m. Life came slowly
back to the stilled heart, and it was nearly half an hour before the
circle of motion was fully restored.

Then, the twain, with their child, tenderly borne in the arms of her
father, went sadly homeward, leaving more than one heart heavier for
their visit.

I saw more of the landlord's wife on this occasion than before. She had
acted with a promptness and humanity that impressed me very favorably.
It was plain, from her exclamations on learning that her husband's hand
inflicted the blow that came so near destroying the child's life, that
her faith for good in the tavern-keeping experiment had never been
strong. I had already inferred as much. Her face, the few times I had
seen her, wore a troubled look; and I could never forget its
expression, nor her anxious, warning voice, when she discovered Frank
sipping the dregs from a glass in the bar-room.

It is rarely, I believe, that wives consent freely to the opening of
taverns by their husbands; and the determination on the part of the
latter to do so, is not unfrequently attended with a breach of
confidence and good feeling never afterward fully healed. Men look
close to the money result; women to the moral consequences. I doubt if
there be one dram-seller in ten, between whom and his wife there exists
a good understanding--to say nothing of genuine affection. And, in the
exceptional cases, it will generally be found that the wife is as
mercenary, or careless of the public good, as her husband. I have known
some women to set up grog-shops; but they were women of bad principles
and worse hearts. I remember one case, where a woman, with a sober,
church-going husband, opened a dram-shop. The husband opposed,
remonstrated, begged, threatened--but all to no purpose. The wife, by
working for the clothing stores, had earned and saved about three
hundred dollars. The love of money, in the slow process of
accumulation, had been awakened; and, in ministering to the depraved
appetites of men who loved drink and neglected their families, she saw
a quicker mode of acquiring the gold she coveted. And so the dram-shop
was opened. And what was the result? The husband quit going to church.
He had no heart for that; for, even on the Sabbath day, the fiery
stream was stayed not in his house. Next he began to tipple. Soon,
alas! the subtle poison so pervaded his system that morbid desire came;
and then he moved along quick-footed in the way of ruin. In less than
thre