a
characteristic nod of her head: "John, Mary Midleton intends to marry,
else why, pray tell me, would she write of giving up teaching her
kindergarten class in the city, to spend the summer with us on the
farm learning, she writes, to keep house, cook, economize and to learn
how to get the most joy and profit from life?"

"Well, well! Mary is a dear girl, why should she not think of
marrying?" replied her husband; "she is nineteen. Quite time, I think,
she should learn housekeeping--something every young girl should know.
We should hear of fewer divorces and a less number of failures of men
in business, had their wives been trained before marriage to be good,
thrifty, economical housekeepers and, still more important, good
homemakers. To be a helpmate in every sense of the word is every
woman's duty, I think, when her husband works early and late to
procure the means to provide for her comforts and luxuries and a
competency for old age. Write Mary to come at once, and under your
teaching she may, in time, become as capable a housekeeper and as good
a cook as her Aunt Sarah; and, to my way of thinking, there is none
better, my dear."

Praise from her usually reticent husband never failed to deepen the
tint of pink on Aunt Sarah's still smooth, unwrinkled, youthful
looking face, made more charming by being framed in waves of silvery
gray hair, on which the "Hand of Time," in passing, had sprinkled some
of the dust from the road of life.

In size, Sarah Landis was a little below medium height, rather stout,
or should I say comfortable, and matronly looking; very erect for a
woman of her age. Her bright, expressive, gray eyes twinkled
humorously when she talked. She had developed a fine character by her
years of unselfish devotion to family and friends. Her splendid sense
of humor helped her to overcome difficulties, and her ability to rise
above her environment, however discouraging their conditions,
prevented her from being unhappy or depressed by the small annoyances
met daily. She never failed to find joy and pleasure in the faithful
performance of daily tasks, however small or insignificant. Aunt Sarah
attributed her remarkably fine, clear complexion, seldom equalled in a
woman of her years, to good digestion and excellent health; her love
of fresh air, fruit and clear spring water. She usually drank from
four to five tumblerfuls of water a day. She never ate to excess, and
frequently remarked: "I think more peop