harper did not know, judging from Mr. 
 Munroe's state, he could only surmise, lie sat 
 down on a sofa opposite to the one whereon Er- 
 mina had sunken when she made her one excla 
 mation. What a white, frightened face she had ! 
 Maria noticed it, and her own seemed to grow 
 harder. 
 
 " What a delightful world it is ! " she said, in 
 great bitterness. " So much sunshine and hap-
 
 262 Household Puzzles. 
 
 piuess. . Everything moves along so comfortably. 
 I wonder there are any infidels." 
 
 " Hush ! " said Mr. Harper, with stern dig 
 nity. " For the miseries that people bring upon 
 themselves it is weak and wicked to blame God." 
 
 She turned toward him. 
 
 " Perhaps my father brought his troubles 
 upon himself," she said, fiercely. "The best 
 and tenderest man on earth ; unselfish, and 
 patient, and long-suffering. Don't you dare 
 to say that my father's trials are of his own 
 making." 
 
 Mr. Harper's voice was less severe, but it, 
 was still firm. 
 
 " Your father is God's own child, and is 
 safe in his hands. I am sure that he trusts 
 him, and his daughter should do no less. Your 
 father would not like to hear you call in ques 
 tion his Maker's work." 
 
 " I am doing nothing of the sort, Mr. Harper. 
 I am simply enraged at some of his subjects. 
 At you and Ermina, for instance, who profess 
 to have such unbounded faith in prayer. And 
 what do you accomplish by it ? Oh, I wish 
 / knew how to pray ! I would pray this sum 
 of all horrors out of the world." 
 
 Something in her earnest words surprised 
 and silenced Mr. Harper; and Ermina said, 
 impulsively,
 
 A Protector. 263 
 
 " I wish she did ; she was always the one 
 to accomplish in our family. The rest of us 
 talk Maria does it." 
 
 " There is great force in what your sister 
 has just said," Mr. Harper answered, address 
 ing Ermina, as she had him. " I do not won 
 der that people are surprised at our apparent 
 inconsistencies. It is true that we accomplish 
 very little with our mighty weapon ; but it is 
 Dot strange. A weapon cannot be expected 
 to accomplish anything unless it is used. We 
 all desire to do something for your sister and 
 your brothers. Let us do the only thing that 
 we can do. Let us pray. Miss Maria, I ask 
 you to begin with us the lesson that you said 
 you wished you knew." 
 
 Then the three knelt down, and Mr. Harper 
 prayed. All three of these people had been 
 acting somewhat unlike their usual selves. 
 Both the sisters lived a life of repression, so 
 far as their inner selves were concerned. Both 
 had been moved to speak a sentence or two 
 from their hearts, Mr, Harper was not given 
 to harshness, but his seose cf """erence had 
 been rudely snocked, and his voice had re> 
 sponded. Their present position together, 
 kneeling in the parlor of their sister's house, 
 was certainly not an ordinary one, and a less
 
 264 Household Puzzlea. 
 
 intensely-in-earnest party might have wondered 
 what they would be likely to do next. 
 
 They slipped however apparently without jar 
 into their ordinary selves. 
 
 "Would we better go in and see Helen?" 
 Errnina asked her sister as they arose, and 
 Maria answered, in her usual composed tone, 
 
 "No. We can do no good, and of course 
 she don't want to see us. Let's go home." 
 
 " Then I will walk over with you,'' Mr. 
 Harper said. " I am coming back here to make 
 Mr. Munroe comfortable, and if you are needed 
 for anything will let you know." 
 
 As he left them at their own door he said, 
 
 " Miss Maria, won't you pray for your 
 brother Tom, to-night ? " 
 
 " No," said Maria, with great seriousness. 
 "But I will ask Faith Halsted to do so. 
 That will be much more to the point."
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A PUZZLING DISCUSSION. 
 
 'HE kitchen was as usual the scene 
 of conflict. Maria was shelling peas. 
 Faith, in the doorway, tried to help ; 
 but everybody who has ever undertaken 
 to " help " at anything, and at the same 
 time look after the movements of a boy a 
 year and a half old, knows just how much 
 such help amounts to. Mrs. Munroe did not 
 even try. She stood leaning against the pillar 
 of the side piazza, her cool blue and white 
 dress fluttering in the summer wind, her head 
 resting just where a bright morning-glory touched 
 her ear. She looked as if trial and pain and 
 care had nothing in common with her. Maria 
 was talking, of course. 
 
 " It is a great nuisance, anyway," she was 
 saying. " I'm sorry I joined. I'm sure I don't 
 know why I did, unless it was because father 
 
 HB
 
 266 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 had a notion that my duty lay in that di 
 rection. I can't see where duty can consist 
 in making scarlet dogs with square noses and 
 yellow mouths. I always hated worsted dogs, 
 anyway." 
 
 Faith laughed merril}. Maria's views of 
 people and things were very funny to her, but 
 Mrs. Munroe looked dignified. 
 
 " That is a very silly way to talk," she said, 
 solemnly. "Why wouldn't it be your duty to 
 help sustain the church society? You attend 
 church there, and Ermina is a member. Of 
 course part of the work ought to fall on you. 
 I'm sure you needn't make worsted cats and 
 dogs, or worsted anything, unless you choose. 
 You can make aprons or night-caps if they 
 suit your taste better; but I think it is man 
 ifestly your duty to help sustain the society, 
 especially when its object is to help pay a 
 church debt." 
 
 "A church fiddlestick I" said Maria, decisive 
 ly. " That makes me the maddest of any part 
 of it. If the work was of any earthly import 
 ance, if they made check aprons for poor chil 
 dren or flannel petticoats for sick old women, 
 I'd tolerate it, and sew all the afternoon, much 
 as I hate it; but this meeting together every 
 other week for a year, to make yellow pin 
 cushions and green roses, and every imaginable
 
 A Puzzling .Discussion. 267 
 
 kind of flummery that comes under the general 
 name of 'fancy work,' and then getting up a 
 great big fair and charging three times as much 
 for a thing as ought to be charged, and having 
 three or four gambling establishments for side 
 shows, and doing it all in the name of the 
 church debt, when each one who works for 
 the concern, by paying in money half of what 
 she gives every year for worsted and canvas and 
 beads and cardboard, could wipe the church 
 debt out of existence and have no fuss about it, 
 I don't believe in," and the strong-minded young 
 woman shoveled the shelled peas into her pan, 
 and swept the pods away with .energy. 
 
 Faith laughed again. Maria'?, Ideas were so 
 queer and so jumbled. Mrs. Monroe sti)l sus 
 tained her character for digoiV. 
 
 " Oh, yes," she said, col'Jiy. '* Of course 3 r ou 
 know more about such rjatters than all the 
 rest of the church coi/Ained. I wonder they 
 don't come to you for advice." 
 
 " Well, now, havei/t I told the truth ? What 
 are all the suppers and pin-cushions and grab-baga 
 for? Isn't there a much easier way of raising 
 money, if that is the object ? I'll prove it to 
 you. I'm on committee this afternoon. I 
 worked all day yesterday baking cakes. 1 
 didn't count my time, nor Faith's, nor Pearly's, 
 and they all helped, Pearly especially; but just
 
 268 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 for fun, or for my own satisfaction, I kept an ac 
 count of material, eggs, flour, butter, milk, fruit, 
 and hair-oil, as Tom calls the flavoring, and 
 what do you think it amounted to? Just two 
 dollars and ninety-five cents. Now suppose I 
 save my firewood, and my time, and my apron, 
 and give that two dollars and ninety-five cents 
 to the society ; and suppose the ones who are to 
 make the biscuit, and furnish meat, and pickles, 
 and cheese, and milk, and coffee, and the land 
 knows what, do the same, wouldn't the church 
 be richer than if we make a dozen cats and 
 dogs this afternoon, and eat ray cake and 
 Nettie Thatcher's biscuits in the bargain." 
 
 * But you wouldn't do any such thing." 
 
 "Wouldn't do what?" 
 
 " Why, give your money. There isn't one 
 lady in fifty would take three dollars out of 
 her pocket and give it outright for the church 
 debt; but any of them will make cake." 
 
 " Then it must be because we are all poor 
 mathematicians, or fools," said Maria, with in 
 creased energy. "If our object is to pay the 
 church debt, we can certainly do it quicker 
 in my way ; but if our object is to meet in 
 the chapel and eat cake and pickles, I say 
 let the object be distinctly stated, and don't 
 let us make ourselves think that we are a 
 benevolent institution when we are actually 
 eating up money."
 
 A Puzzling Discussion. 20 9 
 
 Faith had listened and laughed through tMa 
 talk, keeping silence herself. As she brought 
 Pearly back from a raid after the gray cat, and 
 lied his shoes, she took up the conversation. 
 
 "That's a dreadfully one-sided argument, 
 Maria. Mrs. Munroe, why don't you present 
 the other side of the question ? " 
 
 " Oh, I never argue with her," said Mrs. 
 Munroe, with strong emphasis on the "her." 
 " There's no sort of use in it. She has views 
 of her own about everything earthly, and she 
 will maintain them in spite of fate." 
 
 " That isn't so," said Maria, good-humoredly. 
 tl I am willing to be convinced, if any one will 
 take the trouble; but you see Helen doesn't, 
 she just says * nonsense,' or something of that 
 sort. Now I appeal to you, Faith. Haven't 
 I told the truth?" 
 
 " Only part of it," Faith said. " I believe 
 in sewing societies, but not for any of the 
 reasons which 3 r ou have mentioned. If they 
 were only intended for the purpose of raising 
 money, I should, like yourself, consider them 
 very ludicrous inventions." 
 
 " What on earth are the}" for ? " 
 
 "/ think for the cultivation of our social 
 qualities, for the purpose of mingling together 
 as a church socially. There are those in every 
 society, who would never meet, never know
 
 270 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 each other, if it were not for the social gath 
 erings." 
 
 *' Then why don't they call them social tea- 
 parties, and not sewing societies ? " 
 
 "Oh, because it is human nature and a 
 very nice, commendable nature, too, I think, 
 to like to be doing something pleasant and 
 something useful at the same time. Give us 
 a mutual object in which to be interested ; 
 and what is more likely to interest us than 
 sewing for our own church? unless indeed 
 we have risen to a higher plane than that, 
 and are sewing for the Church of Christ. Be 
 sides, there is another point, as Helen says. 
 You won't give the money out-and-out, but 
 you are willing to give the work. People 
 need to be educated to systematic giving, even 
 if the giving is only some loaves of cake ; so 
 that they are given regularly, at set times, a 
 point has been gained. Now, Maria, you said 
 you were ready to be convinced. Have you 
 been?" 
 
 " Partly and partly not," said Maria, as she 
 added more water to the peas. " The social 
 idea is a good one, and I'll think better of 
 the institutions hereafter for its sake; tut 
 there's a flaw in them, as you would see if 
 you were going to ours this afternoon." 
 
 " Aren't you going ? " asked Mrs. Munroe.
 
 A Puzzling Discussion. 271 
 
 Faith shook her head. 
 
 " Pearly doesn't approve of sewing societies," 
 she said. " I'm sorry, because I want to see 
 Maria hunt for the flaws." 
 
 " I'll find them," Maria said, positively. 
 
 " Oh, I know you will. Flaws are the easiest 
 things to find in the world, if you only look 
 for them." 
 
 So Ermina and Maria went to society. Maria, 
 as she had said, rarely went, unless she was 
 on committee and had the work to do. Ermina 
 rarely during these days had opportunity to 
 go, but this chanced to be a time of less haste 
 than usual in the sewing-room. 
 
 In the course of the afternoon Maria and 
 Carrie Hartley sat together. Carrie was mak 
 ing a tidy, a pretty thing of wreaths and 
 leaves, creations of split zephyr. 
 
 "Isn't it lovely?" she said, holding it up 
 to view. " I am perfectly wild over fancy 
 work ; they do have such a poky old society 
 over at the Willard Street Church. I went 
 there yesterday with Nellie Thayer. They are 
 making calico aprons and horrid sacks, and 
 knitting stockings and, oh, dear! I don't 
 know what. They are filling a stupid box 
 for bomo old fogy missionary. Shouldn't you 
 think such a society as that would be horrid ? " 
 
 " Perfectly," said Maria, solemnly. " Why
 
 272 Household Puzzles. 
 
 should old fogy home missionaries be sewed 
 for, such worthless and useless beings as they 
 are? Tidies and mats and cushions are what 
 we need in this world. Who cares for mis 
 sionaries ?" 
 
 Miss Carrie stared incredulously at her com 
 panion. 
 
 " Of course missionaries are useful, and all 
 that," she said, after a little, "and ought to 
 be sewed for; but then I think charity begins 
 at home, don't you? Now our church needs 
 a new carpet. I am really ashamed of the 
 old one, it is faded and worn considerably ; 
 and 1 think we need new chairs for the pulpit. 
 I hate red chairs, they're in bad taste. We 
 ought to fix up our own church." 
 
 " Of course," Maria assented. " The idea 
 of supposing that those wretched home mis 
 sionaries, with their stocking less feet and their 
 arms out at the elbows, are of more import 
 ance than our red chairs, when we ought to 
 have green ones, is an utter absurdity. I 
 don't know why we should care whether the 
 gospel is preached to the prairie heathens or 
 uot, so long as we need a new carpet." 
 
 Miss Carrie laughed faintly. 
 
 "What a funny girl you are!" she said; 
 and presently bhe went to her particular friend, 
 Addie Wilson, and said, " You ought to have
 
 A Puzzling Discussion. 273 
 
 heard the berating that Maria Randolph gave 
 me because I said we needed a new church 
 carpet ! Isn't she a queer girl ? " 
 
 That is about as correctly as things are re 
 ported in this world. 
 
 Mrs. Wheeler, the President of the society., 
 was absent. Little Mrs. Clay, the Vice-Pres 
 ident, was to fill her place. At five o'clock 
 she went from one lady to another in con 
 siderable flurry, and apparently what she said 
 to each produced some consternation. 
 
 " Oh, I can't," one lady said. " My dear 
 Mrs. Clay, you must excuse me." "I never 
 did such a thing in my life," murmured an 
 other. " It is quite impossible utterly im 
 possible. I couldn't if it were to save my 
 life," said another. 
 
 " What in the world does she want them 
 to do ? " questioned Maria of her neighbor. 
 " It must be something terrific ; they are get 
 ting up quite a commotion." 
 
 " Why," said the neighbor, " she wants some 
 one to read in the Bible and pray. Such an 
 idea! Mrs. Wheeler always does it." 
 
 Maria laughed outright. 
 
 " What an excitement," she said, in mirth 
 ful sarcasm. " Every one of those ladies mem 
 bers of the church. I declare, I don't see 
 but one individual besides myself who is not; 
 18
 
 274 Household Puzzles. 
 
 and they won't one of them pray for th 
 success of their undertaking. What is the use 
 of their knowing how? They must be dread 
 fully out of practice, or they wouldn't be thrown 
 into such confusion." 
 
 And the next sentence was addressed to 
 Maria herself by the flurried Mrs. Clay. 
 
 " My dear Miss Randolph, won't you be so 
 kind as to lend our devotional exercises this 
 afternoon? Mrs. Wheeler cannot be present, 
 and it devolves upon me to supply her place. 
 I should be so much obliged if you would." 
 
 " I presume you mean my sister," said Maria, 
 coolly, inclining her head toward Ermina, who 
 sat at her left. " She is Miss Randolph, and 
 she is a church-member, and so is supposed 
 to know how to pray ; for myself I have never 
 learned." 
 
 Mrs. Clay turned quickly. 
 
