...... Jl .. * * * *
 
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 ONtVimiTYOI 
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 Each volume $i oo. 
 
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 The "Little Pansy Series," 10 volumes. Boards, {3 oo. Cloth #4 oo.
 
 Don t you know I always mean what I say ? " Page 154.
 
 THE POCKET MEASURE. 
 
 BY 
 
 PANSY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ESTER RIED," "FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA," 
 
 "THE CHAUTAUQUA GIRLS AT HOME," "LINKS IN 
 
 REBECCA S LIFE," " RUTH ERSKINE S CROSSES," 
 
 " A NEW GRAFT ON THE FAMILY 
 
 TREE," &C, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 D. LOTHROP & COMPANY, 
 
 FRANKLIN ST., CORNER OF HAWLEY.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1881, 
 BY D. LOTHROP & COMPANY.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 i. THE SUM TOTAL. . 7 
 
 2. THEIR JEWELS 24 
 
 3. CAKE AND BENEVOLENCE ... 43 
 
 4. CAKE MATHEMATICALLY CONSIDERED. 62 
 
 5. INTERROGATION POINTS ... 80 
 
 6. A SOCIAL PROBLEM .... 97 
 
 7. MEASURING BRAINS AND HEARTS . 114 
 
 8. SUBTLE DISTINCTIONS . . . . 131 
 
 9. "YET LACKEST THOU " . . . 150 
 10 THEY MEASURING THEMSELVES BY THEM 
 SELVES ARE NOT WISE . . . 1 68 
 
 ii. PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR . 185 
 
 12. CONFLICTING DUTIES . ... 203 
 
 13. SEED SOWN ON THORNY GROUND . 219 
 
 14. A PROBLEM 235 
 
 15. MEASURING CHARACTER . . . 252 
 
 16. "LAST NIGHT" MEASURED BY DAYLIGHT 269 
 17. AN OPEN DOOR 285 
 
 5
 
 6 Contents. 
 
 18. SERVING CHRIST IN THE KITCHEN . 302 
 
 19. THE ENDS MEET. . . . 320 
 
 20. MEASURED BY TRIAL .... 339 
 
 21. THE ANSWER 358 
 
 22. MEASURING HUMAN INFLUENCE . . 376 
 
 23. MEASURING RESPONSIBILITY. . . 394 
 
 24. MEASURED IN PROSE .... 412 
 
 25. SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY . . . 429 
 
 26. MEASURING ENTHUSIASM . . . 447 
 
 27. MEASURING SACRIFICES . . . 465 
 
 28. THEN AND Now 481 
 
 29. "GOOD MEASURE." , , , . 498
 
 THE POCKET MEASURE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SUM TOTAL. 
 
 T was just a speck of a house only- 
 four rooms all told and those so small 
 that a -housekeeper of the olden time, 
 rich in blankets, and bed and table linen, 
 would have thought of them simply as good- 
 sized closets. A fashionable lady would have 
 been in despair ; I doubt whether she could have 
 found room for her trunks ! Even reasonable, 
 present day housekeepers, with moderate views 
 and small families, would have looked doubt 
 fully about them, and wondered where the sofa 
 would stand, and what could be done about 
 7
 
 8 * The Pocket Measure. 
 
 the large wardrobe, and whether the piano 
 could be gotten in at all. 
 
 But to Mrs. Spafford the house was simply 
 perfect. I do not know that she would have 
 had a door or window in it altered. She had 
 no piano, and no large wardrobe, and the sofa 
 was just a canning little box of a thing, made 
 by Warren, on leisure evenings. There was 
 plenty of room for their furniture ; indeed, there 
 was more room than they needed ; one, the least 
 sunny and the most exposed to northern storms, 
 had been closed and locked, and the key hung 
 on a far-up nail in the upper hall, until such 
 time as they could furnish the room. When 
 they said this they looked at each other and 
 laughed; hardly anything in life seemed more 
 improbable to them than that they should ever 
 have means to furnish that unoccupied room ! 
 The furniture in their bit of a house, though 
 so limited in quantity, had been the subject of 
 much thought and care. Each individual chair, 
 could it have spoken, would have had a history 
 to relate. There were only six chairs. 
 
 " After all what do we need of more ? " 
 Callie had said, putting on a sober face as
 
 The Sum Total. 9 
 
 soon as she could, after the laugh which their 
 leanness had called forth. " There are only 
 two of us, and we can t occupy more than a 
 chair apiece, and it isn t in the least likely that 
 we shall have more than four visitors at a 
 time. Even if we should, they could sit on 
 the sofa." 
 
 " Or the bed," Warren had suggested ; and 
 then the silly young couple laughed again. 
 So four of the prim little chairs had been duly 
 installed in the "parlor," two of them to come 
 out to the dining-room at meal-time ; but on 
 other occasions, when the dining-room became 
 a kitchen and washroom, they would simply be 
 in the way. Those four chairs, with the meek 
 little oval table and the home-made lounge, 
 constituted the furnishing of that parlor. 
 
 " Oh, yes, there was a carpet on the floor, a 
 pretty pattern, small figured, and pleasantly 
 harmonizing colors; not very fine, it is true, 
 but decidedly pretty. Mrs. Callie Spafford had 
 studied over the pattern long enough to drive 
 the impatient carpet clerk nearly to distraction. 
 
 " For an upper hall, ma am ? " he had asked 
 her, civilly enough, when, after long waiting,
 
 10 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 and many thoughtful stoppings from one roll 
 to another, she made the selection, and named 
 the number of yards, astonishing the clerk by 
 the smallness of the cut. 
 
 She had answered him quickly : " Oh, no ! " 
 with heightened color, and then had turned 
 quickly and bent over a roll of stair-carpeting, 
 to hide the laugh in her eyes, and also to avoid 
 looking at Warren, for she knew, by a peculiar 
 little cough which he gave, that he was laugh 
 ing inside. 
 
 " Can I sell you a stair-carpet to-day ? " the 
 watchful clerk had asked her, as he briskly 
 rolled away the chosen carpet, and gave orders 
 concerning it to the cutter. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Mrs. Spafford again, speak 
 ing as quickly as before ; the idea of their buy 
 ing a stair-carpet I And this time they did look 
 at each other and laugh. 
 
 " Two young things just getting read} to 
 play housekeeping," said the clerk to himself 
 and he grew interested and sympathetic ; and 
 carpet clerk though he was, followed them 
 down-stairs, through the many departments of 
 the great store, advising, suggesting, reducing
 
 The Sum Total. 11 
 
 prices whenever it was possible, and as inter 
 ested in all the purchases, as though they had 
 been his friends for a lifetime. He was gray- 
 haired, and he remembered the very morning 
 he went with his wife and helped her buy 
 dishes. He sold dishes on this occasion with 
 great care, and by his timely bits of advice, 
 saved the young couple from several mistakes. 
 So, little by little, had the little house been 
 furnished. Their sleeping-room was guiltless 
 of a carpet ; one had been as much as their 
 purse would allow, and of course that must be 
 given to the parlor; but a bright rug of Gre 
 cian pattern, and of Callie s own make, occu 
 pied the bit of space between the pine-board 
 washstand and the neat little bedstead. These, 
 with the two chairs, filled the room. I have 
 forgotten one article of furniture ; down-stairs 
 in the parlor, over the mantel, there hung one 
 of those old paintings, done in oil, whose sub 
 dued colors and graceful outlines tell the touch 
 of the true artist. So did the eyes those soft, 
 tender, almost speaking eyes which smiled 
 down on you as soon as you entered the door, 
 and turned and followed you, into whatever
 
 12 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 corner of the room you went. A womanly face ; 
 kind and tender and pure, with certain lines 
 about the sweet old mouth that told of quiet 
 firmness and strong resolve, and certain lines 
 in the forehead which indicated that the re 
 solves had been carried into action. A moth 
 erly face ; placid now, but suggesting the sort 
 of rest that comes after one lias gotten above 
 the storms. A rare work of art it was fit 
 to grace the parlors of the wealthiest ; but the 
 original was a rarer work of God, fitted to 
 grace the palace of the King, and she had long 
 since gone to take her place in the "mansion 
 prepared ; " Callie Spafford s mother. A wo 
 man who had lived, and suffered and endured, 
 and come off " more than conqueror through 
 Him that loved" her, and gone away to abide 
 with him forever ; leaving the memory of the 
 strong, true life she had lived, to brood over 
 the little new house where her daughter Callie, 
 with the husband of her choice, were to begin 
 life together. 
 
 They sat down under the shadow of the dear 
 face that first evening in the new home. It 
 had been a busy day, and everything now was
 
 The Sum Total. 13 
 
 reduced to spotless order. The little new tea 
 kettle had been tried, the small, round table 
 had been drawn out, and Gallic had placed on 
 it her finest table-cloth none of the finest, 
 though and they had sipped their tea and 
 eaten their bread and butter, and pretended to 
 pass the cake and sauce to each other, and 
 laughed merrily over the absence of both, and 
 enjoyed to the utmost, this, their first meal 
 alone together. 
 
 They were old married people ; that is, it 
 had been fully three months since they had 
 publicly pledged themselves to each other ! 
 Since which time they had been as busy as 
 bees, getting their new home ready, or getting 
 ready for it ; hemming and hammering of eA r en- 
 ings ; for all day Callie had spent at her duties 
 in the school-room, and the husband stood be 
 hind the desk and worked at his rows of 
 figures ; both husband and wife dreaming of 
 the day when they should begin housekeeping. 
 Now they had begun. They sat in the pretty 
 little parlor it did look wondrously pretty to 
 them, despite its barrenness and watched the 
 play of light and shadow made by the dancing
 
 14 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 flames in the open grate, and talked ; gaily at 
 first, then, as the evening waned, more quietly, 
 of their plans and prospects and hopes; saying 
 nothing, either of them, of any fears. Why 
 should they have fears? They had furnished 
 their house, and bought twenty-five pounds of 
 flour and a bushel of potatoes, and paid a 
 month s rent in advance, and they owed no 
 man anything. 
 
 " There is one thing, Warren, that I want to 
 talk to you about, right away at the beginning 
 of our life," Gallic said, drawing what she 
 called their one extravagance, a small, light 
 rocker, of delicate workmanship, closer to her 
 husband s side; "and that is about our giving." 
 
 " About our giving ! " repeated her husband, 
 with a bewildered air and tone. 
 
 " Yes ; don t jon think we ought to begin 
 right, about that as well as in other things?" 
 
 " Assuredly, little wife ; we want to begin as 
 right as we can ;^ but what do you want to 
 give away, and who needs it ? What are you 
 driving at ? " 
 
 " Why, Warren, I am not speaking about any 
 particular person, you know ; I mean system-
 
 The Sum Total 15 
 
 atic giving; I want to begin as I hope we 
 shall continue, and give regularly to whatever 
 Christian people should support." 
 
 Her husband tried to maintain a becoming 
 gravity. 
 
 " That is a very large desire of your large 
 heart," he said. " Don t you know that Chris 
 tian people should support about a hundred 
 charities, more or less ? " 
 
 " I know," she said, speaking quickly ; " and 
 I know of course, it is very little we can do ; 
 perhaps we can not include them all, but the 
 more prominent ones. We can give just a little 
 to each of those, can t we?" 
 
 "Always provided we have anything to 
 give," he said, speaking lightly; " you are to 
 be provider, you know ; I ll furnish the monthly 
 installments; every penny of it shall go into 
 your hands. I have enough to do with figures 
 for other people, don t want to make any for 
 myself, so I give you leave to contrive and 
 scrimp and twist and turn ourselves and our 
 clothes, and if, at the end of the month, you 
 have a blessed shilling left, which I more than 
 doubt, you shall have my full permission to
 
 16 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 divide it equally on all the benevolences of our 
 Boards." 
 
 The comical side of this idea, which had 
 seemed to grow on him from the beginning of 
 the sentence, finally controlled him entirely, and 
 he closed the sentence with a ringing laugh. 
 
 " I beg your pardon Gallic," he said, at last, 
 seeing that she joined his merriment, only by 
 a quiet little smile. " I began as soberly as a 
 judge, but the fun of the thing got hold of 
 me ; why see here, dear, I believe I shall have 
 to figure a little for your benefit, after all. 
 Now let s put it in black and white. Twelve 
 dollars a month for this little nest, and you 
 know it was impressed upon us that it was 
 ruinously cheap, that is one hundred and forty- 
 four dollars a year to begin with. Now take 
 coal, these grates burn up a good deal, one, 
 two, well mind you, I don t believe it pos 
 sible to get through a year for twenty dollars, 
 but we ll call it that; now suppose we put 
 down our board at six dollars a week, three 
 apiece, you know we cant keep it as low as 
 that, because there will be a friend dropping in, 
 DOW and then, and accidents occurring whereby
 
 The Sum Total. 17 
 
 things will be spilled or spoiled ; oh, I know 
 you are a capital housekeeper; I don t say I 
 expect such things oftener than would occur 
 in any well-regulated family, but it is reason 
 able to expect a few such leaks ; there are fifty- 
 two weeks in the year, but we ll play that we 
 go a-visiting for two weeks, or fast, and call it 
 a round three hundred, without any calcula 
 tion for leakages ; too low, you see ; you would 
 wear yourself into a shadow trying to keep 
 within such figures, but for the sake of the 
 argument we ll put them down. Now, clothes, 
 even wedding ones, will wear out, and dishes 
 will break, and pumps will grow leaky and 
 have to be repaired ; allow a hundred dollars 
 for clothes and repairs, yours and mine, and 
 the pumps, you know ; it wouldn t furnish some 
 of the ladies with one new gown, but it will 
 you. Now, what is the sum ? Just five hun 
 dred and sixty-four dollars, counting out those 
 two weeks that we are to visit I don t know 
 who on earth we ll visit, do you? But when 
 you add to that an estimate for sickness and 
 accident and car-fare I declare I forgot car 
 fare that will be, let me see, up and down,
 
 18 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 morning and evening, eight cents a day, throe 
 hundred and what a pity there are so many 
 days in the year! But then, it is a blessing 
 there are so many Sundays to take out. Eight 
 times three twenty-five dollars as sure as I m 
 a mathematician ! Who would have supposed 
 it? Well, now, my dear benevolent little wo 
 man, when you sum that all up, and add some 
 thing for ten thousand million things that we 
 haven t thought of at all, and that will spring 
 up and insist on being paid for, and substract 
 the amount from the enormous sum total of 
 six hundred dollars, what do you fancy will 
 be left for us to be benevolent on ? " 
 
 During this rapid estimate of their worldly 
 affairs, Gallic had listened intentty, and laughed 
 with her husband over the queer way of put 
 ting things, but when he confronted her with 
 that appalling sum total, she met the laugh 
 in his eyes with an undismayed face, and with 
 no abatement of the earnest look in her steady 
 eyes. 
 
 " That is all very true, I suppose, only my 
 dear husband, I think you began at the wrong 
 end ! "
 
 The Sum Total. 19 
 
 He regarded her with a good-humored in 
 quiry. " If there is any end to begin at that 
 will make this sum total look more inviting, 
 I m ready to be convinced," he said, gayly. 
 
 " Don t you see, dear, that you have planned 
 for the daily living, even to the burnt meats 
 and sour bread, and you have left the duty 
 of giving subject to the accident of having 
 something left after all our wants are supplied. 
 Is that really the way ? " 
 
 Her listener looked more and more bewild 
 ered : 
 
 " Gallic, dear," he said, speaking gravely, 
 "I really have made a very low estimate, 
 and of course there will many expenses occur 
 that we do not think of now; do you see 
 any way that we could plan to avoid any of 
 these ? Or, what have you in mind ; what is 
 it that . you think we ought to do ? " 
 
 "I can tell you just what I would like to 
 do; I have been thinking a good deal about 
 this subject of late, studying about it, and 
 what I should be glad to do would be to 
 begin now, even with our little income, to 
 lay aside one-tenth of it for the Lord."
 
 20 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " One-tenth ! " Not even the solemnity of 
 the conclusion could arrest the unbounded 
 astonishment in his voice. " Why, Gallic, 
 dear, have you thought what you are saying? 
 That would be sixty dollars ! How could we 
 possibly spare it from our income and live ? 
 We must live, you know." 
 
 "I know it, Warren, and the Lord knows 
 it, too ; and 3 r et I believe if we should start 
 out with that determination, and adhere to 
 it closely, he would own and bless the of 
 fering." 
 
 "I don t know, dear; I don t think I have 
 your faith; it seems to me that I ought to 
 provide for my own household first ; isn t there 
 something about a man being worse than a 
 heathen who neglects to do that ? " 
 
 " Oh, Warren ! I don t feel in any danger 
 of starvation ; and I do want to try this way ; 
 it lies very near my heart. I believe it is the 
 right way to do. That one verse has lingered in 
 my mind ever since we were married ever 
 since we planned this little home, and thought 
 of all the delight it would be. I think we 
 can do it ; your estimate of clothing I believe
 
 The Sum Total. 21 
 
 was larger than necessary; I know how to 
 be very economical in my dress." 
 
 "What s the verse, Gallic ?" 
 
 " Oh the verse, it was Jacob s vow : " And 
 of all that , thou shalt give me, I will surely give 
 the tenth unto thee. " 
 
 "Jacob! well if I remember the circum 
 stances he wasn t a very reputable party to 
 imitate ; I never approved of his proceedings 
 about that time, nor for years afterwards." 
 
 " Oh but Warren, you remember how the 
 Lord blessed and prospered him. I believe 
 that one thing that Jacob did was right ; and 
 it is that I want you to imitate, not the other 
 part of his conduct. Warren, I ll tell you, I 
 don t want to influence you unduly in this thing. 
 I should like it very much, and I believe it 
 is the right way, and that we could accom 
 plish it ; of course we could, you know, if 
 it is the right thing for us to do ; but I won t 
 urge it any further. I ll just ask you to kneel 
 down now, while we set up our family altar, 
 and make it a special subject of prayer ; ask 
 the Lord Jesus if he would like to have us 
 give that sixty dollars back to him."
 
 22 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 It seemed to the young husband a very start 
 ling way to put it ; he could have argued some 
 what longer, on logical grounds, but to ask 
 the Lord Jesus what he thought about it was 
 making the thing a tremendously earnest one ; 
 sort of obliging a man to abide by the reply 
 which should be received. Nevertheless, he 
 felt unwilling to say that he was not ready 
 to pray over it ; so they bowed before the Lord 
 for the first time in their new home. It was 
 an earnest prayer that followed. A listener 
 would have felt sure that the young man who 
 prayed was very sincere and would certainly 
 abide by the decision which should be reached. 
 And the tone of the prayer changed gradually 
 from that of inquiry to something very like 
 assurance, so that Gallic was not surprised to 
 hear him say as soon as they arose : 
 
 " We will try it, Gallic, and see whether we 
 can pull through." 
 
 But she promptly shook her head at this. 
 
 " Don t put it in that way, Warren, as if 
 we were willing to try the Lord for a little 
 while, and see whether he would do as he said ; 
 I know you don t mean that, but perhaps it
 
 The Sum Total. 23 
 
 sounds like it to him ; let us take Jacob for 
 our model, for this time at least. I will surely 
 give the tenth unto thee. Let us say it with 
 the surety, very prominent." 
 
 " But Gallic, dear, that is very serious busi 
 ness an absolute promise you know ; it is 
 of the nature of an oath, and I am afraid 
 we are poor." 
 
 To this, his wife made no sort of answer, 
 only stood, with hands clasping his arms, 
 looking up into his face with very grave 
 eyes. A moment of silence, then he laughed. 
 
 "I see precisely how that sounds, Callie, 
 as though I was willing to make a trial of 
 the Lord s service, but unwilling to swing 
 off entirety, without a rope to cling to. 
 Come now, I swing off ; let s repeat it, Callie 
 trusting in strength from Him to make it 
 good." And seizing her hands he clasped 
 them in his own, and raised them in the attitude 
 of prayer, while both voices repeated the 
 words ; " And of all that thou shalt give me, 
 I will surely give the tenth unto thee."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THEIB JEWELS. 
 
 Ants 
 
 MONG Mrs. Callie s wedding presents 
 
 had been an elegant velvet-covered, 
 gold-mounted jewel-case, the gift of one 
 of her school friends. Callie had smiled when 
 she saw it, and speculated as to the amount it 
 had cost, and wondered when she would be 
 likely to possess jewels elegant enough to re 
 pose in such grandeur. The plain gold watch 
 she wore, and the simple pin and cuff-buttons 
 that did dirty every day, comprised the extent 
 of her stock. 
 
 On the very morning after the new covenant 
 relations had been entered into, Callie went, 
 
 with bright eyes, to the clothes-press shelf, 
 
 24
 
 Their Jewels. 25 
 
 1 A 
 
 where, for want of a better place, she had set 
 the beauty, carefully wrapped in many papers, 
 took off its wrappings, turned the tiny golden 
 key, and looked in on the delicate pink cotton 
 reposing there, with intense satisfaction. She 
 had suddenly fallen heir to jewels which she 
 meant should sparkle therein. She took it 
 down-stairs with her and set it on the parlor 
 mantel, while she robed the little dining-table 
 and prepared the morning meal. The tea-ket 
 tle was already singing, and the aroma of coffee 
 and faint odors of delicately browning toast 
 presently fijled the air. It was as complete a 
 little photograph of Eden as Warren Spafford 
 cared to see. So he thought at that moment, 
 as he pushed open the side door, letting in the 
 fresh, morning air, and bearing in either hand 
 a scuttle of coal and a pail of water, that were 
 to save the steps of the presiding genius of 
 Eden during the day. These were fresh 
 healthy young lives, and the prose, which had 
 constantly to interfere, in no way jarred the 
 poetry that they felt sure they were living. 
 
 His wife turned toward him with sparkling 
 eyes.
 
 26 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Oh, Warren, I have such a nice idea ! Isn t 
 this the day your month s salary is due ? r 
 
 " The very day, you small miser ! I expect 
 to bring it home with me this evening. Do 
 you burn to spend it ? " 
 
 " Just as fast as I can," she said, gayly ; 
 " but see here," and she brought out the blue 
 velvet treasure. "Warren, don t you know 
 how we laughed over poor Florrie s gift, and 
 wondered what use we should ever make of 
 it? I have thought of a use. You know that 
 five dollars, the tenth ? Well, could you 
 bring it to me in little bits of gold dollars and 
 let me keep it in here for our jewels ? Then 
 I ll wear the key on my chain, and whenever 
 we want to give, the money will be at hand." 
 
 " Until it is spent," he said, in a tone of in 
 tense amusement. "Five little bits of gold 
 dollars every month ! Our Boards can surely 
 pay off their debts when they hear of it. My 
 dear Gallic, I hadn t the least idea you were 
 so sentimental! Wouldn t it be a great deal 
 more prudent to keep the money in the savings- 
 bank, and draw it as you have need ? " 
 
 "I will be prudent with it. I truly don t
 
 Their Jewels. 27 
 
 think it is a fortune, and I presume the idea 
 is just as silly and unbusiness-like as possible, 
 but I do so like the thought of seeing our 
 little gold offering nestling in that pretty box, 
 and thinking that they are the Lord s jewels, 
 and he will guide the using." 
 
 For a moment her husband was entirely si 
 lent ; then he said, in a low tone : 
 
 " Whether it is sentimentality or not, it 
 moves me strangely ; perhaps we are both sen 
 timental, and perhaps it is, even in -so small a 
 thing, the Lord s leading. We will put the 
 jewels, there, dear, and they shall be his." 
 
 It was the next morning that Mrs. Spafford, 
 having set her small house in completest order, 
 arrayed herself for the street, and then sat 
 down in the parlor, opposite that box wherein 
 she knew gleamed five golden jewels, pencil 
 and paper in hand, prepared to plan her battle 
 with life at forty-five dollars a mouth. 
 
 At her feet sat the small market-basket, in 
 which was to be placed her purchases for the 
 day ; the question to be determined was, what 
 could she afford to buy ? " Let me see," she 
 said, making small, swift figures (she was as
 
 28 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 rapid an accountant, in her way, as her hus 
 band was in his ) ; " thirty-one days in a 
 month ; I mean to count in that way, then I 
 shall have a little surplus for extras when those 
 good months come that have only thirty, and 
 on that blessed February we ll have a real 
 feast!" 
 
 " I entered into a speculation," her husband 
 had explained the night before, when the 
 monthly salary was talked over. " I discovered 
 that by buj r ing a month s car-tickets in advance 
 I could get them for two dollars ; that is a sav 
 ing of eight cents a month, ninety-six cents a 
 year, I want you to understand, and you will 
 have the goodness to give me credit for the 
 same on your day-book ! " 
 
 This sentence, gotten off with many a flour 
 ish, ended in a laugh, in which Gallic joined 
 before she said: 
 
 " Now we can laugh, but really that is worth 
 a good deal ; suppose by careful management 
 we can save a dollar a year on each of our ex 
 penditures, we could keep a savings-bank ac 
 count against the rainy day that people are so 
 fond of getting ready for. I know I have met
 
 Their Jewels. 29 
 
 people who it seemed to me, would rather trust 
 their rainy day fund than the Lord." 
 
 " Keep a bank account by all means, if pos 
 sible," her husband had answered, and he had 
 gone away with a laugh that he did not mean 
 his wife should know covered a little sigh. No 
 one would have liked better than he, to so fill 
 her purse that she should have no need to puzzle 
 her brains about the small economies with 
 which he thought he foresaw her life was to be 
 filled. But she, with serene brow, sat this 
 morning fingering the bills that all told, 
 amounted to forty-three-dollars. 
 
 " Forty-three dollars, to be divided between 
 thirty-one days, gives me one dollar and thirty- 
 eight cents a day, and almost one cent over ; 
 that one cent shall be counted on the savings - 
 bank fund ; I will have one if Warren does 
 laugh at me ; he shall not know anything about 
 it until some dreary day, when the wind is 
 blowing and the rain is driving against the 
 windows, he staggers home and tells me he is 
 on the eve of failure, and I bring out my sav- 
 ings -bank book and show him that the sum 
 exactly meets his awful needs a la dime novel
 
 30 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 style ! " Whereupon she laughed aloud a 
 free, glad laugh, that covered no thought of a 
 sigh ; she even rejoiced that her husband s 
 position, as a mere clerk, saved him from any 
 fear of bankruptcy. Gallic Spafford had that 
 sweet, rare spirit, which knows how to find 
 cause for joy in each of the appointments of 
 life. " Seventy-five cents a day ought to buy 
 our food and the fuel to cook it with ; I wonder 
 if it will ? Dear me ! I am forgetting Warren s 
 lunch down town ! What a pity he has to 
 do that; I could furnish him with a so much 
 nicer one at cheaper rates. Well, twenty- 
 five cents a day for that is seven dollars and 
 seventy-five cents a month. What dreadful 
 creatures figures are ! They go and multiply 
 themselves so unfeelingly before one. Now 
 I just wonder if we could have breakfasts and 
 suppers each day on the fifty cents left? As 
 for my dinner that won t amount to much. 
 Who wants to eat dinners all alone ? I don t 
 mean to starve, and I don t mean to have 
 Warren think anything looks starved, but 
 what is the harm in my experimenting as 
 to what can be done ? I ve wanted to try it
 
 Their Jewels. 31 
 
 ever since I boarded with poor Mrs. Perkins 
 and she gave us tough beef-steak and sour 
 baker s bread, or, at all events, baker s sour 
 bread, at three dollars and a half a week ; 
 and lost money every blessed week. I don t 
 believe a word of it. I mean I don t believe 
 she managed matters as she might, if she 
 hadn t spent so much time weeping over the 
 hardness of her lot. Now, Gallic Spafford, 
 shoulder your market-basket and see what 
 you can do for a hungry family at fifty cents 
 a day ; it shall be that, until further notice 
 at least." 
 
 f Oh, there is Callie Howell ! " a clear 
 voice exclaimed, as the young matron, market- 
 basket in hand, entered the narrow court, 
 which, at that end of the city, served as a 
 market-place. 
 
 The voice belonged to one of the deal- 
 five hundred friends of her maidenhood ; none 
 of them so very dear, yet she was glad to see 
 them all. This one, Jennie West by name, 
 was one with whom she had, perhaps, been 
 least familiar, so far as real friendship goes ;
 
 32 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 but there was a ring of gladness in the voice ; 
 everybody had liked Gallic Howell. 
 
 The brisk young book-keeper, near whom 
 she was standing, was the first to respond : 
 
 " Miss Jennie, I am shocked at your fa 
 miliarity ! Don t you know that is not 
 Gallic Howell at all, but Mrs. Warren 
 Spafford ? " 
 
 "Yes, she is Callie Howell: I am going 
 to forget that she has gone and spoiled our 
 circle by consenting to be an old married 
 woman." 
 
 And, market-place though it was, Miss 
 Jennie, who was perhaps at all times a trifle 
 too loud-voiced, came forward eagerly and 
 bestowed her hearty greetings, even to kisses, 
 upon the little market-woman. 
 
 " A market-basket ! " she said, still speak 
 ing in loud tones. " Do you do your own 
 marketing? How very funny!" 
 
 "Why, who would do it, my child?" the 
 matron said, in nowise discomposed, and she 
 looked at the yellow feet and pink ruffle of 
 a chicken lying near, with the air of a skilled 
 market-woman. " Mr. Spafford has to take the
 
 Their Jewels. 33 
 
 seven o clock car down ; he has little time for 
 family duties. What is poultry worth to-day ? " 
 
 "I d make him get up early, then, and do 
 it all before seven o clock," Miss Jennie inter 
 posed. " Isn t housekeeping horrid, Gallic ? I 
 know all about it ; mother was away for three 
 weeks, and I had all the care of the house ; I 
 thought I should die, certainly ; and things 
 got themselves into the awfullest confusion 
 while she was gone ! Oh, my ! It makes me 
 shiver to think of those three weeks. Mother 
 said she never saw such a house." 
 
 " How much hired help does your mother 
 keep?" queried Mrs. Spafford, with an amused 
 smile. 
 
 " Why, we only keep two girls, and you know 
 we have a large house to look after, and quite 
 a family. It is too much; I wonder that 
 mother doesn t die. It nearly killed me ; now 
 honestly, Callie Ho well, you needn t laugh at 
 me ; you always did laugh at me, you know ; 
 I was completely worn out, and had to come 
 up here to rest. Mrs. Evans is trying to 
 nurse me up. Do you know Mrs. Evans? 
 You ought to, she belongs right here in your
 
 34 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 neighborhood. Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Spafford ; she 
 is my dearest friend, Callie, or she used to 
 be before she was so foolish as to get married, 
 and wear her life out with house-keeping ! 
 How you girls can do it is beyond me ! " 
 
 "I don t believe we feel in the least like 
 martyrs," Mrs. Spafford said, laughing, as she 
 acknowledged this public introduction by a 
 cordial clasp of the hand. 
 
 The slight, fair-faced woman, with a some 
 what perplexed face and unnaturally flushed 
 cheeks, was the same who had attracted her ad 
 miring attention in church the Sabbath before. 
 The market-place was an unpleasantly public 
 one in which to form new acquaintances, but 
 very little in the way of propriety could be 
 expected from Jennie West, so she accepted the 
 situation; laughing meantime over the thought 
 that the gay young girl, the very picture of 
 blooming health, had come up to be nursed by 
 this fair, frail woman. Meantime Jennie had 
 jumped to an entirely different line of thought. 
 
 " Oh, Eva ! here are strawberries ! Don t 
 they look perfectly lovely? Who would have 
 expected to see them so early? Why, they
 
 Their Jewels. 35 
 
 fairly make my mouth water ! You must have 
 some of them for desert ; they will be delightful 
 with cream and sponge cake. Eva, my dear, 
 attend to business ; don t you see the treasures 
 will all . be gone in a few minutes ? " 
 
 This last, with a touch on the lady s arm, and 
 a pretty affectation of importance, as Mrs. 
 Evans with cheeks heightened in color, ap 
 peared to be absorbed in examining some scaly 
 fish ; meantime the class of customers who are 
 always eager for things out of season, was sur 
 rounding the strawberries. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford, meantime, seemed to have 
 forgotten her chicken, and was watching Mrs. 
 Evans with thoughtful eyes. She turned at 
 Jennie s peremptory summons, with the flush 
 still deepening and with a hesitating air. 
 
 " I don t know," she said, doubtfully. 
 
 "Well, you will know in a few minutes," 
 with a half-impatient little laugh. " They 
 will all be gone, and that will settle the ques 
 tion for you. Gallic, don t you want a box of 
 these strawberries for your market-basket ? " 
 
 Mrs. Spafford was glad for this question, and 
 answered promptly :
 
 36 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " No, indeed ; I am too wise a house-keeper 
 even to inquire the price. The idea of any 
 but millionnaires buying strawberries at this 
 time of year ! Even then I fancy I could find 
 happier ways of disposing of my money." 
 
 " Oh, you horrid little miser ! You were 
 always saving your pocket-money in school. 
 I thought you would get over that habit when 
 you took a husband to support you." 
 
 Gallic paid no attention to this sentence, 
 though the tone was so loud that ordinarily 
 it would have annoyed her, on the score of 
 good breeding. She was engaged in watching 
 the effect of her words on Mrs. Evans, and 
 was glad to see a little letting up of the look 
 of pained perplexity, and to hear her answer 
 her gay tormentor s next appeal with some 
 thing like decision. 
 
 "I believe, Jennie, the strawberries are too 
 expensive for my purse to-day. I didn t get 
 enough money from Dane for any special extras 
 this morning." 
 
 " Oh, you horrid housekeepers I " said Jen 
 nie, with a becoming little pout. " What a 
 prosy life you must live, counting the pennies
 
 Their Jewels. 37 
 
 and asking your husbands whenever you want 
 even a strawberry ! I wouldn t be in your 
 shoes for the world ! " 
 
 " It is well you are a privileged person, 
 Jennie," Mrs. Spafford answered her laughing. 
 
 For herself, she was as indifferent as pos 
 sible to what the saucy, foolish tongue might 
 say ; but it was evident that Mrs. Evans winced 
 under it. She looked worn and harrassed ; and 
 Gallic, as she watched her, felt an unaccount 
 able pity stealing into her heart for the pale 
 woman, and made a sudden resolve to shield 
 her further, if necessary, from Jennie s attacks. 
 " Perhaps she hasn t made a pencil and paper 
 calculation this morning as to what she will 
 spend and what she won t, and so feels weak." 
 This she told herself by way of excusing her 
 championship, and then plunged boldly in. 
 
 " Isn t poultry unaccountably high this morn 
 ing? I was going to indulge in a nice little 
 chicken for our dinner to-night, but really I can t 
 afford it much better than the strawberries. 
 You see," with a bright little smile, "although 
 I have been keeping house for myself but one 
 day, I am, nevertheless, a practical housekeeper,
 
 38 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 and I don t like to waste money on extravagant 
 purchases. I don t believe 1 should if I had 
 the money to spend, which 1 hav n t." 
 
 Mrs. Evans regarded her with a sudden ac 
 cession of interest. 
 
 "Are you really a practical housekeeper?" 
 she asked. "I wish I were. I have been keep 
 ing house for three months, but I didn t know 
 anything about it when I commenced, and I 
 don t seem to have learned a great deal. How 
 did you learn ? " 
 
 " Mother arid I kept house together for ten 
 years. I was a school-girl most of the time, 
 and a teacher during the last two years; but 
 still I was my mother s market-woman, confi 
 dential clerk, and, a good deal of the time, her 
 cook and table waiter ; so I learned all about 
 it. My mother was a wonderful teacher." 
 
 " And does your mother live with you now ? " 
 
 A swift, tender shadow passed over the bright 
 face, and the voice dropped lower. 
 
 "She went away to her home a little more 
 than a year ago." 
 
 Mrs. Evans reached forth her hand and laid 
 it impulsively on Callie s.
 
 Their Jewels. 39 
 
 " My mother died nearly two years ago, but 
 I miss her so ! " 
 
 There was a real heart-cry in the sentence. 
 
 Jennie s loud voice recalled them to prac 
 tical life. 
 
 "Come, you two are sentimentalizing, I 
 believe, and the result will be you will neither 
 of you have anything for dinner, unless I help. 
 After all, I believe I would make a better 
 housekeeper than either of you. Will Cole- 
 man, can t you come here and figure out the 
 respective dinners of these two matrons ? They 
 are in danger of starving unless some judicious 
 person comes to their aid." 
 
 Thus challenged, the young book-keeper got 
 down from his perch, came over and shook 
 hands with Mrs. Spafford, and chatted with 
 Jennie. He was a recent importation to that 
 end of the city, from the main store down 
 town ; he had known Gallic Howell in their 
 set as a teacher, and he had the same feeling of 
 hearty respect for her that she had always 
 inspired. He did not feel sufficiently intimate 
 with her to suggest her bill of fare ; still he 
 was in no sense averse to a chat with Miss
 
 40 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Jennie. Truth to tell, he had been no unin 
 terested listener to the queer snatches of con 
 versation that had been going on. He was a 
 rapid accountant, and, if Miss Jennie had but 
 known it, a good deal of mental arithmetic 
 had been gotten through with during the five 
 minutes. He had speculated as to the prob 
 able amount of Warren Spafford s salary, the 
 probable house rent he paid, the possible 
 cost of living with such a manager as Gallic 
 Howell at the head of affairs, all the while 
 giving certain thoughtful glances toward Miss 
 Jennie, that showed whither his hopes were 
 tending ; and then, as she acknowledged her 
 dislike for the cares of housekeeping, her ig 
 norance of details, and exhibited her utter 
 disregard for small economies, not to say her 
 contempt for the same, he had drawn a little 
 sigh and plunged into the column of figures 
 before him. Still, he liked to get down from 
 his stool and come and talk with Miss Jennie. 
 He liked also, to think that she was a friend 
 of Gallic Spafford. That lady, meantime, had 
 really not been idle. She had given certain 
 swift glances up and down the rows of eat-
 
 Their Jewels. 41 
 
 ables, made her mental calculation, determined 
 what she could have and what she couldn t, 
 and was now prepared to act accordingly. 
 
 " Is the poultry very high ? " questioned 
 Mrs. Evans, in a sudden confidential whisper. 
 "I think Jennie is fond of it." 
 
 " Ruinously high, and not very good at that." 
 If Jennie were my guest, she would have to 
 wait for prices to lower." 
 
 "That is true," she added, brightly, as 
 Jennie caught the sentence and shook her 
 pretty, curly head. 
 
 " Spoil all my plans," said Jennie, with 
 another pretty affectation of a pout, while Mrs. 
 Evans looked in admiring awe at her new 
 friend for daring to avow her economies so 
 boldly. Then, Jennie, with a sudden, bright 
 smile, " if you ll buy some of that asparagus 
 I ll desert Eva altogether and go home with 
 you to dinner." 
 
 Mrs. Evans blushed crimson in deprecation 
 of her friend s rudeness, but Callie promptly 
 shook her head. 
 
 " Your tastes are simply ruinous," she said 
 gaily. "Not even for the pleasure of having
 
 42 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 you to lunch with me can I be guilty of such 
 treason. You see I held a conference with 
 my purse before I started from home this 
 morning, and I know exactly what amount 
 I can spend to-day; and it won t include 
 chicken or asparagus or strawberries." 
 
 "Asparagus is good for digestion," said 
 Jennie, pouting. 
 
 "So is a clear conscience," laughed Callie, 
 and the trio separated.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CAKE AND BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 RS. Evans stirred her coffee with an 
 irresolute air, occasionally studying 
 that portion of her husband s face which 
 could be seen from behind the morning 
 paper. She had that to say to him which 
 always made his face grow more or less 
 gloomy: she was trying to decide whether 
 this was a propitious time, though daily 
 growing more doubtful as to whether there 
 would ever be a propitious time for like topics. 
 Presently determining that, whether safe or 
 not, it must be done, she entered her hesitating 
 interruption : 
 
 " Dane, if you have a few minutes for me, 
 43
 
 44 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 this morning, I would like to talk with 
 you." 
 
 The paper dropped promptly, and the 
 husband waited, courteously enough, but in 
 silence, and with a face that told of habitual 
 perplexity in some direction, perhaps in many. 
 
 " I think I shall be obliged to have a little 
 more money to-day ; that is, if we bake for 
 the festival. The ladies are going around 
 this afternoon to see what each one will do, 
 and I suppose I shall have to say what our 
 part will be." 
 
 " I thought they hadn t decided yet whether 
 to have a festival or not." 
 
 " Well, it isn t quite decided ; that is part 
 of the work of the committee, this afternoon, 
 to see whether the people approve of the 
 festival, and, if so, what they will give to 
 ward it." 
 
 " Then if I were you I would say I didn t 
 approve. I m sure I don t. The whole thing 
 is a first-class nuisance from beginning to end. 
 I never approved of that way of doing business, 
 and I don t change my opinion as I grow 
 older."
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 45 
 
 And the husband, who could not have 
 been more than thirty at the utmost, albeit 
 he talked so wisely about "growing older," 
 drank his coffee almost scalding hot, and 
 ate his steak and baked potato rapidly, with 
 a gloomy face. 
 
 Yes, but, Dane, I don t suppose our 
 opinion will be asked; in fact, they have 
 taken it for granted that we are in sym 
 pathy with them ; I am on this very com 
 mittee for soliciting this afternoon." 
 
 * I wouldn t have served ; of all hateful 
 business that a woman can do, I should 
 think that would be the meanest. Talk 
 about drudgery ! Td rather drudge at the 
 wash-tub all day if I were a woman than to 
 tramp all day through dirty streets, stopping 
 at people s houses, begging them to give ! 
 I shouldn t say you were suited to that 
 sort of work." 
 
 Mrs. Evans checked a troubled little sigh, 
 and tried to smile, as she said : 
 
 " Oh, well, I don t suppose I will need to 
 say much ; I am just chosen for company. 
 Mrs. Bacon is to go with me; or, rather, I
 
 46 The Pocket Measure^ 
 
 am to go with her. She is a good solicitor 
 they say." 
 
 The gloomy-faced husband sneered. " I 
 should think very likely she would be ; she 
 has just about impudence enough for such 
 work. Well, now, Mr. Evans, she says 
 to me, don t you really think you ought 
 to do a little more, for the sake of the cause ? 
 For the sake of the fiddlestick ! As if a man 
 didn t know his own business, without having 
 Mrs. Bacon trot after him to tell him of it. 
 She cares about as much for the cause, as 
 her yellow-haired poodle does. I wish, if 
 they must put you in such disagreeable po 
 sitions, they would at least send you out with 
 a woman who has common -sense. It is 
 wretched poor policy in them to send her, if 
 people are any like me ; I always give at 
 least twenty-five cents less than I would if 
 anybody else asked me. How came they to 
 choose you, almost a stranger, for such work ? 
 Wasn t there anybody else willing to be im 
 posed upon?" 
 
 This time Mrs. Evans sigh was not sup 
 pressed.
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 47 
 
 "I hardly knew how to refuse," she said 
 at length, hesitatingly. " They knew I had 
 very little to do ; in fact, they mentioned me 
 as one who had leisure, and I thought perhaps 
 I might help a little in that way ; I always 
 used to help at* home, in whatever way I 
 could." 
 
 " Help ! " Mr. Evans voice was getting 
 into a regular growl. " Who are you helping, 
 pray? Don t get into the habit of talking 
 that nonsense about the good of the cause, 
 That will do for idiots like Mrs. Bacon to 
 peep. I wish to goodness there was a church 
 to be found that didn t undertake to pay its 
 honest debts with cake ! I believe I d move to 
 morrow and go into its vicinity. I m tired 
 of this eternal begging to get stuff to put 
 into people s stomachs, and let them call it 
 benevolence. I would t have anything to do 
 with it, Eva, if I were you." 
 
 Mrs. Evans naturally pale cheeks were 
 a deep crimson now. She protested earn 
 estly : 
 
 " But, Dane, how can I help it ? We belong 
 to this congregation, and I, at least, am pledged
 
 48 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 to do what I can for its support. I thought 
 you wanted me to help in any way that I 
 could, and I really didn t see how to refuse." 
 
 There was a little quiver in her voice, 
 such as always subdued the tendency to growl 
 in her husband s. He drank his coffee more 
 slowly. 
 
 " Oh, of course," he said at last. " I sup 
 pose 3 r ou are in for it. I m not blaming you 
 Eva, you understand ; but I hate the system, 
 all the same. So do all honest men; that is 
 the reason I hate to see you mixed up with 
 it, in the name of a church, tooJ Well, how 
 much money must you have ? " 
 
 This question set Mrs. Evans to cutting 
 her steak, nervously, into little bits. 
 
 "I don t know just how much money it 
 takes to make cake, Dane. But we are out 
 of sugar, and the butter will not last, if I 
 have it . used for cake, too. Then I shall 
 need eggs and raisins, I suppose, or flavoring 
 of some sort. I never calculated the price 
 of cake, Dane ; I just used to go down to the 
 kitchen and weigh out whatever materials I 
 needed and make my cake, without any re-
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 49 
 
 gurd to expense, so I don t know how to 
 plan." 
 
 " I wish women ever did sit down and 
 calculate the expense of cake. They would 
 discover that it is an awfully extravagant way 
 to be benevolent; but, Eva, how does it 
 happen that we are out of sugar again? It 
 can t be two weeks since I sent up that great 
 box full!" 
 
 The fair blue eyes were swimming in tears, 
 and the wife s voice was half choked as she 
 answered ; 
 
 " I m sure I don t know. Kate seems to 
 be careful with the sugar ; but we have been 
 using a good deal of fruit lately, you know, 
 since Jennie was here, and puddings and 
 custards take a great deal, it seems ; I never 
 used to think so, but, they do. I have really 
 tried Dane, to look after it, and be as care 
 ful as possible; but the sugar goes in spite 
 of me. I m almost discouraged." 
 
 " Poor little mouse ! " with an attempt at 
 a laugh. "So you can t keep track of the 
 sugar, eh ? I have a suspicion that your 
 husband s fondness for apples baked in sugar
 
 50 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 may account for some of it. Besides, ants 
 sometimes make havoc with sugar, you know ; 
 this time I think it is cousins. I never could 
 quite understand how Jennie West happened 
 to be your cousin ! I m glad it is two removes ; 
 third cousin isn t she ? " 
 
 "Second," Mrs. Evans answered, meekly. 
 She knew her husband was not fond of Jennie. 
 
 " Well, I wish you could teach her a few 
 lessons in common politenes. I never supposed 
 it was etiquette for a guest to arrange the 
 bill of fare. When is she coming back ? " 
 
 "Not until next week. Shall I make two 
 cakes, Dane, or would you say you could 
 only furnish one ? " 
 
 " Oh, I suppose you will have to do what 
 the rest do. If they say two, we say two ; 
 that s the benevolence of it. But, now seriously, 
 Eva, this matter must be carefully considered. 
 I have a pretty good salary, you know so 
 called and there are only two of us, and 
 yet we are running behind all the time. We 
 went to housekeeping, you remember, to 
 save money, and we are spending it as fast 
 again as when we were boarding. In fact,
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 51 
 
 we are spending more than I get; running 
 in debt, you understand, and nothing to pay 
 it with, unless we begin to save, somewhere. 
 I don t understand these things, but I suppose 
 you women do, and it will have to be looked 
 into closely. Kate wastes, I presume all girls 
 do. At least that is what Will Coleman 
 says his mother says. Will by the way, is 
 wonderfully interested in the expenses of house 
 keeping. I told him it was ten times cheaper 
 to board. Now my dear, I hate this whole 
 business; I d like to feed you on fruit-cake 
 and dress you in silk velvet if I could, but 
 you see the trouble is we can t do what we 
 can t ; either for ourselves, or for others. This 
 cake matter must be attended to now, I sup 
 pose, but when we have a little time we must 
 talk it over, and see if we can t think our 
 way out, before another festival or fair or some 
 thing of the sort pounces down on us. As 
 to money, I haven t but two dollars to my 
 name. I ll give you one of them and send 
 up the sugar and eggs from Bacon s. I ll tell 
 him to charge them to benevolence ! There 
 comes my confounded car. We .must contrive
 
 52 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 to get around earlier in the mornings. Mind, 
 I m not blaming you, wifie ; you do your 
 best, I dare say. I must go this minute," 
 and he bent over her with a hasty farewell 
 kiss, and strode through the dinning-room in 
 haste, whistled the already passed car, and was 
 off for the day. 
 
 Mrs. Evans sat still where he had left her ; 
 stirring the fast cooling coffee, pushed her 
 fork into the untasted bits of steak, and drew 
 it out again, and presently arose from her 
 uneaten breakfast, touched her little silver 
 call-bell for Kate, aud walked away to the 
 sitting-room, before she came, to hide the 
 flushed face and tearful eyes. There were 
 unmistakable tears in the eyes now. It seemed 
 to her that she had reached the extreme limit 
 of endurance in this matter. It was all so 
 different from what she in her girlhood days 
 had planned. She had been one of those petted 
 only daughters in a beautiful home. Father 
 and mother had vied with each other in sur 
 rounding her life with sunlight. Her tastes 
 had been comparatively simple, her ideas quiet ; 
 therefore she had not needed what people of
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 53 
 
 wealth would call large sums of money with 
 which to carry out her plans. So to her mind 
 money had always been plenty ; she had only 
 to ask for what she wanted, and it was invari 
 ably forthcoming ; given with a smile and a 
 kiss. Her father was not wealthy, he was 
 simply well-to-do; but even this she did not 
 know. He might be very rich for all she 
 thought about it, he certainly was not poor. 
 It was with her in all her relations in life 
 exactly as she had explained about the cake : 
 when she had wanted to do anything she 
 did it, asking no questions, giving no thought, 
 as to expense. She had been benevolent in 
 a sense ; that is, she had taken her place in 
 the church work ; not as a leader, she was not 
 destined by nature for a leader, and she had 
 not grace enough to assume the position, but 
 when the fairs or festivals or benevolent as 
 sociations of any sort sprang into periodical 
 activity, and the managers thereof talked 
 " cake," and " cream," and " oysters," or 
 " tidies," and " pin-cushions," and " toilet- 
 sets," as a way out of debt or into opulence, 
 she unhesitatingly and sweetly bore her share
 
 54 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 of the burden ; indeed, hers was apt to be 
 among the first voices to sa} r : 
 
 " I will make cake ; " or, " We can furnish 
 cream at our house ; " or, " You can use our 
 parlors." All these things were pleasant to 
 her ; were in no sense sacrifices ; were done 
 spontaneously. Giving, as a matter of principle, 
 she knew nothing about; and yet, like so many 
 others, she thought she knew all about it. 
 
 Less than two years before this day of which 
 I am telling you, the pleasant thread of life 
 that had unraveled so smoothly before her 
 suddenly snapped asunder ; at least one of the 
 main strands gave out, without word of warn 
 ing. In the morning the father went awa}-, 
 kissing his wife, kissing his daughter as usual 
 in the evening he lay cold and silent in his 
 parlor, never again to be a living presence 
 there ! From this shock the gentle mother 
 never rallied, but sank almost immediately into 
 a state of invalidism ; nurtured and lovingly 
 thought of day and night by the daughter, 
 whose purse opened lavishly, as usual, to supply 
 her needs, until one morning she awoke rudely 
 to the frightful fact that the money was gone !
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 55 
 
 The well-to-do man of business had been, 
 like many another, living beyond his means, 
 and had left nothing but five hundred dollars 
 in cash for his wife and child to live on. Even 
 the pretty home that had been theirs ever since 
 the daughter was born went to pay the out 
 standing debts. As for the five hundred dol 
 lars, it melted away like snow in spring-time, 
 the daughter had not the slightest idea where ; 
 she had never been taught to manage money. 
 Of one thing she was glad, at least she came 
 to be glad, after the first stunning sense of 
 grief was over, that her mother had no need 
 to know of this later blow ; she sank away out 
 of life sooner than any had feared soon 
 enough to fondly suppose that she left her 
 daughter mistress of the home and with plenty 
 of money at her disposal as heretofore ; and 
 there was barely enough to furnish the requi 
 site amount of crepe and pay the enormous 
 bills for carriage hire ! 
 
 All of these sad events, hurrying so rapidly 
 on each other, had in their turn hastened the 
 marriage of the daughter to the enterprising 
 young clerk of the firm of Briggs & Bo wen
 
 56 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 a clerk who was said to be receiving an un 
 usually good salary for a man of his years. 
 And his young wife, if she had thought of it 
 at all, which she didn t, would have imagined 
 a thousand dollars a year to be a small fortune. 
 As for Dane Evans, he was the sort of a young 
 man who knew that it had been amply sufficient 
 for his wants, therefore it would do very well 
 for both of them. 
 
 As soon, then, as the customs of society 
 would admit for I suppose you surmise by 
 this time that these people were both of the 
 class who pay careful attention to the customs 
 of society they were married, and organized 
 their home very much as if they had five thou 
 sand a year to depend upon instead of a 
 thousand. Their first rude awakening was 
 the discovery that the fashionable boarding- 
 house which had been a home to Mr. Evans 
 for five years would not do for the two ; or, 
 in other words, that twenty dollars a week 
 for board, fuel and lights extra, was simply 
 not to be thought of. They went higher 
 not in price, but in stairs and tried sixteen 
 dollars a week, and were appalled to discover
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 57 
 
 that even this painful reduction left them in 
 debt, and their necessities increasing every 
 hour ! What was to be done ? After many 
 talks, and some tears on the wife s part, at 
 least, they concluded to try housekeeping, Eva 
 being sure that it must be cheaper a great deal, 
 for " mamma never had any trouble." At that 
 time her husband was too young and too fond 
 a husband to sneer, but he smiled, and did 
 not remind her that he himself was only a 
 clerk, while her father was at least supposed 
 to be the sole owner of a good business. 
 
 Then began a wearisome round of house hunt 
 ing. Then too did the young couple take their 
 first lesson in " rents." They were amazed and 
 utterly dismayed to discover that the whole 
 salary would not pay for what they were pleased 
 to consider a suitable house, in a decent neigh 
 borhood. They tried other neighborhoods ; they 
 climbed higher and higher toward the limits of 
 the city, and at last found, fully six miles away 
 from the center, the queer little box in which 
 they now lived. That was the husband s name 
 for it, and certainly to them both it was unlike 
 any house of their experience. Yet it was a
 
 58 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 pretty enough house, and even up here the 
 price to be paid was something that made them 
 give doubtful glances at each other. They were 
 growing wiser as to the capabilities of a thou 
 sand dollars a year. Yet not much, else they 
 would never have spent nearly that sum in fur 
 nishing the house. 
 
 The young husband, who had been receiving 
 his salary of a thousand dollars for five years, 
 had in the days of his bachelorhood managed to 
 save a trifle over two hundred a year, and con 
 gratulated himself often upon being a thrifty 
 fellow. He did do better than many a young 
 man of his acquaintance. This thousand, care 
 fully invested as it had been, was drawn out, 
 and furnished the rented house with pretty car 
 pets and delicately upholstered furniture for 
 the parlors and spare chamber. Eva, the wife, 
 was gifted with rare taste in this matter of 
 house furnishing, and if she had not been re 
 stricted in means, could have made the queer 
 little house into a bower of beauty. As it was, 
 she believed herself to have been a martyr 
 she had crucified her tastes in a dozen particu 
 lars. She had studied economy until her fair-
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 59 
 
 face was wrinkled and troubled ; and yet the 
 thousand dollars vanished in the most extra 
 ordinary manner ! Long before the house was 
 completely furnished the means were gone, and, 
 as is usual in such cases, it was the kitchen and 
 the every-day living rooms that had to suffer. 
 Then began a season of daily struggles with 
 kitchen expenses. Sugars, arid teas, and coffees, 
 and oils, and meats, and coal, and all the long, 
 long list of necessities I Poor Eva wrestled 
 with them and tried to plan and save, and was 
 afraid of her girl in the kitchen, and afraid of 
 her pantry, and afraid of her pocket-book, and 
 grew to hate the very name of sugar ; and yet 
 week by week the bills and expenses increased, 
 and her husband s face grew graver, and his 
 tones were growing, occasionally, a trifle sharp 
 even to her ; and she saw no way out of the 
 problem. What was she to do ? Here was this 
 fearful church supper looming up before her. 
 When had she ever shrank from a church sup 
 per before? She hated the very thought of it 
 now, and this thought made her cheeks glow 
 with shame. She hated to have to hate such 
 expenditures. She wanted to give, to be benev-
 
 60 flie Pocket Measure. 
 
 olent, in her narrow understanding of the term. 
 She liked to be able to smile and say, "Oh, 
 certainly," when the cake or coffee question 
 came up. It made her blush like a criminal to 
 think that possibly the time was coming when 
 she really must say, " I can t afford to do thus 
 and so." Her unfortunate education had been 
 that, some way, it was a confession of sin to 
 be obliged to say, " I can t afford it." She was 
 learning through bitter experience to look ahead 
 a little. She had pored over figures enough 
 lately to discover that even going on as they 
 had been (and she could not see how it was 
 possible for them to live on less than they 
 did), would plunge them into debt. She saw 
 that Dane s face was constantly troubled ; that 
 he shrank from any conversation or suggestion 
 that would involve outlay ; that he read the 
 morning paper a great deal for fear she would 
 ask him for money for dinner or to pay Kate ; 
 it seemed to the poor bewildered wife that Kate 
 was always needing to be paid. It made her 
 wince and flush to take the three dollars weekly 
 from her delicate, gold-mounted portmonnaie 
 and bestow it on the great good-natured Ger-
 
 Cake and Benevolence. 61 
 
 man who daily scorched their steak and served 
 them muddy coffee. Every expenditure made 
 her wince! Her second cousin Jennie West, 
 had been like a long nightmare to her, during 
 the ten days of her visit, and she shivered to 
 think of her coming back next week. She rub 
 bed the steam made by her breath from the 
 window-pane with her delicate cambric hand 
 kerchief, then started guiltily to see the soil, 
 and to remember that even that little act had 
 added another item to the weekly wash, which 
 was another of her trials. Church suppers 
 looked like anything but interesting inventions 
 to her, and there was no use to wipe the 
 window-pane, for the tears were falling on it 
 thick and fast.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAKE MATHEMATICALLY CONSIDERED. 
 W 
 
 sr^ 
 
 IE WED from some standpoints, Mrs. Har 
 vey Bacon dressed for a trip to secure 
 contributions with which to carry on a 
 church festival, for the purpose of paying a 
 church debt, was a curiosity. As she waited in 
 Mrs. Evans neat little parlor, casting pleased 
 eyes about her on the taste everywhere dis 
 played, .critical eyes also, for she could tell to 
 the fraction of a dollar the cost of every article, 
 an interested person might have studied her. 
 She was arrayed in the costliest of black silks, 
 carefully made, and more carefully trimmed ; 
 not " fussy " by any means, and, indeed, to an 
 unpracticed eye, I am not sure but it would 
 
 62
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 63 
 
 have been called " very neat and plain." If you 
 have ever heard wise gentlemen discourse on 
 the subject of dress, selecting the individual 
 whom they would like their wives to copy, you 
 are aware that they are apt to select material at 
 four dollars a yard, and lace at seven or eight, 
 and pronounce the toilet " very neat and plain." 
 
 Mrs. Bacon s outer garments matched her 
 dress ; her silk mantle, made in the newest style 
 and trimmed without regard to cost, and her 
 delicate spring hat, with its long plumes and its 
 broad satin ties, were entirely in keeping with 
 each other, and the whole effect was pleasing in 
 the extreme, if viewed by a person who had no 
 occasion to think of dollars and cents in the 
 same connection. She gave Mrs. Evans a swift, 
 critical glance as she came down, ready for the 
 street, and was satisfied. There was nothing in 
 her appearance to make a discord. The dress, 
 it is true, was not so rich, nor the sack and hat 
 so costly, as her own, but they were rich enough 
 to make a very respectable appearance, and 
 were in perfect taste. On the whole, Mrs. Ba 
 con was pleased. 
 
 " I hardly know where to call first," she re-
 
 64 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 marked, as they carefully held their skirts from 
 contact with the spring mud, and crossed the 
 street, preparatory to going down Green Av 
 enue. " I suppose it is not worth while to make 
 any stops on this street, scarcely a person living 
 here is able to contribute anything if they felt 
 ever so much disposed. My dear Mrs. Evans, 
 how came you to locate on this street? The 
 people will be so uncongenial I am afraid ; so 
 unlike what you must have been accustomed to. 
 Don t you find it very lonely ?" 
 
 Mrs. Evans, with pink cheeks, explained that 
 she had done very well during the short time 
 that she had lived there, and met some rather 
 pleasant people. She ignored entirely the ques 
 tion as to the reason for her choice of residence; 
 because she actually had not the moral courage 
 to explain that the lower rents had been the 
 attraction to the street ! 
 
 " I am sorry you live up so far," explained 
 her companion ; " I told Mr. Bacon I couldn t 
 think what your husband meant by isolating 
 you so from us all. Why nearly all our set live 
 down at the lower end of Green Avenue. Such 
 a walk ! And, during the calling hours of the
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 65 
 
 day, there is never a car along at the right time. 
 I had to wait twenty minutes for one to-day. I 
 hope you haven t taken the house for a year, as 
 I ani almost sure you will want to get further 
 down before the season is over." 
 
 In almost trembling haste, Mrs. Evans assured 
 her that they had leased the house for a year. 
 TKe bare thought of incurring the expense of 
 another removal was appalling to her. Then 
 she made haste to change the subject. 
 
 " Mrs. Bacon, have you met Mrs. Spafford ? 
 They have quite recently moved here, I believe, 
 and live nearly two blocks above us. Wouldn t 
 it be well for us to call there before going to the 
 avenue?" 
 
 " Why, would you call there, do you think ? " 
 questioned Mrs. Bacon, stopping near the cor 
 ner, irresolutely. " I have heard of them ; and 
 I am told that they are very poor, indeed. Not 
 even the necessities of life! Sad, isn t it? 
 Who was it told me about them ? Oh, I know ; 
 your cousin, Miss West, was telling me la&t 
 week ; we were walking down town together, 
 and we happened to meet Mrs. Spafford, and I 
 was remarking upon what a fine walk she had
 
 66 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 quite as though she belonged to the cultured 
 portion of society. I understood Miss West 
 that she had known her as a girl, and that she 
 was quite a superior person. What a pity it is 
 that she married so badly ! Do you really think 
 it is worth while to take up our time in calling 
 there ? " 
 
 " Why ! " exclaimed Mrs. Evans, dismay* as 
 well as genuine interest in her tones. " Has she 
 married badly ? I did not know it. Is her hus 
 band dissipated ?" And a vision of the bright 
 face that had beamed on her so hopefully and 
 cheerily in the market, overclouded with bitter 
 sorrow, came upon her, calling forth sympathy. 
 
 " Oh, dear, no. I didn t mean in that sense. 
 He is a very estimable person, I believe. At 
 least I have heard so ; but I really don t know 
 much about him ; but he is only a clerk, I 
 mean," she hastened to explain, catching a sight 
 of the crimson cheeks of the wife of the clerk 
 beside her. " He is a very young clerk indeed, 
 has a subordinate position and a meager salary 
 not a suitable one to marry on, you know ; and 
 really, from what your cousin said, I shouldn t 
 be surprised if we should be called on to help
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 67 
 
 them before long. It is such a pity that people 
 will foolishly throw themselves right into the 
 responsibilities of life. Miss West said she 
 never felt so sorry for any person in her life as 
 she did when she met Mrs. Spafford, one day in 
 the market, struggling to buy something for din 
 ner. She said she had to twist and turn in order 
 to get anything; and that it was really pitiable 
 to see her, for she had been used to better 
 things." 
 
 " Jennie talks at random sometimes," re 
 sponded Mrs. Evans, speaking quickly, and 
 feeling ashamed that her cousin had been guilty 
 of talking over the affairs of one whom she 
 called her friend to a comparative stranger like 
 Mrs. Bacon. What might she not have told 
 that worthy lady about their own affairs hers 
 and Dane s? 
 
 " Well, said Mrs. Bacon , still irresolute, tak 
 ing slow steps forward* " perhaps it would be 
 as well to call on her. People like to be counted 
 in, even when they can t help any ; and, as you 
 say, she may feel hurt if we pass her by." 
 
 Had Mrs. Evans said that ? She could not 
 remember anything of the sort. Mrs. Spafford
 
 68 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 had not impressed her as a woman who would 
 feel hurt over the fancied slights of even Mrs. 
 Bacon. 
 
 " What a perfectly comical little house ! " 
 was the elder lady s exclamation as they passed 
 around the neat grass-plat that led to Mrs. 
 Spafford s door. " It really doesn t look as 
 though there were room for even two children 
 to play at housekeeping. Poor thing! What 
 a doleful time she must have away up here, if 
 she really has any culture." 
 
 The " poor thing " looked very unlike an 
 object of pity. She answered her own bell, 
 appearing at the door in a neat spring suit of 
 delicate design and careful finish, and ushered 
 them into her bit of a parlor, with evident 
 pleasure at the sight of their faces. 
 
 "I. was wondering, only to-day," she said, 
 with a bright look bestowed upon Mrs. Evans, 
 " whether your sense of hospitality would not 
 lead you soon to call on me. Jennie promised 
 to bring you, I remember ; she is not with you 
 now ? " 
 
 While Mrs. Evans explained, the third lady 
 regarded their hostess, with wondering eyes.
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 69 
 
 " Are you intimately acquainted with Miss 
 West ? " she asked as soon as opportunity af 
 forded. 
 
 " Oh, yes, we were intimate in school, after 
 the manner of school-girls, you know. We 
 were in the same classes, and occasionally ap 
 peared as rivals in some of the examinations. 
 I have seen but little of her since. I com 
 menced teaching as soon as I graduated, and 
 Jennie commenced party-going, and, both the 
 occupations proving absorbing, we saw each 
 other rarely." 
 
