similar ambitions; and men and women tell of wise investments, and lucky chances, and great ambitions, social and worldly wholly and the cry of the people in every rank of life is, "What shall I do? I cannot do this, for I do not know how; and I am ashamed to do that. Give, Oh, give me one of these lucky chances of which the times are full." And where are the fathers and mothers who are doing as much thinking and working to lay the foundations of solid character in their children as they are to fit them for some employment? Yet not many years from now every one of these our children shall have passed into the presence of Him who cares not whether men are stewards or diggers or beggars; and not a jewel or a rag upon them will make their old-time occupation-but their only clothing will be the God-given robe covering what is left after the trial by fire. See the grouping that our one inspired glimpse of Paradise unfolds: Father Abraham, and in his bosom the beggar Lazarus. It was not their doings that brought those two together, but their being. They were twin characters, formed on one model, though by vastly different processes. The one, a copy of the Divine Image, made with gentle touches, by tender hands, in softest tints; the other, hammered out in repoussé by hard blows upon the angular matrix of a troubled life; but the image equally clear in both. Abraham could dig—he dug a well; and, what is more to the purpose, he dug his own heart out and offered it, when God demanded the sacrifice; and Lazarus did beg. But they came together in Paradise. And the man who could not dig, and was ashamed to beg, went on cheating others and despoiling himself; and all he got was a temporary shelter among his evil companions, when his lord turned him out of doors. i.e., gathered them from a loose and scattered state; and he died A.D. 217, or 222. The exact truth may be, he began to compile them; while the code, as it now stands, was not filled out till long afterwards. into other people's houses, and at last he GO FORWARD. BY THE REV. W. H. PLATT, D.D., LL.D. "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go With banner out and armor on, keep watch. The Gates of Faith He opens in the dark, And suffering sighs itself to rest and dreams. break; closed. Think not with mortal eye the boundless verge end A path, His own, no other feet can tread, centre Take short views, each new step-another Trust. THE CHURCH IN WALES. BY THE REV. T. W. COIT, D.D., LL.D. II. Now such a monarch was then on a Welsh throne, in Glamorganshire; and finding no help at home, or in his neighborhood, he naturally (one might almost say, necessarily,) looked towards the great civil centre of Western Europe, which had spread the empire of law over almost the entire world, pretending to civilization, to see if he could not find enough of church-law, in such a centre, to at least begin with in his distant and ruder home. This brings us to the appeal (of which commentators pro and con have made so much account) presented by King Lleirwg (alias Lucius) to the bishop of the grand central city, to which every anxious eye in Western Europe then looked for imperial aid. Lucius wrote for counsel and assistance to Eleutherius, Bishop of Rome from 173 to 189 (or, as others have it, from . 177 to 193). And the bishop listened to him, and wrote him a kind and paternal epistle. Exceedingly simple this, and self-explaining. But, oh, what a mountain of meaning have Romanists piled over it and around it! And especially a late one, Nedelec, a protegé of the Marquis of Bute; a very rich and a very zealous pervert to the apostacy of antiCatholic Rome. Why, in the first place, such a theory as Nedelec's has to assume, that this letter of Lucius was the beginning, the very startingpoint of Christianity in Wales under the auspices of a pope, and constitutes a pope the nursing father and Rome the nursing mother of Cambrian Christianity. But Lucius did not ask for religion, he asked for law. Christianity was abroad with him and around him. It was growing into a spiritual body-an ecclesiastical society incorporate—a principium in principio-and yet had no rules for self-construction and self-continuance. And as a far-seeing statesman he wanted help for it, as a "Communion of Saints," i.e., an intercommuning and self-solidifying body, that it might hang together as a whole, exercise self-government, and be dealt with by the State as a domestic association under its own eye. A child was blowing soap-bubbles in the window for its own amusement; and one grew and filled out, and the sunlight struck it, and all the colors of the rainbow came upon it and danced over its surface. But, by and by, it got all the air it could hold, and it collapsed; and all there was left was a single drop of water on the table, clear as crystal-and the sunlight shone on that and all the beautiful colors were there still. If the child had blown that bubble in a dark room, with all the light of heaven shut out, it would have grown as big and burst no sooner. But it would have been dark, and the drop would have been dark, too. The bubble was life, the air inflating it circumstances, the drop was character, the sunlight and the colors came from God. When they fell on the bubble they staid with the drop, and the essence of the bubble glowed with them after the inflating air left it as before. Shut out the light, and there is no illumination, no form, no color in either. God's grace is the manifesting agency of all