 " O Miss Randolph, would you be so kind ? " 
 
 Ermina's lips were opened for a refusal. 
 Maria's eyes were dancing with fun. Mrs. 
 Munroe was regarding her with a vexed air; 
 she herself had just given a somewhat un 
 gracious refusal. Ermina had never tried to 
 pray before any one in her life. Judging from 
 what you know of her daily living, perhaps 
 you can tell how much she was accustomed 
 to daily, searching private prayers. Of course
 
 A Puzzling Discussion. 275 
 
 ehe would refuse. But there came just then, 
 strangely enough, to her mind a sentence that 
 Mr. Harper had let drop in her hearing but 
 a few days before. " One reason why our 
 friends are not converted is because we, their 
 leaders, walk so crookedly that we keep them 
 all the time stumbling over us." Was Maria 
 stumbling over her ? "I don't know whether 
 I am a Christian or not," said Ermina to her 
 self; "but I profess to be one; and whether 
 I am or not, it can't hurt me to pray. Now 
 I'm pot naturally timid, why should I be afraid 
 to try ? " All this in a second of time ; then 
 she said to Mrs. Clay, with great composure 
 in her voice, " I never did such a thing in 
 my life ; but I presume it won't hurt me. I'll 
 do it." And she moved forward to where 
 the formidable pulpit Bible awaited her. Open 
 ing it at random, and beginning to read in 
 haste to cover her confusion, she presently 
 found herself in the midst of words like these: 
 "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, 
 nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. ' 
 An almost overpowering sense of the truth 
 of this sentence came* upon her. What if God 
 had dealt with her according to her sins! "As 
 far as the east is from the west, so far hath 
 he removed our transgressions from us." How 
 tender and precious arid patient were the words!
 
 276 Household Puzzles. 
 
 She had never noticed them closely before; 
 her heart melted over them. "Like as a 
 father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
 them that fear him." To one who had a 
 lather like Ermina Randolph's that verse meant 
 a great deal. She stopped with that, feeling 
 that she at least had had enough. She said, 
 with a quiet voice, but with a tumultuous 
 heart, "Let us pray," and felt rather than 
 saw that the ladies were kneeling around her. 
 On her tenth birthday Ermina had learned 
 and recited to her father certain verses. The}' 
 came back to her now. Very slowly, very 
 solemnty, she repeated them : ' Create in me 
 a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right 
 spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy 
 presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from 
 me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salva 
 tion; and uphold me with thy free spirit: then 
 will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sin 
 ners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver 
 me from bloodguiltiness, O God ; thou God of 
 my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud 
 of thy righteousness." Just here she stopped. 
 What wonderful things she had asked! What 
 solemn things she had promised I Did she 
 really mean them ? How dare she say more ? 
 A solemn silence filled the house for a mo 
 ment, and then with one more sentence from
 
 A Puzzling Discussion. 277 
 
 lips that quivered, " God forgive me aud help 
 me for Jesus' sake," she arose. Every word 
 of her prayer had been personal. She did not 
 notice it; she did not even take time to think 
 of the singularity of her position ; it seemed 
 to her at the moment that there were but 
 two beings in existence, herself and God. The 
 buzz of conversation commenced again, but she 
 stood apart, as one dazed. It seemed to her 
 that she could not go back and hem the strings 
 for that white apron ; she felt as if she must 
 go away alone and repeat those words, " Cast 
 me not away from thy presence; and take 
 not thy Holy Spirit from me." "If only T 
 knew whether I had any right to pray at 
 all," she said, pushing the hair back from her 
 throbbing temples. " I surely thought I was 
 a Christian; but I don't know, I really don't 
 know anything. How fearfully solemn those 
 sentences were ! " 
 
 There had bee^ an arrival during the Bible- 
 reading, a tall, fair lady, in a plain black suit. 
 She was evidently a person of some import 
 ance, for respectful and curious glances followed 
 her as she moved to and fro. Something about 
 her face attracted Ermina. She leaned down 
 to her friend Nettie Thatcher and said, 
 "Who is that woman with eyes?" 
 " With eyes ! " said Nettie, laughing. " la
 
 278 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 there only one person in the room meriting 
 that description ? " 
 
 "Z don't see but one. If you want any 
 thing more descriptive, she is talking with Mis. 
 Colonel Hitchcock." 
 
 " Oh, that is Mr. Harper's sister." 
 
 About that time the lady in question said, 
 abruptly, 
 
 "I beg your pardon, Mrs. Hitchcock, but 
 tell me the name of the lady who offered 
 prayer."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 HERE is one young lady in that so 
 ciety that I attended yesterday, War 
 ren, who needs my help," said Mrs. 
 Laport, as she stirred her coffee slowly 
 and thoughtfully. 
 " Only one ! f ' answered Mr. Harper, laugh 
 ing. " I expected you to find at least a dozen." 
 " There were interesting faces ; but this one 
 is in trouble." 
 "Who is she?" 
 
 "Her name is Randolph. I did not learn 
 much more about her. Mrs. Hitchcock, with 
 whom I was sitting, seemed to know very 
 little about her." 
 
 " Which of the Randolphs is she ? " 
 " Are there two of them ? I saw only this 
 one. She led the devotional exercises." 
 Mr. Harper opened his eyes very wide. 
 
 279
 
 280 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 "I Jo not know which of them it can be," 
 he said, quickly. *' Grace and Maria are neither 
 of them Christians, and Miss Ermina Ah, I 
 know; it was probably their cousin, Miss Faith." 
 
 " It was Ermina," Mrs. Laport said, posi 
 tively. " I remember hearing some one speak 
 her name." 
 
 " I don't think it could have been," her 
 brother answered, quite as positively. " I am 
 sure she would never have led in devotional 
 exercises. You have mixed the people up. It 
 was some other young lady." 
 
 " Warren, I never mix up a face that looks 
 just as hers did ; and I want to meet her. You 
 must take me to call." 
 
 " In the evening ? " 
 
 "Why, no; you know I don't go out even 
 ings just now." 
 
 " She is engaged during the day. She is a 
 sewing girl." 
 
 "Is she? Then she must come to me. She 
 can come to tea, and have a quiet little even 
 ing with me afterward ; and j'ou'll see that 
 she gers home. Won't you, Warren ? " 
 
 " I could," said Mr. Harper, quietly. "But, 
 Louise, there are people who will think it very 
 strange in you to single out one young lady, 
 and invite her to tea, while you ignore all the 
 others."
 
 Light. 281 
 
 " Warren," said Mrs. Laport, as she pushed 
 away her empty coffee cup, "I don't mean to 
 ignore anybody; and you know I don't care 
 for what 'they' think about my doings. You 
 will manage this matter for me, will you not? " 
 
 "Why, I'll try," replied Mr. Harper, as he 
 arose. " But, Louise, you keep me in perpetual 
 wonderment as to what out-of-the-way thing 
 you will require of me next." 
 
 Mrs. Laport smiled as she responded, " An 
 effort to help any one who needs help ought 
 not to be an out-of-the-way matter." 
 
 So it came about that Erraina Randolph, 
 standing before her mirror the same in which 
 Helen had so complacently surveyed herself 
 in the lavender silk, combed out the dark 
 hair, while Mrs. Munroe sat by the window, 
 with a discontented expression on her fair face. 
 Presently she asked, 
 
 "Ermina, how in the world did she come 
 to invite you to tea ? " 
 
 "She didn't come. It was Mr. Harper who 
 came." 
 
 Well Mr. Harper, then ? " 
 
 " He came on foot, I think," said Ermina, 
 provokingly. 
 
 "Don't talk nonsense," was Mrs. Munroe's 
 impatient remark. " You understand what I 
 mean. How happened she to single you out 
 for the favor ? "
 
 282 . Household Puzzles. 
 
 "I Lave not the honor of the lady's confi 
 dence to the degree that enables me to answer 
 that question. All I know is that Mr. Harper 
 invited me, in his sister's name, and I'm going 
 if I ever get ready." 
 
 " Well, all I have to say is, don't be too 
 sure of a good time. The old aunt will take 
 you in from head to foot." 
 
 " Oh, didn't I tell you Mrs. Laport is board 
 ing at the Sage House. Mr. Harper said that 
 his sister was unwilling to add to her household." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe toyed listlessly with the curtain 
 tassel, admiring the dainty fingers set off with 
 brilliant jewels, but the dissatisfied expression 
 still lingered. 
 
 " How do you happen to know so much 
 about her affairs ? Who told you ? " 
 
 ** Mr. Harper did." 
 
 " He seems to be very communicative. He 
 must think you are immensely interested in what 
 concerns them." 
 
 "It was a remarkable thing that he should 
 tell me to come to the Sage House to tea, in 
 stead of going a mile out to his aunt's, and 
 then add to it that his sister wouldn't .allow 
 their aunt to have any more company, and so 
 boarded in town." 
 
 "She isn't his sister at all. She is only a 
 half sister."
 
 Light. 283 
 
 "I can't help it. He told me where she 
 boards, if she isn't his sister. And they think 
 as much of each other as if they were double 
 brother and sister instead of half. Pin this 
 ribbon, won't yo j, Helen ? I am late, but I 
 told them I couldn't come from my sewing until 
 six." 
 
 "You must drag in your sewing at every 
 possible moment. What was the use of saying 
 that?" 
 
 Ermina laughed. 
 
 "I don't drag it in," she said, good hu- 
 moredly. " It drags me. There is no getting 
 away from it, either physically or mentally." 
 
 " We'll go down to the hotel table, shall 
 we not?" Mrs. Laport asked, as the gong 
 sounded. " Would you like it better than tea 
 in my room ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Ermina, speaking out her mind 
 as usual. "I never took tea at a splendid 
 hotel. I should like it." 
 
 " Everything is very pleasant about the house, 
 and there are some very pretty ladies among 
 the boarders. Do you like to look at pretty 
 faces?" 
 
 " Yes," said Ermina, smiling, " I like to ; 
 but I didn't suppose it was proper to say so." 
 
 *' Why in the world shouldn't you?" 
 
 "Oh, I don't know. I thought we must
 
 284 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 be indifferent to beauty superior to it, you 
 know " 
 
 " I hope never to become so," Mrs. Laport 
 said, laughing. " Why, dear friend, don't you 
 suppose there will be wonderful beauty in 
 heaven ? " 
 
 " I don't know," Ermina said, her face sud 
 denly clouding. " I know precious little about 
 heaven, and what I do know has extremely 
 little to do with beauty. But your question 
 in some way reminds me of what your brother 
 said we must ask you." 
 
 " What is that ? I hope he isn't trying to 
 puzzle me. He is very fond of that occupation." 
 
 "It is we who are puzzled my cousin Faith 
 and I. You were to enlighten us. It is the 
 old question of expenditure where necessities 
 end and luxuries commence, and how far tastes 
 are to be gratified ? Whether starving bodies 
 and souls, or aesthetic tastes, are to be upper 
 most?" 
 
 Mrs. Laport drew a long breath. 
 
 " It is an immense question," she said. " I 
 don't wonder you were bewildered. I know 
 I often am. I hardly know \vhy Warren 
 should have sent you to me. It is one of 
 my puzzles. In fact, I'm right in the midst 
 of it. I struggled over it terribly, until I sud 
 denly discovered that what made it so strangely
 
 Light. 285 
 
 complicated was, I was trying to solve it for 
 everybody. When I stopped that, and went 
 to work in my own little corner of it, it was 
 still sufficiently confusing, but not nearly so 
 bad." 
 
 Ermina looked with a steady, earnest gaze 
 at the earnest face before her. 
 
 "I wish," she said, speaking with intense 
 energy, "I wish I could ask you ever so 
 many questions." 
 
 " You may. I like to ask questions myself. 
 I'm always doing so. I give you the right 
 to ask me any question you please." 
 
 " Then I don't think you understand what 
 I mean. It is like this for instance, you 
 have a silk dress on ? " 
 
 " I understand you perfectly why don't I 
 wear a calico instead? That is one of my be 
 wilderments. In the first place, then, I have 
 to go to places where people would think that 
 I insulted them if I came in so simple a dress." 
 
 " But why should they ? If everybody wore 
 them, think of the saving ! " 
 
 " I know it ; but now you see you are try 
 ing to straighten other people's tangles. Every 
 body wont, and you and I can't make them. 
 We have to take the world as we find it. 
 So you must grant me that I thought I ought 
 to have a nice dress. Now for the rest of
 
 286 Household Puzzles. 
 
 the story. I made my dress something of a 
 study. I paid a great deal for it. In the 
 first place, I got it of Mr. Humpton. It is 
 not fashionable to trade there. Mr. Hampton 
 is a young man. He cannot buy largely. He 
 hasn't an immense variety. He is struggling 
 to do business on perfectly strict principles, 
 which makes his progress much slower. I buy 
 my dresses there for all these reasons. I know 
 I have helped Mr. Hampton more in buying 
 silk than in buying calico. Then I had it made 
 at Kate Morgan's. She is a quiet little sewing 
 girl, who has nice taste and conscientious princi 
 ples. Nobody would trust her with their silk 
 dresses to make. They gave her their calicoes, 
 and calicoes are not profitable dresses to make, 
 for the reason that being only calico, people 
 will not pay much for having them made. I 
 give her my silks. She does them well, and 
 others are discovering it." 
 
 * k I see," said Ernaina, gravely. " There is 
 a principle underlying it all. It is the first time 
 I ever imagined that there could be any prin 
 ciple in silk dresses." 
 
 " Then there is another view of it, you 
 know. My silk dress costs much more than 
 a pretty cambric, but it will last much longer." 
 
 " I know. But if such expensive materials 
 could be utterly banished, wouldn't there be 
 a saving of money ? "
 
 Light. 287 
 
 "I don't feel quite sure, even of that, be 
 cause as soon as you make it fashionable not 
 to wear silk and poplin, and take up cambrics 
 and muslins, they immediately become the fash 
 ionable, and so the expensive goods. That 
 belongs to other people's part of the confusion, 
 the part which we cannot control. And now, 
 my dear, the second gong is sounding. We 
 must go down to tea. I shall be ready for 
 the other questions when we return." 
 
 "I don't need to ask them," Ermina said, 
 smiling. " I can pick it out for myself. I 
 see it is a regular geometrical problem, but 
 based on a real foundation, and I can study 
 it out. Only this is there or do you ar 
 range all your expenses in the same way ? " 
 
 "I try to. Bonnets are to be bought of 
 those who are trying to make honest, honor 
 able bonnets, and who are meeting with diffi 
 culties and reverses. There are such people 
 everywhere, if only you will take the trouble 
 to look for them." 
 
 "But, Mrs. Laport, I couldn't work from your 
 standpoint. I haven't the money." 
 
 " It is not my standpoint that you ought to 
 work, from, my friend. You have a foothold, 
 and should have' an outlook of your own. Two 
 persons hardly ever commenced at the same 
 point to work out an intricate pattern in em-
 
 Household Puzzles. 
 
 broidery, but the work is the same when com 
 pleted. Your motto and mine, and the motto 
 of all Christ's followers, is alike, ' Whatsoever 
 ye do, do all to the glory of God.' ' 
 
 " I don't see how my long and short seams 
 that I am perpetually making on a sewing ma 
 chine can glorify God, I'm sure," Ermina said, 
 somewhat moodily, as she followed her hostesa 
 down the long winding stairs. 
 
 " Don't you ? " Mrs. Laport said, smiling back 
 at her from the first landing. " If you are 
 careful that the machine skips no stitches, 
 leaves no treacherous ends of thread, and is, 
 in short, as perfect in its work as you can 
 make it, do you not prove that you are a 
 conscientious worker, and is riot a proven, con 
 scientious Christian glorifying God in the spot 
 where he has placed her ? " 
 
 Ermina laughed. 
 
 " That would make glorified work of the 
 very sweeping and dusting and dish-washing 
 of life, if only one could feel it," she said, trying 
 to speak lightly; but her eyes shone a little 
 as she added, in a softened voice, " It is beau 
 tiful theory, anyhow." 
 
 "It is more than theory," Mrs. Laport said, 
 emphatically. "It is Bible. 'Do all to the 
 glory of God.' There ?nust be a way to make 
 the glory."
 
 Light. 289 
 
 This was not the most important conversa 
 tion that occurred during that evening. The 
 talk which had the most to do with Ermina's 
 life during -all her future, had its summing up 
 in a few sentences which Mr. Harper spoke as 
 he walked with her down the brightly lighted 
 streets of the city. 
 
 "Did you receive any enlightenment in re 
 gard to the question which puzzled you when I 
 met you down town?" he asked; and Ermina 
 was prompt with her answer. 
 
 " On that and on many other questions. Yes, 
 there is light, but it doesn't light me. Such talk 
 is utterly new to me. I never knew that 
 Christianity meant so much. I know it means 
 nothing of the kind to me, so I cannot be a 
 Clfristian at all." 
 