 "A poor school-ma am, who married for a 
 home," was Mrs. Bacon s mental comment. 
 " Poor thing ; what a dismal little home she 
 has secured ! Though I must say she has done 
 wonders in the way of disposing of her few 
 things. What a curious parlor ornament ! A 
 jewel-case. I wonder if she has any jewels 
 to put in it?" 
 
 The three ladies talked pleasantly together 
 for a little, Mrs. Bacon acknowledging to her 
 self that the unfortunate woman was certainly 
 a person of a good deal of culture, and, finally, 
 since she was proving herself so intelligent,
 
 70 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 she determined to broach the subject of the 
 church festival. 
 
 " Such persons often help a great deal by 
 their executive ability and their skill in setting 
 tables and the like," she told herself, before 
 she launched forth. 
 
 But Mrs. Spafford proved not to be a person 
 easy to explain things to ; she developed into 
 an animated interrogation point, asking ques 
 tions right and left as to what had been done 
 in the past, what was hoped for in the future, 
 what had been the success of others in the 
 same line, and a dozen other embarrassing ques 
 tions. 
 
 " What is the debt ? " she inquired, abruptly, 
 at the close of a long sentence from Mrs. Bacon 
 about " sacrificing for the good of the cause." 
 " What is the amount ? " 
 
 "Why," said Mrs. Bacon, with an embar 
 rassed little laugh, " it is only a hundred dollars, 
 all told ! but you would be surprised to know 
 how long it has hung on us. You see the 
 church is small, and by no means wealthy. 
 In fact, I think there are very few persons in 
 it who can really be said to be wealthy. Mr.
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 71 
 
 Bacon and I are from the Clark Place Church, 
 and you may imagine it is a change to us, but 
 we thought it our duty to cast in our lot here 
 and help along "what we could, though we have 
 never taken our letters from the Clark Place 
 Church, and, of course, have to help there, and 
 can t do so much here ; but we cheerfully give 
 our mites." 
 
 . And she brushed an imaginary particle of 
 dust complacently from the rich silk, and 
 looked the picture of serene benevolence, wait 
 ing for Mrs. Spafford to state her ability or 
 inability to furnish cake. 
 
 " How much money do you hope to realize 
 from this festival ? " was the next question. 
 
 " Well, of course we can not estimate much 
 about that; we have a very fair attendance 
 generally, and sometimes make as much as 
 well, I ve known us to clear forty dollars in 
 an evening ; but, then, we are not apt to do 
 as well as that. Ice-cream is so expensive, you 
 know, and but little of the cream is donated; 
 that is almost as scarce an article as money in 
 this region. I should say if we cleared
 
 72 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 thirty-five dollars we were doing very well; 
 shouldn t you think so, Mrs. Evans ? " 
 
 And Mrs. Evans, who had thought nothing 
 about it in any way, save to feel with dismay 
 that she must bear her share of the expense, 
 whether she felt able or not, from force of 
 habit sweetly acquiesced in this statement. 
 
 " Thirty-five dollars net ? " was the next 
 clear-cut question. " I mean exclusive of all 
 expenses, cake, time, and the wear and tear, 
 if -you can estimate that." 
 
 Mrs. Bacon arched her eyebrows in aston 
 ishment. 
 
 " Why, dear me ! " she said at last, " we don t 
 estimate the price of cake, of course ; that is 
 a freewill offering ; so, indeed, are our time and 
 strength; we don t expect to be paid for those." 
 
 " I presume not," spoken with dancing eyes, 
 "but, as a business matter, you expect to es 
 timate them, and discover, how much you 
 have actually made. Of course it takes money 
 to make cake, and of course if I can afford 
 to make cake, I can afford to give the money 
 outright that it would cost to make it; and if, 
 in addition to that, I could do something with
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 73 
 
 my time, by .which I could increase the amount, 
 it behooves me, as a sensible, business woman, 
 to discover how much net profit there is in 
 the enterprise." 
 
 To Mrs. Bacon this was certainly a new way 
 of presenting the entire subject. So, indeed, it 
 was to Mrs. Evans. She looked her astonish 
 ment, mingled with genuine interest in the 
 matter, and was betrayed into inquiring fur 
 ther. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Spafford, don t you think 
 there are some people who, having little or no 
 money to give, can, by making cake and such 
 things, help along ? " 
 
 " Cake and such things are money," re 
 plied Mrs. Spafford, with a smile. " Therein 
 lies the difficulty in my opinion. People who 
 unhesitatingly tell you they have no money 
 to give, will unhesitatingly agree to furnish 
 a rich cake, or an unlimited number of sand 
 wiches, without seeming to have an idea that 
 they have thereby furnished money." 
 
 "I perceive that you belong to the class 
 of people who do not approve of social gath 
 erings connected with the church. Of course
 
 74 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 we were not aware of that, or we should not 
 have intruded." 
 
 Mrs. Bacon s voice reminded one just a 
 little of a winter day. Her hostess turned 
 toward her brightly : 
 
 " Oh, not at all. On the contrary, I am 
 one who thinks the church is not social 
 enough. I would have a great many more 
 gatherings in the name of the Church and for 
 the cause of Christ than there are now; but 
 I thought you were talking about paying a 
 church debt, and the quickest and easiest way 
 of doing it." 
 
 * But suppose you can combine the two 
 objects ? Is there any harm in that ? " 
 
 "I beg pardon, but I don t believe they 
 combine well. People never succeed in being 
 very social who have come together for the 
 purpose of making money ; and the people 
 who are obliged to feel that they have con 
 tributed to the cause only by eating some 
 of the cake and cream, and paying a fair 
 price for the same, seem never to be able to 
 look with comfortable consciences on the affair, 
 and it really seems to me a waste of effort.
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 75 
 
 I have often helped in these enterprises, and 
 we almost invariably fell short of the amount 
 we had hoped to make, and offended one or 
 two persons, and tired ourselves out, and went 
 home disheartened." 
 
 This was so entirely Mrs. Evans experience 
 that she could not help bestowing a smile of 
 approval upon the bright-faced lady. While 
 Mrs. Bacon, still with the air of one who 
 had been defrauded of her position as leading 
 speaker, asked : 
 
 " Pray, how would you raise this church debt 
 if you had your way ? " 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Spafford, briskly, " in the 
 first place I should make an estimate. Wait, 
 let me get pencil and paper. I have been a 
 school-teacher for so long that I am very fond 
 of actual estimates put in black and white. 
 Now, how many cakes for instance, did you 
 propose to secure ? " 
 
 "We calculated about twenty, I think, did 
 we not?" was Mrs. Evans timid appeal to 
 Mrs. Bacon, who chose to maintain a dignified 
 silence. 
 
 " Isn t that a very large number ? " ques-
 
 76 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 tioned the mathematician, stopping, her pencil 
 poised in air. 
 
 Mrs. Bacon was tempted to explain. " We 
 are liable to have quite a large attendance, 
 and our young people are apt to try two 
 or three kinds, and it is so unpleasant to run 
 out of cake that we decided to secure as 
 many as that number. Some of the committee 
 always stand willing to buy them if there are 
 any left," 
 
 " Well, twenty cakes then, of twenty different 
 people." 
 
 " Oh, dear, no ! We haven t more than ten 
 people on whom we can depend in the matter 
 of cake making. It is by no means a large 
 church, Mrs. Spafford." 
 
 " Very well ; ten persons, twenty cakes. 
 Of what sort, Mrs. Bacon?" 
 
 "Well," said that lady, growing interested 
 despite her determination not to be, "we let 
 each person make what she chooses. We want 
 nice rich cakes, of course, and that is gene 
 rally understood, so we don t dictate as to the 
 precise kind." 
 
 " Frosted ? "
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 77 
 
 " Why, yes, generally our cakes have been 
 frosted ; they look prettier, you know, for a 
 festival." 
 
 "And what price would you set as the 
 valuation of each cake ? " 
 
 Then the two ladies looked at each other 
 doubtfully. 
 
 " I haven t the least idea," said Mrs. Evans, 
 who, nevertheless, was deeply interested in the 
 question, being anxious to know whether it 
 would be possible that Dane was right, and 
 cake was an "extravagant way of being be 
 nevolent." 
 
 " I m sure I don t know," said Mrs. Bacon, 
 with a little laugh. " Who ever heard of 
 estimating the cost of cake?" 
 
 " Oh, I ve estimated it often," said the math 
 ematician, making neat little figures on her 
 paper, "It is very easily calculated the 
 average expense, you know. Suppose we say 
 half a pound of butter to a cake. That is 
 a fair average, for some of the cake makers 
 will be sure to use more, and some less. 
 Butter is forty cents a pound now, so we have 
 twenty cents. Next we have eggs, and I
 
 78 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 suppose six to a cake is as low an average 
 as frosted cake will admit of; or, to be very 
 economical, shall we say four? Eggs are 
 somewhat scarce now, you know; thirty cents 
 a dozen ; a third of a dozen, ten cents. Now the 
 sugar. I m always amazed at the way sugar 
 disappears ! It is such insignificant looking stuff, 
 and costs so little by the pound, that you 
 think it is hardly worth calculating ; yet most 
 housekeepers find that it insists on being cal 
 culated." 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Evans, with a 
 sympathetic laugh, and a bitter memory of 
 her constantly emptying sugar-box. 
 
 "Let me see, frosting takes a great deal 
 of sugar, and pulverized sugars are expensive. 
 I don t think that allowing ten cents for 
 each cake is too much; in fact, I m inclined 
 to think it is hardly enough, but we want to 
 make the estimate as low as possible, so I ll 
 put it ten. Now, counting flour and flavor 
 ing and milk, do 3^0 u really believe a fairly 
 good cake can be made for fifty cents? I 
 don t." 
 
 To this both ladies agreed, and each of
 
 Cake Mathematically Considered. 79 
 
 them knew so much or so little about money 
 that they felt slightly triumphant. Certainly 
 fifty cents was a very small sum to give for 
 benevolence I 
 
 " Very well. Then, Mrs. Evans, if you make 
 two cakes you give one dollar to the cause, 
 counting out entirely your time and strength, 
 which, in this age of the world, should cer 
 tainly be worth something to every woman. 
 Ten other ladies do the same, and the cake 
 is secured ; then come the coffee, and the 
 cream, and the sandwiches, and the pickles, 
 and the fruits, and so forth, and ever so many 
 other and so forths, besides the dishes that 
 will certainly get broken and have to be re 
 placed, and the dresses that will be sure to 
 get stained with coffee or something. That 
 is part of the programme, you know, to tip 
 something over, and when you have made a 
 conscientious estimate of the whole matter, 
 how much net profit have you?"
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INTERROGATION POINTS. 
 
 HEN the ladies looked at each other 
 again. Mrs. Evans could not resist the 
 temptation to laugh a little ; she had 
 never been statistical before, and she was 
 vaguely surprised and a good deal amused that 
 the results were so small. 
 
 As for Mrs. Bacon, her face expressed as 
 much annoyance as a well-bred face allows 
 itself to show in a lady s parlor. It is possible 
 that she had been brought face to face with 
 inexorable figures before. 
 
 " I think I must be obtuse," she said, speak 
 ing coldly : " but I fail to see as yet any plan 
 
 80
 
 Interrogation Points. 81 
 
 proposed by which more can be raised than 
 we can secure in this way." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford laid aside her pencil and paper. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," she said courteously. 
 " I did not propose to interfere with your plans ; 
 I was talking for my own information as much 
 as anything ; I have been led to think a good 
 deal about these matters of late, and I was 
 wondering whether a much more comfortable 
 way would not be to raise the money at once." 
 
 " Oh, undoubtedly ; you need not fear any 
 opposition as to that opinion," Mrs. Bacon 
 said, with a little laugh that was almost dis 
 agreeable. " I assure you we don t bake cake 
 and prepare refreshments merely for amuse 
 ment; we are capable of entertaining ourselves 
 in pleasanter ways. We would very much 
 prefer to raise the money outright if it could 
 be done; but the lamentable fact is that it 
 can not." 
 
 "I don t see why." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford was not one to be turned aside 
 from her purpose by a bit of sarcasm. What 
 would have flushed Mrs. Evans cheek and
 
 82 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 hushed her voice, only roused in this woman 
 a determination to prove her point. 
 
 / Now let me suppose, for the sake of the 
 illustration, that you have twenty ladies who 
 will assist in getting up this entertainment, 
 at an expense to themselves, exclusive of their 
 time, of fifty cents each. Is that sufficiently 
 low, Mrs. Bacon ? " 
 
 That lady, under direct appeal, was obliged 
 to admit that she should be surprised to get 
 off with so little personal expenditure as that. 
 " That is," she added, " if you count cake 
 and such things. I have never been accus 
 tomed to taking note of such trifling expen 
 ditures." 
 
 Whereupon Mrs. Evans immediately thought 
 of her husband, and of his stormily expressed 
 wish that people ever would calculate such 
 expenditures. 
 
 "Then, according to your estimate, some 
 thing of this sort must be resorted to four or 
 five times before the amount is raised. Now, 
 why. would not the twenty ladies rather pledge 
 themselves to give, say fifty cents a month,
 
 Interrogation Points. 83 
 
 for ten months, and save their strength and 
 their dresses?" 
 
 " My dear madam, I am afraid you are a 
 novice in church work. Mrs. Evans, how 
 would you like to go around to our ladies 
 and make such a bold proposition as that? 
 Wouldn t you be afraid of being told that 
 they were capable of expending their own 
 mone} without our assistance ? " 
 
 Mrs. Evans cheeks were crimson, and she 
 evidently knew not what answer to make, so 
 her hostess, feeling sorry for her came to 
 the rescue. 
 
 "I don t believe she is afraid of any such 
 thing. Surely no lady would be guilty of such 
 language. Besides it is really a trifle less than 
 you are preparing to do, if I understand your 
 mission. You propose to ask the ladies to 
 take the fifty cents and spend it on a cake, 
 and spend their strength in making it, and 
 then come and wait on people while they eat 
 it ! Surely my proposition is the simpler of 
 the two." 
 
 "But then, you know, we only ask it for 
 once," ventured Mrs. Evans.
 
 84 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Ah, yes ; but that doesn t pay the debt 
 doesn t begin to pay it; and of course their 
 penetration is equal to seeing that they will 
 be called upon again and again in the same 
 direction." 
 
 But, my dear Mrs. Spafford, you don t un 
 derstand. People who would be annoyed by 
 the very suggestion that they ought to give 
 money will bake beautiful cake for us ; you 
 see they don t realize that it is the same as 
 money, and so they are willing to help in that 
 way, when you cannot get a cent of money 
 out of them." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford, who had been conducting the 
 conversation up to this point, in a half laughing 
 way, was grave enough now as she said, gently : 
 
 "Isn t that one of the objections to these 
 ways of raising money? Self-deceived people 
 who have never given much thought to domes 
 tic economy, are led into cake-makings that 
 they can ill afford, under the mistaken impres 
 sion that they are giving for the cause of 
 Christ ; and other people come to festivals and 
 buy their cake and cream and mats and tidies, 
 under the mistaken impression that they are
 
 Interrogation Points. 85 
 
 giving to the church, when in reality they are 
 receiving a full and fair equivalent for their 
 money. Where is the real giviny in any of 
 these plans?" 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Bacon, " I m sure I don t 
 profess to understand all these nice points. 
 Mrs. Evans and I have been appointed by the 
 church to do its drudgery, and I suppose we 
 must do it, leaving to you school-teachers the 
 discussion of metaphysics." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford s eyes danced mischievously ; 
 her caller s ideas regarding metaphysics were 
 evidently mixed. But she saw that it would 
 be wisdom to leave the subject. 
 
 " Well," she said, brightly, " I didn t mean 
 to discuss domestic economy, or church econo 
 mies either, when I commenced. I hope you 
 will have success in your mission. As for 
 myself, I will bake the two cakes or give the 
 dollar, whichever you say. Of course, as a 
 matter of economy, I would rather give the 
 dollar; yet I am willing to do the other way 
 if it will please } r ou better. And if you decide 
 to make an effort for the money instead of the 
 cake, you may count me as one, of ladies pledged
 
 86 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 to fifty cents a month for ten months. Or, 
 let me see ; you are paying interest, I suppose ? 
 Then we ought to say for twelve months ; that 
 would cover the interest and leave a little bit 
 of a surplus for something else." 
 
 Then she turned at once from the entire sub 
 ject, and began to question in regard to other 
 matters. What sort of benevolent work was 
 the church doing ? Had they a sewing-society ? 
 She saw a great many poorly-clad children as 
 she went up and down the streets. Were 
 they in the Sabbath-school ? Didn t they need 
 clothing ? Were their parents attending any 
 church? Was the church interested in home 
 mission work ? Were the prayer-meetings well 
 attended ? Had they a ladies prayer-meeting ? 
 A perfect storm of questions. 
 
 Mrs. Evans gave up the slightest attempt at 
 answer, and sat a silent and interested listener, 
 while Mrs. Bacon attempted to impart infor 
 mation. As to poo? children, there were 
 swarms of them belonging to worthless people 
 for whom nothing satisfactory could be done. 
 She was not aware that any organized effort 
 had been made to reach them. Oh, dear, no I
 
 Interrogation Points. 87 
 
 The parents never thought of attending church. 
 Home mission work ? Oh, yes } of course an 
 annual collection was taken for Home Missions. 
 She really didn t know how much was contrib 
 uted. No, it wasn t sent to any special field, 
 so far as she knew just applied for the gen 
 eral good. A ladies prayer-meeting? No, 
 their ladies, not being Quakers, had no objec 
 tion to attending prayer-meeting in company 
 with their husbands. She really could not say 
 whether the general prayer-meeting was well 
 attended or not ; it was such a long walk for 
 her, and Mr. Bacon was so late in getting from 
 the city, that they rarely got to prayer-meeting. 
 A trifle embarrassing were many of the ques 
 tions. It was so apparent even to Mrs. Bacon 
 that, efficient woman that she was, when put 
 through a regular course of cross-examination 
 she knew very little about the practical work 
 of the church. 
 
 " Did you ever hear anything like it ! " was 
 her exclamation to Mrs. Evans, almost before 
 their hostess door had closed after them. 
 " Calculating the price of the sugar and flour 
 and milk that are used in cake ! She must be
 
 88 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 a mercenary little body anyway ; but then I 
 suppose, poor thing, her circumstances make it 
 necessary. That is one of the difficulties insep 
 arably connected with poverty ; people grow so 
 small in their reasonings, narrow down their 
 lives to such trivial calculations. The price of 
 a cup of sugar and a few eggs. Dear me ! isn t 
 it depressing?" 
 
 Mrs. Evans answer was an inarticulate mur 
 mur; she was unaccountably interested in the 
 brisk little accountant and her deft figures. 
 
 What if she should be able to learn of this 
 woman so as to make figures that their weekly 
 expenses would come within the week s legiti 
 mate allowance, and so remove the wrinkles 
 from Dane s forehead ? If she thought that, she 
 would certainly ask to become her pupil. Think 
 ing it over, she gained courage to offer a timid 
 demur. 
 
 " But Mrs. Bacon, she seemed very willing to 
 help, after all ; and was as liberal as most peo 
 ple. You know she said she would pledge her 
 self to give fifty cents a month until the debt 
 was paid. I don t believe we could find a great 
 many other ladies who would do the same."
 
 Interrogation Points. 89 
 
 Mrs. Bacon laughed: 
 
 "She doesn t believe we would either; she 
 is entirely safe in making the proposition. That 
 sort of giving is easy ; for instance, I would 
 just as soon as not offer to be one of fifty to 
 give a thousand dollars for a new church to be 
 built this season. Do you suppose I would 
 ever be called upon to pay it?" 
 
 " But fifty cents a month isn t so very much," 
 said Mrs. Evans, doubtfully ; disturbed by the 
 speciousness of the illustration, yet unwilling 
 to give Mrs. Spafford over as a quick-witted 
 hypocrite. 
 
 " Oh no, it isn t much ; it sounds like a very 
 business-like suggestion, but would involve end 
 less rounds by committees, and much talking, 
 and amount to very little in the end. Some of 
 us, of course, will have to give a great deal 
 more than that, to make up for the delinquen 
 cies of others ; but as I said, it sounds well ; 
 besides, teachers are so accustomed to a sort 
 of red-tape arrangement of matters, you know, 
 that it seems to them, reasoning from their nar 
 row spheres, as though everything in life could
 
 90 Pocket Measure. 
 
 be reduced to figures and added and sub 
 tracted." 
 
 Poor Mrs. Evans thought, with a weary sigh, 
 that almost everything in her life had been 
 reduced to figures, and that an alarming sub 
 tracting process was always going on, but she 
 had said all that in her timidity she dared to 
 say in defense of Mrs. SpafTord ; save this, 
 born partly, of her own mental wanderings over 
 the matter, and partly because of an earnest 
 desire to suppress gossip : 
 
 " Cousin Jennie must have been mistaken in 
 her surmise that they were very poor ; for she 
 was as ready to make the cake, or give its 
 equivalent, as any lady could be." 
 
 " Oh, as to that, I don t know ; she is prob 
 ably one who has resolved to make as good 
 a showing as she can out of nothing ; and what 
 she lacks in funds, make up in argument. 
 Some people will do almost anything to main 
 tain, before the public, a position that is not 
 theirs by right." 
 
 This sentence made her companion wince 
 inwardly; truth to tell she was sometimes 
 troubled with grave doubts as to whether she
 
 Interrogation Point*. 91 
 
 and Dane were not trying to do that very 
 thing ; and she wished, within her weary soul, 
 that she could find her own level, wherever it 
 was, and step down into it and be at peace. 
 
 But she went home, and in due time went 
 into her kitchen, and measured her flour, and 
 weighed her butter and sugar, and beat her 
 eggs, and stirred her rich compound with skill 
 ful hand ; there was one redeeming feature 
 about cake, she knew how to make it. She felt 
 almost certain of the result ; her practiced eye 
 could tell by a critical glance at the sticky 
 compound whether there was just flour enough, 
 or whether it needed a trifle more; and her 
 practiced hand could tell by the very " feel " 
 of the spoon in the mass whether it had been 
 stirred to just the right degree of lightness. 
 
 The obnoxious Kate was engaged at that very 
 hour in molding the bread, and as she looked 
 with doubtful eyes on the soggy lump that Kate 
 was tossing and rolling, and thumping her red 
 knuckles into, the mistress wished, from the 
 depths of her heart, that she knew as much 
 about that suspicious looking lump as she did 
 about the batter before her ; she felt certain
 
 92 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 that the results of such knowledge would have 
 brought smiles to Dane s face. But, alas ! she 
 knew nothing about bread ; so Kate pounded 
 away, making her sour mass of dough grow 
 every minute more "soggy," and the skilled 
 mistress prepared her tins, and dropped her 
 batter skillfully into it, and "felt of" the heat 
 in the oven, still with a practiced hand, and 
 held like a general at her post, through all the 
 processes, until her loaves came out just the 
 requisite shade of creamy brown ; then, while 
 Kate went to the cellar for coal, she hurriedly 
 lifted the cloth and gave a surreptitious glance 
 at the lump of dough. It looked discouraging 
 and smelled uninviting, and she turned from 
 it sighing, and went away. 
 
 By this time you are aware that the project 
 for raising the money without the cake was 
 not carried out. In fact, it was not considered 
 for a moment. I am not sure that any besides 
 the cake committee even heard of it. Mrs. 
 Bacon chose not to say anything about it, and 
 Mrs. Evans had not moral courage enough to 
 do so unhelped by others. Therefore Mrs.
 
 Interrogation Points. 93 
 
 Evans skillful figures, so far as she knew, 
 dropped uselessly into oblivion. 
 
 It was not so ; they lingered in the troubled 
 young housekeeper s heart. Her perplexities 
 did not lessen. She was inclined to think, 
 before she finished her rich cake, that Mrs. 
 Spafford s estimate had been entirely too low ; 
 and so indeed it was, for her individual cake ; 
 she knew nothing about averages. The weekly 
 accounts loomed up before her larger than ever ; 
 the wrinkles in her husband s forehead seemed 
 daily to grow, and he studied the morning 
 paper more industriously and conversed less. 
 The festival was held, and Mrs. Evans dishes 
 were lent to help set the table, and two of 
 her delicate cups were dashed into fragments ; 
 she had not the courage to suggest that they 
 be replaced before the pattern became obsolete ; 
 besides she was one of the unfortunate victims 
 on whom the traditional cup of coffee spilled, 
 and of course she wore to the festival a dress 
 that coffee stains hopelessly ruined. She 
 looked at it ruefully one of her bridal stock 
 of dresses and calculated what it would 
 cost to replace that in her wardrobe, and
 
 94 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 her eyes opened by Mrs. Spafford s figures, 
 she could not help sitting down and deliberately 
 calculating how much she could have paid 
 toward the church debt, supposing she had 
 known that two of her cups and one of her 
 dresses were to be added to the cake, and was 
 alarmed at the sum total ; and resolved, then 
 and there, that at the very first opportunity 
 she would certainly learn from Mrs. Spafford 
 exactly how she managed both the house 
 hold expenses and the cake question ; for Mrs. 
 Spafford came to the festival, and with her 
 came two cakes, as carefully made, and as 
 satisfactory in results, as were Mrs. Evans 
 own. 
 
 She belonged to the class of workers who, 
 failing in leading in what they firmly believe 
 would be a better way, are able gracefully 
 to drop into the accepted way, doing heartily 
 their share, often more than their share, even 
 though the way of doing it is not of their 
 choosing ; biding their time, and looking 
 steadily to an improved future. Such people 
 invariably become leaders in the end. 
 
 One bit of information did Mrs. Evans seek.
 
 Interrogation Points. 95 
 
 " Do you know Mr. Spafford ? " she asked 
 her husband, on one of those mornings when 
 he read his paper less than usual. 
 
 " Spafford, who clerks it for the Holdens ? 
 Yes, I know him when I meet him on the street 
 car. We have never been formally introduced, 
 but we chat together coming up ; he is an 
 intelligent fellow ; I enjoy talking with 
 him." 
 
 " Do you know what his salary is ? " 
 
 This question was timidly put ; whatever had 
 to do with money, either directly or remotely, 
 was sure to bring the wrinkles. They came 
 creeping up his forehead at this moment, as 
 he answered in a changed tone : 
 
 "I do, to a penny; he gets six hundred 
 dollars a year." 
 
 " Six hundred ! " 
 
 " Exactly that, and commenced house 
 keeping on a surplus of two hundred and 
 fifty, which he had saved, goodness knows 
 how ; and doesn t owe a penny ; and I get 
 a thousand a year and run behind all the 
 time." 
 
 " Perhaps his wife has money ? "
 
 96 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 This was Mrs. Evans tremulous suggestion 
 and at that moment she almost felt as though 
 she would sell her right arm for the sake of 
 being a wife who had money. 
 
 The gloomy-faced husband shook his head 
 Vigorously. 
 
 "No, she hasn t; I knew Carrie Howell, 
 by reputation at least ; she supported her 
 mother for years, and was considered a marvel 
 for the way in which she managed. People 
 used to wonder how she kept herself and 
 her mother looking so trim and comfortable, 
 and their little home sunny. There is witch- 
 work about some people s lives ; I never 
 could understand it, and I don t want to try. 
 Just pass me that paper, please." 
 
 And he gave himself to the stud} 7 of current 
 items.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A SOCIAL PROBLEM. 
 
 BELIEVE in it, Callie?" 
 
 They were having a family council in 
 the evening. The wife had her bit of 
 sewing, in which she was now and then taking 
 stitches while she talked, and the husband, as 
 he asked the question, arose and walked to the 
 window to throw out the stump of a cigar, 
 smoke from which still curled about the pretty 
 parlor. She did not " believe in that " at least. 
 It had been a surprise to her, and a pain, when 
 she had discovered, after their marriage, that 
 her husband " occasionally smoked a good 
 cigar ; " tHat was his way of putting it. She 
 had not known quite what to say, so had said 
 97
 
 98 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 little, until a day or two after the serious com 
 pact had been entered into, to consecrate their 
 " tenth " to the Lord. Then she had, half play 
 fully, but with an earnest undertone of mean 
 ing, said to him : 
 
 " By the way, Warren, we have made no al 
 lowance for cigars in our schedule of expenses, 
 and yet I smell the odor of smoke, how is 
 that?" 
 
 And he had flushed, and there had flashed 
 over his face and manner a slight touch of 
 haughtiness, gone the next instant, as he ex 
 plained : 
 
 "I saved the amount from the sum allotted 
 for my dinner, Gallic. I found I would rather 
 have the cigar, and go without the cup of coffee 
 I am in the habit of taking. Don t be afraid, 
 dear ; I shall not break our compact for the 
 sake of personal indulgence." 
 
 Then she hastened to explain that she feared 
 no such thing, and tried to impress him with 
 the belief that the coffee would be so much 
 better for him than the cigar, and he had 
 laughed and assured her he was in perfect 
 health, and needed no coffee for a stimulant ;
 
 A Social Problem. 99 
 
 that the cigar was a mere habit, company, sort 
 of; he cared comparatively little for it, and 
 should never be tempted to inveterate smoking ; 
 and the wife had believed that she must drop 
 the subject and bide her tune. None the less 
 did she disapprove of the cigar. It was rarely 
 that it found its way into her parlor, but the 
 fact that it appeared there at all showed how 
 entirely ignorant her husband was of her true 
 feeling on the subject. Meantime she answered 
 his question : 
 
 " Why, yes, I believe in social life. Perhaps 
 those tilings are not as well managed as they 
 might be, but I have always recognized the im 
 portance of the social element in society ; 
 indeed, it has seemed to me that we were not, 
 as Christians, doing half that we might in that 
 direction." 
 
 " Do you suppose Christian culture is at the 
 bottom of Mrs. Bacon s social scheme ? " her 
 husband asked, with laughing eyes. " Still," 
 he added, answering himself, " we have no right 
 to pick flaws in her motives." 
 
 " Especially when they are plain enough, 
 picking," Mrs. Spafford answered ; and
 
 100 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 then these two, who understood each other so 
 well, and were tempted to say what they would 
 not allow themselves to say, laughed at their 
 own thoughts. 
 
 The fact was that Mrs. Bacon, despite the 
 fatigues following upon her vigorous efforts to 
 get the little church out of debt, and which, 
 the evening proving rainy, had resulted in a net 
 profit of only twenty dollars, had yet rallied 
 her forces and resolved to give an evening en 
 tertainment ; a select affair, attended by some 
 of her down-town friends. To this entertain 
 ment, strangely enough, Mr. and Mrs. Spafford 
 were invited. They had exclaimed over the 
 invitation in genuine surprise, but had refrained 
 from discussing the reasons for it. They each, 
 however, in reviewing the matter, had arrived 
 at the same conclusion, as was evidenced by the 
 husband saying, gravely : 
 
 "I tell you what it is, Callie, it is a lucky 
 thing for us that Gen. Ward Howell happens 
 to be our uncle ! Only, it will necessitate a 
 new necktie just as sure as you live." 
 
 And his wife had flushed over Mrs. Bacon s
 
 A Social Problem. 101 
 
 motives, and laughed, and then answered .the 
 reference to dress. 
 
 " Now you have touched upon a bewildering 
 point. It doesn t trouble me much, just now, 
 because, fortunately, I am a bride, and have a 
 toilet that will do very well. But suppose that 
 these entertainments continue, and we continue 
 to be Gen. Ward Howell s neice, it will in 
 volve expense, and I don t see how we are to 
 meet expenses of that sort." 
 
 " I don t either. In my opinion, we shall 
 have to remain by our own vine and fig-tree, 
 finding our pleasure in domestic life. That is 
 the reason why I asked you in a general way, 
 whether you believed in it; not exactly in 
 social life, but in our ability to enter into it. 
 Ought we not to commence as we can con 
 tinue ? " 
 
 " I think so ; and for that very reason we 
 should arrange for some social gatherings. We 
 can not sit down like hermits at home ; at least 
 I suppose we have no right to ; we must mingle 
 with other people, and get and give ; these 
 phases of life are opportunities, not accidents, 
 I suppose."
 
 102 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Mr. Spafford surveyed his wife thoughtfully 
 for a moment, and then answered : 
 
 " Upon my word, Gallic, I believe you have 
 a different way of looking at every object under 
 the sun from that of common mortals. Who, 
 for instance, ever dreamed of finding a duty 
 in party-going? Save the class of people to 
 whom Mrs. Bacon seems to belong, who make 
 a sort of affectation of the term, thrusting it 
 in people s faces when it means nothing ; but 
 I thought that Christian people looked upon 
 these things as bores at the best, that must be 
 endured, occasional^, for the sake of courtesy 
 or custom, or something of that sort." 
 
 "I don t believe I look upon the ordinary 
 party, with its dancing and card-playing, as 
 an institution which a Christian is ever called 
 upon even to endure ; but I do look upon 
 social gatherings as so many traps that may 
 be set for the feet of the young and gay ; 
 good, honest traps, I mean, by means of 
 which they may be drawn in, from time to 
 time, to the family of Christ." 
 
 I regret to tell you that Mr. Spafford an 
 swered this remark with a whistle.
 
 The Social Problem. 103 
 
 " How many people do you suppose go to 
 parties, or to social gatherings of any sort, with 
 that end in view ? " he asked, stopping in the 
 midst of " Hail Columbia." 
 
 " I am a Yankee, Warren, and so may answer 
 your question by asking another : Do you think 
 that Christians, whose rule of life reads, What 
 soever ye do, do all to the glory of God, have 
 any right to go to social gatherings, or any 
 where else, separated from this end?" 
 
 " Witness declines to answer," said Warren, 
 with becoming gravity. Then "Well, now, 
 Gallic, suppose, for the sake of the argument, 
 that I am convinced, what are we going to do 
 about this cravat and glove business ? Those 
 two articles will hardly do as illustrations, 
 either ; it will come to coats and dresses soon, 
 because, you see, I know enough about the 
 question to understand that the sort of dress 
 which will do for ordinary occasions will not 
 do for these social gatherings." 
 
 "I don t believe that," she said, shaking her 
 head earnestly. "I believe, Warren that 
 Christian people of today ought to enter the 
 lists resolved to battle against this foe to social
 
 104 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 life, not only, but Christian life. I think the 
 great trouble in our churches, or no, I won t 
 put it that way, one of the troubles, is too 
 much dressing. Why, look at it in this neigh 
 borhood; there are ever so many nice, respect 
 able-looking people whom we don t see in 
 church. I asked Mrs. Bacon about that Burns 
 family only last evening, and she said : * Well, 
 the fact is, I suspect they haven t clothes that 
 they think suitable to wear to church. Why ! 
 I said, I met Mrs. Burns and her daughter 
 on the street yesterday, and they were very 
 neatly clothed. Oh, neatly ; yes, of course ; 
 they are quite respectable people ; but they 
 are, like a great many others, poor and proud. 
 If they can t dress as well as the rest, they 
 won t come to church at all. Such sinful 
 pride ! That is the way she finished the 
 sentence, but it set me to thinking afresh. 
 No doubt it is sinful pride, but I came home 
 with this verse running continually through 
 my mind : Woe unto him by whom the 
 offence cometh. Warren, I would like to go 
 to this gathering of Mrs. Bacon s, and to every 
 other gathering which we decide to attend,
 
 The /Social Problem. 105 
 
 dressed as simply as is in keeping with my 
 ideas of neatness and propriety." 
 
 "It will take a good deal of moral courage 
 you will find, little woman. Are you equal 
 to the buzz of tongues that will tell in con 
 fidence to their intimates: Don t you think 
 that Mrs. Sp afford wore a calico dress to the 
 social last night! They must be dreadfully 
 poor ! " 
 
 "I believe I am equal to it," she answered 
 him, laughing ; " especially since Gen. Ward 
 Howell is my uncle ; but I don t intend to 
 wear my calico, that would excite unneces 
 sary remark. I have a nice fresh muslin, 
 prettily made, and as simple and inexpensive 
 as it well can be, that I fancy will be just 
 the thing." 
 
 " Then you won t even wear your black 
 silk?" 
 
 " Too warm. These June days seem as warm 
 to me as any that I remember in August. 
 Besides, you foolish man, when shall I be able 
 to have another black silk on six hundred a 
 year? I must make this last for state occa 
 sions, until I am a grandmother at least."
 
 106 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 "Isn t Mrs. Bacon s tea-party a state occa 
 sion ? " 
 
 " I don t mean to make it such. She as 
 sured me it was a quiet little affair, just a 
 few friends to spend an hour or two, not a 
 party at all. I am going to take her at her 
 word and dress according^." 
 
 " I ll venture you fifty cents that you will 
 be the only lady there out of rich silks and 
 real lace and things." 
 
 "Very well. I haven t real lace and 
 things to appear in, and don t expect to 
 have, and I am entirety willing to appear in 
 what I have ; but what about your neck-tie ? " 
 
 " Oh, I ll appear in the old one ; it will 
 match your muslin dress. Shall you dispose 
 of the glove question in an equally econom 
 ical manner ? " 
 
 "I never could see the necessity of putting 
 on gloves in order to spend a social evening 
 with one s friends. 7 don t mean to wear any 
 gloves." 
 
 " All right ; that relieves me of the awful 
 necessity for incasing my hands in them, to 
 say nothing of the joy of escaping from buying
 
 The Social Problem. 107 
 
 them. But, my dear little woman, this matter 
 had better be looked at from all sides, now that 
 we have it up. What do you think of "the 
 propriety of accepting these invitations from 
 various sources, and never being able to return 
 them ? We can t give parties, you know, even 
 such quiet and inexpensive affairs as your friend 
 Mrs. Bacon proposes." This last with a gleam 
 of mischief in his handsome eyes. " What 
 about enjoying the hospitality of other homes 
 and closing our own ? " 
 
 " I don t want to close our own, Warren ; do 
 you ? Of course we can t give parties ; at 
 present we can t even have a dozen friends at 
 once to take tea with us, because," with a gay 
 little laugh, " we haven t cups enough. But 
 what is to hinder our inviting first Mr. and 
 Mrs. this one, and then Mr. and Mrs. that one, 
 to take a dish of tea with us ? We have 
 good bread and butter, and in fruit-time that 
 is as inexpensive as anything; and I can even 
 make some of the all-important cake occasion 
 ally ; and I think our friends would enjoy 
 meeting us in that way ever so much." 
 
 "Callie, my child, do you. really mean that
 
 108 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 you ever contemplate inviting Mr. and Mrs. 
 Bacon, for instance, to take some bread and 
 butter and tea with us?" 
 
 " Why not ? If, on acquaintance, it seems 
 to me that she would enjoy such a quiet little 
 bit of home life as that, and we would enjoy 
 giving it to her, why should we not? The 
 idea that obtains in some circles of being in 
 debted to this or that one for hospitality, was 
 always a distasteful one to me, making a sort 
 of barter of social life. I want to entertain 
 my friends as often as I can, and as well 
 as I consistently can. If they entertain me 
 oftener, and in a better manner, why I shall 
 enjoy it gratefully, without keeping account 
 of the difference in expense." 
 
 Mr. Spafford seemed to feel that there was 
 no way of expressing his feelings better than 
 by resorting to " Hail Columbia " again, and 
 finishing the bar he was whistling, he closed it 
 with a laugh, and went to fasten the kitchen 
 door, preparatory to ascending the stairs for 
 the night. 
 
 "Warren," his wife said to him, rising and 
 going forward to meet him as he returned,
 
 The Social Problem. 109 
 
 " you have laughed and whistled, but I wonder 
 if you know that you haven t expressed an 
 opinion on the entire subject. Won t you tell 
 me what you think? Do you believe all this 
 is as visionary as your whistling would seem 
 to indicate? Don t you think that we, as 
 Christians, and as poor Christians, can have 
 our place in social life, and meet our friends, 
 and contribute our share to their enjoyment 
 and get their help ? " 
 
 He was a tall man, and she was a little 
 woman. He had a way of putting his hands 
 on her shoulders and looking down into her 
 eyes. He placed his hands so at this time, 
 and in the handsome brown eyes, mischievous 
 eyes, dancing half the time with a sense of 
 the irresistibly comical, there was more feeling 
 expressed than that of mere amusement now. 
 
 "Callie," he said, "dear little wifie, I ll tell 
 you what I believe ; I believe in you, heartily, 
 and in your religion. Some of your ideas are 
 new to me. and I won t deny are startling. I 
 am by no means sure that you can bring other 
 people any other people, mind 3-011 to your 
 way of thinking. I have an idea that when
 
 110 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 you assail the customs of society as regards dress 
 aiid entertainments, you touch very tender 
 points come close to hearts, women s hearts, 
 anyhow. But I like the fun of trying it. I m 
 with you heartily. There is a dash of the ro 
 mantic about me that makes anything like a 
 sensation especially agreeable. We will go to 
 this quiet little gathering in muslin, and 
 gloveless, and do our best." 
 
 As they went up the stairs they severally 
 thought this : 
 
 " I wonder," deep down in the wife s heart, 
 where there quivered a little sigh, " if Warren 
 really means that all these things are simply 
 funny to him, and he sees no underlying 
 principle in them, nor cares for them, except 
 as they suggest a sensation ? " 
 
 He on his part: 
 
 " Grand little woman ! trying to make be 
 lieve that her struggle to hold her own in the 
 society in which she is calculated to shine 
 is a matter of principle, and has nothing to 
 do with her having married a poor clerk. I 
 would like to shield her alike from the pity 
 and the sneers of the miserable world; but,
 
 The Social Problem. Ill 
 
 since she is too brave to be shielded, we will 
 make believe it is all a play, and push 
 through." 
 
 And he actually thought it was all because 
 they were poor ! 
 
 Mrs. Bacon s "little gathering" was the 
 subject of talk and thought in other homes ; 
 and that other subject, the attire in which to 
 appear, also claimed attention. 
 
 In Mrs. Evans home the whole matter was 
 productive of pain. She, too, was a bride of 
 not many months standing, and the one rich 
 silk, which, poor as she was, had seemed to 
 her an indispensable accessory of marriage, 
 would still serve her as an elegant dress. She 
 thought of it with complacency and brought 
 it forth. But when was a dress laid aside by 
 even a moderately fashionable lady for a few 
 months time without there occurring changes 
 that involved letting out this loop and pucker 
 ing in that? Mrs. Evans dress proved no 
 exception ; it had to go to a fashionable dress 
 maker s to be puckered ; its mistress knew no 
 other. She had spent her year of mourning 
 at an uncle s house, and been married from
 
 112 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 that home ; the uncle, with an expensive fam 
 ily to support, had done for her what he could ; 
 namely, given her an elegant wedding, and 
 as showy an outfit as he had dared, and the 
 benefit of his elegant wife s and grown-up 
 daughters expensive advice and habits. So 
 by nature and education Mrs. Dane Evans knew 
 exactly how the silk should look in order to 
 be elegant, and exactly where to go to have 
 the elegance added ; also, she knew and thought 
 of it with bitterness, just what the bill would 
 be likely to read, especially when it became 
 necessary, according to the decrees of fashion, 
 to have the arrangement of the lace trimming 
 altered, and to add a yard and a half more to 
 the original pattern. Several other very little 
 additions became necessary to the eyes of the 
 artist, and when the reconstructed fabric came 
 home its owner surveyed it with a curious 
 mixture of satisfaction and dismay. If only 
 the bill for the same did not lie on the bed 
 beside it. How could it cost so ruinousl}* just 
 to make a few little alterations in a dress! 
 
 Then came the question of gloves. Mrs. 
 Evans no more thought of going to the lit-
 
 The Social Problem. 113 
 
 tie gathering with ungloved hands than she 
 thought of going in blue and white muslin, and 
 her tormentor, Jennie West, having completed 
 her visit elsewhere, was by her side to exclaim 
 as to what could and could not be tolerated; 
 altogether, taking into consideration the dis 
 comfort of Dane, the new wrinkles that would 
 undoubtedly gather about his forehead, the 
 gloom that would be a family guest for weeks 
 perhaps, as the result of those bills, and the 
 memory of the blush of shame that arose to 
 her cheek when she asked the dressmaker to 
 be kind enough to wait a few weeks till another 
 installment of her husband s salary was due, 
 Mrs. Evans attired herself for the gathering 
 with a heavy heart. She was not comforted 
 by the fact that Dane pronounced the whole 
 affair a " confounded nuisance," and refused to 
 get any new gloves for himself until two hours 
 before the time for starting. To be sure, he 
 bought them at last. Unfortunately, Dane 
 Evans was one who, like his wife, recognized 
 the necessity of doing as other people did.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MEASURING BRAINS AND HEARTS. 
 
 happened that the little woman in 
 the pale blue and white muslin found 
 herself at the small social gathering in 
 a position not to be envied by most ladies. 
 She had accepted Mrs. Bacon s statements 
 in reference to the nature of her entertainment 
 with more literalness than the result justi 
 fied. The spacious parlors were quite well 
 filled, and the larger number of the ladies 
 were dressed as they would be for a fashionable 
 party down town. It made the blue muslin 
 very conspicuous. The wearer felt that she 
 would either have compromised with the black 
 silk dress, or remained at home, had she un- 
 114
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 115 
 
 derstood. I do not wish you to understand 
 that she was miserable; what would have 
 sent poor Mrs. Evans home with a nervous 
 headache, and have held her for three days 
 in alternate fits of weeping and indignation 
 over the trials of poverty, only brought a 
 heightened blush to Mrs. Spafford s cheeks. 
 Still, no lady likes to consider herself the 
 subject of curious remark, and for the first 
 half hour it was hard for my friend to put 
 away from her the pleasant occupation of 
 contrasting the blue muslin with the delicate 
 lavender and fawn and ecru silks that shim 
 mered around her. 
 
 "Am I really not above this sort of thing?" 
 she asked herself, at last, in astonishment 
 and indignation. "Am I so accustomed to 
 judging of others by their dress that I must 
 needs conclude that their only estimate of me 
 is by the cost of the clothes I wear ? " and she 
 resolutely resolved to interest herself so 
 speedily in somebody or something that her 
 thoughts would be diverted from this un 
 healthy channel. It was not easy to do ; 
 she found herself in a new atmosphere. As
 
 116 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 a teacher, and as a niece of the well-known 
 Gen. Howell, she had moved in what was 
 called good society ; had been accustomed 
 to meeting people of refinement and culture ; 
 people who attended lectures and bought 
 books and read them, and read reviews and 
 discussed them, and kept reasonably well 
 posted as to what was going on in the literary 
 world, both at home and abroad. People 
 who dressed well they were, too, and yet who 
 much affected that form of dressing which 
 is liable to pass unnoticed, because it quietly 
 fits into the general whole. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford, sitting over on the low 
 couch between the windows, tried critically 
 to study the difference between the two poles 
 of society, for they really seemed to her as 
 far apart as that. These people talked, and 
 talked well ; that is. they used refined language 
 and well-sounding phrases, but there Avas a 
 curiously superficial tone to it all. She men 
 tioned books of which she was confident they 
 had never heard. She advanced opinions 
 which were met with a well-bred stare, or, 
 at the utmost, with a bewildered bow ; yet
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 117 
 
 they talked glibly of the last matinee, and 
 what a divine voice the latest musical favorite 
 had, and how perfectly exquisite the collec 
 tion of paintings was at the recent Exposition. 
 Yet did she attempt to individualize paintings, 
 and discover which school, or class of studies, or 
 varieties of landscape, form, color, or style, were 
 considered the more " exquisite," she was 
 met with that bewildered look and half-doubt 
 ing assent which may mean almost dissent, 
 so undefined is it. 
 
 In the world of books it was much worse ; 
 she could not be sure that those with whom she 
 chanced to talk had read anything, or were 
 informed beyond the mere titles of certain, 
 not so recent, publications; the authors of 
 those might be foreign or American, male or 
 female, for all knowledge that one could gain 
 on the subject by talking with those who had 
 heard of them. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford found herself bewildered. 
 These ladies some of them talked freely 
 with each other, and laughed much, and seemed 
 to be enjoying themselves ; but the subject was 
 always something that she did not quite under-
 
 118 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 stand, and that they seemed incapable of ex 
 plaining. Nearly all of them were strangers 
 to her, most of them being those who had pat- 
 ionized the festival more by eating its cake 
 and oysters than by actual hand-to-hand help. 
 Others of them being, indeed, from the city in 
 which she had spent the last seven years of 
 her life, yet being as utterly unknown to her, 
 personally, as though they had occupied sepa 
 rate worlds. Jennie West, her schoolmate, 
 was present it is true, but she was constantly 
 the centre of an animated group of young 
 ladies and gentlemen who held themselves en 
 tirely aloof from the married portion of the 
 company, and had much merriment and much 
 chatter among themselves. 
 
 Mr. Spafford, manlike, had found speedily a 
 pleasant centre among certain men whom he 
 met constantly in business life, men who gave 
 no attention personally to the distinctions of 
 society, therefore he felt at home, and was 
 evidently enjoying the evening. Again and 
 again did our bright-hearted little woman try 
 to rouse and throw hei self into the whirlpool 
 of talk about her as one who was interested,
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 119 
 
 and had something to contribute. It seemed 
 all in vain ; she even realized that she hushed 
 the flow of talk on one or two occasions by 
 attempting to join. Was it the effect of her 
 blue muslin ? Back to that again ! 
 
 Mortified with herself, and with the failure 
 that she was making of the evening, she sud 
 denly leaned forward, ostensibly to caress a 
 sweet-scented vine that was reaching up to 
 look in at the window, but really with one 
 hand touching that and the other carried for 
 a moment to her eyes, she sought refuge from 
 her tormenting self, or, as she was fond of 
 expressing it herself, she ran to her hiding-place. 
 The Lord Jesus had been invited to accompany 
 her to that entertainment ; she had come in 
 good faith, believing that he would be her com 
 panion and familiar friend ; it might be that 
 she had mistaken the surroundings; it might 
 be that the atmosphere was not a congenial one 
 for him ; yet surely he would abide with her, 
 and help her in honest effort to serve him 
 even here. She leaned back again presently, 
 and welcomed with a bright smile, the young 
 man Will Coleman to her side. It seemed
 
 120 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 a good omen that the first to come to her after 
 this struggle should be Will, for she had been 
 seeking an opportunity to talk with him. 
 
 " You are not social," she said, cheerily, "at 
 least not with us ; you have never been to see 
 us in our new home." 
 
 " I m coming, though, he answered. " My 
 good intentions in that line have been sadly 
 interfered with, but I am on my way. I don t 
 suppose you could imagine how anxious I am 
 to see you keeping house. I can t get over 
 the queerness of the idea that you are actually 
 a married woman, settled down in life. How 
 does it seem ? " 
 
 A close observer would have detected an 
 undertone of anxiety, or at least a most un 
 usual interest in the experiment of house 
 keeping. 
 
 " Why, it seems just what it always does to 
 every happy woman, a delightful spot, and a 
 satisfying life." 
 
 "Do you really believe that?" There was 
 visible eagerness in his tone now. " There is 
 such a difference in women ; most of them 
 seem to me of the stamp who could not be
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 121 
 
 happy unless they had four thousand a year 
 to spend on housekeeping alone, and enough 
 more to devote to mere pin money. I don t 
 believe ladies in general like housekeeping." 
 
 " You are slandering ladies in general. I 
 don t think you are intimatel} acquainted with 
 many true women who are happily married." 
 She spoke earnestly enough, but not in a way 
 to invite answer. The truth was she did not 
 want to talk with Will Coleman in a way that 
 would precipitate him into housekeeping ; she 
 was by no means sure of Jennie West on a 
 salary of eight or nine hundred a year. " I 
 don t feel like discussing domestic economy 
 with you just now, Will," she said, speaking 
 quickly, to ward off the question that she saw 
 was coming. " I have been watching for an 
 opportunity to ask you if you have settled that 
 other question yet about which we talked so 
 much a year ago or more." 
 
 " Oh ! " he said lightly. " How can you ex 
 pect me to remember which subject you mean ? 
 Didn t you lecture me on every conceivable 
 topic that winter and spring?" 
 
 " Will, you know exactly what I mean."
 
 122 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Do I ? Well, then, I must confess neglect. 
 I m afraid your unworthy servant must still 
 cry, Go thy way for this time. " 
 
 "And when is the convenient season com- 
 ing?" 
 
 " My dear Miss Carrie I beg ten thousand 
 pardons ! I mean, my dear madam, how can I 
 tell ? I am neither a prophet nor the son of a 
 prophet." 
 
 " Oh, Will, how you disappoint me ! I am 
 almost sorry that you have come up to this 
 end of the city to live. There is so much here 
 that ought to be done, and earnest-hearted 
 young men are so sadly needed. If you were 
 not here, it is possible that an active Christian 
 might be put in your place, and we need him 
 so much." 
 
 The young man thus addressed made a pro 
 found bow, too low to be considered other than 
 mockery, as he said : 
 
 "I m sure I ought to express my gratitude 
 after that. Your consideration for me, then, 
 amounts to this, that if I were out of the way 
 being a scapegrace, it is possible some good, 
 pious young deacon might reign in my stead."
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 123 
 
 The grave face did not change : 
 
 " You want to turn me away from the 
 thought, Will, by wheedling me into explain 
 ing what needs no explanation. You know 
 what I mean. I have said all to you that I 
 know how to say, and you were honored with 
 such a father and mother as few have. You 
 know the way perfectly ; you could be a power 
 among the young men in this part of the city, 
 and a power like what you could be is most 
 sadly needed ; but since you choose to be only 
 a stumbling-block, it is natural for me to wish 
 that in your place some one might have come 
 who would give the needed help." 
 
 " You have grown cross since you became a 
 housekeeper, Mrs. Spafford. I think I have 
 heard that domestic life had a deleterious effect 
 on the nervous system. How can you call me 
 such an ugly name as a stumbling-block? Don t 
 I do my best to set your Christian young men 
 an example ? I am always at prayer-meeting ; 
 neither rain nor heat nor pleasure keeps me 
 from the lecture-room on Thursday evening. 
 Last Thursday three of your young members 
 went down town to the comic lecture, but I
 
 124 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 was faithful to my post and led the singing, 
 if you will remember. I do the best 1 can. 
 To be sure the boys will not always follow my 
 example ; but am I to be blamed for that ? " 
 There was a grieved expression about his 
 handsome mouth, and a sound in his voice as 
 of one who had been unjustly arraigned, and a 
 wicked look of unutterable fun in his eyes. 
 Perverse young genius that he was, he knew 
 that his moral life and exceedingly punctilious 
 adherence to all the outward forms of religion 
 were matters of comment among his acquaint 
 ances. He knew there was not an object in 
 which the church was supposed to be inter 
 ested that did not receive from him more hearty 
 and patient assistance than from almost any 
 of its younger members, male or female ; and 
 Mrs. Spafford knowing this, knew also that he 
 prided himself upon it; that he was careful to 
 make his life so moral, his actions so beyond 
 reproach, as to actually bring a reproach upon 
 the members of Christ s flock because, as he 
 had once gayly expressed it " this disreputable 
 wolf would persist in acting so much more like 
 a sheep than the sheep themselves did ! "
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 125 
 
 This marked feature of the young man s 
 character had been the source of much anx 
 iety to Mrs. Spafford. As a teacher she had 
 been somewhat familiar with young men, and 
 knew the rocks on which they often made ship 
 wreck ; and though this was a by no means 
 common one, it seemed to her all the more 
 dangerous. 
 
 " I don t think young men of the present day 
 very often stumble over their own righteous 
 ness into the pit ; but I am certainly afraid that 
 Will Coleman will do it." 
 
 This she said to her husband in one of their 
 confidential talks. She hesitated as to what 
 to say to Will at this moment. He was look 
 ing down at her out of his roguish eyes, 
 they saying as plainly as words could, that 
 his position was perfectly unanswerable. 
 
 " Will, do you know the eleventh verse of 
 the eighteenth chapter of Luke ? " 
 
 It was apparently so sudden a change of 
 subject and so unexpected a question that 
 the young man regarded her with a bewildered 
 air for a moment, then slowly repeated the 
 words.
 
 126 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " The eleventh verse of the eighteenth 
 chapter of Luke ? I don t believe I do ; it 
 doesn t sound familiar, some way ; though it 
 may be one of those verses that I rattled off 
 in Sunday-school a thousand times or so, be 
 tween the ages of four and ten. If you 
 would kindly start it for me, as the teacher 
 used to do, perhaps I could go on." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford shook her head. 
 
 " I don t want to start it for you. I want 
 you to find it some evening in the quiet of 
 your own room, and read it carefully, and 
 consider it thoughtfully, and ask your own 
 heart if there is any reason why I should 
 think of it when I talk with you." 
 
 Will, with a very important air, drew a 
 note-book and pencil from his pocket. 
 
 "I ll attend to that item of business at 
 the first reasonable opportunity. Give me 
 chapter and verse again, please, in order that 
 I may make no mistake." 
 
 "What are you two moralizing over?" 
 
 It was the clear, ringing voice of Jennie 
 West that asked the question a voice that, 
 despite his efforts to the contrary, always set
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 127 
 
 Will Coleman s pulses into quicker throbbing. 
 She looked so pretty this evening; She was 
 dark-skinned and dark-eyed, and knew precisely 
 what tint to wear to set off her face to the 
 best advantage ; also, she would have compassed 
 sea and land, had it been necessary to have 
 secured the tint. 
 
 Will Coleman, without raising his eyes 
 from the book, knew, or thought he knew, 
 that the very loveliest form of flesh and blood 
 that the earth contained stood before him. 
 Isn t it strange with what different eyes differ 
 ent people see ? Mrs. Spafford, looking upon 
 the pretty vision thought only : 
 
 "Jennie is always a trifle overdressed for the 
 occasion. I wonder when she will tone down, 
 and what will do it ? " 
 
 " I am writing out my text," Will said, 
 in answer to the question. " I m going into 
 the theological line. Haven t you always 
 had a sort of unspoken feeling that I had 
 mistaken my vocation ? I m about to change. 
 This is to be my first sermon, which I am to 
 prepare in the solitude of my own thoughts,
 
 128 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 of course. I don t know when I am to present 
 it to the public." 
 
 " What is the text ? " laughed Jennie, to 
 whom this nonsense sounded irresistibly funny. 
 
 " As to the wording I am not quite sure. My 
 memory is at fault sometimes, promising young 
 theologue though I am ; and, strange to say, 
 I have forgotten my pocket Bible ! But I am 
 noting the figures, so as to be prepared for the 
 aforesaid solitude. I presume I shall spend 
 hours over it to-night, when I reach my home." 
 
 " Oh, I haven t a doubt of it. Meantime, 
 come and help make up a set for a quiet little 
 promenade. Not a dance ! Callie, don t open 
 your eyes in horror. It is to be just the tamest 
 sort of a promenade. The minister himself 
 might join in it if he were here." 
 
 "It is just the thing for me to take a deco 
 rous farewell of the world in." said Will, and, 
 offering his arm with alacrity to the dazzling 
 vision, and bestowing a deferential bow on 
 Mrs. Spafford, he vanished. 
 
 " And Jennie is a Christian ! " This is what 
 the somewhat sad-hearted young worker thought 
 as she looked after the two. She was so cer-
 
 Measuring Brains and Hearts. 129 
 
 tain that Jennie s type of religion did not 
 commend itself to the keen eyes of Will 
 Coleman. What was the result? Why, being 
 very deeply interested in her, and unwilling 
 to admit even to himself that she was a poor 
 t}^pe of anything, he straightway concluded 
 that there was very little besides form and 
 words in the whole matter. Such being the 
 case, those who were the least trammeled by 
 forms, and said the fewest words about the 
 matter, were the more agreeable people to be 
 with. Yet this young man was always having 
 war with himself and his views, because he 
 could not help respecting Mrs. Spafford s re 
 ligion. 
 
 As for Mrs. Spafford, thus left to herself, 
 she was at a loss what to do. Certainly she 
 was strangely out of her natural element. 
 Moreover, she began to doubt whether it 
 was true that in gatherings like these there 
 was really any chance to drop a seed, hoping 
 for harvest. She looked over at her husband, 
 bright, genial, apparently having a delightful 
 time. What was he talking about? Why 
 did those gentlemen about him seem so inter-
 
 130 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ested and animated, and withal so sensible ? 
 Why could gentlemen have so much better 
 time than ladies, anyway? What should 
 she do next ? If she could get a peep at her 
 watch unobserved, and discover whether it 
 were not almost time to go home, she would- 
 like it; yet what had become of her views 
 about mingling socitilly with people and giving 
 and getting? 
 
 " I don t seem to be able to give anything," 
 she told herself in despondent mood ; and cer 
 tainly I don t find anybody who is giving 
 to me." 
 
 Altogether, if time could have rolled back 
 a few hundred years, and she could have sat 
 down beside that disheartened old Elijah dur 
 ing the brief hour that he halted under a juni 
 per-tree and made his moan, she would have 
 been in just the mood to sympathize with 
 him.
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 SUBTLE DISTINCTIONS. 
 
 HERE was a little rustle of silk just 
 at her side ; silver gleams of it swept 
 over the edges of her quiet blue muslin, 
 and turning suddenly she found that Mrs. 
 Evans had slipped into the vacant seat, and 
 was holding out her gloved hand to clasp her 
 own. 
 
 " I have been looking at you over in this 
 corner for quite a little time, and longing to 
 get to you. You looked so cool and still, and 
 seemed to be having such a quiet, pleasant 
 time." 
 
 " Given over to the selfishness of my own 
 thoughts," said Mrs. Spafford, smiling brightly
 
 132 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 on her. " I must bestir myself and try to be 
 social." 
 
 " Oh, don t. It seems to me to-night as 
 though every one were trying to be social. If 
 we could all give up trying for a little while 
 and just be it, without any effort, it would be 
 such a rest." 
 
 The undertone of intensit}* in her voice told 
 of such unrest that the listener was startled. 
 Moreover, she was surprised to hear such an 
 original and earnest sentence from this fair 
 follower of fashion. Truth to tell, Mrs. Evans 
 was just a little startled at herself, and made 
 haste to add : 
 
 "Oh, I don t mean that. I beg your pardon ; 
 it must have sounded very strangely to you. 
 I didn t think what I was saying." 
 
 "Does it really seem to you that there is 
 no genuine sociability in the world ; that it is 
 all simply outside effort?" 
 
 " Oh, dear, no ! That would be a dreadful 
 thing to say. I don t think I know what I 
 meant. I just happened to say it." 
 
 Mrs. Evans was manifestly frightened over 
 the thought that she had overstepped conven-
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 133 
 
 tionalitles. Mrs. Spafford undertook to reas 
 sure her. 
 
 " Oh, I know ; you were simply speaking 
 aloud your random thoughts. But I wonder 
 if there is not great truth in it? Wouldn t you 
 like to know, for instance, just ho\v much 
 genuine enjoyment there is in this house this 
 evening?" 
 
 " I don t believe there is much." 
 
 The tone in which Mrs. Evans spoke was 
 so almost fierce, that it told her companion 
 as well as words could have done of a mental 
 strain of some sort, so great as to unfit her 
 for enjoyment in such a place. Instantly there 
 came to her heart a longing to speak a com 
 forting word to this storm-tossed soul, whatever 
 might have caused the storm. How could she 
 do it ? Where begin ? Did the fair face, so 
 flushed just now with her own inner feeling, 
 belong to the King? If so, was the trial, or 
 the burden, or the annoyance beyond his power 
 of smoothing? She ventured a suggestion that, 
 if answered frankly, would give her light. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know. Are not many of these 
 people Christians, and are they ever other than
 
 134 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 happy, at least in a degree, when they are 
 doing that which seems to them a right and 
 proper thing to do ? " 
 
 Mrs. Evans looked utterly bewildered. 
 
 " Christians ! " she said, repeating the word 
 in a dazed way. " What can that have to do 
 with an evening party ? " 
 
 " My dear friend, what place in life is there 
 that a Christian has not to do with Christ ? " 
 
 " I don t believe I know what you mean." 
 
 The answer was so curiously simple and 
 direct that it embarrassed the questioner. She 
 hesitated what to say next. There was, how 
 ever, such a troubled look on the child face 
 turned toward her questioningly that she 
 longed to speak comfort. 
 
 "Aren t you one of His own?" 
 
 She spoke the words tenderly, and something 
 in the tone of the suggestion brought a rush 
 of tears to the young wife s face. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know," she said, hurriedly. 
 "I don t know what I am. It seems to me as 
 though I am less than nothing. I haven t the 
 kind of religion that you have that is if 
 you really mean that it has to do with every-
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 135 
 
 thing. I am a member of the Church, and 
 I try to help the Church along a little, as much 
 as I can, but I don t know how to do even 
 that. And that makes me remember that I 
 resolved, if ever I had an opportunity, to ask 
 you what I am afraid you will consider an 
 impertinent question, but I really don t mean 
 to be impertinent ; I ask it because I am in 
 search of help." 
 
 She had turned the edge of the conversa 
 tion in so skillful a manner that Mrs. Spafford 
 was afraid they would not get back to real 
 heart work; but she answered promptly and 
 cordially. 
 
 " You may ask me anything you please ; I 
 will promise not to be disturbed in the least." 
 
 "Well, then, I beg your pardon, but Mr. 
 Evans has a business acquaintance I believe 
 with your husband, and knows the amount 
 of his salary all business men know those 
 things of each other, I suppose " spoken in 
 an apologetic tone " and what I couldn t 
 help being perfectly bewildered over was your 
 having money to give for the church debt, 
 feeling sure that you would have it from month
 
 136 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 to month, you know ! I hope you will not 
 think this unpardonable impertinence." She 
 went on hurriedly : " I assure you it is not a 
 matter of mere idle curiosity." 
 
 " I am sure of it, my friend. I am not in 
 the least annoyed ; but I want to tell you 
 my answer illustrates what we were speaking 
 of a few minutes ago, that has to do with 
 Christ." 
 
 "What has?" 
 