Canon-law was a thing hardly known by true life. Woe to the life, whatever its for- name, and still less by formal enactment tunes, whatever its employments, from and juridical record. Its parchments may And the pope (if we must apply this term, which the heavenly light is shut out. A have been alluded to by St. Paul; and his at such an early date, to one bishop, when humble, high-minded, God-fearing, unsel- great anxiety for their preservation may it belonged to all bishops everywhere), as fish boy or girl has references that will get show their exceeding value. But such a Romanists contend, pugnis et calcibus, him or her all the employment they need, collection as the eighty-five apostolical unguibus et rostro, assumed his proper style and will have something left over when canons (fifty only of which were received and rule, and talked to the poor impover employments are at an end. But a self-by the West, while the entire code was re-ished Welshman as a missionary bishop seeking, unprincipled creature will never ceived by the East,) demonstrates that might talk to an infant congregation in our fill a true man's place, no matter what the canon-law was quite in embryo, for at least Western wilderness! world may do for him in folly or by acci- two centuries. Bishop Beveridge thinks dent. He will spend his life trying to get that Clement of Alexandria compiled them, It is quite evident from the statements which have been made, that while Christianity in Wales appeared Church-wise under the oversight of bishops, little or no provision had been made for the boundaries of episcopal jurisdictions, and the extent or force of episcopal control. Oh, that I could find language to express, graphically, the unlikeness of his action from the construction put upon it by Romish interpretation! For, in the first place, it was as different in tone from what a modern pope's would be as Pius V.'s bull, excommunicating and damning Queen Elizabeth, is from Our Saviour's assuasive and gentle welcome : "Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. And, in the next place, it assumes not one particle of control or governance, but calls Lucius the vicar of God for his people, and their responsible umpire. And instead of referring him to a solitary decretal of his own, or of his see, bids him call his people together (a Mosaic precedent, Deut. | xxxi. 10-15,) and study the Old Scriptures and the New Scriptures as their best help, dependence, and direction. Was there ever, beneath the canopy of heaven, such an unpapal, not to say antipapal communication ! Christian people need not come to the shores of the yellow Tiber for aid, but study their Bibles with all their might, when God would send illumination and direction, and carry them onward safely. Let such doctrine ring from the Vatican in our day, and St. John's mistake before the angel would be repeated; we should try to worship its occupant as a minister from the courts of heaven. Llandaff, and discover the distinct and and jurisdiction, and to give it what some modern Welshmen might call “ a revival." These resurrections in the memory (if one so may style them) are always interesting to a Churchman, who has habitually so much And now, having seen how the succession to do with times and scenes gone by, and in of episcopates began in the Old Principality, which the onflying multitude take so little it will be easy for us to believe that those interest. They are as touching to him as "ancient customs" developed themselves, Virgil's description of the last hours of Anwhich are alluded to in the first definite tor. The wounded hero lifts his failing collection of canons the Church Catholic eyes to heaven, and then returns to departed knows of the canons of the Ecumenical days, lingering over scenes he will behold Council of A.D. 325. Metropolitan sees or no more—coelumque. archiepiscopates are there referred to as the tardy growth of time—I allude, of course, more especially to the sixth canon, from which the phrase "ancient customs has just been quoted. And if Rome and Alexandria and Antioch should have their From My Own Garden, With Some Gathered archiepiscopates, why not Wales? Doubtless Llandaff, as the oldest of the Welsh bishoprics, became the see of the first Welsh archbishop. "" But as Rome herself followed civil distinctions rather than churchly ones in ranking bishops, she naturally claimed precedence for her own bishop, because his see was the centre of the empire. Then she ranked Alexandria next, because Alexandria was the second city in the empire; and AnOh, if I were myself a Romanist, instead tioch third, because the third city in the of objecting to this letter, as do some of our empire. In virtue of such a plan or econProtestant doctors, on the ground of chro- omy it was but natural, not to say unavoidnology or historical incredibility, I should able, that another city than Llandaff, the eagerly and sturdily maintain that it never old Welsh capital, should by and by be the emanated from honest papal brains, but seat of the Cambrian primate. For a Roman was a self-evident falsehood. Now, as a centre of Britannia Secunda began to grow Protestant Catholic, I can say: Give us such up not far from Llandaff, which became in popes as Eleutherius, and Christendom will due time the civil and military and governnot be disunited another day. They will mental centre of Britain beyond the Severn conquer every heart, and enjoy a supremacy-i.e., of the Britannia Secunda just menthey