"I felt so well, I thought I was quite able," was the reply; "and you
know it will take all the money we have now in hand to get the
children's shoes before cold weather comes, and nobody knows when we
shall have any more."

"Well, Mary, comfort your heart as to that. I have had a present to-day
of twenty dollars--that will last us some time. God always provides when
need is greatest." And so, after administering a little to the comfort
of his wife, the minister addressed himself to the business of cooking
something for dinner for himself and his little hungry flock.

"There is no bread in the house," he exclaimed, after a survey of the
ways and means at his disposal.

"I must try and sit up long enough to make some," said his wife faintly.

"You must try to be quiet," replied the husband. "We can do very well on
potatoes. But yet," he added, "I think if I bring the things to your
bedside, and you show me how to mix them, I could make some bread."

A burst of laughter from the young fry chorused his proposal;
nevertheless, as Mr. Stanton was a man of decided genius, by help of
much showing, and of strong arms and good will, the feat was at length
accomplished in no unworkmanlike manner; and while the bread was put
down to the fire to rise, and the potatoes were baking in the oven, Mr.
Stanton having enjoined silence on his noisy troop, sat down, pencil in
hand, by his wife's bed, to prepare a sermon.

We would that those ministers who feel that they cannot compose without
a study, and that the airiest and pleasantest room in the house, where
the floor is guarded by the thick carpet, the light carefully relieved
by curtains, where papers are filed and arranged neatly in conveniences
purposely adjusted, with books of reference standing invitingly around,
could once figure to themselves the process of composing a sermon in
circumstances such as we have painted. Mr. Stanton had written his text,
and jotted down something of an introduction, when a circumstance
occurred which is almost inevitable in situations where a person has any
thing else to attend to--_the baby woke_. The little interloper was to
be tied into a chair, while the flaxen-headed young housekeeper was now
installed into the office of waiter in ordinary to her majesty, and by
shaking a newspaper before her face, plying a rattle, or other arts
known only to the initiate, to prevent her from indulging in any
unpleasant demonstrations, while Mr. Stanto