ders the nursery a place of punishment instead of a
place of pleasure. Young Mrs. Wrathall was here yesterday all in a
twitter of pleasure, because her husband is letting her take lessons in
music and drawing."

"Why, mother, she must be thirty years old. What did you say to her?"

"I reminded her that she had four little children and the world could
get along without water-color sketches and amateur music, but that it
could not possibly get along without wives and mothers."

"You might have also told her, mother, that if the Progressive Club
would read history, they might find out that those times in any nation
when wives were ornaments and not mothers were always periods of
national decadence and moral failures."

"Well, John, you won't get women to search history for results that
wouldn't please them; and to expect a certain kind of frivolous, selfish
woman to look beyond her own pleasure is to expect the great miracle
that will never come. You can't expect it."

"But Jane is neither frivolous nor selfish."

"I am glad to hear it."

"Is that all you can say, mother?"

"All. Every word. Between you and her I will not stand. I have given her
my mind. It is all I have to give her at present. I want to hear
something about Harry. Whatever is he coming to Yoden for? Yoden will
take a goodish bit of money to run it and if he hasn't a capable wife,
he had better move out as soon as he moves in."

Then John told her the whole truth about Harry's position--his weariness
of his profession, his indifference to business, and his temptation to
gamble.

"The poor lad! The poor lad!" she cried. "He began all wrong. He has
just been seeking his right place all these years."

"Well, mother, we cannot get over the stile until we come to it. I think
Harry has crossed it now. And there could not be a better wife and
mother than Lucy Hatton. You will help and advise her, mother? I am sure
you will."

"I will do what I can, John. She ought to have called the little girl
after me. I can scarce frame myself to love her under Agnes. However, it
is English enough to stick in my memory and maybe it may find the way to
my heart. As to Harry, he is my boy, and I will stand by him everywhere
and in every way I can. He is sweet and true-hearted, and clever on all
sides--the dangerous ten talents, John! We ought to pity and help him,
for their general heritage is

"The ears to hear,
The eyes to see,
And the hands