will never be high enough to boast of, tioned. if they claim it by a hundred Vatican councils. There is not a completer or more satisfying proof in all Church history than the standpoints of Eleutherius in his famous epistle to King Lucius, to show that a Roman supremacy over the globe is concocted of such stuffs as dreams are made of." And so we may well say of it, in reference to Wales, what Archbishop Usher said of some of Cardinal Allen's proofs of the pretended supremacy of the popes in Ireland's early history: "When the ground of his claim shall be looked into, it will be found so frivolous and so ridiculous that we need not care three chips whether he yield it up or keep it to himself." ("Answer to a Jesuit," ed. 1835, p. 620.) The archbishop is usually so staid and grave that a witticism of this kind from him may be compared to the rattle of a Gatling gun. This Roman centre was Caerleon on the Usk, in what is now called Monmouthshire. Caer, as Mr. Thomas tells us in his "Life of Owen Glendower," (p. xiv. note) means enclosure, fort, or castle. And Caerleon means the fortress or castle of the legion or legions which presided over Britannia Secunda. Caer legionum, or the fortress of the legions, was easily contracted into Caerleon; and this, as the civil centre of the country, (or as a papist would have to say, by papal ruling,) became the residence of Britannia Secunda's chief ecclesiastic. Llandaff, under Roman manipulation, gave way to Caerleon, as Jerusalem gave way to Caesarea. This elevation of Caerleon brings into view a personage who figured at the Council of Arles, in South France, A.D. 314, but he is not alluded to now for any special notice, as that may be bestowed upon him on another occasion. one time in conjunction with Caerleon, (as Doubtless, however, the advice of Eleuthe- For the present it may be sufficient to say rius provoked Lucius and his Christian sub- that Llandaff never altogether lost its jects to a closer examination of the Old Script-archiepiscopal character. It was held at ures and the New Scriptures, (which, by the way, they must have had, or he would not have told them that they were to be searched thoroughly,) and they found it a wise, not to say a necessary exercise to "mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the counsel of Paul to Timothy, and took good heed to their books and especially their parchments. (II. Tim. iv. 13.) For it should carefully be remarked and remembered that from the date of Lucius's appeal to Eleutherius the records of the Episcopate of Llandaff began to be properly attended to. From this time we can date the accessions of the bishops of * Eleutherius's counsel produced a deep and last ing impression. For we are told in Williams's Cymri," p. 331: "The general reading of the Bible Church." Eleutherius, as the inaugurator of a seems to have been recommended in the Cambrian Bible-reading people, is the most glorious of the popes! The triple crown would not increase his honor! "" Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos."-Aeneid x. 782. PANSIES. Elsewhere. BY ADA SOMERS. The rose, so long the inspiration of sweet royal pansy. song, must ever share its crown with the Macdonald tells us that laughter and weeping come from the same source, if we dig deep enough in the nature to find it. They are springs issuing from opposite sides of the same well. The rose is queen, indeed, of all brilliancy, but the pansy is like the pure minor strain that vibrates and resounds to the very depths of the soul, going with us fresh and unchanged into the very winter of life, when the summer's gay friends 66 are faded gone." and When I was a child my mother's pansygarden was an unending source of pleasureto me. It seemed a world of real people, and I spent hours at a time talking to and making them individuals of life. They were to me what most children's dolls are, only far more real. As the years go by the pansy face is still dear to me, and as my thoughts linger around them they seem more than ever emblematic of human life. As the lily is divine in its purity, so the pansy takes on it the many hues of our earthly life some almost white, spotless, with only faint lines of color, some golden and bright-then the light shades of grey and violet, and most beautiful of all, the deep purples, which have the sweetest perfume, and require the greatest care to reach their full strength of beauty-so typical of the rich glory and fragrance of a true life. "For life is sad and rich with tender purples, veined even with black, yet glad with con- And many threads are gay and bright, Some one has a strong theory that each man or woman bears a likeness to some animal. This may be true of the lower nature, but it is a much happier thought to know that we also resemble in the highest and best God's rarest flowers. Even the lowest life may, like the poor, unfortunate flower, be transplanted and reared, step by step and day by day, to its individual best. As the pansy takes color from those near it, so our lives depend greatly on our surroundings-human beings unconsciously spread about them malign or gracious influences. This mysterious influence is what the odor is to the flower, but with this difference: "To the sweet flower and noxious weed is given each its fragrance, pleasant or nauseous, which it cannot change, but we may choose our own aroma.” Not only may, but we must choose and assume the responsibility. Christ says, "I am the Door." There is one sweet thought