ceries--specimens of which are affixed to the window-panes
in triangular patches of paste and paper--speak they not of poverty?
Purchase, then, if it be but a trifle.

Mrs. Moggs, unluckily for herself, is possessed of a husband.
Husbands, they say, are often regarded as desirable; and some of them
are spoken of as if they were a blessing. But if the opinion of Mrs.
Moggs were obtained on that score, it would probably be somewhat
different; for be it known that the husband of Mrs. Moggs is of the
kind that is neither useful nor ornamental. He belongs to that
division which addicts itself mainly to laziness--a species of the
biped called husband, which unfortunately is not so rare that we seek
for the specimen only in museums. We know not whether Montezuma Moggs
was or was not born lazy; nor shall we undertake to decide that
laziness is an inherent quality; but as Mrs. Moggs was herself a
thrifty, painstaking woman, as women, to their credit be it spoken,
are apt to be, her lazy husband, as lazy husbands will, in all such
cases, continued to grow and to increase in laziness, shifting every
care from his own broad shoulders to any other shoulders, whether
broad or narrow, strong or wreak, that had no craven shrinkings from
the load, Moggs contenting himself in an indolence which must be seen
to be appreciated by those--husbands or wives--who perform their tasks
in this great work-shop of human effort with becoming zeal and with
conscientious assiduity, regarding laziness as a sin against the great
purposes of their being. If this assumption be true, as we suspect it
is, Montezuma Moggs has much to answer for; though it is a common
occurrence, this falling back into imbecility, if there be any one at
hand willing to ply the oar, as too often shown in the fact that the
children of the industrious are willing to let their parents work,
while the energetic wife has a drag upon her in the shape of a
lounging husband.

Yes, Mrs. Moggs belongs to the numerous class of women who have what
is well called "a trying time of it." You may recognize them in the
street, by their look of premature age--anxious, hollow-eyed, and worn
to shadows. There is a whole history in every line of their faces,
which tells of unceasing trouble, and their hard, quick movement as
they press onward regardless of all that begirts the way, indicates
those who have no thought to spare from their own immediate
necessities, for comment upon the gay and fla