 Unconsciously to herself, perhaps, Ermina had 
 been hiding behind this shadow, feeling that 
 somehow it lessened the weight of pain and 
 responsibility. If such living was Christianity, 
 why, then it could not be that she was a Chris 
 tian ; if she were not, why, then she could not be 
 axpected to live according to the Christian rule; 
 but she had been a professor of religion for ten 
 years ; people thought of course she was a Chris 
 tian. She expected Mr. Harper to say something 
 of the sort, and she was prepared to combat his 
 words, to prove to him that such living as hers 
 19
 
 290 Householl Puzzles. 
 
 could not be called by that honored name ; and 
 then she hoped and believed that he would assure 
 her that there were different degrees of attainment 
 in the Christian life, that all could not be expected 
 to live alike, and so soothe the pain and unrest of 
 her weary life. She was not prepared for the 
 quiet, gentle, penetrating question, 
 
 " Do you not wish to be ? " 
 
 How simple the question was, and yet how 
 strangely solemn ! Did she ? She felt the thrill 
 of her own repeated query in every nerve. Oh, 
 she certainly did wished it so much that she 
 wanted the privilege of clinging to the miserable 
 little rag of hope that she had. 
 
 "You know if you do," he said, not waiting 
 for her audible answer, " the way is so simple 
 and plain before you ; in one sense it is of very 
 little consequence whether you were a Christian 
 yesterday or not; the important point is, will 
 you be one to-night ? " 
 
 "To-night?" she repeated. How strangely 
 that narrowed one down. Why didn't he say to 
 morrow? that was so near at hand, and yet it 
 gave one a breathing space. He answered the 
 thought embodied in the tones of her voice. 
 
 " Yes, to-night, because to-morrow is not 
 yours. It is a very commonplace expression, 
 yet did you ever think how true it was? Did 
 you ever think of the many commonplace, ap-
 
 Light. 291 
 
 parent trifles around you, either of which might 
 cause your death in a moment ? I sometimes 
 think of them, and try to calculate their number, 
 until I am amazed that we escape them and 
 live on. Now if you really are uncertain as to 
 whether the question between 3 r ou and God is 
 unsettled, it is folly in you to be unafraid of 
 death. You are a reasonable being, you have 
 perceptive faculties, therefore with the moment 
 ous question of life unsettled, of course you are 
 afraid to go away from life. If there were no 
 other motive to prompt you, this reasonable fear 
 of being called before you are ready to answer 
 should lead you to determine the question to 
 night. Will you?" 
 
 They stood on the doorstep now, and Ermina. 
 Randolph will never forget the throbs of her 
 heart as she waited trying to answer the ques 
 tion to her own heart. Her intense, positive 
 nature shrank from committals of any sort. He 
 varied the question a little. 
 
 " Will you tell me your decision the next 
 time I meet you? and neither of us are able 
 to tell so simple a thing about our lives as when 
 or where that will be." 
 
 The question seemed almost as hard to answer 
 as the other; but she answered it after a little 
 with a steady, resolute ring in her voice, 
 
 " Yes, I will."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A DISCUSSION CLOSED. 
 
 'HERE is no use in continuing this dis 
 cussion, Mr. Monroe. I am quite de 
 cided as to my views." 
 
 " Discussion ! " repeated Mr. Munroe, 
 speaking a little crossly ; his fine temper 
 was being somewhat injured by the atmosphere 
 of his home life. *' It might as well be contin 
 ued on that subject us any other. We live in 
 a state of discussion from week to week." 
 
 " I am quite willing to discontinue it when 
 ever it shall please you to give me a chiince : 
 but as for living in this disgusting fashion any 
 longer I simply am not going to do it. I did 
 not promise to marry a drunkard, and I have 
 no intention of being a drunkard's wife." 
 
 They were at the tea-table, and Mr. Mun 
 roe set down his cup with a ring, and spoke 
 sternly, 
 M
 
 A Discussion Closed. 293 
 
 " It would puzzle me, Helen, to tell what 
 you did many me for. It couldn't have been 
 for love, though your promises were solemn 
 enough; but I suppose they amount to about as 
 much as other promises made in church. I'll be 
 hanged if you ever gave me reason to think you 
 wasted such a commodity as love on me. If 
 you wanted my money instead of me, why, I'm 
 sure I give you enough of that. Now why can't 
 you be content and let a fellow alone ? " 
 
 " Because, as I said before, whatever other 
 foolish thing I may have done, I did not marry a 
 drunkard, and I will not be a drunkard's wife. 
 I hope you understand me." 
 
 "I have heard you talk often enough to under 
 stand you. You certainly do not obscure your 
 meaning with tender words. I'm not sure but 
 it would be policy to be a drunkard out-and-out; 
 at least I couldn't be expected to listen to dis 
 cussions." 
 
 " Suppose you try it," Mrs. Munroe said, with 
 flashing eyes, but perfect composure in her voice. 
 " Try it twice more, and see how quickly I will 
 leave your establishment to take care of itself. 
 I'm thankful that I have a home and a father." 
 
 Mr. Munroe arose suddenly ; his wife's com 
 posed words seemed to sting his heart. 
 
 " Perhaps you would like to try it," he said, 
 ingrily. " I'm not sure that you would care,
 
 294 Household Puzzles. 
 
 provided I had to keep your purse full. I don't 
 know but we would both be happier. This is a 
 villainous sort of life to live anyhow." 
 
 " I'll move across the street to live, if you 
 think you will find it more agreeable ; and I 
 shall in any case if you come home once more in 
 the state that you were last night." 
 
 " Oh, come, Helen, don't talk to a fellow that 
 way. It was mean treatment, and I'm ashamed 
 of it. I told you so at the time. I'm trying 
 hard enough to keep away from the cursed temp 
 tation, but I need your help. I married you, 
 Helen, because I loved you, and I need you. 
 This is my time of trial. You needn't think 
 I am not struggling, for I am. You will help 
 me?"' 
 
 A very pleading sound his voice had, but the 
 world had gone awry with his wife that day ; the 
 dressmaker had failed in making a good fit, and 
 so injured an elegant dress which couldn't be 
 matched ; so she answered the pleading voice 
 still coldly. 
 
 " I can only say that it is a very strange sort 
 of love that exhibits itself in coming home in an 
 idiotic, disgusting condition of mind and body. 
 I would advise you not to repeat an experiment, 
 of that kind it might be once too often.'* 
 
 " Then I'll go and try it." He spoke an 
 grily, all the gentleness, all the pleading, gone
 
 A Discussion Closed. 295 
 
 yul of his voice ; and immediately he went out, 
 banging the door after him. 
 
 It might have been two hours afterward, it 
 might have been longer Mrs. Munroe nevei 
 knew quite what time it was, that there was a 
 sound of subdued voices in the hall, a kind of 
 suppressed confusion. She stepped at once to 
 the door and met Mr. Harper ; behind him were 
 men and a burden. Mr. Harper pressed forward 
 to intercept her step and words, but she had 
 nursed herself into still greater rage during the 
 intervening hours, and Mr. Harper's presence 
 only served to anger her still more. 
 
 " You need not bring him here," she said, 
 losing all self-control. " As long as I am mis 
 tress of this house, it shall not harbor drunken 
 men. I warned him of the consequences. 
 Carry him around the corner to his father's ; let 
 him see the beautiful son he has brought up." 
 
 Her eyes were blazing with excitement, and 
 her whole manner was indicative of one who had 
 lost all self-control. To Mr. Harper it was 
 evident that prompt and decisive measures were 
 necessary. His voice sounded almost stern in 
 his effort at self-control. 
 
 " Mrs. Munroe, you mistake. Your husband 
 is dead." 
 
 What a sudden, terrible sentence! She reeled, 
 and would have fallen but for his supporting
 
 296 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 arm. He pushed open the parlor door, and 
 helped her in, motioning at the same time to the 
 men to move forward with their burden. 
 
 Once in the parlor Mrs. Munroe neither 
 screamed nor fainted. She looked frightened 
 and shocked, but not, as Mr. Harper had ex 
 pected, utterly overwhelmed. She sank down 
 in the nearest chair, and spoke quickly. 
 
 "What do } r ou mean? Is he really dead? 
 What is the matter ? What happened ? " 
 
 ** It is quite hopeless," Mr. Harper said, avert 
 ing his eyes that he might not intrude upon her 
 grief. " He went into Barter's about an hour 
 ago. Your brother said he was in a state of 
 great excitement, had been drinking, and drank 
 again. From there he went back to his own 
 store, and Thomson, feeling alarmed about him, 
 accompanied him. He acted strangely, put his 
 hands to his head, said he guessed he had done 
 it this time, and more, too, referring, your 
 brother thought, to some transaction that trou 
 bled him. Suddenly, in passing from, the store 
 to the office, he fell in what we thought was a 
 fainting fit, but it proved to be congestion, 
 caused by some unknown excitement and and 
 liquor." 
 
 Mr. Harper judged it right to speak the whole 
 truth even then. He added but a sentence. 
 "He breathed but a few times, and did not
 
 A Discussion Closed. 297 
 
 speak at all ; before a physician reached us he 
 was dead." 
 
 " Dead ! " Mrs. Munroe repeated, as if in be 
 wilderment. " Why, that isn't possible ! It is 
 only a little while since he went out perfectly 
 well, and I said O God, forgive me ! I wish I 
 had said anything but that." 
 
 Mr. Harper stood in silence, doubtful what 
 next to do or say. 
 
 Mrs. Munroe sat silent. If he could have 
 looked at her thoughts they would have read 
 thus: "How dreadful it is! Then I am a 
 widow, and I have been married so short a 
 time. 1 wonder what I shall do ? I suppose I 
 shall have to go home; that's what I said to 
 him. I wish I hadn't said that. I won't go 
 home. I couldn't leave all my nice things and 
 live in that wretched, poky old house again. 
 I'm Mrs. Munroe, and I belong here. I shall 
 stay, and have some one live with me ; but how 
 strange it will seem, and how dreadful! I'm 
 young to be a widow. I shall have to put on 
 black again, and I've had it off so short a time. 
 Widows wear very deep mourning; black is 
 very becoming to me, but it is very sad to have 
 to wear it." 
 
 And this was all that Mrs. Munroe knew about 
 being a widow. Do you think that Mr. Harper 
 would have stood regarding her with such pitiful
 
 298 Household Puzzles. 
 
 eyes if he could have read those thoughts? 1 
 tell you the pity would have been doubled, yea, 
 trebled. To be a widow, when that word ex 
 presses all the unutterable, voiceless agony of a 
 soul to whom life seems to have gone out in the 
 blackness of darkness, is pitiful. But to be a 
 widow, and to have the widowed heart know 
 absolutely nothing of the blessed love that brigh't- 
 ens all the past, and lights up the gloom of the 
 future, that is bitterness indeed. But Mrs. 
 Muuroe did not know it ; perhaps this but in 
 creased the weight of pity that a strong, true 
 heart would feel for her. She broke the silence 
 suddenly, looking up at Mr. Harper us she 
 spoke, 
 
 " How strangely you are mixed up with my 
 life." 
 
 It seemed such a strange thing to say at thia 
 time ; it embarrassed him, he hardly knew why. 
 
 " I was in the store at the time," he answered, 
 in a low, constrained voice. "Mrs. Munroe 
 what are your commands? What can I do 
 first?" 
 
 Actually the worst part of this widow's trial 
 was yet to come. It was revealed to her by 
 Tom, who seemed to be her evil genius ; she sat 
 crouched among the pillows of her lounge, a 
 light shawl thrown around her, and occasionally 
 she shivered, not from cold, but with excitement
 
 A Discussion Closed. 299 
 
 and pain. In the next room her husband lay in 
 his coffin. 
 
 "How do you know all this?" she said to 
 Tom, suppressed excitement in her voice. 
 
 " From excellent authority ; your respected 
 father-in-law took the trouble to enlighten me." 
 
 " And he said everything WHS gone ? " 
 
 *' Everything belonging to Horace, and a great 
 deal that belonged to his father. You know the 
 business was left very much to Horace, and his 
 father says that he has not been in a condition to 
 attend to business for some time." 
 
 " Thanks to you," she said, with flashing 
 eyes. " Horace was always running down to 
 take a social glass with you" 
 
 But that his heart was really pitiful for her, 
 Tom could have laughed ; the idea of him lead 
 ing Horace Munroe astray ! 
 
 " Helen, that is pretty hard on a fellow," he 
 said, half beseechingly. " I could tell you some 
 solemn truths, if it would do any good." 
 
 " I don't want to hear your truths, nor Any 
 thing else. I don't believe a word of all this. 
 I'm not going to give up my house, and go to live 
 with them, and be ordered about by Mrs. Mun 
 roe ; they needn't expect it." 
 
 "They don't; that was part of my express 
 direction to explain to you that the family were 
 BO situated it would be impossible to receive you
 
 300 Household Puzzles. 
 
 there, and at. it was equally impossible for you to 
 stay here, your only alternative would be to go 
 home.'' 
 
 *' And what am I to live on, I should like to 
 know?" 
 
 " I ventured to make a similar inquiry, and he 
 assured me he would do all that he could for 
 you, but it would become necessary for you,- as 
 well as for themselves, to practise the most rigid 
 economy." If there were two words in the 
 English language that Helen Munroe hated, they 
 were those two, " rigid economy." 
 
 " I don't believe a word of it," she said again, 
 more sharply than before. " Why need you come 
 here with your croaking? You roi_;ht at least 
 have waited until my husband was buried ; he 
 was so good to me; he was the only friend I 
 ever had." 
 
 Part of this sentence angered Tom, part of it 
 touched him ; his answer was prompted by a 
 mixture of both feelings. 
 
 " It was not a task I coveted, that of coming 
 to you with my croaking ; but Mr. Munroe fool 
 ishly enough imagined me to be the proper person 
 to break the tidings to you, and he was particular 
 enough in having it done before he met you ; he 
 said he considered it wiser for all parties. He is 
 not much like our father, and, Helen, the trouble 
 is heavy enough, but you have friends left and a 
 home to go to."
 
 A Discussion Closed. 301 
 
 " Such a home as that is! " and Mrs. Munroe'a 
 hp curled scornfully. " There is a great contrast 
 between that home and this one. I wonder if 
 you think I can ever be content to come down to 
 that sort of life again ? " 
 
 "It is better than nothing," Tom said, vexed 
 again. " I should prefer it to starvation, and I 
 shouldn't wonder if you would be prevailed upon 
 to take up with it." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe turned her head wearily toward 
 the wall. 
 
 " I shall have to take up with anything or 
 nothing," she said, in a heavy, dreary tone. " I 
 have lost my friend, my one friend." And then 
 Tom's heart ached for her again ; he had a great 
 longing to comfort her. 
 
 " There are other things beside this life," he 
 began, awkwardly. " Other hopes and friend 
 ships, I suppose. I should think they might 
 be a comfort at such a time." 
 
 His sister moved restlessly on her couch. 
 
 " Don't talk of what you know nothing about," 
 she said, impatiently. "I don't believe in that 
 sort of talk, anyway." 
 
 ' What sort do you believe in ? " he asked, 
 coolly, his sympathy fast oozing away. 
 
 " No sort that comes from you. I wish you 
 would go home," 
 
 "I'm going. I'm glad to have been able to
 
 302 Household Puzzles. 
 
 see how beautifully religion sustains and upholds 
 people in time of trial. I've heard considerable 
 about it, but I never realized it as forcibly as 1 
 do now," and Tom Randolph actually went 
 down the stairs whistling I Maria appeared to 
 him from one of the rooms below, looking re 
 proving volumes. 
 
 "It's not quite the thing, I admit," he said, in 
 answer to her look. " But a fellow sometimes 
 whistles when, but for education and principle 
 and all that, he might swear. Maria, Helen has 
 got to come home to live. Now, you whistle if 
 you can." 
 
 " Home ! " Maria aid, in undisguised dismay. 
 "What for?" 
 
 "The Munroe property has gone up Horace's 
 part of it, anyway; anrt o ld Munroe says the 
 whole is going. That is Ul moonshine, though. 
 But they don't feel any too comfortable toward 
 her. They think it is her fault that he went to 
 the mischief so fast." 
 
