t as his great legacy to the United States his
interpretation of the Constitution. While chief-justice he became a
member of the Constitutional Convention of Virginia in company with
Madison and Monroe, both of whom had been President. He gave the Federal
Constitution its liberal interpretation, that it was not merely a bone
thrown to the general government, which must be watched with suspicion
while it ate, but that it was a document with something of the
elasticity of our population and climate, and that it was designed to
convey to the general state powers noble enough to give us respect.

Without a spot on his reputation, without an upright enemy, the old man
attended to his duty absolutely, loved argument, encouraged all young
lawyers at the bar, and he lived down to the time of nullification, and
when General Jackson issued his proclamation against the nullifiers John
Marshall and Judge Story went up to the White House and took a glass of
wine with him.

And thus those two old men silently appreciated each other near the end
of their days when the suspicions of Jefferson had resulted in incipient
rebellion that was to break out in less than thirty years, and which
Marshall predicted unless there was a more general assent to the fact
that we were one country, and not a parcel of political
chicken-coops.--GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.

* * * * *

XXIX.

A NOBLE MOTHER.

HOW SHE TRAINED HERSELF, AND EDUCATED HER BOYS

Harrietta Rea, in _The Christian Union_, some time ago, drew a picture
of home life in the West, which ought to be framed and hung up in every
household of the land.

In one of the prairie towns of Northern Iowa, where the Illinois Central
Railroad now passes from Dubuque to Sioux City, lived a woman whose
experience repeats the truth that inherent forces, ready to be
developed, are waiting for the emergencies that life may bring.

She was born and "brought up" in New England. With the advantages of a
country school, and a few terms in a neighboring city, she became a fair
scholar--not at all remarkable; she was married at twenty-one to a young
farmer, poor, but intelligent and ambitious. In ten years, after the
death of their parents they emigrated to Iowa, and invested their money
in land that bade fair to increase in value, but far away from
neighbors. Here they lived, a happy family, for five years, when he
died, leaving her, at the age of thirty-five, w