to be remembered: the door always rests on hinges, and we are, to a certain extent, the hinges on which the Great Door swings. Each of us is to some body a hinge on which the door into happiness or goodness turns. How great the necessity of constant, loving labor, that we may wear and not rust out. "Dante saw in man and nature the latest authentic news of the God who made them, for he carried every where that vision washed clear with tears, which detects the meaning under the mask, and beneath the casual and transitory, the eternal keeping its sleepless watch." English pansies are larger and more beautiful than ours, and I remember hearing an Englishman say he thought the only reason was because in using them as we do for borders around other flowers, we give them too much bright sunlight. They should grow near a wall, exposed to the morning sun, where the shadow may fall on them at mid-day, and at evening, when the sun is low, each pansy seems to stand out alone in its perfect coloring, and its perfume is always sweetest then. Do we not find in their perfect growth the very essence of a perfect life? In the fresh and early days of youth, when God's light comes purely to us, if in that light we place ourselves near to the wall of His strength, are we not sure of power at mid-day to overcome all the shadow and storm of adversity (infinitely better for us than the continual sunshine of prosperity)? And when our day draws near its close, the hallowed light shines clear and distinct in each upturned face, with no borrowed color from surroundings, but with the divine light reflecting upon the pure gold of the heart. the State. Accordingly, Mr. S. D. Fuller of there are no lessons to do, and the holiday The dinners are ready soon after twelve, when the children come from school. The young diners come in in an orderly manner, take their seats-boys and girls separatelysing grace, and, as soon as they are served, dispatch that which is set before them. Before the start was made certain recipes for soups, etc., were submitted to Dr. RichParents, too, have come forward to exardson, who was so interested in the move- press their gratitude that their children are ment that he very kindly examined them, able to have so satisfying a meal; and the and certified that they contained all the board teachers testify that their scholars aliment necessary for a good meal for the come to school brighter and more receptive class for whom they were intended. The after the dinners. dinners were announced at the Board School, those who desired them being told to purchase their tickets on the way to school in the morning; this, of course, was necessary, to know each day for how many to provide, and thus to avoid waste. As it was of the very essence of the experiment that the dinners should be made to pay, it was necessary to purchase the materials as cheaply as possible, and also to keep a rigid account of the expenditure. At first the cost of fuel was put down at sixpence a day, but afterwards it was reduced to fourpence halfpenny; then it was hoped that much of the labor might be done by the bigger girls, who might be warded by free dinners and some other slight acknowledgment; but it was found "In all places, then, and in all seasons, that more sympathetic and reliable help was Flowers expand their light and soul like required. It is but right to say that the wings, caretaker at the hall entered from the first very heartily into the scheme, and has prepared the dinners in a very satisfactory manner, and has been content with a modest remuneration. Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, How akin they are to human things. "And with child-like, credulous affection, We behold their tender buds expand, Emblems of our own great resurrection, Emblems of the bright and better land." PENNY DINNERS FOR POOR BY BENJAMIN CLARKE. re CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT. IN THE KING'S GARDEN. BY ETHEL NAUNTON JULIAN. "Everything is beautiful!" The words were said with something like a sigh, nor did the speaker look as if she enjoyed the loveliness before her. She was sitting in front of a window-garden ablaze with golden crown-cups and blue and white hyacinths, that brightened and perfumed the otherwise dingy room in which they grew. "Yes, isn't it !" said another voice heartily. "But I mean everything else is beautiful, Hortense, so I wonder why I can't be, or do something that is nice." Hortense did not repeat what the poet has told us all about "making our lives sublime." Instead, she drew her arm closer about the little girl, saying: “I always like to think that these white hyacinths came out of the earth, taking what they required from their surroundings and leaving all that might sully their purity." "Only that I can't be a hyacinth," Jennie said, smiling; still, that is a The various steps taken, and the alterations and improvements introduced, as experience proved them necessary, need not be detailed. There have been various soups and stews prepared, but the preference of the young diners, expressed by avowed approval, and by the appearance of their plates and bowls, have indicated which are the dinners most appreciated. These are beef soup with a slice of bread, followed by Recent inquiries into the housing of the a slice of bread and jam; and bacon sand- nice idea. You mean that people can poor have revealed the fact that children, wiches, also followed by bread and jam: be good and nice anywhere, even if