 " Why, the money to give. I am not giving 
 my own money ; it is His, and he lets me 
 spend it on his work. If it were mine I might 
 be tempted to spend it on myself; but since 
 it belongs to him, of course it is a mere act 
 of common honesty to give it back to him." 
 
 Her listener looked amazed; it was as if 
 she were listening to an unknown tongue. 
 Then suddenly light broke over her face. " Do 
 you mean that what you give is a sum left 
 you in trust to use in this way?" 
 
 " That is really what it amounts to," Mrs. 
 Spafford said, perceiving meanwhile that her 
 companion did not understand, and that she 
 must speak plainly. "It is simply this, my
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 137 
 
 friend ; Mr. Spafford and I believe that the 
 old direction, or rather law, about consecrat 
 ing one-tenth of the income to the Lord, 
 holds good to-day. It wasn t instituted as a 
 type of Christ, you know, and therefore was 
 not annulled as the types were, when he came. 
 We think the tenth is as much his own to-day 
 as it ever was, and therefore we use it for 
 his work, he graciously permitting us to act 
 according to our judgment as to where to 
 spend it." 
 
 " But I don t see how you. can do it," per 
 sisted Mrs. Evans. " Rich people can, of 
 course, and people who are comfortably off, 
 but if one can not live on his income and keep 
 out of debt how has he a right to give part 
 of it away ? " 
 
 " Perhaps he hasn t the part that belongs 
 to him. But you. and I are talking about 
 the part that belongs to the Lord. I take it 
 that I have no more right to use his money 
 for my own needs than I would have to use 
 yours, should you give me some in trust." 
 
 " Oh, well," and there was a shade of cold 
 ness in the tones of Mrs. Evans voice. It
 
 138 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 was evident that she judged her companion 
 as a visionary person who could not or would 
 not talk every day language. " That is pleas 
 ant to dream over, I know ; but I don t un 
 derstand it. So far as your argument is con 
 cerned, I can t see why it would not apply 
 to all the money that we have ; it is all the 
 Lord s." 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Spafford, leaning forward 
 and speaking eagerly. "See here. Suppose 
 you were to give me a hundred dollars a 
 year, with this explanation ; I furnish you this, 
 or the means of securing this, for your own 
 needs ; you are to spend it as carefully and 
 as conscientiously as you can, for whatever you 
 intelligently believe it ought to be spent, with 
 this exception one-tenth of it is to be given 
 every year to the support of whatever object 
 you might choose to name. Would I have any 
 right to use the entire sum and say I had no 
 money for that cause." 
 
 Mrs. Evans eyes had a thoughtful, troubled 
 look, the illustration was so simple that she 
 could not fail to catch its force. 
 
 " I hardly know how to explain to you what
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 139 
 
 I think," she said hesitatingly. " But it seems 
 to me if I had plenty of money, and power 
 to do what I chose, I wouldn t impose such 
 a restriction on your little, when it was difficult 
 for you to make the ends meet." 
 
 " But suppose, dear friend, you were gifted 
 with the power of foreseeing all my future, and 
 knew it would be a world of good to me to 
 become personally interested in the various 
 benevolences of the day, and knew also that 
 you could make the ninety dollars left me 
 reach as far, or farther, than the one hundred ? " 
 
 "Do you really mean that people who give 
 systematically out of small incomes get along 
 better than those who do riot ? " 
 
 "I really believe that the Lord, when he 
 said, Give, and it shall be given unto you, 
 good measure, pressed down and shaken to 
 gether, and running over, shall men give into 
 your bosom, meant just what he said." 
 
 "I don t think many people believe in giv 
 ing a tenth of their income. Do you ? " 
 
 " Not many, perhaps ; and yet I believe there 
 is a larger proportion of such people than is 
 generally supposed. But the main question,
 
 140 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 after all, is whether the Lord Jesus believes 
 in it. If you have not examined the Bible 
 lately with special reference to this matter, 
 suppose 3 r ou and Mr. Evans take it up for 
 discussion and study. I should so much like 
 to know what conclusion you will arrive at." 
 
 A painful flush overspread Mrs. Evans face, 
 and, after a moment of embarrassed silence, 
 she said, in a low voice: 
 
 " My husband is not a Christian, Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford. We never study the Bible together about 
 any subject." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mrs. Spafford, and then she, 
 too, was embarrassed; so much so, that it 
 seemed to her there was really nothing left 
 to say. Perhaps she had peculiar ideas. Be 
 that as it may, she could not get away from 
 the feeling that to be a married woman, and 
 to have chosen for life one who could not sym 
 pathize fully with you on that most vital of 
 all subjects, was a cause for great and lasting 
 sorrow. What word of comfort was there that 
 she could speak? What she felt like saying 
 was : " How could you, how could you, loving 
 Christ, link your very soul to one who loved
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 141 
 
 Him not ! " But of what use to say this now. 
 Would it not even be cruel to say it? She 
 tried to gather her thoughts away from the 
 revelation so painful to her, and think of some 
 thing to say calculated to help this perturbed 
 soul. How could she best remind her that 
 there was all the more need for a close per 
 sonal union between her and Christ, since the 
 earthly union which was instituted in part to 
 symbolize the heavenly had fallen below its 
 mission ? " 
 
 While she hesitated, and the troubled look 
 on Mrs. Evans face in no way lessened, Mr. 
 Evans came over to their corner. A bow and 
 a cordial greeting for Mrs. Spafford, but no 
 time to tarry ; his business was with his wife. 
 
 "Lovely evening, is it not, Mrs. Spafford? 
 And this is a very pleasant entertainment. I 
 hope you are enjoying it. Eva, my dear, come 
 and fill out this set; two more are needed." 
 Mrs. Evans arose reluctantly. She did not 
 want to fill out the set ; she did want to stay 
 and talk with this quiet-faced woman, a woman 
 whose face indicated no shadow of inward un 
 rest. True, she did not understand her, and
 
 142 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 had been disappointed somewhat in the turn 
 that the conversation was taking, but she was 
 by no means ready to leave it. Mr. Evans, 
 however, spoke with the air of a man who was 
 accustomed to have his wife answer promptly 
 and with alacrity the call to dance, and led 
 her away with a smile and a bow. 
 
 Once more Mrs. Spafford was alone, and she 
 was still a trifle depressed. The evening was 
 going in no sense according to her planning. 
 
 Among her hopes had been this one of an 
 earnest talk with the young wife, whose trou 
 bles of various sorts were beginning to tell so 
 clearly on her face. But the talk had come 
 to naught ; had refused to turn itself into the 
 intended channel, and had finally been broken 
 into by a dance ! Some more unfinished work, 
 with no chance to take up the scattered stitches, 
 so far as she could see, and go on with it 
 again : 
 
 " Content to fill a little space, 
 IfThou art glorified." 
 
 The couplet said itself over and over in her 
 thought. They had been favorite lines in her 
 girlhood ; the whole poem had been a favorite
 
 Subtle Distinctions.- 143 
 
 with her mother. Well, she was content to fill 
 the little spaces ; it was what she had desired 
 to do this very evening. Quiet corners, with 
 here and there a word dropped for her Lord. 
 Such had been her plan ; but the plan had 
 not seemed to work. She had tried, so she 
 thought. Arid then she asked herself, had she 
 tried, after all ? Could she not have said bet 
 ter words to Will Coleman if her heart had 
 been more in it? Could she not, even in that 
 little moment, have helped the troubled wife 
 turned her directly to the great Helper. Was 
 it possible that her effort had been half-hearted ? 
 That the blue muslin had obtruded itself in a 
 way to distract her thoughts ? It seemed to 
 Mrs. Spafford a very discouraging evening. 
 
 But it was not yet over. She had just re 
 solved upon leaving her retreat and mingling 
 with the rest when it was again invaded. This 
 time a middle-aged woman, with prematurely 
 gray hair massed like a crown on ,her shapely 
 head, and the simplest and quietest of toilets, 
 less conspicuous than the blue muslin, dropped 
 into the other corner of the tete-a-tete. 
 
 " I think I shall have to introduce myself,"
 
 144 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 she said, pleasantly. "I am Mrs. Temple; a 
 long-continued absence from home has been all 
 that has prevented my calling on you ; I know 
 your husband." 
 
 Now what was there about this lady different 
 from those with whom she was surrounded? 
 Mrs. Spafford, even in the first moments of their 
 acquaintance, tried to analyze the charm. Re 
 fined, cultured, exceedingly well-bred so were 
 all those about them yet there was a subtle, 
 undefinable difference ; a something that drew 
 the younger lady s heart, and made her realize 
 even at this early moment that she was talking 
 with one in sympathy. What a delightful half- 
 hour it was that followed ! Their talk took a 
 wide range and touched upon a great variety 
 of subjects. On every one they were in sym 
 pathy. Thinking of it afterward, Mrs. Spafford 
 tried to recall how the lady made known her 
 connection with the great family of Christ. 
 She certainly did not say in so many words, " I 
 am a Christian," and yet it was apparent from 
 the very first. "She is a person to study," 
 Mrs. Spafford told herself ; " she carries the 
 atmosphere about with her. She almost wears
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 145 
 
 a uniform ; yet how simple and becoming it is." 
 
 " By the way," said the new acquaintance, 
 halt rising to leave her, then dropping back, 
 " have you organized as a church yet, for 
 the foreign work?" 
 
 " I am not sure that we are organized 
 for anything unless it may be festivals," Mrs. 
 Spafford said, laughing ; " but I don t believe 
 I know what you mean. Is there any special 
 organization?" 
 
 "My friend, didn t you know that we 
 women had taken a stride into the centre 
 of things, and are moving on the ranks in a 
 thoroughly organized and impressive manner ? " 
 
 Mrs. Spafford promptly confessed her en 
 tire ignorance, whereupon her new friend 
 launched forth into a description of the first 
 beginnings of the " Woman s Board." She 
 found Mrs. Spafford a ready listener and 
 an eager questioner, promptly possessing her 
 self of details with the manner of one who: 
 means to use them. 
 
 " But ten cents a month is such a very little 
 sum," she presently objected; "how can you 
 hope to accomplish much?"
 
 146 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " My dear, that is one of its beauties ; not 
 the accomplishing little, but the smallness of 
 the sum; don t you see it admits almost 
 every woman in Christendom ? I mean of 
 course the Christian women ; even the very 
 poor, whose hearts are in the work can come 
 into fellowship with us, and when the thousands 
 of Christian women rise up in force and pour 
 in their offerings of ten cents a month, unless 
 you have settled yourself with paper and 
 pencil and computed it as I have, you cannot 
 make yourself imagine what a grand sum total 
 it will be ! " 
 
 " I can have some faint conception of it," 
 the younger lady said, her eyes shining. 
 
 Here was a work in which she could partici 
 pate ; she thought of the box of jewels at 
 home, waiting for a channel through which 
 to flow ; not all waiting, it is true, for chan 
 nels were plenty, but she saw her way clear 
 to join this grand movement, and her question 
 ing grew more eager. How did they organize, 
 and when meet ? Who conduct the meetings ? 
 How were they conducted ? 
 
 "I ll tell you," Mrs. Temple said, increasing
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 147 
 
 in enthusiasm in proportion as her listener 
 warmed with the subject. Come down to 
 our next meeting; we meet on Thursday, in 
 the Twelfth Street Church ; there you will see 
 and hear, and get more than I could give you 
 in hours of talk. We have some grand ladies 
 on Twelfth Street who have taken hold of 
 the work with enthusiasm, and they will 
 be just the ones to help you ; oh, you must 
 organize, of course ; every church called by 
 the Master s name can not surely do less for 
 him than that." 
 
 " But, Mrs. Temple don t you find among 
 your members some who are not in sympathy 
 with the movement ? " 
 
 As Mrs. Spafford asked that question their 
 hostess flitted past them with a smile and bow, 
 and the questioner may have had a vision of 
 herself trying to interest Mrs. Bacon in the 
 new movement. 
 
 Mrs. Temple s voice dropped lower, and she 
 laid her ungloved hand impressively on her 
 neighbor s. 
 
 " My dear friend, we do not find one-third, 
 even one-third, of the Christian women of our
 
 148 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 church interested enough to attend to what we 
 are saying, and discover what we are trying 
 to do ! It is this fact that has roused me to 
 my present pitch of enthusiasm ; we have need 
 of missionaries right here at home ; we must 
 evangelize the Church of Christ, and get it 
 to take hold of its privileges ! " 
 
 " I liked that plainly dressed woman with 
 whom I was talking when you came up better 
 than all the rest of them put together. She is 
 simpler and plainer than the others, more like 
 my kind of women. I fancy I could go to her 
 house and enjoy a nice quiet little tea in a 
 very plain way and be happy in hearing her 
 talk. With most of them I felt a sort of not- 
 at-home feeling." 
 
 This opinion Callie confided to her husband 
 on their homeward walk. He, as he was much 
 given to doing when a good deal astonished, 
 indulged in the whistling of a strain or two of 
 music before he answered : 
 
 " My small, plain, modest little woman, do 
 you happen to know who the lady was with 
 whom you were conversing, and who is your 
 kind of people ? "
 
 Subtle Distinctions. 149 
 
 " I only know that she is Mrs. Temple, and 
 belongs in the Twelfth Street Church. 
 
 " Let me also inform you that her husband 
 is Junius J. Temple, Sr., the wealthiest man 
 in the length and breadth of the city ; and 
 their house in which you propose to take that 
 plain, quiet tea," is much the finest one that 
 can be found within a hundred miles of us." 
 
 "I don t care," his 1 wife said, laughing; 
 nevertheless, I felt at home with her. I 
 didn t think of money in connection with her, 
 nor of my blue dress. I can t describe to you 
 the difference, but some of the people kept me 
 all the time thinking about my blue muslin, 
 instead of attending to what they were saying."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " YET LACKEST THOU " 
 
 GREAT trial had come to Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford. Even the formidable one of hav 
 ing to say good-by to her husband for 
 the space of thirty-six hours, and spend an en 
 tire night alone in her pretty box of a house ! 
 The firm by whom he was employed, having 
 flinty hearts, had directed that the husband 
 should take the first morning train to a certain 
 inland town, there to transact some business, 
 and the earliest return train he could hope to 
 make was the evening one, thhty-six hours 
 afterward ! 
 
 Years afterward Mr. and Mrs. Spafford were 
 wont to look back upon this first sharp experi- 
 150
 
 "Yet Lackest Thou ." 151 
 
 ence with laughter, that it had really been so 
 sharp. Not that they learned to like separa 
 tion one whit better than on that first day, but 
 simply that all the strong, stern lessons of life 
 were behind instead of before them, with their 
 wealth of discipline, and they had come to 
 take calmly, philosophically, even thankfully, 
 because they were no worse, the little every-day 
 crosses that at first seemed so hard. But this 
 first day in which Mrs. Spafford ate her lunch 
 alone as usual, but without being able to look 
 forward to the six-thirty car, and the cheerful 
 little dinner that she should have .ready for 
 two, seemed to her one week long. 
 
 They had had a great time, her husband and 
 herself, planning for that lonely night. Gallic 
 Howell had spent many a night alone in her 
 boarding-house, up in the third story, almost as 
 far removed from neighbors as she was in this 
 little box, with neighbors close on every side. 
 But Gallic Howell alone and unprotected, and 
 Mrs. Warren Spafford with a husband to look 
 after her comfort, were two very different be 
 ings. The said husband very peremptorily 
 decided that she must on no account stay alone.
 
 152 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Then they cast about them for the proper one 
 to stand her protector during that long 
 night. 
 
 Viewed in the light of a protector, the one 
 whom they finally selected, or, more properly 
 speaking, who selected herself, was an amuse 
 ment to Callie. It happened that Jennie West 
 was among their afternoon callers, and on being 
 told of the circumstances, promptly offered her 
 services as night watchman. Thus it came 
 about that on Thursday evening it was Jennie, 
 who, with beautiful unbound hair flowing far 
 below her waist, sat in Mr. and Mrs. Spafford s 
 private room and talked, while Mrs. Spafford 
 moved around closing blinds, turning down 
 fastenings, and examining bolts and key-holes 
 in that restless manner which comes over lov 
 ingly-guarded wives ^when the protector is 
 away. 
 
 " Oh, do sit down," said Jennie, at last. 
 " You have slipped that bolt and slipped it 
 back again three times. I ll warrant it is as 
 safe now as you can make it. Do you fidget 
 around this way when Mr. Spafford is at 
 home?"
 
 "Yet Laclcest Thou ." 153 
 
 Whereupon Mrs. Spafford admitted, with a 
 shame-faced laugh that that particular bolt had 
 not been drawn before since they had occupied 
 the house. 
 
 " Well, then, what are you about to-night ? 
 I didn t know you had a cowardly streak in 
 your nature. Come and sit down ; I want to 
 talk with you. I will be responsible for any 
 robber who comes through that key-hole with 
 out your looking at it again." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford laughed and came away from 
 the key-hole, and let bolts and locks alone ; 
 but she did not sit down. She felt too restless 
 and lonely to settle herself for a talk with Jen 
 nie. She stood before the dressing bureau and 
 began to draw the pins out of her own hair, 
 and Jennie, apparently considering her as set 
 tled as she could be under the circumstances, 
 commenced her "talk." 
 
 " Callie, have you seen Will Coleman since 
 the evening of Mrs. Bacon s party ? " 
 
 " Only in the distance. I bowed to him at 
 the foot of Green Avenue yesterday." 
 
 "Well, did you know he was half vexed 
 with you? He thinks you were unnecessarily
 
 154 2 he Pocket Measure. 
 
 hard on him the other night. You are apt to 
 be severe, you know, Gallic." 
 
 " Am I ? Still, I can t recall anything I said 
 to Will that sounded hard. Did he particu 
 larize ? " 
 
 " Why, he said you called him a hypocrite, 
 outright." 
 
 " I guess not, Jennie." 
 
 "Well, a Pharisee, then something of the 
 sort. You as good as told him that he had 
 too high an opinion of himself. He said per 
 haps he had ; he knew some other people who 
 were troubled, in his estimation, with the same 
 fault ; but it wasn t exactly the thing to tell 
 them so to their faces. Oh, he was real cross. 
 I had all I could do to make him believe that 
 you couldn t have meant a word you said." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford turned an amused face toward 
 her champion. She was so indifferent as to 
 what Will Coleman thought of her personally, 
 that she could afford to laugh. 
 
 " My dear Jennie," she said, " did you con 
 sider that complimentary to me ? Don t you 
 know I always mean what I say ? Will is 
 evidently a little confused in his statements. I
 
 "Yet Lackest Thou ." 155 
 
 said not a word to him about hypocrites or 
 Pharisees. By the way, there is a shade of 
 difference in the meaning of the two words, 
 don t you think? What I did was to refer 
 him to a certain Bible verse which I said re 
 minded me of him when I read it. If he sees 
 more personal likeness there than I do, surely 
 I am not to blame, and he should not attribute 
 the knowledge to me. I am sorry I offended 
 him. Tell him to come and see me, and explain 
 what ought to be apologized for, and I ll at 
 tend to it. What I tried to do was to have a 
 serious talk with him ; he disappoints me in so 
 many ways." 
 
 " Disappoints you ! I don t know why he 
 should. You must be very hard to suit if Will 
 Coleman disappoints you. He is one of the 
 most moral young men I know." 
 
 " Jennie," said Mrs. Spafford, after a thought 
 ful pause, " I want to ask you a question now : 
 if you think it is rude you need not answer it, 
 you know. Are you engaged to Will Cole 
 man ? " 
 
 " Engaged ! What an idea ! And he a clerk 
 on a starving salary. Why, he can hardly sup-
 
 156 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 port himself. You don t suppose he thinks of 
 marrying ? " 
 
 "My dear, his salary is larger by several 
 hundreds than my husband s." 
 
 " Oh, well, you ! People are not all like you. 
 I never could manage things as you do plan 
 about every match I struck, and all that sort 
 of thing. Gallic, why on earth don t you bum 
 gas ? The idea of your poking around here 
 with a horrid, ill-smelling kerosene lamp, when 
 the gas is in every room ! Now, what is that 
 for?" 
 
 " Economy," said Mrs. Spafford, with a smil 
 ing face. " If you were a housekeeper you 
 would be aware that the gas in this region is 
 extremely expensive, and makes really a start 
 ling difference in the week s accounts. But my 
 friend, don t be guilty of slander. This is a 
 little gem of a lamp ; never thinks of smelling 
 badly unless some ignorant person turns the 
 wick too low, or ill-treats it in some way." 
 
 " Oh, well now, it s horrid, and you needn t 
 pretend you don t think so. The idea of having 
 to fill and trim the vile thing ! I tell you what 
 it is, Callie Howell, I think you have a harder
 
 "Yet Lackest Thou ." 157 
 
 time than when you were a poor school-teacher 
 and took care of yourself. And you see I never 
 could do it for anybody. I m not used to it. 
 It isn t as though I had money of my own. 
 That horrid life interest which my mother has 
 just spoils everything ; she can t give away 
 any of her money, even to me. Oh, there s no 
 use in talking ; I never could be a poor man s 
 wife." 
 
 " I by all means advise you never to become 
 one until you have changed your present views. 
 There are trials in the lot which you would un 
 doubtedly find hard to bear." 
 
 " There now, Gallic Howell ! I don t think 
 it will do for you to talk about folks being 
 hypocrites. Every time I have hinted at your 
 position as being cramped or discouraging, a 
 great deal harder than you were accustomed 
 to, you have put on the most complacent and 
 provo king smile, as if you were the most satis 
 fied of human beings, and here you as good as 
 own that you are sorry you ever undertook 
 it" 
 
 Mrs. Spafford turned entirely from the toilet 
 bureau and let her hair fall suddenly, and gave
 
 158 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Miss Jennie the benefit of a pair of dangerously 
 flashing eyes, as she said: 
 
 " You need to give very close attention to 
 what I say, Jennie, otherwise it is unsafe to talk 
 to you. Your habit of seizing a piece of a sen 
 tence and jumping at a conclusion makes it 
 difficult to carry on a conversation. I hinted 
 nothing of the kind. I advised, and do advise 
 most earnestly, that you never marry a poor 
 man until you change your present views of 
 things ; or, in other words, until you value 
 wealth less and hearts more. For myself, I 
 am not in the habit of spreading abroad my sat 
 isfaction ; but it seems necessary to speak rery 
 plainly to you, and I have no hesitation in tell 
 ing you that I would have married Warren 
 Spafford if his salary had been three hundred a 
 year instead of six, and that every day of my 
 life I go on my knees and thank God that I 
 am his happy wife. And I expect to thank 
 him, through whatever trial or perplexity that 
 may come, and I presume we shall have per 
 plexities and trials; I never supposed that 
 married life was made up of continuous beds 
 of roses ; but whatever happens or can happen
 
 "Yet LacJcest Thou ." 159 
 
 I shall continue to thank God that I am Warren 
 Spafford s wife. Until you can" be sure of such 
 a feeling as this toward the man whose name 
 you are to bear, without regard to the accidents 
 of wealth or poverty, I do most earnestly advise 
 you never to marry. Am I understood ? " 
 
 " Bless my heart," said Jennie West. " I 
 do believe, Callie Howell, that you would 
 have made a good actress ! I didn t know 
 that you had so much fire. What a pity 
 you couldn t have had the chance to try it. 
 I shouldn t wonder if you could have made 
 your fortune." 
 
 The blazing-eyed young matron turned 
 back to her glass and her hair, the light dying 
 out of her eyes, and her mouth breaking into 
 a smile ; she believed she had been a simpleton 
 for showing, or trying to show, Jennie West 
 a glimpse of her heart.* 
 
 "So you do not mean to marry Will 
 Coleman ? " She asked the question in her 
 usual, quiet tone. 
 
 " Not until he asks me, at least," with a 
 nervous little laugh. " What makes you 
 talk so much about his marrying? I believe
 
 160 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 he has as little idea of it as I have ; he knows 
 he cannot afford to support a wife. It would 
 make him miserable to bring a woman down 
 from a station in which she was fitted to shine, 
 and oblige her to live from hand to mouth, 
 as you and Mr. Spafford are obliged to do. He 
 as good as said so." 
 
 " Mr. Spafford and I are very much obliged 
 to him," the wife said, with curling lip. Then, 
 after another thoughtful pause " Jennie, I 
 don t know but you might mistake my mean 
 ing, in one respect; I am far from wishing 
 to see you the wife of Will Coleman ; and I 
 should think there ought to be insuperable 
 objection to him from another point of view 
 than his povert} r ." 
 
 "I can t imagine why" Jennie s eyes 
 flashed now " there isn t a more perfect 
 gentleman in the entire city. He has had 
 the advantages of good society all his life 
 \f he is poor, and he has a real good educa 
 tion. I m sure people consider him unex 
 ceptionable." 
 
 "Is he a Christian?"
 
 "Yet Lackest Thou ." 161 
 
 " Oh, well, he isn t a church-member, if 
 that is what you mean." 
 
 " It isn t what I mean. I am talking about 
 being a Christian. It has always seemed 
 to me almost as plain as the ten commandments 
 that the Bible pronounced against a Christian 
 marrying an unconverted person." 
 
 " I think that is all nonsense ! " burst forth 
 Jennie, with burning cheeks. " How many 
 people do it ? Half of our church, I do 
 believe, is made up of women whose husbands 
 hardly ever come to church even ; they are 
 not members, anyway ; and yet they support 
 the church with their money, and all that." 
 
 " My dear Jennie, does your Bible read, 
 " Do as half of our church does about these 
 matters, or does it individualize responsi 
 bilities ? " 
 
 " Well, I don t care. If I wanted to marry 
 a man I wonld, whether he was a church- 
 member or not." 
 
 " Whether he was a Christian or not, do 
 you mean?" 
 
 "Yes, I do." 
 
 " But, Jennie, you don t mean that you
 
 162 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 would not try first to discover what the Bible 
 said about the matter, and what Christ wanted 
 you to do ? " 
 
 " The Bible doesn t say anything about it." 
 " How can two walk together unless the}*- 
 be agreed?" 
 
 " We are agreed," said Jennie, softly, with 
 deeply flushing cheeks. " I never saw any 
 person who suited me more perfectly, met 
 my ideal more fully, than Will Coleman. 
 And as for his being a member of the church, 
 what difference does that make ? Look how 
 regular he is in attendance ; always at church 
 and at prayer-meeting ; he told me himself that 
 he hadn t missed a Wednesday evening since 
 he came up to the branch store, and that he 
 was a regular stand-by; the people depended 
 on him as much as they did on the minister. 
 Look at that for an example ! Bless me ! I ve 
 missed half a dozen Wednesday evenings 
 this spring, and Will told me himself that 
 you and Mr. Spafford were both away one 
 evening." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Spafford, quietly ; " my 
 husband was detained down town until nearly
 
 "Yet Lackest Thou ." 163 
 
 nine o clock, and I had no one to go with." 
 
 " That s it," (spoken in triumphant tones) ; 
 " church-members are always being detained, 
 but you never hear Will Coleman making 
 such excuses. I heard him myself once de 
 cline an invitation to a club-meeting on the 
 plea that it was prayer-meeting evening." 
 
 " And boasted over it to the next half 
 hearted Christian he met, I am almost certain." 
 This Mrs. Spafford thought, but did not say. 
 What was the use in talking with Jennie? 
 
 The next question was put hesitatingly, 
 as one who was feeling her ground: 
 
 " Jennie, are you making Will a subject 
 of special and persistent prayer?" 
 
 " Of course I pray for him ; I do for all 
 my friends, though I think this minute he 
 is a great deal better than I am ; I need his 
 prayers ever so much more than he needs 
 mine. I don t know what you mean by 
 persistent prayer. It sounds rather irreverent 
 to me." 
 
 Then there came to Mrs. Spafford s heart 
 the same doubtful twinge that she had felt 
 so often before for Jennie; as to whether
 
 164 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 she herself had really the root of the matter 
 in her, or was only, as she was so fond of 
 expressing it, a " church-member." But there 
 was still one question that she wanted to 
 ask; she had been trying to get to it all 
 the evening. 
 
 "Are you never a well a little troubled 
 about one of Will s habits, lest it may grow 
 on him?" 
 
 "No, I never was troubled for a minute 
 about any habit of Will Coleman s. What do 
 you mean ? " 
 
 Then did Mrs. Spafford wish she had 
 not spoken, but now she must go on. 
 
 "You know at these large parties that he 
 attends he frequently takes wine ? Have 
 you never feared it might grow into a 
 habit?" 
 
 " I wonder who doesn t ! There isn t a 
 gentleman in our set, so far as I know, who 
 refuses it. Troubled at that ! The idea ! 
 Gallic Howell, I believe you would like to 
 put all young men into a rose-lined work- 
 box and keep the key yourself I " 
 
 "I would like to put their names on a
 
 " Yet Lackest Thou ." 165 
 
 total abstinence pledge," she said firmly. 
 "And I don t hesitate to say that I tremble 
 for all young men whose names are not there, 
 unless indeed their feet are anchored on the 
 Rock, and their paths shielded by Christ him 
 self; the pledge is only a crutch of course." 
 
 Jennie West was getting very angry. 
 
 " For my part," she said, haughtily, " I 
 would just as soon a man would drink wine 
 as to smoke cigars. I don t see the difference 
 between them that you seem to." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford s cheeks glowed hotly now, 
 but she steadied her voice into calmness. 
 
 " Yes Jennie, I see a difference, and I 
 think, so do you ; but I do not uphold smok 
 ing, you very well know." 
 
 " Yet you married a man who smokes cigars 
 every day of his life; a dozen of them, for 
 what I know. I wonder you would be guilty 
 of marrying him since you are so par 
 ticular." 
 
 "I didn t know it." 
 
 The very instant that she had said those 
 words she wished them unsaid. Well she 
 might.
 
 166 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Didn t know it ! " repeated Jennie. " Well 
 upon my word ! He deceived you, then, 
 this paragon of a husband ! and here you have 
 been rhapsodizing to me over the bliss of 
 your married state ! Really, Gallic, I don t 
 think 3^011 ought to preach any more to 
 night." 
 
 The hair was bound up long ago for the 
 night, and Mrs. Spafford had nothing to do 
 with her eyes but to give Jennie the benefit 
 of the blazing light in them but her voice 
 was quiet enough. 
 
 " Perhaps it would be better not to talk any 
 more to-night, since we seem incapable of un 
 derstanding each other. You ought to know 
 that my husband is not a man given to decep 
 tion of any sort, at any time. He has grown 
 up from very young manhood with the habit 
 of smoking one not a dozen but one cigar 
 a day. If he thought anything about it, he 
 supposed I knew it, but his education has been 
 different from mine in this matter, and he re 
 gards it as a trivial thing. I do not, and had 
 I known of it before we were married, we 
 should have talked about it together ; since
 
 "Yet Lackert Thou ." 167 
 
 I did not, there was no way by which he could 
 discover my views. But you know, and I know, 
 that there is a wide difference between smok 
 ing a cigar a day, and drinking a glass of wine 
 a day. You and I know that earnest Christian 
 men of to-day do the one with impunity, and 
 the other almost never. I think neither are 
 right, but I make a wide path between the 
 degrees of wrong. But, Jennie, even if your 
 sneer was a true one, are not the cases very 
 different? You are a younger woman than I 
 by several years ; you are not only unmarried, 
 but, according to your own statement, unbound 
 by any pledges, or even intentions ; while I am 
 married. What is proper for me to say in 
 friendly warning or suggestion to you, about 
 one who is only a friend, might become a 
 gross insult for you to say to me about the 
 man whom I have sworn to love and honor as 
 long as my life lasts, might it not ? " 
 
 Said Jennie : " Let s "go to bed. I m sick 
 and tired of the whole subject." 
 
 And the}- went to bed.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 "THEY MEASURING THEMSELVES BY THEM 
 SELVES ABE NOT WISE." 
 
 MEANTIME, could you have looked in 
 at Will Coleman s room, you would 
 have found him, one evening, reaching 
 to the row of walnut shelves which contained 
 his books, and bringing therefrom a hand 
 somely bound copy of the Holy Bible. He 
 surveyed it with a critical eye, then blew the 
 dust carefully from its gilt edges, commenting 
 the while after this fashion: 
 
 " My landlady doesn t look after dust much 
 more carefully than she does after some other 
 things ; that s a fact. I really wish she would 
 
 1 63
 
 "They Are Not Wise," 169 
 
 take better care of these books ; I don t believe 
 they have been disturbed in a week ! " 
 
 Then he opened it, naturally first, to the fly 
 leaves ; there had been times when it annoyed 
 him to have the habit of looking at the fly 
 leaf so frequently that it had learned appar 
 ently to linger of its own accord. There was 
 the writing, a trifle irregular, as though by a 
 hand which, from age or hard work or emotion, 
 trembled a little : 
 
 " To iny dear son William, on his nineteenth 
 birthday. From his loving mother, Eunice 
 Coleman." Then, underneath, still in the same, 
 somewhat unsteady hand : " Search the Scrip 
 tures, that they may make you wise unto 
 salvation, is the constant prayer of your 
 mother." 
 
 It is a sad truth that, irreproachable life as 
 he had lived, there had been times when Will 
 Coleman wished heartily that his Bible would 
 get over its habit of opening to that leaf; for 
 he was uncomfortably conscious that in certain 
 things, and things which she considered vital, 
 he disappointed his mother. He opened quickly 
 into the middle of the book, having no desire
 
 170 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 on this particular evening, to linger over home 
 memories ; besides, he was curious to know what 
 verse in the Bible he reminded Mrs. Spafford 
 of. It was several days since he had made a 
 memorandum of the verse ; matters which he 
 considered of more importance had for the 
 time being driven it from his thoughts ; now, 
 although he was dressing for an evening enter 
 tainment, having come in contact again with 
 the memorandum, he paused in the act of fast 
 ening his cravat, and searched *for the verse. 
 Then he read it over slowly, carefully, with a 
 deeply flushing face, and presently, with a 
 curling lip : 
 
 " The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with 
 himself : * God, I thank thee that I am not as 
 other men are. " 
 
 Not exactly his language, to be sure, and 
 certainly never addressed to God ! Yet this 
 young man was fully conscious of possessing a 
 sort of exultant feeling when he measured his 
 fair life with that of many he was almost in 
 clined to say most young men. He knew it 
 was irreproachable from a dozen standpoints, 
 where others, who made more pretensions than
 
 "They Are Not Wise." 171 
 
 he, failed. " I fast twice in the week ; I give 
 tithes of all that I possess." 
 
 Had not Mrs. Spafford more than once heard 
 him say, with a complacent air and smile, 
 that he was as regular in attendance at the 
 young people s prayer-meeting and the general 
 prayer-meeting as the minister himself? Had 
 he not, in the presence of her husband, only 
 last week, said, with a smile and a bow, " Cer 
 tainly, I always lay aside a trifle for that pur 
 pose," in response to a paper which was pre 
 sented him for some benevolent object. A 
 paper, too, that had just been peremptorily, not 
 to say haughtily, refused by his employer, him 
 self a church-member? Young Coleman felt 
 the blood coursing through his veins in a very 
 unpleasant manner. 
 
 "Well," he told himself, "what if I have 
 said those things ? Aren t they true, I should 
 like to know ? What does Callie Ho well mean 
 by calling me a hypocrite ? Whatever may be 
 said of me, I certainly am not that. Thank 
 goodness, I make no professions that I don t 
 live up to ; and that is more than can be said 
 of two-thirds of the church-members." There
 
 172 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 it was again : he thought of it even while he 
 was excusing himself to himself: " God, 1 thank 
 thee that I am not as other men." Was he 
 actually disposed to say that to God? If he 
 prayed at all, would such be the language of 
 his prayer ? Strangely fascinated by the simple 
 story, he read on : 
 
 "And the publican, standing afar off, would 
 not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, 
 but smote upon his breast, saying, God be 
 merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you this man 
 went down to his house justified rather than 
 the other; for every one that exalteth himself 
 shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself 
 shall be exalted." 
 
 Then all the pride in this young man s heart 
 rose up in rebellion, and his lip curled in scorn. 
 He did not believe that he was a sinner ! That 
 is, not much of a sinner ; a nice respectable one 
 he was, he supposed, judged by. certain narrow 
 theological rules, but not .such an one as would 
 make the language of that prayer applicable 
 to him. Certainly, if to be what people like 
 his mother and Gallic Howell called Chris 
 tians, it was necessary to use such language as
 
 "They Are Not Wise." 173 
 
 that, he couldn t see how he could ever accom 
 modate them by being one. " For I honestly 
 don t feel it, so how can I say it?" he said 
 aloud, adding, " Thank goodness, I m no hypo 
 crite." Then he closed the Bible with a bang, 
 and went on with his interrupted toilet in hot 
 haste, and it was that evening that Jennie 
 West had been obliged to labor with him to 
 convince him that Mrs. Spafford had not meant 
 a word she said. 
 
 Then was this the end of Mrs. Spafford s 
 effort to speak a plain word to the young 
 man ? It was by no means the end, though 
 Will Coleman did his best to make an end 
 to the matter. He grew angry exceedingly 
 over the persistency with which those verses 
 clung to him, starting up to repeat themselves 
 on the slightest provocation, until all comfort 
 in his superiority was well-nigh quoted out of 
 this young man. 
 
 It was, perhaps, nearly a week afterward that 
 he seated himself deliberately in his room, one 
 evening, with a determination to think this 
 whole matter out and be done with it. 
 
 What was there in it all that so annoyed
 
 174 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 him ? When he really sifted out the truth, 
 Mrs. Spafford had not told him he was 
 hypocritical, she had merely said he reminded 
 her of the man who was better than his neigh 
 bors ; no, M r ho thought himself better. This 
 was a sore spot; here he winced. Was he, 
 then, mistaken in his estimate of himself, 
 and did his better self really recognize it, and 
 did that make the hurt? In truth, Will 
 Coleman was puzzled over his own heart ! 
 
 "I am better," he boldly declared, and 
 he said it aloud. " Now, what s the use in 
 mincing matters? I m ahead of all those 
 fellows who belong to the church and they 
 know it ; why shouldn t I ? Why should I 
 be expected to go around smiting my breast, 
 and calling myself a miserable sinner, when 
 I am no such thing ? " 
 
 No sooner had he said the words than 
 that hot, convicting blush rolled into his 
 cheek again. Away back in his childhood 
 there had been a Sabbath afternoon when he 
 stood at his mother s knee and recited his 
 verse, preparatory to going to Sabbath- 
 school :
 
 "They Are Not Wise." 175 
 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord th} God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy strength, and with all thy mind." 
 
 " Willie," the mother had said, " do you 
 understand that verse ? " 
 
 ""Yes rii," had Willy replied with the de 
 licious indifference of childhood to the deeper 
 meanings of the truth. But the mother had 
 continued : 
 
 "You see, Willie, whatever else you may 
 do, however obedient you may be to mamma, 
 and kind to the poor, and good-natured and 
 all that, if you don t love God, love him so 
 much that you will want to please him all 
 the time, want to find out his will, it all 
 goes for nothing." 
 
 This idea in varied language had been taught 
 him so thoroughly that there was no use 
 in these, his later days, of trying to ignore 
 it, and act as one who had not been taught. 
 The question was, did he wish to swing loose 
 from the teachings of his childhood as one 
 who had grown beyond them ? No, he had 
 no wish of this kind. 
 
 Fortunately for him, his education had been
 
 176 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 fair, and he was possessed of fair average tal 
 ent, was an average logician, had looked 
 into the various isms of the day, deep enough 
 to see their utter want of logic and common- 
 sense, and had smiled in a superior manner 
 on them all. "A man who is an infidel is 
 a fool," had been his composed and satisfactory 
 method of sweeping away all these ideas from 
 his brain. He went farther than this, he took 
 rather more than a superficial look into the 
 evidences of Christianity, the authenticity of 
 the Scriptures, arid kindred studies, the con 
 sequence being that he asserted emphatically, 
 " the man who rejects the Bible is a fool ! " 
 On occasion he could argue in favor of these 
 positions, and argue well. He was rather 
 fond of arguing. Is it strange, then, when 
 he deliberately for almost the first time in 
 his life sat himself down to give the matter 
 earnest thought, that a voice at his elbow 
 seemed to repeat the sentence: "Out of 
 thine own mouth will I condemn thee?" 
 
 Was it a bit of bewildering sophistry, or was 
 it solemn truth and the deep conviction of his 
 own conscience that seemed to oblige him,
 
 "They Are Not Wise: 177 
 
 reasoning from analogy, to say : " The man 
 who, believing fully in the Bible, and in Christ 
 as he is revealed in the Bible, fails to follow his 
 plain directions, is a fool ! " Was it possible 
 that he, Will Coleman, the gentleman and the 
 logician, was obliged by the force of his own 
 logic to condemn his hitherto much admired 
 course in life ? He shifted his position impa 
 tiently and tried to rid himself of his conclusion. 
 " What folly ! " he said aloud. " What utter 
 folly, anyway ! As if a man could will himself 
 to love a being. I don t love God ; I suppose 
 there is really no doubt of that ; such being 
 the case, how am I to help it?" But those 
 Bible verses, recited at his faithful mother s 
 knee, recited again and again to a faithful Sab 
 bath-school teacher, but dimly understood then, 
 even with the most careful explanation, clear 
 as sunlight to-day, trooped up before him. " A 
 new heart will I give you, saith the Lord, and 
 a new spirit will I put within you." " You 
 hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses 
 and sins." " If any man be in Christ he is a 
 new creature." Will Coleman had been en 
 tirely familiar with the theory of conversion
 
 178 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 almost since his babyhood. He knew per 
 fectly well that his affections, so far as God was 
 concerned, were dead, that he was powerless to 
 move them, that they needed a resurrection, 
 and that it was the Spirit that quickened. He 
 knew also, that this quickening, according to 
 the unalterable laws of the unchanging God 
 would never take place until he himself delib 
 erately went to God through Christ, and iisked 
 for new life in his soul. " Ask and ye shall 
 receive," he knew and believed that it was just 
 as simple as that. Yet he had never asked ! 
 Why not ? The simple and unpalatable truth 
 that stared him in the face was because he did 
 not desire. He actually did not want to love 
 God. 
 
 Then he shifted his argument, or tried to. 
 "Well," pettishly, as a spoiled child might 
 answer one who was arguing with him, " how 
 can I help that ? If 1 don t want to, I don t. 
 Shall I pretend that I do ? " Even as he said 
 it, his face flushed, and he was sensible of being 
 glad that no one was by to hear such folly. 
 Instantly his reasoning mind took up a parallel 
 and showed it to him :
 
 "They Are Not Wise" 179 
 
 " I don t want to go to the store to-day ; shall 
 I then go, and thus be gnilty of pretending 
 that I do ? Is this matter of going to the store 
 a duty ? If it is, shall I be so puerile as to 
 shake it off, and stay at home, because I happen 
 not to want to go ? " What have whims to 
 do with a reasonable man s business? Since 
 he was a reasoning being, could he avoid see 
 ing where such logic led him? "I ought to 
 go to God on my knees, and tell him frankly 
 that I see the way clear enough; I see that 
 I am not a Christian, and that I ought to be, 
 and that I have no special desire to be, and let 
 him do with me as he will. Shall I do it ? " 
 
 Awful question ! " I ought to give back 
 this thousand dollar draft which I have stolen. 
 Shall I?" 
 
 When a young man reaches the point where 
 he will deliberately say, " I ought," and then 
 questions, " Shall I ? " he is trying to stand on 
 slippery places. Not for one instant would 
 Will Coleman have put the claims of the owner 
 of a stolen draft in the balance and weighed 
 them thus, but the claims of the Son of God 
 he hesitated and argued over. As he walked
 
 180 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 the floor and thought of the matter, he found 
 himself unwilling to say " I will do it." And 
 yet, so clear was his sense of danger, almost 
 equally unwilling to say, " I will not do it." 
 When Satan cannot succeed in making delib 
 erate decisions on his side, he at once suggests 
 compromise. "What is the use in trying to 
 settle such an important question as this to 
 night? Suppose I sleep over it? Suppose I 
 talk it over with some one to-morrow ? Some 
 Christian ? " 
 
 " What for ? " asked his conscience. " Isn t 
 the way perfectly plain to you ? " 
 
 " Hush ! " said he sternly, to his conscience. 
 "I will not be driven. To-morrow evening 
 will be the prayer-meeting ; I will go, as usual ; 
 I will talk the whole matter over with some 
 one in a reasonable manner, and settle it once 
 for all." 
 
 " Suppose you make that long-promised call 
 on Mrs. Spafford," hinted a voice which he 
 did not recognize as conscience. " You have 
 always respected her religion, and you know 
 you respect her brains." 
 
 "You don t want to talk with Mrs. Spafford,"
 
 "They Are Not Wise." 181 
 
 said that mysterious other voice which seemed 
 somehow to be gaining control of him. " She 
 is almost fanatical in her notions. You know 
 that Jennie West laughs at them, friend and 
 admirer though she is. What is to hinder 
 your having a serious talk with Jennie West ? 
 You never give her any opportunity to talk 
 about these matters with you. What right 
 have you to conclude that she is not as deeply 
 interested in you as Mrs. Spafford is, though 
 she doesn t keep harping on the subject all 
 the while. Mrs. Spafford, remember, as good 
 as called you a hypocrite. Perhaps if you 
 should go to her she would think you were 
 just talking for effect." 
 
 "I ll do it," he said aloud, relieved that 
 some decision had been reached, ignoring mean 
 time the last suggestion, because he did not 
 want to look closely into this plan of talking 
 the matter over with any one, for fear it would 
 be made apparent to his own inner conscious 
 ness that effect or delay, or something of that 
 sort, was precisely what he was after. 
 
 " I ll write a note to Miss Jennie and ask 
 her to accompany me to the prayer-meeting to-
 
 182 .The Pocket Measure. 
 
 morrow evening. She never goes when she is 
 up here ; I suppose because she has no one to 
 go with. Mrs. Evans never thinks of going. 
 She is another of your church-members ! Jen 
 nie will be glad to go, and then she and I 
 will talk this thing up. I d like to have Jennie 
 talk to me. I suppose Mrs. Spafford has given 
 her reason to think that I am not a safe person 
 to talk with about these matters, she has such 
 a poor opinion of me." 
 
 And there floated through this strange young 
 man s brain a notion that for one reason he 
 could almost say he would like to be a Chris 
 tian, just to show people a few things. If he 
 ever was converted, he told himself, he would 
 certainly show that same Mrs. Spafford that 
 lie was altogether a different sort of a Christian 
 from her cigar-smoking husband, who could 
 be detained in the city until after time for 
 prayer-meeting just as well as not, and who 
 staid at. home from church on Sunday with 
 headache occasionally. He always had a sneer 
 for Sunday headache Christians, did this young 
 man, and there is an excusing word to be 
 spoken for him, too. During his short life he
 
 "They Are Not Wise." 183 
 
 had come in contact with so many of them ! 
 Not that Warren Spafford by any means be- 
 lon^ed to the class with which he had been 
 
 O 
 
 Ltmiliar, but it is often the case in this narrow- 
 visioned world that people are classified who 
 do not in the least belong together. 
 
 Young Coleman ceased his nervous walk up 
 and down his somewhat narrow quarters, 
 opened his writing-desk, selected the most 
 delicately-perfumed sheet of note paper he 
 possessed, and proceeded, with a chirography 
 that was almost as beautiful as copper-plate 
 to prepare his note : 
 
 " Miss Jennie West : Dear Friend : Can 
 you be prevailed upon to give me the pleasure 
 of your company to-morrow evening ? Both 
 eration ! " That word is not included in the 
 formula that was being written. It was an 
 nounced in explosive tones by the writer, the 
 immediate cause being that, as he had the 
 misfortune to be located in the second story 
 back of the boarding house, where the gas did 
 not come, he was making use of a kerosene 
 lamp, which at that inopportune moment sud 
 denly dimmed, halted irresolutely for a second
 
 184 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 then disappeared, leaving him in total darkness. 
 After which, as a matter of dire necessity, the 
 hour being late, he stumbled and grumbled 
 himself to bed.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR. 
 
 & 
 
 T was with a great many little inward 
 flutters of satisfaction that Mrs. Spafford 
 went about her small house one Thurs 
 day, making preparations for leaving it to 
 its own quiet for a few hours. Perhaps it is 
 one of the compensations to those who live 
 simple, quiet lives, that small pleasures are 
 intensified and enjoyed with a zest that 
 persons who live in excitement know nothing 
 about. The mere going down town of a 
 pleasant afternoon, and returning again with 
 her husband, was an event in Mrs. Spafford s 
 life, for street-car fares were guarded care 
 fully, therefore it fell to her lot to go rarely. 
 185
 
 186 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 i 
 
 She had determined, however, to avail her 
 self of Mrs. Temple s invitation and attend 
 the missionary meeting. Despite her husband s 
 revelation as to Mrs. Temple s social status, 
 the youthful matron felt that one of the thrills 
 of satisfaction proceeded from the thought 
 of meeting that lady again. 
 
 " I can t help it if she is rich," she said 
 to herself, with a happy smile, as she arrayed 
 herself for the street. "She is very pleasant 
 and cordial, and I am going to like her just 
 as much as I want to. What an absurd idea 
 that because she is rich and I am poor, there 
 should necessarily be a gulf between us ! 
 Besides, I m not poor ; I hardly know of a 
 person who is less so." 
 
 I am not sure that I .can explain to you 
 what a sense of satisfaction it gave Mrs. 
 Spafford to be greeted among that company 
 of Christian women. Directly she entered 
 the church she felt it that subtle atmosphere 
 of congeniality. She was at home. She was 
 in sympathy witli the words that were being 
 read from the Bible. She was in sympathy 
 with the prayer that followed the sweet,
 
 Perfect Love Oasteth out Fear. 187 
 
 clear-voiced petitioner was her new-found friend, 
 Mrs. Temple. As she rose from her knees 
 she rejoiced over the thought that all these 
 grand, good women were friends. The truth 
 is, if you are in sympathy with the atmos 
 phere which surrounded her, you will know 
 all about what she felt in being led into the 
 circle of Christian sisterhood. If you are 
 not, no words of mine can possibly make 
 it plain to you. Still, life did not go smoothly 
 even here. It transpired that there was some 
 thing, some duty to perform, which in itself 
 Mrs. Spafford judged must be a severe ordeal ; 
 for, during the singing of the hymn, 
 
 " Must Jesus bear the cross alone, 
 
 And all the world go free ? 
 No, there s a cross for every one, 
 
 And there s a cross for me," 
 
 Mrs. Temple slipped softly from one to an 
 other and preferred some request, which Mrs. 
 Spafford, interested as she was in the hymn, 
 and joining in it as she did with the full 
 strength of her cultured voice, could not but
 
 188 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 see met with demur, with shruggings of shoul 
 ders, with distressed negatives, and, as the 
 petitioner plead, the refusals became more 
 emphatic in manner, until one and another, 
 and yet another lady had been interviewed, 
 with the same result. What could be wanted ? 
 She was soon destined to know, for Mrs. 
 Temple, raised her head with a troubled air, 
 and looking about her irresolutely as they 
 began the third verse of the hymn, spied her 
 new acquaintance and came speedily toward 
 her. 
 
 " I m so glad to see you / she whispered, 
 with a cordial hand-clasp. " And I do wonder 
 if the dear Lord has not sent you to me just 
 now as a helper? Dear Mrs. Spafford, I am 
 in an embarrassing dilemma. Several of our 
 ladies, who are nearly always present, strangely 
 enough are absent this afternoon, and I have 
 really no one on whom to depend. Wouldn t 
 you be so kind I know it is too hard to 
 ask you, at your first coming, and you an 
 entire stranger in our midst but if you 
 would feel that you could offer prayer with 
 us I would be so glad."
 
 Perfect Love Castcth out Fear. 189 
 
 Now, I shall have to admit to you that 
 Mrs. Spafford was startled and embarrassed. 
 It was a new experience to her. She felt 
 the hot blood mounting in waves to her fore 
 head, and knew that the hand which Mrs. 
 Temple still held trembled visibly. 
 
 . Poor child," said Mrs. Temple soothingly, 
 as one who was more than twenty years her 
 senior had a right to speak to the young matron. 
 "It is too hard; I ought not to ask you." 
 
 Yet Mrs. Spafford s embarrassment did 
 not proceed from the source to which it was 
 credited. She was astonished and perplexed 
 to discover that the cross which was pressing 
 so heavily on this company of Christian women 
 was simply to present their desires to their 
 loving, sympathizing, all-powerful Lord ! How 
 could they shrink from it in this way ? What 
 was there that should be expected to so 
 disturb her ? Was it something different from 
 prayer more than prayer that they wanted ? 
 Was it expected that a missionary prayer 
 should make wise reference to the different 
 mission stations and their work, and present 
 intelligently the special needs of each field?
 
 190 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 That indeed she could not do, and she re 
 cognized a chance for embarrassment in the 
 admission of the fact that she, a woman and a 
 Christian in this nineteenth century, was not 
 posted. But then, immediately she reflected 
 that prayer was different from any other ex 
 ercise, in that the one addressed needed -no 
 information, was thoroughly acquainted with 
 the needs of all mission fields and the desires 
 of all human hearts, and yet had chosen that 
 the heart-cry should go out from his children, 
 " O Lord, thou knowest. Do unto us even as 
 thou hast said." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford, though lamentably conscious 
 of her ignorance as regarded the work of for 
 eign missions, yet knew that her heart desired 
 their greatest good, and was acquainted with 
 the One to whom to bring their case. Why, 
 then, should it be considered so serious a 
 thing ? Thought is not unlike chain lightning, 
 you know, and while they were singing one 
 line of the hymn, now alarmingly near its close, 
 this woman had gone over the ground at which 
 I have hinted, and ^come back to her starting- 
 point.
 
 Perfect Love Casteth out Fear. 191 
 
 "What is it you want, Mrs. Temple? A 
 specific prayer for some special mission and its 
 workers, mentioning them by name ? Because, 
 if you do, I am ashamed to tell you that I 
 do not understand the work well enough to 
 lead you." 
 
 " Oh, my dear child, no ! We do not want 
 an address in the form of a prayer; we want 
 simply to have our hearts brought close to the 
 heart of Christ, and his help asked for this 
 meeting this day." 
 
 "Then I will be glad to pray," said Mrs. 
 Spafford, simply, and she did k not know that 
 she was saying a strange thing. She had Jived 
 in another world than theirs ; she had been 
 brought up with a mother, with whom to pray 
 was to talk with a clear and familiar Friend. 
 She had attended from her earlier girlhood a 
 weekly prayer-meeting with her mother where 
 the ladies prayed together precisely as they 
 talked together, feeling no more embarrassment 
 in the one instance than in the other. She had 
 begun by feeling a degree of nervous tremor, 
 it is true, at the sound of her own voice before 
 so many; but there had been no great gulf
 
 192 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 placed between the thought of conversing before 
 others and the thought of praying before them. 
 Indeed, Gallic Howell, when a girl of sixteen, 
 had expressed herself naively to her mother 
 after this fashion : 
 
 " Wiry, mother I would rather pray than say 
 anything to the people about any particular sub 
 ject, because one cannot help thinking that 
 they may criticise the way you are saying it, 
 or the thought itself, but of course I remember 
 that Jesus Christ never criticises my prayer, 
 and that the people are all engaged in speaking 
 to him at the same time, and therefore are 
 not thinking of me." 
 
 As a .teacher it had for 3*ears been her privi 
 lege to lead young ladies prayer-circles ; pre 
 sent for many a timid heart its cry for help, its 
 burden of sorrow, until prayer had come to be 
 to her what it ought to be to every human 
 heart, a privilege and a joy. Her embarrass 
 ment you will perceive arose simply and solely 
 from astonishment over the thought that she 
 was expected to consider a cross and a trial what 
 was to her a joy. A curious suggestion that 
 perhaps she ought not to feel so ready to offer,
 
 Perfect Love Casteth out Fear. 193 
 
 that which others, so much older and wiser, 
 and in every sense better than herself, visibly 
 shrank from, presented itself to haunt her. If 
 Satan could command a moment of admira 
 tion from any of his tempest-tossed victims, it 
 would surely be on account of his unwearying 
 ingenuity. 
 
 Of course the matter was all settled in much 
 less time than it has taken me to present its 
 phases to you, and Mrs. Spafford received Mrs. 
 Temple s relieved, " Oh, thank you, my dear," 
 and she had heard her name called as one 
 who would lead them in prayer, and she had 
 bowed with the rest, and for the first two or 
 three sentences her heart kept up its question 
 ing tumult, and well-nigh drove her from her 
 refuge. Then the force of habit and the force 
 of will asserted themselves nay, rather the 
 Spirit brooded over her, " helped her infirmi 
 ties," and she was enabled to shut them all 
 out, all the questionings and embarrassments, 
 and come as a child to its father with her sim 
 ple call, " putting him in remembrance " of all 
 the great array of promises wherewith he had
 
 194 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 pillared her faith since her reasoning powers 
 began. 
 
 The prayer was very simple, very indefinite 
 so far as regarded the special mission field un 
 der consideration. But even here the suppliant 
 was true to her true self, and made bold con 
 fession : " Dear Lord, thou kriowest that I 
 know almost nothing about this great Africa 
 which we remember before thee to-day. I con 
 fess with shame my ignorance of what has 
 been done or is doing, or of what thy minis 
 ters or handmaidens stand in special need of 
 there, save that I know they need our prayers ; 
 but these thy servants who have taken up the 
 work here at home know all about the field, 
 and all its pressing needs and obstacles and 
 triumphs, and I pray thee take from each heart 
 before thee its special burden for this portion 
 of thy field, and give to them a song of assur 
 ance that thou wilt remember thy covenant. v 
 
 I wonder how many of " those his servants " 
 gathered in that room, listening to that prayer, 
 felt their cheeks burn with the thought that 
 they knew extremely little about Africa or its 
 missionaries, and were not conscious of any
 
 Perfect Love Casteth out Fear. 195 
 
 special burdens for the Lord to lift. What was 
 there in that prayer to move so many of those 
 ladies to tears? 
 
 It was as simple as a child s and as direct. 
 Perhaps therein lay the secret. It had its reflex 
 influence on Mrs. Spafford. She was mortified 
 and grieved to realize that she knew so little 
 about the foreign work. The barest general 
 outlines were all that she felt safe in referring 
 to. The Gaboon Mission, with its different sta 
 tions and strange-sounding names, were all 
 unfamiliar ; the names and circumstances of the 
 missionaries stationed there she only knew in 
 a shadowy sort of way. Even "dear Mr. Bush- 
 nell," to whom some of the ladies so constantly 
 referred in their reports, as though he were 
 inseparably intertwined with every fiber of the 
 mission, was a name known to Mrs. Spafford 
 only by seeing brief extracts from his letters 
 at long intervals. Her s had been in a sense 
 a missionary life, in that she had been for years 
 spreading the news, and yet she realized now, 
 as never before, that she had confined her 
 thoughts and her aims almost entirely to the 
 home work. So had her mother before her.
 
 196 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 "Why did mother do it?" she asked herself 
 with glowing cheeks, as the talk went on, for 
 those ladies, strange to say, were ready to read 
 their papers, and outline their maps, and give 
 their incidents, and talk glibly and well of the 
 work in Africa, although they could not pray. 
 
 All this seemed strange to Mrs. Spafford ; to 
 her, prayer was the first letter in the alphabet 
 of missions, and these ladies almost seemed to 
 have skipped it, and reached the middle. " Not 
 that they do not pray, of course ! " she said, 
 horrified at her own conclusion. " But then it 
 seems so strange that they know so much about 
 it all, and can talk together so well, and can 
 not talk with Him ! " 
 
 Then she tried to find explanation for her 
 mother s course. Surely she had been inter 
 ested in foreign mission work. For what por 
 tion of the Lord s vineyard was there with 
 which the dear mother s heart had not throbbed 
 in sympathy ? Then she reflected that her 
 mother s life for many years had been that of 
 a secluded invalid, that their means had been 
 limited, that current literature had been, espec 
 ially in the latter years, somewhat scarce. " She
 
 Perfect Love Casteth out Fear. 197 
 
 was dependant on me for information as to 
 what the Church was doing," this daughter 
 told herself, reproachfully; "and how meager 
 my knowledge was ! There were no " Woman s 
 Boards " then. Oh, mother, if you had lived, 
 how eagerly would you have joined hands with 
 this movement ! How cruel your daughter was 
 not to keep you in full communication with 
 what the Church was doing ! M Thus far, in 
 sad self-reproach, and an unutterable longing 
 for the presence of the mother whose heart had 
 responded to every call of the Master as fast as 
 she had heard ; and then did this troubled heart 
 suddenly remember, with a glow of comfort, 
 that the dear mother was now in the presence 
 of the Shepherd, and he could tell her all 
 about the field; and who shall say that he 
 could not give her willing heart special work 
 to do for him there? 
 
 Directly the formal meeting was concluded, 
 Mrs. Temple came again to the novice who had 
 so simply and readily " taken up her cross." 
 She thanked her again with a warmth that 
 embarrassed Mrs. Spafford ; she introduced her 
 to a host of eager ladies, those from whose
 
 198 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 lips the unfamiliar African names had rolled 
 so readily. And the little lady improved the 
 opportunity to ask numberless questions. What 
 books or papers did she need in order to 
 post herself about these places? Where was 
 " Woman s Work " to be had ? What was its 
 expense? How should she secure the names 
 and addresses of missionaries ? Was there a 
 missionary library connected with this church, 
 or this organization? 
 
 " No, but upon my word there ought to be," 
 said one of the ladies, struck with the wisdom 
 of the question. " That is really an excellent 
 idea; we ought to take it into immediate con 
 sideration." 
 
 Then another : 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Spafford, you must organize your 
 church ; I have been hoping to hear from that 
 church in your ward this long time. I ve been 
 trying to get my friend, Mrs. Bacon, interested ; 
 she is the only acquaintance I have so far up 
 town. I haven t got her started yet ; but we 
 shall have hopes of her now ; you will enthuse 
 her, and all the rest." 
 
 " I don t know," said Mrs. Spafford, smiling
 
 Perfect Love Casteth out Fear. 199 
 
 a little, though there were tears in her eyes ; 
 " I think I need an infusion of general intelli 
 gence. I never realized before that I was so 
 utterly ignorant on the subject of missions. 
 Why, I always supposed I was interested. I 
 have prayed for missions ever since I was born, 
 and really I never knew until to-day, that I had 
 almost no actual positive knowledge concerning 
 their present work." 
 
 " That lady is thoroughly awake," Mrs. Tem 
 ple said, looking after the new-comer with a 
 satisfied bend of her head, as Mrs. Spafford, 
 having discovered that it was nearly time for 
 Warren s car, and she should miss that coveted 
 ride up with him unless she hastened, took 
 sudden leave, not before promising boldly to 
 do her best at effecting an organization in 
 their own church. " She is wide awake ; I 
 knew when I talked with her, last week, that 
 all she needed was a little help to set her into 
 a blaze ; we shall hear from her, you may 
 depend." 
 
 Yes, dear madam, she is awake. What a 
 pity it is that you, sweet Christian lady as you 
 are, could not awaken to the fact, that if you
 
 200 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 were as thoroughly enthused at this moment 
 with the spirit of missions as the young woman 
 you have just helped to waken, were as 
 thoroughly consecrated in heart and pure as 
 she is ; you actually have tenths enough to so 
 swell the coffers of the Foreign Boards that 
 they could do more in one year than a long 
 life s giving of such " tenths " as she has can 
 accomplish. That is, counting it in dollars 
 and cents. Thank the dear Lord for counting 
 above these. " Thy prayers and thine alms," 
 said he to Cornelius. Mi s. Spafford may give 
 her tiny jewels with joy, remembering the 
 wording of that sentence. After all it was a 
 so-called chance word which set the pretty 
 blaze of enthusiasm into a white heat. As she 
 went down the aisle she came in contact with 
 a small, fair girl, not more than eighteen, with 
 a pretty, girlish not to say childish face, 
 who grasped her hand, with an eager, tearful 
 sentence : 
 
 "Oh, dear lady, let me take your hand. I 
 want to thank you for that prayer. I never 
 heard anybody pray so tenderly before for 
 missionaries and their families."
 
 Perfect Love Casteth out Fear. 201 
 
 "Dear child," said Mrs. Spafford, stooping 
 to kiss the fair face. She looked so small and 
 sweet that the action was involuntary. " Do 
 you love the missionaries so much? What 
 has given you such a special interest at your 
 age?" 
 
 Then the blue eyes filled with tears, as the 
 tremulous voice said : 
 
 " Oh, dear madam, my oldest brother gave 
 his life for the heathen." 
 
 "And my Elder Brother gave his life, his 
 wonderful life for them all ! " 
 
 This was what Mrs. Spafford thought, but 
 did not say. This was what made the flame 
 of love to which fresh fuel had been added 
 that afternoon burst into a glow, the light of 
 which shall burn on and on, after Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford s actual earth-work shall be done, and 
 she shall have gone home to her mother and 
 her God. Good work was done for Christ 
 that day, more than the workers knew. 
 
 Away under the waves of a tropical river 
 there lay the bones of one who had given his 
 young life for missions ; a life " nipped in the 
 bud," it had been said, strangely cut off just
 
 202 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 after its full consecration. And yet that con 
 secrated life spoke to Mrs. Spafford that sum 
 mer afternoon as nothing else had ever done. 
 " And I heard a voice saying unto me, Write, 
 blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. 
 Yea, saith the Spirit, they rest from their 
 labors; and their works do follow them. "
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONFLICTING DUTIES. 
 
