bout their future movements was an
impertinence. He says without a blush that her visit was "a bore."
And the bride, being flattered by his desire for no company but her
own, admits that "dear mamma is fussy and effusive." Both have
forgotten the days in which the young husband was a great deal of a
bore to his mother-in-law,--when indeed it was very hard for her to
tolerate his presence; and both have forgotten how she, to secure
their happiness, sacrificed her own wishes and prejudices.

How often does this poor mother go to see her child before she
realizes she is a bore? How many snubs and heart-aches does she bear
ere she comprehends the position? She hopes against despair. She
weeps, and wipes her tears away; she tries again, only to be again
wounded. Her own husband frets a little with her, and then with a
touch of anger at his ungrateful child, advises the mother "to let her
alone." But by and by there is a baby, and she can no longer keep
away. She has a world of loving cares about the child and its mother.
She is sure no one can take her place now. She is very much mistaken.
The baby is a new kind of baby; there has never been one quite such a
perfect pattern before; and the parents--exalted above measure at the
perfection they alone are responsible for--regard her pride and
delight as some infringement of their new honors and responsibilities.
Happiness has only hardened them; and after a little, the mother and
the mother-in-law understands her loss, and humbly refrains from
interfering. Or, if she has an imprudent tongue, she speaks
unadvisedly with it, and her words bite home, and the "mother" is
forgotten, and the "in-law" remains, to barb every ill-natured word
and account for every selfish unkindness.

Of course, in a relationship which admits of endless varieties, this
description fits only a certain number. But it is a very large number;
for there are few families who will not be able to recall some such
case among their members or their acquaintances. Still, many daughters
do more virtuously, and cherish a loyal affection for their old home.
If they are wise and loving and specially unselfish, they will likely
carry their matrimonial bark safely through those narrow shallows
which separate the two households. But the trouble is that newly
married people are both selfish and foolish. They feel themselves to
be the only persons of consequence, and think that all things ought to
be arranged for their p