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panion of the true and faithful husband sketched in a previous chapter. Cheerful, industrious, modest, pure, affectionate, devoted, faithful, and truly religious, she moves in the charmed circle of home with

"Grace in her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love."

WOMAN'S CONSTANCY.

She loved you when your home and heart
Of fortune's smile could boast;
She saw that smile decay,-depart,―
And then she loved you most.

Oh, such the generous faith that glows
In woman's gentle breast;

'Tis like that star that stays and glows
Alone in night's dark vest;

That stays because each other ray
Has left the lonely shore,

And that the wanderer on his way

Then wants her light the more.-L. E. Landon.

XXI.

Miscellaneous Matrimonial Matters.

Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers,

We, who improve his golden hours.

By sweet experience know
That marriage, rightly understood,
Gives to the tender and the good
A Paradise below.-Cotton.

PLAIN TALK WITH A YOUNG MAN.

GOOD lady, Mrs. H. T. Stone, who, we are sure, is as liberally endowed with heart as she evidently is with brain, writes as follows to Cousin Anna's young "beau."

"How strangely events do shape themselves! When I first saw you at your father's well-spread table nine years ago, neither of us dreamed that we would ever meet in Aunt Jemima's parlor. Of course we all know why you were there: you were frank enough to tell me that you admired Anna, and ever had since you first saw her. Now I presume you and I see two Annas, or one Anna in different lights, for be assured, my friend (and I hope we are really friends), I am your senior by a few years, and believe it a truth that Love is blind.

"That Anna is pretty and intelligent no one can deny. "Youth is always beautiful," your mother once remarked to me as we were sewing in the hall, and I have since thought that she was at that moment recalling the lines-'See how on the faltering footsteps of decay youth presses, ever gay and beautiful youth.'

"But however lovely the spring, it is human nature to long for the fullness of summer, then to desire the fruitful autumn,

and before we are aware, an icy breath comes, and winter is upon us. And in life the seasons come but once; so let me entreat you cherish the present, and prepare that summer of your life which will yield you a happiness deep and lasting.

"You will laugh, I know, when I say that 'tis not improbable that you do not fully see how many pleasant circumstances. conspire to make life look bright and the course run smoothly. We do not know how sweet sweetness is until we taste the bitter, and bitterness of heart never is forgotten. In a home where abundance is a rule, you have not felt a tinge of real want; even when away in the army, you knew that in the pleasant home there was the good father ready to help you at any moment.

PLEASURES OF COURTSHIP.

“To-night you are probably sitting in Aunt Jemima's parlor again. You are well dressed, the pretty black horse at the gate is shining from its well-kept stable, the new buggy is polished and trim, Anna is neatly dressed, and as sweet as a Scotch rose (to me they are the sweetest of all roses), and it would be strange if you did not enjoy yourself.

"And in the home you left an hour ago, how is it? If your sister does have a beau, I hope he is as near perfection as a man can come, for she is a rare girl. But perhaps she is reading some good book of which the table is always full, and your sedate brother is of course reading something deep and wise, he always does, and your father is meditating. Do remember, my dear friend, it is autumn with him, and he mourns

'For the tender grace of a day that is dead,
And the sound of a voice that is still.'

"You will have a swift ride home, at a late hour, a short, happy sleep, which will begin with an airy dream of Anna, and end with Anna too. The farm-work will all go on; sister will have a nice breakfast and later a good dinner; you will work briskly all the forenoon, running up to your room before dinner to play a few notes on the flute, and build another small castle in the air for Anna, and so the days go on.

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Too YOUNG TO MARRY.

"While you are there to-night, though, Aunt Jemima is obliged to think what she will have for breakfast, and will wish she had a new carpet for the parlor, and wonder in her heart whether she had better stop your coming or let it go on— go on to the wedding-day, you see, don't you? Anna will not be fit to marry for three years, at least. True, she can cook, and bake, and sew neatly, but she is too young to take the many cares of married life. Only a few days after I left you, when Aunt Jemima had gone out for a visit, she came home to find Anna had entirely forgotten to feed the pig or milk the cow; and the cow had laid down in the darkness and couldn't be found. Aunt Jemima scolded, and Anna could only say she forgot. I half believed she was thinking of you, for she knew that the cow needed milking, as much as her own face needs washing every morning. I could forgive it all, for it is surely spring with her, and she is too tender to bear the sweat and burden of the summer.

GOOD ADVICE.

"Suppose, after a reasonable time, you are married. Does the thought send a thrill of joy to your heart? I hope so, for love is akin to Heaven, and true love bears and wears long. Still, if you should ever come home at night, after leaving Anna at home to do the evening work, with your head giddy, and your breath smelling of cigars-and something more, what would she think? I predict there would be a sudden gush of tears, and then a reproach in a tone that would cut like a razor. What could you say? Would you fire up and say, 'What the d-l are you making such a fuss about? I only had a little spree with some of the boys up town.' "Anna might possibly wish herself back with her mother, for very few husbands are as tender of their wives as mothers are of their daughters, and you would ask if a married man could not have a little fun once in a while. I answer No. The place of amusement which draws a man away from his family is no place for you. Marriage is a religion; there are

daily crosses which both should bear; and after the well-spent youth comes the joy of middle life, and with the joy new cares and sorrows; dear ones die, dear ones grow around us; by and by comes a twinge of age, and we remember that we all do fade as a leaf.'

"Do you see any meaning in all this? Be not hasty, and if you ever doubt the wisdom of any step, do not make the step. Above all, seek true wisdom, till you find it.

"It is not for Anna's sake that I write thus, it is for the sake of yourself, and your mother. If I only could talk to you as she could. I went to see her grave before I came back here, for I had never seen where they laid all that was mortal of her who was so excellent a friend, and daughter, and wife, and a mother. Don't seek your enjoyment altogether away from home. You owe it to them all to be a confiding brother and son. Love, like charity, begins at home. Go to see Anna if it is mutually pleasant, but do not go too often. And act yourself out naturally; we are too apt to wear a mask in lovemaking. When we get our better clothes and ride away, we are apt to leave some of our naughty self at home with the garments of sober toil and vexation.

66 Do you believe that? Now tell me what you think of all I have said."

A CONGRATULATORY LETTER.

"MY DEAR FRIENDS-I most heartily congratulate you on being married. But in your joy at the consummation of your wishes, do not forget that your happiness both here and hereafter depends-O how much!-upon each other's influence. An unkind word or look, or an unintentional neglect, sometimes leads to thoughts which ripen into the ruin of body and soul. A spirit of forbearance, patience, and kindness, and a determination to keep the chain of love bright, are likely to develop corresponding qualities, and to make the rough places of life smooth and pleasant. Have you ever reflected seriously that it is in the power of either of you to make the other utterly miserable? And when the storms and trials of life come, for come they will, how much either of you can do

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