 TAVE you ever observed what a dif 
 ference a night s sleep is apt to make 
 in one s feelings and plans ? Things 
 which appear entirely reasonable in the dark 
 ness and loneliness of one s room, by night 
 are liable to take different shape to us by 
 daylight. The feeling works both ways, often 
 deterring us from that which would be entirely 
 right and wise to do, and sometimes holding 
 us back from what would have been foolish 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Realizing this, do you believe that young 
 Coleman finished the letter by day-light 
 
 which he commenced at night, and sent it 
 203
 
 204 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 on the same errand that he had planned? 
 I think you understand his character well 
 enough to know that by morning the en 
 tire idea had taken an absurd aspect to 
 him. He paused in the act of dressing, 
 and read the lines already written, and 
 laughed. "Miss Jennie would think I had 
 made a violent exertion to be attentive, I 
 fear, if she had received that. I wonder 
 what she would say to that dried-up prayer- 
 meeting, anyway? What possesses me to 
 go so steadily ? I believe I had some no 
 tion, last night, of going into the thing a 
 little deeper even ; but I have returned to 
 sober common sense this morning. I don t 
 believe it will pay to let Mrs. Callie exer 
 cise such a surprising power over me. She 
 thinks I am a hypocrite for going to meet 
 ing. Well, perhaps I am ; just as well to 
 gratify her and stay away occasionally, 
 anyway, instead of being so alarmingly 
 unlike the rest of the sheep, by my regu 
 larity. Pity to spoil that sheet of note 
 paper. Miss Jennie likes very delicate 
 note paper; I ve always observed that she
 
 Conflicting Duties. 205 
 
 buys the finest. Let me see, how could I 
 finish that in a reasonable manner ? " He 
 sat down to this problem, and studied over 
 it a few minutes, until apparently it was 
 settled in a satisfactory manner, for he 
 dashed off a few lines, enclosed the whole 
 in an envelope, and sealed and directed it 
 with a complacent air. 
 
 Tims it transpired that Miss Jennie West, 
 who was again with her friend, Mrs. Evans, 
 having come up to spend several weeks while 
 her mother made a long-promised visit else 
 where, came down to the dining-room, where 
 the poor, troubled housekeeper was at work 
 trying to decide whether the remains of yes 
 terday s roast could be made to piece out to 
 day s dinner, holding in her hand an open 
 letter, and appealed for sympathy, delight in 
 her voice : 
 
 " Look here, Eva, I m invited to the opera 
 at Bellevue Hall to-night: isn t that lovely?" 
 " Very," said the weary housekeeper, turn 
 ing from her bone which had an alarmingly 
 small portion of meat left on it, and trying 
 to smile. "Who has invited you?"
 
 206 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Oh, Will Coleraan of course ; he is the 
 only one of my friends who penetrates to 
 this hiding-place, so far up town. It is 
 real splendid of him, I must say, for the 
 tickets for this opera are awfully expensive ; 
 and I don t believe Will indulges in that 
 way very often ; I haven t seen him out 
 at any of the summer concerts even." 
 
 "I would like so much to go," the young 
 wife said, a sudden sense of the delicious- 
 ness of the music stealing over her. 
 
 The opera had an attraction for her of 
 which Jennie West knew almost nothing, 
 in that she tingled to her fingers ends with 
 music, and memories of enchanting sounds 
 heard in Bellevue Hall, in the days gone by, 
 thrilled her at that moment like an electric 
 shock. With Jennie, it was a nice place to 
 go to show one s new hat and gloves, and see 
 the styles, and have a charming ride with one s 
 companion, and a delightful little series of 
 chats between the scenes, and enjoy oneself^ 
 generally. The music was really the smallest 
 part of the attraction. Nevertheless, she was 
 prepared to sympathize with Mrs, Evans.
 
 Conflicting Duties. 207 
 
 " You poor child ! What Blue Beards 
 husbands are I I declare, if I were you, I 
 wouldn t stand it ! You don t go anywhere. 
 I don t believe you have been down town 
 to an evening entertainment since you moved 
 up here out of the world. I really think 
 Dane treats you shabbily. If I were you 
 I would insist on being taken to-night. It 
 is a rare opportunity. We don t often have 
 such an entertainment as this will be; es 
 pecially in the summer." 
 
 Mrs. Evans was painfully given to being 
 led by the voice that last sounded in her ears, 
 and Jennie West had, at all times, a stronger 
 influence with her than she ought to have 
 had, but there were some things that could 
 bring the indignant blood to her forehead, and 
 the ring of decision to her voice. Timid woman 
 though she was, too much given to meek 
 acquiescence in the opinions advanced at the 
 moment, it was not wise for any one to criticise 
 her husband in her presence. Yet this was 
 one of the most ordinary rules of etiquette 
 which Jennie West was every day violating.
 
 208 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Rarely so glaringly, however, as at this 
 moment. 
 
 " Dane is not a tyrant, Jennie ; nor am I 
 a slave, as you seem to imagine. We do 
 not go to evening entertainments very often, 
 it is true; but it is because neither of us 
 wishes to go ; and I don t allow even a cousin 
 to speak to me of my husband in a way that 
 I consider insulting." 
 
 She was really astonished at the coldness 
 of her own voice. So was Jennie, astonished 
 and a trifle alarmed ; she did not wish to offend 
 her cousin Eva ; her house was too convenient 
 and pleasant a place, especially since she had 
 moved up-town. 
 
 " Mercy ! " she said, with an attempt at 
 gaiety ; " how you do snap one up ! Marriage 
 isn t improving to people s tempers ; you used 
 to be as mild as a June morning, Eva, and 
 now I declare you are enough to frighten one. 
 I didn t mean anything either ; I m sure you 
 and Dane may devote yourselves to each other 
 every evening for the rest of your lives, for 
 all objection I shall make. I m glad you enjoy 
 it; though I am sure I never should. Come
 
 Conflicting Duties. 209 
 
 up -stairs, do, and advise me what to wear. I 
 wish I had a new opera cloak, mine is really 
 getting shabby ; though to be sure, at this 
 season of the year cloaks don t so much matter. 
 It is almost a wonder Will would go to-night, 
 he is so regular at prayer-meeting ; I didn t 
 know but there was some whim, or promise 
 to his mother, or something of that sort which 
 kept him so constant in attendance." 
 
 " Why, surely," said Mrs. Evans, " it is 
 prayer-meeting evening ; and you and I were 
 going." 
 
 " I know it ; we shall have to wait until next 
 week, I suppose." 
 
 The plan of going together to the prayer- 
 meeting that evening had been proposed by 
 Jennie herself, and eagerly agreed to by Mrs. 
 Evans, who remembered that it was her hus 
 band s evening to be late ; also as the trials 
 and burdens of home life pressed thick around 
 her, she looked about at times almost wildly, 
 for some sort of refuge. Constantly her mind 
 reverted to Mrs. Spafford, and the calm which 
 rested on her fair face whenever the storm- 
 tossed housekeeper met her ; and as often as
 
 210 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 this occurred, she went back to the bits of 
 conversation which she had had with her, and 
 remembered that bright and natural as her 
 manner had been, her words turned steadily 
 toward Christ as the centre of all her plans, 
 whether of housekeeping or benevolence. The 
 aim in life seemed to be the same, whether 
 the topics were grave or petty. Thinking of 
 it all, it was impossible not to be forced, at 
 times, to the conclusion that Mrs. Spafford 
 had something connected with her religion, of 
 which she, Mrs. Evans, knew nothing. What 
 if she could find it, and show it to Dane, and 
 it would unravel the snarl into which life was 
 growing for them ? For hide it as she would, 
 from Jennie West and from every other out 
 side eye, the daily puzzle was every hour 
 growing more intricate, and the gloom was 
 gathering heavier on Dane s forehead ; there 
 were times when Mrs. Evans heart was well 
 nigh bursting with its disappointed hopes, 
 its loneliness, and its foreboding. She had no 
 wish to attend an opera ; it had been a mo 
 mentary whim, which passed as soon as it was 
 mentioned. She wanted the tangles of her
 
 Conflicting Duties. 211 
 
 life smoothed out ; she wanted to make a 
 happy, peaceful home for Dane ; she bitterly 
 felt that she did not know how to do it. But 
 she went up stairs with Jennie, leaving the 
 roast to plan for itself, and appeared to interest 
 herself in blue silk and white lace and natural 
 flowers and fresh kids, and really went off 
 into a reverie that had to do with herself and 
 Dane only, rousing suddenly to the sound of 
 Jennie s voice, as she said: 
 
 " I suppose Gallic Spafford would think I 
 was perfectly awful to do it ; but then, if 
 one tried to follow Callie s rule of life, one 
 might as well turn Catholic and go into a con 
 vent and be done with it." 
 
 " To do what, Jennie ? What does Mrs. 
 Spafford think?" 
 
 The sound of that name always had a ten 
 dency to rouse Mrs. Evans. 
 
 " Oh, she thinks everything is wrong, and 
 everybody on earth is awry, save her own 
 sweet self," was Jennie s testy answer, as she 
 twitched at the somewhat crushed artificial 
 flowers in her hand, and tried to make them 
 look natural and fresh.
 
 212 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 "She is the last person I should think of 
 calling an egotist," said Mrs. Evans. 
 
 " Well, she is self-righteous ; and narrow, 
 Eva; just as narrow as a knife-blade. She 
 used to be so at school ; the girls were always 
 making fun of her notions ; but she grows 
 worse and worse. I don t see why, either ; 
 Warren Spafford wasn t so much more partic 
 ular than the rest of the world before he be 
 came acquainted with her; so it isn t his 
 influence." 
 
 " But what do you mean she would object 
 to just now ? " 
 
 " Why, she objects to everything. What 
 ever she doesn t do is wicked ; and she doesn t 
 go to the opera ; so of course, that is wicked." 
 
 " Wicked to go to the opera ! " 
 
 There was great amazement in Mrs. Evans 
 tones : she had actually never come in contact 
 with a class of Christians who held those 
 views ! 
 
 " But what is there wrong about going to 
 a good opera?" 
 
 " Oh, goodness knows ; I don t. If you 
 expect me to give reasons for all that Callie
 
 Conflicting Duties. 213 
 
 Spafford thinks is wicked, it will keep me 
 busy. Everything is wicked, I tell you, but 
 singing psalms and going to prayer-meeting, 
 and eating just enough to keep you from act 
 ual starvation and giving away the rest. It 
 is bad enough for me to go to the opera at 
 any time, but to go on prayer-meeting evening 
 actually to beguile Will from his regular 
 attendance she will consider . the unpardon 
 able sin." 
 
 Miss Jennie spoke with unusual asperity. 
 Truth to tell, her conscience was somewhat 
 troubled ; not about the opera, especially ; she 
 was too shallow to have given those matters 
 serious thought ; but about herself in general, 
 or Mrs. Spafford s opinion of her. Like the 
 rest of the world, she respected Mrs. Spafford. 
 The pointed questions which that lady had 
 asked her but a few evenings before, concern 
 ing Will Coleman, had stayed by and trou 
 bled her. What if she ought to exert a differ 
 ent influence over him ? 
 
 She would like (she stopped twisting her 
 artificial moss rose-buds for a full minute, and 
 gave the matter serious consideration) yes,
 
 214 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 she would really like to see him a Christian ; 
 not a pokey one like Warren Spafford, never 
 going to operas or dances or anything, but 
 after all a prominent Christian, one who led 
 in prayer at public meetings, and made ad 
 dresses, and was put on committees and con 
 sulted, and all that sort of thing. He was cal 
 culated to shine in such a sphere, she believed, 
 and perhaps she really ought to use her influ 
 ence. In fact she did, and meant to. Hadn t 
 she told him more than once that she wished 
 he was a church-member? And what had he 
 done but laugh at her, and tell her that he 
 was ahead of her church-members now the 
 most of them and so he was. But then, peo 
 ple would persist in not understanding his 
 position because he would not join the church! 
 She had half a mind to talk to him about it 
 this very evening. It would be a real nice 
 opportunity, while they were riding down town 
 together, or on their way back; certainly a 
 much nicer time for confidential conversation 
 than they could have during the short walk 
 from prayer-meeting. 
 
 By the time Mrs. Evans had turned the sub-
 
 Conflicting Duties. 215 
 
 ject over in her mind, and was ready to speak, 
 Jennie had recovered satisfaction with herself 
 and was complacently managing the moss rose 
 buds. 
 
 " Well, perhaps, Jennie, one ought not to go 
 to an opera on prayer-meeting evening. I never 
 thought of it before, and I presume I have 
 done it a great many times ; but, when you 
 think of it, it does look inconsistent. Why 
 don t you write Will to choose some other even 
 ing, and go with you to prayer-meeting to 
 night?" 
 
 " Because I don t believe in any such thing. 
 That is a la Gallic Spafford again. I should 
 expect to accomplish nothing more than to 
 arouse Will s prejudices. I have seen that sort 
 of thing done a great many times, and I hope 
 never to make such a mistake. Eva, do you 
 think these rose-buds a shade too pink to fit 
 my blue silk?" 
 
 "I think not. But why should consistency 
 arouse his prejudice, Jennie?" 
 
 " It isn t consistency. It is self-righteous 
 ness making a parade of one s religion. Peo 
 ple ought to yield their own wishes for the
 
 216 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 benefit of others. Just think how absurd it 
 would look in me to send Will Coleman word 
 that because it was prayer-meeting evening I 
 could not go with him to the opera, when he 
 knows as well as I do that there is prayer- 
 meeting every week in the year, which I can 
 attend if I want to, while an entertainment of 
 this sort is rather a rare thing for me, at least. 
 You know I don t get to these expensive enter 
 tainments very often. Can t you see what a 
 self-righteous look that would have to a young 
 man especially if he were not a Christian 
 himself. If I were a married woman I would 
 make it a point of conscience to go wherever 
 and whenever my husband wished me to ; it 
 is the only way in which I should hope to influ 
 ence him to my ways of thinking. I think 
 you ought to try that with Dane. If you were 
 ready to go with him to places of amusement, 
 quite likely he would be ready to go with you 
 to prayer-meeting." 
 
 You should have heard Miss Jennie s com 
 placent tones. She was growing exceedingly 
 well satisfied with herself, and had already for 
 gotten that husbands were Blue Beards, and
 
 Conflicting Duties. 217 
 
 her cousin a martyr to the stay-at-home pro 
 pensities of Mr. Evans. Her listener found it 
 impossible to accept theories so suddenly ; nei 
 ther was she ready to refute them. A radical 
 defect in Mrs. Evans education had been that 
 she had too few pronounced opinions of any 
 sort. Her cousin Jennie s views looked some 
 what plausible, but she was not ready to ac 
 cept them, because of the reference to Mrs. 
 Spafford and her opinions. Mrs. Evans was 
 growing every day more sure that when there 
 was a difference of opinion between Mrs. Spaf 
 ford and Jennie West, the former was almost 
 certain to be in the right. So now she deter 
 mined to reserve her judgment, even in regard 
 to the strange announcement that operas might 
 be wrong, until she could hear from Mrs. 
 Spafford s own lips why she thought so. Mean 
 time Jennie s words set her off on another train 
 of thought. 
 
 " I have never asked Dane to go to prayer- 
 meeting with me." 
 
 Jennie faced around on her in righteous 
 amazement. 
 
 " Why, Evangeline Evans ! I should think
 
 218 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 you would be ashamed to own it ; and you a 
 member of the church these dozen years ! " 
 
 " Well," said the wife, apologetically, " You 
 know they never went to prayer-meeting from 
 Uncle Horace s ; and before that, when mamma 
 was sick, I got out of the way of going ; and 
 so, since I have known Dane intimately, I really 
 haven t been in the habit of going myself. It 
 is strange. I have been thinking a good deal 
 about it lately about my not going. I never 
 thought of asking Dane ; perhaps he would 
 go if I asked him. I think I shall try it." 
 
 " I should think you would," said Jennie. 
 And she dressed for the opera in a still more 
 complacent state of mind, feeling sure that she 
 had set poor Eva on the right track to do 
 some good to her irreligious husband, and more 
 determined than ever to urge Will Coleman 
 that very evening to unite with the church and 
 take an active part in its public duties. " It 
 is everything he needs," she told herself confi 
 dently, " to make him a perfect Christian gen 
 tleman." And then the carriage came, and she 
 went away in state.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SEED SOWN ON THOBNY GROUND. 
 
 M 
 
 VK 
 
 [URING these days Mrs. Spafford was 
 
 very busy. She had undertaken what 
 proved a Herculean task ; like many 
 another worker, it was fortunate that when she 
 began she did not realize the magnitude of the 
 undertaking. Indeed, to her short-sighted 
 eyes, nothing seemed easier than to go among 
 Christian women and enlist their co-operation 
 in a missionary society. 
 
 " It is simply because they, like myself, have 
 not had their attention called to it before," 
 she said to her husband, when she was trying 
 to explain the lethargy of the Church on the 
 subject ; " see how I have lived all these years, 
 219
 
 220 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 doing nothing for the cause, and it is not be 
 cause I was not interested, I was brought up 
 to consider missionaries of better blood than 
 I, but I simply did not realize anything that 
 I could do for them, or rather for an object 
 so far away from home. We are just waking 
 up as a people to understand the power of 
 little gifts; of course, this church will join 
 hands with the others; ten cents a month is 
 so small a sum ! Why, Warren, even we can 
 give it, and have quite an amount left for 
 other channels." 
 
 And Warren had listened, and smiled in a 
 covert way, believing in his heart that he knew 
 the world better than his wife, yet so resolved 
 was he not to dampen her enthusiasm, that 
 he resolutely refrained from expressing a 
 doubt, but let her go on her way rejoicing. 
 
 She came home from an afternoon s campaign 
 with plumes sadly drooping. In a degree she 
 had guaged the spiritual atmosphere about 
 her ; it would have been impossible to be a 
 regular attendant at the prayer-meeting and 
 not do that so she looked for apathy in cer 
 tain quarters, and a reluctant consent in others,
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Ground. 221 
 
 and ^expected to meet with many expressed 
 fears that it would be impossible to succeed, 
 but she had not looked for actual outspoken 
 opposition ! And to think of finding it in the 
 very center of influence ! She had by no 
 means a high idea of Mrs. Bacon s religious 
 life. The difficulty was that she had no con 
 ception of any sort of religious life which 
 wasn t, to say the very least, in favor of mis 
 sions! It was astounding to discover that 
 Mrs. Bacon could not be said to even approve 
 of them ! 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Spafford," she said and 
 to Mrs. Spafford there was always something 
 peculiarly exasperating about this beginning 
 " have you ever carefully studied the en 
 tire subject, and discovered what an immense 
 amount of money has been expended on Foreign 
 Missions already, with what few returns ? 
 "Why, to me it is actually appalling ! When 
 I look over our own fair country, and see the 
 need for money on every hand ; the miserable 
 homes and the miserable children, and the 
 squalor and filth and wretchedness everywhere 
 about us, and then reflect what immense sums
 
 222 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 we are annually sending abroad to those 
 wretched heathen, I can not help being in 
 dignant." 
 
 Now, I suppose it would be almost impos 
 sible to describe to you what a strange, puzzled 
 feeling this gave Mrs. Spafford. It was such 
 a new idea, she did not know in the least how 
 to answer it. The words she spoke were not 
 intended for an answer. They were simply 
 floating through her mind, suggested by, she 
 did not clearly see what, and she thought 
 aloud : " He hath made of one blood all the 
 nations of the earth. " 
 
 " Oh, well, I suppose so, in one sense ; and 
 yet I think you clearly recognize a difference 
 between your own household and the beggars 
 in the street?" 
 
 " Not in the sense that they all need feed 
 ing." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford was gathering her wits, and 
 began to see the strangeness of the talk. 
 
 " Yes, even in that sense ; you will let the 
 beggars starve and look after your own house 
 hold, if you have not enough for all." 
 
 "Dear madam, no; I have no right to do
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Ground. 223 
 
 it. I must share my children s crusts, even, 
 with the children of those worse off than they ? 
 But what has this to do with the subject, after 
 all ? Has not the Church of Christ bread 
 enough for all the family?" 
 
 " I am not good at talking in metaphor," 
 was Mrs. Bacon s half-smiling answer: "Let 
 us come down to plain prose. You want to 
 start a missionary society in our church to 
 help the foreign work, and I say frankly I 
 am a very frank woman that I do not believe 
 in the foreign work. I think we have heathen 
 enough at home to look after, and, until they 
 are all civilized, we ought to spend our money 
 and our energies at home." 
 
 This time the answer came promptly, and 
 the speaker believed that she recognized the 
 prompting voice in her heart : " But isn t the 
 direction, Go ye into all the world and preach 
 the gospel to every creature ? 
 
 " That was given to the early apostles, and, 
 of course, they went into all the world that 
 was then known." 
 
 "Yes, but in the same breath, to comfort 
 his children, he said: Lo, I am with you
 
 224 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ^ even unto the end of the world. And 
 the disciples to whom he then spoke have been 
 in his visible presence for hundreds of years, 
 and the world is not yet ended ; the comfort 
 lasts yet, and so, therefore, must the com 
 mission. Besides, Mrs. Bacon, in our own 
 country are there not churches enough, and 
 Bibles enough, and praying men and women 
 enough, so that all may know the way if they 
 will ? The seed is planted ; there is no doubt 
 but it will grow; the question is, ought we 
 not to plant it in other lands, and give other 
 nations of the same blood an equal chance to 
 choose ? " 
 
 " Oh, no doubt there are churches and Bibles 
 enough ! " The tone in which Mrs. Bacon 
 spoke would have led one ignorant of her 
 position in the church to suppose that she 
 almost sneered at both Bibles and churches. 
 "As if all that poor people wanted was 
 churches and Bibles and prayers ! My dear 
 madam, they need shoes and potatoes a great 
 deal more. Think of the money thrown away 
 on the cannibal Africans ! Enough to have 
 fed and clothed and educated all the poor in
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Grround. 225 
 
 our own land ; and with no return at all." 
 
 Now, indeed, was Mrs. Spafford aghast. 
 
 "No return! Why, Mrs. Bacon, whole 
 villages among those cannibal Africans are 
 clothed and in their right minds to-day ; and 
 hundreds of them have gone to swell the 
 company in heaven, which you know is to 
 be made up of every kindred and tribe and 
 tongue and nation. " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know a few of them have professed 
 conversion, though whether they understood 
 what was meant by the word is rather doubtful, 
 I suppose ; but think of the cost ! and of what 
 the same amount of money would have ac 
 complished at home ! " 
 
 What was the matter with Mrs. Spafford? 
 It seemed to her, in thinking afterward of 
 this conversation, that her thoughts flowed 
 only through Bible channels. Was it possibly 
 another proof of the faithfulness of a God 
 who said : " Open thy mouth wide, and I will 
 fill it." She did not think of it at the time, 
 it simply seemed the most natural thing in the 
 world for her to say just then : 
 
 "What shall it profit a man if he gain-
 
 226 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 the whole world and lose his own soul ? Or, 
 what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 soul?" I did not think that the worth of 
 a soul could be estimated in dollars and cents, 
 Mrs. Bacon. Is not that what Christ meant 
 to teach us when he asked that solemn 
 question ? " 
 
 But Mrs. Bacon was growing irritable : 
 she did not like to argue, except with a 
 certain class of people. When she was ir 
 ritable, she was always more or less rude. So 
 now she said, with smiling face and stinging 
 voice : 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Spafford, what a remarkable 
 memory you must have ! I think, during your 
 leisure hours when you were a teacher, you 
 must have memorized the entire Bible. It 
 must be very convenient in conversation, 
 when one is at a loss for words, to slip in a 
 Bible verse. But I don t suppose if the 
 entire Bible were repeated to me J I should 
 change my mind; I am very pronounced in 
 my opinions. I am entirely absorbed in Home 
 Missions, and I really believe, so long as there 
 is anything to do for our own home land,
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Ground. 227 
 
 that at least people, who have but little to 
 give, should not dribble it up and send it no 
 one knows where, on the plea that they are 
 going to reform the world." 
 
 At the commencement of this sentence, 
 Mrs. Spafford felt her cheeks growing red, 
 and her heart beating fast, and knew by these 
 and certain other uncomfortable sensations that 
 she was angry, but, before its close, the angry 
 feelings had subsided into mirth. It was such a 
 curious idea to her that Mrs. Bacon believed 
 herself to be entirely absorbed in home mis 
 sions. How was she proving it ? " She will " 
 be the very person to visit, when we are ready 
 for our sewing-school, and home for orphans, 
 and several other enterprises that we ought 
 to start in this ward," she said to herself, 
 as she arose to go ; but the time had not yet 
 come for these, so, aloud, she said : 
 
 " I am sorry, Mrs. Bacon ; some of the 
 ladies of the Twelfth Street Church suggested 
 you as the person to take hold of an organiza 
 tion such as I am trying to effect. I quite 
 looked to you as a leader." 
 
 If Mrs. Spafford had realized it, she had
 
 228 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 left her most powerful arguments for the last, 
 and produced them after it was too late for 
 them to tell. An instant flush overspread 
 Mrs. Bacon s face, and her eyes were ablaze 
 with a look that showed she was vexed at 
 having made admissions that would cripple 
 her, perhaps unpleasantly. To be a leader of 
 anything was a temptation ; and to be expected 
 by the Twelfth Street Church people to lead, 
 was a matter of great importance to Mrs. 
 Bacon. Still what could she do now but abide 
 by her strong words? 
 
 " When everything is done at home that 
 ought to be, perhaps I may assume foreign 
 responsibilities," she said, with an attempt at 
 a smile. 
 
 After the thrust she had received, it is, 
 perhaps, strange that Mrs. Spafford should 
 have quoted another Bible verse, but she felt 
 that she could hardly have kept her lips from 
 saying: "These ought ye to have done, and 
 not to have left the other undone." 
 
 It may have been those very words that 
 tempted Mrs. Bacon to say, with her most
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Ground. 229 
 
 compassionate smile, as she arose to follow her 
 caller to the door : 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Spafford, you ought to go 
 more into society, and then your time would 
 be too much taken up to leave room for any 
 of these restless movements. I know how it 
 is. Young housekeepers, who are commencing 
 life in a modest, quiet way, never have much 
 to do, and you have been accustomed to such 
 an active life, no wonder you reach out after 
 something to take your time. But there are 
 pleasant people all about you. I presume you 
 can make a congenial little circle right among 
 yourselves, and have very pleasant times." 
 
 After that, perhaps Mrs. Spafford would 
 have been almost more than human if she 
 had not gone home with burning cheeks and 
 angry eyes. The truth is, this dear Christian 
 woman was very human indeed. She got 
 the better of the anger after a little, but the 
 sadheartedness remained. Such people as 
 Mrs. Bacon have their influence. In the 
 course of a few days Mrs. Spafford was as 
 tonished to find out how far her influence 
 extended. Nearly all the ladies of the church.
 
 230 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 were more or less affected by the fact that 
 the leading one in their midst, so far as wealth 
 and position were concerned, had refused to 
 countenance the new movement. It is true they 
 were variously affected ; some declared that 
 it was just what they would expect of her, 
 that she was a selfish, narrow-minded woman, 
 and gave less in proportion to her wealth 
 that any other member of their church. At 
 the same time these outspoken persons were 
 by no means willing to set Mrs. Bacon a better 
 example by taking the lead in an enterprise 
 which she chose to ignore. Others said that 
 Mrs. Bacon kept herself well posted, and if 
 she did not think an organization of that sort 
 would succeed, it was not worth while to un 
 dertake it. Others, still, declared themselves 
 in sympathy with Mrs. Bacon in believing that 
 there was work enough to do at home. In 
 short, after a vigorous canvass of the material 
 within her reach, Mrs. Spafford wearily ad 
 mitted to her husband that she had found 
 almost no helpers. 
 
 " Some are willing, but timid ; and some 
 pre bold, but opposed," she said, half laughing
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Ground. 281 
 
 and yet feeling tired and discouraged enough 
 to cry. " I don t believe it is my forte to 
 work up such an organization. I have done 
 my best, and failed at every point. I don t 
 think I understand women. I find that they 
 surprise me so." 
 
 "You understood girls uncommonly well, 
 and they are the material of which women 
 are made," replied her husband, with the air 
 of a man who stood ready to do valiant battle 
 with any one who dared dispute his wife s 
 ability to understand anything, and accomplish 
 the impossible. She gave heed only to the 
 first part of his sentence : " You understood 
 girls uncommonly well." This was true. As 
 a teacher she had been skilled in the art of 
 leading and guiding the bright, pretty, willful 
 girls committed to her care. She had often 
 times succeeded where others failed. She 
 knew she had a peculiar sympathy for girl 
 hood, which seemed to give her a power 
 over them. She was inclined to be half shy 
 of women who were older, or even quite as 
 old, as herself. She had a curious feeling of
 
 232 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 youth and inexperience when with them, but 
 with girls she felt at home. 
 
 " That is an idea ! " she said, looking brightly 
 at him. "I might do something with the 
 girls ; they have Young Ladies Bands." 
 
 Over this thought she pondered until at 
 last she resolved to act. No more individual 
 calling, carrying the downheartedness from 
 one house to be perhaps increased by her 
 reception at another. She resolved to make 
 a bold stroke and get the girls together. To 
 be sure she knew very few of them. Never 
 mind ; when was she ever at a loss what to 
 do with a company of girls? So, on the 
 following Sabbath, bright-eyed girls gave 
 curious, inquiring glances from one to an 
 other, wondering by whose planning they 
 were summoned to meet at " No. 207 Chestnut 
 Avenue, on Saturday afternoon at three o clock, 
 to consult together concerning a matter of 
 importance." There was an eager buzzing of 
 tongues over the event. 
 
 " Girls, do you know who sent the notice ? 
 Isn t it queer ? " " Angie Powers, are you 
 sure you didn t have a hand in the matter ? "
 
 Seed Sown on Thorny Ground. 233 
 
 "And you haven t the least idea what is 
 going on ? How funny I " " 207 Chestnut 
 Street. That is where that bright-looking 
 Mrs. Spafibrd lives, isn t it ? " " Do you 
 know her, girls? I do. I met her at the 
 festival; she and I cut cake half the after 
 noon. I think she is perfectly lovely ! If it 
 is anything she is interested in, I m going 
 to take hold of it for I know it will be 
 just splendid." "Isn t it queer that we can t 
 find out the least thing about it ? " "I de 
 clare it is as good as a surprise party ! " 
 You are going, aren t you, Angie ? Oh, 
 yes ; go of course ; it would be rude not to ; 
 Mrs. Spafford is a stranger. Beside, it may 
 be something real splendid." "I like her face. 
 I ve never met her, but I sit where I can 
 look at her all the time in church, and I was 
 wishing only last Sunday that I knew her." 
 These are only a few of the questions 
 answers and comments that fluttered broad 
 cast wherever "the girls," gathered in knots 
 during the week. As the days passed and 
 it became apparent that none of their number 
 were taken into confidence, or knew aught
 
 234 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 that was to transpire the interest deepened. 
 And by ten minutes past three on Saturday 
 afternoon Mrs. Spafford s tiny parlor was 
 filled, even to overflowing into the dining- 
 room, with bright, eager, expectant faces. 
 Whatever " the girls," might decide upon after 
 they heard what was to be said to them, they 
 were certainly on the high tide of enthusiasm 
 now.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 i 
 
 A PROBLEM. 
 
 LL the girls in Mrs. Spafford s parlor 
 bestowed puzzled glances on each other, 
 
 and were silent. Mrs. Spafford had been 
 talking with them eagerly and rapidly. She 
 was full of enthusiasm herself; she looked 
 to find a response from at least some of them. 
 She had unfolded her plan, to organize a Young 
 Ladies Mission Band, to be connected with 
 other bands in the city, to be governed by the 
 rules already adopted by the majority of organ 
 izations. She had explained the nature and 
 object of the meetings ; had suggested methods 
 of conducting them ; plans for interesting 
 others; the amount of money that would be 
 235
 
 236 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 expected from each member, and the few and 
 simple rules by which they would be gov 
 erned, and then she had asked if they were 
 ready to enter into some such effort, modified 
 and enlarged as time passed, according to their 
 views of things. 
 
 It was at this point that she was met with 
 profound and puzzled silence. Evidently the 
 girls were astonished, and also a little disap 
 pointed ; they had indulged extravagant fancies 
 in regard to the possible object of this mys 
 terious meeting. It was a descent into a 
 prosaic world to have the call mean nothing 
 but a mission band ! 
 
 " 1 don t know anything about missions or 
 missionaries," ventured at last one of the 
 bolder spirits, with an embarrassed little laugh. 
 
 "Neither do I, I am sure," chimed in another 
 voice, which Mrs. Spafford afterward learned 
 was apt to be a leading one. 
 
 Thus encouraged, each and all began eagerly 
 to disclaim all knowledge of mission fields, 
 all acquaintance with missionaries, and I 
 had almost said all desire to become educated 
 in these directions.
 
 A Problem. 237 
 
 " Oh, well," said Mrs. Spafford, briskly, 
 " then we are the very people who ought 
 to have a mission band; one of its objects 
 is to become acquainted with the field, and 
 to have an intelligent knowledge of mission 
 aries. Shall we not by .all means try to sup 
 plement our educations which seem so deficient 
 in that direction ? I say we, because I have 
 recently awakened to the fact that I am alarm 
 ingly deficient, and I want you gay young 
 ladies to rouse me to a pitch of enthusiasm. 
 Come, let us vote to organize forthwith, and 
 make a complete success of it, and stimulate 
 others." 
 
 Still those girls looked at each other and 
 held back. They were not touched even with 
 the romance of missions yet; it looked like 
 the dullest of all ideas ; they saw no possibility 
 of getting any "fun," out of it; and what 
 do most girls at a certain age live for but fun ? 
 
 " I don t know," Marion Wells said, slowly. 
 "It seems to me that our mothers are the 
 proper persons for such work. They are 
 interested and they know what to say when 
 they get together, and we don t."
 
 238 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Then Mrs Spafford : 
 
 " That is just the point. The mothers, some 
 of them, know what to say, and the daughters 
 want to learn, so that they will know. Besides, 
 don t you know that it takes ^Ws to push 
 these things ? I look to you to set the mothers 
 an example. Doesn t it strike you as a pleasant 
 thing to think of meeting and studying up 
 these matters together, each adding a bit to 
 the general interest? Mrs. Temple tells me 
 that the young ladies in the Twelfth Street 
 Church enjoy their meetings exceedingly. 
 
 "The trouble is," said Addie Stowell, 
 speaking evidently for a number of them, 
 "or at the least the trouble with me is, that 
 I really haven t any money to give. I could 
 go to father and coax him to give me ten 
 cents a month, I suppose, and he would try 
 to do it ; but really he has just as much as he 
 can do to get along, and I know even ten 
 cents a month would be inconvenient to him 
 sometimes. Besides, I never could see any sense 
 in girls going to their fathers for money 
 to give, and then calling it their giving. It 
 is my father who does the giving in such cases,
 
 A Problem. 239 
 
 and why shouldn t he do it in the first place, 
 without having it pass through my hands ? It 
 always reminds me of mother letting me carry 
 the scissors to auntie, when I was a little thing, 
 she taking hold of the points. I always sup 
 posed that I carried them, and was highly 
 delighted. But I would like to feel that I 
 had gotten beyond that stage." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford turned toward the eager, 
 energetic speaker with a gratified face. Here 
 was her first breath of encouragement; here 
 was a girl who thought for herself, and had 
 thought out certain problems sufficiently at 
 least to desire to find the answer. Having 
 broken the ice of reserve there were many 
 voices to sustain her. 
 
 "I feel very much so," declared one and 
 another, and yet another, until half the 
 young ladies in the room had assented. 
 
 "Of course I can go to papa for money," 
 explained Miss Lily Archer, toying gracefully 
 with her parasol as she spoke ; " but what 
 is the sense? Papa gives for missions 
 always subscribes largely to the Boards, and 
 that is just the same as our giving, of course;
 
 240 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 so I think there is no use in asking him for 
 more. Besides, what a miserable little drop 
 in the bucket ten cents a month would 
 make ! " 
 
 " That would depend upon how man} - drops fell 
 into the bucket," said Addie Stowell, promptly, 
 who always came out on the side that seemed 
 to her at the moment the logical one, whether 
 or not it contradicted a previously expressed 
 opinion. 
 
 " Don t you have a definite amount of your 
 own, to spend according to your judgment ? " 
 questioned Mrs. Spafford of the fair Lily. 
 
 " Oh dear, no ? I never could get along 
 with definite amounts. I am never definite 
 about anything. The way I do when I want 
 a thing, I buy it, and send the bill to papa 
 and he pays it, and that is the end of it." 
 
 And Miss Lily looked around on the groug 
 of girls less fortunately situated with a pretty 
 little air of superiorit3 r . She was glad that 
 her father was a millionaire. 
 
 As for Mrs. Spafford, she extended her 
 inquiry, and found that in all that company 
 of girls, some of whom had fathers quite
 
 A Problem. 241 
 
 able to furnish them with small amounts of 
 their own, and teach them how to systematically 
 use them, only two were being thus educated. 
 Then of course she gave some moments of 
 thought to that useless wish, which has been 
 wished over so many times it is threadbare. 
 If she could only get the ear of the fathers 
 and mothers of the church, 1 and beg them 
 to bring the next generation up with a due 
 sense of the importance of individual re 
 sponsibility, and the relative value of money 
 and souls, the work of evangelization would 
 be done ! Meantime, taking life not as she 
 would have made it if she were a grandmother, 
 and these were all her grandchildren, brought 
 up by her thus far, but as it was being lived 
 before her now, in all this flutter of prettiness 
 and silliness, what was she going to do with 
 them ? She confessed to herself that making 
 pretty machines of them, to be used in passing 
 ten-cent pieces from their fathers pockets to 
 the treasury of the church was as little to her 
 mind as it was to Addie Stowell s. 
 . Yet here were the facts. Those who could 
 have asked and secured definite amounts to
 
 242 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 use as they pleased, did not please to assume 
 responsibilities would much rather live in 
 the careless, irresponsible fashion that they had 
 been educated. Beside, even though they 
 had caught the fancy, they were not sufficiently 
 interested in missions to pledge ten cents a 
 month, and conscientiously abide by the 
 pledge. They could promise, oh yes and so 
 could parrots, and she was afraid that there 
 would be almost as much sense of the sacred- 
 ness of a promise in the one case as in the 
 other. Another fault growing out of the fact 
 that she was not their grandmother, and had 
 not brought them up. Another point : by far 
 the larger majority of these girls could not 
 have commanded definite incomes, ever so 
 small. Their fathers were, some of them, 
 too poor, and in other eases, thought they were 
 too poor to do anything of the sort. Then 
 there were some without fathers a few 
 already dependent on their own exertions for 
 support ; and most of them had so many wants, 
 real or fancied, that given a certain sum of 
 money to spend as they pleased, Mrs. Spafford 
 was almost sure that they would please to spend
 
 A Problem. 243 
 
 none of it on such an unknown cause as 
 foreign missions. 
 
 "Z don t believe in foreign missions, any 
 how," murmured Lena Bacon ; and though 
 the others hushed her warningly, and shook 
 their heads towards Mrs. Spafford, and were 
 too carefully educated in etiquette to believe 
 it proper to express their views on this point 
 in such a presence, yet they were by no 
 means too well educated not to agree with 
 Lena. If anything was done with these girls 
 it must be foundation work. 
 
 " First principles, that should have been 
 learned at their mothers knees," murmured 
 Mrs. Spafford and then she showed what man 
 ner of spirit she was of, by saying also to 
 herself, courageously : " Very well, Gallic Spaf 
 ford, they will never learn them earlier ; now 
 see if you can teach them." 
 
 How to begin? that was the question. It 
 was not a new question to Mrs. Spafford, she 
 had thought of it many times during the past 
 week, and was in part prepared. 
 
 " It is very evident," she said, in a clear, 
 business-like tone, " that the first thing we
 
 244 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 need to do is to make some money." Now, 
 she had the attention of every girl ; a scheme 
 for making money they were always ready to 
 hear about. Nay, they were ready with sug 
 gestions. 
 
 " We might have a festival, or fair, or some 
 thing of that kind," immediately, and with 
 eagerness, said one of their number; where 
 upon equally eager voices joined in and affirmed 
 what they thought, to meet and make fancy 
 articles, and have a fair would be just 
 lovely. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford was in no sense dismayed ; 
 she had not lived through twenty-five years 
 of life, and managed many girls, without hav 
 ing heard frequently of fairs and festivals, 
 and old folk s suppers, and 3*oung folk s con 
 certs, and character parties and tableaux, and 
 mum socials, and socials that were not mum, 
 and oyster suppers, and strawberry and ice 
 cream festivals, and any and every other imag 
 inable device for obtaining money for " the 
 cause." She knew this disease in all of its 
 phases had special possession of "the girls," 
 and must reach its crisis. One thing was
 
 A Problem. 245 
 
 certain : If " out of the abundance of the 
 heart the mouth speaketh," the hearts of these 
 young misses were very much set on matters of 
 this kind, for they immediately became voluble, 
 and Mrs. Spafford had to rouse herself from 
 her study of human nature, and plunge into 
 the thick of it, for fear they would have a 
 tableau party organized before her eyes. 
 
 " Why do you suppose we always think of 
 devices of this kind whenever we talk about 
 money for the cause of Christ ? " 
 
 It was a general question, but, after a 
 little astonished pause, Addie Stowell an 
 swered : 
 
 "Why, because we girls have no other 
 ways of raising money ; when we want to give 
 anything, and don t want to coax our fathers 
 to do it, arid let us call it ours, we re just 
 obliged to make fancy work and have fairs, 
 and oblige people to buy. What else is there 
 to do?" 
 
 "Why, Mrs. Spafford, do you object to 
 such methods of raising money?" 
 
 " Let us see if we do. Miss Stowell, didn t 
 I hear you say that you could riot command
 
 246 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 money of your own? Suppose you could use 
 some to good purpose if you had it ? " 
 
 " I d like to have the chance once," said 
 Addie, with prompt emphasis, and the girls 
 laughed. 
 
 " Very well ; now I propose that you make 
 a number of fancy articles, tidies, pin-cushions 
 and the like, and some cake and perhaps coffee, 
 and have a fair in the course of a few weeks, 
 at your house ; and announce it in church for 
 the benefit of Miss Addie Stowell, and on 
 the evening in question let all these young 
 ladies flutter around and beseech people to 
 buy your tidies and cushions and cake ; be 
 sure a good price is set on them perhaps just 
 twice what they are worth will not be too 
 much, considering the object and let an 
 almost persecution be kept up during the eve 
 ning, by yourself and friends, for the sake of 
 the cause ! How would that impress you ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Spafford ! " said Addie, with glowing 
 cheeks, and eyes that did not seem to know 
 whether to sparkle with indignation, or dilate 
 with amazement. 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Spafford ! " chorused a dozen
 
 A Problem. 247 
 
 other voices ; and laughter and exclamations 
 of astonishment and dismay were the order of 
 the next few minutes. 
 
 Meantime, Mrs. Spafford asked calmly; 
 
 " Have I caricatured church fairs in the least, 
 young ladies ? Isn t it a true picture ? " 
 
 "But, Mrs. Spafford, that would be a per- 
 sonal matter ; so different from a church. Why, 
 it would be a perfect insult ! " 
 
 " My dear girls " and the gravity of. their 
 hostess voice quieted all the company shall 
 we be more regardful of our own personal 
 reputations than we are of the cause of Christ ? " 
 
 Utter silence for a moment, and then Marion 
 
 Wells came to the front : 
 
 
 
 " But Mrs. Spafford ; of course we know 
 that church fairs, and all such things are man 
 aged disgracefully, generally; but suppose we 
 had one that was managed right ; say we 
 worked hard and got a great many pretty 
 things ready, and set just a proper price on 
 them, such as everybody would own was what 
 they were worth, and then had our entertain 
 ment, without tormenting people, just letting 
 them buy what they pleased, and kept out all
 
 248 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 objectionable things ; there couldn t possibly be 
 any harm in that ? " 
 
 Mrs. Spafford hesitated ; not because she had 
 nought to say, but because she was not cer 
 tain of her material. Could she take real high 
 ground with them ? " Come out from among 
 them and be ye separate." Would they under 
 stand that? " Be not conformed to this 
 world." Would they understand that? "If 
 meat maketh my brother to offend, I will eat 
 no meat while the world stands." Would 
 they understand that? Studying their faces 
 bright, pretty faces, though they were she 
 much feared that it would be like speaking in 
 an unknown tongue. 
 
 u Well," she said, thoughtfully, " I presume 
 I shall differ with some of you, but do you 
 know I have a tendency toward being inde- 
 pendant, like Miss S to well. Wasn t it you, 
 my dear, who never liked to ask your father 
 for money to give, and then pretend you had 
 given it yourself? I agree with you. I don t 
 like to work hard on a yellow dog, we will 
 say curled up on a piece of canvas filled in 
 with black or blue, or something ; and then
 
 A Problem. 249 
 
 have Mrs. Jones say to her husband at the 
 tea-table : " My dear, you must give me some 
 money to-night ; I suppose I have got to go 
 to that fair ; the girls are urging me every 
 time they see me. I shall have to buy some 
 thing, of course. I think I shall get that 
 yellow dog, that one of them has been at work 
 at so long. They will have a horrid price on 
 it, of course ; and I shouldn t think of afford 
 ing it, for a moment, if it were not for the 
 cause. Of course we must help the mission 
 work along. So Mrs. Smith comes to the fair 
 and buys my yellow dog, and shows it to her 
 friends, and says it is not very well done, and 
 was a ruinous price, and she doesn t really 
 care for it, but, of course, she had to buy some 
 thing, and so, for the sake of the cause, she 
 took it. Now, whose money is that which the 
 yellow dog earns ? If Mrs. Smith speaks literal 
 truth her s or mine ? " 
 
 It was impossible not to laugh, and many 
 of tjie girls being quick witted saw the point, 
 and admitted that they had often been cross for 
 days over the remarks that they had heard 
 about work being bought, not because it was
 
 250 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 admired or desired, but for the sake of benev 
 olence. 
 
 " When, in fact, there was no benevolence 
 about it," declared Addie Stowell, stoutly. 
 Mrs. Parsons is forever talking in just that way ; 
 always buying things at fairs and festivals, out 
 of pure benevolence. It is no such thing ; she 
 always haggles and minces until she gets the 
 worth of her money, and more too, and buys 
 just exactly what she wants, and calls it charity. 
 I don t believe in such people." 
 
 " I don t believe in educating people in that 
 way," said Mrs. SpafTord, promptly, taking 
 advantage of Addie s illustration. " Haven t 
 you often seen gentlemen eat fifty cents worth 
 of oysters and cake and cream and fruit and 
 celery, and I don t know what else, and pay 
 twenty-five cents for it all, and think they 
 were being benevolent ? " 
 
 " Hundreds of times," said Addie. " But now 
 look here, .Mrs. Spafford, what can be done 
 about it ? There is no other way that I know 
 of for us girls to earn money. I wish there 
 was ; I hate the whole thing myself. I never 
 went to a performance of the kind in my life
 
 A Problem. 251 
 
 that there wasn t a fuss of some sort before it 
 was all over. Somebody s feelings are always 
 getting hurt ; somebody takes too much on 
 herself; or somebody doesn t do anything but 
 mince around and give directions. Oh, my ! 
 I know all about it; but I don t see any way 
 out."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MEASURING CHARACTER. 
 
 HAT would you say to our going into 
 business ? " 
 
 It was Mrs. Spafford who asked the 
 question, with as composed an air as though 
 she was saying the most commonplace thing 
 imaginable. No wonder the girls stared. 
 
 " Going into business ! " repeated Addie 
 Stowell, at last. " Why, Mrs. Spafford, what 
 can you mean ? " 
 
 " I believe it is feasible," their hostess said, 
 thoughtfully. I think it probable that each 
 of us can do some special thing very well 
 by which we could earn money. What is 
 there to hinder our uniting our forces and 
 
 2$2
 
 Measuring Character. 253 
 
 earning it? How is it, Miss Addie? Can t 
 you at this moment think of a branch of in 
 dustry which could be made a fair exchange 
 for dollars and cents ? " 
 
 " Why, yes," said Addie, hesitating a mo 
 ment. Then, smiling, " I know how to crochet 
 almost anything, if people were willing to buy 
 it after it is done." 
 
 " Very well, suppose now, for the curiosity 
 of the thing, we learn if there is not a branch 
 of work for each of us. I, for instance, can 
 do plain sewing perhaps a little that is not 
 so very plain, if I choose. Who embroiders, 
 and who braids, and who hemstitches ? " 
 
 The subject proved to be one which un 
 sealed all lips, and the girls found, greatly 
 to their amusement, that not one present but 
 asserted her individuality by promptly se 
 lecting something from the great field of fancy 
 work that she liked to do in fact, would 
 rather do a little of than not. 
 
 "But then," declared Addie, "I don t 
 know what good it will do us. Who wants to 
 buy such things ? They only do it for the 
 sake of benevolence, and we have to coax and
 
 254 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 coax until I m just ashamed. Besides, Mrs. 
 Spafford, I thought you didn t believe in it 
 at all." 
 
 " What ? In going into business ? Oh, 
 yes I do. I am a firm believer in money make- 
 ing legitimate business of any sort I have a 
 great respect for. I don t propose a fair, you 
 understand, with an evening of eager, exciting 
 work, with spirits wrought up to fever heat, 
 to be followed by days, and sometimes weeks, 
 of reaction, when all the ordinary work of life 
 becomes vapid. This that I propose is an en 
 tirely different matter." 
 
 Still the girls looked from one to another, 
 and then back to her, and were evidently 
 greatly bewildered. 
 
 " It is a conundrum," laughed Addie, at last 
 " and I don t believe we can any of us guess 
 it. If we all give it up will you tell us the 
 answer ? " 
 
 " It is just as simple," declared their hostess 
 smiling, "as that two and two make four. I 
 am proposing a partnership business, based 
 from the very first on strictly business rules 
 and regulations, without an atom of benevo-
 
 Measuring Character. 255 
 
 lence about it. Why isn t it an entirely rea 
 sonable thing? Suppose, for illustration, that 
 we had a room in the central part of the town, 
 suited to our needs, and there we opened a 
 well, until we find a better name, we will call 
 it a fancy-store, though I do hope we should 
 develop a taste for strictly useful articles as 
 well as fancy ones. Now, what if each of us 
 was willing to advance not contribute, you 
 understand but advance fifty cents each as 
 a capital. With this capital we purchase each 
 some material and manufacture one, two or 
 three articles for sale. When all is ready we 
 open our store, say for two hours on Saturday 
 afternoons, one of our number serving as clerk 
 for the first Saturday, another taking her place 
 on the Saturday following, we meantime prom 
 ising that the store shall be kept supplied with 
 the article or articles which we have promised 
 to make, provided its returns justify the pur 
 chasing of more material. We ask no one to 
 buy for the sake of benevolence ; we put no 
 extravagant prices on anything in the name 
 of benevolence ; we conduct our business in 
 all respects as our fathers and brothers do,
 
 256 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 dividing the income each month amongst the 
 
 o o 
 
 stockholders, and pledging ourselves to use 
 one-tenth of it in benevolence ; if it shall 
 amount to ten cents a month for each of us 
 our way will be clear to organize a Young 
 Ladies Band." 
 
 Then what a tumult there was in that Httle 
 parlor ! They all talked at once, and laughed, 
 and exclaimed, and stormed the inventor of 
 this strange scheme with questions. She had 
 need of all her wits. 
 
 " But, Mrs. Spafford, how could we plan so 
 as to supply the demand? Suppose we had 
 but one pin-cushion, for instance, and every 
 mortal woman who appeared on some Saturday 
 afternoon should insist on having a pin-cushion ? 
 Women are just so perverse." 
 
 " Then we would have our secretary notify 
 the members that all the pin-cushion force were 
 desired to put their brains and fingers to work 
 and make pin-cushions in view of the next 
 Saturday s onset." 
 
 " Where would we get our material ? " 
 
 " We would need a buying committee or, 
 rather, a buying partner ; that is quite common
 
 Measuring Character. 257 
 
 in all large firms some one, or two, whose 
 duty it would be to purchase material, write 
 orders to be sent in as to what was needed, 
 and the money for the purchases calculated 
 beforehand, and drawn from the funds held by 
 paying clerk." 
 
 " Suppose she hadn t money enough for the 
 purchases ? " 
 
 " Then we should manifestly have to do with 
 out the material until such time as we could 
 afford to enlarge our business." 
 
 " Couldn t we buy on credit ? " 
 
 Both Mrs. Spafford and Addie Stowell shook 
 their heads emphatically at this, and Addie 
 said : 
 
 "No ma am! You don t catch me launch 
 ing out in any enterprise that hasn t a solid 
 cash foundation. I should expect my father 
 to disown me forthwith. If there is anything 
 he hates it is the credit system." 
 
 " What if we become bankrupt ? " 
 
 " There is no danger of it," Mrs. Spafford 
 answered promptly. "A business done on 
 cash principles has no occasion for bankruptcy." 
 
 " Well," said Marion Wells, when the babel
 
 258 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 of tongues was somewhat subsiding, "it is a 
 novel idea, certainly, and it is a great deal 
 more fun than a fair; but, after all, I can t 
 see what special difference there is in the right 
 or wrong of the matter. 1 think fairs are all 
 right, but if I didn t I fail to see why I shouldn t 
 condemn this also." 
 
 "Why, you don t think stores are wrong, 
 do you ? " 
 
 This question, in various forms, was leveled 
 at her by several of the girls at once, Mrs. 
 Spafford sitting back a silent listener, and en 
 joying this sharpening of their wits. 
 
 " Oh, well," Marion said, " of course it was 
 nice to use such phrases, but also of course 
 it wouldn t be a real store, nor conducted on 
 any such principles. It would just be a fair, 
 or bazar, or something of that kind, with a 
 different name." 
 
 This made Mrs. Spafford sit erect aud speak 
 decidedly : 
 
 " Not if you follow out my plan, girls. I 
 warn you beforehand that I mean nothing but 
 business. I think very likely that real " fun," 
 as you call it, can be gotten out of the idea
 
 Measuring Character. 259 
 
 but it is not to have that for a foundation. 
 I have been proposing a strictly business trans 
 action, and if you vote to adopt my suggestion 
 it must be with the understanding that every 
 member of the firm is held rigidly to business 
 rules and regulations from the very outset. 
 In fact, I hope one outcome from the enter 
 prise, if you take it up, will be a discovery 
 if any of you need to make a discovery that 
 young ladies can be as thoroughly business 
 like and methodical in their work as men. 
 We expect to do what is strictly woman s work, 
 it is true, and to do it in womanly ways, but 
 those ways should never for a moment be 
 allowed to become a synonym for looseness or 
 inaccuracies. Now, as to the question concern 
 ing the essential difference between such an 
 enterprise and what is known as a church fair. 
 One of my objections to the latter way of work 
 ing is the fact that there is no legitimate place 
 for any such work. The church even its 
 chapel or parlor or lecture-room, by whatever 
 name you call its smaller rooms is not, and, 
 according to my idea, should never become a 
 place of merchandise. Buying and selling may
 
 260 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 be very legitimate transactions, but we don t 
 want to see them carried on in a church. 
 Even when we hire a hall for the purpose it is 
 not actually suited for such a purpose, and the 
 large amount that is likely to be charged for 
 it detracts so much from the possible profits 
 that it of itself begets in us a feverish desire 
 to make up that leak by enormous profits, or 
 questionable side-traps, like post-offices and 
 lemonade-wells, even if we do not descend to 
 the actual coarseness of ring-cakes or grab- 
 bags." 
 
 This plain speaking produced a sensation. 
 The girls bestowed speaking glances on each 
 other ; convenient elbows were nudged, and 
 one or two quite loud " ahems " indicated that 
 some portion of the audience considered another 
 portion of it touched on sensitive points. None 
 of these little asides did Mrs. Spafford pause 
 to notice, but hastened to add: 
 
 " Then another and very important draw 
 back, is the fact that preparing for a fair alwa} s 
 brings a period of feverish haste and excite 
 ment ; the eventful evening about which so 
 much talk has been made, and of which so
 
 Measuring Character. 261 
 
 much is expected, is chosen and announced, 
 and draws near, and the gay young workers 
 wake up at the eleventh hour to discover that 
 they are not nearly ready for it. Then come 
 late hours, and neglect of books and study, 
 and duty of almost every sort, and the girls run 
 hither and thither distractedly, unable to think 
 of anything but the approaching crisis. Finally 
 it comes, and the last day before the final crush, 
 is often filled up with heart-burnings caused 
 by mistakes made, or quick words spoken, 
 under the impulse of haste and strong excite 
 ment. Haven t you admitted here this after 
 noon that such is nearly always the case ? Be 
 sides, I wonder if any of you can have for 
 gotten the distressing reaction of the next 
 morning, when only a very few of you rise to 
 the degree of self-abnegation necessary to help 
 ing royally in the clearing up ? The rest stay 
 at home and are miserable, because their con 
 sciences hint that they ought to be helping ; 
 and those doing the work are miserable, be 
 cause they are tempted to say sharp, unchari 
 table things about the people who are not 
 helping ; and for days thereafter there seems
 
 262 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 to be very little in life worth doing ; while, 
 at the same time, nothing looks so improbable 
 as that they will ever want to go through the 
 trials of another fair. Now, all this is unnat 
 ural and unhealthy. In business life it is very 
 different. There is a regular routine, which 
 never, or at least need never, rise to an absorb 
 ing height, to be followed by days of reaction. 
 Besides, there is no temptation to lose all deli 
 cacy of feeling and sense of propriety, and 
 make oneself a nuisance by tormenting people 
 to buy what they do not want, because it is 
 for the Church. As if the Church were a beg 
 gar, and must be supported by public charity ! " 
 
 Mrs. Spafford s cheeks glowed ; she was very 
 sensitive where the honor of the Church was 
 concerned. As she looked at the matter, it 
 had been made, by those who should have 
 guarded its reputation carefully to wear the 
 " guise of a pauper " long enough. 
 
 Some of the girls laughed; they thought 
 their leader peculiar; they were incapable of 
 taking such high ground. Why should they 
 not be ? Their mothers before them had not 
 taken it : had not so educated them. But there
 
 Measuring Character. 263 
 
 were two or three whose thoughtful faces and 
 earnest eyes helped Mrs. Spafford wonderfully. 
 She could plainly see there was material here 
 for growth. If only two or three, and those 
 leaders, could be educated, even at this late 
 day, to take such a stand as she was sure ought 
 to be taken on all these questions, the genera 
 tion to come would see a reform. But whether 
 most of the girls saw the principle at stake 
 or not, they saw the novelty, and were inter 
 ested and excited over the scheme. To go 
 into business, to make money, to be partners, 
 and have a buying committee and a money- 
 drawer, and a scheme unlike anything else that 
 had ever been tried, was something that they 
 could understand and appreciate ; with but 
 one exception, they voted unanimously in favor 
 of the scheme. Miss Lily Archer was sure it 
 would not meet with mamma s approval. 
 
 " Mamma has peculiar ideas," she said, look 
 ing down with sweet shyness and toying with 
 her fan. " I beg your pardon for saying so, 
 but I am sure she will think it unladylike." 
 
 Poor little Lily Archer ! Mrs. Spafford had 
 herself seen her personating Rebekah at the
 
 264 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 well, dressed in a startlingly picturesque cos 
 tume, dipping up lemonade for certain fast 
 young men, who laughed and talked too 
 freely with the Jewish maiden, to repre 
 sent either ancient history or modern pro 
 priety, according to the views of some ; but 
 the fair Lily as unlike the Jewish type of 
 features, and color, by the way, as her mimic 
 lemonade-well was unlike the spot where 
 Rebekah watered the sheep had never been 
 taught that style of propriety. Also, she had 
 seen her in a tableau, personating a richly 
 dressed and richly jeweled dishonorable wife, 
 receiving a tender caress from a man who 
 was not, even in the tableau, her husband ; 
 and neither she nor her mother had considered 
 this unladylike ! What could be expected 
 from such? Nevertheless, Miss Lily did not 
 positively withdraw ; she said she would think 
 about it ; would talk with mamma, it was all 
 so very new and queer; nothing like it had 
 ever been done in " our set, you know." Oh, 
 she would help ; make pretty things, and buy 
 them very likely, and of course she would give 
 the fifty cents. Why did they have such a
 
 Measuring Character. 265 
 
 ridiculously small sum to start with ? Oh, as 
 to giving, and all that sort of thing, of course 
 she would help ; but she couldn t put her 
 name down as one committed to sustain the 
 enterprise ; at least not now. 
 
 And just here Mrs. Spafford interposed. 
 
 No, they could not take her money ; if she 
 were not ready to join heart and hand in the 
 work, they would have none of her. It was 
 right that she should consult her mother, of 
 course ; they were all to do that. Nothing was 
 to be definite this afternoon except plans to be 
 submitted to the heads at home ; the only 
 question to be settled was, " Do you agree 
 heartily, uncompromisingly to all this, if mother 
 and father do ? " Still, Miss Lily s name 
 would not go down ; and Mrs. Spafford had 
 discovered what she surmised and wanted to 
 know ; that " mamma " was put in, as a grace 
 ful way of saying that the idea looked dull 
 and commonplace, and lacking in gentility to 
 the fair Lily. 
 
 Occasionally there is a curious offshoot from 
 the parent tree as unlike what might be ex 
 pected as possible. Just such an unexpected
 
 266 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 character did Lena Bacon suddenly develop. 
 She shook back her gay brown curls, and 
 flashed her bright eyes, and declared that she 
 thought it was "just fun." Ten times nicer 
 than any fair she had ever heard of, and she 
 was going into it with all her heart, and could 
 paint Christmas cards in a perfectly lovely 
 way, everybody knew, and they d see what 
 she would do." 
 
 " What shall we do for a store ? " queried 
 one, and the question brought a sudden lull, 
 and all eyes looked inquiringly at Mrs. Spafford, 
 as though she were then and there expected 
 to produce a store ready for occupancy. 
 
 " We need a room in somebody s house," she 
 said, promptly ; " a good-sized, convenient 
 room, that some person, who has more house 
 room than she needs, will rent to us on reason 
 able terms. Oh, yes, indeed, we must pay 
 rent. This is not benevolence, remember, it 
 is business. Who of us wishes to beg a house 
 to live in, rent free ? Where shall we find the 
 person to appeal to, who has unnecessary house 
 room ? " 
 
 Immediately all eyes were levelled at Addie
 
 Measuring Character. 267 
 
 Stowell ; she lived with her father, mother and 
 young brother, in the old family mansion 
 which had been almost in the country in the 
 days long ago, before the city moved up so far. 
 The family had been old, aristocratic and 
 wealthy. The wealth had departed, but age 
 and aristocracy were left. Still it was no sham 
 aristocracy ; the family had no more idea of 
 trying to profess themselves rich, now that 
 they were poor, "than they had thought of pro 
 fessing poverty in the days of their wealth. 
 But a store in the old Stowell homestead ! That 
 was a leap somewhere, surety! And yet the 
 house was so large, and so roomy, and so quaint, 
 and so exactly what would delight every girl 
 among them ! Addie laughed. 
 
 "You all look at me as though I owned a 
 first-class store in my own right," she said, 
 gaily. "I know what you are every one 
 thinking of. You see yourselves, at this 
 minute, selling tape and thread and pins in our 
 big, old shut up parlor. Ought we not to have 
 a thread and needle and-so-forth department, 
 Mrs. Spafford ? It is a perfect nuisance to 
 have to take a car down town for everything
 
 268 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 of that sort that is wanted ; I know plenty of 
 people who think so. Well, I ll ask mother 
 and father ; that s the best / can do. We have 
 thought of most everything to help along, but 
 we never thought of renting the parlor for a 
 store before ; now that s tha truth. But why 
 not ? Mother ll be willing, I think ; I don t 
 know about father. Why, Lafayette was en 
 tertained in that house, you know, and General 
 Washington himself ! It ought to be dedicated 
 to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then, 
 oughtn t it ? Sure enough ! Well, I ll see 
 what I can do."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " LAST NIGHT " MEASUEED BY DAYLIGHT. 
 
 was all Fairyland to Jennie West. 
 The evening was so lovely, the car 
 riage so luxurious, the accessories all 
 so perfect ; she was conscious of looking re 
 markably well, and Will was so handsome ! 
 Then, too, as they rolled smoothly down Beck- 
 man avenue, some of the very girls that she 
 would have preferred above all others to have 
 seen her under those circumstances, walked 
 slowly by, casting admiring not to say envious 
 glances at the occupants of the carriage. 
 Will was in a specially genial mood, for he 
 was a young man given to fluctuations in his 
 moods even when with Jennie West; some-
 
 270 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 times he was so nearly silent as to be almost 
 moody, and his heart would be evidently busy 
 with perplexing thoughts, but on this evening 
 he chatted gaily, yet with a gentleness in the 
 gaiety and a careful attention to his compan 
 ion s comfort, such as made her heart throb 
 with gratified something who shall say 
 whether it was love or pride ? The subjects 
 for conversation were numerous, and sufficiently 
 interesting, so that Jennie, while she thought 
 of that important matter about which you 
 will remember she intended to talk with him 
 that very evening, she told herself it wasn t 
 a suitable opportunity just now, she would wait 
 a little, and as they iieared the whirl of the 
 city she said, still to her inner self: " When 
 we are coming home will be just the time for 
 a grave subject like that ; there are too many 
 people looking at us now, and, it is so light 
 and bustling, it is almost like being in society ; 
 when it is dark and quiet all around will be 
 a much more suitable time for earnest talk. 
 Will is so full of life now, I presume he will 
 have calmed down by that time." So she dis 
 missed the prayer-meeting as a topic for con-
 
 Measured hy Daylight. 271 
 
 versation, and gave herself up to pleasure. 
 As for the opera, it was all that operas gen 
 erally are, and perhaps more than some. The 
 simple truth is that this young lady and gen 
 tleman in purity of sentiment were above the 
 play to which they were listening. The style 
 of dressing presented was such as covered 
 Jennie s face with blushes, and made her at 
 tendant wish several times that he had not 
 been such a fool as to bring her. The main 
 reason that either of them endured in quiet 
 that which offended their sense of propriety, 
 was because the house was well filled with 
 fashionable people whose position in society 
 Jennie at least thought was such as to warrant 
 one in being pleased with whatever pleased 
 them. So, though she blushed, she also laughed. 
 Moreover, there was, of course, a great deal 
 to enjoy ; the carefully studied scenery, the 
 witching music, the exquisite play of light 
 and shade, the exquisite toilets all combined 
 to fascinate a wiser head than Jennie, at her 
 best, possessed. The fact that a great deal 
 of the singing was in an unknown tongue, was 
 a greater source for thankfulness than at least
 
 272 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 these two realized. However much she might 
 have desired to admire, because it was a fash 
 ionable opera, and the fashionable world ad 
 mired it, I feel sure that could poor Jennie 
 have understood the meaning of some of the 
 sentences, she would have blushed not only, 
 but would have withdrawn herself from that 
 indecent presence. Whatever may have been 
 said of the larger portion of the audience, I 
 am glad to be able to tell you that Will and 
 Jennie could not translate, and never had 
 heard translated, much that they listened to 
 that evening. 
 
