existence and very much happiness. Neither her own health nor that of
her husband was ever very firm, and there was always a great emptiness
in the family purse, but with Mrs. Ware, these were, as with Paul,
"light afflictions" which were but for a moment, and she did not let
them disturb her happiness.

Impossible as it may seem, they contributed to her happiness. She made
them contribute to it. She says in a letter of 1831, "Of my winter's
sickness I cannot write; it contained a long life of enjoyment, and
what I hoped would be profitable thought and reflection." She repeats
this statement to another correspondent, and says, with apparent
regret, that the illness did not bring her "to that cheerful
willingness to resign my life, after which I strove." You cannot send
this woman any trial which she will not welcome, because she wants to
be made to want to go to heaven, and she is as yet not quite ready for
it.

Mr. Ware has been dangerously ill, and of course she could not spare
herself for heaven until he recovered, but this trial did something
quite as good for her: "My husband's danger renewed the so oft
repeated testimony that strength is ever at hand for those who need
it, gave me another exercise of trust in that mighty arm which can
save to the uttermost, and in its result is a new cause for gratitude
to Him who has so abundantly blessed me all the days of my life." It
is good to see what the old-fashioned doctrine that God really is,
and is good, did for one who actually believed.

That first baby, whom she left behind when she went abroad with her
invalid husband, died in 1831; the mother fainted when the last breath
left the little body; but this is the way she writes of it: "I have
always looked upon the death of children rather as a subject of joy
than sorrow, and have been perplexed at seeing so many, who would bear
what seemed to me much harder trials with firmness, so completely
overwhelmed by this, as is frequently the case."

After that, one is almost ashamed to mention the trifle that the
income of this family was very small. Mr. Ware, after 1834 _Dr._ Ware,
held a new professorship, the endowment of which was yet mostly
imaginary. The social demands took no account of the family income;
the unexpected guest always dropping in; at certain times, it is said,
"shoals of visitors;" and the larder always a little scantily
furnished. If one wants to know how one ought to live under such
circumstance