 " O Tom ! you didn't tell He'en they said so?" 
 
 " It's not very likely ; though I'll admit that 1 
 was horribly tempted." 
 
 " Tom, what in the world shall ve do? " Maria 
 said, going back to the astounding and painful 
 revelation. " I thought she would live on here, 
 and perhaps take Grace to live with her. Grace 
 in the onlv one of us who can't possibly earn her
 
 A Discussion Closed. 803 
 
 own living. If worse comes to worse, I could hoe 
 potatoes, but what Grace could do puzzles me; 
 and now that planning is over with. What shall 
 we do?" 
 
 " Whistle," said Tom, philosophically. " That 
 is all there is left to do. She's got to come, any 
 how. Don't you feel the force of the elevating 
 and consolatory influences of religion that they 
 tell about? I realize it more and more." 
 
 " There's Faith," Maria said, thoughtfully. 
 
 " Bah I life goes as smooth with her as a 
 summer day. What has she to be consoled 
 about?" 
 
 " But she has lost all her friends, you know. 
 No one left but Pearly." 
 
 "Yes, and she had hysterics every day for a 
 month, I presume ; they are just the sort to get 
 over it quickly." 
 
 " Well, there's father. 
 
 "Yes," he said, "there's father that's true. 
 It's a puzzling world." 
 
 All the proprieties were observed in Mr. Mun- 
 roe's funeral. No one certainly would have 
 imagined that the firm were on the eve of failure, 
 from the amount of money lavished on the quiet, 
 senseless clay and its belongings. His widow 
 was shrouded in bombazine and crape of the 
 Quest texture, and everything was becomingly 
 solemn and sombre.
 
 804 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 Ermina stood on the doorstep, waiting her turn 
 to enter the carriage. There was some delay. 
 Their father had been the one on whom the 
 widow was to depend for support ; but his 
 strength at the last moment had proved too slight 
 for the occasion Mr. Randolph was fast drop 
 ping into invalidism and Tom had been sum 
 moned hurriedly from Ermina's side to attend 
 his eldest sister. During the delay occasioned 
 by the change of programme, Mr. Harper came 
 from the hall and stood for a moment beside Er 
 mina. Instantly she remembered what his last 
 words had been to her. How little either had 
 imagined where they might meet. She won 
 dered if he remembered it. Even as she won 
 dered he bent slightly toward her, and spoke low 
 
 " Is the decision made ? " 
 
 " It is," she sa ; d, firmly. " It is body and soul 
 this time."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THEOLOGY IN THE KITCHEN. 
 
 RMINA RANDOLPH curled herself into 
 as much of a heap as she could, and 
 placed a cushion for her head. It was 
 Ermina's nature to make herself comfort 
 able, if the thing were possible. She 
 was in Faith's room, making her and baby a 
 little visit. It was one of those cool evenings 
 when grown-up people consider it their duty to 
 shiver around the house with little shawls over 
 their shoulders, and feel it a positive luxury to 
 have a baby in the house, to furnish an excuse 
 for making up a cheery blaze of fire. Pearly, 
 on the floor, was cooing over the firelight shnd- 
 ows, and Faith sat very near the stove to shield 
 the grasping hands from snatching at the bright 
 ness. 
 
 20 305
 
 806 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Doesn't it go right ? " she said, in answer to 
 Ermina's long-drawn sigh. 
 
 44 Not very," Ermina said, ending the sigh 
 with a little laugh. 4l Things look mixed, and 
 life seems bewildering." 
 
 44 It has its bewildering side, I'll admit," Fahh 
 Baid ; "but, after all, that is generally because 
 we want to admire the design before it is 
 finished. What is the superlative of your 
 troubles ? " 
 
 " Why," Ermina said, laughing, 44 it has none, 
 I guess. That is one of my troubles. A real, 
 definite, tangible superlative would be encourag 
 ing; but pin pricks and mosquito bites seem so 
 insignificant in themselves; yet, after all, no one 
 enjoys being pricked or bitten." 
 
 4 * Considering myself the pin that does the 
 pricking, who or wh.it is the mosquito?" 
 
 14 You a pin ! I fancy you might prick, 
 though, if you really wanted to. I don't think 
 you are one of the softly people ; but Helen, 
 now, is a real mosquito. Did you really ever 
 see any one who had more talent than she has 
 for making herself miserable?" 
 
 ' I should think it would require a great deal 
 of grace to endure some things." 
 
 44 Which is what I haven't," Ermina said, 
 gravely and sadly. 44 My trouble has a superla 
 tive after all. I'm just a baby in the Christian
 
 Theology in the Kitchen. 307 
 
 life- jti&t groping and feeling my waj>, when I 
 might be walking firmly on high ground. I've 
 wastod years and years." 
 
 " I know. The thought is a sad one, and a 
 solemn one ; yet I think perhaps Paul meant 
 that, too, when he said, " Forgetting the things 
 that are behind." I suppose he made failures, 
 but he thought that Christ's blood was powerful 
 enough to atone for even failures, and his love 
 strong enough to forgive them. I don't imagine 
 that Paul kept looking back and sighing over 
 them after Christ had forgiven them. Do 
 you?" 
 
 " I suppose not. Yet, after all, it doesn't 
 seem quite the thing to do I mean for me. I 
 suppose it was all right enough in Paul it was 
 of course for he was inspired; but for me, I 
 don't kpow but past shortcomings ought to be 
 kept before me to keep me humble." 
 
 " But not to hinder you," Faith said, quickly. 
 " When Satan begins to use past shortcomings 
 as a chain by which to fetter our thoughts to 
 ourselves, then it is time to forget them. DC 
 you think Paul's inspiration was only for him 
 self? I think God looked ahead and said, 
 ' There are Faith Halstead and Ermina Ran 
 dolph, they will need the same kind of waiuing, 
 or explanation, or comfort that Paul does. J 
 will have it written out for them."
 
 808 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Ermina sat erect, letting the cushions drop 
 heedlessly to the floor. 
 
 " Does the Bible seem like that to you ? " she 
 said, with eager eyes. " I wish it did to me. I 
 mean to make it read so. Actually written for 
 me ! It is pleasant, but very queer." 
 
 "I don't see why," Faith said, stoutly. "Of 
 course it was written for you. Why, the very 
 hairs of your head are numbered, the least little 
 event in life planned for your good. Is that any 
 Jess wonderful than that God thought of your 
 -*eeds when he directed certain words to be 
 handed down to you?" 
 
 Ermina looked thoughtfully at her cousin and 
 spoke absently, " Your Bible is like Mr. 
 Harper's! " 
 
 " I dare say, and like yours and Helen's and 
 every one's, if only we will not try to make it 
 read Hebrew when it wants to read plain 
 English. Is there anything unusual about his 
 Bible?" 
 
 Only that, as you say, it seems to read for 
 him, and not for Paul and Peter only ; he has 
 strange ideas ; he was speaking of his friends in 
 heaven, and I ventured to ask him a question 
 that has puzzled me ever so much, as to how a 
 husband, for instance, could be entirely bliss 
 fully happy in heaven, while his wife was wait 
 ing in loneliness and weariness on earth."
 
 Theology in the Kitchen. 809 
 
 " What did he say ? " Faith asked, speaking 
 fa lower tones and shading her eyes with her 
 hand, for here was her weak spot in the chain ; 
 this seemed hard to her who had all her friends 
 in heaven and missed them sorely and sadly. 
 
 " He said I had forgotten the force of that one 
 word ' eternity ;' that we measured time by 
 comparison. If my friend were to spend a 
 month with me, an hour given to some one else 
 would seem a very trifle ; the nearest and dear 
 est friends you know can be separated for 
 several months, and while they, of course, miss 
 each other, they can still enjoy the life around 
 them and be happy in the thought of the coming 
 together ; he spoke of that ; he told me of his 
 sister going to Europe; of how much she missed 
 him, yet of how much she enjoyed her journey, 
 and what delightful letters she wrote him con 
 cerning it; then he said his mother had been, 
 twenty years in heaven, but he thought that 
 eternity was so long, so long, in comparison with 
 twenty years; that the years dwindled into 
 hours, and that she, looking forward over 
 perhaps twenty years more of separation, said, 
 'Only a day or two more and my son will 
 come.' " 
 
 " I see," Faith said, still with shaded eyes, 
 and a voice a little husky. " A year is only a 
 half hour in heaven. I had not thought of it in 
 just that light."
 
 310 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 Ermina rose up from her cushions. " Well,' 1 
 she said, " I've had my crumb of help and com 
 fort; I'll go now to my sewing. I brought Mrs. 
 El wood's dress home to baste eleven ruffles or. 
 the front breadth." 
 
 " I got my crumb, too," Faith said, looking 
 up brightly. " So you see we had an exchange 
 of loaves." 
 
 Maria was the next caller. She sat on the 
 floor, squarely before the fire. Maria never 
 took the time to put herself into places of great 
 comfort. 
 
 " What a solemn face ! " Faith said, gayly. 
 " Was the cake heavy ? " 
 
 " No, but the biscuit was sour." 
 
 " Why, I didn't discover it." 
 
 " They were ; just a trifle, but enough to evi 
 dence their relationship to this totally depraved 
 world. I wonder that any one has difficulty in 
 accepting the doctrine of total depravity. 
 Housekeepers certainly ought to believe in it; 
 the way apple sauce works, and bread molds, 
 and milk sours, and butter grows strong, is be 
 wildering and distracting, to say nothing of the 
 way in which the ants march into the sugar, and 
 wretched big and little flies pounce upon and 
 devour everything they can touch their feet to, 
 and dust and cobwebs poke themselves ID 
 everywhere. I'm sick of the world."
 
 Theology in the Kitchen. 811 
 
 Faith's laugh rang out merrily. " What a 
 Bolemn procession of troubles ! that is kitchen 
 depravity, I think, flies and bugs and cobwebs 
 and mold, but no humanity." 
 
 " Humanity ! plenty of it. There is evidence 
 enough of humanity in Helen to convince me 
 that we all belong to that miserable old Eve 
 who had to please herself, whatever the conse 
 quences. I hope I shan't have to be on friendly 
 terms with her, for I know I should twit her 
 about that apple, if it was an apple; it is quite 
 as likely to have been a lemon for all I know to 
 the contrary. Things and people everywhere 
 seem awry, and that is the whole of it. I can't 
 help thinking I could have made a better world 
 myself." 
 
 *' That isn't the whole of it, and that is just 
 where you and I make mistakes ; it is only a 
 little tiny corner, and the rest of it we can't see 
 at all. Take care, Pearly ! No, no, Pearly 
 musn't touch. You can see how wise he thinks 
 he is ; the blaze of the fire is beautiful, 
 and he is determined to have it in his hand. 
 He thinks I am a cruel old ogre, keeping him 
 from happiness. I have tried all the evening to 
 convince him that I knew more about it than he 
 did, and I have been wondering whether I 
 shouldn't have to let him burn his poor precious 
 little hand, just a tiny bit, to convince him that 
 there is danger there."
 
 812 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "I see the application in part," Maria said, 
 gloomily. " Only I was talking about flies and 
 bugs not a sign of a bright blaze do I see." 
 
 "And I was talking of the ignorance of both 
 of you," Faith answered, merrily. " You 
 neither of you see but an inch ahead, and 3 T ou 
 think you see and know all about it. You both 
 think you could manage things better for your 
 self if you could be let alone." 
 
 "What do yon suppose is to become of. 
 Tom ? " Maria asked the question in the same 
 half-petulant, half-gloomy tone in which she had 
 all the time been talking. The transition evi 
 dently did not seem so striking to her as it did 
 to Faith. " Do you really suppose he is going 
 to be a drunkard ? He is pretty nearly that 
 now by spells ; but I mean do you actually 
 think he is going to sink down to that hopeless- 
 
 ly?" 
 
 Faith's face grew grave and her voice was 
 serious. 
 
 " No," she said, firmly, " I don't. I can't 
 think any such thing. I believe he is to be res 
 cued." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " I don,t know ; God knows, and I have no 
 doubt is preparing the way. Maria, I don't 
 know but he sees that he will have to let Tom 
 burn his hand."
 
 Theology in the Kitchen. 813 
 
 Maria looked up quickly. 
 
 " You mean some heavy pain. Through 
 whom could it come ? through father ? " and 
 she shivered. " I don't want that ; it seems to 
 to me that God might make him learn some 
 other way." 
 
 " I can't make Pearly learn," Faith said, 
 gently. " I have to sit between him and the 
 fire, and I can't always do that ; sometimes I 
 shall have to be moving about the room ; it will 
 be necessary for him to learn that there is 
 danger." 
 
 " But, Faith, you are not God. He surely has 
 ways." 
 
 " I think so, and warning of danger is one of 
 his ways." 
 
 " Horace's death might have served for the 
 warning one would think. It was sudden and 
 sad enough ; but then Tom doesn't attribute 
 that so much to liquor as he does to Helen. 
 Well, I don't know how it will end; but it does 
 seem hard that when father has but oue son he 
 must be a terror and a misery to him instead of 
 a comfort." 
 
 They sat in silence for a little, except for the 
 soft cooing between Faith and Pearly as she 
 changed his white robe for his " sleepy dress," 
 and cuddled the loving little head on her 
 shoulder. When his night-lullaby had been
 
 314 Household Puzzles. 
 
 sung and she had laid him among the pillows, 
 she came back to the girl sitting bolt upright, 
 with folded arms, staring into iho firelight. 
 
 44 I should think you would want to pray for 
 him," she said, slipping down besiile her. 
 
 " What's the use ? " Maria answered, coldly. 
 44 1 never could see that praying did any good. 
 Father has been praying for him ever since he 
 was born. I hear him sometimes at night. You 
 and I couldn't resist such prayers, but God can. 
 What does it all amount to ? " 
 
 44 1 don't know, nor do you," Faith said, 
 speaking almost sternly. 44 And if I were you I 
 wouldn't dare to estimate what he might have 
 been without those prayers." 
 
 44 But what are you going to do about the 
 answer? I tell you, he prays half the night 
 sometimes for Tool's conversion, whatever that 
 may mean. Anyway it means something that 
 he isn't. What can you say to that ? " 
 
 44 Why, there is plenty to say. In the first 
 place, Tom is still living. There is no proof that 
 God doesn't intend to answer that prayer ; and 
 there will not be until he dies unconverted." 
 
 44 Why doesn't he answer it then ? " 
 
 44 1 don't know. Suppose you ask him?" 
 
 In spite of the daring way in which she had 
 herself been talking, Maria looked a little 
 startled over this sentence.
 
 Theology in the Kitchen. 815 
 
 " I'm sure I don't see why you shouldn't," 
 Faith said. " You like consistency, and you are 
 quick to detect inconsistencies in other people. 
 Does it never occur to you as strange, that one 
 who professes so great interest in Tom, and 
 anxiety for him, should never make any attempt 
 to interest the Saviour in his behalf? It might 
 do good, you know, and you must be certain 
 that it could do no harm." 
 
 " There wouldn't be much faith about that 
 kind of praying I should think. I thought faith 
 was an important item in prayer?" 
 
 " There would be as much faith as you seem 
 to possess, and it is possible that the attempt at 
 prayer might increase your faith." 
 
 " I don't see how praying can do any good, 
 and never did see. When things are pre 
 arranged for ages, what difference does it make 
 whether I pray or not ? How can it make any 
 difference?" 
 
 "J don't know; but my idea of God is that 
 be is wiser than I am. I presume he knows, in 
 deed I may say I am sure of it, elso he never 
 would have made prayer not only a privilege, 
 but a duty." 
 
 " Well, but, Faith, are people called upon to 
 believe absurdities? Take Tom, for instance. 
 If God knows anything, he knows that Tom will 
 either be a drunkard or he will not be; and
 
 816 Household Puzzles. 
 
 whichever way his knowledge reaches, settles the 
 question. Now what difference will it make 
 whether I pray for him or not? " 
 
 " Why don't you reason in that way about 
 other matters ? " 
 
 "I do. I think in just that way about a 
 thousand things. They will be, or they will not 
 be, in spite of me, and I might as well sit down 
 and await their development." 
 