 This being the case, what was there about 
 it all that seemed such an intoxication ? Is 
 there something peculiarly sensuous in music? 
 
 Jennie found herself yielding more and more 
 to the spell which she did not understand. 
 Had she been familiar with the " Lotus Eaters," 
 she might have quoted from their story to de 
 scribe her sensations. Life real, actual day 
 light life seemed horrible to her ; some 
 thing to shrink from, dread ; to sit forever sur 
 rounded by all the soft and tender and exquisite 
 sights and sounds, the dreamy lull of music
 
 Measured by Dai/light. 273 
 
 floating around her, Will Coleman slowly 
 swaying her elegant fan to and fro in exquisite 
 time with the music ; this was life, happiness, 
 heaven. Nothing else was worth a thought. 
 Did she put all this nonsense into words ? 
 Not at all ; she was not even conscious, save 
 in a dim way, that she thought it. She did 
 not know that her mental faculties -were actu 
 ally intoxicated ! 
 
 Well, it ended at last, as even such hours 
 of bliss will end, and they passed out into 
 the darkness. Only for a moment they 
 made their speedy way to a refreshment-room, 
 and Jennie daintily tasted an ice, while Will 
 drank before her eyes a glass of wine. It was 
 something that he rarely did before her ; 
 something that he knew she, in a sort of fash 
 ion, disapproved ; yet to-night he was excited, 
 and felt that he needed it to steady his nerves ! 
 Besides, was her disapproval so very great ? 
 She only shook her head at him and said : 
 "Oh, Will, I am ashamed of you." 
 But she smiled, and looked so pretty while 
 she said it, that he felt provoked to tempt her 
 to say it again. " She is as pretty as a witch
 
 274 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 to-night," he muttered, as he drained the last 
 drop. " I wish I could take her to the theater, 
 or the opera, or somewhere every night of her 
 life, and there were no days between to think 
 about. I wish I had a fortune. Hang it all ! 
 I wonder if I dare take another glass?" 
 
 It was more fortunate for Jennie than she 
 knew that he decided another glass unsafe ; 
 his was not the sort of brain that would bear 
 even one glass steadily, and he hurried her 
 somewhat abruptly away from her ice, and into 
 the carriage. In a few moments they left the 
 brilliantly lighted streets, and were alone and 
 quiet. No society now, nothing to prevent that 
 earnest talk which Jennie was to have had with 
 her friend that evening. The soft balmy air 
 hovered around them, and the holy stars looked 
 down on them, and every influence of nature 
 was calming and ennobling. What was the 
 trouble with Jennie ? Every nerve was in an 
 intense and unnatural quiver. She had by no 
 means calmed into her ordinary self. Life was 
 an intoxication still, not a grave, day-by-day 
 reality. She didn t think of the days at all. 
 Only the witching star-lighted nights, and soft
 
 Measured by Daylight. 275 
 
 cushions, and careful hands to draw her wrap 
 pings about her. She hummed a bar from the 
 most dreamy strain that the opera contained, 
 and said : 
 
 " Wasn t it perfectly lovely, Will ? " 
 
 "Did you like it?" he asked her, and he 
 looked down on her, and she looked beautiful 
 to him ; neither did his voice have its usual 
 poise. He had the added excitement of a glass 
 of wine to combat. 
 
 " Like it ! " she said, ecstatically, " it was 
 heaven ! " 
 
 The comparison did not jar her, neither was 
 it said with an intention of being irreverent; 
 her senses were aglow. 
 
 Do you think, during that four miles drive, 
 she said anything to him about the prayer- 
 meeting, or about "joining the church," and 
 "leading in prayer," and taking his position 
 as a responsible and prominent member ? " 
 
 The Church ! She forgot its existence. 
 What had the Church in common with this en 
 trancing star-lighted night, with the wierd 
 strains of the opera still sounding in their ears ? 
 
 Just now, would she have cared to hear his
 
 276 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 voice in prayer ? What mattered it whether 
 he was ever an officer in the Church? I do not 
 wish you to understand that any of these 
 thoughts presented themselves for her to settle ; 
 they were simply so utterly unimportant that 
 she forgot them all. 
 
 " Jennie," her companion said, looking down 
 on her as she curled in a graceful little ball 
 among the cushions, " Don t you wish we were 
 a million miles from home, and it was going 
 to take us forever to get there ? " 
 
 Ah me ! As they count distances, who un 
 derstand the relative importance of things, 
 how many million miles were those two from 
 home ? God grant that it may not take them 
 forever to reach there ! This was a speech that 
 Will Coleman, in his cooler moments, would 
 think silly ; would sneer over. It is a pity for 
 a man to make remarks to a Woman that even 
 he himself will have to sneer over when he 
 remembers them afterward. But Jennie was 
 in no mood to help him. 
 
 " Yes," she said, with a delicious sense of 
 dreaminess to her voice ; " I wish nothing was 
 anywhere."
 
 Measured by Daylight. 277 
 
 What did that mean ? Not even Jennie 
 knew, and if she didn t who should? 
 
 The young man kept looking at her; he hes 
 itated a little, he struggled dimly with his 
 judgment but it was such a witching night, 
 and she was so pretty, and well, he was in 
 no mood to struggle ; why should he ? Why 
 should anybody do anything save exactly what 
 he wants to do? 
 
 "Jennie," he said, and he bent his head 
 lower, and drew her wrapping more closely 
 around her, and herself more closely to him, 
 "dear Jennie," Do you think lam going to 
 tell you what was said? Even over such a 
 miserable little caricature of love as this, 
 for the sake of the high and holy feeling 
 which it imitates, I would draw the veil of 
 silence. 
 
 You can imagine what was said, the impas 
 sioned words that were spoken, the solemn 
 promises that were made. What a solemn 
 pity it is that neither of those young things 
 for so far as regarded their knowledge of life 
 and its responsibilities and solemnities both 
 were young what a pity that they should
 
 278 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 play with promises so sacred, nor realize that 
 the eternal God looking down upon them 
 heard their vows and recorded them for their 
 eyes to- meet again after this living is over ! 
 
 It was not until hours afterward that Jennie, 
 all her pretty things thrown wildly around 
 Mrs. Evans guest chamber, as she overturned 
 a pile of laces to find a stray brush, was re 
 minded by a glimpse of her Bible that she 
 had designed this evening s conversation in 
 a different channel. 
 
 " I declare," she said aloud, pausing in her 
 search, " I never said a single word to Will 
 about joining the Church, or any thing. I 
 forgot every breath about it ! Oh, well, how 
 could I be expected to know what strange 
 things he would have to say to me ? " And 
 she blushed and laughed to herself in the light 
 of the tardy moon that was just flooding the 
 eastern sky. Then the soliloquy went on : 
 " I shall have opportunity enough hereafter 
 to say what I choose, and he will be bound 
 to heed what I say, besides. I wonder if we 
 shall go to many operas together? Will said 
 the music was well enough, but Oh, dear,
 
 Measured by Daylight. 279 
 
 what nonsense he talked to-night ! I wonder 
 if he meant half of it ? " 
 
 There was a happy light in her eyes. She 
 fully believed just then that he meant much 
 more than half of it. But it was thus that 
 she dismissed the subject of the Church and 
 "Will s proposed prominent part in it. No, I 
 mistake. It was not dismissed yet ; her 
 thoughts reverted to it the moment she knelt 
 to pray. If ever Jennie West was to pray 
 for her friend you would think it might be 
 on the night when she had promised to be 
 his forever. But she found, I cannot say to 
 her dismay, that it was even harder than usual 
 to hold her thoughts. They would flutter 
 around that eventful evening and live over 
 again its scenes. If her thoughts, while she 
 knelt there in the attitude of prayer, could 
 have been photographed before her, I fancy 
 they might have startled her a little. They 
 ran somewhat after this manner : " Our Father 
 who art in heaven I don t really know 
 whether I care to have Will join the church 
 after all ; people can be good without that ; 
 he is real good I m sure ; if I ever do half as
 
 280 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 well as he has done I shall be content hal 
 lowed be thy name. Some people have such 
 over-strained ideas about a public profession : 
 Gallic would think he ought never to go inside 
 of an opera after that. I wonder what Callie 
 will say to the news I have to give her, as if 
 there could be any harm in operas ! I m sure 
 the music was heavenly, and the whole scene, 
 the lights and flowers, and the colors and 
 everything, was unlike earth enough to make 
 one think of heaven. Thy kingdom come, 
 thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. 
 Will is such a perfect gentleman ; it is a pleas 
 ure to have him even pick up one s handker 
 chief, he does it so gracefully. I wish Callie 
 and her husband hadn t so many notions. I 
 fairly dread to tell her about it ; she will 
 have a lecture for us both. I don t want to 
 be as good as Callie is, now that s a fact ; she 
 is too good for this earth ; she ought to wait 
 until she gets to heaven. Give us this day 
 our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as 
 we forgive our debtors. If he only had money 
 he would be just perfect. What a shame it 
 is that his old aunt didn t leave her property
 
 Measured by Daylight. 281 
 
 to him. I hate the sight of that prinking, 
 red-haired neice that got it all ; she thought 
 she would get Will by the means ; I ll show 
 her that she missed her calculation in that 
 respect. Lead us not into temptation, but 
 deliver us from evil. Will shall take me to 
 the theatre occasionally, anyhow ; I ve never 
 been to the plays that I want most to hear. 
 4 For thine is the kingdom. " 
 
 Do you imagine she realized the two trains 
 of thought which she was carrying on ? I 
 don t think she did ; the form of the prayer 
 was so familiar to her that she did not need 
 to hold her thoughts to the words, and she 
 was so used to letting them flutter off in that 
 wild fashion on whatever chanced to occur 
 next, that she did not feel the startling in 
 congruity. At the close of the formula she 
 did draw her thoughts away long enough to 
 put up one sincere, if selfish, petition : " Oh, 
 Lord, take care of my dear Will. I wonder 
 if lie has got home yet?" This last sentence 
 not included in the prayer, but insisting on 
 presenting itself in the same breath to be 
 thought about. As for Will Coleman, he
 
 282 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 dismissed his carriage at the corner, feeling 
 the need of a walk in the cool, quiet air to 
 calm his blood after all the excitements of the 
 evening. What he thought he kept entirely 
 to himself, not even expressing it by a whistle. 
 He let himself into his boarding-house in a 
 very quiet fashion, quietly made his way up 
 stairs, lighted his lamp, and saw first that 
 Bible lying open exactly as he had left it sev 
 eral days before ; lying on his book-shelf where 
 he had lain it ; proof positive of the amount 
 of daily care his room received and of the 
 amount of Bible reading that he had since 
 done. Pie seized it now, closed it roughly, 
 without a glance at the fly-leaf, and tossed it to 
 the topmost shelf without a word. 
 
 The next morning there was no moon-light, 
 no star-light, no music, only for the young man 
 a sense of exhaustion following the late hours 
 and intense excitement of the night before, and 
 the dull headache which always followed a 
 glass of wine. 
 
 " Heigh ho ! " he said with a weary yawn, 
 "I ve got to get through another day at that 
 confounded store, selling potatoes and onions
 
 Measured by Daylight. 283 
 
 and cabbage and cheese ! I wish the world 
 was made of rose-leaves and we dined off nectar 
 and ambrosia. Eight hundred dollars a year, 
 and house rent and cabbage and what not, to 
 say nothing of opera tickets and carriage hire 
 and kid gloves six buttons on them, too, I 
 counted last night ! I wonder that didn t 
 steady my nerves. What a confounded sim 
 pleton I was ! The idea of my acting like a 
 youth with ten thousand a year I Still, I don t 
 know how a fellow was going to help it. The 
 music and the witchery generally got hold of 
 me, and she is as pretty as a doll. If it weren t 
 for money it would be all right. Some people 
 succeed in making money in this world, but 
 they don t do it selling onions and the like for 
 other folks to pocket the profits. I believe I 
 must cast about for a better way." 
 
 And Jennie ? Well, it was morning with 
 her, and the flowers she wore the night before 
 had withered ; and the witching curls of her 
 hair were one irritable snarl. Also, she heard 
 Mr. and Mrs. Evans in their room talking 
 talking too loud, Dane was, when the guest- 
 chamber had an occupant.
 
 284 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " The fact is Eva " this was what she heard 
 him say "the fact is that we must retrench 
 in some way, or I must just admit that I am 
 a dishonest man and can not pay my bills. I 
 have no sort of idea how I am to meet those 
 already made, and they grow larger every day 
 of our lives. There is mismanagement some 
 where." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said the lady in the guest-cham 
 ber, as she jerked out a whole friz which had 
 tied itself up into a million cross little knots. 
 " If Will ever ventures to speak to me in any 
 such fashion as that he ll be sorry, I can as 
 sure him ! Bills and retrenchment and embar 
 rassment! I wonder if I am doomed to hear 
 that story all my life ! If I thought I was I d 
 want to go to the next opera and have a good 
 time, and drown myself in the river on the 
 way home, Will and I." 
 
 Isn t it a sad beginning to a union of care 
 and trial and responsibility and pain, when the 
 first morning afterward looks just as it did to 
 those two? And yet they thought, poor 
 things, that they loved each other!
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AN OPEN DOOE. 
 
 must have somebody who understands 
 business better than we do, to sort of 
 manage us, and things generally." 
 This had been Addie Stowell s half-laughing, 
 half-serious announcement, on the day when 
 the Stowell parlor having been secured, and 
 plans in general carefully matured the now 
 thoroughly interested girls had met to arrange 
 plans in detail. Addie ? s suggestion met with 
 instant approval, arid at least a dozen voices 
 declared that Mrs. SpafTord was just the one 
 to take care of their heads and their money. 
 That lady who had foreseen the necessity for 
 some such arrangement, and believed, moreover, 
 285
 
 286 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 that it was important to select a woman, rather 
 than, a girl, for general manager, resolved to 
 accept the appointment without further discus 
 sion. 
 
 " Very well : I will engage to be your con 
 fidential clerk, and manage the finances of the 
 firm to the best of my ability until such time 
 as we shall agree to have a younger and more 
 sprightly assistant. I make one proviso, to the 
 effect that you will empower me to secure a 
 helper where I choose ; one who shall, under 
 my direction, do whatever work which would 
 naturally be in my province that I choose to 
 give her ; this will not relieve me from respon 
 sibility, for I will engage to be responsible for 
 the doings of my chosen helper." 
 
 This was agreed upon, and the " managing 
 clerk " took the chair. From this moment the 
 process of organizing the somewhat ponderous 
 firm, and getting the machinery in running 
 order, went on rapidly and satisfactorily. The 
 truth is, the " managing clerk " had not lain 
 awake for several nights without results. She 
 knew exactly what she wanted her firm to do, 
 and the way to set them at it.
 
 An Open Door. 287 
 
 It is no part of my intention to take you 
 through the details of this unique business. 
 You can imagine that the task was not an 
 easy one, and that there were constant pitfalls 
 to avoid ; it is rather with an experience which 
 as we see events grew out of this plan 
 that I have to do. Mrs. Spafford, in suggesting 
 the importance of a sub-clerk for herself, had 
 a plan in mind. Her heart was very much set 
 on getting nearer to her fair, and, yet so often, 
 sad-faced neighbor, Mrs. Dane Evans ; getting 
 near enough to help her : for that she was 
 sorely in need of help grew daily more evident. 
 The lines on her face were deepening, and there 
 was a pitiful pallor creeping over it, that told 
 of a weary heart struggling with some burden 
 daily growing too heavy for her to lift. Could 
 she be interested in this enterprise of the young 
 ladies? Could she be prevailed upon to give 
 them help, by becoming associated with their 
 leader not to assume more responsibility, but 
 to take certain duties easily performed, and per 
 haps much to her taste upon herself? And 
 then, could it be hoped that, in the many con 
 ferences which this partnership of responsi-
 
 288 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 bility would involve, they would get nearer to 
 each other ; so near that, in time, she would ac 
 cept Mrs. Spafford as a tried friend, and let her 
 help, if she could, in the spot where she needed 
 special help ? And then could not this ser 
 vant of her Master hope to lead that tired 
 heart closer to the great burden Bearer? Such 
 in brief was the plan toward which Mrs. Spaf 
 ford was quietly working. Not seeing her way 
 clear, but seeing a little entering place, perhaps, 
 she resolved to push in that direction, while 
 she watched for more light. 
 
 It was over this entire matter that she stud 
 ied, and frequently prayed, while she went 
 about her home one afternoon. Not a word had 
 been said to Mrs. Evans as yet ; the managing 
 clerk had been watching her opportunity. So 
 much depended on one s first impressions of 
 things. Having prayed much over the whole 
 scheme, she found herself looking often from 
 the window, watching the clouds, for the day 
 was dull and rainy. 
 
 "I don t know why it should seem so import 
 ant to go over there on this day of all others," 
 she said to herself; "it is raining, and is
 
 An Open Door. 289 
 
 not a day when one would be likely to expect 
 a call unless the business were urgent; mine 
 certainly can wait several days if necessary, 
 and yet I feel impelled to go this afternoon." 
 She made all necessary arrangements for the 
 evening meal, which she and Warren looked 
 forward always to enjoying together, and settled 
 herself at the window with her sewing. There 
 was no use in thinking about going out while 
 the rain came down so steadily, and the wind 
 was blowing too ; a thoroughly disagreeable day. 
 It was easy to settle oneself outwardly, yet she 
 found that she had not gotten away from the 
 impression that now was the time. She sewed 
 steadily for a few minutes, then rolled up her 
 work with a resolute air. " I will go now" she 
 said, decidedly. " Why shouldn t I ? 1 am not 
 afraid of the rain and she may be very lonely. 
 I can not get away from the feeling that this 
 may be my opportunity." 
 
 Resolved upon being as informal as possible, 
 ind .have her appearance fit the day, she 
 donned waterproof and rubbers, and, umbrella 
 in hand, sallied forth, knocking at the little 
 side door of the small house, instead of ring-
 
 290 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ing the front-door bell. There was no response 
 to her knock. She stood dismayed ; so strong 
 had been the impression that she was to come 
 on just that afternoon, that to find the house 
 apparently deserted was a keen disappointment. 
 What, then, had the pressure meant which 
 had seemed to her so like a voice directing 
 her steps? 
 
 " The house doesn t look closed," she said, 
 still arguing with herself ; "the curtains would 
 be dropped if she had gone for the day. I 
 wonder if I may venture to the kitchen-door? 
 Perhaps they cannot hear a knock at this 
 point." So she stepped around the neat little 
 box of a house to the kitchen-door. No, it was 
 ajar ; somebody was at home ; she knocked 
 boldly. No response ; and the wind was whirl 
 ing her umbrella about in an insane fashion, 
 and the eaves were dripping on her head. 
 It was a very disagreeable spot in which to 
 wait, and yet, somebody in this little house 
 was at home, and the resolute caller was un 
 willing to beat a retreat. " I ll step in," she 
 said, boldly; "I am getting all wet standing 
 here, and I can explain the intrusion. A
 
 An Open Door. ~ 291 
 
 moment more and she was in the tiny kitchen. 
 It was a scene of dreary desolation. The fire 
 in the cooking-stove was out ; not decorously 
 out as in many a thrifty household at that 
 hour of the day, but there was every indi 
 cation that it had gone out ruthlessly, and 
 with malice aforethought; the hearth was ash- 
 bestrewn, a dish-pan half filled with greasy 
 water occupied the top, while certain pots, 
 kettles, and various other cooking utensils 
 stood around in dismay ; the kitchen-table, 
 too, was a scene from which the tidy house 
 keeper turned quickly, appalled at herself for 
 venturing in, and almost feeling as though Mrs. 
 Evans could never forgive her for looking on 
 the desolations of that kitchen. Not a person 
 was to be seen, and the uninvited guest had 
 just resolved to slip quietly away, and ring, 
 perhaps, at the front door, if she could not 
 bring herself to give up the visit, when she 
 heard that which startled her into a change 
 of plans. The unmistakable sound of bitter 
 weeping came to her from the only half-closed 
 door of the adjoining room ; not only weeping, 
 but lamentation ; a voice as of one in almost
 
 292 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 mortal agony either of body or mind. All 
 manner of conjectures rushed through Mrs. 
 Spafford s mind. Mrs. Evans might be ill, 
 might be in sudden and terrible affliction, 
 and was certainly alone. Could she hesi- 
 ate any longer 011 the ground of intrusion ? 
 Certain it was that she could no more go 
 home with the wail of that voice in her 
 ears, than she could leave any other fellow- 
 creature in distress and do nothing to 
 help. Pausing only to set her dripping um 
 brella in a safe place, and close the kitchen- 
 door, she stepped quickly across the room, 
 pushed wide the intervening door, and stood 
 face to face with Mrs. Evans, who sprang 
 suddenly to her feet, a look of utter astonish 
 ment, by no means unmingled with indignation, 
 struggling with the tears on her face. 
 
 "Mrs. Spafford!" 
 
 It was every word she said, but a whole 
 volume of wounded pride and resentment over 
 this unwarrantable intrusion were pent up in 
 the voice. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford stepped quickly to her side, 
 and laid a gentle hand on her arm :
 
 An Open Door. 293 
 
 " My dear friend, I seem to you to have been 
 guilty of a great rudeness, but, indeed, I mean 
 no intrusion. I came to your kitchen-door on 
 an errand, and, finding it ajar and no one quite 
 ready to answer my knock, I took the liberty 
 of stepping in a moment out of the storm, and 
 heard your voice as if in pain or distress ; I 
 feared you were alone and needed help, and I 
 came to offer it. I will go away at once, only 
 believe me, I had only a heart full of love, and 
 a longing desire to help you." 
 
 Before this sentence was completed, Mrs. 
 Evans had sunk again in a little heap on the 
 couch from which she had risen, and with the 
 pitiful cry : " God knows I need help, if any 
 one on earth does," burst into a perfect passion 
 of weeping. 
 
 Her visitor bent over her a distressed, doubt 
 ful face ; ought she to go away from one in 
 such bitter mental agony as this? Yet what 
 could she say to help or comfort her that would 
 not seem like an attempt to pry into the secrets 
 of another ? 
 
 " Dear friend," she said and her voice was 
 very tender " I think you know where to look
 
 294 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 for help, no matter what your trial or burden ; 
 whether it be great or very small, He is 
 equally ready to have it brought to him and 
 left there. Why don t you ask his help? You 
 are one of his own." 
 
 "I am not, I am not!" burst with passion 
 ate tears from the poor burdened heart. " I 
 am nothing at all but a miserable woman who 
 has made a failure of everything that I ever 
 undertook. I ought never to have taken the 
 responsibilities of a wife and a housekeeper 
 upon me. I am a failure in every sense of 
 the word! I ought to die and go away out 
 of the world and give others a chance to 
 live." 
 
 What desperate talking was this, from a 
 woman who had been a beautiful and treasured 
 bride but a short time before ! What could be 
 said to her? Was not this a matter with 
 which a stranger ought not to intermeddle ? 
 What if it were only a childish outburst of 
 passion over some misunderstanding between 
 her husband and herself ? An outburst, . the 
 memory of which, and of the fact that there 
 was a human eye-witness, would humiliate
 
 An Open Door. 295 
 
 her to the very dust, after it was over? 
 Again and again, even in those few moments, 
 did Mrs. Spafford chide herself for having 
 entered that kitchen-door. Yet she could not 
 leave her now and thus. Besides, what if 
 this were a genuine sorrow, a pain which 
 did not go away after the first outburst? 
 She remembered the drawn look on the young 
 wife s face, and greatly feared that the burden, 
 whatever it was, stayed with her. Also, what 
 did that voice mean which persistently urged 
 her toward coming over here in the rain of 
 this very afternoon ? What was there that she 
 ought to say to this child-woman? All these 
 thoughts passed swiftly, then she spoke again, 
 still in that low, quieting voice : 
 
 " Dear friend, whatever you are, no matter 
 what mistakes you may have made, no matter 
 how unfit you feel, you are dear to Christ at 
 this moment: he loves you and waits for you. 
 He has infinite power, and infinite wisdom, 
 and infinite forgiveness. There is nothing that 
 he can not forgive, and nothing that he can 
 not help you to do if it is right that you 
 should do it. I speak with authority, for I
 
 296 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 have tried him ; yes, with better "authority 
 than that, for he has said it : He shall de 
 liver thee in six troubles, yea in seven there 
 shall no evil touch thee. It is his own voice 
 speaking. Go to him for help, and as sure 
 as the sun shines above these clouds you will 
 get just what you need. Never mind whether 
 you think you are one of his children or not ; 
 claim the place of a child because you need 
 to be, and wish to be, and mean to be one 
 from this moment." 
 
 She spoke rapidly, with a sort of eager 
 positiveness, and yet calmness. It had the 
 effect of quieting the bitter sobs, but she 
 could not tell how much heed had been given 
 to the direction. 
 
 She waited in silence a moment, then spoke 
 again : 
 
 "Is there any way in which I could help 
 you, or shall I go away and come at another 
 time?" 
 
 She received no answer at all. In great 
 doubt as to what to do next, she stood be 
 fore the drooping figure with its face buried 
 in its hands. Just as she had resolved to
 
 An Open Door. 297 
 
 slip quietly out and trust to a note in which 
 she would pour oat her heart in sympathy, 
 Mrs. Evans raised herself to a sitting posture, 
 brushed back the disordered hair from her 
 swollen eyes, and said, with an effort at dig 
 nity: 
 
 " I beg your pardon, madam ; I have been 
 saying some wild and foolish words to you, 
 I am afraid ; you must not think anything of 
 them ; I do not mean what I said, whatever 
 it was. It isn t often I give way to my 
 feelings in this manner ; biit, indeed, I am so 
 miserable and so helpless." 
 
 The voice, which had been growing more 
 tremulous with each word, suddenly broke 
 into another burst of tears, and the poor lady 
 buried her face in her hands again. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford s resolution was taken ; at 
 least she would not leave a soul in distress ; 
 afterward she might regret the intrusion, but 
 she had intruded, that part could not now be 
 helped, she would do what she could to guide 
 this struggling heart into the light. She sat 
 down beside Mrs. Evans and laid a tender, 
 caressing hand on hers ; after all, that seemed
 
 298 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 the utmost limit of her power. Bat Mrs. 
 Evaus was trying hard to control herself. A 
 moment more and she sat erect again. 
 
 " I hope you will forgive me," she said hum 
 bly ; " I am very weak and foolish. I really 
 am in great trouble, Mrs. Spafford; and yet 
 it is nothing that I can explain ; my life seems 
 such a failure to me. I cannot right it, because 
 I do not know how to begin which way to 
 turn. I have meant right. I meant to make 
 the sweetest, happiest home for my husband 
 that a man ever had but it is not my fault, 
 nor Dane s. Mrs. Spafford, I may as well tell 
 you, it is the miserable money. We cannot 
 live on our salary ; we are in debt, and going 
 deeper every day ; and we see no way out ; 
 and my husband blames me ; of course he does ; 
 why should he not ? a wife ought to know how 
 to spend the money that her husband earns in 
 such a way as to bring him comfort and not 
 misery ; and I have not done it, and cannot 
 do it ; I have tried and tried, and made a mis 
 erable failure. It is my fault, you see, after 
 all To-day, the whole dreadful sense of fail 
 ure broke over me, and I felt that I could not
 
 An Open Door. 299 
 
 bear it any longer ; the troubles of this awful 
 day have just broken down the little strength 
 and pride that I had, and I gave way utterly. 
 There now ! I have told you the whole 
 wretched story, without intending to ; I have 
 humiliated myself to the lowest depths, and 
 dragged my husband down with me ; " and the 
 hot passionate tears rolled down her cheeks. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford put a firm arm around the 
 shrinking, trembling form of the excited 
 woman, and spoke in quiet tones : 
 
 " My dear friend, let me talk to you a mo 
 ment quietly and reasonably. You have done 
 no very dreadful thing in saying to me, as a 
 friend, that you find it hard to bring your 
 expenditures within your income. That is not 
 so strange a thing that it should seem to you a 
 startling, or even a humiliating matter. Neither 
 is it a strange thing that you have failed. I 
 am older than you, I think at least in expe 
 rience I am many years older and I know just 
 how hard a matter it is to get the whole be 
 wildering machinery of household life into run 
 ning order. I am not surprised that you should 
 have grown - utterly discouraged, and believed
 
 300 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 yourself to be making a humiliating failure. 
 What you need is a determination not to give 
 way to any such feeling. A resolution to meet 
 and conquer this problem, and show your hus 
 band that you are a general equal to the 
 emergency. It can be done. And dear friend, I 
 want to repeat to you what I said at the outset : 
 that no perplexity is too commonplace to take 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know people who 
 suppose it would be almost irreverent to take 
 their domestic bewilderments to Christ. I can 
 not think what kind of a friend they imagine 
 him to be, if they are afraid to go to him with 
 everything. I should never have dared to 
 assume the cares and responsibilities of our 
 home if I had not known that I could go to 
 Christ for direction as to how to wisely spend 
 the money he put into my hands, and how to 
 order all my affairs so that there would be no 
 friction." 
 
 Mrs. Evans had dried her tears, and was 
 looking with a troubled, and yet puzzled face 
 at her guest. 
 
 "That only makes me feel," she said, sud 
 denly interrupting her, "just as a number of
 
 An Open Door. 301 
 
 things } ou have said, at other times, have made 
 me feel that your religion and mine were so 
 utterly different, that they could not loth of 
 them be religion ; and lately I have come to 
 feel that, among the things that are utter fail 
 ures in my life, my Christian experience stands 
 first. I never had any Christian experience. 
 I thought I loved Christ and wanted to do 
 right, and I said so when I united with the 
 Church. But I tell you truly, Mrs. Spufford, 
 I have not known anything about him ; I have 
 done nothing to please him, and I shouldn t 
 know how to commence. And besides " she 
 looked down, now, and a deep flush spread over 
 her heretofore pale face "I will tell the 
 truth," she said, after a moment of hesitation : 
 " I suppose it is very wicked indeed, I know 
 I am very wicked- but I will speak the truth 
 to-day, if I never do it again. If I could please 
 my husband make his home what it should 
 be I shouldn t care whether I pleased any 
 body else or not even Christ I "
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SERVING CHRIST IN THE KITCHEN. 
 
 ,-F Mrs. Spafford was shocked by this 
 last sentence, she had resolved not to 
 show it either by voice or manner. 
 It became apparent to her that Mrs. Evans 
 was under too strong excitement to weigh her 
 words carefully, or to have a realizing sense of 
 what they conveyed ; and while this loyal 
 servant of Christ felt with a thrill of pain that 
 it might be, and doubtless was, too true that 
 this woman was putting the earthly love before 
 the heavenly still, the present did not seem 
 the fitting time to help her realize the sin and 
 folly of this. She spoke in calm, reassuring 
 
 tones : 
 
 302
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 303 
 
 " Christ smiles on all unselfish human love, 
 you know, and on none more surely than that 
 sanctioned by marriage vows ; and true women 
 love and honor you for your desire to be all 
 that a wife can ; not ignoring, as too many 
 do, the little things of life. Now, dear Mrs. 
 Evans, do you mind putting somewhat into 
 detail the difficulties that just now present 
 themselves? Possibly they are such as my 
 longer experience can help you surmount. I 
 do not, of course, mean a detail that will be 
 unpleasant to you, but in short, let us lay 
 aside formality entirely ; I am a neighbor, and 
 I am a friend ; let me help you. What is the 
 special burden to-day? You see I am well 
 aware that each day in a housekeeper s life has 
 its special burden." 
 
 At the sound of her visitor s quiet voice and 
 matter-of-fact sentence, Mrs. Evans, who was 
 not by nature a lover of scenes, and who had 
 been really struggling to regain composure, felt 
 her overwrought nerves growing calmer, and 
 presently said a vivid blush overspreading 
 her face: 
 
 " I can hardly see how you can help despis-
 
 304 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ing me ; I almost depise myself. The simple 
 truth is so very humiliating ; I have been acting 
 like a spoiled child instead of a woman ; noth 
 ing very dreadful; indeed, nothing dreadful 
 in any sense has happened ; it is just a culmi 
 nation of small difficulties; they have been 
 gathering and gathering about me for weeks, 
 and this miserable afternoon I broke down 
 under them." 
 
 Her lip was quivering, and she was on the 
 very verge of breaking down again. 
 
 " It is the old story of the last straw that 
 disabled the poor camel," said Mrs. Spafford, 
 good humoredly, without a trace of sentiment 
 in her voice, and yet, someway, the voice con 
 veyed sympathy. "I know all about that. I 
 have had just such days ; sometimes the last 
 straw is an exceedingly hateful, ill-shaped one. 
 In what form did it appear to you?" 
 
 A little gleam of a smile quivered for a mo 
 ment on Mrs. Evans face. 
 
 " It is ill-shaped, certainly," she said, quickly ; 
 " and I think she has been more hateful during 
 the last three or four days than I ever thought 
 a human being could be. Mrs. Spafford, my
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen* o05 
 
 Betty went away this morning; just before 
 lunch time. She has only been with me four 
 weeks, and has been by far the worst one of 
 them all. I have had nine ! This morning she 
 served the most insufferable breakfast ! Burnt 
 toast, and dreadful coffee ; I don t know what 
 she could have done to it, nor to the chop for 
 that matter, I know we couldn t eat it: even 
 the potatoes were dreadful; baked potatoes! 
 I didn t think they could be spoiled, but these 
 were soft and wet and oh miserable ! Mr. 
 Evans went to his business without so much 
 as a cup of coffee, or a bit of bread ; and when 
 I went to the kitchen, as soon after as I dared, 
 to remonstrate with Betty a little, and to see 
 if she would not promise to try to do better ; 
 before I had spoken a dozen words she became 
 fearfully angry ; used dreadful language, de 
 clared she was overworked and underpaid 
 she was what they call a cheap girl, Mrs. 
 Spafford" (this last spoken with a burning 
 blush) " I thought I would try her, and see 
 if a little of our heavy expense could not be 
 cut down in that way ; but, indeed, I paid her 
 what she said she had been getting, and you
 
 306 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 know for two of us she hardly could be over 
 worked." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford hardly knew whether to laugh 
 or cry over the anxious questioning sound in 
 the trembling voice ; its owner had evidently 
 been terribly shaken by the formidable Betty 
 in the morning, and could not yet speak of 
 her with composure. 
 
 " And what was the conclusion of Betty s 
 wrath ? " she asked, resolved not to commit 
 herself by giving an opinion either way at 
 present. 
 
 " Oh, she went away. She said she would ; 
 declared that nothing could tempt her to be 
 abused in this house any longer, and she 
 would warn every girl against me ; she would 
 leave my character at the intelligence office, 
 and I would find myself spotted, whatever that 
 means. I was perfectly amazed ! I had not 
 said anything to call forth such an outburst, 
 and I thought she was excited over something 
 else, and would quiet down if I left her to her* 
 self for awhile, so I went away, and staid up 
 stairs all the morning, so that the sight of me 
 would not anger her ; but when I discovered
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 307 
 
 that it was long after lunch time, I came down 
 to see why she had not rung for me, and to 
 make some arrangements for dinner this eve 
 ning and she was gone ! And oh, Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford, if you could see the kitchen she left ! 
 (Whereupon Mrs. Spafford drew a little breath 
 of relief ; then the poor lady had been too much 
 absorbed in her grief to realize that her guest 
 had seen it !) " The fire was entirely out, and 
 the breakfast dishes not touched, and a great 
 many dishes that must have been used yester 
 day and left unwashed standing around ; ket 
 tles, you know, and saucepans, and ugly, greasy 
 black dishes, with things sticking to their sides ! " 
 
 Nothing more utterly disgustful than the look 
 on Mrs. Evans face can be imagined. Her 
 guest s laugh rang out merrily at last ; she 
 could not help it. But her friend s trials were 
 too real to admit of laughter. 
 
 " It is dreadful," she said, with a meek face, 
 " to be so foolish and so dependent upon others, 
 but I have really been in utter despair this 
 afternoon. Not for that reason simply," she 
 hastened to explain, while the shadow instantly 
 deepened on her face, " but as you say, it was
 
 308 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 a sort of last straw ; not so much of a straw 
 to me, either, for I never made a coal-fire in 
 my life, and though I tried hard to set that 
 one going, the ugly black lumps looked fiercely 
 at me and stayed as black as before, after all 
 the waste paper in the house had been used, 
 and a great many matches. Mr. Evans cer 
 tainly ought to expect his dinner when he gets 
 home, since he went without his breakfast ; 
 but what he can possibly find to eat in this 
 house I cannot see, and the rain was so steady 
 it prevented my going out to find another girl. 
 Indeed, to tell you the truth, I had a horror of 
 trying to get another ; it seemed to me I 
 would rather starve ; and so the whole mis 
 erable sense of my failure in every way as a 
 mistress, or as a worker, rushed over me, and 
 in addition to all the rest, just overwhelmed 
 me. Dear Mrs. Spafford, I don t know why 
 I am telling you all this foolish, unwomanly 
 story, wasting your time and pouring into 
 your ear a tale that can certainly be nothing 
 but weariness to you ! It is not like me thus 
 to parade my annoyances ; it is not, indeed ; I 
 ought to beg your pardon."
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 309 
 
 She had sat erect during this last sentence, 
 dried away the last tear from her hot cheek, 
 and was struggling hard to put on the sweet 
 dignity of hostess, which wns generally so be 
 coming to her. Meantime her guest thought 
 rapidly, taking a surreptitious glance at her 
 watch. Should she insist upon taking this 
 troubled wife home to tea with her, sending 
 little Tim, who did her errands, down to watch 
 for the car that generally brought the two 
 husbands, and so have one of those quiet tea- 
 parties that she was always telling Warren 
 about? Her bread was fresh and excellent; 
 she had made a treat for supper in the shape 
 of a soft ginger cake, and the potatoes which 
 she meant to warm, by the addition of a few 
 bread crumbs and an egg, could be made into 
 " patties," and do duty for four. Oh, yes, 
 the way was plain enough (to carry out this 
 project), but was it the best way ? Swift 
 thinking, even while Mrs. Evans was trying 
 to call back her matronly dignity, then she 
 shook her head no, it wouldn t do ; the sore- 
 hearted young wife was not in a tea-party 
 mood, and it was just possible that there had
 
 310 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 words passed between husband and wife during 
 the attempt at eating that uncomfortable break 
 fast, which had made wounds. If this were 
 so, they could be better healed between hus 
 band and wife alone ; she must give up her 
 little tea. Then the other plan should be 
 made to work. She slipped her watch back 
 into its pocket, and spoke briskly : 
 
 " You are telling me all this because you 
 are a sensible woman, and paid me the com 
 pliment of believing my offer of sympathy 
 sincere ; and you know that, to a Christian 
 woman, there is no higher privilege than to 
 be able to help a sister in Christ. Now, dear 
 friend, listen to me : I don t wonder a kitchen 
 left in the plight which you describe should 
 look formidable to you, but it doesn t to me ; 
 I have conquered one many a time, coal-fire 
 and all ; moreover, I can show you how to 
 do it so that it will cease to be a hopeless 
 thing to you. Now I want you to further 
 prove your faith in my hearty friendship, by 
 letting me go with you right into that said 
 kitchen, and reduce it to a state of meek and 
 dainty subordination ; then you will get for
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 311 
 
 your husband as nice a little supper as he ever 
 ate in his life ; get it with your own two hands, 
 and my word for it, he will have an unusual 
 appetite." 
 
 With eyes that were full of astonishment 
 did Mrs. Evans for a moment gaze on her 
 guest. That this proposal brought her into 
 contact with a form of friendship to which she 
 had heretofore been a stranger was evident; 
 that she was puzzled to know how to receive 
 it was equally evident. Only a moment the 
 look of bewildered irresolution rested on her 
 face, and then she said, suddenly : 
 
 " I believe you do mean every word you say ; 
 thank you : I need help ; I believe I need just 
 the kind that you are willing to give ; I will 
 accept it gratefully." 
 
 There was a happy light in Mrs. Spafford s 
 eyes. This simple, sincere answer had shown 
 her that she was not mistaken in her estimate 
 of this fair young housekeeper; she was a 
 woman to be helped, not only, but to be loved. 
 
 Feeling still assured in her heart that this 
 was no time for more important matters, with 
 out more ado Mrs. Spafford urged an immediate
 
 312 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 assault on the kitchen, and thither the two 
 women went, Mrs. Evans only pausing to say 
 in a distressed tone: 
 
 " If I only had a large apron that would pro 
 tect your dress ! " 
 
 " Never mind," her guest answered, cheerily ; 
 "my dress is only calico, and washes nicely." 
 Then she set to work on that forlorn stove. 
 " You see," she said resolved upon working 
 and lecturing at the same time " coal is 
 splendid for burning, after it has been coaxed 
 long enough ; it is very hard-hearted, needs a 
 pretty large gathering of kindlings blazing all 
 around it to set it a good example. I suppose 
 this is the place where they are kept, is it not ? 
 Your house is arranged like mine." 
 
 Saying which she opened a door, disappeared 
 for a moment, and returned with her arms full 
 of neat billets of wood, of uniform length ; 
 these she built up with skillful interlacing, 
 inside the wide-mouthed monster, Mrs. Evans 
 looking on with interested, yet incredulous 
 face she had had an experience with these 
 heartless black lumps that the skillful engineer 
 was piling in with t such composed face ; she
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 313 
 
 did not believe they would burn! But they 
 did! 
 
 "They are conquered," the younger lady 
 said, with a relieved sigh, as the flames shot 
 up through the interlacings and curled them 
 selves skillfully around the black lumps, which 
 soon began to emit a flame peculiar to them 
 selves. " They recognize a superior power, 
 and do not dare to act as they did with me so 
 short a time ago." 
 
 Now if you are a skillful general of a dis 
 ordered kitchen, possessing the ability to mar 
 shal pans, kettles and pails into orderly ranks, 
 and make them retire to their places, you 
 know how steadily the small kitchen yielded 
 to the spell that was now upon it; if, on the 
 other hand, you have the misfortune to be one 
 of those who, though able to play sixteen pages 
 of Chopin, or some other distinguished com 
 poser, without a mistake, yet look with absolute 
 dismay yes, even terror on the interm 
 inable paraphernalia of a well-stocked kitchen, 
 you can appreciate the feelings with which 
 Mrs. Evans watched the rapid transformation 
 of hers. They were such tiny places after all
 
 814 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 kitchen and pantry and the water was 
 so hot and soap so plentifully used that, 
 to a skillful workman, it could not, you know, 
 take much time ; but it looked like rnagic to 
 Mrs. Evans. 
 
 " I wish I could do it," she said, eagerty, as 
 she lifted the shining plates from their bath 
 in the hot rinsing water and set them to drain, 
 after the copy which had been set her. " How 
 smooth they feel and how shining they are ! 
 Betty would not recognize one of them. Mrs. 
 Spafford, I tell you truly, if I only need not 
 have another of those girls enter my house, I 
 should be happy enough to shout. I cannot 
 tell you what a terror they all are to me. 
 They do nothing right, and I know just enough 
 to be sure of that, but I don t know how to 
 help it, and I am afraid of them all." 
 
 " Why don t you do without them ? " said 
 Mrs. Spafford, coolly ; " little bits of homes 
 like yours and mine are too small and precious 
 for hired hands to touch, if we have strength 
 enough to guard them from it. I just enjoy 
 getting dinner for Warren, and we have the 
 cosiest little breakfasts."
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 815 
 
 Mrs. Evans eyes brightened wistfully. 
 
 " If I were only you," she said, and she 
 thought of the three dollars that had to be 
 transferred each week from her . purse to that 
 of her tormentor ; if it could be saved. " If 
 I were only you I But I don t know anything 
 about it." 
 
 "Learn," said Mrs. Spafford, coolly, as 
 though it were a very simple matter; -you 
 would be surprised to see how soon you could 
 manage this nice little home to your entire 
 satisfaction. Mrs. Evans, what are we going to 
 get for a treat for your husband this evening ? " 
 
 The bright look faded from the weary house 
 keeper s eyes. 
 
 " There is very little in the house," she said, 
 her cheeks flushing ; " it rained so I depended 
 on Betty. I meant to have a leg of lamb 
 and some vegetables." 
 
 "Too late for those," declared the cook; 
 " besides, we want to be dainty, you know, not 
 go into anything so gross as legs of lamb." 
 This with . a merry laugh. " I see a dish of 
 potatoes in the pantry ; do you ever stew them 
 in milk I We used to have cream when I was
 
 316 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 a girl and lived where milk was a necessity, 
 not a luxury, but now I use milk and find 
 it answers nicely; I can show you how to 
 serve a dish that I fancy you will enjoy." 
 
 Mrs. Evans gratefully agreed to be shown, 
 not withstau ding the fact that in her ignorant 
 heart she was skeptical about making that ugly 
 looking dish of cold potatoes fit to eat; still 
 her forehead did not clear. 
 
 " I wish Betty had controlled her temper long 
 enough to have baked bread," she said, sadly ; 
 "we 1 have nothing but baker s bread, and my 
 husband dislikes it so much." 
 
 " Then let us have some dear little soda bis 
 cuits, as light as puff balls ; I saw a cup of sour 
 milk on the shelf, and felt just like taking it 
 down and making something nice." 
 
 " Sour milk ! " said poor Mrs. Evans, aghast 
 at the idea. 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; you have eaten the little 
 white puffs often, I presume ; they are easy to 
 make. It is the very thing. I ll set you to 
 making them while I get the potatoes ready to 
 cook ; then while they are baking you can cook 
 the potatoes."
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 817 
 
 "There is some steak," said Mrs. Evans, 
 hesitatingly ; " Mr. Evans doesn t dine down 
 town, he only takes a plain lunch, so I like to 
 have meat for him, but I don t know that I 
 can manage steak." 
 
 Very meekly she spoke ; she knew no more 
 about broiling steak than she did about those 
 biscuits which Mrs. Spafford so composedly 
 talked of her making. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you can," declared the brisk voice ; 
 " that is easy. Now about the biscuit. There 
 is a quart measure, first you sift a quart of 
 flour, now just so- much butter wait, this 
 little plate will measure it nicely, arid serve 
 you for the future." 
 
 Thus she moved with careful steps, putting 
 her directions as clearly and as briefly as pos 
 sible, until Mrs. Evans, her face flushed, her 
 eyes shining, stooped and set in the oven a row 
 of small round balls that she verily believed 
 would never be anything but burnt dough ! 
 How could anything so simple and so quickly 
 done ever transform itself into something fit to 
 eat? But when the stewed potatoes were 
 tested with a delicious mouthful, according to
 
 318 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Mrs. SpafFord s direction ; when the bit of juicy 
 steak lay meekly between the wire gridiron, 
 and was being skillfully turned, and emitted 
 a delicious odor through the kitchen, -and when 
 the "lumps of dough" came out of the oven 
 the plumpest, flakiest little puffs that her eyes 
 had ever beheld; when the tea was steep 
 ing, and her husband s key was heard in the 
 front door, and Mrs. Evans was alone, her 
 good angel having but a few minutes before 
 washed her hands, rolled down her sleeves, 
 and vanished through the back door, having 
 given this parting word : . Now, Mrs. Evans, 
 I want you to tell me whether your husband 
 likes stewed potatoes or not, especially of your 
 stewing, and soda biscuit of your making," 
 Mrs. Evans, thinking of her, of the words 
 that she had spoken that day, of the work 
 her hands had wrought, and of the courage and 
 hope which she had breathed into her, had 
 much ado to keep the tears from starting 
 again ; they would doubtless have had their 
 way but for the fact that her delicately 
 broiled bit of steak was ready to be served. 
 The tears were stayed, but her heart was full
 
 Serving Christ in the Kitchen. 819 
 
 of grateful love, as she said to herself, with 
 a resolute little pressure of her lips, as though 
 she were speaking the words in her heart: 
 "She is a blessed woman; I believe God sent 
 her to me in my misery ; she doesn t know 
 all she has done for me today. There is 
 something else that she can teach me ; I 
 shall know the difference between her religion 
 and mine. She has something that I have 
 not, and, if it is for me, I mean to have it." 
 
 " You will have to dine off bread and milk 
 to-night," declared Mrs. Spafford, with smiling 
 eyes, to her astonished husband, who was re 
 viving their neglected fire, when she appeared 
 through the rain, at the side door. " I have 
 been out all the afternoon. I found an open 
 door which I have entered, I verily believe, 
 for the Master s sake." 
 
 " God bless yon ! " he said, looking down 
 on her tenderly, when she had told so much 
 of her story as she felt she had a right to 
 tell. " If you can make a home over there 
 like this of ours, I believe you will save two 
 souls, instead of one, from shipwreck."
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE ENDS MEET. 
 
 is not my purpose to give you a de 
 tailed account of my friend Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford s life, nor of her plans of work. 
 Indeed, I could not if I would. The story of 
 a life must, of necessity, be fragmentary ; bits 
 here and there from actual every-day experi 
 ences. 
 
 It may be that some have mistaken my de 
 sign in telling you somewhat of this true 
 woman s experience. I may have been expected 
 to give in detail the management of a Christian 
 household on small capital; all the little econo 
 mies, the plans, the self-denials, the failures. 
 Such was by no means my intention. Mrs. 
 320
 
 The Ends Meet. 321 
 
 Spafford s quiet economies and self-denials shall 
 be left like those of hundreds of other Chris 
 tian women, with God and her husband. I 
 may even have been expected to prove that 
 she found it possible to keep to the Bible doc 
 trine of tithe-giving, and yet not starve ! Thank 
 the Lord that many and many a Christian life 
 proves that! There is little need that Mrs. 
 Spafford s history should be added. The truth 
 is, I love to linger over these first beginnings, 
 but there is need for haste, and I must ask you 
 to step over a chasm of almost two years before 
 you take another peep at the pretty little 
 home. And I must own that you will find it 
 in shadow. There has been much sunshine 
 during those two years. There has been prog 
 ress in the mission work to which my friend 
 has devoted as much of her means and her 
 heart as was possible. There has been a white 
 day in her life when she went to the great 
 reunion of Christian women, met to compare 
 notes and devise plans for the future. 
 
 She has had the pleasure of seeing a great 
 church filled to overflowing with Christian 
 women. Women on the platform presiding,
 
 322 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 planning, managing, with the skill of generals 
 trained to the service, and enlisted " for life or 
 during the war ! " She has heard the voice of 
 prayer from lips that once were unaccustomed 
 to the service ; and from lips that once were 
 sure they could not speak, save in the solitude 
 of their own rooms. She has heard addresses 
 such as thrilled her heart, and nerved all her 
 powers to new effort ; addresses from the lips 
 of women. She has even lived to see Mrs. 
 Bacon appointed a district collector for the 
 Woman s Board, and heard her offer, in silvery 
 tones, an address of welcome to delegates from 
 a distance. Oh, yes, she knew the world 
 moved ! 
 
 Meantime it had moved in a quieter, but no 
 less certain way right around her. I hope you 
 do not imagine that that co-operative business 
 enterprise was a failure? I very much doubt 
 whether anything begun as that was, with such 
 an end in view, and guided every step of the 
 way by prayer, is ever a failure. Certainly this 
 was not. The S to well parlor had found its 
 level. A long, bright room, lighted with many 
 windows, brightened with flowers in summer
 
 The Ends Meet. 823 
 
 time, and with potted plants and flourishing 
 vines in winter ; brightened the windows and 
 the tables with every variety of glowing 
 color in worsted and silk. Every step of the 
 way had been a success. That is, after they 
 were fairly started ; there are always draw 
 backs at first with which to contend. There 
 were some to say that the scheme was a wild 
 one, and would never succeed. There were 
 some to grow weary of it very soon and aban 
 don their efforts ; there were some to sigh and 
 predict failure because the whole world did not 
 rush in upon them from the very first to admire 
 and to buy. And yet it had moved steadily 
 forward. It was on an assured footing now. 
 There was every sort of fancy article to be 
 had that you might choose to order ; if not " in 
 stock," the trim white-aproned miss, with de 
 mure face and laughing eyes who waited on 
 you with pencil arid paper, and announced her 
 self the " order clark," would quietly take your 
 minute directions, taking care that they should 
 be minute by becoming a skillful questioner, 
 taking care that they should be in black and 
 white, with your own name appended, and the
 
 324 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 date at which yon might expect the same ; 
 taking care, too, that you should have a dupli 
 cate, so that yon might expect neither more nor 
 less than had been ordered ; so careful was this 
 new firm of its reputation. There was a va 
 riety counter, where could be found pins and 
 needles and thread and tape and buttons, of 
 exactly the right size and color and shape. 
 There were endless little useful articles belong 
 ing to that class of goods that people never 
 think about until they see, and then know they 
 must have right away. It took a little time 
 to accustom the patrons to the fact that this 
 unique store was only open on one afternoon 
 of each week, and then for a limited time. For 
 the first few weeks the partners were contin 
 ually informed that if they were open every, 
 day they would get a great deal more custom. 
 Gradually, however, ladies began to say, " I 
 suppose / could wait until Saturday for that 
 purchase, and then buy it of the girls ; it would 
 encourage them." In the course of time this 
 statement also changed, and took the form of, 
 " Oh wait until Saturday and buy your buttons 
 (or your edges or your collars) at The What-
 
 The Ends Meet. 325 
 
 Not (for such was the simple, suggestive 
 name that their establishment assumed) ; it will 
 really pay you to wait, they have such a nice 
 variety, and are so very reasonable in their 
 prices. Besides if they haven t exactly what 
 you want, they will take your order, and manu 
 facture or purchase for you. They have a buy 
 ing clerk who can really suit you better in the 
 city than you can yourself, and save all the 
 wear and tear of running around besides." 
 
 When Mrs. Spafford knew that this form of 
 talk had come to be the prevailing one as re 
 garded their place of business, she settled 
 down into satisfaction. Of the constant strain 
 upon time and strength and patience, that it 
 was to this one woman to keep all the wheels 
 of her delicate machinery properly oiled and 
 running smoothly, I will not attempt to tell. 
 She had one all-sustaining motive ; she knew 
 that it was, with her, work done literally for 
 the Master. She earnestly believed that it was 
 not only an institution for making a little money 
 in a legitimate way, but that it was a training- 
 school. For were not all these young ladies 
 connected with the firm, learning, not only to
 
 326 The Pocket Measure* 
 
 earn, but to give, systematically, regularly, 
 conscientiously ? In Mrs. Evans she had found 
 just the helper she needed ; it was her exquisite 
 taste, backed by the other s educated judgment, 
 that secured to the firm its reputation for hav 
 ing just the very things that matched, and that 
 one wanted. 
 
 As for Mrs. Evans, what had not the enter 
 prise done for her? Of the earnest, active 
 Young Ladies Band that had grown out of 
 this enterprise, or rather grown along with it, 
 and become a vital element of its existence, it 
 shall be my pleasure to tell you, more at length, 
 some other time. For the present let it rejoice 
 your heart to know that the scheme widened 
 daily, not only as a business, but as a circle 
 of influence. Nothing that she had ever un 
 dertaken, with an eye single to the glory of 
 her Master, had so filled Mrs. Spafford s heart 
 with joy and gratitude as did this whole 
 matter. 
 
 Yet, as I told you in the beginning, over the 
 small happy home there had come shadows. 
 Not light ones, drooping low for a little, then 
 flitting away; oh, there had been many such,
 
 The Ends Meet. 327 
 
 of course ; Mrs. Spafford had expected them ; 
 she was not a child, nor yet an enthusiast; it 
 had not been an easy matter at all times to 
 make ends meet. Especially had such been 
 the case when extra expenses came upon them, 
 for they had had many an extra expense ; who 
 has not? Many a time had the careful account 
 ant rejoiced over that fund ever so tiny 
 though it was which she had been able to 
 lay aside from time to time as an extra. Many 
 a time had she rejoiced over the monthly 
 dividends from the little firm, which, though 
 so small that they would have made a business 
 man shout in derision, had added not a little 
 to her hoarded "extra." Out of the neces 
 sity for this "extra" had also grown great 
 satisfaction ; for the husband, looking on, with 
 eager eyes, helping where he could, standing in 
 manly admiration where he could not, was one 
 day enabled to get his eyes open so wide that 
 .he discovered even five cents for a cigar to be 
 an expense that he certainly could avoid if he 
 chose ; and seeing the example ever before him 
 of self-forgetful economy he could not but 
 choose. It is true his eyes were opened wider
 
 328 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 than that ; in laying it aside, he first discov 
 ered what an almost necessity it had become, 
 and over this discovery he was so shocked that 
 I think he would have had courage to continue 
 the struggle even without the motive of econ 
 omy; but that it was a struggle at all, was 
 a mortification to him. "I declare," he said 
 to himself, speaking firmly, "I ll never be a 
 slave to any habit! I did not dream of 
 such a think! If five-cent pieces should 
 ever become as plenty with me as flies in 
 August and there is no danger I ll never 
 smoke cigars again." Not long thereafter his 
 eyes were opened wider. He had not thought 
 to tell Gallic ; it was such a little matter, and 
 he was half ashamed that he had not done 
 it before; it did not seem necessary to let 
 her know what a struggle it had been ; so 
 he kept his small secret at least he thought 
 so. As if such a husband could keep a secret 
 from such a wife ! 
 
 " What has become of them ? " she asked 
 him one evening. 
 
 And so innocent of her feeling was he, that 
 he asked in astonishment:
 
 The Ends Meet. 329 
 
 "Of what?" 
 
 "The cigars that were to piece out your 
 lunch?" 
 
 "Oh! Why? Become of them? I dare 
 say they are smoke by this time ; somebody 
 has puffed them into thin air, though I didn t. 
 How did you know, Gallic ? " 
 
 She gave him only a very searching and 
 very happy look in answer; then, after a 
 minute : 
 
 " How could I help knowing ? Why did 
 you do it, Warren?" 
 
 " A variety of reasons, little cross-questioner. 
 In the first place, it occurred to me that, al 
 though a very small leak, it was one that 
 might as well be stopped. You see you set 
 me such a persistent example on that score 
 that I could not well help learning and 
 then well, Callie, I don t know how you 
 discovered anything about it, but you may 
 as well know the truth. I found the habit 
 had grown on me was harder to break than 
 I supposed, much harder ; I could hardly have 
 believed what a struggle it would be, and 
 that convinced me that I must break off not
 
 830 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 only for the present but forever ; of course, 
 the Lord s freedmen can not afford to bind 
 themselves with any sort of chains." 
 
 When they knelt together for family wor 
 ship, which they did in a very few minutes 
 after this conversation, there was that in his 
 wife s prayer, in the words, and in the quiver 
 of her voice, as she laid her joy before the 
 Lord, that her husband said, directly they 
 arose from their knees said it with his arms 
 clasped close around her: 
 
 " My dear, if I had known, if I had dreamed, 
 that it was a sorrow to you I should have 
 turned from the whole thing long ago. What 
 self-gratification is there important enough for 
 a man to be the cause of an hour of pain 
 to his wife ! " 
 
 "Then I ought to have told you long ago 
 how I felt," said Callie, her eyes brimming 
 with glad tears. 
 
 And I think so, too. At the same time I 
 admit that she thought within her glad heart 
 that not all men were like her husband in 
 his willingness to give up self for his wife s 
 sake; and I am afraid I think that, also.
 
 The Ends Meet. 331 
 
 Meantime, though I am long in introducing 
 him, there was another and a very important 
 reason why Callie was glad. Do you think 
 she wanted the father of her son to set him 
 an example as a tobacco-smoker ? Not she ! 
 Where is the mother who does? And the 
 boy was six months old able to watch with 
 very wise eyes what was going on in the world. 
 "Who is going to say how soon he might have 
 thought the curl of cigar-smoke in the air a 
 very pretty thing ? or how early he might have 
 become accustomed to a tobacco-tainted breath 
 as something inseparately connected with his 
 small world? His name, of course, was War 
 ren, but what did the glad young mother call 
 him for a pet name but " War." I am not 
 sure that there was not a queer significance 
 to the name in her heart ! What war there 
 had been between her scantily-filled purse and 
 her conscience during the days when she was 
 fashioning his cunning little garments ! Dear 
 me ! Doesn t every mother know all about it ? 
 The lovely embroidery, the delicate flannels 
 and muslins, and cambrics and lawns, too fine 
 and fair and sweet for any but those who
 
 332 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 seem to have just come from heaven the little 
 babies. Yet this mother had come off victor. 
 Soft flannels ? Oh, yes, indeed ! they were in 
 her estimation a necessity. Delicate white 
 robes, many of them they, too, were neces 
 sities ; but they were not so fine, nor so long, 
 nor so daintily tucked as the mother s fond, 
 foolish heart would have liked, and the em 
 broidery that apparent necessity to baby 
 existence, if we may judge from the wardrobes 
 of many was very scarce. Embroidery, such 
 as she would have liked her darling to wear, 
 would make awful inroads on the scanty purse, 
 and embroidery such as she could make, she 
 was well aware, made awful inroads on time 
 and strength ; so she made war with the wish 
 to smother her darling under such costly folly, 
 and as I said, came off victor. It wasn t so 
 hard, after she went shopping one day with a 
 lady who paid three dollars for a yard and a 
 quarter of the pretty stuff, and would not join 
 the Missionary Society because she could not 
 afford it! 
 
 "After all," she said to Warren, "such 
 people help ; they make one see the folly, the
 
 The Ends Meet. 333 
 
 inconsistencies in things more quickly than 
 they can be shown in any other way." 
 But her perverse husband answered : 
 "Then it is a pity they wouldn t work a 
 trifle faster, and let more people see it." 
 
 Yes, I am telling a true story. They did it. 
 Six months had there been this pretty little 
 new body to think of and care for, and not a 
 penny of debt incurred. Neither had a penny 
 been borrowed from the sacred jewels in the 
 box on the mantel. It wasn t easy ; oh, dear, 
 no ! There was much self-sacrifice, much plan 
 ning, much diligent forethought and after 
 thought. There were quiet little self-denials 
 practiced which cost some strength of will, 
 but which after all left the head and heart 
 calmer, perhaps, than they would otherwise 
 have been. There were industrious hours 
 over plain sewing for certain neighbors, who 
 were glad to get a deft needle-woman so con 
 venient to them. There was every penny of 
 the carefully-hoarded "extra" used. Why 
 not ? They had said gaily to each other, this 
 happy father and mother, " Isn t he a blessed 
 little extra ? " and they had kissed him until
 
 334 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 he cried. Ungrateful baby. It needs planning 
 and patience and sacrifice, but it can be done. 
 Don t I tell you it was done? 
 
 Yet the shadow fell. The hot days came and 
 hot nights, when baby fretted and moaned, 
 and in many ways made good so his father 
 declared his right and title to his pet name. 
 These nights were followed by weary days, 
 when the mother toiled and toiled, and felt she 
 had not strength to do, and so left undone, 
 with a conscientious self-sacrifice that only 
 those can understand who have been obliged 
 to turn away from duties that they longed to 
 perform. If baby had only kept well, the long 
 warm days would have been lived through joy 
 fully, but he grew steadily weaker and thinner. 
 They did not tell their grave forebodings to 
 each other, this husband and wife, and by so 
 much more did they press heavily on each 
 heart. Still they tried to be brave before each 
 other ; but the father s very step, as he hurried 
 up the little walk when the business day was 
 done, grew to have a nervous, anxious sound 
 in it, and his eagerly put question, before the 
 door was fairly opened, "How is he to-night,
 
 The Ends Meet. 835 
 
 Callie ? " had such an undertone of pain in it 
 that she, in pity, learned to watch for his step, 
 and to say with a smile, when she could, " We 
 are no worse, I think, papa." Yet they both 
 knew that not to be better was in reality to be 
 worse. 
 
 " If we could only get to cooler quarters," 
 the father said occasionally, and directly he had 
 spoken he turned away quickly from his wife s 
 wistful eyes. Truly, they felt as though it would 
 have been almost as reasonable to talk about 
 getting to heaven. 
 
 Meantime, another anxiety menaced them. 
 " Mr. Spafford," the senior partner of the firm 
 had said to him, " You must hold yourself in 
 readiness to go to Paxton at an hour s warn 
 ing. There is some business- pending which 
 may result in our having to send you out in 
 haste. The fact is, Howell & Co. are in diffi 
 culties, and I m afraid " At this point he 
 pushed to the outer door and drew his chair 
 nearer his clerk, and there ensued a business 
 explanation, to the details of which Mr. Spaf 
 ford had much ado to give attention, distracted 
 as he was with the query as to how he would
 
 386 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 manage about leaving Gallic and the boy, and 
 with the awful thought, what if the boy should 
 grow worse in the night while he was away ? 
 He did not like to admit even to himself that 
 the baby s illness was such as to justify him 
 in asking to be excused from the trip. If he 
 had, he was by no means sure it would have 
 done any good. His employers were men not 
 given to thinking of much that did not concern 
 business. Still he made all necessary prepara 
 tions for his wife. She heard the news with 
 a dismayed face, yet promptly realized the 
 importance of satisfying his employers. 
 
