the mental and spiritual natures of each other so?" asked June.

"No, why was it?"

"Well, I'll tell you: it was because they spent one-third of their married
life apart."

"Indeed!"

"Yes, and in this way they lived in an ideal world. In all their letters
you see they are always counting the days ere they will meet. Now, people
who are together all the time never write that way, because they do not
feel that way--I'll leave it to Mr. Spear!"

But Mr. Spear, being a bachelor, did not know. Then the case was referred
to Sammy, and Sammy lied and said he had never considered the subject.

"And would you advise, then, that married couples live apart one-third of
the time, in the interests of domestic peace?" I asked.

"Certainly!" said June, with her Burne-Jones chin in the air. "Certainly;
but I fear you are the man who does not understand; and anyway I am sure
it will be much more profitable for us to cultivate the receptive spirit
and listen to Mr. Spear--such opportunities do not come very often. I did
not mean to interrupt you, Mr. Spear; go on, please!"

And Mr. Spear filled a clay pipe with natural leaf that he crumbled in his
hand, and deftly picking a coal from the fireplace with a shovel one
hundred fifty years old, puffed five times silently, and began to talk.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

The objects to be attained are: To justify and preserve the
confidence of the most enlightened friends of good government; to
promote the increasing respectability of the American name; to
answer the calls of justice; to restore landed property to its
due value; to furnish new sources both to agriculture and to
commerce; to cement more closely the union of the States; to add
to their security against foreign attack; to establish public
order on the basis of an upright and liberal policy: these are
the great and invaluable ends to be secured by a proper and
adequate provision, at the present period, for the support of
public credit.
--_Report to Congress_

[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON]

We do not know the name of the mother of Alexander Hamilton: we do not
know the given name of his father. But from letters, a diary and
pieced-out reports, allowing fancy to bridge from fact to fact, we get a
patchwork history of the events preceding the birth of this wonderful man.

Every strong man has had a splendid mother. Hamilton's mother was a woman
of wit, beauty and ed