 " Then why dont you ? If there is to be 
 bread made in this house to-morrow, there will 
 be, whether I set the sponge to-night or not, so 1 
 will just sit down and await its development." 
 
 "Because," said Maria, laughing a little, 
 " there wouldn't be not a loaf of bread made 
 in this house from one year's end to another if I 
 didn't do it." 
 
 "Not if it were determined upon ages ago?" 
 
 u Well," and then she picked up a stick and 
 poked at the coals " it doesn't seem the same 
 when we talk about our bread-making and our 
 sweeping." 
 
 " I know it doesn't; and it is just here that 
 we make our greatest blunders, I think. Wr 
 invest everything pertaining to religion in a 
 hopeless kind of mist, and then we sneer at it 
 because it can not be judged according to the 
 rules of common sense." 
 
 '* Well, just tell me how you explain any of
 
 Theology in the Kitchen. 817 
 
 it the bread-making, too, if you will. If it is 
 really ordered that I am to make bread to 
 morrow, why, I shall make it, whether I want to 
 or not, or, rather, whether I set myself about it 
 or not." 
 
 Faith laughed. 
 
 " You may judge for yourself whether that 
 sounds like your favorite word, common sense," 
 she said, pleasantly. " But I understand your 
 meaning, /don't pretend to explain it. If it 
 were ten times more enveloped with mystery 
 tlian it is, I should still believe it all, for God my 
 Father has put his seal to it; but when I want 
 to speculate, I find no difficulty in thinking that 
 he could have foreseen, and therefore predesti 
 nated, if you will, your ability and your willing 
 ness to make bread for us, and that your reason 
 and your common sense would show you the 
 need for doing so." 
 
 " Then why should not my reason and 
 common sense fores me into doing other things 
 that I ought to ? " 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know," Faith answered, 
 gravely. " It is a question over which I have 
 often puzzled." 
 
 Maria laughed, a slightly constrained laugh; 
 her common sense showed her plainly that she 
 had shut herself into a very narrow corner. 
 She arose suddenly from her low seat.
 
 318 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "You may not think it," she said, speaking 
 earnestly, " but I am very anxious about Tom 
 more anxious than I can tell you. If I knew 
 how to do anything earthly or unearthly to help 
 him, I would. The great trouble is, I don't 
 know how. I'm sure I hope, if anything is to 
 be done for him, it will be done promptly. I 
 don't see what it will be, though. Meantime 
 I'll go and set that sponge. I know how to do 
 that, at least." 
 
 And that which was to touch Tom was com 
 ing swiftly all the time.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 GOD'S MYSTERY OP GRACE. 
 
 ,E was tucked into the carriage; his blue 
 wrap thrown loosely about him, for the 
 morning was cool ; his blue afghan cov- 
 ered his feet, a blue plume nodded in his 
 white hat, and he looked a very prince 
 among his subjects, for they all came out to see 
 him off Maria with her broom at her side, 
 Grace bringing the knife with which she was 
 peeling apples ; even Helen left her sewing and 
 came out to say good-by to the baby. 
 
 "isn't he lovely this morning?" Grace said, 
 kissing him energetically. " Where are you 
 going, Faith ? " 
 
 " We are going to rove according to our own 
 wild wills. Where we will go is all unknown 
 to me, and when or how we will return is 
 equally involved in mystery." 
 
 319
 
 320 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " I hope I shall have my sweeping done before 
 you are moved to come back. Don't get sleepy, 
 Prince Pearly, until the house is in order." 
 
 " Wish us joy and good speed," Faith said, 
 merrily. "'Perhaps something to remember aU 
 our lives will happen to us before we return." 
 
 "There are two kinds of things to remember,' 
 Helen said, grimly; and Faith had to carry 
 those away with her for last words. 
 
 Down the sunny side of the street, trundling 
 along in a flutter of life and joy, went Pearly. 
 Not a bird escaped his notice, not a leaf rustled 
 that he did not hear. Faith, pushing her lovely, 
 canopied carriage before her, chattering in sweet 
 baby fashion to her darling, felt not less happy 
 than he. A still happiness, such as those feel 
 who have given up many of their treasures to 
 the Saviour's keeping, and have grace left to be 
 unutterably thankful for some darling still left 
 in their care. As they turned the corner of 
 Vesey Street, and trundled along on tbe smooth 
 flagging, Faith suddenly paused. Should she go 
 down Vesey Street? Splendid as the flagging 
 was, it was a street of many children and much 
 whooping cough. She turned her carriage and 
 retraced her steps. She would go back and go 
 down the further end of their own street that 
 was smooth and broad and pleasant. As they 
 walked Tom Randolph came, with rather un-
 
 God's Mystery of Grace. 321 
 
 (Steady steps, towards them. Tom's step waa 
 getting to be unsteady, even in the early morn 
 ing. It took but little poison to fire his excita 
 ble brain. Pearly held up a smooth stone in 
 one hand and a stick in the other, and greeted 
 him with a chuckle of delight. Long before 
 this Tom had giveh over his dislike for baby 
 hood and surrendered completely to the charms 
 of his little pearl. So now he stopped for the 
 usual frolic ; but his breath was odorous with 
 liquor, and his talk rapid and excited. 
 
 " What a stupid old ride that auntie of yours 
 is taking, Prince Pearly ; creeping along at snail 
 pace when he ought to be running, rushing, 
 flying! on this wild morning. Here, give me 
 the helm. I'll give him such a ride as be 
 seldom gets." 
 
 " Not too fast," Faith said, anxiously, as he 
 courteously but peremptorily possessed himself 
 of the carriage. No one could be gentler than 
 Tom Randolph when he was himself; but she 
 distrusted him in these excited moods, and yet 
 she did not like to refuse him, so she repeated 
 her gentle caution. 
 
 " Not too fast, please. Oh, Tom, do be care 
 ful! He isn't used to it; you will frighten 
 him." 
 
 " He acts like it ! Hear him laugh I Never 
 fear for him. He's a man, and not so easily 
 21
 
 822 Household Puzzles. 
 
 frightened as the ladies are. Here we go ; up, 
 up ! " and he swung the carriage suddenly 
 around the corner, one wheel on the stone, the 
 other in the gully below. 
 
 Faith shrieked a little. 
 
 " Tom, O Tom, don't. Let me have him. 
 Wait for me." 
 
 " No waiting for laggards. This is the light 
 ning express. Here we go," and at that instant 
 the carriage struck violently against a projecting 
 stone and overturned. Pearly, thrown forward 
 by the suddenness of the jolt, fell out, striking 
 his head on the pavement. In an instant Faith 
 had him in her arms, and Tom, beside her, 
 spoke in a hurried but thoroughly sobered tone. 
 
 "He is not hurt. I am sure he isn't. The 
 fn'ght has made him faint. Please let me take 
 him. I will run home with him and have a 
 doctor in three minutes." 
 
 "Don't touch him," Faith said, in a low, stern 
 voice. Then she went with swift steps down 
 the street, bearing her still burden into the 
 pretty yard which she had so lately left. Maiia 
 was there sweeping the piazza. 
 
 "Hi!" she said, gay ly, "what is the matter 
 with Prince Pearly ? Did he rebel at his car 
 riage ? Why, Faith, is he hurt ? " 
 
 This last in an altered tone, seeing Faith's 
 face. Then she went swiftly in, not waiting for
 
 God's Mystery of Grace. 823 
 
 an answer, opened the door of Faith's room, and 
 brought his own little pillow. How swiftly and 
 silently they worked, bathing the poor blue- 
 veined temple where the stone had struck, hold 
 ing a cloth wet in ammonia to his nose, rubbing 
 the tiny feet and limbs. 
 
 Almost immediately the doctor had arrived, 
 for Torn had gone with swift steps to his 
 call. He made very few suggestions, and what 
 he did seemed almost mechanical. Gradually 
 the eagerness of their efforts slackened, and one 
 and another of them looked with frightened, 
 appealing faces at the doctor, looks which he 
 studiously avoided answering. Finally they 
 stood back, all but Faith, and looked at the 
 beautiful little face, white and still. There 
 had been no quiver of the eyelids, no motion of 
 the little hand, from the very first. As for 
 Faith, she did not even glance at any of them, 
 but went steadily, silently on, rubbing the 
 cold limbs, bathing the blue temple, until sud 
 denly she dropped the cloth from her hand, 
 and gathering her baby in her arms, while she 
 showered hot, burning kisses on his white lips, 
 sank down on her knees. Then they went 
 swiftly and quietly out, leaving her alone with 
 her terrible sorrow. 
 
 " Isn't there a shadow of hope ? " Grace 
 asked, piteously, catching the doctor's hand 
 in her eagerness.
 
 824 Household Puzzlet. 
 
 "He must have died instantly. Evidently 
 he struck his temple violently, and it produced 
 immediate death." 
 
 The doctor's voice trembled ; he had stood 
 that very morning, shading his eyes from the sun, 
 and watching that triumphal little chariot; he 
 knew what a treasure it contained. 
 
 " How did it happen ? Who knows anything 
 about it?" Maria questioned, eagerly. 
 
 "/know all about it; " and Tom's voice was 
 so hard it startled her even then. 
 
 " I ought to know ; I killed him. Now you 
 have the whole story ; enjoy it." 
 
 " Tom ! O Tom ! " Grace cried, piteously, 
 "don't speak ^o, don't look so. What can you 
 mean ? " 
 
 "I mean just that; I killed him. I had 
 been drinking, and I didn't know what I was 
 about." 
 
 Every one but Helen saw that Tom's excite 
 ment was so intense that he nardly knew what 
 he was, saying; but she exclaimed in horror, 
 "And you care as little about it as that! Tom 
 Randolph, I don't know what you can be made 
 of! If I were Faith, I could never endure to 
 look at you again. I should think " 
 
 He interrupted her, in a voice which startled 
 even her. 
 
 "Helen, stop! You are the last one on
 
 God's Mystery of Grace. 325 
 
 earth to reproach me. I have not your sin on 
 my conscience even yet. The baby was ready 
 to go, and that can not be said of every one." 
 And then Tom dashed away from them out of 
 the house, down the street, like a madman. 
 
 The intensity of his excitement had been 
 apparent in his words. It was the first time 
 since Helen's home-coming that he had given 
 her reason to think that he knew one cause of 
 her husband's death lay at her own door. 
 
 You could not have found a more beautiful 
 picture than the baby made lying in his white 
 casket, with flowers of every hue and shape 
 scattered with lavish hand about him not- 
 white flowers only, but brilliant red and yellow 
 blossoms. 
 
 " He loved them," said Maria, in answer to 
 Helen's protest that colored flowers were in bad 
 taste at a funeral. " He loved the brightest 
 ones best why shouldn't 1 put them around 
 him?" 
 
 Faith had dressed him herself, in his fairest 
 and daintiest white dress, and buttoned the kid 
 slippers about his ankle, and combed the rings 
 of golden hair about her finger, just as she was 
 wont to do, and said, through blinding tears, 
 " He is going to find his papa and mamma. I 
 have made him beautiful, just as mamma would 
 like to see him, and told him good-bye."
 
 S26 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Faith, from first to last, had astonished the 
 Randolph family. None had known better than 
 they how entirely the love and devotion of her 
 life had centered in the beautiful baby, the only 
 one left to her bearing the family name. They 
 had expected her to lie crushed and helpless and 
 hopeless at the foot of that little coffin. But in 
 less than an hour she- had come out from that 
 closed room, saying, with a faint smile, " Mamma 
 wanted him very much ; she said she could not 
 go and leave him. She has him now." And 
 then she had taken up the work of life again 
 or perhaps I might better say the enduring of 
 life. Her work had been to dress Pearly in the 
 morning, to watch his footsteps as they tottered 
 from one mischief to another ; to hush him for 
 his morning nap ; to prepare his simple dinner ; 
 to take him on his many rides and walks; to 
 dress him in long, loose night-robes ; to watch 
 over him at night ; to dress him again in the 
 morning her work was gone. 
 
 Happy for those who can feel that duties 
 many and important are pressing upon them, 
 and that they have no time to sit down to grief. 
 During the two days that had intervened since 
 death had come among them, Tom had not been 
 seen at home ; his meals, if he had any, were 
 taken elsewhere. They had feared that lie waa 
 trying to find relief from his remorse in liquor,
 
 G-od's Mystery of Grace. 327 
 
 but a chance word with Mr. Harper revealed 
 that he had not drank a drop since the dreadful 
 morning. 
 
 It was the day . for the funeral. At four 
 o'clock, Faith's darling was to be put away from 
 her. She had spent the morning in the closed 
 room where he lay sleeping. It was nearly noon 
 when she came out to Maria, and said, *' Where 
 is Tom?" 
 
 " I wish any of us knew," Maria answered, 
 sadly. " I have not seen him since none of 
 us have. I don't know what he is doing, nor 
 what he means to do." 
 
 " Has any one been here to offer help of any 
 kind ? " 
 
 " Nearly every one ; people are coming all the 
 time. Mr. Harper calls every morning; he 
 passed a few moments ago; I presume he will 
 stop when he returns." 
 
 " If he does, will you tell him from me that I 
 want him to find Tom, and ask him to come 
 home right away ; I want to see him." 
 
 "O Faith! I wouldn't try to do that; it 
 will be too hard." 
 
 "Nothing that is left to my life can be very 
 hard," Faith said, with a quiet smile. ''Be 
 sure to tell him." 
 
 In accordance with this message, repeated 
 with earnest persistence by Mr. Harper, Torn 
 came just after dinner.
 
 828 Household Puzzlei. 
 
 What a young man with a nature like Tom 
 Randolph's had suffered, during the two days 
 past, can hardly be imagined, much less described. 
 Sensitive and sympathetic to an unusual de 
 gree, loving little Pearly with an affection not 
 often bestowed by a young man upon a baby, 
 feeling, oh ! how keenly, that the precious little 
 life was lost through gross and inexcusable care 
 lessness on his part, knowing that the story, 
 with many enlargements and additions, was in 
 everybody's mouth, he had felt at times as if life 
 was not to be endured for another hour, as if he 
 must put an end to it all. Prominent among 
 his terrors had been the thought of meeting 
 Faith ag.-iin. Helen's words, almost unconsciously 
 to himself, hovered around him in various forms. 
 "How could' she endure ever to see his face 
 again ? How could he best dispose of himself so 
 as to wound her in the least?" These were 
 questions which haunted him. Feeling thus, 
 it had seemed at first an impossibility to obey 
 her summons, and but for' Mr. Harper's persist 
 ence it would not have been obeyed. 
 
 Faith was in that closed room when Grace 
 tapped gently at the door, and whispered, "Torn 
 is here." 
 
 Faith went forward and opened the door. 
 
 "Will you ask him to come to me here?" 
 she said, quietly ; and Tom came.
 
 God's Mystery of Grace. 329 
 
 She was startled at the change two days had 
 wrought. There were heavy dark rings under 
 his sunken eyes, and his mouth was set firmly, 
 as one in actual bodily pain. Faith came over 
 to him, as he stood at the closed door, and laid 
 her hand gently on his arm. 
 
 "Poor Tom!" she said, speaking softly. 
 " Poor Tom ! I wish I could tell you how very, 
 very sorry I am for you. Your trouble is 
 heavier than mine, but I wanted to see you 
 while my darling lay here ; I wanted you to see 
 how very sweet he looks, and I wanted to tell 
 you that I do not feel hard to you, not any at 
 all. I know you would not intentionally have 
 hurt one hair of his precious head. I want you 
 to forgive yourself, Tom, as entirely as I forgive 
 you." 
 
