fairer favors. It has been a talisman more eloquent to me
than flower or ring; for, when I saw how worn it was, I always thought
of the willing feet that came and went for others' comfort all day
long; when I saw the little bow you tied, I always thought of the hands
so diligent in serving any one who knew a want or felt a pain; and when
I recalled the gentle creature who had worn it last, I always saw her
patient, tender, and devout,--and tried to grow more worthy of her,
that I might one day dare to ask if she would walk beside me all my
life and be my 'angel in the house.' Will you, dear? Believe me, you
shall never know a weariness or grief I have the power to shield you
from."

Then Nan, as simple in her love as in her life, laid her arms about his
neck, her happy face against his own, and answered softly,--

"Oh, John, I never can be sad or tired any more!"

DEBBY'S DEBUT.

On a cheery June day Mrs. Penelope Carroll and her niece Debby Wilder,
were whizzing along on their way to a certain gay watering-place, both
in the best of humors with each other and all the world beside. Aunt
Pen was concocting sundry mild romances, and laying harmless plots for
the pursuance of her favorite pastime, match-making; for she had
invited her pretty relative to join her summer jaunt, ostensibly that
the girl might see a little of fashionable life, but the good lady
secretly proposed to herself to take her to the beach and get her a
rich husband, very much as she would have proposed to take her to
Broadway and get her a new bonnet: for both articles she considered
necessary, but somewhat difficult for a poor girl to obtain.

Debby was slowly getting her poise, after the excitement of a first
visit to New York; for ten days of bustle had introduced the young
philosopher to a new existence, and the working-day world seemed to
have vanished when she made her last pat of butter in the dairy at
home. For an hour she sat thinking over the good-fortune which had
befallen her, and the comforts of this life which she had suddenly
acquired. Debby was a true girl, with all a girl's love of ease and
pleasure; it must not be set down against her that she surveyed her
pretty travelling-suit with much complacency, rejoicing inwardly that
she could use her hands without exposing fractured gloves, that her
bonnet was of the newest mode, needing no veil to hide a faded ribbon
or a last year's shape, that her dress swept the ground with