lous. She must be
getting to her work again. Would the mistress be after letting her earn
something--on the parlor floor, she tremulously added. Smiling sadly,
permission was granted. Fondly the old creature took up her broom and
duster--bought anew for her--and limped painfully toward the beloved
rooms--the bridal chambers--the choicest suites where beauty and fashion
came. What a journey now! The grand parlors and long corridors were
interminable vistas of elegance and luxury. And--ah! what was that
clinging to the velvet carpet pile? A bit of paper carelessly let fall?
And--yes, was there dust on the polished marble of yon table? Alas! that
her dim eyes should live to behold the desecration. What shiftless
wretch was doing the parlor floor, and she a useless block in her room!

The shock told. She staggered to a gorgeous sofa near the offending bit
of rubbish, and sunk down in the act of reaching for it. This was the
beginning of the end. Lying on her bed sleep deserted the fading eyes.
An attendant was provided, who grew accustomed to mutterings she could
not understand. She ceased to listen. In pity the mistress came often
and sat beside the couch. She listened and understood. She gathered the
last wishes of the dying, and received as a sacred charge all that the
sufferer had to leave. Still the angel of death tarried, until sweet
peace shed a radiance over the departing soul, whose faith was steadfast
to church and heaven.

At the first faint ray of dawn the mistress arose and went to her. The
bed was empty, the nurse asleep. Following the instinct of the moment,
the lady hastened along the quiet corridors to where the night taper
showed the still form of the devoted veteran stretched out on the thick,
soft carpet, her cold fingers clasping the new broom and duster.

My First Jury Case

THE DOG WITNESS

The court-house was crowded to its utmost capacity. Women as well as men
were there to hear the arguments in the case of the Commonwealth against
William Grant for the alleged murder of John Belt.

Grant was a young man of handsome exterior and pleasing manners. He sat
in the prisoner's box, and near him, closely veiled, was his beautiful
girlish wife, with her arm around a fine, manly boy, and her head bowed
upon his sunny curls.

Near the group were the surviving relatives of the dead man, consisting
of the wife, mother and daughter. Their faces were heavy and stolid, and
their whole appearance in