 For a moment Tom stood, with folded arms, 
 and that set look about his mouth then he 
 strode forward to the side of that little coffin, 
 and kneeling there, bowed his head and wept 
 out his agony such tears as only men shed who 
 are very rarely moved to tears. Groan after 
 groan escaped him, shaking the tiny casket 
 against which he leaned ; while Faith stood 
 aside and looked on in awe at a grief the bitter 
 ness of which she had never realized. After a 
 little he spoke, but his voice was the voice of 
 prayer,
 
 330 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "O God," he said and there was solemn, 
 intense meaning in his voice " O God of mercy 
 and of forgiveness, grant to me that spirit so 
 divine, so like thine that it can forgive even 
 such a sin as mine has been. For the first time 
 in my life I realize what the Christian spirit is. 
 I want to be a Christian I will be one. Give 
 me thy pardon, even as one who follows close 
 after thee has done that she can forgive me, 
 can endure to look upon me, emboldens me to 
 believe that thy mercy is great enough even for 
 me. God be merciful to me a sinner. Help me 
 for Christ's sake. An hour ago I was eager to 
 die : now I am ready to live. There ure things 
 that I can never undo, but I beg for Christ in 
 my heart, shining forth in my life. I have seen 
 it to-day as never before. God of love, take my 
 poor sinful soul into thy keeping." 
 
 "Amen," said Faith's low, gentle voice. 
 "Saviour, I thank thee that here at my darling's 
 coffin has blossomed so precious a flower the 
 .oew life of a soul even my blessed baby was 
 not too much to give for this. My Father, I 
 thank thee that thou hast given me so sweet a 
 balm in this sad hour." 
 
 There had come a strange change over Tom 
 Randolph's face during this little time. Grave 
 it was, and deeply sad, yet the sorrow was not 
 despair, and the gravity was not desperation.
 
 Grod's Mystery of Grrac*. 331 
 
 " Tom, you will come this afternoon ? " This 
 was what Faith said to him as they arose. 
 
 " Can you bear to have me ? " he asked her 
 piteously. 
 
 " Not only that, but I want you to be here." 
 
 Then he went for the first time and looked at 
 the sweet little face that had grown so dear to 
 him, and that was so full of calm and beauty. 
 " It is a heavy, heavy price to pay," he said, 
 tremulously. " My poor soul was not worth it, 
 but I had well-nigh lost it. I think I was very 
 near the end." 
 
 " Your soul, remember, was worth the death 
 of the Son of God," she said, solemnly. " See 
 that you make your life worthy such a sacrifice 
 as that." 
 
 Great was the astonishment of the Randolph 
 family, and, indeed, of the friends who knew the 
 sad story, when Faith followed her darling to his 
 resting-place, attended by her cousin Tom. 
 
 "It could not have been true," said the 
 lookers on. "That story we heard must have 
 been nothing but a story. Tom Randolph is 
 with her, and she does not shrink from him at 
 all." 
 
 " Faith hasn't the spirit of a mouse." So said 
 her cousin, Helen Munroe. " One would think 
 she would have banished Tom to-day, for 
 appearance' sake, if for nothing else."
 
 332 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "She is incomprehensible to me," said Maria 
 to Grace. " I can't understand how one who is 
 so intense in her feelings as she is can control 
 Herself so as to be patient with Tom." 
 
 " She is a rare Christian," said Mr. Harper to 
 Ermina. And the latter assented with a little 
 sigh it was so very far beyond what she felt 
 th.it she could have done. 
 
 " She has proved the truth of the religion of 
 Jesus Christ as I never felt it before. God bless 
 her. God bless and comfort and keep her." 
 So said Tom Randolph, in the silence and lone 
 liness of his own room, just as he bowed himself 
 to consecrate to Jesus Christ his life, body and 
 soul, from henceforth. 
 
 Who shall say that the sweet baby, so early 
 gone home to heaven, lived his little life in 
 vain?
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 LA.CES AND DUTY. 
 
 CM RANDOLPH sat in the dining- 
 
 p) room, with his chair tipped back, his hat 
 drawn over his eyes, and his feet on the 
 rounds of another chair. Contrary to 
 Mrs. Munroe's code of morals, Tom's 
 new start in life had not yet made him a careful 
 observer of all the rules of propriety. The less 
 religion does for a person's own life and habits, 
 the more certain is that person to expect it to 
 work a sudden and complete transformation in 
 the habits of one who has very recently pro 
 fessed to be governed by its precepts. Tom 
 was de^p in thought, which, to judge by the ex 
 pression on his face, was not very pleasant. 
 Mrs. Munroe was plaiting a crepe ruftle, and 
 Maria was setting the table for the next morn- 
 
 333
 
 Household Puzzles. 
 
 ing's breakfast. The household had narrowed 
 down, the summer and early autumn *\ad gone 
 from them, so also had Faith. Contrary to the 
 opinions of some good people, she held i. 'o be 
 her privilege to make life as endurable as she 
 could, and to stay among the rooms that had 
 echoed to the constant patter of Pearly's little 
 feet made the weight of pain seem heavier, so 
 she went away. Maria, as she set the table, 
 sighed a little as she left vacant the end where 
 Faith and Pearly used to sit. Maria missed 
 them sadly. Tom looked up at last, pushed his 
 hat back a little and smiled faintly. Very few 
 smiles had Tom Randolph to bestow. One may 
 rally from a heavy sorrow which God has sent, 
 and smile brightly even between the tears; but 
 a weight of self-remorse over a sin that has 
 brought lifelong sorrow to some one a sorrow 
 
 o o 
 
 that but for you might not be such pain to a 
 young man like Tom Randolph cuts deeply and 
 leaves little heart for bmiling. 
 
 " I'm a gentleman of leisure," he said to 
 Maria ; and she gave a little start of dismay 
 at the news. You must forgive Maria; she did 
 not want her brother to sell liquor for a living, 
 but she kept the family purse, and Tom paid his 
 board. 
 
 " Couldn't you wait a little ? " she said, dep-
 
 Laces and Duty. 335 
 
 " I didn't see how I could, Maria. I couldn't 
 sell any more liquor." 
 
 "I'm sure I don't see whyi" Helen said, 
 sharply. " You have sold it for some months, 
 and I should think a few days longer would 
 make very little difference ; it would be an im 
 provement on coming home to father to be 
 supported." 
 
 Now as this was precisely what Helen herself 
 had done, one wouldn't have supposed that she 
 would have condemned it in another. Tom 
 controlled the impulse to tell her so, and 
 answered simply, 
 
 " I felt that I could not sell another drop of 
 liquor." 
 
 "Well," Maria said, with a long drawn sigh, 
 " I suppose you are right, and I shall be glad 
 enough that you are out of it when you get in 
 somewhere else ; but the week's accounts won't 
 match very well now." 
 
 " I know," he said, with a gloomy face, " the 
 burden rests heavily. I'm afraid it will be some 
 time before I can find employment. I've met 
 with nothing but failures to-day." 
 
 " Of course," Helen said, with a volume of 
 significance in her tones. " You can't expect 
 people to trust you." 
 
 Tom's boots came down from the chair so 
 suddenly that Helen said, with a nervous start,
 
 336 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Dear me ! how rough you are I " but he said 
 uot a word. 
 
 The outside door creaked slowly, and Mr. 
 Randolph came in with weary step. Helen 
 gave him the easy-chair in which she had been 
 sitting, and Maria brought his slippers. 
 
 " How tired you look ! " she said, anxiously. 
 " And you are late to-night, too. I think it is 
 too bad that you have to do over-work." 
 
 " Not often," he said, feebly ; and then he 
 coughed sharply. 
 
 " Father," said Tom, with the air of one who 
 had something to communicate that was de 
 pressing, and the sooner it could be told and 
 put away the better, "I wish you needed an 
 errand boy or porter, or something of thai sort, 
 at your store. I've thrown up my work and am 
 an object of charity." 
 
 Mr. Randolph put his tired hands on tht, 
 arm-chair and drew himself up, and came with 
 eaijer steps toward his son. 
 
 "Thank God," he said, with trembling 
 earnestness. " I thank him that this trouble is 
 ended. I have felt it bitterly. I am a temper 
 ance man, you know, my son." 
 
 Tom Randolph arose and stood besido hia 
 father ; he towered above him ; he rested one 
 hand on his arm, and his voice trembled more 
 than his father's had.
 
 Laces and Ifuty. 837 
 
 " Father, / am a temperance man, too. I 
 have signed a total abstinence pledge to-day. I 
 hope to atone in a measure for the pain I have 
 given you." 
 
 " I'm sure I'm very glad," Helen said, when 
 both father and son had left the room. " As glad 
 as any one can be, only one can't help wishing 
 that his repentance had come a little earlier." 
 
 Maria slammed the closet door. 
 
 " If you ever get to heaven," she said, 
 irritably, " you will say, ' I can't help wishing I 
 had come yesterday, or waited until to-morrow.' 
 Things as they are, are never quite right in your 
 estimation." 
 
 Helen opened her eyes in wonder. 
 
 " Dear me ! " she said, plaintively, " what 
 have I said now ? I seem to be always saying 
 something." 
 
 " That's true," Maria murmured ; and she 
 banged the other closet door a little before she 
 left the room. 
 
 Tom came in search of her while she was in 
 the pantry setting the cakes for breakfast. 
 
 " Father was pleased with my leaving the sa 
 loon," he said, speaking a little wistfully. She 
 turned toward him a bright face. 
 
 " Of course he was," she said, heartily. " So 
 am I only the world, the flesh and the other 
 one got the better of me for a little." 
 22
 
 338 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "It is gloomy work for you, I know," he said, 
 sadly. "It seems almost hopeless for me to try 
 to get employment ; at the best there is very 
 little doing, and my former experience and repu 
 tation are not flattering. If I were only a girl I 
 would have a chance to try at least." 
 
 "A girl! Why, I thought it was more 
 difficult for a girl to get work than a boy ? " 
 
 " I suppose it is, generally speaking ; but I 
 know of a chance for a girl. Arthur & McAllis 
 ter advertize for a clerk. I answered the adver 
 tisement this morning, but they informed me 
 that they employed none but females at the lace 
 counter." 
 
 This conversation sent Maria to bed with 
 wide open eyes, that continued open far into the 
 midnight. The result of which midnight 
 musing was a conversation with Grace over the 
 next morning's breakfast dishes. The conversa 
 tion opened with her favorite expression, 
 
 " There's no use in talking, Grace. Some 
 thing has got to be done. 
 
 " I know it," Grace said, meekly. 
 
 There had been so much talking that she 
 knew quite well what Maria meant, without ex 
 planation. That young lady, however, proceed 
 ed to explain. 
 
 "Here's Helen on our hands to support, and 
 Tom without anything to do, and father looking
 
 Laces and Duty. 339 
 
 paler and coughing harder every night. It's 
 time there was a chance." 
 
 " Can you think of anything? " 
 
 "Yes. a hundred things; it is easier to think 
 than to do. However, I'm going to try doing. 
 Tom says there is a vacancy at Arthur & Mc 
 Allister's, and I'm going this very morning to 
 try for it. If I succeed you'll have to keep 
 house. You'll hate it, I know ; but so do I hate 
 lace. That's where the vacancy is at the lace 
 counter. If you can conceive of anything more 
 stupid than puttering over boxes of lace from 
 morning till night, I don't know what it can be 
 Td rather bake griddle cakes or wash dishes, 
 and I've no particular love for that employment 
 either. However, tastes and feelings, and 
 things of that sort, have all been ground up long 
 ago, in this house, and eaten for daily bread." 
 
 " I don't see how the house is ever going to 
 get along without you ! " Grace said, dismay in 
 her voice, in her eyes, all about her. 
 
 "It is to get along with you the best way it 
 can. I'm sure you can get us all something to 
 eat if you try. Anyway, I can't much longer, 
 without some money to get it with ; and I know 
 no other way but to go and earn some." 
 
 There was one other way. Grace timidly 
 suggested it. 
 
 " If Helen would only apply for the vacant 
 place."
 
 340 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Helen ! " echoed Maria, iu undisguised dis 
 dain. " I think I see her doing it. Why, bless 
 your heart, child, don't you know it isn't genteel 
 to sell lace? It is perfectly proper to live on a 
 sick father. In fact, it is quite genteel to 
 starve, if you do it gracefully ; but the idea of 
 one who had been connected with the Munroe 
 family stooping to lace-selling isn't to be thought 
 of for a moment." 
 
 I may as well say, just here, that no sooner 
 were the dishes dried and marshaled into place, 
 than Maria put her plans into execution ; and 
 the firm of Arthur & McAllister being really in 
 need, and being well acquainted with her father, 
 she met with prompt success. 
 
 Then commenced a series of martyrdom such 
 as the Randolph family had hitherto not known. 
 Such breakfasts as were shrinkingly brought be 
 fore the miserable victims! Such dinners as 
 they endured ! Grace worked from dawn till 
 dark, and did her very best ; but sha really had 
 no more affinity for cooking than a canary bird ; 
 and whatever other branches of business may be 
 carried on successfully without a fair knowledge 
 of, and general interest in the details, house 
 keeping can not. So the steak was burned or 
 smoked, and the bread was sticky and sour, the 
 pies were exasperating, and poor Grace came 
 regularly to the table with cheeks aglow and
 
 Lacea and Duty. 841 
 
 thiee fingers done up in rags, burned or cut as 
 the case might be. 
 
 Maria's disgust sent her daily to the lace 
 counter with a frowning face. She was sharp to 
 the customers, and positively crabbed to sister 
 clerks to such a degree that she more than once 
 received a hint from headquarters that she must 
 be more civil or lose her place.. Despite all these 
 grievances the week's salary from the lace counter 
 helped considerably in the family puzzle. So 
 each girl stood her ground with the resolution 
 that helps to make martyrs, though Grace re 
 treated nightly under the bedclothes with red 
 eyelids. 
 
 One evening Maria plodded home from the 
 store, through mud and rain, without either 
 rubbers or umbrella (waterproof she had not), 
 and the consequence was sneezes and involuntary 
 weeping out of one eye the next day. 
 
 " There is no use in trying to thumb over 
 lace to-day," she said to Grace, who was looking 
 gravely at the greasy spider. " You will just 
 have to go in my place." 
 
 " What, to the store ! " Grace said, dropping 
 the spider in her surprise. 
 
 " Yes, of course. I believe you have cracked 
 that. What is the use of being so careless? 
 My head spins around like a top, and feels aa 
 large as the flour barrel and as empty. Tell
 
 U2 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 Mr. McAllister, with my compliments, that he 
 won't have the pleasure of growling at me 
 to-day." 
 
 "But what will you do about the work?" 
 
 " Why, I'll do it. Because I can't walk a 
 mile in the rain, it doesn't follow that I can't do 
 a little work in the kitchen ; and I'll have a 
 decent dinner once more, I venture to sa}-;" 
 this last in an undertone ; then, louder, " Will 
 you try the store ? " 
 
 " Why, of course I'll try ; but, Maria, I'm 
 not sure that I shall succeed any better than I 
 do at cooking." 
 
 Maria tied a handkerchief around her aching 
 head, and mopped the kitchen floor. Grace 
 rarely had time for mopping ; then she made 
 some apple sauce for dinner, that stayed in de 
 lightful quarters, a thing which Grace's apple 
 sauce was never known to do. The dinner, 
 though it was only baked potatoes and cold 
 meat, was a success ; for, be it known, there is a 
 way to make utterly uneatable even baked pota 
 toes and cold meat, and poor Grace knew that 
 way. Then when at tea time Maria had suffi 
 ciently subdued eyes and nose, so that she gave 
 herself up to the pleasure of making a delicious 
 creamy johnny cake, the comfort of the Randolph 
 family reached a height unknown for weeks. 
 
 As for Grace, the day passed quietly ; the lace
 
 Laces and Duty. 843 
 
 was neither greasy nor sticky, two things which 
 she abhorred ; the rain prevented much sale, 
 but in the airangement of the boxes she proved 
 useful, saying, after but a lesson or two, " I can 
 tell the real from the imitation now, I think." 
 
 "How do you tell?" Mr. McAllister asked 
 her, looking her through with keen eyes. 
 
 " I don't know," she said, with flushing face. 
 " I haven't learned how to tell scientifically, 
 only this feels real, and this one doesn't." 
 
 "Never mind the science," he said, smiling a 
 little, and then he left her to herself. 
 
 Three days Maria's cold held sway ; the mop 
 ping and the johnny cake proved to be not good 
 for it. After that she went back to the store, 
 and Grace, with a little softly sigh, put on her 
 greasy apron her work apron was always 
 greasy and took the dish cloth between her 
 thumb and finger. 
 
 Mr. Arthur, the senior partner, summoned 
 Maria to the office. 
 
