p on that point, she would come right on if
she met with a railroad accident every other train--if she is a
delicate little body."

"Well, you look tired enough to drop," said Mrs. Lincoln, abruptly,
turning her head to conceal a smile. "I think you had better retire
early."

The clergyman was quite taken aback at this piece of advice; but Mr.
Lincoln relieved his astonishment by saying,--

"My wife, hoping that you might be cheered by the arrival of your
family, has been fixing up your room a bit, and I suppose she won't
rest to-night unless she sees how you like the improvements."

And Mrs. Lincoln opening the door into his apartment, the missionary
saw before him his three children, sleeping peacefully in their nice
beds, and his wife seated in a rocking-chair, exercising a world of
self-control, in order to carry out the plot of surprising him.

CHAPTER X.

"NO WHISKEY AT THIS RAISING!"

If the Scottish bard found it a hard experience that

'The best laid schemes of mice and men
Gang oft agla'

in staid old Scotland, how would he have sung if his lot had been cast
amid the vicissitudes of frontier life on an American prairie?

We speak of the uncertainties of all earthly expectations where
society organized, helps man in a thousand ways to achieve his plans;
but there is nothing settled in a new country: everything is in
embryo, and therefore disappointments are indefinitely multiplied.
When the immigrant arrives at his destination, he soon finds that his
most reasonable projects prove to be the veriest air-castles, and that
his reliance must be on Providence and his own strong arm. This state
of things is specially trying to the man of small means and
unaccustomed to physical toil, as was the case with Mr. Payson. The
settlers, especially those of religious character, had made, in true
western style, many and generous promises to induce him to live among
them. They designed to keep their engagements with him; but a thousand
contingencies were continually arising, which they could not foresee,
to render the fulfilment of their agreements impossible. But perhaps
no failure in this direction had tried the missionary so much as that
connected with the erection of a dwelling-house. Mr. Palmer had
voluntarily made him the offer of money for that purpose, and if any
man could be depended upon, it was he; but he had invested his funds
in the new town. He was a pr