half-starved, coming from the most misera- roly-poly jam is popular, but not so satisfy- their homes and dresses are not pretty. ble haunts, are forced into Board Schools in ing as either of the other dinners. As a rule But they must be so in themselves, England, and are there subject to a course the bacon is boiled on Monday, and the Hortense, while I am so humdrum, I of instruction for which, from their low liquor helps to make the soup for Tuesday physique, they are not fitted. It occurred and Wednesday; then the sandwiches come to some good people that if the poorest in for Thursday and Friday. could have a good dinner three or four days a week, and if, moreover, these dinners could be provided, including all expenses, for one penny, the young scholars might at least be better able to receive the excellent instruction which is provided for them by can't play on the piano, or draw, or even look fresh like the other girls. Even my name is hideous-Jennie 'Stubbs," she concluded with infinite disgust. The dinners are only given four days a week. On Sunday, by some means, most of the poor people manage to get a dinner As she ceased speaking they heard the of some kind, and often so substantial a one gay notes of a waltz played in the next that scraps are left over for the Monday. house by a girl whom Jennie would On Saturday the schools are not open, so have called the reverse of humdrum, since she could draw and play on the piano, was bright and pretty, and, moreover, was going to boarding-school next year. this, to do something nicer than tending stunted, pale blossom, with very little Then the gardener said, tenderly, that this was the flower he loved best, since it was bravely trying to make the world more beautiful in this barren spot where he had placed it. Once upon a time," began Hortense, On went the lively strains, and Hor-" a traveller was taken through a large tense knew that the little maiden beside garden in which grew all the flowers in her wished that her fingers could run the world. There were beds of lovely over the keys in that swift, crisp way, roses and sweet-smelling heliotrope, "I see, Hortense, and murmuring is wished, as she had said, that she "could whole banks of violets and pansies and against the Gardener," Jennie said, be, or do, something that was nice," as shy snowdrops, with quantities of hya- softly. "Only we may try to make many another little girl has longed be- cinths even more beautiful than these. things as pleasant and pretty as posfare and since. Presently the traveller asked which of sible?" "SUCH A FRESH LITTLE MAIDEN IN SPOTLESS WHITE, WITH FLUTTERING BLUE RIBBONS, CAME DOWN THE STAIRS Then Jennie's thoughts wandered to that inner self, with which she was also dissatisfied. CARRYING THE POT OF PRIMROSES. the flowers was most loved by the gar- Certainly; the flowers throw fradener, for he wished to see which was grance on all sides, and we need not the finest of all. The gardener turned worry because our place does not seem When Lent began she had hoped to away from the twin beds and walks, pleasant or that we are not so in ourbe better and higher at Easter, but the leading the way towards a far-away selves. If the little violet loves the good resolves had become weaker, and corner of the garden, the road growing Gardener, and tries to do beautiful she had grown tired of the daily battling, wilder and rougher at each step. At things for His sake, all the niceness so that when the forty days were over last he paused before a tall ledge of rock, will come. Meanwhile, puss, the teashe was glad to take up the old life and near the top of this the traveller table remains to be" again, since milk and water was nicer saw a tiny violet growing in a cleft. It with the addition of sugar, and cake was not a beautiful, rich flower, like preferable to bread and butter. those they had seen where the ground Set," said this would-be hyacinth, laughing, as she ran to the pantry. To Jennie it seemed quite wonderful But she wanted something better than was cared for and cultivated, but a how many things became pleasanter The room was prettily decorated with flags, and in the middle stood the three long tables, laden with the patient work of so many little fingers. after this talk with Hortense. To be you wishing for nice things a little trouble the night before the fair, when sure there were still dishes to be washed, while ago? I believe, pussy, that be all was finished except to add the last and tables dusted, not to mention the she hyacinth or violet, there always are finishing touches. rungs of chairs; neither did the baby nice and pleasant things about the little grow suddenly from long clothes into flower; sunshine and sweet air about trousers, in which case he would have one kind, and, dear friends, fun like needed no more rocking; but the dingy this, and work done cheerfully for rooms seemed to become brighter and others, all of which are pleasures, about prettier, even her own face was happier; these other flowers, who are, after all, or was it only that she looked upon the dearest, I think," and Hortense conthem with different eyes? cluded with a loving kiss of approval. Just about this time Hortense had a grand house-cleaning in her drawers and boxes, in which she brought to light sundry pairs of cuffs and gay ribbons. It was as well that all the children, as well as the elders, were interested in this fair, else they surely would have grown tired of it during the days that Would you like