d a new range bought; Lilian began operations
with a striking advertisement in the Willington _News_ and an
attractive circular sent around to all her patrons. Picnics and summer
weddings were frequent. In bread and rolls her trade was brisk and
constant. She also took orders for pickles, preserves, and jellies,
and this became such a flourishing branch that a second assistant had
to be hired.

It was a cardinal rule with Lilian never to send out any article that
was not up to her standard. She bore the loss of her failures, and
sometimes stayed up half of the night to fill an order on time.
"Prompt and perfect" was her motto.

The long hot summer days were very trying, and sometimes she got very
tired of it all. But when on the anniversary of her first venture she
made up her accounts she was well pleased. To be sure, she had not
made a fortune; but she had paid all their expenses, had a hundred
dollars clear, and had laid the solid foundations of a profitable
business.

"Mother," she said jubilantly, as she wiped a dab of flour from her
nose and proceeded to concoct the icing for Blanche Remington's
wedding cake, "don't you think my business venture has been a decided
success?"

Mrs. Mitchell surveyed her busy daughter with a motherly smile. "Yes,
I think it has," she said.

Miriam's Lover

I had been reading a ghost story to Mrs. Sefton, and I laid it down at
the end with a little shrug of contempt.

"What utter nonsense!" I said.

Mrs. Sefton nodded abstractedly above her fancywork.

"That is. It is a very commonplace story indeed. I don't believe the
spirits of the departed trouble themselves to revisit the glimpses of
the moon for the purpose of frightening honest mortals--or even for
the sake of hanging around the favourite haunts of their existence in
the flesh. If they ever appear, it must be for a better reason than
that."

"You don't surely think that they ever do appear?" I said
incredulously.

"We have no proof that they do not, my dear."

"Surely, Mary," I exclaimed, "you don't mean to say that you believe
people ever do or can see spirits--ghosts, as the word goes?"

"I didn't say I believed it. I never saw anything of the sort. I
neither believe nor disbelieve. But you know queer things do happen at
times--things you can't account for. At least, people who you know
wouldn't lie say so. Of course, they may be mistaken. And I don't
think that everybody can see spirits either, pro