 " Is your sister Grace, who has served us in 
 your absence, a young lad} of leisure ? " 
 
 " Not particularly," said Maria, smiling in 
 spite of his dignity, at the thought of poor Grace 
 with her head in the oven, probably, at that 
 moment. " She is housekeeper for a family of 
 five." 
 
 " Oh ! At your own home ? "
 
 844 Household Puzzle*. 
 
 " Yea, sir." 
 
 Mr. Arthur leaned his chin on his lead pencil, 
 and mused. 
 
 "Well, the fact is," he said at last, "if you 
 and Miss Grace could change places, it would 
 perhaps be agreeable to all parties. She gave 
 very general satisfaction in the store, the cus 
 tomers liked her and the clerks like her very 
 much. She is low voiced, and gentle in her 
 movements, and she tells real and imitation laces 
 by instinct, or in some other mysterious way ; 
 at least she rarely fails. In short, Miss Ran 
 dolph, she has an aptitude for the business 
 which, I may as well say, and you will excuse 
 my frankness I am alvrays frank you have 
 not. Now, Miss Randolph, we are prepared 
 to engage your sister permanently, and give her 
 the full salary, which is a dollar a week more 
 than you have been receiving, if that will suit 
 you." 
 
 " Engage her in my place, you mean ? " 
 
 " In your place." 
 
 " Personally, Mr. Arthur, I am delighted 
 with the proposition, and I think Grace will 
 approve. I quite agree with you that I have no 
 aptitude for the business. I hate lace. I always 
 hated things that could be copied so precisely 
 that you had to feel of them to tell the real from 
 the false."
 
 Laces and Duty. 845 
 
 Nevertheless, after making this emphatic ad 
 dress, Maria went home in a good deal of a 
 maze. Once or twice she laughed outright. It 
 was very funny, certainly. Grace able to earn 
 her own living, and she, Maria, who had been 
 useful and practical ever since she was born, not! 
 
 ''There are different ways of doing things I 
 suppose," she said aloud, and quite humbly for 
 her. And this little episode did Maria Ran 
 dolph good. Also, it did Grace good. There 
 was a recognized place for her in the world, 
 then, even if it was only behind a lace counter. 
 She felt more self-reliant. 
 
 The wild chaotic kind of living that had been 
 in vogue in the Randolph family subsided, the 
 dishes retired to their respective shelves, and 
 comfort reigned once more. And people liked 
 to buy laces at Arthur & McAllister's.
 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 STORM AND "MOONSHINE." 
 
 HAT a horrid evening!" Mrs. Manroe 
 said, with a shiver, and she drew a little 
 black shawl closer about her shoulders. 
 "It rains all the time nowdays." 
 
 They were all in the little dining- 
 room, Mr. Randolph in his easy-chair, in dress 
 ing-gown and slippers, feebly trying to look over 
 some accounts, stopping every few minutes to 
 wipe his forehead and his thin hands, for the 
 constant little cough produced a perspiration that 
 was cold and clammy and disagreeable. In 
 some way Mr. Randolph must have relief from 
 that office. ;u some way he would soon have 
 it. If no other channel opened, the restful 
 grave would come to his aid. Maria felt this, 
 and she chopped her meat for the morning hash, 
 with her face all gathered in a frown. Life was 
 846
 
 Storm and "Moonshine" 347 
 
 hard to Maria, and she made it harder than she 
 need. Why must she persist in carrying all her 
 burdens for herself? Grace had drawn as near 
 the light as she could, and held in her lap the 
 only brightness that the room contained some 
 crimson worsteds. They kept a case of fancy 
 articles in thf store, and Grace made pretty 
 trifles by instinct. She had made the happy dis 
 covery that she could help to replenish that case 
 with great advantage to her own purse. In 
 short, Grace was in a fair way to earn her own 
 living ; and it was only busy, practical Maria 
 who was working hard and earning nothing. So 
 she thought. But who will be kind enough to 
 estimate how much those people really earn whc 
 spend their lives in skillfully contriving how tc 
 save the earnings of other people? Ermina, on 
 the other side of the stand, was straining her ej es 
 over black ruffles. There was no let up to 
 ruffles that she had to prepare for the next day's 
 campaign. They were not always black ruffles, 
 and the light was not always so dim as on this 
 evening. All the gloom had concentrated itself. 
 The Randolph expenses were being narrowed to 
 a low scale. They had actually reached that 
 pitiful point when an extra kerosene lamp, when, 
 they were all gathered in one room of an even 
 ing, was a luxury not to be thought of; so they 
 sat close and strained their eyes over one.
 
 848 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Helen was the only unoccupied person. She 
 had affected to read the evening paper until she 
 pronounced the light no better than a tallow 
 candle. 
 
 "I wonder you don't introduce one into your 
 economy," she said, scornfully, to Maria, and 
 that young lady answered, with a grave face, 
 
 " Do you suppose it would be cheaper ? " 
 
 Helen vouchsafed no answer, and the silence 
 that seemed to possess them all was renewed. 
 Tom came suddenly in at the side door, letting 
 in with him a gust of wind and rain, and leaving 
 the door open a crack, as men are apt to do, 
 while he rushed through to the kitchen with his 
 dripping umbrella. Helen shivered and drew 
 further into her shawl, and Maria pushed the 
 door to with a bang. 
 
 " You always leave doors open after you." she 
 said, a little fretfully, as Tom emerged from his 
 wet overcoat and came back to the dining-room. 
 
 44 1 wanted to give you a taste of outside life, 
 so that you would better appreciate the comforts 
 of your position," he said, cheerily, drawing a 
 chair near his father. 
 
 Helen sniffled. 
 
 44 Comforts ! " she said, sarcastically. 
 
 44 Why, yes, there is a marked difference be 
 tween this room and the street. It rains in 
 torrents, and is the darkest night I ever saw.
 
 Storm and "Moonshine." 849 
 
 Well, 1 am ready for congratulations. I have 
 found employment at last." 
 
 Maria looked up from her hash with a gleam 
 of satisfaction. Grace said, "Oh, good!" and 
 Ermina asked with interest, " What is it?" 
 
 " Before I tell that, I must remind you that I 
 have been for more than three weeks, now, 
 searching right and left for something to do, and 
 the case was really growing desperate." 
 
 Mr. Randolph dropped the paper on which he 
 was figuring, and the pencil in his hand trembled 
 as he said, nervously, 
 
 " You have not gone back to that saloon, have 
 you, Thomson? " 
 
 "No, sir." There was an emphatic ring in 
 Tom's voice. " It is a respectable business this 
 time. Only Maria, if you board me, you will 
 have to give me very prompt breakfasts. I'm to 
 be on hand for the seven o'clock car." 
 
 " In the capacity of driver, I presume." Mrs. 
 Munroe said this for the utmost sarcasm; but 
 Tom's answer was prompt. 
 
 " That's it, exactly. How came you to guess 
 BO eoon? " 
 
 " Why, Tom Randolph ! " Grace said, looking 
 aghast. 
 
 "Nonsense!" said Maria; "you'll believe 
 anything, Grace. Do tell us, Tom, what you 
 have to do with the seven o'clock car."
 
 350 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Drive the horses attached to it," Tom said, 
 gravely. " Helen has guessed rightly. I am 
 tired of idleness any work is better than that ; 
 and this is honest and decent." 
 
 Up to this time Mrs. Munroe had not fully 
 taken his meaning. The magnitude of his 
 crime seemed too great for her mind to compass. 
 She sat looking at him with absolute disgust in 
 her face, and her voice was actually tremulous 
 as she said, 
 
 44 Tom Randolph, I should think you had dis 
 graced your father sufficiently. I don't know 
 what he has done that he should be so utterly 
 disappointed and disgraced in his son. I hope 
 this will not break him down utterly." 
 
 44 Helen ! " Mr. Randolph's voice had that pe 
 culiar ring in it that they as children had heard 
 *3ut a few times in their lives. 44 Helen ! I am 
 proud of him. I am glad when I see any one 
 sufficiently independent to rise above foolish 
 grades and distinctions. So far am I from being 
 disgraced, I think I never was so sure of a suc 
 cessful future for my son as I am at this moment. 
 Moral courage is something that I never had 
 very much of, but it is something that I admire 
 and respect." 
 
 44 There is no accounting for people's tastes," 
 Helen said coldly, even haughtily; then she 
 took up her paper and professed to read. Some-
 
 Storm and "Moonshine." 351 
 
 no one liked to express an opinion after 
 that, and the sewing and chopping went on 
 quietly. 
 
 Tom left them to look after kindlings for the 
 morning fire. Ermina sewed to the end of her 
 ruffle, and looked wearily over at the pile on the 
 lounge waiting to be sewed. Should she, or 
 should she not, try to do more that evening ? 
 She was not obliged to sew in the evenings, but 
 they were hurried; they always are hurried in 
 dressmaking establishments; there never seems 
 to come a time when the world is clothed ; and 
 it expedited matters so much in the next day's 
 rush to have yards an 1 yards of work turned 
 down and basted. But Ermina was unusually 
 tired this evening, body and heart. She pushed 
 her chair back a little from the light, and shaded 
 her weary eyes with her hand. Life looked un 
 utterably dreary to her. The rain pelting un 
 ceasingly against the window, and the wind 
 howling around the keyhole, served to deepen 
 her sense of gloom. Through her fingers she 
 could get peeps of her father's face, and she 
 felt not exactly shocked at its pallor; the sight 
 had grown too common to come as a shock, but 
 it hurt her with a new pain. How feeble he 
 looked, and how puzzled he seemed over the 
 miserable figures. What a daily perplexity life 
 must be to him, mstead of having the rest and
 
 352 Household Puzzles. 
 
 peace about it that a man of his years needed. 
 The miserable lamp that smoked a little, as 
 kerosene lamps frequently do, added to the 
 general sense of discomfort and discouragement 
 which possessed her. They were even too poor 
 to have gaslight ; they were growing poorer , 
 she worked hard at her new business and care 
 fully saved her earnings, yet there seemed to be 
 less to live on than there used. There was less. 
 Mr. Randolph's weakness and feebleness had 
 grown upon him to such an extent that he had 
 relinquished of necessity one duty after another, 
 and, of course, his salary had grown proportion 
 ately smaller, and the family were coming to 
 know that it was only by courtesy that his 
 place was kept at all. There was certainly 
 enough to justify a feeling of apprehension as to 
 the future, yet Ermina had of late been able to 
 lift herself somewhat above it all, to trust her 
 life and the lives of her kindred in the Father's 
 hand. To-night though it was nearer despair 
 than trust. She felt utterly cast down and for 
 saken, as if there were no brightness anywhere. 
 Those ruffles over on the lounge waiting for her 
 seemed like so many imps of darkness ready to 
 sting her; she hated them, and the life stretch 
 ing drearily out before her, filled with ruffles to 
 hem and gather and plait, looked unutterably 
 horrible. I want you to understand that I
 
 Storm and "Moonshine" 353 
 
 don't justify Ermina for being in this state of 
 mind. Of course it was unreasonable and silly; 
 it was no more right than it was for you to be 
 cross all the morning because tle steak was! 
 tough and the coffee cold when you came to 
 breakfast. I have no doubt it was unchristian, 
 so are one eighth of the things that you have 
 said and done to-day ; but I insist that it was 
 very human, and Ermina was an intensely 
 human girl, with like passions and failings with 
 yourself. Whether she hadn't a very little more 
 to try her than you have had to-day, judge ye. 
 The door-bell pealing through the house startled 
 the family with a sudden sense of a something 
 breaking rudely in on their quiet, which people 
 feel when they have allowed themselves to sink 
 into the depths of gloomy reverie. Helen 
 dropped the paper with an exclamation. 
 
 " Who on earth can be coming here in such a 
 storm ? It must be urgent business." 
 
 Tom, who had been heard banging about the 
 upper hall, now came down to answer the bell. 
 They heard him show some one into the parlor ; 
 then he came to the dining-room door and put hia 
 head in. " A messenger for you, Ermina." 
 Then he vanished. 
 
 " Some one about those dreadful dresses," 
 Ermina said, with a sigh. "They would come 
 to look after their ruffles if it rained icicles." 
 23
 
 854 Household Puzzles. 
 
 '* Don't keep the poor victim long, whoever it 
 is, or he will freeze." This was Maria's parting 
 sentence. 
 
 The dimmest of smoking lamps served to make 
 the darkness of the little parlor visible. The 
 stove had not even been set up yet; it was not 
 late in the season, and people would not expect 
 you to have a fire when there was no stove in 
 which to make it. By dint of close looking, Er- 
 mina discovered a shadow in the dimness ; it was 
 tall and wore an overcoat. She went toward it 
 with dignity, wondering at its errand. There 
 was no mistaking the sudden light in her eyes HS 
 she neared it ; and it spoke, though it said 
 simply, " Good evening, Miss Ermina." She 
 knew the voice, and there was pleasure mingling 
 with the surprise with which she said, "Mr. 
 Harper!" 
 
 "Now you are wondering why I came out in 
 the storm," he said, when they were comfortably 
 seated. " I see the wonderment in your eyes, 
 and I am not surprised at it. I confess to you 
 that it doesn't look like a sane proceeding. But 
 I had a reason, and it can be explained in a very 
 few words. I wanted to see you." 
 
 " That is remarkable," Ermina said, with a 
 little laugh. "I didn't know any one was ever 
 in that state." 
 
 "Did you not?" he said, earnestly. "It is
 
 Storm and "Moonshine." 355 
 
 becoming a chronic state with me. I have been 
 thinking about it nearly all this day, thinking 
 about it and praying over it, and to-night I have 
 braved the storm, resolved to tell you the whole 
 Btory.". 
 
 A dozen times they wondered in the dining- 
 room who could be keeping Ermina so. Then, 
 as Tom did not appear again, they gave over 
 wondering and went their several ways. 
 
 Helen had been asleep when Ermina, who 
 shared her room, pushed open the door, and 
 brought her dim little lamp into the darkness. 
 She set it softly down and went to the window ; 
 the rain had ceased, and dozens of stars were 
 twinkling. Helen popped up her head from 
 among the pillows. 
 
 " Where in the world have you been ? " she 
 asked in wonderment. 
 
 " I've been nowhere," Ermina answered with 
 shining eyes. " What a change there is in the 
 weather. Do you know, Helen, the stars are 
 shining, and it looks as though it would never 
 rain again." 
 
 " Who wanted you ? " asked Helen, ignoring 
 the stars. " And whoever it was, why didn't 
 they spend the night?" 
 
 " Why, it isn't but a few minutes." 
 
 " A few minutes ! It was nearly ten o'clock 
 when I came up stairs. It must be eleven now."
 
 S56 Household Puzzles. 
 
 "Oh, no," Ermina said, quickly; "it couldn't 
 be." 
 
 " Well, who was it ? " 
 
 Thus pressed, Ermina's reluctant tongue suc 
 ceeded in forming the words, " Mr. Harper." 
 
 Helen echoed them. 
 
 " Mr. Harper ! What in the name of common 
 sense did he want? Couldn't he have chosen a 
 lovelier night for his errand ? " 
 
 "He is not afraid of the rain," Ermina said, 
 evasively. 
 
 " I should think not, nor of cold, nor of you, 
 either. It is a wonder you did not freeze. His 
 errand must have been very pressing. What 
 did he want ? " 
 
 " I declare if there isn't the moon," Ermina 
 said, eagerly. " I didn't know it rose so late. I 
 believe I had forgotten that there was one. Oh, 
 how beautiful it is ! " 
 
 Mrs. Helen Munroe raised herself on one 
 elbow, and spoke impatiently. 
 
 "Ermina Randolph, I have asked you three 
 times what Mr. Harper wanted. If you intend 
 to tell me, I wish you would let the stars and tho 
 moon alone, and do so." 
 
 Ermina dropped the curtain, aud went over to 
 the glass and began to take the pins out of her 
 hair. Her cheeks were very glowing. 
 
 "He wanted me," she said, slowly, almost 
 reverently.
 
 Storm and "Moonshine" 357 
 
 Mrs. Munroe sat up straight and looked at her, 
 
 "You!" she repeated, intense amazement in 
 her voice. " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I moan that, with all that it implies. I do 
 not wonder that you are astonished. You can 
 not be as much so as I was. To think that God 
 had that waiting for me, coming to me, all the 
 while ; and only this very evening I felt that my 
 life was desolate. I have been a very untrustful 
 child, Helen. I wonder that he has had patience 
 with me." 
 