 " I wish Mrs. Evans were at home," was the 
 instant outreach after help. She knew many 
 people, and they were very kind, and she liked 
 them ; yet, after all, how few there are among 
 our acquaintances whom we are willing to call 
 in to be one with us in perplexity and trouble. 
 Mrs. Evans had come to be such an one, but 
 she had gone with her husband into the 
 country during his vacation. 
 
 "Addie Stowell would stay with you," her 
 husband said, " and Charley will sleep here to 
 be within call, in case you should need
 
 The Ends Meet. 337 
 
 He did not finish his sentence. He knew 
 he would be understood. There was always 
 before them the possbility of baby growing 
 suddenly worse, and the need of a summons 
 to the doctor. 
 
 So all the preparations were made, though 
 Mr. Spafford said cheerily : " After all, I may 
 not have to go." And as the days passed, 
 and he heard no more about it, and a little 
 cooler weather came, and the baby seemed 
 better, the cloud lifted. So Mr. Spafford was 
 not prepared for his senior employer s sudden 
 message, delivered very near the close of a 
 busy day. 
 
 " Mr. Spafford, we have bad news from Pax- 
 ton. I m afraid our worst fears are .to be 
 realized. Still, you may be able with prompt 
 ness to effect something. You will need to 
 start at daylight. I regret that there is no 
 earlier train ; but that will bring you in soon 
 after midnight, ready for early work the next 
 morning. Well, sir ! " This last in an inquir 
 ing tone ; for, pre-occupied with business as 
 he was, he could not fail to see the swift dis-
 
 338 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 inayed look -that overspread his clerk s face. 
 The dismay was very apparent in the tones 
 of his voice : 
 
 " But to-morrow will be Sunday 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MEASURED BY TRIAL. 
 
 ELL," said the senior partner, irritation 
 visible on every line of his face, "I 
 am aware of that, of course. On ordi 
 nary occasions we are not in the habit, as 
 you know, of infringing on the Sabbath rest 
 of our employes, but this is a special emer 
 gency ; a large amount of money is at stake, 
 and you can, of course, see the necessity for 
 your being in Paxton at the earliest possible 
 hour on Monday morning." 
 
 Without doubt his clerk was listening to 
 
 the measured words, every sentence of which 
 
 indicated the senior s annoyance m thus being 
 
 called to account, and obliged to explain his 
 
 339
 
 340 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 actions. He was listening, but he seemed in 
 doubt as to how to answer; for he hesitated, 
 and the blood mounted higher in his face, and 
 the silence between them was becoming op 
 pressive. At last, raising a pair of keen eyes, 
 he spoke in a firm, yet sufficiently respectful 
 tone : 
 
 " I cannot engage to break the Sabbath, sir, 
 even in a business emergency." 
 
 " You can not f " 
 
 " No, sir ; my principles prejudices some 
 might call them are very strongly marked 
 in that direction. I can not conceive of a 
 business emergency which would make it seem 
 right to me to ignore the plain direction: 
 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. " 
 
 For a moment the senior partner seemed to 
 be too much astonished to speak. He was 
 not a high-tempered man ; at least not in the 
 sense in which that phrase is generally under 
 stood ; he never scolded, never descended to 
 the level of loud words, or excited tones ; yet 
 his word was absolute, unquestioned law, 
 through the entire establishment ; and it had 
 heretofore been Mr. Spaffovd s business simply
 
 Measured by Trial. 341 
 
 to obey. In view of the long education that 
 this man of large business had had as an un 
 disputed sovereign, it is perhaps no wonder 
 that he could for a moment only look his 
 astonishment over the sudden rebellion. 
 
 " Very well," he said at last, turning away 
 and moving with his usual dignified step 
 toward the inner office. 
 
 The words were quiet, the manner in no 
 sense changed, yet Mr. Spafford knew that he 
 was in great and dangerous disfavor with his 
 chief ; knew it as well as he did less than an 
 hour afterward, when one of the cash boys 
 gave him a note written in the senior partner s 
 clear, firm hand, which read as follows : 
 
 "Inclosed find check for $50 (fifty dollars), 
 the amount due, and accept the thanks of the 
 firm for the faithful manner in which you 
 have hitherto served them. We shall, of 
 course, have no further need of your services 
 after to-day. Hoping that you will in the 
 future meet with the success that your indus 
 try deserves, we remain, yours truly." 
 
 And then, through the mist that the faithful 
 clerk felt gathering over his eyes, he could
 
 342 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 see the signature of the firm ; he even took 
 occasion to notice the graceful curve of the 
 capital B, and the flourish around the D. So 
 small were the details with which his mind 
 occupied itself ! And yet he also saw his home, 
 with its beloved wife, and its sick baby, and 
 the great and increasing need that there was 
 for money ; he saw himself out of employment 
 for weeks perhaps for months and his baby 
 growing worse slipping away from them, 
 perhaps, for want of those things which money 
 could procure. He saw actual want staring 
 them in the face. Yet he went on with the 
 column of figures he was adding ; reached a 
 result that he knew was correct, signed the 
 name of the firm to half a dozen papers, wiped 
 his pen with usual care, closed and locked his 
 desk, delivered the keys to the proper author 
 ities, said " Good evening " much as usual to 
 his fellow-clerks, and went out, for the last 
 time, from the store where he had served faith 
 fully. Yet the weight of the trial had told 
 somewhat on his face by the time he reached 
 home ; must have done so, though he strove 
 hard not to let it, and said to himself, as he
 
 Measured by Trial. 343 
 
 went up the walk, that he would not tell Callie 
 until after supper ; nor then, indeed, unless 
 the baby was even better than usual. Yet he 
 had not been in the little dining-room five 
 minutes before she said : 
 
 " Warren, what is the matter ? " 
 
 Then, of course, he told her. He spoke 
 cheerfully, even smilingly tried to make as 
 little of it as possible, but she stood bewil 
 dered; she seemed unable to take the idea in. 
 
 " Discharged ! " she said. " Discharged ! " 
 repeating the word in a dazed sort of way, 
 thinking how strange it sounded connected 
 with her husband s name. " Why, Warren, 
 what can you mean ? " 
 
 Then the whole story had to be gone over ; 
 and, after all, it was well ; it was such a short 
 story, so simple and untragical in its details 
 that it might almost have quieted the excite 
 ment of them both to go over it. Yet it meant 
 to them serious business; they both knew it 
 meant: "We have lost that which was our 
 daily bread." There was no bank account, 
 however small ; there was not even an "extra" 
 laid away in the private slide of Callie s writ-
 
 344 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ing-desk. There was only that last check, 
 out of which to pay a month s rent and the 
 doctor s bill, and provide the hundred daily 
 necessities of life, for how long ! I will not 
 denj 7 that there was a sense of terrible sinking 
 in Mrs. Spafford s heart. She had never longed 
 for money as she did just now, as she had been 
 longing, that very afternoon, because of the 
 white-faced darling in the crib, and she had 
 never in her life touched so near to actual 
 poverty ! Yet the first thing she did, after she 
 took in the entire situation, was to move her 
 chair around the other side of the crib, closer 
 to her husband s, and kiss his white forehead ; 
 and the first words she spoke were: 
 
 " After all, Warren, there is nothing to 
 regret. You did just what was right; indeed, 
 there was no opportunity for choice ; you 
 could not do otherwise; and the Lord knows 
 all about it." 
 
 Thus it was that the shadows in that home 
 grew longer ; the days passed strangely, that 
 is, the first five or six. Warren took his 
 breakfast later, lingered after it, beyond the 
 time for family worship, cared tenderly for War,
 
 Measured by Trial. 845 
 
 in a hundred ways restful alike to mother 
 and baby ; did a dozen little things for their 
 comfort during the day that he had never 
 before had time for ; then went out on a weary 
 round of calls in the hope of finding some 
 where a situation, coming back every night 
 a trifle more disheartened than he was the 
 night before. It was not the time of year 
 when vacancies were plenty if in fact in 
 the over crowded city there is ever such a 
 time. He got the check cashed, with a curious 
 pitiful wonderment as to how or when he 
 would get another, and paid the rent, and 
 laid aside some that he hoped could be kept 
 to give to the doctor, and brought home 
 with him five little gold dollars that he 
 showed after tea, to his wife. 
 
 " Oh, Warren," she said, understanding 
 them at once, " I was wondering about them. 
 Don t you suppose do you think I mean 
 would it be wrong to use the five dollars 
 this time ? We have no income now, you 
 know, for a little, and baby needs a few 
 things. Shall we borrow them for this emer 
 gency ? "
 
 346 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 "Callie," he said, and his tone was low 
 and strangely tremulous, though there was 
 no reproach in it, " we promised to swing 
 off, and trust Him for emergencies." 
 
 "So we did. And I am very faithless; 
 put them in the box, Warren ; indeed, I did 
 not mean, to steal the Lord s jewels, I only 
 thought of borrowing." 
 
 She spoke quickly, and had some ado to 
 keep back the tears. But he gave the shin 
 ing things to her, and with her own hands 
 she dropped them into the blue velvet 
 box. 
 
 Before many days they had that which put 
 the loss of the father s situation into the back 
 ground. Without any question baby was 
 seriously worse. Oh, the dark, dark days 
 which succeeded each other now ! How can 
 I tell you about them ? Ah me ! how many 
 hearts there are in this world that need no 
 telling ! The father made no more efforts to 
 find a situation ; indeed, there were hours 
 in which he was able to thank God that he 
 had none, no duty to keep him from minister 
 ing now to his child and his wife ; for one
 
 Measured by Trial. 347 
 
 seemed to need help almost as much as the 
 other. His days and nights were alike spent 
 in tireless watching and waiting. That one 
 word expresses to the initiated a whole vol 
 ume in itself; alert, helpful watching, is 
 sometimes not so hard ; but the waiting for 
 what may, aye, apparently is coming with 
 slow steps, indeed, but still coming! that 
 is what wears out human lives. 
 
 It was one of those breathless summer 
 mornings which occasionally followed breathless 
 nights. Baby lay in a limp, almost lifeless 
 heap, in the small white crib ; too weak he 
 felt even to smile an answer to the wistful 
 eyes bending over him. Neither father nor 
 mother had left him for an hour of rest dur 
 ing the night. Indeed, there was not a spot 
 in the house in which they could have rested 
 had they tried ; no spot where they could 
 get away from that faint wail. Sometimes 
 it seemed to the father s heart when oc 
 casionally he closed his eyes for a moment 
 to rest them that he should hear it always, 
 after this, whorever he went, whatever hap 
 pened ! The long summer night had stretched
 
 348 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 its slow length along; mother and father al 
 ternately walking up and down the room 
 trying to rest the tired baby, or sitting in 
 the large rocker, pillowing him tenderly on 
 one arm, and gently fanning him with the 
 other. Now the longed for morning had come 
 at last, and, as they looked at the pinched 
 features of the child, and then at each other, 
 they needed not words with which to say 
 that the night had made sad ravages. It 
 was plain that he had failed much. For the 
 first time since his sickness they did not 
 attempt going through with the form of a 
 breakfast ; that much, Warren Spafford had 
 regularly insisted on ; indeed, he had several 
 times made the fragrant cup of coffee himself, 
 brought it with his own hands to his wife, 
 and with tender firmness insisted on her drink 
 ing it. This morning he sat almost as limp 
 and wearied-looking as the baby before him, 
 making no suggestions in regard to food or 
 rest. The awful depression of disappointment 
 and foreboding was upon him. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford turned to him at last, her 
 eyes heavy, less with weariness than fear :
 
 Measured ly Trial. 349 
 
 " Warren, don t you think you might find 
 the doctor before he starts on his daily round, 
 and get him to come earlier ; Don t you 
 think there may be need of it ? " 
 
 "I am afraid there is," he spoke in a 
 low, hopeless tone. 
 
 It was evident to her that he had lost all 
 heart. Her own began to give great throbs 
 of pain, but she struggled for composure. 
 For baby s sake she must not yield now. 
 She might soon have plenty of time for tears 
 when she had empty arms ! 
 
 Warren rose at once. "I will try for it," 
 he said, still listlessly ; and he sought for 
 his hat and went away, neither of them 
 remembering to break their long night s 
 fast. 
 
 Meantime, however, there had come an 
 other presence into the house. Mrs. Evans 
 had returned home but the night before ; 
 had run over immediately to see how her 
 friends were, and knew all about the great 
 fear that enthralled them. She came quickly 
 now into the kitchen uninvited, as her kitchen 
 had been entered once. She moved with
 
 350 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 quiet yet skillful step around the small domain 
 where the neatness of desolation reigned. 
 Everything was in the sort of order that be 
 tokens that very little is being used in that 
 region. Skillfully she built up the fire in 
 the little stove ; rapid movements to and 
 fro; one journey home, and just as Mr. Spaf- 
 ford entered the front door, she pushed open 
 the door of the little parlor which had long 
 since been converted into a down -stairs 
 nursery. 
 
 " I found him," Warren said ; " he says he 
 will try to be here in half an hour." 
 
 Then Mrs. Evans ; " Go right into the dining- 
 room, dear, you and Mr. Spafford, and eat a 
 mouthful of breakfast ; you will find it all 
 ready. Oh, yes, you must, for baby s sake, 
 you know. He will need strong arms and a 
 great deal of care to-day. He is sleeping 
 quietly now, isn t he ? Really resting, perhaps. 
 I will sit beside him and watch every move 
 ment. G-o, Mrs. Spafford, because it is right, 
 you know." 
 
 What winning sweetness there was in her 
 voice. And a certain quiet persistence of
 
 Measured l>y Trial. 
 
 manner that carried a sort of strength to the 
 tired hearts of father and mother. 
 
 " She is right, Gallic," Warren said, trying 
 to rouse from bis lethargy, " right and thought 
 ful. Don t let us be ungrateful. Come." 
 
 Now you know just how this suggestion 
 sounded to Mrs. Spafford. How utterly loath 
 some to her was the idea of food. How much 
 she longed to be allowed to sit by her baby s 
 side just as long as she could. Yet she strug 
 gled with all this that she knew was senti 
 ment, and arose and went out quietly to the 
 dining-room. How pretty it looked on this 
 fair morning. Mrs. Evans had even stopped 
 to pick three or four fresh roses just budding 
 into bloom, and had placed them in a tiny 
 vase beside Mrs. Spafford s plate. The table 
 was set for two, with much daintier care than 
 had been bestowed on it of late. The very 
 freshness of the napkins had a restful look to 
 the matron s weary eyes. There was a plate 
 of delicately, carefully made toast, and a tiny 
 bit of steak, broiled to a nicety, just as Mrs. 
 Evans, thanks to her teacher, had long known 
 how to broil. No wonder that it all reminded
 
 352 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford of her afternoon invasion into 
 the kitchen across the way. Her husband 
 was evidently thinking of it, too : 
 
 " For thou shalt find it after many days, 
 he quoted to her, with a meaning smile, and 
 then, as she tried to give the answering smile, 
 the very effort to do so brought the tears, and 
 she laid her head on her husband s shoulder 
 and sobbed outright. It was better to, than 
 to try to bear that heavy strain any longer. 
 
 " Come," he said, after a moment of tender 
 silence, "you are to show your appreciation 
 of this thoughtful kindness, and eat some break 
 fast now ; it will strengthen you for the day." 
 He poured her coffee, prepared it carefully, 
 cut small bits of the tender steak for her, as 
 if she had been a child, and although she felt 
 perfectly confident that the very first mouth 
 ful would choke her, she sat down and ate bits 
 of toast and steak and swallows of hot coffee, 
 and rose up refreshed. So determined are 
 these bodies of ours to assert their rights, no 
 matter what the spirit is being called upon to 
 endure. 
 
 The doctor came promptly as he had prom-
 
 Measured by Trial. 353 
 
 ised ; but it was evident to both father and 
 mother that he saw small need for his coining ; 
 rather, he stood powerless before the need that 
 he felt himself unable to supply. He was kind 
 and grave, as sympathetic as one could expect 
 a doctor to be, who sometimes stood many 
 times a day by the fair cribs of little babies 
 who were slipping away from life. 
 
 " The fact is," and he drew on his gloves as 
 he said it, " Nature will have to do all that 
 can be done for your child. He may rally. 
 I have seen children lower than he pull through 
 at last. The vitality of these little creatures 
 is something to wonder at stand in awe 
 before, in fact. There is one thing I should 
 like to see tried ; if you could go to the sea 
 shore with him, it might do. Sea air works 
 miracles sometimes in cases like these ; and, 
 indeed, a change of air is a most helpful thing. 
 You may continue the medicine as before. 
 I ll try to call this afternoon. We are likely 
 to have a very sultry day, I think. Good 
 morning." And this was all. And the dark- 
 colored, uice-fiiting gloves were on now and 
 buttoned, and he was gone.
 
 854 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 All their hopes went out with him. They 
 sat in almost stupefied silence, looking, not at 
 each other, nor at the buby, but at nothing 
 trying, indeed, to look the future in the face. 
 Go to the seashore ! To be sure, it was not 
 very far away, less than half a day s ride on 
 the cars would bring them within the sound of 
 its eternal roar ; but for all practical purposes, 
 so far as they were concerned, it might as well 
 have been a thousand miles away. Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford s eyes sought the jewel case on the mantel, 
 There were three little gleaming dollars within, 
 and she knew as well as though she could see 
 inside her husband s pocket, that those and a 
 few quarters were all the money they had in 
 the world. Two dollars of the gold she had 
 paid out mechanically but a few days before, 
 when the church collector called. She thought 
 of them now, thought of the dollars that 
 had lain from time to time within its silken 
 folds. One hundred and fifty, more than 
 that, indeed, during the past two years. " We 
 could take him to the seaside if we had that." 
 She did not speak the words .even to her heart; 
 they just flitted through her mind, and there
 
 Measured by Trial. 355 
 
 was such a touch of bitterness in them that it 
 startled her. Still, how was she to help won 
 dering whether the money could possibly have 
 done anybody so much good as it would be to 
 save her darling ? 
 
 " Oh, Warren ! she said, and her voice 
 sounded like a wail, " couldn t we borrow that 
 money, that in the box, and I take it and go 
 a little way with baby ? He said, you know, 
 that a very slight change sometimes did great 
 good ! " 
 
 " My poor dear wife. Don t you remember 
 that what is there would hardly take you to 
 the depot in a carriage such as it would be 
 necessary to have?" . 
 
 Silence for a few minutes ; then she spoke in 
 tones that were almost desperate : 
 
 "Warren, I could leg for the sake of our 
 child." 
 
 " Darling, I would beg, if I knew which way 
 to turn. Let us think ; no, dear Gallic, let us 
 beg of our Father, our great rich Father. He 
 loves our child as even we can not; he will 
 show us the very best to do. Let us come right
 
 356 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 to him as children who trust him, and beg him 
 to show us the way to step." 
 
 Almost before the sentence was finished they 
 were on their knees. They were alone again. 
 Mrs. Evans had packed the dishes in a scarcely 
 orderly pile and gone swiftly away, not pausing 
 even to offer to sit with baby a moment longer 
 or to inquire what else she could do. It had 
 occurred to both husband and wife to wonder 
 silently over the suddenness of her departure ; 
 then each had decided that some home duty 
 must have needed immediate attention. She 
 haa been long absent. Several times since she 
 went had the bell rung some kind-hearted 
 neighbor had sent to inquire after baby s 
 health ; the girls, too, had rung at the door, 
 and. inquired and offered help, " if there was 
 anything they could do," and gojie their ways. 
 People were kind, but it was a city, where even 
 neighbors were not specially neighborly, and 
 the baby had been long sick, and none realized 
 how sick he was, nor how much in need of help 
 the young couple stood. None but Mrs. Evans, 
 and she had gone to her own cares. So they 
 were alone. Aaid yet not alone ; surely the
 
 Measured by Trial. 357 
 
 Angel of the Covenant was with them during 
 that prayer. Mrs. Spafford had often heard 
 her husband pray, yet the intensity of feeling, 
 the perfect abandon of self, the overwhelming 
 cry to be hidden from this awful storm that 
 threatened them, to be held in the Everlasting 
 Arms, was something that hushed her sobs, and 
 almost compelled her to lay hold with strong 
 faith upon the Arm of Power. They were both 
 entirely calmed when they rose up. 
 
 " Darling," her husband asked, as he held 
 her with his arm for a minute, " Don t you 
 believe, don t you know that he will bring to 
 pass for us that which is best ? " 
 
 " Yes," she said, quietly ; and at that mo 
 ment the door bell rang again, a quick, em 
 phatic peal.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE ANSWER. 
 
 is a note for you, Callie," Mr. 
 Spafford said, as he returned from 
 answering the loud peal of the bell. 
 " The man who brought it is waiting for an 
 answer." 
 
 "Read it, please," his wife said. She was 
 on her knees beside the crib, bending over her 
 baby. A note from some down-town neighbor 
 expressing sympathy this was what she 
 thought; it was very kind, but the mother 
 was in the mood just then to feel that human 
 sympathy was a very little thing ; some day 
 she might be able to thank the writer for 
 kind words ; she did not think that she wanted 
 353
 
 The Answer. 359 
 
 to take time from her baby to read them now. 
 Indeed she expressed as much, while her 
 husband was unfolding the sheet. "Did you 
 say he was waiting for an answer? I can 
 not answer notes now!" 
 Then he read: 
 
 "My Dear Mrs. Spafford: 
 
 I have but this moment heard of your trouble ; we are 
 on the eve of departure for our seaside house ; expect to 
 take the 12:20 train ; I send the carriage with this, and, 
 my dear friend, do you and your husband with all speed, 
 get into it with that dear baby and come to us. I have 
 known sea air to work marvellous transformations in baby 
 lives. There is no time to lose in preparation ; I would 
 not, if I were you, delay one hour. We .have a large cot 
 tage, and ample accommodations for you all ; and no more 
 desirable spot could be found for a sick baby. Dick, our 
 coachman, the bearer of this, is entirely reliable, and will 
 drive you with the greatest care to the train, where we 
 will join you. The journey is a short one. Do not wait 
 to do any packing ; Mrs. Evans (through whom I learned 
 just now of your great anxiety) will pack a trunk with 
 whatever you can need, and express to you promptly. 
 Meantime she is down town purchasing, under my direc 
 tion, sundry articles which I know to be needful to the 
 comfort of sick babies who travel ; I am the mother of 
 five children ; I know all about it. My dear i iends, I
 
 360 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 feel so sure of your remembering that you are my brother 
 and sister, that I do not imagine you as hesitating for a 
 moment on the score of false pride. Our Father has 
 entrusted me with ample means to pay all expenses of 
 every sort, and directed me to take you, my dear kindred 
 in Christ, under my care. I confidently expect to see you, 
 for I know I am following the lead of Him who guides 
 you and me. 
 
 " Mrs. Evans bade me say that you are only to throw 
 together what may be immediately needed for baby s 
 comfort ; bring your keys with you to the Twenty-third 
 Street Depot ; she will meet you there, take your direc 
 tions, and attend to whatever may need attention in your 
 home. Yours in great haste, 
 
 HELEN V. TEMPLE." 
 
 Long before he had finished reading this 
 remarkable letter, Mr Spafford s voice had 
 broken, and his eyes were so dim with tears 
 that he could scarcely make out the words. 
 The paper fluttered to the floor at last from 
 his hands, and, voice too much beyond his 
 control to check its tremble, yet spoke with 
 intense feeling : 
 
 " Before they call, I will answer ; and 
 while they are yet speaking I will hear." 
 
 As for Mrs. Spafford, she had one of those 
 merciful fits of really unnatural self-control
 
 The Answer. 361 
 
 come over her at that moment; the intensely 
 practical part of her nature rose to meet the 
 strain, and served her well. She rose up 
 from the crib, all the pallor gone from her 
 face, and spoke in a clear, positive voice : 
 
 "Warren, the baby s clothes, in the middle 
 drawer, you know tumble them into the 
 large valise ; his little cap and blankets are 
 on the shelf in the clothes-press, in the blue 
 box ; my hat lies on the shelf, and my sack 
 is hanging beside it. Is that ten o clock? 
 There is no time to lose ! Oh, Warren ! " 
 
 All the pent-up emotion, that if she had 
 had time might have found expression, let 
 itself out in those two words; then she lifted 
 her sleeping baby in her arms, and made 
 swift, yet tender, preparation for a journey. 
 I call you to witness to the true nobility of 
 soul apparent in these two, that not a mo 
 mentary thought of shrinking back from the 
 offered hand, stretched out with such lavish 
 help, occurred to either of them. They were 
 simply above shrinking away from help, sorely 
 needed, and royally offered. 
 
 Mrs. Temple s manner of receiving them
 
 362 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 at the depot was perfect. A quick, tender 
 clasp of the hand, given to Mrs. Spafford, and 
 low-toned words : 
 
 " I am so glad you are here in time ; we need 
 have no confusion. He looks very quiet, 
 doesn t he ? The ride down has not disturbed 
 him ; I have great hope of him ; change of 
 air is just what he needs. Mr. Spafford sup 
 pose you seat us in the car, while my husband 
 is looking after tickets. Your wife will be 
 able to get a little rest in the cars I think." 
 
 Not a moment s space did she leave for 
 any attempt at thanks. On the contrary she 
 simply, and in a most natural manner, ignored 
 any occasion for them, and gave herself en 
 tirely to the arrangement of details for the 
 journey. Mrs. Evans came, at the last moment, 
 flushed and breathless with the haste she 
 had made, and deposited sundry packages on 
 the seat beside Mrs. Temple, received from 
 Mr. Spafford the keys, and a few hurried 
 words of explanation, and the bell rang and 
 the whistle blew, and they were off! Even 
 then Mrs. Temple contrived to keep their 
 thoughts and her own absorbed by the sick
 
 The Answer. 363 
 
 child ; she was alert and fertile in her sug 
 gestions and arrangements for his comfort; 
 and he showed his appreciation of her thought- 
 fulness by continuing his quiet sleep; so much 
 more like rest than anything he had taken 
 for days. 
 
 Oh, you don t know, and the worst of it 
 is I cannot describe to you, how that upper 
 room, in which before night she was domiciled, 
 seemed to Mrs. Spafford ! A large ba}r-windowed 
 chamber, delicately tinted walls ; casement 
 windows reaching from floor to ceiling, hung 
 with simple muslin curtains ; India matting 
 on the floor ; the lightest and simplest of cot 
 tage furniture ; everything pure, tasteful, rest 
 ful. The windows were set open toward 
 the sunset, and just before her there spread 
 out that wonderful sight, of which some 
 e} r es never tire, the white sanded-beach, washed 
 forever by the ceaseless waves. She sat ami 
 listened to them, as they rolled, one after 
 another, one after another, always and alvvuvs 
 one after another, up and down the sands ! 
 She heard the steady monotone of their voices 
 as they went on and OD, in their tireless work ;
 
 864 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 she drank in the salt air; she watched tlw 
 curtains sway back and forth in the breeze ; 
 she watched the baby in the crib, lying quiet, 
 sleeping, breathing in like herself, the air that, 
 it seemed to her, must be health-giving; she 
 thought of the breathless room where they 
 had spent but the night before; she remem 
 bered just how breathless it must be there 
 at this moment, and her heart went out in 
 unspeakable gratitude toward those who had 
 of their abundance come to her in her sore 
 need ; to Him who had put it into the 
 hearts of his children to do this blessed thing. 
 The door swung softly on its hinges, and 
 Mrs. Temple entered, her face radiant with 
 some new satisfaction; only to look at it was 
 like breathing fresh hope into the mother s 
 heart. 
 
 "Don t you think, Dr. Everett is here!" she 
 said, speaking eagerly. " He has just sent in 
 his card, and asked if he could serve us in any 
 way ; he is an old friend. I took the liberty 
 of sending word for him to call on us immedi 
 ately ; I knew you would like to have him see 
 baby."
 
 The Answer. 365 
 
 Now Dr. Everett was a name well-known to 
 Mrs. Spafford. He came from the same city 
 as themselves, arid only that very morning 
 when she sat with such a heavy heart looking 
 down at her baby, after her physician had 
 buttoned his gloves and departed, she had said 
 to herself : " If I had only asked him to bring 
 Dr. Everett with him ! If I had only asked 
 Warren to go for Dr. Everett this morning! 
 What do I care how much he charges tocome 
 away up here. I could pay him in some way ; 
 I could beg it." Then she remembered, with 
 another dull thud at her heart, that she had 
 heard him bemoaned as out of town. Now, 
 barely a day intervening, here was she out of 
 town, too, by the side of the life-giving sea, 
 and, behold, the great doctor was within reach ! 
 Not only that, but was coming that evening to 
 see her bab} T ! Was riot her cup of mercy 
 full? 
 
 Isn t it a curious thing that histories which 
 cover weeks of time to live can be grouped 
 and put into a half-hour s story? The weeks 
 at the seaside which followed this first evening 
 when Mrs. Spafford sat and watched the sun
 
 366 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 dip down beneath the waves were weeks, the 
 memory of which she will carry forever, even 
 into heaven. So full of sweet, constant, merci 
 ful, loving kindness were they. Do you think 
 that Mrs. Temple s kindness exhausted itself 
 in the first day s effort? It is not so; each 
 passing day showed her as a marvel of thought 
 ful, unselfish wisdom. Though tfulness shown 
 in ways v that are easy to feel, but very hard to 
 tell. There was an acceptance of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Spafford as her guests for the season in a 
 sort of matter-of-course manner. She made 
 them feel free to come and go, to take and 
 receive, as they might have felt in the home 
 of an actual sister ; aj r e, as it is not possible 
 always to feel, even with sisters. She made 
 herself one with them in their care and anx- 
 iet} r . She almost seemed to lift half the bur 
 den from them and bear it herself. 
 
 Dr. Everett made his call and lingered be 
 yond the time that his professional services 
 were required, giving rather the care of a 
 skilled nurse. He spoke hopefully, not too 
 hopefully, because they, who knew so well on 
 what a thread the baby s life hung, would not
 
 The Answer. 367 
 
 have been able to trust an emphatic assurance 
 of safety ; but he unbent from his grave pro 
 fessional air, and expressed as well as felt sym 
 pathy, and promised to come early in the morn 
 ing, and came very early, and came several 
 times during the day, and lingered as he could 
 not have done had he been at home pressed 
 with care. All this gave the Spaffords a certain 
 relieved feeling that their baby was not merely 
 one of the many sick and suffering babies, but 
 a special object of the skillful physician s care. 
 The mother expressed something of this feeling 
 to Mrs. Temple one evening, and the manner 
 in which that lady answered gave her a little 
 lesson which she hugged to her heart and never 
 forgot. 
 
 " I have often thought," said the elder lady, 
 a touch of sadness in her voice, " how hard it 
 must be for the Great Physician to bear with 
 us in our determination to think of his love 
 and care for us as only a piece of that which 
 he bears for the great multitude, instead of 
 individualizing it as he constantly teaches us to 
 do, arid accepting him as caring for us with 
 even more than the exclusive tenderness of
 
 368 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 love which we give to our own. Of course it 
 is only a seeming with human physicians, 
 they must exclude us when they go from us 
 to others, and think only of them; but the 
 heart of Christ, you know, is for each, as if 
 each were alone in all the world the object 
 of His care." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford had no answer to make 
 for a moment, and when she spoke she only 
 said, " Thank you," but the words were ac 
 companied by a look which the other lady 
 understood. Thenceforth, the young mother 
 thought of Christ as bending over her baby 
 in his crib exactly as though there were no 
 other baby on earth to claim His love and 
 skill, and her heart was wonderfully comforted. 
 Still, she thanked Him daily for the human 
 help and comfort afforded through Dr. Everett. 
 As the days passed, and he came and went, 
 she grew to think of him as a personal friend. 
 She looked back often upon that first evening 
 of his coming, and smiled over her folly, and 
 realized that it was but the vagary of an 
 excited bruin to be so glad, so very glad, that 
 he wore no gloves, which he drew on and
 
 The Answer. 369 
 
 buttoned, as he pronounced in slow, quiet 
 words, what seemed like a death-knell to 
 her hopes. How foolish she was! Why did 
 she care for gloves? What difference did it 
 make how slow]y the doctor drew them on, 
 how carefully he buttoned them ? Yet she 
 found that the scene with just those little 
 accessaries had photographed itself on her 
 brain, and all the darkness of that breathless 
 morning came back to her, associated with that 
 doctor standing beside her baby s crib, button 
 ing those gloves. Well, as the days went 
 by, the steady kindness of those ministering 
 never failed. Among Mrs. Temple s other 
 thoughtful ways, there had been introduced 
 to the household a middle-aged, calm-faced, 
 low-voiced woman, who came in noiseless 
 slippers and cool, dark dress, and the first 
 time she lifted the baby in her arms she 
 cooed to him in so motherly a fashion that 
 he laid his tired little head down on her 
 shoulder and went to sleep. Then Dr. 
 Everett, when he came, greeted her with a 
 pleased face, and a shake of the hand, and
 
 370 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 stepped to the piazza after Mrs. Spafford to 
 say to her : 
 
 "I see you have Mrs. Philbrick here. My 
 dear madam, she is worth more to a sick baby 
 than forty doctors, or even than a mother 
 who is tired as you. I recommend you to 
 go to bed and slaep all night. Baby is safe 
 in her hands, for she is the wisest and ten- 
 derest nurse I know." 
 
 There had been no talk about a nurse, no 
 nervous heart-rending discussion about sub 
 stituting some other care for the worn yet 
 tireless mother s ; but Mrs. Philbrick stayed. 
 
 " She is an old friend of the family, and 
 has come to spend a few days with us," was 
 Mrs. Temple s explanation; and she was al 
 ways hovering within call, always motioning 
 the mother to lie down on the bed and let 
 herself be covered with the baby s blanket or 
 a light shawl, anything that would not look as 
 though she had given up the baby and suc 
 cumbed to fatigue, and the rests that she took 
 thus were many and life-giving. Also baby, 
 with the rare wisdom common to his age, 
 put in his powerful plea for resting both
 
 The Answer. 371 
 
 father and mother, by taking the most ob 
 stinate fancy to nurse Philbrick, and waiting 
 for her when she disappeared from sight. So, 
 gradually and quietly, she came to be the re 
 cognized nurse ; and the mother was learning 
 to turn away from the crib with a great, 
 deep sigh of restfulness, knowing that the 
 weight of care was being lifted. 
 
 Meantime, do you think this young couple, 
 with not a penny in their purse, and no visible 
 means of earning one, were able to keep the 
 bewildering future entirely from their thoughts ? 
 Yes, they were ; almost entirely. But alas ! 
 that I should have to admit that the reason 
 was not because of their conquering faith, but 
 because all these thoughts were pushed out by 
 a present and absorbing anxiety. They could 
 not shut their eyes to the fact that, with all 
 the advantages of sea air and Dr. Everett and 
 nurse Philbrick, it was a fierce fight between 
 life and death that was being waged over that 
 one little baby. Ever present before them was 
 the question ; " How will it end ? " They 
 bore up wonderfully well ; they made brave 
 efforts to sustain each other, to appear grate-
 
 372 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ful, and hopeful, and in a sense at rest ; but 
 they did not trust themselves to any confi 
 dential talks, to any hints as to what might 
 be ; they just watched and waited. 
 
 It was at the close of a long, bright day, 
 nearly three weeks since they first came to their 
 seaside retreat. An eventful day it had been. 
 Baby Warren had slept quietly through the 
 night, had awakened in the morning, his face 
 bright with smiles, .had sat up in nurse Phil- 
 brick s arms and played a little in the old 
 fashion, had taken his cream with a relish un 
 known for many a day ; and the mother watch 
 ing him, felt that she had surely a right to let 
 it into her heart that he was genuinely, hope 
 fully better. All through the day he had 
 sustained this hope, returning to many of his 
 pretty baby ways that they had thought laid 
 aside forever. The doctor had spoken not 
 only cheerfully, but almost gleefully, in his 
 morning call, and when he came again in the 
 afternoon, had said, as he arose to go : 
 
 " Well, friends, my unusually long play day 
 is over, and I must go back to the city to-mor 
 row morning. I have delayed for several
 
 The Answer. 373 
 
 days, in order to have the pleasure of saying 
 to you, madam, that I feel perfectly safe in 
 leaving this young man now in your and Mrs. 
 Philbrick s hands. 1 don t think he will need 
 a physician s care any longer." 
 
 Then I think the light on Mrs. Spafford s 
 face went a great way toward paying the doc 
 tor. There had been talk after that, much of 
 it, of course. Careful directions given, earnest 
 gratitude expressed, and more than a hint of 
 the strong feeling that could never be expressed 
 in words, and then the doctor had gone away, 
 richer by far than when he came, for he carried 
 a weight of gratitude from two full hearts, 
 and he would be enriched by their prayers, so 
 long as they lived to pray. It was just at even 
 ing and they were alone. War had given 
 his last touch of exqusite joy. to the full day 
 by playing for a little in the old-time, rollick 
 ing fashion with his father s beard, the inde 
 scribable little coo in his happy voice speaking 
 as plainly of returning health and strength as 
 words could have done ; then he had gone to 
 sleep. 
 
 " Gallic, see here ! " her husband said, turn-
 
 374 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ing aside from the crib, where both had been 
 lingering, and putting a paper in her hand, 
 which, by the sudden paleness that spread over 
 her face, he knew she recognized as a doctor s 
 bill. There it was, a long, long list of visits 
 from one of the most eminent physicians in a 
 great city. But the last line read 
 
 "Received payment ( good measure, pressed down 
 and running over ). 
 
 " LEONARD EVERETT." 
 
 " Oh, Warren ! " Mrs. Spafford said, and then 
 this crowning act in their stream of mercies 
 brought for the first time a rush of tears. " I 
 have not cried before since we left home," she 
 said, crying and laughing both in one as she 
 spoke. 
 
 They showed it to Mrs. Temple, that care 
 fully receipted bill, and, as they talked together 
 of the doctor s skill and kindness, Mrs. Spafford 
 said: 
 
 " But the joy is not all ours. I think Mrs. 
 Temple, it must be glorious to have money, to 
 be able to do royal things, such as you and 
 Dr. Everett are doing."
 
 The Answer. 375 
 
 And Mrs. Temple, with her hand resting on 
 the } T ounger woman s head, made answer : 
 
 " Hush, dear, we have no money ; it is all 
 His. We are but stewards. Dr. Everett 
 recognizes the kinship. Have we not all one 
 ^Father?"
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MEASURING HUMAN INFLUENCE I 
 
 ITH careful tact did Mrs. Temple watch 
 for just the right opportunity for check 
 ing any restiveness in the heart of her 
 guests. She realized that, as their minds re 
 acted from the heavy strain which had been 
 upon them so long, the sense of dependence 
 and poverty would assert itself, and tempt them 
 to think of themselves as intruders. It was at 
 the close of a lovely summer day, that they sat 
 on the piazza which commanded the finest view 
 of the ocean, and discussed the future. Mr. 
 Spafford himself opened the way, by remark 
 ing that it must have been a very warm day in 
 the city. . 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Temple, " and that reminds 
 376
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 377 
 
 me of something over which I have been wor 
 rying a little. You will surely not think of 
 taking baby back to the city until summer has 
 entirely spent itself, will you ? Our first months 
 of autumn, you know, are liable to be quite aa 
 oppressive as midsummer. Baby had such a 
 narrow escape that, it seems to me, you would 
 hazard a great deal in trying to return before 
 October at the earliest." 
 
 The mother s heart gave a little thrill of 
 satisfaction over this sentence ; it was so pleas 
 ant to hear the past tense used in connection 
 with her darling s illness. Others beside her 
 self, then, accepted the danger as " past ! " She 
 was joyful and grateful. 
 
 But the father s mind was occupied with 
 another problem ; he was thankful for the past, 
 and foreboding for the future ! He was the 
 bread winner of this little family, and saw no 
 way in which to win any. The rent, too, had 
 been accumulating, he having had only prom 
 ises with which to pay the last month s balance, 
 and now another was nearly due. Every Mon 
 day morning when Mr. Temple returned to the 
 city, he had said cheerily :
 
 378 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 "I will keep a lookout for you, Spafford, and 
 I think there will be an opening of some sort 
 soon." 
 
 But openings in the commercial world at 
 this date were not so numerous at least such 
 as would support a man with a family ; young 
 men by the dozens stood ready to absorb any 
 opening, and be content with small salaries. So 
 Mr. Spafford s face was clouded. 
 
 " I must go back to the city as soon as I 
 possibly can, and look for work," he said, speak 
 ing quickly. " You forget, Mrs. Temple, that 
 I have nothing but your unparalleled kindness 
 to live upon." 
 
 " I don t think that is true," she made an 
 swer in quiet tone. " You have your Father s 
 sure promise ; but I don t want to trammel 
 you ; when Mr. Temple comes down again, you 
 and he, talking it over, may decide it best to 
 go back together and make arrangements for 
 the future, but in regard to your wife and 
 baby, I feel exactlj r like meddling. I don t 
 think I could endure it to have my baby taken 
 back to the city until I felt that it was safe. 
 He is my only grandchild, you know, and I
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 379 
 
 may be excused, perhaps, for being selfish over 
 him. I think, Mr. Spafford, you should lay 
 your commands on mother and child to stay 
 quietly here with me while you bear the heat 
 and burden of the day. I shall not go to town 
 until the very last of October, probably, and 
 I need not try to tell you how lonely I should 
 feel without the mother and baby. I suppose 
 you and Mr. Temple could keep bachelors hall 
 together, if it should seem necessary?" 
 
 What answer could be made to such persis 
 tent kindness ! The gitests looked at each 
 other, and felt almost embarrassed by this wealth 
 of hospitality. How were they ever to express 
 their gratitude? Mrs. Spafford, studying for 
 the hundredth time the whole matter, suddenly 
 put it into a question which she had longed to 
 ask : 
 
 " How came you to do it, Mrs. Temple ? I 
 mean, what induced you to take us in, in this 
 unworldly fashion, and do for us, and with us 
 as if we were your very own ? " 
 
 " You make altogether too much of it," said 
 Mrs, Temple, speaking lightly ; " is it so strange 
 a thing that a woman with a house at her dis-
 
 380 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 posal, and leisure on her hands, should be 
 heartily glad of pleasant friends about her for 
 the summer? Especially when there was a 
 baby like our War included ? Still, I know 
 what you mean. By what line of impulse or 
 suggestion did it first occur to me ? You will 
 doubtless be surprised, my dear friend, to learn 
 that you were the starting point. Do you re 
 member that first missionary meeting down 
 town that you attended, and your prayer ? " 
 
 " I remember the meeting very well," Mrs. 
 Spafford said, her cheeks flushing, " and the fact 
 that I offered pntyer, but what has that to do 
 with this summer s experience ? " 
 
 " Much. There was that in your prayer 
 which set me to thinking in a new channel. I 
 had been accustomed to think of the foreign- 
 field as very widely separated from work at 
 home ; two channels you know, each feeding 
 the Ocean of God s work for the world, but 
 stretched apart to such a degree that those who 
 gave their lives to feeding one channel, could 
 not do much, in any way, for the other. Some 
 thing in your language and manner made me 
 feel that they touched each other joined
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 381 
 
 hands, indeed ; that I could lay my hand on 
 my next neighbor s shoulder, and speak a word 
 or look a feeling, that could be made to reach 
 to Africa or China. I can not describe it very 
 well, nor make very clear to you, what a hold 
 the thought took upon me. But I know I 
 looked about on those with whom I came in 
 contact with very different eyes from that time 
 forth. I had felt myself consecrated time, 
 money and strength to the work of Foreign 
 Missions ; my father died in the work abroad, 
 and two brothers and a sister labor there to 
 day ; and, in short, I lived for the other side 
 of the world, and thought it right. I still think 
 it right ; but I see fresh ways of doing it. I 
 can reach China through my neighbor that I 
 meet on the street. I am constantly saying to 
 myself, Who knows what that little girl may 
 do for China when she grows into a woman? 
 Who knows what millions that little fellow, 
 playing at my neighbor s back door may give 
 for Japan or India ? Am I making my meaning 
 plain ? I don t believe I am, but it is plain to 
 me. When I heard of my blessed little War s 
 illness, without any idea as to how I should
 
 382 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 come to love him as my very own, I instantly 
 said to myself, How can I know but his life is 
 to be saved, through me, so that he may, in 
 the years to come, touch all heathendom with 
 his influence ! I got that out of your own 
 prayer, Mrs. Spafford ; it came to me as it never 
 had before, and I have enjoyed living twice as 
 well since then. It is not that I love China 
 less, you know, but my neighbor more. The 
 Lord has opened fresh streams, and given me 
 a chance to help swell their current, for the 
 same great end." And her eyes were shining 
 with tears. 
 
 Just at that moment there appeared in the 
 door Master War Spafford, in nurse Phil- 
 brick s arms ; that devoted slave of his was to 
 leave him on the morrow, and had been enjoy 
 ing a last love scene with him in the nursery. 
 His mother arose to take him, and, as she 
 pressed his velvet cheek to hers, she said, her 
 voice slightly tremulous with feeling : 
 
 " We will try to train this little boy that 
 the love and wealth you have lavished on him 
 may bring an hundred fold reward to the 
 foreign field."
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 883 
 
 After that, both parents believed that they 
 would have been silly, as well as ungrateful, 
 to have pressed the idea of going away, in the 
 face of Mrs. Temple s expressed advice to the 
 contrary. Still, the father s face was shadowed, 
 and he was plainly growing restive. Some 
 move he must make, or his manhood would 
 suffer. The dignity of suffering, and the fore 
 boding of coming sorrow that had held him 
 prisoner, were lifted. War was able to roll in 
 the sand, and shout at the waves, and frolic, 
 in one way and another, during every moment 
 of his waking hours. His cheeks were grow 
 ing round and plump again, and his eyes were 
 bright with health and the joy of living. The 
 father felt that he must be at work. 
 
 It was but two days after the talk on the 
 piazza that he was summoned to the parlor to 
 meet a caller. The conference was a some 
 what lengthy one, but he came away from it 
 with a bright light in his eyes, and ascended 
 the stairs, two steps at a time, in search of 
 his wife. 
 
 " Gallic, dear," he said, going over to her,
 
 384 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 "T shall have to go to the city without you, 
 and before the time we had planned." 
 
 " Why ? " she asked him, not startled ; his 
 face was too bright for any news that was not 
 pleasant. " I think from your face, Warren, 
 that you must have an opportunity for employ 
 ment ; and, indeed, I think from my heart 
 that such must be the case. My faith has been 
 stronger all the morning." 
 
 " Then I can reward it with a bit of sight," 
 he said, gleefully. " Gallic, do you remember 
 that carpet clerk of whom we bought our 
 carpet, how interested he seemed in our twists 
 and turns to save a penny, aud how patient 
 he was with us ? " 
 
 She remembered him perfectly, the wife 
 declared, and moreover had often thought of 
 him, and wondered whether he had a happy home. 
 
 " Well, it is he who has been calling on me ; 
 he brought great news. Mr. Temple, it seems, 
 had heard that there was a vacancy in their 
 house, and called in person to present my name ; 
 but there were a dozen applicants, and, but 
 for what we are apt to term an accident, it 
 would have done no good. Mr. Johns, the
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 385 
 
 carpet clerk, was standing by, and recognized 
 my name ; it seems he had been more or less 
 interested in us ever since; his little sister 
 met you at a missionary meeting in the city 
 and fell in love with you, rushed up and kissed 
 you so he says. Do you remember her ? 
 He is a favorite in the house, has served them 
 faithfully for a number of years, and they 
 were disposed to listen to his advice. He had 
 heard me mentioned favorably by our firm 
 more than once, and suggested that they send 
 to inquire into the particulars of my leaving 
 their employ. This was done, and Mr. Burton 
 himself told the whole story, giving me an. 
 excellent name, Johns says, and admitting that 
 he considered himself hasty in discharging me. 
 Well, when McCalister & Hayes heard tho 
 story, they both, being members of the Sab 
 bath Committee, and staunch advocates of a 
 stricter observance of the day, agreed in five 
 minutes to give me the vacancj r , and sent 
 Johns, who was coming down here for a two 
 weeks vacation, to interview me this morning, 
 and tell me I might report at their establish 
 ment to-morrow morning, if I chose."
 
 386 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " To-morrow morning," repeated Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford, with a little sinking at her heart despite 
 the good news ; their first separation was then 
 near at hand. 
 
 " Yes, it is sudden, dear ; but, after all, not 
 too soon for me to go to work. An able-bodied 
 man can not sit down idly and let others feed 
 him a minute longer than the providence of 
 God seems to hold him there. You can come 
 home in a little while, Callie. I can get all 
 ready for you and the boy, and only think 
 what a boy you will have to bring back. 
 Besides, there is something else you havn t 
 asked me as to salary ? What do you say to 
 a thousand a year, Robin Rough? " and the 
 foolishly happy father rang out the refrain of 
 the old tune, stopped in the middle of a strain 
 by a warning shake of his wife s head and a 
 nestling in the crib. 
 
 "Really, Warren?" 
 
 " Really, Callie ; with a prospect of increase 
 if I succeed in meeting their requirements ; 
 which I can, for they have the name of being 
 as fine a firm to work for as there is in the 
 city."
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 387 
 
 What do you think was Mrs. Spafford s sec 
 ond thought connected with this whole matter ? 
 She turned toward her husband, her soul shin 
 ing in her eyes, her very voice radiant: 
 
 " Oh, Warren ! then we will have a hundred 
 dollars a year for the jewel-case. We had noth 
 ing for it this month, apparently, because you 
 were earnestly trying to follow the Lord s own 
 command ; and now we have it almost doubled, 
 and the influences can be traced back to the 
 same cause. Isn t that wonderful ? " 
 
 " That reminds me, Callie, there is another 
 point. I don t know what you will say to this. 
 Johns wants to come out and board with us. 
 He says he must get away from the city. 
 Stuffy room he has, you know, and poor board ; 
 nothing home-like. I feel sorry for him. I told 
 him we would consider the matter and let him 
 know. I thought possibly you would see your 
 way clear to giving him, that extra room, and 
 perhaps use his board to pay a girl with, and 
 so get a little leisure yourself as much as 
 this fellow will give you. How does it strike 
 you at first thought ? "
 
 388 The Pocket Measure 
 
 Mrs. Spafford s face clouded for a moment 
 with a perplexed look, then cleared : 
 
 " I had designs on that room," she said 
 brightly ; " I thought possibly we could make 
 it do actual missionary work for us ; but then 
 who knows but this may be the Lord s ap- 
 poin ted way for us to do it ? This Mr. John s 
 isn t even a Christian, is he ? Yet how do we 
 know but he may be worth everything to the 
 cause some clay? Perhaps Mrs. Temple is 
 right, and each little movement of ours tells, 
 not only for the work at home, but for the 
 great world abroad, if only our faith reaches 
 out and grasps them all. Yes, Warren, I think 
 we will make a home for him if he wishes. 
 I feel as though I would like to make homes 
 for everybody and take them all in. As for 
 Mr. Johns, I have had a fancy for him ever 
 since he waited so patiently while I changed 
 my mind a dozen times,about our carpet. We ll 
 buy a pretty one for his room, won t we ? Oh, 
 see what the mail has brought me ! A letter 
 from our treasurer, with the largest remittance 
 for my share in the business that I have evei 
 had yet. That scheme is going to succeed roy-
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 389 
 
 ally. I feel it, more than ever. Warren, I 
 think I feel just a little as David did when he 
 said, My cup runneth over. " 
 
 Now, passing over the long, quiet rest, when 
 mother and child grew strong together, when 
 Mrs. Spafford and her hostess grew daily more 
 closely united in Christian love and sympathy, 
 and took sweet counsel together, I shall let 
 you peep into the little house deserted so sud 
 denly on that summer morning for this is 
 the family reunion. All day long has the 
 neighbor, Mrs. Evans, been moving with tire 
 less feet about the rooms, giving them a home 
 like air. At supper-time they are expected, 
 and she has set the table in holiday array, in 
 the bright dining-room, and mindful of a cer 
 tain supper table which marked a new era in 
 her home life, she has made delicate little puffs 
 of soda biscuit for supper ; and stewed potatoes 
 in milk and broiled a steak, and she knows per 
 fectly well, as she surveys all the nice appoint 
 ments of the table, that Mrs. Spafford herself, 
 pattern housekeeper though she may be, could 
 not have improved upon the details of that 
 meal.
 
 390 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 The expected ones have arrived, and are 
 moving about up-stairs at this moment, wash 
 ing away the dust of travel. The Temple car 
 riage brought them but a half hour ago, even 
 as it had taken them away, but what a gay, 
 bright, rollicking baby is returned to them in 
 place of the wan shadow they carried away. 
 
 " I shouldn t know him at all," had Mrs. 
 Evans declared, to the satisfaction of the 
 mother. She shivered even yet over the rec 
 ollection of the pitiful little face he carried 
 away. 
 
 " How brown he is," exclaimed the father, 
 and the mother laughed and declared that it 
 was the sunshine on the sand that he had 
 done nothing for six weeks but roll around in 
 the sand and shout and crow. Oh yes, it had 
 been a joyous home coming. 
 
 " We invited ourselves to supper," explained 
 Mrs. Evans, as she seated the lady of the house 
 and motioned her own husband to his place. 
 " I knew you wouldn t be able to find things 
 the first evening. I don t suppose I have them 
 in the right place ; but I know where they are, 
 and that is all that is necessary at present. To-
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 391 
 
 morrow, Mrs. SpafFord your Phillis is to come. 
 Don t you think, her name really is Phillis ! She 
 knows how to do everything, so she says ; and 
 she looks as though she might know a good 
 deal, especially about some things. I know I 
 am glad she is to be your help, and not 
 mine." 
 
 Mr. Evans laid down his knife and fork to 
 laugh. 
 
 " My wife retains her horror of hired help 
 in full force to this day," he said, with evi 
 dent satisfaction. " You haven t had one around 
 since Betty left you in the lurch that rainy 
 morning, have you ? " 
 
 " Not for an hour," she said complacently, 
 " and I confess it would give me a little twinge 
 of disappointment to be obliged to have one. 
 But you are mistaken Dane, about the horror. 
 I have lost all the old feeling of utter help 
 lessness that used to come over me when I 
 used to try to find fault without knowing 
 wherein the fault lay or how to remedy it. It 
 is a very different sensation to remember, if 
 your help chooses to get offended and leave 
 just at dinner-time, that the dinner will not
 
 392 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 necessarily suffer in consequence. The trouble 
 was, I was a slave to my ignorance until Mrs. 
 Spafford gave me a taste of freedom." 
 
 Up-stairs, after the dining-room had been set 
 in orderly array, the two ladies moved about, 
 Mrs. Evans turning down the blankets of the 
 pretty crib and making it ready for its occupant, 
 and the mother, as she laid the happy boy 
 within, and tucked the snowy coverings care 
 fully, turned to her friend with a sweetly sol 
 emn smile on her face, as she said : 
 
 "My friend, I have you also to thank for 
 this hour ; under God you saved my baby to 
 me. I have never put into words how much I 
 thank you for your swift, silent, thoughtful 
 work, but God knows how I have remembered 
 it, and always shall. I have lately come to feel 
 what is to me a somewhat new idea about it. 
 Who can tell what God may let those little 
 hands, or that baby voice do for his glory in 
 the turning of the nations of the earth to him 
 self? And if he gives him great things to do, 
 will not part of the work be yours ? What 
 wonderful rewards God may have in store for 
 even our smallest efforts made for his sake I I
 
 Measuring Human Influence. 393 
 
 understand about the cup of cold water better 
 than I ever did before." 
 
 "Mrs. Evans eyes were moist as she an 
 swered humbly : 
 
 " It was but a very little commonplace thing 
 that I could do. I was just a simple errand girl 
 and carried a message to those who could and 
 did ; but my motive, I think, was love for you, 
 my friend ; I can claim no blessing from the 
 Master." 
 
 " Ah ! can you not ? Inasmuch as ye did 
 it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, 
 ye did it unto me. "
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 MEASURING RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 must go home early to-night and give 
 ; these people a chance to rest." 
 
 This was what Mr. Evans said in one 
 form or another, several times during the 
 earlier part of the evening ; yet they lingered. 
 Some absorbing topic of conversation would 
 be immediately started by one of the circle, 
 and the half movement to separate would be 
 forestalled. The Evanses were so glad to get 
 their neighbors back again, and the neighbors, 
 on their part, were so gratefully glad to be 
 back again, that it was hard to separate. Even 
 when Mr. Evans actually arose and said, " Now, 
 really, Eva, we ought to go," Mrs. Spafford 
 394
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 395 
 
 / 
 said just at that moment : " Oh, Mrs. Evans, 
 
 I wanted to ask you about Jennie. Do you 
 think she " and here the ladies chairs were 
 drawn closer, and the tones became confidential. 
 The two husbands looked at each other and 
 smiled ; then something in Mr. Evans face, a 
 sort of wistful, yet hesitating look, sent a tele 
 graphic dispatch to the other gentleman s heart. 
 They had been thrown much together, these 
 two, during the weeks that had intervened 
 since Mr. Spafford s return to the city, and he 
 had tried to be a faithful witness for his Lord. 
 So now he laid a detaining hand on the other s 
 arm, and said in a voice of grave, yet winning 
 inquiry : 
 
 "My friend, is the great question settled 
 yet?" 
 
 Slowly and gravely Mr. Evans shook his 
 head ; yet he seemed relieved and grateful that 
 the subject had been started, and Mr. Spafford, 
 watching his face for a moment, ventured 
 further : 
 
 " I wish I knew just what is in the way. It 
 has sometimes seemed to me, when I have been 
 talking with you, as though you came up to a
 
 396 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 sort of stone wall, which prevented you from 
 taking another step. I wish I could know 
 whether there is really an obstacle, and what 
 it is. Perhaps we could together lift it out of 
 the way." 
 
 "There is an obstacle," declared Mr. Evans 
 in an emphatic voice, after just a moment of 
 irresolution ; " you are right ! I cannot take 
 another step until an intervening question is 
 decided." 
 
 Meantime, Mrs. Spafford who was deeply 
 interested in the inquiries she was making, 
 became suddenly aware that her friend s inter 
 est was elsewhere. The truth is, Mrs. Evans 
 was in such a state of constant longing for her 
 husband s decision on the momentous question 
 was so on the alert to have him influenced 
 in the right direction that the moment the 
 question was presented her heart seemed to 
 take warning, and be ready to stand sentinel. 
 Mrs. Spafford, following the direction of her 
 eyes, saw her giving eager, almost painful heed 
 to the conversation which was taking place 
 over by the window. Therefore, both of the 
 ladies heard Mr. Spafford s next question :
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 397 
 
 " Is it anything that you are willing to tell 
 me about ? " 
 
 " The fact is," said Mr. Evans, after another 
 thoughtful pause, "I can t make a profession 
 of one thing, and live a life that is at variance 
 with it. In other words, I can t continue in 
 my present business and be a Christian. At 
 least it doesn t seem to me that I can. I have 
 always regarded the temperance question as 
 one of the most important with which a Chris 
 tian had to do ; and I have always been se 
 cretly ashamed of the church because it did 
 not take strong enough ground on this subject. 
 Now, with my eyes as wide open as that, could 
 I support my family from such a business, and 
 at the same time claim myself as belonging to 
 a master, who, I believe, hates the whole 
 thing?" 
 
 " But Mr. Evans, you have nothing to do 
 with the selling of liquor ! " 
 
 It was his wife s horrified voice that asked 
 this question, or rather made this distressed 
 statement. It was the first intimation her hus 
 band had that the conversation had become 
 general. He turned toward her with a some-
 
 398 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 what sad smile. The keener brain of the 
 man had, years before, seen through the deli 
 cate film of respectability with which others 
 had enshrouded his business, and which had 
 satisfied his wife. 
 
 " No, dear, but I buy it ; that is, I pay for 
 it, large sums of money every month, and make 
 out bills of it, and deal with it in a dozen dif 
 ferent ways. In fact, I have to do with the 
 management of liquors as much as though I 
 owned the entire establishment." 
 
 " Well, but," urged his wife, distress still 
 apparent in her voice, "you are only the clerk, 
 you have no responsibility in the matter ; it 
 isn t your liquor, and you get no money for 
 its sale ; the responsibility of selling it doesn t 
 belong to you." 
 
 " My dear wife, I might say the same thing 
 if I were a clerk for old Green, down here at 
 the corner, and sold bad whiskey at so much 
 a glass. You see, there is no such thing as 
 shirking responsibilities in that way. I get 
 my living from the sale of that which I believe 
 to be a curse to the world, and whether I pour 
 it into a glass, or count the money that is paid
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 399 
 
 for it, seems to me to have very little to do 
 with the real question. To be sure, I can say 
 if I don t receive the salary somebody else will 
 and I might as well have it as anybody, but 
 the trouble with that argument is, it proves 
 too much. A thief can use it ; there are always 
 people enough to steal, and I might as well 
 share the plunder as any one. How would 
 you like that reasoning, Eva ? " 
 
 She smiled a wan sort of smile. She under 
 stood the illustration, and could not help seeing 
 that the cases were sufficiently analogous to 
 have it fit. Still, the idea was new to her and 
 hateful. 
 
 " I have never thought of such a thing," she 
 said, drawing a long breath. " If it has seemed 
 so to you, Dane, I wonder that you have borne 
 it so long." 
 
 " Yes ! " he said, his face darkening, and he 
 arose and began to walk up and down the 
 room; "that is just the difference between 
 Spafford here and myself. He sees things and 
 does them, and I see things and shirk them ; 
 and one can t be a Christian and do that last, 
 in my opinion. So there I am. Don t you
 
 400 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 see, Spafford, I havn t a chance to take any 
 steps ? " 
 
 "No," said Mr. Spafford, emphatically, "I 
 don t see anything of the kind ; if your reason 
 ing is clear, you have a very serious step to 
 take." 
 
 " Aye, that s the trouble ; too serious. You 
 see it is all we have to depend upon, my wife 
 and I. For a long time I settled down upon 
 the thought that it was a man s duty to take 
 care of his family, and that I must not give 
 up my situation until I secured another; and 
 I have been secretly at work for months try 
 ing to find an opening; but there isn t any 
 such thing as an opening ; apparently I am shut 
 up to this one place. I havn t heard of even 
 a possible chance for something in the future. 
 I told myself that it was plainly my duty to 
 hold on here ; and that it was equally my duty 
 not to make a public profession while I was so 
 engaged ; and I ve been trying, if ever a man 
 did, to live two lives. I have tried hard to act 
 like a Christian and feel like a Christian, and 
 I can t do it. I feel more like a hypocrite than 
 anything else. Still, it wasn t very plain to
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 401 
 
 me what I ought to do, until your trial hour 
 came, Spafford, and with less to live on than 
 I have, and more at stake, you swung off, on 
 what looked like a very little matter, too. 
 I heard a member of the same church as your 
 self criticise you sharply, classing your line of 
 conduct as belonging to those who strain at 
 a gnat aud swallow a camel, though he omit 
 ted to say what camel you had swallowed. 
 Well, it opened my eyes. As soon, at least, 
 as I would allow myself to open them. I called 
 you a fool for a few days, but I knew all the 
 time that you were simply an honest man 
 with a live conscience ; by the same sign I 
 knew that I wasn t. I see plainly now what 
 I ought to do ; but I havn t advanced an inch. 
 J shrink from it as hard as ever. How can I 
 deliberately relinquish our only chance of 
 support and fold my hands ? Spafford, do you 
 see how I can do it? Now, tell me, what 
 would you advise ? " 
 
 " What does Mrs. Evans advise ? " 
 It was Mr. Spafford who asked this question. 
 Whereupon her husband turned toward her 
 a distressed look ; it was evident that he did
 
 402 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 not expect his wife to understand or appreciate 
 the awful straits to which he was reduced. 
 She was a temperance woman in a sweet and 
 quiet way ; but she had never been what her 
 uncle had called a " temperance fanatic," and 
 the definitions of society had heretofore given 
 her complete, unquestioning satisfaction. How 
 could she be expected to see what the light 
 of God s own Spirit had made plain to his 
 keener mind ? It was evident that her husband 
 shrank from the ordeal presented to him, for 
 his ^wife s sake. During these last two years 
 she had grown peculiarly, inexpressibly dear 
 to him ; they had been years of rest in his home. 
 What he had supposed was a quiet little spirit 
 had suddenly, two years before, arisen and 
 asserted its freedom from domestic thralldom. 
 She would have no more of the so-called help 
 that she had hitherto endured about her ; she 
 would be her own mistress and do her own 
 work. Her husband had laughed sarcastically, 
 and looked on moodily, but the resolute house 
 keeper had held steadily on her way. She 
 spent long hours in the Spafford kitchen, con 
 cocting mysteries which blossomed into results
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 408 
 
 on their own table. She steadily held her own, 
 one evening, against first ridicule and then 
 positive annoyance, until she literally made 
 her husband say just what sum he thought 
 they could safely spare for the week s household 
 expenses. His reluctance to tell her, arising 
 from the fact that he knew much better than 
 she did, how alarmingly small it was in com 
 parison with what they had been using. But 
 she received the figures meekly enough, and 
 set about apportioning them after the fashion 
 that she had learned from Mrs. Spafford, arid 
 neither then nor afterward did she call for a 
 larger sum. 
 
 On the contrary, she steadily saved from 
 the week s allowance, until one evening she 
 amazed her husband by producing enough to 
 pay a certain bill which had chafed his nerves 
 and driven sleep from his pillow for hours 
 together. It was not until after that event 
 that Mr. Evans actually opened his eyes wide, 
 to see that a thorough domestic reform had 
 been inaugurated in his home, and that the 
 wheels were running smoothly. Since which 
 time he had been sure of one thing, that his
 
 404 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 wife was a woman of rare wisdom and skill 
 and tact, as regarded the management of a 
 home. Great comfort had they enjoyed in 
 their home during these two years. 
 
