housekeeper you are going to make!"

Aggy's heart bounded with a new emotion. Her young cheeks glowed,
and her blue eyes sparkled. If the pleasure she felt lacked any
thing of pure delight, a single glance at her mother's face made all
complete.

"When did you hear from your daughter?" asked Mrs. Markland.

There was a change of countenance and a sigh.

"Oh! ma'am, if Lotty were only here, I would be happy, even in
sickness and suffering. It's very hard to be separated from my
child."

"She is in Charleston?"

"Yes, ma'am,"

"Is her husband doing well?"

"I can't say that he is. He isn't a very thrifty man, though steady
enough."

"Why did they go to Charleston?"

"He thought he would do better there than here; but they haven't
done as well, and Lotty is very unhappy."

"Do they talk of returning?"

"Yes, ma'am; they're both sick enough of their new home. But then it
costs a heap of money to move about with a family, and they haven't
saved any thing. And, more than this, it isn't just certain that
James could get work right away if he came back. Foolish fellow that
he was, not to keep a good situation when he had it! But it's the
way of the world, Mrs. Markland, this ever seeking, through change,
for something better than Heaven awards in the present."

"Truly spoken, Mrs. Elder. How few of us possess contentment; how
few extract from the present that good with which it is ever
supplied! We read the fable of the dog and the shadow, and smile at
the folly of the poor animal; while, though instructed by reason, we
cast aside the substance of to-day in our efforts to grasp the
shadowy future. We are always looking for the blessing to come; but
when the time of arrival is at hand, what seemed so beautiful in the
hazy distance is shorn of its chief attraction, or dwarfed into
nothingness through contrast with some greater good looming grandly
against the far horizon."

Mrs. Markland uttered the closing sentence half in reverie; for her
thoughts were away from the sick woman and the humble apartment in
which she was seated. There was an abstracted silence of a few
moments, and she said:

"Speaking of your daughter and her husband, Mrs. Elder; they are
poor, as I understand you?"

"Oh yes, ma'am; it is hand-to-mouth with them all the time. James is
kind enough to Lotty, and industrious in his way; but his work never
turns to very good account."

"What business does he follow?"

"He's a cooper by tr