carpet for at least two yards round, over the pretty furniture, the ornaments, the ottomans, over everything, more or less, that stood within range, lay a black cover of soot.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Hill; "has a brick come down the chimney?"

"I don't know," said the lady; "but the soot has, and spoiled all the covers that you did so nicely for me. I thought you could take them off, and see what can be done with them before allowing any one else to touch them." "The carpet's quite spoiled," said Mrs. Hill, inwardly glad that her soot had found only a flagged floor. "Those ornaments will never come clean again," said she, pitifully; "and the new ottomans, with the young ladies' work, and the beautiful table-cover. Dear, dear! what a pity it is! what can be done?"

"We must make the best of it," said Mrs. Oakland, cheerfully. "I want to get the most delicate things away and shaken out before the carpet is touched. How thankful we should be that we had comfortable shelter last night. I suppose you felt the storm, Jane. How are your husband and children?"

Jane had then to tell what had happened, and Mrs. Oakland turned towards her with an earnest, anxious look. "What made him go out last night, Jane?" she asked.

Mrs. Hill said she didn't know; she was cleaning up after the nasty brick had come down the chimney, and did not miss him until it got late.

"And did you ask him not to go out? Did you beg him to help you a little? Did you put your dear baby into his arms, and make it plead with him to keep from temptation ?"

Jane's countenance fell before the appeal, and Mrs. Oakland guessed too truly how the miserable climax had been reached.

"Jane, Jane," said she, forgetting even the soot in her fear for the foolish woman before her, "you are deliberately ruining your own happiness, and helping your husband to add the ruin of home and family. Will nothing induce you to control that tongue and temper? Must you be taught your duty by terrible lessons in your own experience, such as I have often described to you from the experience of others? I do not wish to clear your husband of blame at your expense; his fault is very great, but I am sure his sorrow and shame will be great too. Pray go home at once, and attend to him kindly, and I will come and see him as soon as possible. Let us trust that all is not lost, and may God help you to fulfil the duty of a forgiving, loving wife."

Mrs. Hill was angry, and rudely replied that "she was not going to coax her husband to be good; that he knew his duty as well as she did, and was as much bound to do it; and she would not be dictated to by any one who could not see her side of the case; that he deserved to suffer, and she hoped he would;" and more to the same purpose; but Mrs. Oakland took no notice, and following to the nursery whither the mother went for her child, she kissed the little bright face, and breathed over it a prayer that its baby life might be shielded from discords of home, and love and peace still unite the parents.

Jane was silenced but not softened, and went home to be as wilful and disagreeable as she considered the occasion required. Poor creature, she was very miserable too, as most people will be, and deserve to be, who forget "the beams" in their own eyes.

66

CHAPTER IV.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.

HAT a cross-grained woman that Mrs. Hill is!" said Benjamin Field to his wife, as he sat down to his supper. "If you had served me so, I don't know where we'd have been by this time." And he looked gratefully round his comfortable room, supplied as it was now with everything needful for use, and something more for good taste and mental cultivation. "But you didn't forget your promises, Nelly, though I-"

"Well, never mind, Ben. You don't forget, neither, now, and we're as happy as need be; only one thing, dear husband, don't let either of us forget that it is all of God's goodness to us, and nothing in ourselves. I do wonder how people get on at all who don't look to Him, and trust, and pray, and try to do His will. It seems as if a house must be terribly wanting for light and comfort where there's no God in it to bless and keep it."

"You got Him to come here and do it all, Nelly," said Ben; "and I feel it more than ever after being at poor Hill's."

"I'm afraid Mrs. Hill forgets who can help her in her trouble," said Mrs. Field; "I never listen to gossip, but it grieved me sadly to hear that her husband has been drinking again after keeping so steady and industrious such a good long while; I was obliged to hear that, but I asked no questions about it."

"Well, it's my belief she'll have more trouble yet, for what do you think? She lets me go up to speak to him if I like; so I did; and there the poor fellow lies in pain, and, I may say, sorrow too, and she hasn't given him a kind word since, and won't let the children go near him. So he told me this evening that he shall get Mrs. Oakland to send him a ticket for the Infirmary, and he'll go there and be nursed, and give her no more trouble."

"Oh, Ben! does she know? Will she bear to let strangers nurse him for charity, while she can do it herself for love?"

"I fancy she will, Nelly; there's no knowing what a proud, cross woman will do. You wouldn't, unless you felt sure I'd be really better tended and more comfortable, which you know might happen in an accident or something sudden of that sort, and even then I don't know how I could be better off than with you for my nurse. Why, Nelly, wasn't it your kindness, your prayers, your forgiveness, your patience, that made me see and feel what a brute I was, and how I was breaking your heart and bringing you and the children to starvation?"

"Under God. Oh, Ben! He helped me, He taught me. I couldn't have done it of myself."

“Well, any way, it was you took in what the Lord taught you," persisted Ben, who never could separate the two as his humble, Christian wife did, ever blessing her God for the happy change in her husband, "and while I thank Him, do you think I can help thanking you too, my good, kind Nelly?" and tears-yes, not sentimental drops that meant nothing particular, but manly, honourable, beautiful tears— glistened in the husband's eyes, his heart's true tribute to a good wife's patient love and duty. And Nelly, with sympathetic light in hers, made up of smiles and tears together,

bent her matronly head as she rose to hand his cup of tea, and received the kiss of true affection.

and gave

Well might Benjamin bless her, for she had been as a guardian angel to him.

"But, as I was saying, Nelly, it's a very bad thing for them both, this ugly temper of hers; for though I don't mean to excuse any man who sins-nay, I just loathe myself when I think of it still, if a man doesn't fear God he does make excuses for himself if he can, and a drunkard thinks he can silence anybody about it if he can say he has a cross-patch of a wife and a miserable home, and he can't be expected to abide her ways. It makes people pity him too, and his own real wickedness gets softened down or covered up altogether with a heap of blame on her-more, perhaps, a deal than she may really deserve; for, after all, it is a shame, and it is provoking to see a man drink away his earnings and make a sot of himself while his poor family want bread. Hill says if his wife had behaved different that night when the soot vexed her he'd have helped her clean up or do anything she bade him, but her vixenish temper drove him out at last when he could bear it no longer. She was in the room when he said this, and, instead of letting it be, she flew out again, the foolish thing, and said 'she wasn't Job, and never pretended to be, to have bricks and soot down the chimney and think nothing about the mess, and that she'd as good a right to her temper as he to his drink.' And then Hill said, wearily, 'Well, only remember the temper came first, that's all;' and then she went on again, determined to have the last word, until I was heart-sick to hear them. But I can't help being sorry for Hill.”

And Mrs. Field was sorry for him too, and in her wifely heart tried to think what she could do to help.

"Perhaps the children are in her way," said she; “suppose