ut with your wife it would be
different. You smile, but--why, you know she couldn't go there. And if
you put her anywhere where a lady ought to be, in New Orleans, she would
be--well, don't you see she would be about as far away as if she were in
Milwaukee? Richling, I don't know how it looks to you for me to be so
meddlesome, and I believe you think I'm making a very poor argument; but
you see this is only one point and the smallest. Now"--

Richling raised his thin hand, and said pleasantly:--

"It's no use. You can't understand; it wouldn't be possible to explain;
for you simply don't know Mary."

"But there are some things I do know. Just think; she's with her mother
where she is. Imagine her falling ill here,--as you've told me she used
to do,--and you with that bakery on your hands."

Richling looked grave.

"Oh no," continued the little man. "You've been so brave and patient,
you and your wife, both,--do be so a little bit longer! Live close; save
your money; go on rising in value in your business; and after a little
you'll rise clear out of the sphere you're now in. You'll command your
own time; you'll build your own little home; and life and happiness and
usefulness will be fairly and broadly open before you." Richling gave
heed with a troubled face, and let his companion draw him into the
shadow of that "St. Charles" from the foot of whose stair-way he had
once been dragged away as a vagrant.

"See, Richling! Every few weeks you may read in some paper of how a
man on some ferry-boat jumps for the wharf before the boat has touched
it, falls into the water, and-- Make sure! Be brave a little
longer--only a little longer! Wait till you're sure!"

"I'm sure enough!"

"Oh, no, you're not! Wait till this political broil is over. They say
Lincoln is elected. If so, the South is not going to submit to it.
Nobody can tell what the consequences are to be. Suppose we should have
war? I don't think we shall, but suppose we should? There would be a
general upheaval, commercial stagnation, industrial collapse, shrinkage
everywhere! Wait till it's over. It may not be two weeks hence; it can
hardly be more than ninety days at the outside. If it should the North
would be ruined, and you may be sure they are not going to allow _that_.
Then, when all starts fair again, bring your wife and baby. I'll tell
you what to do, Richling!"

"Will you?" responded the listener, with an amiable laugh that the
little man tried to