these, Jennie?" she followed; for to Jennie it seemed as if asked, as if she did not kno wthat the there was nothing else in the world to little girl liked anything that was pretty. be thought of. She would have had So Jennie tied her plait with a baby, as well as all the other children, ribbon, in the afternoons, and with live upon the sight of fancy baskets and fresh cuffs and collar, felt almost as if aprons, if she had been the one to cook she were "one of the other girls," those the meals; as it was, Hortense had to girls who ought to have been so happy speak reprovingly about corners which with their pretty, gay belongings. were not quite clean (wouldn't it be A little girl in a story-book would nice if rooms were round, without probably have had a fairy-like god-corners ?), and the spoons which did not mother arrive just then to send her to boarding-school and give her all the desires of her heart, making her a stately hyacinth instead of a humble little violet. But such things seldom happen in real life; however something that was rather nice did come, just as nice things always come, if we have our eyes open to see them. One spring afternoon Jennie ran up the path, and banged the front door with such force as to have wakened baby from the most distant dreamland, had he not been wide awake and crowing in Hortense's arms. But Jennie showed an unusual forgetfulness of babies this afternoon, for she had been at the Girls' Sewing Society, and had now a wonderful bit of news to tell. "Oh, Hortense, where is she? Hortense, just think, Mrs. Grant says that instead of sending the things we have been making to the ladies at Princetown, we may have a fair ourselves! Isn't it lovely?" "How nice; and when is it to be?" Hortense asked, with interest. shine as they ought. It was very nice to go home in the twilight, feeling tired and happy, but full of glad anticipation of the morrow, and so refreshing to peep into the spare room and see the white dress with pretty lace ruffles at throat and wrists, blue ribbons, and new slippers. Surely she could never again complain that her life was humdrum. What girl could have nicer things than these? And even if she might not be accomplished, she knew enough to be useful and help others. She had no right to grumble because she was not a hyacinth, she thought, this time very contentedly. Violets may be nice as well. At tea she acknowledged that there was only one thing that she wanted in the world-more flowers. "I shall have some from our own window-garden; but I should like a few more for the table." "You must not forget for whom you are working, Jennie; we have no right to take up new work for God, and leave undone that which He has given us." So the violet thought humbly of her failures, and tried harder than before, "No. What a bright idea! I wonthat this bit of niceness, such as hap-der if I durst ?” pened to girls in story-books, might not prove too good for her. Have you asked Mr. Becker ?" Hortense inquired. Hortense said she thought this fair was a capital thing to show what brains were good for, since quite a number of talents were unexpectedly developed. 'Of course, no one likes begging.” "No. Well, I think I will. Mr. Becker is so kind, I do believe he would give me a few." So the next morning, before going to the hall, Jennie went round to the tall Ralph took a violent fancy to carving, brick house, and pulled the bell with and whittled at every spare moment, nervous fingers, while her heart thumped with a happy disregard for cut fingers. uncomfortably; for though Mr. Becker He was sure Jennie would make more was, as she had said, very kind, and it money out of his work than from all was pleasant to go to his beautiful house, the dolls and mats at which the others which was gay with flowers, still it worked so perseveringly; indeed, he required no small effort to make this had serious thoughts of being a carver, request. and made charming plans about the Mr. Becker was working in the conway in which he would aid the family, servatory, and looked rather funny in puzzling the children by insisting that his flowered dressing-gown and smokinghis works of art must all be carved from cap, but he smiled genially, and seemed charred wood, since he had read about quite pleased when Jennie made her pe She was in the children's room, play-some fellow, Caspar or Gaspar, who tition. ing with baby, while Ralph built a block fort, and Nan showed her newest doll to baby's admiring eyes. had used it. So the little ones believed "To be sure, my dear. So you're having a fair, are you? You mustn't ask me to go, but I'll give you some flowers; of course I will. You would like pots best ?" Oh, thank you, sir. They would sell better, but I had thought only of cut flowers." But Jennie was not depending upon Ralph's boats, nor upon his future Eh? Well, you shall have both. success, for the beauty of her table. Let me see. Gloxinias-you might take She had her share of the things they those purple ones. That is a good vahad made through Lent, besides those riety; glox-ah, well, you wouldn't she was now making; garters and reins know-and violets. James, bring a pot that Milly and Nan had knitted with of yellow primroses." infinite pains, as well as the dainty little shoes and jackets that Hortense found time to crochet. And she felt fully repaid for, all the "Those primroses are just like mine," Jennie thought. "It's odd I hadn't remembered to give them before." She was quite overwhelmed by all |