 Mrs. Munroe fixed the pillows under her head 
 and lay down without another word. The lamp 
 had been out for an hour, and Ermina had beeff 
 turning herself over in the bed for nearly that 
 length of time, when her sister made her first 
 comment on the evening's revelation. 
 
 " Well, I think he took a very rainy night 
 for it."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 A NEW STAET. 
 
 |ERY soon thereafter there was another 
 wedding in the Randolph family, utterly 
 unlike the first one so unlike, so ill be 
 fitting in Helen's estimation the dignity 
 of Ermina's coming position, that she went 
 Around for weeks beforehand with her forehead 
 drawn in a row of wrinkles, and in kitchen and 
 pantry held endless, hopeless discussions with 
 Maria. As for Ermina, she did in many things 
 just what people are not given to doing under 
 the same circumstances. For instance, she kept 
 her place in the sewing-room up to the very last 
 week of her stay a; home. Her reasons therefor 
 were simple and conclusive. 
 
 44 I've nothing very special to do. I'm not 
 going to have sixteen flounced and plaited silk 
 dresses. My wardrobe is to be simple, from 
 358
 
 A New Start. 359 
 
 taste partly, from necessity a great deal ; and 1 
 need all the money I can earn." 
 
 A morning wedding, no guests, no wedding 
 cake. Over each of these three movements 
 Helen exhausted herself and the patience of 
 those around her with argument. 
 
 "An evening wedding was so much more 
 tasteful and stylish." 
 
 "As to taste," Maria said. "That, of course, 
 was a matter of taste, and tastes differed." 
 
 " And as to style," Ermina chimed in. "I'm 
 not stylish, you know ; don't aim to be." 
 
 " But Mr. Harper was," Helen said. " Very 
 stylish, and immensely wealthy. She thought 
 some little regard ought to be paid to his posi 
 tion." 
 
 The mention of Mr. Harper's name always 
 produced a softened and quieted tone of voice in 
 Ermina, so while Maria answered with unusual 
 sharpness that " Mr. Harper's wealth was not 
 supposed to pay the wedding expenses, arid his 
 position was strong enough to take care of itself," 
 Ermina said, gently, that " Mr. Harper entirely 
 approved of the arrangements; indeed they were 
 of his own planning." 
 
 " Well, I must say you are queer creatures," 
 Helen said, with lifted eyebrows and vexed 
 voice. " I don't know after all but you are well 
 matched. One would suppose that if people had
 
 360 Household Puzzles. 
 
 any friends they would like to see them about 
 them on their wedding day. But, as Maria says, 
 there is no accounting for people's tastes." 
 
 There was a mixture of sharpness and hu 
 mility in Ermina's answer, 
 
 " I don't at this moment think of an indi 
 vidual in this town, outside of our own imme- 
 diate'family, that I care particularly ever to see 
 again. It is a mortifying fact, and I don't doubt 
 that it is my own fault ; but it is a fact never 
 theless. I'm sure I hope never to have to own 
 it in regard to any other home of mine." 
 
 " No danger," Maria said, grimly, " Mr. Har 
 per's millions would secure plenty of friends." 
 
 Maria's was, however, a sort of satisfied grim- 
 ness. She was very willing to have millions 
 come into the family, especially when in their 
 train they brought every other qualification. 
 Her tussle with poverty had been too long, and 
 her heart was too unselfish not to feel genuine 
 joy that one of the family had emerged into the 
 sunlight, especially when that one was Ermina, 
 decidedly her favorite sister, and more especially 
 when the sunshine was of Mr. Harper's own 
 bringing; she thoroughly believed in Mr. Harper. 
 
 "There are two ways of getting manied," she 
 said, in a burst of confidence to Grace over their 
 night toilet. " Helen married the handsome 
 house, and the lace curtains, and the silver tea
 
 A New Start. 361 
 
 set, and the diamond ring, and plenty of silk 
 dresses, and Horace Munroe thrown into the 
 background, as a ku.d of awkward necessity. 
 Ermiria now is going to marry Mr. Harper be 
 cause tlie houses and the jewels come with him. 
 I guess she is quietly glad whenever she happens 
 to think of them, l>ut it's Mr. Harper anyhow. 
 I recommend you to follow the latter example ; 
 it sounds more like the marriage service." 
 
 " I'm not going to be married at all," said 
 sleepy Grace. " I'm going to stay at home and 
 keep house for father." 
 
 Maria shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " My patience I I pity father," she said, sig 
 nificantly; and the next instant was glad that 
 Grace was too nearly asleep to feel the point of 
 the sentence. Maria was nearly always sorry for 
 her sharp points after she had made them. 
 
 "But I don't see why you can't have a little 
 cake, like decent people," said Helen, returning 
 freshly to the charge after a night's rest. " Who 
 ever heard of a wedding without any wedding 
 cake?" 
 
 " What is the use of ^t ? " Ermina asked, 
 briskly. "If it were to be an evening enter 
 tainment I suppose we should have to have it; 
 but who wants to munch cake at eight o'clock in 
 the morning ? I'm sure I would rather have a 
 potato."
 
 362 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " Such an unearthly hour," murmured Hek'n, 
 in increasing disgust; and Ermina innocently re 
 minded her that it was an hour later than usual. 
 There was little use in discussions ; both Mr. 
 Harper and Ennina seemed to be hopelessly set 
 in their determination to ruffle the family life as 
 little as possible. One little sentence escaped 
 Ermina in conversation with Grace, with whom 
 each sister was more apt to be confidential than 
 with each other. 
 
 " I would have liked a little more of a commo 
 tion, of course. Who wouldn't? It is not in 
 human nature not to want to make a nice time 
 when one is married ; but we had such a dread 
 ful time getting over the expenses of Helen's 
 wedding that I am determined to bring no more 
 debts of that kind. I would rather have baked 
 potatoes and salt for the wedding breakfast than 
 to have father harassed with bills." 
 
 Tom was dressing for the wedding, though 
 Helen disdainfully said she saw no use in 
 dressing they might as well wear their calico 
 wrappers; but they didn't instead they put 
 on their best dresses,.and the table looked fresh 
 and pretty, with no cake but doughnuts, but de 
 licious coffee to drink with them. Tom needed 
 assistance in the matter of a button and was 
 glad to find Maria at liberty for a minute to sew 
 it on. During the operation he laughed outright
 
 A New Start. 363 
 
 at bis own thoughts, and then proceeded to ex 
 plain. 
 
 " One of my brother drivers came to me last 
 night for a confidential chat. I wish you could 
 have seen his puzzled and important face. He 
 is that Jerry that you think is so good-natured. 
 What do you think he wanted ? " 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know. This button has split 
 in two, Tom." 
 
 " Well, here's another. I couldn't imagine 
 what he was coming at. He called me aside and 
 looked so important. He begged my pardon for 
 troubling me they are all remarkably polite to 
 me and he said that four or five of them had 
 been having a time with their washerwoman 
 because she didn't use starch enough. They're 
 wonderfully particular fellows on Sunday. She 
 ironed in wrinkles, too, he said; and then, after 
 considerable stammering, he managed to get out 
 that a number of them had been talking over the 
 immaculateness of my linen, and had decided to 
 get me to negotiate with my washerwoman, who 
 ever she was, to see if she would do their work. 
 The poor fellow was utterly crestfallen when I 
 told him that my laundress was my sister." 
 
 " They are letting that coffee boil over. I 
 smell it ! " was Maria's lucid .reply. " I knew 
 something would happen if I came away. Is 
 that all you want, Tom ? "
 
 864 Household Puzzles. 
 
 " All right much obliged ; " and Maria went 
 back to the breakfast. 
 
 " A rich brother-in-law is a very fine thing to 
 have, but you can't eat him, nor make clothes 
 out of him; so the summing up of the whole 
 matter is, that I must find something to do that 
 will help support the family ; and, Helen, you 
 will have to keep house and do the cookiug." 
 Of course it was Maria who said this. 
 
 *' I'm sure I'm willing," Helen said, drearily. 
 "Only I can't imagine what you will do." 
 
 " I'll do something" Maria said, determination 
 in her face and voice. 
 
 Something besides a wedding had come to the 
 family. Only the day after Ermina left them, 
 Mr. Randolph, going to his office as usual, look 
 ing not paler nor more feeble than usual, so far 
 as they could see, came from there an hour after 
 ward in the carriage of his employer ; was sup 
 ported on the arm of a brother clerk to his 
 room ; he had fainted at his post. " Nothing 
 serious, I trust," the young man said, reas 
 suringly; and the daughters hoped it wasn't, 
 and told each other that he had been unusually 
 fatigued and excited during the preparation for 
 Ermina's departure ; he needed rest ; to-morrow 
 he would be better. But to-morrow came, and 
 to-morrow, and after a good many to-morrows 
 bad passed they began gradually to realize that
 
 A New Start. 865 
 
 he would not go to the old seat in the counting- 
 room again. So there was Grace's salary in the 
 store and Tom's wages as a street-car driver to 
 support the family ! No wonder that even Helen 
 awakened to the necessity of doing something. 
 But what was it to be? Several days were 
 spent in fruitless search ; and it was after one 
 of those days, when Mr. Randolph's cough had 
 been more distressing than usual, that Maria in a 
 mood half way between apathy and despair, 
 washed the dishes by the light of a smoking 
 kerosene lamp. It needed a new burner, but 
 they were too poor to afford one. She was alone 
 in the kitchen ; Grace had returned to the 
 store, and Helen was resting on the lounge in 
 the sitting-room after the wearying duties of the 
 day, for Maria had been out all the afternoon en 
 gaged in her unsuccessful search for emploj^ment, 
 and Helen had done the kitchen work with what 
 patience and skill she could command for the 
 occasion. Tom, in the woodshed, was whistling 
 softly, and the tune he whistled suggested the 
 familiar words, 
 
 " Thus far the Lord has led me on, 
 Thus far Ids power prolongs my days, 
 And every evening shall make known 
 Some fresh memorial of his grace." 
 
 Presently the whistling broke into actual 
 words, and he sang, 
 
 " Much of my time has run to waste."
 
 366 Household Puzzles. 
 
 Then he pushed open the kitchen door, with hia 
 arms full of kindlings. 
 
 "There is no truer line than that," he stopped 
 his singing to say to Maria ; " and yet, isn't it a 
 queer world? I'm actually trying now, with all 
 my might, to redeem the time. My work is 
 honest, and I'm trying to be faithful ; and I 
 overheard Judge Morris tell his son Charlie 
 who used to be my chum, you know that he 
 was afraid I had gone to the dogs ; that I was 
 actually a street-car driver I " 
 
 "The rest of my time is likely to 'run to 
 waste,'" Maria said, dwelling moodily on the 
 line quoted. Then she roused herself to re 
 spond to his remark. " I shouldn't care what 
 Judge Morris thought, or his son Charlie either. 
 I presume they considered you all right while 
 you were a gentleman of leisure. Tom, how 
 came you ever to decide to take that work to 
 do?" 
 
 " Well," said Tom, speaking reflectively, and 
 d?pc'siting his kindlings in the box as he spoke, 
 " indirectly, Peter Armstrong had as much to do 
 with it as any one. You don't know, perhaps, 
 what a queer fashion he has of reading the 
 Bible ? He discovered that there was a Peter 
 /u it, and he ' hunted him up,' as he says, and 
 read about him ; sometimes lives a week on an 
 idea of Peter Bible's; -sometimes it is a month
 
 A New Start. 367 
 
 before he takes up a new item. I have been 
 immensely interested in his system. Now you 
 know it is only a little while since I started out 
 on a new plan of living, and something suggest 
 ed to my mind the determination to be a ' what 
 soever' Christian." 
 
 " A what ? " said puzzled Maria. 
 
 " A ' whatsoever' Christian. I'm afraid I 
 should have shrunken from it if I had compre 
 hended in what ways it would lead me. I have 
 been amazed a good many times already. Well, 
 one morning the verse proved to be, ' Whatsoev 
 er thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' 
 It was after I had spent some weeks in looking 
 for work, and that very morning I had not been 
 away from the house ten minutes when I heard, 
 in a curious sort of way, that they were having 
 trouble with the car drivers dismissed several. 
 ' Whatsoever thy hand findeth,' said I to myself. 
 4 My patience,' said I. Why, I didn't think it 
 would set me to driving car horses ! But it was 
 the only ' whatsoever' that appeared to me that 
 day, and by night I had decided it. I have not 
 been sorry," said Tom, taking off his hat and 
 brushing the thick hair from his forehead. " In 
 fact, I think I can say I am glad, though the 
 position has not been a particularly pleasant 
 one." 
 
 " It's a queer idea," Maria said, with a short,
 
 368 Household Puzzles. 
 
 little laugh ; " but I think there is a good deal 
 more energy than religion about it. I like that 
 sort of motto." 
 
 " Adopt it," said Tom, eagerly. " I wish you 
 would. I think you would like it; and I'm 
 sure I would like the way in which it would 
 lead me." 
 
 " I wouldn't be afraid of that," Maria said, 
 loftily. "I'm no shirk. I wouldn't be a bit 
 afraid to live out all the * whatsoevers ' in the 
 world." 
 
 " Then try it," Tom said, with increasing 
 earnestness. "Will you? I haven't the least 
 doubt of your ultimate success if you undertake 
 it. Come, will you pledge yourself? " 
 
 " Why, I presume I've always done it. I 
 know I've done with my might whatsoever I 
 had to do." 
 
 " That isn't the first one," Tom said, signifi 
 cantly. Then he went back to get more kind 
 lings. When the dishes were done and the 
 kitchen in order Maria went to the window and 
 looked out into the moonlight, folding her arras 
 on the window seat and staring out without see 
 ing moonlight, or stars, or anything else but hei 
 own thoughts. 
 
 " Tom," she said, suddenly, as that person 
 came in again, this time with a pail of water. 
 " Have those men Jerry, and those others you
 
 A New Start. 869 
 
 told me of found a washerwoman to their 
 mind yet ? " 
 
 " No," said Tom, laughing. " Isn't it queer 
 that they should be so particular ? They keep 
 in a continual growl. That Jerry is engaged to 
 be married, they say ; and I presume that is 
 why he wants such shining linen. Mine shine? 
 beautifully, they say." 
 
 " Well, Tom, I'm going to put your ' whatso 
 ever ' straight into practice. You tell them, 
 to-morrow morning, that I will do their washing 
 for them. This is Friday evening. I'll begin 
 next week, and you can keep on the lookout for 
 some more people who want washing done." 
 
 Tom set his pail down so heedlessly that the 
 water splashed over himself and the floor. 
 
 *' You can't mean it ! " he said, regarding her 
 with an incredulous stare. 
 
 " Yes, I can. I'll show you if I don't. I can 
 buy soap and starch, and we are obliged to keep 
 fire ; and washing clothes at seventy-five cents a 
 dozen isn't unprofitable business. Besides, I 
 can't find anything else to do. If it isn't a 
 4 whatsoever,' I don't know what you would call 
 it." 
 
 " Well," said Tom, after regarding her 
 speechlessly for a few minutes, "I don't know 
 but it is. It is one that requires father more 
 moral courage than car driving, I believe.; and
 
 870 Household Puzzles. 
 
 it only goes to prove to me that if you should 
 take up that motto you wtnild carry it out with 
 power. But, Maria, I tell you, you have 
 skipped several. I wish you would begin at the 
 beginning." 
 
 "Well, I will," said Maria, energetically. 
 "I'm not afraid of it. I've always believed that 
 genuine religion that which accomplishes the 
 work in this world was just doing with energy 
 what was set before one to do. I'm willing to 
 try it. I haven't the least idea what they say ; 
 but I'm not afraid of them. Shall I take them 
 as they come?" 
 
 " That is the way I am doing," said Tom, 
 with shining eyes. 
 
 "Very well. You say you are a 'whatsoever' 
 Christian. I'll be a 'whatsoever' woman; and 
 we'll see how far apart we'll keep. I'll look up 
 the first one as soon as I have time."
 
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