 A " little box of a place " it was still, but 
 as pretty a home as one need care to see ; and 
 every night when he hastened to it, Dane Evans 
 realized that the genius who presided within 
 grew dearer. Yet by so much more did he 
 want to shield her from outside winds. She 
 had learned to use the means he brought, to 
 make a very restful Eden of the home. Could 
 he expect her to think it would be either wise 
 or right to withdraw all the visible means for 
 sustaining it? Make beggars of themselves, 
 indeed. It was hardly fair to appeal to her 
 for advice. Yet Mr. Spafford had done it. 
 
 At the mention of her name, Mrs. Evans 
 arose from her seat ; her eyes were bright her 
 cheeks were glowing. She went over to her 
 husband, and clasping both her hands over his 
 arm, in a fashion she had when they were alone, 
 and she was very much in earnest, she spoke 
 exactly as though she had forgotten as indeed 
 she had that there were any others present.
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 405 
 
 "Oh, Dane, how is it possible that you can 
 hesitate one moment ! I have prayed and 
 prayed, and cried before God, begging him 
 to bring you to a decision. I knew he was 
 calling you. I could not think what stood 
 in your way ; I am not wise about these 
 matters, you know Pane, and I never thought 
 of this ; I can not tell you how glad, how very 
 glad and grateful, I am that it is not my 
 miserable inconsistent life as a Christian that 
 was holding you back ; I know you had a 
 very high ideal, and I knew I fell so far 
 short ; but, Dane, don t oh I beg of you 
 don t for one moment, let the thought of how 
 we shall live, keep you from giving your 
 self to Christ. He will take care that we 
 do not starve, unless he wants us to starve for 
 his sake ; and I m sure that would be no harder 
 than many other things ; we can t do just 
 as he wishes, Dane, you and I, but don t 
 let us for one moment go contrary to his 
 plain directions. If he has told you that the 
 way we get our money is wrong, don t let 
 us have another cent of it." 
 
 Long before these eager impassioned sen-
 
 406 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 tences were concluded, Mr. Evans had put 
 his arm around his wife, and drawn her closely 
 to him, and the tears were dropping from 
 his eyes. Mr. Spafford, also, had drawn his 
 handkerchief, and was clearing his throat in 
 a suspicious manner. As for his wife, her 
 eyes were too bright for -tears; she had been 
 confident that her quiet and gentle friend 
 had depths of feeling and heights of self- 
 renunciation that were not suspected, even by 
 her husband; it was just as well for him to 
 discover what a power he had beside him. 
 
 Mr. Spafford arose and went over to where 
 the husband and wife stood : 
 
 " Swing off, Evans," he said, earnestly ; 
 "there is no peace short of that. I have dis 
 covered, by my own experiences, that the 
 Lord will have nothing to do with com 
 promises. When he has made the right en 
 tirely plain to you, the manner in which you 
 may be sustained, while you are treading the 
 road of his pointing out, is in a sense not 
 your concern ; he will undertake it for you. 
 Trust him." 
 
 "I don t know how to trust," said Mr.
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 407 
 
 Evans, tremulously; "I would like to feel 
 trustful, but I certainly don t." 
 
 "Faith is the gift of God," quoted Mrs. 
 Spafford, in clear, ringing voice; it was the 
 first time she had spoken. 
 
 " Yes," said her husband ; " that is one 
 of the heart troubles which may be taken 
 to him, too. The question just now is: Do 
 you intend to accept Him as your leader? 
 Are you ready to resign your will to his, 
 and walk in the paths of his pointing out, and 
 no other ? Evans what you want is an ef 
 fort of the will. You have been trying to 
 do your own planning; to see your way 
 perfectly clear, and when you had succeeded 
 in arranging everything to your satisfaction, 
 you were going to tell the Lord that you 
 were willing now to serve him. I don t be 
 lieve he would ever have opened a way for 
 such service ; what he wants is your absolute 
 surrender into his hands." 
 
 " I don t believe I understand you, Spaf 
 ford ; I dare say I am dull, but these things 
 are all new to me. Now I might be really 
 anxious to trust my affairs in your hands,
 
 408 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 but if my brain would keep working over 
 them, trying to plan, I hardly see how I 
 would be to blame, or how I could stop plan 
 ning. I might resolve with all my might to 
 stop, but the planning, I fancy, would still go 
 on, almost in spite of me." 
 
 " Let me take your own illustration, my friend 
 and complete it. Suppose me to be so power 
 ful a friend that your judgment justified you 
 in placing all your affairs in my hands ; and 
 your mind said, I will follow his directions 
 in every particular ; when any plan is sug 
 gested to my mind I will take it at once 
 to him, and whether his ways seeni to me 
 wise or not, I will follow them. If that was 
 the deliberate language of your heart, it 
 would really, in ojie sense make little differ 
 ence how much planning you did. Don t 
 you see, my friend, that your next step is 
 to surrender your independence to the Lord, 
 willing yourself to obey him ? " 
 
 Then there was silence in that little parlor 
 while one of those deliberations was taking 
 place, such as the angels watch over with 
 intense interest. What would the issue be?
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 409 
 
 Mr. Spafford silently pushed a chair forward, and 
 Mr. Evaus, rousing for a moment, placed his 
 wife in it, drew a seat beside her and sat 
 down; his face shaded by his hand, him 
 self evidently in deep and troubled thought. 
 
 " There is one thing," said Mr. Spafford, 
 suddenly breaking the silence, " that perhaps 
 is hardly necessary to say, yet someway I 
 feel like saying it. I know, by experience 
 you remember, that the way looks somewhat 
 dark when there is no apparent means of 
 support ; yet no one certainly knows better 
 than I do than we do how promptly 
 friends start up for hours of need ; so I wanted 
 to remind you, that so long as Gallic and I 
 have a home and bread, we are more than 
 ready to share them with you, until such 
 time as your way shines clear." 
 
 Mr. Evans reached forth his hand and 
 grasped that of his friend. 
 
 " God bless you ! " he said ; " you are a 
 true friend to me. I realize the actual dis 
 grace I am to God, for being unable to trust 
 my affairs with him ; I don t feel an atom of 
 trust, the way looks as dark as Egypt; but
 
 410 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 I plainly see what would be the right thing 
 to do ; and as you say, I can control my 
 will, if I cannot my heart ; and I will obey 
 his directions, so far as I can see them from 
 this time forth. So help me God." 
 
 " Amen," said Mrs. Spafford. " Let us 
 pray." 
 
 In a moment the little circle were on their 
 knees ; and the parlor, so often consecrated 
 by the voice of prayer, was filled once more 
 with words of consecration and thanks 
 giving. 
 
 Directly Mr. Spafford s voice ceased, his 
 wife took up the petition ; and then Mrs. 
 Evans, her voice so tremulous from pent 
 up emotion that she could hardly syllable 
 the words, breathed forth the hopes and de 
 sires and longings of her heart. Then, a 
 moment of silence and a new voice was chron 
 icled in heaven as among the list of those of 
 whom it is said, " Behold, he prayeth ! " 
 
 As they arose from their knees, Mr. 
 Evans held out his hand again to his 
 friend : 
 
 " It is very strange," he said smiling, " there is
 
 Measuring Responsibility. 411 
 
 certainly nothing in my outward circumstances 
 in any wise altered from what it was twenty 
 minutes ago, but the heaviness of spirit 
 is gone. I feel now as though I could trust 
 Him not only, but as though it were a pleasure 
 to do so. May he bless you for what you have 
 been to me. I don t believe I should ever have 
 seen my duty in this matter, but for the step 
 which you took in the dark, for the honor of 
 his name. And now we really must say good 
 night, or rather good-morning. I don t feel 
 as though there were any night."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MEASURED IN PROSE. 
 
 fURING the two years break in our 
 story another home had been estab 
 lished ; at least, they called it a home. 
 It was in an upper story of one of those 
 semi-genteel boarding-houses which abound in 
 large cities. Three flights of stairs, a long 
 passage, down a dimly-lighted hall, smelling 
 of old carpeting, and you reach the door of 
 this home. A fair-sized room, carpeted in 
 dingy colors ; a once good Brussels, of the 
 exasperating kind which never wears into 
 honest holes, justifying one in selling it to the 
 rag man ; but simply grows duller, grows 
 threadbare, grows gloomy; walls hung with 
 412
 
 Measured in Prose. 413 
 
 large-figured dark paper to match the carpet, 
 having grown old along with it; curtains 
 heavy and dark and gloomy looking, grown 
 old, too, like the dreary-faced keeper of this 
 dreary boarding-house. A hair-cloth sofa, sev 
 eral hair-cloth chairs, one brisk, little new- 
 fashioned rocker in bright colors ; an old- 
 fashioned sofa bedstead, dark, solid wood, 
 looking respectable but gloomy, and speak 
 ing, like the carpet and the curtains, of other 
 da} s ; marble-topped dressing bureau and wash- 
 stand, the woodwork of which was sadly 
 marred this comprised the general furnishing 
 of the room. To be sure, there were little 
 home touches, tidies on the sofa and chairs, 
 lace-trimmed pillow-shams and bolster-shams, 
 nick-nacks of one sort or another on the high, 
 old-fashioned mantle ; all of these had a care 
 less look, as though the owner had grown 
 weary of keeping them in the daintiness of 
 perfect order. Yet this one room, up three 
 flights of stairs, is the spot where those two 
 people, who went to the opera together on a 
 never-to-be-forgotten evening long ago, are 
 living out together the prose of that life
 
 414 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 which began in poetry during their homeward 
 ride. More than a year had Will Coleman 
 and his wife spent in this room. They 
 were together in it now; Jennie in careful 
 costume, for they had just come up from 
 dinner, which was served at a fashionable 
 hour, in a fashionable dreary basement dining- 
 room, with certain fashionable surroundings in 
 the shape of handsome old dishes and a few 
 solid silver pieces, and when you had said 
 this, you had said all that was to be com 
 mended about the meals served there. Still, 
 because of the silver pieces, and the once fine 
 furniture, and the faded Brussels carpets, and 
 the general air of decayed respectability, a 
 large sum viewed in comparison with their 
 income had to be paid. The question of 
 income was a sore one to Jennie Coleman, 
 even as it had alwa}*s been an important 
 one to Jennie West. The history of the last 
 year of her life might be summed up in one 
 sentence a dreary effort to be what she 
 was not, and to do what she could not. Her 
 forehead was drawn in habitual wrinkles, a 
 soured, discontented look was growing on her
 
 Measured in Prose. 415 
 
 face and in short, she looked, as she sat there, 
 reading the announcements of the evening 
 amusements, as unlike the pretty girl whom 
 Will Coleman had escorted to the opera two 
 years before as can be imagined. She threw 
 the paper aside presently, the wrinkles deep 
 ening on her forehead, and opened the con 
 versation with a pettish exclamation : 
 
 " I wish we could ever go anywhere ! " 
 
 "What now?" 
 
 It was Will Coleman who asked this short, 
 not to say crabbed, question. He, too, had 
 changed in the space of two years. He was 
 growing older, there was no mistaking it; 
 gray touches were being given to his hair. 
 Also he was growing fleshy and red-faced. 
 I find it very difficult to put the change into 
 words. It is one thing to talk about a few 
 gray hairs, and a few added pounds of flesh, 
 and a florid look on the face ; and quite 
 another thing to sit and look at a familiar 
 form, which was, only a short time ago, a 
 very embodiment of alert, sprightly gentleman- 
 liness, and realize the distinctly seen, yet in 
 describable change, which marks him as an
 
 416 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 unsatisfied, unsuccessful, almost middle-aged 
 man. I don t think Jennie Coleman saw 
 this, in full force, at least. But she knew 
 him to be in many respects unlike the Will 
 Coleman who had made a heaven for her out 
 of that homeward ride in the moonlight. If 
 the echo of the tenderness that was in his 
 voice that evening could have reached to her 
 to-night as he said sharply, " What now, " 
 the contrast might have brought the tears. 
 But the truth was, her heart was not bus}* 
 with retrospect. 
 
 "Oh, nothing new," she said, the petulance 
 in her voice being even more distinctly 
 marked : " I was just looking over all the 
 things that were going on to-night, and think 
 ing how we sat here cooped up in this den, 
 not able to go anywhere or do anything; 
 night after night the same thing, and the 
 same old story of not being able to afford 
 it dinging in my ears. I m tired of it." 
 
 " We have to pay enough for the den. We 
 might have a degree of respect for it on that 
 account. I ve always observed that things 
 which cost a great deal fill you with admi-
 
 Measured in Prose. 417 
 
 ration. I don t see why you can t go to 
 work and admire this establishment on the 
 strength of that." 
 
 "Oh, now, Will; don t try to be witty, you 
 never were intended for distinction in that 
 line. I don t know when you have had oc 
 casion to observe anything of the kind. It 
 is very certain that I don t have a chance to 
 prove my admiration by making any purchases 
 in these days. I m always ashamed to go 
 shopping with any of the ladies in the house. 
 I am the only one among them who never 
 has any money to spend." 
 
 "No, that s a great trouble of yours; you 
 never have any money to spend, because you 
 can t keep any until you need to spend it. 
 Somebody spends a good deal more than I 
 can earn, I know. I wonder who it is; not 
 this chap, anyhow. I ve practised economy to 
 a degree that I never imagined possible in 
 my bachelor days." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! you are a pattern of economy." 
 
 The tone was so severely mocking that 
 Will Coleman, albeit he had provoked it by 
 his own rudeness, was startled, and looked over
 
 418 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 the paper he was pretending to read, studying 
 his wife with a curious sense of wonder that 
 one whom he used to know as Jennie West could 
 use such words and such an accent. One great 
 difficulty with the poor young husband was, 
 that though he distinctly saw the change in 
 her, he did not realize a corresponding one in 
 himself. 
 
 The cruel, mocking tones went on : 
 " You never buy ices or fruits or dainty 
 little lunches, or indulge in soothing trips up 
 the lake at fifty cents an hour. If I were you. 
 I wouldn t talk about economy. I was always 
 considered an economist before I was married ; 
 but I wasn t in a perpetual state of beggarli- 
 ness as I am nowadays." 
 
 Now the truth was, that Will Coleman, hi 
 the days of his bachelorhood, had been so ac 
 customed to indulging in these which he was 
 pleased to call trifling expenditures, that the 
 habits were upon him ; and during the earlier 
 months of his married life he had continued 
 them thoughtlessly, though rarely without 
 bringing his wife something which he called " an 
 equivalent," in the shape of fruits or bon-bons.
 
 Measured in Prose. 419 
 
 Very soon, however, he discovered that all 
 these things were really alarming leaks, and 
 he was struggling manfully, if one can apply 
 the word to so childish a habit, to avoid all 
 unnecessary expenses. It is true that his 
 definition of the term " unnecessary " needed 
 correcting, but all the same he considered him 
 self a slandered man, and his face flushed 
 painfully during the earlier part of the sen 
 tence ; but by the time Jennie had announced 
 herself as having been considered an economist 
 in the days of her maidenhood, he was ready 
 to laugh. No one knew better than he how 
 persistently all her loose change had lost itself 
 in the vortex of ribbons, laces, gloves and 
 the like. The consciousness that she was 
 really saying a foolish thing made Mrs. Cole- 
 man sensitive to her husband s laugh, and in 
 no way softened her voice : 
 
 " Oh yes, you laugh, of course. That is 
 your favorite method of treating your wife s 
 views and opinions ; but I can assure you 
 that I never dreamed of having to twist and 
 turn through life in this way. If I had, I
 
 420 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 should have considered long, before I put my 
 self in such a position." 
 
 "You ought to have married a rich man." 
 Her husband s voice was controlled, and she 
 did not realize how her words had stung him. 
 
 "I wish to goodness I had," she declared, 
 driven to desperation by his apparent indif 
 ference. 
 
 " Amen," he replied promptly, and with 
 emphasis. Then he turned the page of his 
 paper and apparently went on with the busi 
 ness of reading the news. As for Jennie, she 
 sat looking out of the window down the rows 
 of tall chimneys which shut out all other view. 
 Her heart was swelling with indignation ; she 
 considered herself an ill-used woman. 
 
 This conversation, miserable though it was 
 is actually a fair specimen of the sort of talk 
 in which these two often indulged. Do you 
 suppose that either of them imagined the pos 
 sibility of such a climax to that heavenly ride 
 home from the opera ? What an awful fact it 
 is to have to record that there were times in 
 which this husband and wife actually wished 
 that the results which followed that evening s
 
 Measured in Prose. 421 
 
 pleasure had never been. Not that they by 
 any means hated each other, or, indeed, were 
 entirely indifferent to each other ; but the 
 realities of married life had been too much 
 for them, as they will be for all who do not 
 start from a rock foundation. It is a painful 
 thing to admit, but scenes like the one through 
 which she had just passed were really too com 
 mon to weigh with lengthened heaviness on 
 Jennie Coleman, or make her long silent, when 
 she had an item of importance to communi 
 cate. So she presently broke the stillness with 
 a question : 
 
 " What do you suppose Dane Evans has 
 done now? " 
 
 " It is entirely beyond me to guess ; some 
 thing unparalleled in folly, to judge from your 
 tone." 
 
 " He will be likely to consider it folly before 
 he gets through with it." 
 
 This sentence not whetting her husband s 
 curiosity sufficiently to call forth a question, 
 she continued : 
 
 " Have you seen him to-day ? Perhaps you 
 know the whole story ? "
 
 422 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Haven t seen him in three weeks ; he and 
 Spfifford have so much in common nowadays 
 that he has no time for me." 
 
 " Well, he has thrown up his situation." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 " Yes, he has ; Mrs. Peterson told me at 
 lunch ; and her husband is in the same office, 
 you know, and heard all about it." 
 
 " What has he done it for ? " 
 
 " For a piece of folly, or sentimentality. 
 Dane always was sentimental, in streaks ; he 
 never would have married Eva if he hadn t 
 been." 
 
 " What is he going to do ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; live on his conscience, I suppose ; 
 he professes it as a conscientious movement; 
 I should think it had taken his conscience a 
 long time to enlighten him ; he has been there 
 nearly ten years." 
 
 " Mrs. Coleman, enlighten me ; what has 
 conscience to do with Evan s clerkship ? They 
 haven t been requiring Sunday work, have 
 they ? And if they did, it wouldn t be any 
 worse than Sunday lounging or Sunday riding, 
 I should think ; he has done enough of both ;
 
 Measured in Prose. 423 
 
 to be sure, though, he may have been taken 
 with a desire to copy Spafford." 
 
 " That is just what it is ; he is trying to copy 
 Mr. Spafford, and Gallic sets him a copy which 
 he dutifully follows. Now she is enlarging 
 her circle and taking Dane and Eva completely 
 under her control." 
 
 " You haven t enlightened me yet as to 
 what it is all about." 
 
 " Why, can t you see ? " with a strong 
 flavor of impatience in her voice "your con 
 science is certainly not tender on the subject ; 
 he has decided that to be clerk in a liquor 
 dealing establishment is a sin ; therefore he 
 has thrown up his situation, and is going to 
 live on public charity, or church charity ; I 
 hear he is going to unite with the church 
 next Sunday; I suppose they ll support him, 
 and call him a martyr for a few weeks, until 
 they get tired of him, then they will throw him 
 off, and he may go to the poor-house for all 
 they will care. I must say I m sorry for Eva. 
 Papa never thought Dane Evans would amount 
 to much, and it seems he wasn t mistaken." 
 
 " Do you really mean that Evans has given
 
 424 > The Pocket Measure. 
 
 up there, with no other opportunity opening, 
 and no knowledge of what he will do next ! 
 And there hasn t been any quarrel or dissatis 
 faction, or something of that sort?" 
 
 " Yes, he has done just that. Mrs. Peterson 
 said the firm argued with him, expressed their 
 entire satisfaction ; asked if he had other pros 
 pects, and hinted pretty plainly that if it was 
 a question of salary they were ready to do as 
 well by him as any other firm ; but he boldly 
 declared he could not stay if they doubled his 
 salary; that money had nothing to do with it; 
 he had no place in view, no prospects ; it was 
 purely a question of principle ; said he had 
 been thinking the matter over for a long time, 
 but had only recently come to a definite con 
 clusion. That means since Callie Spafford 
 came home. She is such a born fanatic herself 
 that she cannot rest easy on her pillow until 
 she sees some one preparing to become as wild 
 a lunatic as herself." 
 
 Will Colemari s paper had dropped to the 
 floor, and his eyes were gazing into vacancy in 
 a thoughtful way; whether he had heard the 
 last few sentences did not appear, but what he
 
 Measured in Prose. 425 
 
 said was entirely foreign to their tenor : 
 " I must say that is astounding ! Dane 
 Evans is more of a man thau I had the least 
 idea of." 
 
 Now there was that in this sentence which 
 irritated Mrs. Coleman almost beyond control; 
 she could not herself have defined what it was, 
 at least she would not have liked to do so, but 
 she answered, with increasing asperity: 
 
 " Indeed ! your penetration is entirely beyond 
 me ; I fail to see the slightest evidence of man 
 hood, or even common-sense, in such an idiotic 
 proceeding as this. It may be a cause for ad 
 miration, to see a man deliberately shirk his 
 only means for supporting a wife, and hide be 
 hind an affectation of principle, but as I said, 
 I fail to see it in that light. However, my eyes 
 are getting opened ; you gentlemen who have 
 always been such ardent admirers of Callie 
 Spafford stand ready to follow her lead without 
 regard to common-sense. I shall expect next 
 to be informed that your conscience won t 
 allow you to sell eggs and butter and cheese 
 for Mr. Prime any more, because his other 
 branch store sells tobacco and cider vinegar ! "
 
 426 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Her husband laughed, and stooped down 
 and picked up his paper. If his wife had not 
 been too much excited to observe it, she would 
 have felt that his laugh was exceedingly un 
 pleasant in its tone ; so was his voice : 
 
 " Don t you be afraid of any such catas 
 trophe ; I have been tutored by a very different 
 feminine from your friend Mrs. Spafford; I 
 know better than to indulge in any such ex 
 pensive principles. At the same time I am not 
 so reduced but that I can admire high-toned 
 actions in another, and I say Dane Evans is 
 more of a man than I had the least idea of. If 
 I were rich I d see to it that he didn t suffer 
 for his convictions, and his determination to 
 carry them out. As it is, I can only admire at 
 a distance ; I have no hopes of ever emulating. 
 Meantime, / have an item of news to commu 
 nicate ; Evans isn t the only man who has 
 planned a change of base ; I ve given up my 
 clerkship : no more butter and eggs to sell ; 
 so you see you needn t fear my being demor 
 alized about the tobacco and cider." 
 
 His wife turned entirety away from the win 
 dow and gazed at her husband with a half-
 
 Measured in Prose. 427 
 
 frightened, half-incredulous air ; she did not 
 know what she feared ; it could not be that 
 any such scruples as Dane Evans had yielded 
 to could have crossed his path; so far as she 
 knew there was no opportunity in his work 
 for conscientious scruples ; and also if there had 
 been, she had lost her former idea of him ; she 
 never quoted him in her thoughts any more as 
 a "perfect Christian gentleman." She waited 
 a moment, then said : 
 
 " Well, why don t you explain ? What do 
 you mean?" 
 
 " Wasn t my meaning plain ? I said I had 
 given up my clerkship." 
 
 " And what do you mean to do now ? Starve 
 in company with my half-witted cousins ? " 
 
 " No, I never expect to starve in such good 
 company. Evans has gotten ahead of me, 
 somehow ; a few years ago I used to be quoted 
 as immensely beyond him spiritualty, what 
 ever that may mean," and the sentence ended 
 with that disagreeable laugh. 
 
 His wife was growing alarmed. 
 
 "Mr. Coleman," she said, haughtily, "if you 
 can manage to be serious long enough to tell
 
 428 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 me what you are talking about I should be 
 glad ; you certainly appear very strange to 
 night." 
 
 " Do I ? That is because I have made such 
 a violent effort to give you pleasure to-day, 
 and am succeeding so well I I have taken a 
 leap into respectability such as once I had no 
 idea of. I m Fargo, Belmont & Co. s confiden 
 tial clerk ; salary two thousand a year ; you 
 can hunt a new boarding place, arid get a forty- 
 dollar bonnet and three pairs of ten-button kids 
 as soon as you please." 
 
 " Who are Fargo, Belmont & Co ? " 
 
 " Wholesale liquor-dealers ; the most ex 
 tensive firm in the city. Oh. it is eminently 
 respectable. They never sell less than a barrel 
 of it at a time I " 
 
 " But, Will, you will not have to sell 
 liquor ? " 
 
 The evident dismay in her tone seemed to 
 amuse him : 
 
 " No," he said, with a burst of laughter ; 
 " oh, no, not at all ; I only keep a sharp look 
 out that other people buy plenty of it, and pay 
 for it."
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 >ER husband s communication had filled 
 Mrs. Coleman with astonishment. She 
 had, it is true, been the prime factor 
 in bringing about this change in his business; 
 but she did not realize it. The simple fact 
 is that Jennie Coleman had been one of those 
 girls, and had become one of those women, 
 who do not realize anything. Individual 
 responsibility was a question that she had 
 not studied. She had married, as many another 
 has, without any distinct idea of the re 
 sponsibilities of married life. Take, for in 
 stance, that one question, money, which really 
 from first to last is productive of more evil, 
 429
 
 430 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 perhaps, than any other domestic question 
 under the sun; and when Jennie Coleman 
 assumed her place ID life as a matron, what 
 did she know about it? Her father called 
 himself poor, and her life had been a struggle, 
 she believed, with poverty; but her idea of 
 struggling was to coax her father, and in 
 later years her mother, until she succeeded in 
 making them realize that she must buy the 
 thing she wanted, or must go to the place she 
 selected, or mast do the thing she pleased ; 
 and once convinced, the money was forth 
 coming somehow. Why should it not be the 
 case in her married life? Her father had al 
 ways been managed, why should not her 
 husband need management ? She utterly ig 
 nored, or to do her justice she never under 
 stood, the difference between a man of business, 
 who though it may press him hard, and he 
 may think the demand unnecessary and there 
 fore foolish can nevertheless secure a few 
 hundred dollars additional, and push through 
 from year to year, and a young clerk whose 
 entire resources are covered by his monthly 
 salary, and who can no more command an
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 431 
 
 additional hundred or two than he can command 
 an extra pair of hands to meet emergencies. 
 Utterly failing to recognize this difference, 
 of course Mrs. Coleman had seen trouble. 
 And trouble in various forms was deepening 
 around her. She was opening her eyes daily 
 to the fact that her marriage was a sickening 
 failure. Her husband did not satisfy her, 
 and it was a humiliating truth that she evi 
 dently did not satisfy him. Did she then really 
 love her husband? Or to go back of that, 
 had she ever loved him ? In all honesty and 
 solemnity I have to answer NO ; I do not 
 think she. ever had. She admired him, she liked 
 him, she was fascinated by his faultless" man 
 ners and careful dress, and marked ad 
 miration of herself, and she labelled these feel 
 ings "love," when she ought to have known 
 that genuine love is both unse]fish and dis 
 criminating. He, on his part, reached but 
 very little higher in his views and feelings, 
 except that he fancied himself ready to give 
 her all he could ; to take upon himself the 
 responsibility of her support, to labor for 
 her from day to day ; in short, he realized,
 
 432 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 of course, that he was giving, and, at times 
 at least, was willing to give ; while she realized 
 that she was accepting, and stood at all times 
 ready to accept, whatever he could be pre 
 vailed upon to give her. Oh, I realize my 
 own failure in trying to put this difficulty, 
 that is as old as the world, into words. It 
 is an oft told story. I tell you the excite 
 ment of the opera or theater, or of fashionable 
 party life, do not fit people to make wise, 
 deliberate, unselfish choices for life s journey. 
 These two people had met each other a hundred 
 times, when they were well dressed and in 
 society, and doing their best to shine. It 
 was actually almost all they knew of each 
 other until they met in that shabby genteel 
 boarding-house, bound to be companions, in 
 hours when neither felt like making the slight 
 est effort to shine in any way. Well, was 
 the ship-wreck which they were making of 
 it absolutely neccessary even then ? No ; 
 oh, no ! 
 
 " Utter shipwreck of human happiness is 
 rarely, thank God, a necessity; even though 
 grievous blunders have been made. If Jennie
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 433 
 
 Coleman had but begun her married life as a 
 Christian woman, recognizing the respon 
 sibilities that she had assumed before God, 
 resolved to struggle with her faults, resolved 
 to bear with the faults of her husband, false 
 and foolish as her ideas of married life were, 
 she would have saved her heart from ruin, 
 and possibly have been the human means of 
 saving her husband s soul. But the greatest 
 pity about it all was, that she professed what 
 her keen-eyed husband came to believe she 
 did not possess ; or almost worse conclusion 
 still, if she did possess it, he wanted none 
 of it! 
 
 And so, starting from narrow and selfish 
 points, and dropping lower in the scale each 
 day, at this time barely fourteen months 
 since they stood together at the altar and 
 pledged each other in irrevocable vows, this 
 husband had come to believe that what his 
 wife wanted was money, however earned she 
 did not care ; money with which she could 
 dress well, and ride where she chose, and 
 have a good time generally with him for an 
 unexceptionable attendant ; and she believed
 
 434 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 that what he wanted was to spend his money 
 on himself, shutting her out ; and both be 
 lieved that to have gone their separate wa} r s 
 would have made them happier ! And it 
 was still their individual happiness, and noth 
 ing else, that both were eagerly after. What 
 but misery could there be in store for them ? 
 It seems now to be necessary to give you a 
 careful view of this sudden change of business. 
 Unlike Mr. and Mrs. Evans, this couple, in 
 their parental homes, had come up under 
 the shadow of a stanch temperance, or rather 
 total abstinence, regime. Both grandfathers 
 had been pioneers in the temperance movement, 
 in the days when to be openly connected with 
 such movements required heroism. The next 
 generation on Jennie s side, it is true, had 
 weakened a little, but still her father held 
 strongly enough tlat to be connected in any 
 sense with the making or selling of intoxicants 
 was a very low social position. While Will 
 Coleman had reason to feel as though his 
 long dead father would rise out of his grave, 
 if he could, to rebuke his son for laxness 
 in this matter. Now you may understand
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 435 
 
 what a leap downward the change of business 
 was. Down lower, it is true, for the man 
 than for the woman, because he covered 
 his position with no foolish subterfuges such 
 as brains can see through in a moment. He 
 fully realized that he was connecting himself 
 with the liquor traffic. But he realized also 
 another thing, and it was this which increased 
 his bitterness: that his wife would see the 
 increased salary more plainly than she would 
 anything else, and would make no op 
 position. 
 
 Neither did she, to him, beyond that first 
 startled question over which he had laughed 
 in sarcasm. Then she gave herself up to what 
 she told herself was the inevitable. " Will 
 always does exactly as he likes ; / have no in 
 fluence with him." And she dressed herself 
 carefully, and set out on the pleasant task of 
 looking up a more congenial boarding-place, 
 better suited to their increased means. 
 
 It was when the plans connected with their 
 removal were nearly completed that Mrs. Evans 
 came to call. Jennie went very slowly down 
 stairs, glad of the confusion in her room, which
 
 436 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 prevented, receiving her cousin there, and 
 hoping that the parlor would be so occupied 
 as to afford no chance for a tete-a-tete ; not 
 choosing meantime to define to herself the 
 reason why she desired to avoid a private inter 
 view. There were many things in life, which 
 Jennie Coleman might have seen had she chosen 
 to look at them. Her hopes were vain, the 
 parlor was deserted, and Mrs. Evans occupied 
 the little tete-a-tete alone. Mrs. Coleman, 
 resolved on taking the defensive at once, ex 
 plained that her room was so dismantled by 
 reason of preparations for moving that it was 
 not habitable. " 
 
 " Then it is true," said Mrs. Evans, eagerly ; 
 " I heard that you were going to move ; where 
 do you go, and why ? Oh, Jennie, I hope that 
 the rest of what I heard is false." 
 
 Mrs. Coleman, ignoring the latter part of 
 this sentence, calmly and not without evident 
 satisfaction, explained that they were about to 
 go to the Central Avenue boarding-house ; 
 that they were to have a room on the second 
 floor, larger, and in every way pleasanter than 
 the one they were leaving ; and that it would
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 437 
 
 be in every way an advantage to them ; the 
 class of boarders was superior, the style of tho 
 house unexceptionable, and, besides, it would 
 be so much more convenient for Will." 
 
 " Oh, then it is true that he is going into 
 Fargo & Belmont s employ ! " the exceeding 
 disappointment in her cousin s tones was very 
 apparent "I didn t believe it when I heard the 
 report. It seemed unlike . Will ; oh, Jennie, 
 how could you let him do it ? " 
 
 " What are you talking about ? " said Mrs. 
 Coleman, her face flushing, but struggling to 
 retain a composed, good-natured voice. " I 
 should think it was a subject for congratulation 
 that we were to have as much again income. 
 We have certainly demonstrated the impos 
 sibility of living respectably on the small sum 
 that we had. As for letting Will do it, you 
 ought to know by this time how certain a man 
 is to do as he pleases without regard to a 
 woman s advice. I did not know the least 
 thing about this matter until it was all settled." 
 
 She was not prepared for the sudden, pleased 
 light in Mrs. Evans eyes. 
 
 " Did you not ? " she said, still speaking
 
 438 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 eagerly ; " I am so glad to hear it ; I was afraid 
 you had been tempted to yield to it because 
 of the salary, but now you are in a position to 
 protest. I am sure, Jennie, that you can influ 
 ence Will. It is for your sake he is so anxious 
 to secure a larger income. Most men care 
 for money only on account of their family. I 
 think Will is peculiarly one of that kind. 
 See for how many years he has been content 
 to work away in the store. He is thought so 
 much of there, too. Dane says there is a 
 certainty of his being promoted in time. Oh, 
 you will find that you can influence him ; in 
 fact, Jennie, I believe he will be relieved and 
 thankful to see that you are unwilling to have 
 him make more money at the expense of 
 conscience. He has told Dane more than once 
 how it chafed him to think that he could not 
 give you the position in society that you were 
 fitted to take. Now when he finds that you 
 care more for his highest interests than for 
 any position which the world can offer, he will 
 not only be influenced, but touched." 
 
 It was a long speech for Mrs. Evans to 
 make. She was not a woman of many words,
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 439 
 
 you will remember ; and Jennie, in the midst 
 of her embarrassment not to say indignation 
 felt a sense of wonderment over the excite 
 ment and eloquence of her quiet cousin. Still 
 she answered with impatience : 
 
 "I m sure I don t know what you mean. 
 Don t soar into the heroic quite so much talk 
 ing about Will s higher interests, and all that 
 nonsense. I assure you he is no more fond of 
 poverty than I am, and has chafed under it 
 quite as much. As for promotion, he has been 
 contented to plod along on the strength of that 
 long enough. I am glad for my part that he 
 has had the manliness to arouse himself and 
 make a better provision for his family ; though 
 I am sure I did not urge him to do it." 
 
 " But, Jennie, why don t you urge him 
 against it ? How can you endure it to have 
 him engage in such a business as that?" 
 
 " Really, " and Mrs. Coleman s laugh was 
 almost as disagreeable as the one her husband 
 had recently cultivated ; " that is a very strange 
 way to talk when one remembers that you and 
 Dane have been living on the same business 
 for years. Your horror is decidedly extreme
 
 440 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 I should sa3% considering the recoil from it has 
 been so recent." 
 
 " It isn t quite the same position, Jennie. 
 Dane was only a book-keeper. 
 
 Mrs. Evans voice was lower, and the flush 
 on her cheek had deepened. Mrs. Coleman 
 did not realize what a fresh impulse she had 
 given to her cousin s hatred of the business by 
 this home thrust, nor how thankful she grew 
 over the fact that now, at least, she was free 
 from the stain. 
 
 " Oh, that is all nonsense," declared Jennie, 
 loftily ; " no one but a child would think of 
 making such distinctions. Dane was just as 
 much connected with the sale of liquor as 
 Will will be. Only Will s position is one of 
 greater trust and his salary higher." 
 
 "But," declared Mrs. Evans, "Dane is free 
 from it now, you know, forever. I heartily 
 wish he had been long ago. I take shame to 
 myself that my eyes were not wider open." 
 
 " He is free from everything that is calcu 
 lated to support you, I should judge, from all 
 I hear. What is he doing for a living?" 
 
 Perhaps Mrs. Evans would not have been
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 441 
 
 human had not the blood rushed violently 
 even to her very temples at this cold home 
 thrust : but she answered still with a quiet 
 voice : 
 
 " He has not found any position as yet, but 
 of course he hopes to very soon ; meantime, 
 we are not suffering, and we have grand 
 friends." 
 
 "Living on charity! I suppose as much. 
 I wonder what your mother would think of 
 that? Well, Eva, I must say I think that 
 you and Dane are two fools! That is plain 
 language I know, but the occasion demands 
 it. The idea of his giving up a clerkship 
 that he has held so many years, for the sake 
 of a passing whim suggested to him by other 
 people. I m sure if Will were as much influenced 
 by the opinion of other women as Dane is, 
 I should be sorry for him. The idea of Dane 
 trying to follow Callie Spafford through all 
 her fanatical absurdities is simply ridiculous; 
 and you will see it in that light one of these 
 days. I could never have believed that you 
 would be such an idiot. If anything would drive 
 Will into the very midst of the business, it
 
 442 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 is to see you and Dane shrinking in such 
 fanatical horror from it : actually willing to 
 be dependent on the charity of your poor 
 neighbors ! " 
 
 I do not know that Mrs. Evans said a 
 word more than she had meant to say when 
 she left home that afternoon, provided there 
 should be occasion for such plainness of speech ; 
 but I think she may have said it more suddenly, 
 and less tenderly, than, but for this strong 
 provocation she might have done. Her voice 
 was still low, but it was the sort of lowness 
 that betokens intense self-control. 
 
 "Jennie, we need not discuss my husband s 
 prospects or fanaticism. If his recent step 
 was demanded of him by his conscience 
 God can take care of the results ; he and I, 
 are both willing to trust our future in God s 
 hands. But there is an entirely different 
 question involved in your husband s position ; 
 aside from a question of right or wrong, 
 is it possible that you do not know what 
 everybody else sees, that it is placing Will 
 right in the line of his most awful tempta 
 tion ? Don t you know that the habit of
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 
 
 drinking freely is growing on him every day, 
 and that he is in awful danger of becoming 
 a drunkard? Jennie Coleman, you might 
 almost wish to see him buried, rather than 
 launched on such a whirlpool as that into 
 which he is entering. I came this afternoon 
 to beg of you to use your influence to save 
 him. I know you can do it." 
 
 Now was Mrs. Will Coleman angry! More 
 angry than she ever remembered being in 
 her life before. She arose from her seat and 
 came over to where her cousin was sitting 
 and stood before her, her eyes blazing like 
 two stars, and spoke in slow, measured 
 tones : 
 
 " Mrs. Evans, excuse me for saying that 
 I think you have made your call of sufficient 
 length, and I decline talking with you any 
 longer, or receiving further calls from you. 
 When a woman stoops to the act of insulting 
 another woman s husband, incited thereto by 
 a feeling of petty envy because her own 
 husband has been a fool, and because the other 
 is a rising business man, I think it is quite 
 time that those two women should become
 
 444 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 strangers. You have chosen to uphold your 
 husband in a piece of lazy folly. I hope you 
 will not starve in consequence ; indeed, we 
 will see to it, my slandered husband and I, 
 that you do not actually suffer want; but 
 as for being cousins any longer, or friends. 
 I have no desire to claim the position." 
 
 Then she gathered her silken robes about 
 her and sailed majestically out of the 
 room. 
 
 As for Mrs. Evans, she did just what you 
 might suppose her to do next. She burst 
 into tears and sunk in a little crushed heap 
 on the sofa in that great deserted parlor. 
 Only a few minutes for crying ; then she arose, 
 dried her eyes, rearranged her disordered 
 bonnet as best she could (very thankful that 
 the parlor was deserted ), let herself out at 
 the front door, hailed a passing car, and 
 went home. 
 
 What about the angry woman? Well, she, 
 too, cried, as soon as she reached her room 
 angry tears. She had not the slightest idea 
 of using her influence with her husband to al 
 ter his business arrangements. Do her justice ;
 
 Shirking Responsibility. 445 
 
 she did not believe she had influence enough 
 to cause him to change his plans ; at least, 
 not now, after they had been announced to 
 the world, and the new business all but entered 
 upon. Also do her justice to understand 
 that she did not believe a word of the warn 
 ing. Will took an occasional glass of wine, 
 she was sorry for that ; she had been surprised, 
 years ago, that the son of such a temperance 
 worker as his father had been, should be, 
 ever so rarely a wine-drinker ; but she did 
 not believe that the habit was growing on 
 him. She did not in the remotest degree 
 fear his ever being a drunkard. The idea ! 
 when his grandfather had been a hero in the 
 temperance world fifty years ago. Besides, 
 Will was a gentleman, she still believed it ; 
 he would never be a common drunkard ! 
 What unparalleled imprudence it was to hint 
 it to her, his wife. But being a wife, why 
 did she not recoil in terror from the bare 
 suspicion of it, as it was hinted by other 
 people, and throw her influence powerfully in 
 the scale to prove its falsity ? Oh, dear ! 
 here, as in every other moment of her life
 
 446 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 where plain seeing was needed, there was a 
 glamor over Jennie Coleraan s eyes. The 
 simple fact is, that in her girlhood she had 
 been, just as often as she could bring it about 
 an attendant at the theater. She had wept 
 over spurious woes and spurious ruins so often ; 
 she had rejoiced over sham heroic deeds so 
 many times; she had applauded mimic virtues 
 so much that nothing any where seemed quite 
 real to her. She had, besides, a dangerous 
 talent for the dramatic. It hovered over even 
 her angry talks with her husband, and made 
 her almost insensibly, take the tragic air and 
 manner of some favorite actress ; and it is 
 an actual fact, that real as her anger was that 
 day, intense as she supposed her feeling of 
 wifely indignation to be, while she answered 
 Mrs. Evans warning, she was tormented with 
 the suggestion that her words were wonder 
 fully well chosen, her manner excellent, and 
 that the entire scene would have appeared ex 
 ceedingly well on the stage.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MEASURING ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 ;ANY a woman who is the fortunate 
 slave of a young tyrant at home, will 
 be in a condition to sympathize with 
 the frantic haste which Mrs. Spafford made 
 on a certain Tuesday afternoon, in order to 
 be on time at the missionary meeting down 
 town. An annual gathering, and one of special 
 interest. Young Warren had so monopolized 
 his mother for past months that she had missed 
 several of the regular meetings, and therefore 
 felt lost, or at least behind the times, and was 
 particularly anxious to secure this entire after 
 noon. Notwithstanding the unceremonious 
 way in which she disposed of her toilet, and 
 
 447
 
 448 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 the skillful quickstep in wliich she went to the 
 car, she was late and breathless when at last 
 the usher tip-toed with her down the aisle of 
 the well-filled church. Somebody was reading, 
 and embarrassed as she was by her haste and 
 tardiness, she paused suddenly as she heard a 
 voice whisper her once familiar name : " Oh, 
 Gallic Howell ! " Whose voice could that be? 
 It sounded to her like a dream from out a long 
 gone past. She gazed about her bewilderedly. 
 Then advanced doubtfully a few steps, and 
 felt her dress gently twitched by somebody in 
 the side aisle. Whose face was that? Where 
 had she seen it? Was this a dream, or had 
 she dropped back ten, fifteen, nearly twenty 
 years into her early childhood ? She took the 
 seat made for her by systematic crowding, and 
 held out her hand mechanically- to receive the 
 energetic grasp of somebody : 
 
 " Have you forgotten all about Sallie Lewis ? " 
 a voice whispered. 
 
 Sallie Lewis ! Why, no, she remembered 
 her ; she was a young lady with curls and 
 sweet, blue eyes ; a Sabbath-school teacher, her 
 teacher, and the little girls, herself included,
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 449 
 
 used to call her their " dear Miss Sallie." Yes, 
 but that was twenty years ago. Miss Sallie 
 grew old of course, married, went away. 
 Where did she go ? Oh, yes ; she married a 
 minister ; went to India, or China, or some 
 where. Mrs. Spafford had not thought of her 
 for a dozen years; but all these events came 
 crowding back upon her memory, called up by 
 that whispering voice. Then she turned and 
 looked fully at the lady. There were no curls ; 
 the fair, rosy cheeks were sallow and wrinkled, 
 but the blue eyes were bright and smiling. 
 
 " Yes, I am Sallie Lewis," she whispered, 
 squeezing Mrs. Spafford s hand and indulging 
 in a softly laugh, " and you are my dear little 
 roly-poly Sabbath-school rosebud, Gallic Howell. 
 You are not changed so very much after all. 
 Tropical sunshine hasn t burned all the fairness 
 out of you, you see." 
 
 Just then came the voice of prayer, and both 
 ladies bowed their heads, and Mrs. Spafford 
 had time to call back her startled thoughts and 
 realize that she was living in the present, and the 
 sweet-faced, worn woman beside her was really 
 her old-time teacher. A returned missionary!
 
 450 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 She felt a sudden accession of honor ; she was 
 richer in friends than she had remembered. 
 She studied the quiet face beside her furtively, 
 during the reading of the reports which fol 
 lowed, trying to see in this middle-aged, and 
 unmistakably careworn woman, a photograph 
 of their beautiful and idolized Miss Sallie. It 
 was hard to do ; she had evidently borne much 
 of the heat and burden of the day. Her youth 
 ful freshness was long since gone, and in its 
 place had come many lines of care. "I have 
 forgotten her name ; or, let me see, did I ever 
 know her husband s name ? What a shame 
 not to have kept within view of her work, arid 
 she my old teacher ! " This was Mrs. Spafford s 
 mental comment while the reading of the re 
 ports went on. At last she bent toward the 
 lady, who still clasped her hand with the ten 
 derness that the child, Gallic, remembered of 
 old. 
 
 " I don t know your name ? " she whispered. 
 
 Then the blue eyes that she remembered 
 well, flashed upon her a touch of their old arch 
 ness, as she spoke a name well-known in mis 
 sionary circles and recognized instantly by
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 451 
 
 Mrs. Spafford. She had actually read extracts 
 from her letters in public meetings, and had 
 never known that she was quoting from Sallie 
 Lewis. 
 
 " Oh, I don t mean that," she whispered 
 back instantly ; I know your name very well, 
 indeed ; I mean I don t know you ; why ! Oh, 
 I mean " and then both ladies laughed. It 
 was all. so curious. Then directly, of course, 
 they sat erect and gave serious attention to 
 those reports. The idea of two middle-aged 
 ladies laughing in a religious meeting, and one 
 of them a returned missionary ! Great as was 
 her eagerness to have a little talk with her 
 old friend, Mrs. Spafford could not but become 
 interested in what was soon transpiring around 
 her. The very reports were inspiriting. The 
 accession of members had been large, the new 
 auxiliaries many, during the past year, and the 
 treasurer s report so far surpassed anything 
 that they had had before, and anything that 
 had been expected, that the ladies clapped their 
 gloved hands with energy, before its reading 
 was concluded. Then several of the speakers 
 seemed endowed with the very spirit of Christ
 
 452 The Pocket Measure, 
 
 that afternoon, so simply eloquent were their 
 appeals, so telling the incidents which they 
 had to relate of sacrifice, and progress and re 
 ward. Peculiarly was this the case with Mrs. 
 Temple s closing address; her heart was more 
 than ever aglow. She had prepared herself 
 carefully, not so much with many statistics, as 
 with a few facts, which she told in such a man 
 ner as to bow many heads and bring to the 
 surface real heart tears. Mrs. Spafford, listen 
 ing to her, rejoicing with her in the progress of 
 the cause, had nearly forgotten the honor of 
 her own position in sitting beside one who had 
 actually lived the experiences to which Mrs. 
 Temple was referring, until some reference to 
 the field in which she labored made her turn 
 suddenly toward her friend for sympathy ; she 
 was amazed and distressed to discover that 
 not a trace of sympathetic feeling could be 
 found on her face ; she sat erect, composed 
 and almost indifferent ; nay, there was worse 
 than indifference on her face ; there was just 
 the shadow of a smile hovering around her 
 mouth, and actually a sarcastic curve to the 
 upper lip ; the very curve which Callie Howell
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 453 
 
 as a child remembered when something had oc 
 curred to rouse her bright young teacher s op 
 position. What could be the explanation ? 
 Mrs. Spafford felt a cold chill at her heart, and 
 turned her head quickly, and was so absorbed 
 by her painful wonderings that she forgot to 
 join in the solemn doxology which presently 
 filled the house. The shadow of her discovery 
 embarrassed her, so that when the meeting for 
 mally closed, and the missionary turned eagerly 
 toward her, she knew not what to say. 
 
 " Why didn t we hear from you this after 
 noon ? " was her first wonderment put into 
 words. 
 
 " Oh, I am to talk this evening at the 
 union meeting," she said, indifferently ; " I 
 am glad to be relieved from duty this afternoon. 
 Talking doesn t signify; we have too much of 
 that. What we want is living. 
 
 " Of course," assented Mrs. Spafford ; " but 
 most of those who talk at this meeting are 
 living, too. Do you know Mrs. Temple ? 
 You will know her, of course. She is very 
 prominent in this work, and such a grand 
 woman. Oh, Sallie, how you must miss such
 
 454 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 gatherings as these with sympathetic Christian 
 women all around you. I never realized it 
 so much before ; but what a heavy cross it 
 must be to give up all such helps?" 
 
 " Do you think so ? " the returned missionary 
 said, and there was a strange light in her eyes. 
 " It does not impress me in that way. I 
 wouldn t live in this country again for any 
 thing. It seems to me I should suffocate. 
 
 Her cheeks were glowing, and her whole 
 manner indicated intense feeling. Her listener 
 stood aghast. * 
 
 " I can t think what you mean," she mur 
 mured. " Of course, you do not want to give 
 up your work. I can understand that, and 
 of course it is a blessed work ; but I thought 
 there were sacrifices to make." 
 
 "There are, but they do not come to me 
 in the way that you have indicated. I m not 
 sure that I can make my meaning plain. You 
 don t know how it impresses me, all this, and 
 oppresses me. I feel as though you were all 
 playing at missions. Think of the papers 
 that have been read here this afternoon, and 
 the addresses that have been made. Every
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 455 
 
 one of them referred to sacrifices, and rejoiced 
 over the thought of being counted worthy to 
 bear the cross for Him. Bah ! pardon the ex 
 pression, but it makes me sick. What have 
 they ever sacrificed for Him ? What do 
 they know of the meaning of the word? Look 
 around you on every side. Do you see any 
 evidence of retrenchment ? I am very familiar 
 with that word ; it has been rung at us in all 
 its changes for the last four years. Our 
 Boards harp about it, and our private letters 
 of instruction teem with it. We must curtail, 
 and curtail and CURTAIL, until we have sent 
 children whom we had a chance to res 
 cue from vice in its worst forms, back into 
 heathendom, because the church at home 
 couldn t furnish us with the paltry sums of 
 money needed to carry on our work. We 
 met one evening in the mission house, and went 
 over our bills, and planned, and twisted, and 
 turned, and then some of us cried and said : 
 It can not be done. Some of the girls 
 mast go from the school. There is nothing 
 more that we can curtail. Now look at these 
 ladies. I have been studying them all the
 
 456 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 afternoon ; I wish I hadn t. I could almost 
 wish that I might be blind, while I am in 
 this country attending missionary meetings, 
 so that I might hear and not see. But my 
 eyes are wide open. What do I see ? A lace 
 collar on this side, real lace too ; I ve not 
 forgotten how the real article looks, costing 
 enough to support one of our girls at school 
 for a year ! silk dresses, two of which would 
 give one of our boys a good education. Jewels 
 such as would replenish the entire treasury. 
 Bonnets oh, dear, what would not that row 
 of bonnets bobbing all the afternoon just in 
 front of me have done for our girls school 
 last year. And the owners of those very 
 bonnets moved gracefully down the aisle, and 
 read their pretty reports about its having been 
 a year of much self-abnegation and earnest 
 effort for the beloved cause. No, I don t 
 want to come back to civilization to live ; I 
 know I should suffocate. I would much rather, 
 as a matter of personal comfort, spend my 
 life among the Africans. They are heathen, 
 you know we don t expect much of them." 
 She had talked very rapidly under the spell of
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 457 
 
 evidently strong excitement ; and Mrs. Spaf- 
 ford stood spellbound before her ; not knowing 
 what to think or to say ; unable to utter a 
 word ; relieved, indeed, from the necessity of 
 doing so, for at that moment three members 
 of the executive committee swooped down 
 upon the returned missionary and carried her 
 off in triumph ; a captive, to shake hands with 
 scores and scores of pretty ladies, in elegant 
 toilets, who were waiting for the honor to be 
 bestowed upon them. 
 
 Mrs. Spafford stood looking after her in 
 sorrowful silence for a moment, then turned 
 and went slowly down the aisle. She was 
 going home ; she could not stay to hear her 
 dear old teacher, Sallie Lewis, talk that even 
 ing, though the desire to remain was now 
 greatly intensified ; but Master Warren had 
 objected to her having an evening out. Indeed, 
 it was through Mrs. Evans self-sacrifice that 
 she had been enabled to come this after 
 noon. She must hasten home to relieve her. 
 But she certainly had food for thought. And 
 I do not know that it is any wonder that 
 baby had a very thoughtful preoccupied sort
 
 458 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 of mother for companion, the rest of the day, 
 nor that he hailed with a crow of delight his 
 father s late home-coming. He came with 
 news. 
 
 " I meant to be early to-night," he said, 
 bustling about with War mounted on his 
 shoulder ; " I was going to smuggle you off 
 down town with Evans and his wife, and look 
 after this 3 T oung man myself, but we were 
 detained by special business ; something hap 
 pened. I ll tell you about it when I get 
 some water ; sit down, young man, until I 
 bring your mamma a pitcher of water. Oh, I 
 saw Joe this afternoon. And he says Phillis 
 will be back to-morrow ; she has had her tooth 
 filled and is all right." 
 
 What had happened was on this wise. 
 Extra work had been the portion of several 
 of the clerks in the great store for the last few 
 weeks owing to the absence of one of its most 
 trusted employes. He had broken down sud 
 denly in the midst of a busy life, and was re 
 ported from day to day as seriously sick. 
 
 Every morning for two weeks Mr. Spafford 
 had heard one or another of the partners
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 459 
 
 remark that it was a great inconvenience to 
 have Holbrook away just now ; he was doing 
 well they believed, but the illness was likely 
 to be tedious. It was almost impossible to 
 supply his place temporarily ; still they would 
 not lose him for considerable, and must hold 
 on as well as they could. Meantime, as the 
 days passed, it was known to but few that 
 Mr. Evans was living a precarious life. His 
 deliberate resignation of his clerkship, with the 
 frank reasons therefor, had caused but a nine 
 days wonder among his acquaintances, and 
 had not, of course, caused even a ripple in 
 the great business world, where he was not 
 known at all. He had taken his place in 
 the visible Church, and certain members 
 good earnest men, business men, temperance 
 men had shaken hands with him and wel 
 comed him with glad words, and assured him 
 of their joy in hearing that he "counted not 
 his life dear unto himself," and then they 
 had gone their busy ways ; there was no 
 vacancy in their gift, they knew no way in 
 which to help him, save with kind words ; 
 those they gave, and said to one another, when
 
 460 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 they met for the first few days, that they hoped 
 he would get a good position soon he ought 
 to ; such back-bone as that should be able to 
 make its way in the world ; and then they had 
 forgotten him. Others, of the same church, 
 unhesitatingly said that they considered he 
 had been rather faster than was necessary 
 or even modest for so young a Christian. 
 He could at least have felt justified in wait 
 ing until the Lord opened some door for 
 him. The man who did not provide for his 
 own household was worse than an infidel. And 
 then they, too, had forgotten him. 
 
 During these days the most rigid economy 
 was practised in the " little box of a house ;" 
 Mrs. Evans, taking lessons of her wifely 
 love and resolute determination to help her 
 husband through this struggle, developed a 
 talent for making palatable dishes out of 
 nothings, that she felt sure even Mrs. Spafford 
 might have envied. Chances here and there 
 the husband found to help harried men for 
 a day or two ; work for which sometimes 
 they paid him in money, and sometimes in 
 hearty thanks, and a promise to do the same
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 461 
 
 for him some day when they had leisure. 
 These last he appreciated, but could not pay 
 his rent with them, and the days looked at 
 times heavily shadowed. There was always 
 sunshine for them, though, in the house across 
 the way, and hearty welcomes, and numerous 
 invitations to dinner, to tea, even to breakfast 
 when a excuse could be found. Oh, the ways 
 were constant and quiet and soul-sustaining, 
 which these poor neighbors found to aid each 
 other. Weeks before, Mr. Spafford had presented 
 his friend s name at his own place of business, 
 urging that it might be placed on the list for 
 future vacancies ; but the list was long, and 
 the prospect of vacancies exceedingly slight. 
 
 " I don t know of a probable chance, perhaps 
 in years," had the foreman said to him but 
 the day before. " Of course, sickness may oc 
 cur, but in that case we wait, as we are doing 
 with Holbrook ; he is better, by the way ; I 
 hope we shall have him back in a few days." 
 
 And yet it was only the next morning that, 
 as Mr. Spafford sat at his desk running up 
 a column of figures, a passing clerk paused 
 a moment to say to him :
 
 462 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " Did you know that Holbrook was gone ? " 
 
 " Gone where ? " and the bewildered clerk 
 tried to remember the sum of the column, and 
 talk at the same time. 
 
 " Why, his disease took a turn for the 
 worst, last night at midnight, and just at day 
 break he died." 
 
 " Is it possible ! " and Mr. Spafford was 
 thoroughly aroused. 
 
 It had not seemed to occur to any one 
 that the man who had sat so long on that 
 high seat, behind that railing, and plodded 
 through such a weary stretch of business, 
 could possibly die ! Mr. Spafford sat with 
 pencil poised in air for some minutes, un 
 able to settle down to the routine of work, 
 when so solemn an enemy had invaded their 
 ranks. Yet even while he sat there his 
 mind went to speculating on the strangeness 
 of the fact that death could come so near, and 
 yet not really touch him. Here was taken 
 from their midst a man beside whom he had 
 sat every working day for three months ; he 
 would never sit there again, and yet it did 
 not affect his interests, or himself in any
 
 Measuring Enthusiasm. 463 
 
 sense. How easily could Mr. Spafford think 
 of those, the very suggestion of whose death 
 as possible, sent a cold chill to his blood. 
 " Human brotherhood is a strange, distant thing, 
 after all," he told himself, musingly, then bent 
 his head and worked away. It was towards 
 the close of the next day that he was summoned 
 to the private office for an interview with the 
 heads of the firm. 
 
 " This friend of yours, Mr. Spafford," said 
 the senior, motioning him to a seat : " is he 
 still out of employ ? " And receiving an 
 affirmative answer he added : " Could you 
 conscientiously recommend him to fill the 
 position which you have occupied since you 
 have been in our employ?" 
 
 With steady lips, but paling face, Mr. Spaf 
 ford answered : 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 Could this mean that they were dissatisfied 
 with him ? Never mind, he would do as good 
 a service for his friend as he could. And 
 he forthwith gave as rapid and condensed an 
 account of his peculiar business qualifications 
 as he could.
 
 464 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 " I think we will try him," said the chief. 
 "If you know his address, Mr. Spufford, you 
 may communicate with him to that effect. 
 We would be glad to see him to-morrow morn 
 ing. Meantime, you know, of course, of the 
 vacancy in our ranks? Well, sir, we have 
 unanimously elected you to fill the place. 
 To hope that you will prove as faithful to the 
 firm, and to the right, as the one who has 
 fallen, is to wish great things for you." 
 
 " Gallic," her husband said breaking the 
 little silence which had fallen between them, 
 after the wonderful news had been talked over, 
 " what will our jewel-box think of having 
 three hundred dollars a year in it ? "
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MEASURING SACRIFICES. 
 
 ;OLLOWING Mrs. Spafford around dur 
 ing the days when these business 
 changes were taking place, was an un 
 dertone of doubt and anxiety about mission 
 effort in general, and her own share in it, in 
 particular. Her old friend s keen, stinging sen 
 tences had remained to burn. Was it child s 
 play ? Did the Lord look with sarcasm on 
 it all, and laugh at their pitiful little mimicries 
 of sacrifice ? "I will laugh them to scorn," 
 were the Bible words which seemed also to 
 start up and haunt her. She did not look 
 them up and follow out the connection, and 
 thus comfort herself; .she had little time for 
 465
 
 466 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 actual study for a few days, so she simply 
 went about her many duties with puzzled 
 face and troubled heart. When, during inter 
 vals of care, she dipped into the Bible for a 
 few minutes, she found herself following out 
 the commision, " Go, preach, teach all nations," 
 " be diligent in season and out of. season," 
 u present your bodies a living sacrifice." Ear 
 nest words, intense words, fully as keen and 
 piercing, as any the returned missionary had 
 uttered. She grew to feeling that she had 
 not even been half in earnest. When it really 
 came to the question of sacrifice, how had 
 she shown any personal knowledge of it? 
 
 As the weeks and months went by, the 
 perplexities of the subject did not lessen. She 
 found herself buying sparingly, perhaps she 
 might almost have said grudgingly, whatever 
 could not be classed among necessities. The 
 pretty carpet which she had thought of with 
 pleasure, when she was mentally adorning Mr. 
 John s room, cost her actual sighs. What 
 was the use of carpets any way? Boys and 
 girls in Africa China and India perishing, and 
 she buying carpets!
 
 Measuring Sacrifices. 467 
 
 And when one morning Mr. Johns asked 
 and obtained permission to bring his nephews 
 out to spend the evening with him, as she 
 made preparations to have a dainty or two 
 added to the evening meal, she felt perplexed 
 over the additional expense ; even the very 
 lumps of coal which she threw on to the grate 
 in the bright parlor cost her a twinge, and 
 she said to herself for the hundredth time : 
 
 " What is right, and where does wrong com 
 mence? We might sit in the dining-room." 
 
 They called it dining-room winter and sum 
 mer, by courtesy, but you will remember that, 
 in winters at least, it was also a kitchen. "I 
 like to have those young men come up to tea, 
 and I like to make the table inviting, and 
 this room is as pretty as a picture in which 
 to receive them ; but I could sacrifice all these 
 likes, if I am called upon to do so ; only, it 
 would be sacrificing other people s likes also; 
 am I called upon to make other people s sacri 
 fices for them ? And if not, how am I ever to 
 separate myself from other people." 
 
 Meantime, her spiritual life was not without 
 its bright hours. She had grown deeply, iii
 
 468 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 fact almost painfully interested, in Mr. Johns, a 
 middle-aged man who had buried the wife of 
 his youth and had since been homeless. Per 
 plexed though she was with what appeared to 
 be conflicting duties, she was not sufficiently con 
 fused to give over the most thoughtful care 
 and kindness toward this homeless man ; and 
 certainly he seemed to appreciate it. He grew 
 daily more interested in matters which were 
 evidently of absorbing interest to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Spafford. He was beginning to be almost as 
 regular at church as they themselves; and 
 for a few weeks past he had joined them at 
 the front door, or at the little gate, or perhaps 
 at the corner, and gone with them to prayer- 
 meeting. He always came down-stairs for 
 evening worship, and he always lingered for 
 morning prayer ; surely these were cheering 
 signs. Mr. Johns was not a heathen, it is 
 true, in the common acceptation of that word, 
 but Mrs. Spafford s morbid state did not reach 
 to the height of ignoring the individual value 
 of his soul in the sight of God. 
 
 That it was a morbid state, at least in part, 
 she became almost convinced, as time passed ;
 
 Measuring Sacrifices. 469 
 
 still, there was enough truth in her difficulty 
 to make her unable to get away from it. The 
 bright-eyed plain-spoken missionary, who had 
 so confused her sense of the fitness of things, 
 had long since gone on her way, sought after 
 by missionary societies in all directions, to tell 
 to their eager ears the story of her own 
 life, which certainly was full enough of sacri 
 fice ; though this she apparently did not realize. 
 But the effect of her intense words, spoken 
 in haste, remained. 
 
 It was finally to Mrs. Temple that she told 
 the whole story one bright winter day, when 
 she and young Warren went to spend a few 
 hours with that lady. The fact is, all the 
 perplexity came to her with ten-fold force, 
 surrounded as she was on every -hand by 
 evidences of wealth and expensive tastes. The 
 very carriage, with its luxurious cushions 
 and handsome horses, which had been sent 
 to wait upon her and baby, had given her 
 a questioning twinge. Thinking it all over, 
 she presently turned the conversation in that 
 direction, and found herself telling over to Mrs. 
 Temple her missionary friend s excited words.
 
