light words. She knew that
if she herself had cared for Mr. Archdale she could never have jested at
marrying him. It made her all the more sure that Katie did care,
because, otherwise, the girl would have found it great fun to rouse a
little jealousy in the two admirers opposite, watching every movement.
She yielded her hand to the light clasp that held it, and listened with
less interest than the others to Mr. Harwin's distinct and rapid words
until he came to the sentence, "I pronounce you man and wife." Then she
shivered, and he had scarcely finished the adjuration that
follows--"What God hath joined together let not man put asunder," when
she snatched her hand away.

"It is too solemn," she cried, "it is too much; we ought not to have
jested so."

Harwin laughed.

"Pardon me if I've made you uncomfortable," he said; "but you will
forget it in five minutes, and even for that time you must blame Master
Waldo's curiosity."

"And mine," added Katie, at which young Waldo gave her a grateful
glance. Then he joined with her in breaking the hush that had fallen on
the others. "Stephen," she said, "now for your story. Do you think you
are coming off scot-free?"

"I thought we had performed our parts," he said, turning to Elizabeth
with a smile.

"Mistress Royal has already told her story," cried Waldo, "There's no
escape for you."

"Escape would be difficult now, I confess."

"So begin."

He began obediently, but fortune was kinder than he had expected, for he
had not fairly started when Kit cried out,--

"A breeze! Here it comes. Heads to larboard!" And down went Archdale's
and those of the two ladies with him as the sail was shifted and the
boat began to skim the water before the breeze which freshened every
minute. Soon they had gained the cove where they were to land, and
Archdale's story was never finished.

* * * * *

THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN.

BY ERNEST NUSSE.

The census of 1880 fixed the juvenile population of the United States at
20,000,000, of whom 10,158,954 were boys and 9,884,705 were girls. "From
a political point of view," says the eminent philanthropist, Mr.
Elbridge T. Gerry, "the future of the nation depends on the physical and
intellectual education of its children, whose numbers increase every
year, and who will soon constitute the sovereign people. From the moral
and social point of view, the welfare of society imperatively demands
that the atmosp