eparing for
life beyond while here."

"Do you expect to go to heaven, and do you think the man who married
you and then discarded you will go to heaven too?" asked Mrs.
O'Shaughnessy.

"Of course I do," she replied.

"Then," said Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, "I am afraid if it had been mysilf I'd
have been after raising a little hell here intirely."

Our hostess was not offended, and there followed a long recital of
earlier-day hard times that you would scarcely believe any one could
live through. It seems the first wife in such families is boss, and
while they do not live in the same homes, still she can very materially
affect the other's comfort.

Mrs. O'Shaughnessy asked her if she had married again.

She said, "No."

"Then," said Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, "whose children are these?"

"My own," she replied.

Mrs. O'Shaughnessy was relentless. "Who is their father?" she asked.

I was right sorry for the poor little woman as she stammered, "I--I
don't know."

Then she went on, "Of course I _do_ know, and I don't believe you are
spying to try to stir up trouble for my husband. Bishop D---- is their
father, as he is still my husband, although he had to cast me off to
save himself and me. I love him and I see no wrong in him. All the
Gentiles have against him is he is a little too smart for them. 'T was
their foolish law that made him wrong the children and me, and _not_
his wishes."

"But," Mrs. O'Shaughnessy said, "it places your children in such a
plight; they can't inherit, they can't even claim his name, they have
no status legally."

"Oh, but the Bishop will see to that," the little woman answered.

Mrs. O'Shaughnessy asked her if she had still to work as hard as she
used to.

"No, I don't believe I do," she said, "for since Mr. D---- has been
Bishop, things come easier. He built this house with his own money, so
Deb has nothing to do with it."

I asked her if she thought she was as happy as "second" as she would be
if she was the _only_ wife.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, "perhaps not. Deb and me don't always
agree. She is jealous of the children and because I am younger, and I
get to feeling bad when I think she is perfectly safe as a wife and has
no cares. She has everything she wants, and I have to take what I can
get, and my children have to wait upon her. But it will all come right
somewhere, sometime," she ended cheerfully, as she wiped her eyes with
her apron.

I felt so sorry for her and so asha