 470 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 There were tears in the elder lady s eyes 
 as she listened, but there were smiles on her 
 face : 
 
 "I ve been over the same ground," she de 
 clared, to Mrs. Spafford s immense relief. " I 
 know just how it must seem to you just 
 how the words and thoughts which they sug 
 gested have stayed with and tormented you. 
 Never mind, dear, don t grudge -the unrest 
 they have caused you ; they will bear fruit. 
 Meantime, there are two sides, even to your 
 earnest friend s words. She, from her stand 
 point, sees plainly one side, but not the other. 
 I think she feels and talks very much as the 
 Lord Jesus Christ would have done, had he 
 turned away in despair and disgust from those 
 poor fishermen who thought they were leaving 
 all, to follow him. What did they leave, 
 after all ? What sacrifices did they make ? 
 Yet they thought they were making great 
 ones. And in what infinite patience he bore 
 with them, and led them along, step by step, 
 until the time came when they counted not their 
 lives dear. I don t think they would have 
 been ready for martyrdom that first day when
 
 Measuring Sacrifices, 471 
 
 he called them from their nets. Poor human 
 sight would have felt utterly discouraged with 
 them many a time between that day and the 
 one in which they went up to him through 
 fire and blood. So the church is growing. 
 Some of our dear Christian ladies have but 
 just heard a faint echo of his call, Go ye 
 into all the world, though it has been sounding 
 for centuries. There are many of them stand 
 ing now on the threshold, dazed with the 
 echo, scarcely knowing if it can possibly mean 
 them, and seeing sacrifice and burden where 
 one day they will count it all joy. And only 
 He can seem to bear patiently with childish 
 footsteps, and wait for growth and strength. 
 "Besides, dear Mrs. Spafford, there are two 
 sides, even to their dresses and bonnets, some 
 times. I happen to know the private history 
 of one of that very group of bonnets which 
 your friend saw and deplored. It was bought 
 at an up-town store, where a pretty young 
 girl is just struggling up into position ; trying 
 amid great competition to establish herself. 
 To secure Mrs. Jason Ward s custom, to 
 make her a bonnet of such material and in
 
 472 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 such a fashion that others of Mrs. Ward s 
 set would look and admire and follow example^ 
 was an advertisement for the struggling young 
 woman which she will not soon forget. In 
 deed, I sometimes think that that very bonnet 
 is going to bring that pretty, new milliner into 
 the kingdom. 
 
 " Then beside her sat Mrs. McChesney in 
 an elegant new black silk. She read a re 
 port that day, you will remember. When she 
 referred to sacrifices, I could scarcely hide a 
 smile at the smallness of my own thoughts. 
 I was wondering whether she had really felt 
 it a little sacrifice to have that dress made by 
 Mrs. Dormer, a widow who is a neat and skill 
 ful sewer, and is trying hard to secure work 
 such as will enable her to keep her children 
 together and educate them. She made this 
 dress, did it well, is capable of doing well ; 
 and yet I know that Mrs. McChesney likes to 
 go to Lawrence & Newcomb s old established 
 house ; they have always done her work, and 
 suit her exactly, without any trouble. Still, she 
 didn t go there ; and what is the result? Why 
 ladies of her acquaintance said to one another :
 
 Measuring Sacrifices. 473 
 
 "Did you know that Mrs. McChesney s 
 new black silk was made by Mrs. Dormer? 
 She must have a very high opinion of her 
 work if she gives her such an elegant silk as 
 that ? And forth with custom pours in upon 
 Mrs. Dormer ; it is as good as a hundred-dollar 
 advertisement to her ; and I will tell you 
 in confidence that Mrs. Dormer brought me 
 around a five dollar bill only last, week as a 
 thank offering to the special fund in our 
 Foreign Missionary Society. I know Mrs. 
 McChesney is more interested in that society 
 than any other, said poor Mrs. Dormer. She 
 herself had never thought of the heathen twice 
 in her life, but she continued: "So I thought 
 I would bring it, for I do feel so thankful to 
 her." She is coming to the next meeting) 
 Mrs. Dormer is, you understand, and who can 
 tell whereunto this may grow? 
 
 "Now that is a glimpse of the other side. 
 I don t say that it is or it isnt the best way 
 to manage these things ; but what I do say 
 is, that the Lord sees the heart ; and little 
 seeds of loving kindness to one s neighbor, 
 whether he be next door or across the ocean,
 
 474 The Pvcket Measure. 
 
 may be in many hearts, unknown to us, un 
 known to those grand missionaries who have 
 gotten above us so far that they see all the 
 glory of the work and the honor of being 
 allowed to toil, but not so high up that they 
 can see into each human heart, and accept 
 the petty sacrifices, and watch the growing 
 seed, and wait for harvest." 
 
 " Still," said Mrs. Temple, as the talk went 
 on, " there is her side, too, and we must not 
 forget it. There are thoughtless expenditures 
 among wealthy Christian women ; there are 
 hundreds lavished, where tens would do ; that 
 can not be denied, and we do well to look 
 thoughtfully and prayerfully at it from this 
 missionary s standpoint, and by realizing what 
 a ridiculous sarcasm our lives present to 
 her, get a glimpse of what motiveless and 
 unconsecrated expenditure must look like, to 
 God, who gave himself for souls ! " 
 
 " That is it," said Mrs. Spafford, setting War 
 down again on the rug, and standing before 
 her friend, her face aglow with feeling. " Leav 
 ing all these people who have plenty of money, 
 and with whose expenditures I have nothing
 
 Measuring Sacrifices. 475 
 
 to do, how am I to regulate my own life? 
 Fm in great confusion." 
 
 Then she dropped back into the low easy 
 chair, and, led on by tender questioning, began 
 to tell all about her trivial perplexities, the 
 new carpet, the extra dishes, even the parlor 
 fire and the nephews. 
 
 " Two sides, dear friend," said Mrs. Temple, 
 still smiling. "You need to learn that by 
 heart. When the disciples were commissioned 
 to preach the gospel to every creature, they 
 were to begin in Jerusalem. Now think a 
 moment; suppose you, instead of going over 
 on that rainy afternoon, two years ago, and 
 helping to reconstruct, not only Mrs. Evans 
 kitchen but her home ; oh, yes, I know all 
 about it ; Mrs. Evans is also a friend of mine, 
 remember; but suppose, instead, you had 
 worked a collar for the store, which would 
 bring eventually a dollar into the treasury of 
 the Lord. In actual dollars and cents how 
 would it have compared ? How much in dol 
 lars has Mrs. Evans been worth to the mission 
 band, her influence dating from that day? 
 How much may she be worth in the future ?
 
 476 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 What may her husband do ? I think he has 
 commenced grandly; did you know he sub 
 scribed ten dollars to the. young men s fund 
 for Bibles for Mexico ? And you know surely 
 that he believes you and your husband were 
 the means of showing him Christ. Do you 
 believe you could have done it by saving your 
 time and your money for the Foreign Mission 
 treasury ? Then I think the Lord has important 
 work for Mr. Johns to do ; and your pretty 
 home, yes and the pretty parlor, and all the 
 purity and peace of his surroundings may 
 be the Master s cords of influencing, drawing 
 him. As for those two nephews, I don t be 
 lieve you know that they are in Mr. Temple s 
 Bible class, and that they are evidently giving 
 serious thought to the all important questions ? 
 The older one, Charlie, told my husband about 
 his visit at your home, and about the delightful 
 evening which you gave them, and a hint of 
 some thoughtful, earnest words that you 
 spoke to him under the gas-light. He admitted 
 to Mr. Temple that if he thought he could be 
 such a Christian as you and your husband 
 were he would like to be one. I tell you, dear,
 
 Measuring Sacrifices. 477 
 
 the Lord knows you, knows just what place 
 he has set you in, just how many people you 
 can touch with your influence, and just what 
 he is going to do with them all ; and he loves 
 the cause, both at home and abroad, more 
 than you and I can." 
 
 " But about the sacrifice," said Mrs. Spafford, 
 after a thoughtful pause, during which her 
 face had lighted greatly. "I don t quite un 
 derstand that. Give till you feel it, is the 
 sentence I read the other day, that should 
 be taken as a motto by all the Christian world. 
 I don t know how to do it. As I have been 
 telling you, my actions seem to be so mixed 
 with other people that I cannot separate them. 
 How am I to sacrifice for any cause ? " 
 
 Mrs. Temple bent toward the rug and gave 
 herself up apparently to the pleasure of a 
 frolic with War ; his happy shouts and evident 
 appreciation of the fun drawing his mother s 
 pleased attention. When her gaze was riveted 
 on him, with the mother love shining fully in 
 her eyes Mrs. Temple said, suddenly : 
 
 " What a heavy sacrifice your life has 
 been during the past year for the sake of
 
 478 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 this one little boy ! How many nights have 
 you sat by his crib? How many hours have 
 you walked the floor with him in your arms? 
 How many comforts have you gone without 
 for his sake ? In short, how continually you 
 must have felt the weight of self-sacrifice for 
 him ! Can you compute it, Mrs. Spafford ? " 
 
 A quick telegraphic dispatch from the 
 heart of one woman to the other was the 
 immediate result of this sentence, then the 
 mother bent and kissed her baby. 
 
 " I do not feel the utmost that I can do 
 for him to be a sacrifice," she said, with deep 
 feeling, because I love him so. Do you mean, 
 Mrs. Temple can I think " 
 
 " Do I think you can so love Christ that 
 whatever sacrifices of personal ease or comfort 
 you may make for his sake will become so 
 much a joy as to cease to be claimed under 
 the head of sacrifice ? Aye, indeed, there is 
 a higher plane than that of sacrifice." 
 
 There was much more talk, but I cannot 
 give it to you. Its sum is embodied in Mrs. 
 Spafford s words as she wrapped War s cloak 
 around him and tied his gay cap under his chin:
 
 Measuring Sacrifices. 479 
 
 "Thank you, Mrs. Temple, you do not 
 know what you have done for me this after 
 noon. I don t know myself, yet, but I feel 
 sure that I am a great deal richer than I was 
 when I came." Then, immediately, " Mrs. 
 Temple, you need not have ordered the car 
 riage for us ; we could go home by car." 
 
 Mrs. Temple laughed, pleasantly. 
 
 " Are you afraid, dear," she said, " that to 
 luxuriate in a carriage, instead of being un 
 comfortable in a car, is not making use of 
 your opportunities for sacrifice ? Save your 
 car- fare for the mission-mite box, and ride 
 with a clear conscience. John, on his way up 
 for j r ou, dropped Mrs. Perkins, you know, she 
 doesn t get rides often, and needs them. John 
 is going to stop for her on his way back, 
 and bring her home ; so you see you may 
 safely enjoy the carriage." 
 
 Mrs. Spafford responded by a happy little 
 laugh. " I don t think anything about comfort, 
 or sacrifice," she protested ; " I was just plan 
 ning to stop on the way and do an errand." 
 
 " Do all the errands you want to ; Mrs. 
 Perkins will be in no haste to get home
 
 480 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 and John will mate love to War with all his 
 heart, while you are gone." 
 
 Notwithstanding her protest, Mrs. Spafford 
 found her heart rejoicing, over the fact that 
 she could see work that Christ would 
 own, even connected with that luxurious car 
 riage. Had he not said, "Unto one of the 
 least of these ? " Mrs. Perkins ranked among 
 the " least " as the world looked at it, but she 
 was assuredly one of his own. 
 
 War was left for a brief minute, cuddled 
 among the cushions, talking to John, while 
 his mother stopped at one of the great stores, 
 summoned the carpet clerk, Mr. Johns, and 
 directed him to bring the nephews home with 
 him to supper. Then she hastened home, 
 set the parlor aglow with beauty with the 
 aid of a large bouquet, brought from Mrs. 
 Temple s green house, then beguiled Phillis 
 into entertaining War, while she made cream 
 muffins for tea. Now light had dawned on 
 her pathway ; new meaning there was in the 
 verse : " Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, 
 or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God." She saw new ways of doing it ; she 
 was gleefully happy over her muffins.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THEN AND NOW. 
 
 HAT an immense book the history of 
 a human life would make I Probably 
 no one will ever know how large a 
 volume it would be, for no one will ever write 
 it. I have lingered" over the story of the 
 beginnings of married life, to this, my friend 
 Mrs. Spafford. She is so dear to me, and 
 her early trials and triumphs are such vivid 
 pictures in my heart, that I love to linger 
 over them. 
 
 But time hastened. Therefore, I, warned 
 
 by the growing chapters, will ask you to look 
 
 in upon her busy life for the last time, nearly 
 
 ten years from the day in which you made her 
 
 481
 
 482 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 acquaintance. Not in the pretty " little box of 
 a home ; " those quarters grew too strait for the 
 increasing family. It is on the same square, 
 however; the Spaffords found themselves much 
 too attached to their surroundings, the ties of 
 neighborhood too strong to be causelessly sun 
 dered ; so it stands on the corner below, a large 
 handsome house ; plain it is true, but it is the 
 plainness of exceeding taste and care rather 
 than that of accident. Perhaps the most 
 noticeable feature is the lovely lawn that 
 spreads itself abroad in most uncity-like 
 greenness and beauty ; grasses and ferns and 
 flowers cluster here all summer in radiant 
 freshness. Lovely beds of violets are scattered 
 here and there; lilies of the valley in their 
 early season hide under broad, green leaves; 
 while in shady nooks certain beauties of the 
 woods thrive exceedingly, to prove the falsity 
 of the popular notion that none of these wild- 
 wood treasures will bear transplanting and 
 petting. 
 
 On the opposite corner is a twin house ; 
 the ground distinguished from their neighbor 
 across the way only by a lavish wealth of
 
 Then and Now. 483 
 
 roses during June. The houses themselves 
 are as nearly alike as the same architect and 
 builder could make them ; and I presume you 
 can readily guess that the Evans Family oc 
 cupy the latter one. The neighbors of years 
 ago are neighbors still. 
 
 I want you, on this bright winter after 
 noon, to go with me to the meeting of the 
 Young Ladies Mission Band. You will meet 
 many of the old friends there, and some new 
 ones, and get perhaps a better idea of what is 
 doing in that branch than a half-day s story 
 from me could give you. 
 
 It is not necessary to climb the hill to 
 the old Stowell homestead. The parlor served 
 its time, doing its duty nobly, and has retired 
 into private life again ; for, six squares away 
 from the two stone houses where our friends 
 live, is another new building. In point of fact, 
 there are many new buildings, for this part of 
 the city has grown so rapidly during the past 
 six years that it can not honestly lay claim 
 longer to the name suburb. But there is 
 one pile of brick and mortar which is the 
 building above all others around which the
 
 484 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 hopes and plans of many center. It is large, 
 and in fact rather imposing-looking, and bears 
 over its central door in large letters this brief 
 statement: " YOUNG LADIES BAND, TEMPLE 
 STREET CHUKCH." 
 
 To the initiated these words tell a great deal ; 
 and as for the uninitiated can t they inquire ? 
 ~This building is the property of the Temple 
 Street Church. It holds within its ample walls 
 a reference library on missions, a general library 
 of carefully selected volumes, a ladies parlor, 
 handsomely furnished, where women and girls 
 may be sure of meeting at all hours of the 
 day some Christian women, who will greet 
 them cordially, introduce them to the points 
 to which they may need introduction, give 
 them any needed help as regards work, or 
 home, or friends, in short, set them in the 
 way of helping themselves ; a ladies committee 
 room just across the hall, where some of the 
 various committees of Christian work are 
 apt to be in session on almost any day of the 
 week; a coffee and lunch room for women 
 only, constantly presided over by skilful young 
 women who have been taught how to prepare
 
 Then and Now. 485 
 
 wholesome and inviting food ; a young ladies 
 parlor, carpeted and curtained and seated 
 tastefully, a parlor organ at one end, a center- 
 table with Bible and hymn books, and numer 
 ous side tables with work baskets, and a sewing- 
 machine near at hand. This last is where 
 the young ladies hold their monthly gatherings ; 
 and down-stairs the largest room in the build 
 ing, with bay windows at front and side, in 
 each of which glitter in gilt letters the word 
 "WHAT-NOT," the fancy store belonging still 
 to the stock company formed more than eight 
 years ago. Every other room in the building 
 is connected with the benevolence of the 
 Temple Street Church save this one. This 
 is rented at a fair figure, and paid for in 
 quarterly advance payments by the members 
 of this unique firm. They are still firmly 
 resolved on not mixing things. Business is 
 business, and benevolence is benevolence. 
 
 True, they find no fault because the managers 
 of the building choose to use the rent paid 
 them for this room to swell the number of 
 volumes in the library. They have no desire 
 to curtail the benevolent enterprises of the
 
 486 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 Temple Street Church ; on the contrary, they 
 rejoice over each one. They are grateful for 
 the bestowal of the committee room, and 
 the parlor, and the library, and the upper 
 parlor where they hold their religious meet 
 ings this is benevolence ; they gave their mites 
 to help build each of these ; they constantly 
 help to keep the wheels in motion ; but 
 the down-stairs front room means business. 
 
 They are workers. They have enlarged their 
 borders. The store is open now all day long, 
 from Monday morning until Saturday night ; 
 always excepting Wednesday and Friday 
 evenings, when occur the regular church 
 prayer-meetings. Well-salaried clerks are in 
 constant attendance, but the numerous partners 
 keep a sharp lookout, and hold themselves 
 carefully posted as to all that goes on connected 
 with the firm. That it has paid, and is pay 
 ing, you need only glance up and down the 
 well-stocked room to be sure of. I shall not 
 even venture to whisper to you what have 
 been the net receipts during this past year ; 
 the fact is, it is a business secret. What firm 
 of any importance cares to noise abroad its
 
 Then and Now. 487 
 
 financial power? Yet that some people under 
 stand it is evident, because you may hear it 
 repeatedly affirmed by leading business men 
 in the very heart of the great city, that .they 
 should not hesitate to trust the "WHAT-NOT," 
 to any reasonable amount. It is true this 
 may be owing in part to the fact that the 
 firm in question never ask one cent of credit 
 from any business house anywhere ; their 
 rules in this respect being as strict as when 
 they invested with laughter and trembling 
 their first six dollars and seventy-five cents. 
 
 " Well I did not propose to have yon linger 
 in the store. You are invited up to the young 
 ladies parlor, where the meeting is in progress. 
 At first sight it will not impress you at all 
 as a religious meeting. The machine is hushed 
 it is true, but needles and scissors and thimbles 
 are flashing and gleaming in busy fingers ; and 
 tongues are moving almost as steadily. Mrs. 
 Spafford is seated at the central table, and 
 the Bible is open before her. Mrs. Evans is 
 at her right, pencil and note book in hand, 
 Every other lady in the room is sewing, or 
 crocheting, or knitting, or cutting.
 
 488 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 These two, Mrs. Spafford and Mrs. Evans, it 
 will be remembered, are not young ladies; but 
 there is a singular fact connected with their 
 history thus far : Not a young lady belonging 
 to that Band has discovered apparently that 
 these two are any older, or are ever to be any 
 older, than those who rank among young ladies. 
 They have held to them with a calm persistence 
 that has so shamed old Father Time that he 
 really has retired into the backgroud, leaving 
 no wrinkles and as yet not even a suggestive 
 gray hair. And every lady in the church 
 knows that these two motherly matrons are 
 main arteries of the Young Ladies Band. Mrs. 
 Spafford, though with an open Bible before 
 her, repeats instead of reads this sentence : 
 
 " Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen 
 for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
 of the earth for thy possession," and without 
 a pause of a moment Mrs. Evans adds : " The 
 earth is the Lord s and the fulness thereof." 
 And Addie Stowell says: "Thou shall inherit 
 all nations." 
 
 Thus the story grows, the wonderful story 
 of God s own promises, which are found to
 
 Then and Now. 489 
 
 belt the earth, proving by his mighty word 
 that all the nations of the earth shall yet praise 
 him. It is Laura Bacon who has dropped the 
 bright wools she was sorting, and slipped into 
 a seat before the organ, just as the triumphant 
 chorus of verses is concluded. She touches 
 the chords, and with one consent they chant : 
 "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, 
 let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. 
 Declare his glory among the heathen, his 
 wonders among all nations. O come, let US 
 worship and bow down, let us kneel before 
 the Lord our maker." At the first note of 
 the song, the busy hands drop, and with the 
 closing strain the ladies kneel, and Mrs. Evans 
 voice leads them into the very presence of the 
 God of the whole earth. 
 
 " It almost seems as if the day were near 
 at hand when all the inhabitants of the earth 
 shall worship him," declared Addie Stowell, 
 when work had been resumed ; " I have been 
 so astonished over many facts while getting 
 ready for this meeting." 
 
 " That must certainly mean good news from 
 China," said Mrs. Evans, with a smile; "I
 
 490 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 believe you are her special representative for 
 to-day." 
 
 " Oh, China is simply wonderful. You 
 ought to have appointed every one of us to 
 represent her, and then we couldn t have 
 begun to do her justice. I don t know about 
 this general summary that we are supposed 
 to give in January. Why we can t begin to 
 glance at the wonders that are doing." 
 
 " Well, just a glance is about all we can 
 give, but I think if you remember that we are to 
 glance backward as well as forward, you will 
 succeed in impressing us by the power of 
 contrast." 
 
 "Yes m, I remember it; and it was that 
 very thing that overwhelmed me. Why, 
 Mrs. Spafford, I didn t know that less than 
 forty years ago there were only six Chinamen 
 converted. Isn t that awful ! " 
 
 "It is harder for me to realize that any of 
 them are converted now," declared a gay young 
 girl ; " I don t know much about the Chinese, 
 only their faces look so funny, and their ways 
 are so unlike ours ; it doesn t, seem as 
 though they could be Christians. Do many
 
 Then and Now. 491 
 
 of them come to the light? You know I 
 have just joined your ranks ; you must wink 
 at my ignorance." 
 
 "And enlighten it, Fanny," said Mrs. 
 Evans, laughing. "Addie, can you encourage 
 her in regard to the Chinese ? " 
 
 " I should think so ! Why, there are fifty 
 thousand of them connected with Christian 
 churches. Only think of that! Over thirteen 
 thousand of them are communicants ; and, 
 Fanny Carley, how much do you suppose 
 those church-members give a year for the 
 cause ? Twenty thousand dollars ! Just think 
 of it ! Heathen, indeed ! I wish some of them 
 would come over and teach our civilized 
 heathen how to give. Mrs. Spafford, how 
 much may I say ? I m jnst bubbling over. 
 There are dozens of curious incidents that I d 
 like to tell." 
 
 "Save them for February," ruled Mrs. 
 Spafford ; " you know we give the entire 
 meeting to China then; and I can see 
 by Minnie Stuart s face that she thinks the 
 Chinese don t compare with the Mexicans." 
 
 This suggestion brought a chorus of eager
 
 492 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 voices to the front. Every one of the girls 
 had been, at a very recent date, to hear that 
 queen of Mexican missions, Miss Rankin. 
 Four copies of her book were in the Missionary 
 Library, and had been carefully read, since 
 the excitement about her wonderful work had 
 reached white wheat, and the girls were therefore 
 on the qui vive to give information. At last 
 such was the case with those who represented 
 Mexico, while the others were equally certain 
 that these should be held to the rules, and 
 give only a summary. 
 
 " Well," declared Minnie, " we are willing ; 
 the summary is astonishing enough, especially 
 in the light of contrast. Remember how 
 Miss Rankin worked to get one Bible over 
 into Mexico, and how she rejoiced when that 
 feat was accomplished ; and then think of 
 the Protestant churches scattered over it to 
 day, and the thousands there who are followers 
 of Christ ! " 
 
 This very sentence produced eager words 
 from one and another in confirmation of the 
 remarkable changes in that land, which a few 
 years had wrought; and at last Mrs. Spafford
 
 Tfien and Now. 493 
 
 was again obliged to call them to order." 
 I don t think it can be, that our time is 
 up ; we are just hurried because Essie is de 
 termined to get to India," declared Minnie 
 Stuart, as she laughingly retired to the back 
 ground. 
 
 " Well, India, is fully as startling in its 
 story as China or Mexico can possibly be," 
 affirmed the earnest-faced young girl whom 
 they called Essie. 
 
 " Don t you know when we were reading 
 Dr. Judson s life we concluded that no other 
 mission land could be more hopeless than India 
 looked then? Now think of there being 
 seventy-eight thousand people there who belong 
 to Jesus ! I tell you, girls, that number is 
 simply glorious ! Mamma laughed at my 
 enthusiasm, when I found it out ; I was a 
 little ashamed of the way in which I shouted ; 
 but it came over me suddenly, and I just 
 broke my thoughts : Oh ! oh ! OH ! I said, 
 what an immense throng there is going to be 
 in heaven, when India, alone, is ready now 
 to send seventy-eight thousand ! Still, the 
 more I studied the matter, the more evident
 
 494 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 it was that there was a great deal to do yet. 
 Why, some of the sentences in the book I 
 was reading sounded just like sarcasm, though 
 they were not intended for that. For instance, 
 it stated that there were now in India two 
 missionaries for every million of inhabitants, 
 and that this was a very good number ! Mrs. 
 Spafford, what do you think of that, when 
 you said, the other day, that our pastor, with 
 a congregation of a thousand to look after, 
 had far too much to do." 
 
 " Just what I thought before, Essie," said 
 Mrs. Spafford smiling ; " that we expect more 
 of our pastors than they can accomplish, with 
 such large fields, and that we are awfully 
 neglecting India, as well as every other mission 
 field." 
 
 " Yes," declared a champion for China, " I 
 am glad you put in that last, Mrs. Spafford; 
 I don t think India compares with China, for 
 instance, in its need. Why that missionary 
 who visited at auntie s last summer told me 
 herself that, where she was located, the number 
 of people that one missionary had to reach, 
 if they were reached, was the same as though
 
 Then and Now. 495 
 
 there were a minister in New York City and 
 one in Cleveland, O., and none between ! She 
 asked me how 1 should enjoy having my 
 minister have such a field as that ! " 
 
 Thus the talk went on. Siam and Africa 
 and Japan and Persia and Syria had each their 
 special champion, eager to give contrasting 
 figures and striking bits of news. Constantly 
 was their leader obliged to suppress the enthu 
 siastic young hearts, hinting that this was the 
 day for the general outlook only, and that each 
 field would come up in its turn for special 
 notice. Only once did they break the line 
 of actual review of facts to romance a little 
 over what the future might bring them ; this 
 was when they reached the last month of the 
 year, and Syria was called for. Then all 
 eyes were turned, with sort of tender eagerness, 
 on the blushing face of Lena Bacon. 
 
 " Mrs. Spafford, you will certainly let Lena 
 talk as long as she wants to ? " pleaded two 
 or three voices, and Mrs. Spafford, smiling, 
 albeit the tears were very near the surface, 
 declared her willingness to listen to whatever 
 Lena had to say ; but she, blushing, smiling,
 
 496 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 could at first say nothing at all. The simple 
 truth was, she was on the eve of passing beyond 
 the realm of mere saying into the actual per 
 sonal doing, in the far away land. 
 
 Aye, Mrs. Spafford s mission band were to 
 have a missionary of their " very own," sent 
 out from their home and hearts ; arid, in the 
 strange sweet providence of God, this was 
 none other than Lena Bacon she whom you 
 will possibly remember as one who declared 
 frankly, on the day of this band s organization, 
 that she " did not believe in Foreign .Mis 
 sions I " " The Lord holdeth the hearts of his 
 people." 
 
 Lena was, despite this childish folly, one 
 of his own, and in his time he set the very in 
 most longings of her heart of hearts on the 
 work abroad, and called her to prepare to drop 
 seed there. And she was going, in her youth 
 and beauty ; sacrificing, so it looked to others, 
 with no meager hand, since she had every 
 thing to leave, that this world can give ; but 
 never did young heart sacrifice more loyally 
 or joyfully. And Mrs. Bacon, her mother, 
 had moved step by etep, during this term of
 
 Then and Now. 497 
 
 years, from an actual opposer to a silent looker- 
 on, then to a faint and distant follower, then 
 to one who read, in silvery voice and well- 
 chosen sentences, beautiful reports about 
 "sacrifice and gave annually her hundreds, 
 without knowing that they were gone, Cl 
 earing greatly what they did, then suddenly 
 had stepped into the very forefront of sacrifice, 
 learning by the deep throbbings of her mother- 
 heart, what the word meant, for she was giv 
 ing her only darling. And she did give her ; 
 not without a struggle at first, not without count 
 ing the cost with tearful protests, again arid 
 again and again; but she had already come 
 to know that sacrifice for Christ is sweet, 
 and that he has a special and very tender 
 place for those who give to him their best. 
 So now, where her body, and in a degree 
 her purse, had" been for several years, the 
 workers in Temple Street Church recognized 
 that she brought her soul. And in a few 
 months more Lena was going. Not alone? 
 Oh, no!
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 "GOOD MEASURE." 
 
 OT alone, in any sense of the word ; 
 the all-reaching promise: "Lo, I am 
 with you always, even unto the end of 
 the world," had sounaed down to her through 
 the ages, and felt to her heart as though He 
 who is " the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 forever," had spoken the word but yesterday 
 to her individual need. 
 
 Not alone as regarded human love and care, 
 for she had been chosen by one who counted 
 it a special and crowning mercy of the Master 
 whom he served, that just she and no other 
 in all the world had been called to walk with 
 him on his life journey. Are you interested to 
 498
 
 " G-ood Measure" 499 
 
 know who this other was ? Do you remember 
 the nephew, Charlie, and the muffins for tea, 
 and the extra lumps of coal in the grate, 
 and the buffetings of Satan which Mrs. 
 Spafford endured on their account, when 
 he whispered in her ear : " To what purpose 
 is this waste ? These lumps of coal might 
 have been saved, and thus the money which 
 must now be taken to buy other lumps have 
 been dropped into your mite-box to swell 
 the general fund." His wretched attempts to 
 appear as an " angel of light," were long 
 since silenced by a word from the Master, 
 which Mrs. Spafford took to him as her answer ; 
 "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the 
 evening withhold not thine hand : for thou 
 knowest not whether shall prosper, this or 
 that, or whether they both shall be alike 
 good." 
 
 And now behold, he had indeed prospered, 
 aye and given already a tenfold harvest ; for 
 it was Charlie, the nephew who was going 
 in a few months to carry on her work, right 
 in the centre of the field, while she worked 
 still at home. Only a few months before he
 
 500 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 had graduated, and been ordained to preach 
 the everlasting gospel. Truly there are times 
 in which God proves that a " day with him 
 is as a thousand years." 
 
 Looking back upon the story of her past, 
 Mrs. Spafford marvelled sometimes that even 
 Crod could work so fast or bring such wonder- 
 ous things to pass. Not the least among her 
 joys was the fact that the one who had quietly 
 borne all the expense of " Charlie s education 
 and outfit for his far-away field, was the carpet 
 clerk, Mr. Johns. 
 
 "He-is my contribution to Foreign Missions," 
 the widower was apt to say, with a humorous 
 shake of his gray head, when the church hinted 
 its desire to share some of the honor with him. 
 " Charlie is my contribution ; Mrs. Spafford was 
 always asking me to give to Foreign Missions 
 the very money that I had been saving up for 
 Charlie. I wanted to please her, arid I wanted 
 him to have the money, and so I just made up 
 my mind to lump it. Charlie belongs to me." 
 
 Ah, yes, with limitations. Long before this 
 had Mr. Johns recognized and bowed before a 
 higher ownership both for Charlie and himself.
 
 " G-ood Measure" 501 
 
 " Bought with a price." And the day in which 
 he and Charlie stood together in the church, and 
 gave public recognition of this eternal owner 
 ship was one of the happiest in Mrs. Spafford s 
 life. Could she do other than rejoice that he 
 had said to them in private: 
 
 " I told the Lord, Mr. Spafford, that you and 
 your wife had brought in this worthless old 
 sheaf, as well as the younger one (who I think 
 will yet bring others with him). The Lord 
 knows it is true, and he knows that with you 
 to show me how, I mean to try to go home not 
 entirely empty-handed." 
 
 There was no danger of it. More than one 
 gem already sparkles in the crown set aside and 
 waiting for that gray head. 
 
 Now during this long retrospect of ours, the 
 Young Ladies Missionary Meeting has gone 
 steadily on. As I said, they ran off their track 
 with Lena long enough to launch out in a 
 dozen questions as to what she meant to do 
 about this, and that, and the other ; and she, 
 as entirely and happily at home with them as 
 though they had been her sisters in the flesh, 
 gave ready answers and took sweet counsel
 
 502 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 with them, realizing that there was between 
 them a bond of union stronger than death, and 
 strengthening with every passing day. This 
 talk in nowise unfitted them for the ten minutes 
 of prayer, in which nearly every lady in that 
 room gave audible expression to her love for 
 Christ and his cause, and her desire that their 
 special treasure Lena, might be upborne by his 
 everlasting arm. 
 
 Then they sang, " Blest be the tie that binds," 
 and the January meeting was over. 
 
 " How do you get it to sound so little like a 
 meeting ? " questioned an interested visitor one 
 day. "Why I mean, you know, the absence of 
 all formality is so striking ; they just talk away 
 as though they were having a good time ; and 
 yet they are thoroughly well-prepared ; it can 
 not be just a chance conversation which they 
 hold." 
 
 " Yes it is," declared Mrs. Evans ; " that is, if 
 you please to call it so. The young ladies pre 
 pare themselves with great thoroughness, taking 
 time and care, and then the mere words in 
 which they clothe their thoughts for the meet 
 ing are as much chance as yours are when you
 
 " G-ood Measure" 503 
 
 remark to me that it is an unusually cold day. 
 As a matter of fact, you have observed the 
 weather before this, consulted a thermometer, 
 it may be, compared the weather report of this 
 date with the corresponding one of last year ; 
 in other words, you have perhaps prepared 
 yourself to give an intelligent and correct esti 
 mate of the weather, but the words in which 
 you make the statement are entirely unstudied." 
 
 "I understand," the visitor said; "but still 
 I don t see how you ever get them -to study up 
 and be ready ; nor how they contrive to appear 
 so natural and unconstrained about it when 
 they are ready." 
 
 " They will not study, until they are inter 
 ested, and have something to study for ; it is 
 the result of long training. Mrs. Spafford has 
 simply been indefatigable in that, as in every 
 thing else that she undertakes ; and she has 
 had Mrs. Temple to consult and lead her on. 
 Her custom for years has been to give a mission 
 station to a certain number of girls for three 
 months. They are supposed to post themselves 
 thoroughly about that station, and whatever 
 question we may chance to ask of them con-
 
 504 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 cerning it, if they cannot answer, and it is an 
 swerable, they are expected to be ready with 
 the item the next time they meet us. At the 
 end of three months they change, each taking 
 another field. In this way all the girls, except 
 the quite new ones, have had each of the sta 
 tions ; so of course they know a good deal about 
 them. And there is always a sort of pride in 
 standing up for the- country to which one hap 
 pens to belong for the time being. As for the 
 unconstraint, they feel no constraint, so of course 
 exhibit none ; they have been trained to talk 
 on this topic exactly as they discuss the weather 
 or the fashions, or the last book they have read. 
 You notice that they continue their work, ex 
 cept during the strictly devotional exercises, and 
 the talk is frequently interrupted by a call for 
 the scissors, or the canvas, or the blue, or red, 
 or green silk. Mrs. Spafford, after careful study 
 became convinced that this informal way of 
 managing the matter, allowing the interruptions 
 that would naturally occur in common conver 
 sation, was the best way of helping the girls 
 to feel at home and informal. It has worked well." 
 Now I have given you, as I promised, just a
 
 " G-ood Measure" 505 
 
 glimpse of the Young Ladies Band. It could 
 realty be only a glimpse, for I have neither time 
 nor ability to let you at once into the inner 
 workings of this carefully planned and skillfully 
 officered scheme. No general of an army, plan 
 ning his campaign, could work more steadily, 
 patiently, and with a more single eye to victory, 
 than did the mature brains that had taken hold 
 with these young things to do battle for the 
 Lord. To be sure they had many helpers now, 
 among the young people themselves. A few 
 years really makes veterans of people who are 
 in earnest ; and a number of those who had. 
 taken hold of the work as quite young girls, 
 remained as mature young ladies to drill with 
 the new recruits, who were constantly gather 
 ing. Many had married and gone out from 
 them, it is true ; but enough of the old material 
 remained to keep the business part of the enter- 
 prize from ever being the ponderous and some 
 what hazardous experiment that it was when 
 Mrs. Spafford first put her shoulder to the 
 wheel. 
 
 Meantime that lady s afternoon work was by 
 no means finished, with the close of the meet-
 
 506 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 ing ; she hastened home as soon as she could 
 break away from groups of talkers who all had 
 questions of immediate importance to press. 
 She had good reason to make haste, for she was 
 well aware that another missionary meeting was 
 in progress, which was liable by this time to 
 need her immediate attention. I trust you have 
 not forgotten young Warren Spafford ; he has 
 arrived at an age in which it is not easy to for 
 get any boy who is within reasonable distance ; 
 and young Warren was by no means the sort 
 of boy to sink into oblivion. No meek and quiet 
 spirit was he, but a vigorous, loud-voiced, quick 
 witted, wide-awake fellow as you will be likely 
 to find at eight years of age. He was a boy 
 who developed constantly in the line of schemes. 
 Daring ones, intricate in their nature, were con 
 stantly appearing to him to be worked up. 
 Some of these plans were practical, and others 
 were decidedly and hopelessly the reverse ; but 
 of this last he could never be convinced by 
 previous experience ; each individual plan had 
 to be faithfully tried before he was ready to 
 abandon it. 
 
 His last experiment had been a missionary
 
 " Good Measure" 507 
 
 meeting among the boys, suddenly projected on 
 his mother without word of warning. Three 
 gatherings had been held, and with a code of 
 laws that, to say the least, was original, and a 
 programme that was unique, enthusiasm was 
 still at white heat. His mother, looking on, 
 wondering whether this was really seed, spring 
 ing up on fertile soil, or a dream that would 
 come to naught, did what she could to encour 
 age the small people, and bided her time. " If 
 I had only planned it for him," she told herself, 
 smiling over some of the quaint plans which she 
 had not made, " perhaps it might really have 
 developed well ; but how could I plan when the 
 queer little fellow started it up suddenly, appar 
 ently full fledged? Never mind, out of the 
 mouths of babes He has ordained praise ; 
 perhaps this will grow to his prnise." One 
 thing seemed certain, that if he lived, Warren 
 Spafford would in some way fulfil the hopes 
 of his babyhood ; for if his enthusiasm could 
 be said to center on any. one thing, and hold 
 itself with an ever increasing fervor, that 
 thing was the world of missions. 
 
 Standing at the front window of the house
 
 508 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 opposite her own was a pale-faced, hollow-eyed, 
 discontented-looking woman ; if you had been 
 near to her, you would not have had to look 
 very closely to trace lines of unrest, many and 
 heavily marked, on her white, dreary face. 
 She had aged in the passing years far more 
 than the other ladies, which possibly you 
 will not think strange when I tell you she 
 is Jennie Coleman, and that she has come to 
 live with her cousin, Mrs. Evans. That last 
 sentence gives you a hint, at least, of family 
 disunion and trouble. 
 
 Speedy as Mrs. Spafford s transit had been, 
 her neighbor had reached home before her, 
 and was np-stairs now, ready to have Mrs. 
 Coleman s ceaseless observations on passers by 
 poured at her. 
 
 " There is Gallic ! I wonder why she per 
 sists in wearing that cloak? It is too short 
 for the present style, and never became her 
 very well, either. But then I know why she 
 wears it ; just because she is too penurious 
 to get another. That is just like Callie 
 Spafford, and it was just like Callie Howell. 
 I should think she might remember now, that
 
 " G-ood Measure." 509 
 
 she is a rich woman ; but it is inborn, that 
 trait in her character. She is just as careful 
 and economical as when she was first married 
 and lived in that old little house. Do you 
 remember that day we met her at the store, 
 and she wouldn t buy asparagus because it 
 was so expensive ? Well, I met her down 
 town yesterday, and pointed out some elegant 
 hot-house grapes to her. They were so lovely 
 they fairly made my mouth water ; and do 
 you believe she wouldn t buy them ? She 
 said they were out of season, and so expen 
 sive that she must not look their way. The 
 idea of her talking that way, and her husband 
 a partner in one of the largest houses in the 
 city!" 
 
 Mrs. Evans laughed. Once her face would 
 have flushed, and her eyes flashed over this 
 sort of comment on her friend ; but she had 
 learned at last to live away above Jennie s 
 unwearied tongue, accounting it as not of the 
 smallest consequence save to her own bitter 
 heart what the poor tongue kept saying. 
 
 " I suppose she thinks she must be consci 
 entious in the use of money even though
 
 510 The Pocket Measure* 
 
 she has considerable," she said pleasantly. 
 
 " Oh, conscientious, that s all nonsense ! " ve 
 hemently declared Mrs. Coleman. " She was 
 lorn so and cannot help it, I tell you. It is 
 just as natural for her to save as it is to 
 breathe, and I must say I think it is an ex 
 ceedingly unbecoming trait ; it did well enough 
 when she was poor, but in her present cir 
 cumstances it is very noticeable. You are not 
 naturally that way, Eva ; I don t think as a 
 girl you were in the least penurious, but you 
 are so fond of copying Callie Spafford that 
 I tremble for you. It is growing real hard 
 for you to buy anything that you can do 
 without. Such a low, poverty-stricken position 
 to take when there is no manner of occasion." 
 
 Now, when we consider the fact that Mrs. 
 Evans was daily spending money for the care 
 and comfort of this, her homeless cousin, she 
 might perhaps be pardoned for feeling the 
 plain words a trifle ; but they provoked from 
 her only a smile ; they were actually too foolish 
 to feel. 
 
 " Oh, you must remember that Mr. and Mrs. 
 Spafford frequently prove the fact that they
 
 " Q-ood Measure" 511 
 
 have money, by the way in which they give 
 it, if they don t by spending," she said, speak 
 ing lightly. 
 
 "Oh, give! I am not likely to forget it. 
 That is another hobby of theirs which they 
 ride to death. I think it is quite as silly an 
 extreme as the other ; the idea of the Spaf- 
 fords giving two hundred dollars to the col 
 lection for Foreign Missions in addition to all 
 that she does in the Band ! It is perfectly 
 absurd. Millionaires don t do much more than 
 that. It is nothing but pride ; scrimp and save 
 to see how much they can give. That is an 
 other thing in which you and Dane are copy 
 ing as hard as you can. I don t see how Dane 
 can do it; he seems to be independent enough 
 about some things. You never were inde 
 pendent, Eva, but I wouldn t tie myself down 
 to any copy if I were you." 
 
 " That is really what I am trying to do," 
 said Mrs. Evans, sweetly and simply ; " He is 
 our pattern, you know ; Dane and I both want 
 to copy him very closely." 
 
 " Oh, pshaw ! " said Mrs. Coleman, giving an 
 impatient twitch to her shoulders, her whole
 
 512 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 face gathering in a frown ; she called all such 
 words cant. After a moment of irritable si 
 lence she went back to the charge : " I declare 
 I believe Gallic Spafford is a monomaniac on 
 giving ; and she is bringing up her child to be 
 just like her. He has a rosewood box perched 
 on the mantle in his own room, and he took 
 me in to see it the other night, and talked to 
 me about his tenths as largely as though he 
 were a merchant prince ; for all the world 
 like his father ; earning money he is, too, 
 like the child of a day laborer. Well, Callie 
 was a queer girl in every respect, and she 
 has certainly made a queer woman." Then 
 the flow of talk was interrupted by a long- 
 drawn sigh, and after a moment she added 
 in a low, dreary voice : " It is a strange world. 
 Think of you two girls beginning life as poor 
 as } r ou did ; and your husbands, in just these 
 few years, on the way to being rich men, while 
 I am a miserable, wrecked woman, no home, no 
 husband, no friends." 
 
 And the talk ended as it so often did in 
 a burst of sobs. Poor Jennie Coleman ! It 
 was of no avail to attempt consolation, Mrs.
 
 Good Measure" 513 
 
 Evans knew this by past experience only too 
 well. At such times words only seemed to have 
 power to irritate. She was deeply, painfully 
 sorry for her cousin ; but there was no truthful 
 way of saying so, without leaving at least the 
 inference that much of the fault of her wretched 
 life was her own. No husband ! not that the 
 grave had closed over him. Mrs. Evans could 
 not fail to see that the unloving wife would 
 have been better pleased if it had. The Tin- 
 wearied exertions of Dane Evans and Mr. 
 Spafford had at last prevailed, and the wreck 
 of the once "perfect gentleman," Will Coleman, 
 had consented to shut himself inside the walls 
 of an inebriate asylum. Whether he would 
 ever come back into the world of men a 
 saved man, God only knew. One of the hardest 
 features of it all was, that his miserable, dis 
 appointed wife not only had no hope of him, 
 but did not seem to want to have. Think 
 ing of it all of the eagerness of this young 
 couple to be rich, of the strides towards it 
 which they thought themselves making ; of 
 the family across the way, and the almost un 
 broken tide of prosperity that had flowed in
 
 514 The Pocket Measure. 
 
 upon them since the hour when they held to 
 principle rather than to bread (if there must 
 a choice be made), thinking of their own signal 
 leading, and of the wonderful " tenths " which 
 God had given to both families in these last 
 years Mrs. Evans thought, but by no means 
 said : " There is that maketh himself rich, yet 
 hath nothing. There is that maketh himself 
 poor, yet hath great riches." Was that verse 
 written for the purpose of giving to the world 
 a history of these three families? When will 
 the world by observation learn wisdom? 
 
 " Mamma," said young Warren, his cheeks 
 very red, his eyes aglow; "we made a thank 
 offering to-day. I told the boys about your 
 thank offering in the Band, you know, and they 
 liked it, and they each gave a cent more than 
 their tenths, and you know the gold dollar that 
 Uncle Dane gave me for my birthday ; well, I 
 gave the half of that for a thank offering. 
 We gave it because we are all so happy, and 
 having a grand time. Wasn t that a good 
 reason, mamma ? " A thoughtful pause, during 
 which the bright, dark eyes took on a gleam, as 
 though within the soul was born some great re-
 
 Good Measure." 515 
 
 solve, and then he said : " Mamma, I am going 
 to pray to Jesus to make me well enough off 
 when I m a man so that I can give half of my 
 money for thank offerings. I mean half of what 
 is left after the tenths are taken out: of course 
 I d give them; they belong. But I want to 
 give something, you know, besides what be 
 longs ; and there ll be enough things to be 
 thankful for, won t there ? " 
 
 Looking down into his eager face and smiling 
 eyes, the mother stooped and kissed him, once 
 and again, and again, and repeated aloud to her 
 self rather than him, that old-time promise hav 
 ing this seal : " I have spoken it, I will also 
 bring it to pass: Give and it shall be given 
 unto you, good measure, pressed down, and 
 shaken together, and running over, shall men 
 give into your bosom. For with the same 
 measure that ye mete withal it shall be meas 
 ured to you again." 
 
 THE END.
 
 BOOKS FOR CLERGYMEN. 
 
 The Teachers Helper, by "Pansy" Mrs. George L. 
 Alden, is a volume which no teacher of Sunday-school 
 children can afford to do without. It is exactly what its 
 name signifies, a helper. No writer of books in this country 
 is better qualified to give advice to teachers than Pansy, and 
 could the volume now before us be put into the hands of 
 every one entrusted with the Scriptural teaching of children, 
 and further, could its suggestions be carried into practice, 
 the results would be surprising even to the most experienced 
 of Sunday-school workers. The Helper is intended as a 
 manual for the instruction of younger scholars, chiefly 
 series of class exercises to be pursued, based on the lessons 
 of the author s long experience as a teacher; explains how 
 they should be conducted; attacks certain popular notions 
 respecting the capacity of little children to learn and under 
 stand, and shows their absurdity; urges patience, earnest 
 ness and the exercise of judgment on the part of the teach 
 ers: and proffers an amount of good, sound advice on the 
 whole vast subject, that cannot help being an aid and en 
 couragement to any faithful or interested teacher. 
 
 Poetry is a hardly less powerful agency in arousing and 
 interesting the mind in religious matters than prose. Hymns 
 and spiritual songs play an important part in devotional ex 
 ercises and many hearts are impressed by the part which the 
 preacher fails to reach. The publishers have not been un 
 mindful of this fact, and their list includes several impor 
 tant volumes desisned to fill this need. Prominent among 
 them are Roundell Palmer s Book of Praise, containing the 
 choicest hymns which have been written, gathered from all 
 sources; He Leadeth Me, a collection of poems by English 
 authors of a purely devotional character; Songs of the Spirit, 
 edited by Bishop Odenheimer, and The Rock of Ages, a 
 volume of religious poetry compiled by the Rev. S. F. Smith- 
 D.D. All these are published in two editions one for 
 holiday presentation purposes and one in popular and 
 cheaper form. For religious gift books adapted to any sea, 
 son of the year are the small quartos, Jesus Lover of my Soul, 
 The Ninety andNine t and Miss Lathbury s Out of Darkness 
 into Light.
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CHIPS FKOM TUB WHITE HOUSE. 12 mo. 486 pp. $1.50 
 What the press says of it: 
 
 In this handsome volume of five hundred pages have been 
 brought together some of the most important utterances of 
 our twenty presidents, carefully selected from speeches and 
 addresses, public documents and private correspondence, 
 and touching upon a large variety of subjects. Golden 
 Rule, Boston. 
 
 Most of the extracts are dated and accompanied by brief 
 explanations of the circumstances under which they were 
 written, and the volume, therefore, if judiciously read, will 
 give a clearer idea of the character of the men than can be 
 gathered elsewhere by reading a small library through. 
 New York Graphic. 
 
 The selections are made with judgment and taste, and 
 represent not only the political status of the distinguished 
 writers, but also their social and domestic characteristics. 
 The book is interesting in itself, and specially valuable as 
 a convenient book of reference for students of American 
 history. Its mechanical presentation is all that can be 
 asked. Providence Journal. 
 
 Each chapter is prefaced by a brief synoposis of the life 
 and services of its subject, and most of the extracts are dated, 
 with brief explanations of the circumstances under which 
 they were written. The work, in fact, is a handbook. It 
 is convenient for reference of American history. It is 
 printed in clear, large type, is tastefully and strongly bound, 
 and is supplemented by a very full index. Woman s Jour 
 nal, Boston. 
 
 The book is thoroughly good ; none better could be 
 placed in the hands of young persons. By the light of 
 these they can see the reflection of the character of the 
 grand men who have been called to rule over the Nation 
 during its existence. No other nation ever had such a 
 succsssion of rulers, where so few have proved failures. 
 Inter Ocean, Chicago.
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Egypt* occupied the geographical centre of the ancient 
 world. It was fertile and attractive. Its inhabitants were 
 polished, cultivated, and warlike. Its great cities were cen 
 tres of wealth and civilization, and from the most distant 
 countries came scholars and travellers to learn wisdom under 
 Egyptian masters and study the arts, sciences and govern 
 mental policy of the country. While surrounding nations 
 were sunk in primitive barbarism Egypt shone as the patron 
 of arts and acquirements. With a natural thirst for con 
 quest she introduced a system of military tactics which 
 made her armies almost invincible. Her wisdom was a 
 proverb among the surrounding nations. " If a philoso 
 pher," says Wilkinson, "sought knowledge, Egypt was the 
 school; if a prince required a physician it was to Egypt that 
 lie applied: if any material point perplexed the decision of 
 Kings or councils, to Egypt it was referred, and the arms of 
 a Pharaoh were the hope and frequently the protection, even 
 at a late period, of a less powerful ally. It would surprise 
 many readers to know how much in customs, social and 
 religious, has come down to us from this ancient people. 
 Placing the ring on the bride s finger at marriage is an in 
 stance. The Egyptian gold pieces were in the form of rings, 
 and the husband placed one on the finger of his wife as an 
 emblem of the fact that he entrusted her henceforth with 
 all his property. The celebration of Twelfth Day and Cand 
 lemas are Egyptian festivals under different names. The 
 Catholic priest sliaves his head because the Egyptian priests 
 did the same ages before; the English clergyman reads the 
 liturgy in a linen dress because linen was the dress of the 
 Egyptians, and more than two thousand years before the 
 bishop of the Church of Rome pretended to hold the keys 
 of heaven and hell there was a priest in Egypt whose title 
 was the Appointed Keeper of the Two Doors of Heaven. 
 
 It is not strange that the story of this people and country 
 should be so fascinating. There is an element of the mys 
 terious in it which attracts even the reader who does not 
 care for historical reading in general. In the preparation 
 of her work Mrs. Clement has not only had the advantage 
 of extensive reading upon the subject, but of personal travel 
 and knowledge. She has skilfully condensed the vast 
 amount of material at her command, and presents to the 
 reading public a volume which needs only to be examined 
 to become a standard. 
 
 * Egypt. By Mrs. Clara Erskine Clement. Lothrop s Library of Enter- 
 aining History. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $ 1.50.
 
 BOOKS FOR CLERGYMEN. 
 
 The list of D. Lothrop & Go s more important books is 
 especially rich iu works prepared to meet the wants of 
 clergymen, Sunday-school superintendents and teachers. 
 Among them are collections of sermons by eminent preach 
 ers, full of thought, and abounding in practical suggestions; 
 essays upon doctrinal points ; discussions of various methods 
 of preaching and teaching; church history and biography; 
 books of scriptural reference and exegesis, and collections of 
 poetry of a devotional character. They are invaluable as 
 working tools for carrying on the practical work of the 
 church. Some of thorn have been before the public for 
 years and have gained a high and secure place iu the esti 
 mation of the clergy and teachers alike; others, not less im 
 portant or helpful in character, are new, and result from 
 later needs in the church and Sunday-school. 
 
 How to Conduct Prayer Meetings, by Rev. Lewis O 
 Thompson, comes prominently under this list, a volume 
 which has attained a wide popularity. Dr. Thompson s 
 theory of what a prayer-meeting should be is based upon the 
 fact that it is, in the main, a gathering of professing Chris 
 tians for conference and edification, and not a revival ser 
 vice for the conversion of the impenitent. The inquiry 
 meeting has taken the place of the former revival prayer- 
 meetings to a great extent, and has been found far more 
 efficacious in producing results. A brief introduction is 
 furnished by the Eev. J. H. Vincent, D. D., in which the 
 work is warmly commended to the notice of all Christian 
 workers, for its sound, practical sense, and deep religions 
 purpose. Nor will Dr. Vincent be alone in his estimate of 
 its worth. It should be read by every pastor, by every 
 class leader, by every church member. It will serve to clear 
 away many false impressions, inspire fresh ardor and en 
 thusiasm among hike-warm church goers, and will be an 
 efficient aid in the promotion of Christian feeling and 
 Christian work.
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 A BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS, OF ALL TIMES AND LANDS. 
 Gathered and narrated by Charlotte M. Yonge. Illustrated. 
 Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.25. The rapidly 
 increasing popularity of this little volume, and the steady 
 demand for it have induced the Messrs. Lothrop to bring 
 out a new edition in handsome form and yet at a price 
 which brings it within the reach of every reader. Excellent 
 as are all Miss Yonge s books, there is not one which appeals 
 so strongly to young readers as this collection of stories and 
 traditions, gathered from many sources, and presented for 
 the purpose of inculcating a love for what is noble and true 
 in the minds of the young. The author s intention has been 
 to make it a treasury, where may be found minuter particu 
 lars than are given in abridged histories, of the soul-stirring 
 deeds that lend life and glory to the record of events, in the 
 trust that example may inspire the spirit of heroism and 
 self-rlevotion, and give proof that the highest object of ac 
 tion is not to win promotion, wealth or success, but simple 
 duty, mercy and loving-kindness. Miss Yonge has chosen 
 from history some of the most remarkable instances of 
 moral and physical bravery, and has clothed them in lan 
 guage befitting her theme. Many of them are familiar, but 
 we have never before seen them rendered in so charming a 
 form, or in a manner where the true motive of action was so 
 plainly and effectually brought out. The volume is printed 
 in clear type, on good paper, and is attractively bound. 
 
 FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ; and How They Grew. By Mar 
 garet Sidney. Thirty-six illustrations by Jessie Curtis. 
 Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.50. Of all the new 
 juveniles in this season s list there is not one which will be 
 read with more delight by the little ones than this jolly 
 story. It is a genuine child s book, written by one who 
 understands and sympathizes with children. The incidents 
 are just such as might have happened, and pathos and 
 humor are skilfully mingled in their telling. The illustra 
 tions are charming, and worthy the reputation of the artist
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SOME CURIOUS SCHOOLS; or, Climbing the Ladder. Bos 
 ton: D. Lot.hrop& Co. Price $1.00. This is a new and 
 enlarged edition of one of the most popular volumes in last 
 season s list. It is not merely a book of entertaining 
 sketches, but a series of descriptions of institutions devoted 
 to peculiar or technical purposes, which hold place in pur 
 pose and method outside the usual educational establish 
 ments. They include " The Children s Hour (New York 
 Art School)"; "Boston Whittling School"; "Reform 
 School at Mettray"; "The Training School Ship Minne 
 sota"; "English and American Sewing Schools"; "The 
 Boston School for Deaf Mutes"; "The Flower School at 
 Corlear s Hook"; "Philadelphia School of Reform"; 
 " Cadet Life at West Point " ; " The Perkins Institution for 
 the Blind"; "The Chinese Mission School"; "Lady Bet 
 ty s Cooking School" ; " A Day Nursery," and "Some 
 Indian Schools." The descriptions are all by popular writers, 
 and the illustrations were drawn expressly for them by such 
 artists as Miss L. B. Humphrey, Jessie Curtis, Mary A. 
 Lathbury and Herman Faber. 
 
 Two YOUNG HOMESTEADERS. By Mrs. Theodora R. 
 Jenness. With 36 illustrations by Robert Lewis. Boston: 
 D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.50. Here is a story of life on 
 the Kansas border, its characters drawn from real life, and 
 told in the most fascinating way. Mrs. Jenness is coming 
 to the front as one of the best writers of magazine stories in 
 the country, and her reputation might easily rest upon this 
 single serial. It is a series of life pictures in the far West, 
 descriptions of the experiences of border settlers. The 
 two young homesteaders " are a plucky young girl and her 
 brother, who attempt to carry on a small farm in Western 
 Kansas. It gives a capital idea of the difficulties with which 
 pioneer settlers have to .contend, and of the perils which 
 they sometimes have to undergo. Every boy and girl ought 
 to read it, and those who do so cannot fail while enjoying it 
 to draw lessons of strength and self-reliance from it.
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE YOUNG FOLKS BIBLE HISTORY. By Charlotte M. 
 Yonse. Boston : D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.50. The pres 
 ent volume is not only important in itself, but it is an addi 
 tional proof of the wonderful versatility of the author. 
 The same hand that so successfully set before young readers 
 the stories of the growth and development of the different 
 countries of Europe, here puts the grand old Bible story 
 into a form which the youngest readers can easily compre 
 hend. The language is simple and the facts are told in 
 modern style; one great stumbling-block to the understand 
 ing being thus removed. Beginning with the account of the 
 creation, succeeding chapters carry along the Scriptural rec 
 ord to the time of the prophets, and from their day down^to 
 the appearance of the Saviour upon the earth. The life and 
 teachings of Jesus are especially dwelt upon. The volume 
 is profusely illustrated with drawings by English artists. We 
 cannot too cordially commend the plan of this work, nor the 
 excellent manner in which it is carried out. It will be found 
 not only valuable for home teaching, but for use in the in 
 fant classes of Sunday-schools. 
 
 The New York Tribune in a notice of Amanda B. Harris s 
 "How We Went Birds -nesting " says: "It is written with 
 charming simplicity of style, and its ornithology is taken 
 directly from nature and not from books. There is some 
 thing of the spirit of adventure in the book, and as the 
 youthful reader of dime novels is filled with a desire to go 
 out West and hunt Indians, so the boys and girls who read 
 this little volume will be prompted to visit the haunts of the 
 birds and will have their powers of observation directed and 
 sharpened."
 
 BOOKS FOR CLERGYMEN. 
 
 Prof. Austin Phelps, of Andover, says of the late Rev. 
 Nehemiah Adams: It is the charm of Dr. Adams s style 
 and method in preaching, that truth fitted by its profound 
 ness to the most thoughtful hearers, is made clear to the 
 most illiterate. Few men have adorned the American 
 pulpit with a broader reach in adaptation to different 
 classes of mind." We cannot commend too warmly the 
 volumes which contain the selected discourses of Dr. 
 Adams They are full of meat, and will be invaluable to 
 clergymen as models of style and thought. At Eventide, 
 published two or three years since, has won its way to a 
 steady demand. Walks to Emmaus, the first volume of a 
 proposed series of six, embraces two sermons for each Sal> 
 bath of the entire year, and is adapted for the pulpit, the 
 sick room or the library. Each of the six volumes now in 
 preparation, to be issued every year or two, will be complete 
 in itself, although forming a part of this work designed as 
 " one year s discourses." Every evangelical minister, theo 
 logical student, and household should possess this crowning 
 work of this eminent divine, and standard religious writer. 
 
 Of other works of Dr. Adams which claim a place in every 
 Christian household there is Aynes; or, The Little Key, a 
 book which the Congregationalist says: * We believe it will, 
 go down the ages in company with Bunyan s Pile/rim s Pro 
 gress, Jeremy Taylor s Holy Living, and Baxter s Saint s 
 Best;" The Communion Sabbath, Tie Friends of Christ 
 and a companion volume, Christ a Friend. Broadcast is a 
 collection of choice original thoughts admirably expressed. 
 An edition of Dr. Adams s work in 11 volumes has been is 
 sued by the Messrs. Lothrop at $1.00 per volume. It in 
 cludes in addition to those already mentioned, Catherine, 
 Endless Punishment, Bertha and her Baptism and The Cross 
 in the Cell. 
 
 Akin in aim and interest to Dr. Adams s works are Dr. 
 Wayland s volume of University sermons, Salvation by 
 Christ; the Bremen Lectures on Fundamental Relic/ions 
 Questions, a new and enlarged edition; Rev. J. ( haplin s 
 Memorial Hour; Tholuck s Hour s of Christian Devotion; 
 Prof. Austin Phelps Still Hour and New Birth; The Seven 
 Words from the Cross, by Rev, W. H. Adams, and Butter- 
 worth s Notable Prayers of Christian History.
 
 POPULAR BOOKS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH BANVARD, D. D. 
 
 FIRST EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA; or, DISCOVERIES 
 AND ADVENTURES IN THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 PIONEERS OF THE NEW WORLD. 
 SOUTHERN EXPLORERS AND COLONISTS. 
 
 PLYMOUTH AND THE PILGRIMS ; or, INCIDENTS OF ADVENTURE IN 
 THE HISTORY OF THB FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 SOLDIERS AND PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLU 
 TION. 
 
 Every library should be furnished with this series of American Histories. 
 New England Farmer. 
 
 No more interesting and instructive reading can be put into the hands of 
 youth.- Portland Transcript. 
 
 Every American should own these books. Scientific American. 
 
 All published uniform with this volume Price $1.25 each. Sold by all 
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 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.* 
 
 In this handsome volume of SCO pages have been 
 brought together some of the most important utterances of 
 our twenty presidents, carefully selected from speeches and 
 addresses, public documents and private correspondence, 
 and touching upon a large variety of subjects. Some of 
 them occupy several pages, while others are in the form of 
 aphorisms, and show the power which most of our presi 
 dents have had of putting things graphically and to the 
 point. Thus, John Adams says: " Genius is oftener an in 
 strument of divine vengeance than a guardian angel; 
 " Wise statesmen, like able artists of every kind, study na 
 ture, and their works are perfect in proportion as they con 
 form to her laws " ; Jefferson, " An honest heart being the 
 first blessing, a knowing head is the second"; "The man 
 who fights for the country is entitled to vote "; Madison, 
 "Justice is the end of government"; "The union of the 
 States is strengthened by every occasion which puts it to the 
 test"; Jackson, "There are no necessary evils in govern 
 ment. Its evils exist only in abuses"; "No man is good 
 enough to govern another man without that other s con 
 sent"; "There are two pjinciples that have stood face to 
 face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to 
 struggle: the one is the common right of humanity, and the 
 other is the divine right of things." We might fill pages 
 with these terse and telling paragraphs, had we space, to 
 show what the compiler claims, that "in the regular suc 
 cession of rulers, the chief magistrates of the United States 
 have all been men of fair reputation and abilities, and many 
 of them men of superior literary ability and singular devo 
 tion to the interests of humanity and freedom." 
 
 .The contents are chronologically arranged, the names of 
 the different presidents following each other in consecutive 
 order from Washington to Garfield. Each chapter is pre 
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 ations of the circumstances under which they were written. 
 The work, in fact, is a handbook from which the reader 
 may learn more of the real characters of the men who form 
 the subject of its contents than from any other single vol 
 ume of which we have knowledge. 
 
 The selections are made with admirable judgment, and 
 with the purpose of showing not only the peculiar political 
 opinions of the writers, but their social and domestic char 
 acteristics. Aside from its interest, the volume is invalua 
 ble as a convenient book of reference for the student, young 
 or old, of American history. It is printed in clear, large 
 type, is tastefully and strongly bound, and is supplemented 
 by a very full index. 
 
 Chips from the White House. Compiled by Jeremiah Chaplin. Boston : 
 D. Lothrop & Co. Price $i 50.
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE TEMPTER BEHIND. By the Author of " Israel Mort, 
 Overman." Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.25. Most 
 readers of fiction will remember "Israel Mort, Overman," a 
 book which created several years ago a profound sensation 
 both in this country and in England. It was a work of in 
 tense strength and showed such promise on the part of the 
 anonymous author that a succeeding work from the same 
 hand has ever since been anxiously looked for, in the belief 
 that, should it be written, it would make a yet more decided 
 impression. " The Tempter Behind," now just brought out 
 in this country, shows that the estimate of the public as to 
 the ability of the author was not too high. It is in every 
 way a higher and stronger work, and one that cannot but 
 have a marked effect wherever it is read. It is not merely an 
 intensely interesting story; something more earnest than 
 the mere excitement of incident underlies the book. It is 
 the record of the struggles of a young and ambitious student 
 against the demon of drink. He is an orphan the ward of 
 a rich uncle who proposes to settle his entire property upon 
 him in case he conforms to his wishes. It is the desire of 
 the uncle that he shall become a clergyman, a profession for 
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 The terrible thirst for intoxicants paralyses his will, and 
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 The story of his experiences, trials and temptations are viv 
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