ere they read
the four letters aloud, one after another. A dumfounded silence
followed the last word. Rose was the first to break it.

"I think she's a mean old thing--so there!" Rose was almost crying.

"Hush, dear, hush!" choked Carrie. "She isn't mean; she's good and
kind--we know she is. She--she means something by it; she must. Let's
read them again!"

Bit by bit they went over the letters. It was at the third mention of
"mother" that Tom raised his head with a jerk. He looked sheepishly
into Carrie's face.

"I--I guess I know," he said with a shame-faced laugh.

It must have been a month later that Miss Mortimer received a letter
from Mrs. Dudley. One paragraph sent a quick wave of color to the
reader's face; and this was the paragraph:

I am feeling better than for a long time. Some way, the work does n't
seem nearly so hard as it used to. Perhaps it is because I am
stronger, or perhaps it is because the children are not nearly so
particular about their food as they used to be. I am so glad, for it
worried me sometimes--they were so very fussy. I wondered how they
would get along out in the world where "mother" could n't fix
everything to their liking. Perhaps you noticed it when you were here.
At any rate, they are lots better now. Perhaps they have out-grown it.
I hope so, I'm sure.

The Glory and the Sacrifice

The Honorable Peter Wentworth was not a church-going man, and when he
appeared at the prayer-meeting on that memorable Friday evening there
was at once a most irreligious interest manifested by every one
present, even to the tired little minister himself. The object of
their amazed glances fortunately did not keep the good people long in
suspense. After a timid prayer--slightly incoherent, but abounding in
petitions for single-mindedness and worshipful reverence--from the
minister's wife, the Honorable Peter Wentworth rose to his feet and
loudly cleared his throat:

"Ahem! Ladies and gentlemen--er--ah--brethren," he corrected, hastily,
faint memories of a godly youth prompting his now unaccustomed lips;
"I--er--I understand that you are desirous of building a new church. A
very laudable wish--very," with his eyes fixed on a zigzag crack in the
wall across the room; "and I understand that your funds
are--er--insufficient. I am, in fact, informed that you need two
thousand dollars. Ahem! Ladies--er--brethren, I stand here to
announce that on the first day of Januar