l
the carpet stores to find a carpet that would resemble as nearly as
possible, in colour and design, his mother's parlour carpet when he
was a boy. He succeeded so well that his mother put on her glasses
and bent nearer to make sure that it was not that identical one.

In an out-of-the-way corner she discovered her little three-legged
stand holding a tiny brass candlestick (one of her wedding presents)
and the snuffers on the japanned trays. It was not alone that the old
times were brought back so vividly that made the tears come, but this
one little thing showed such loving thoughtfulness for her comfort.
(John's wife would never have allowed a candle in the house.)

This was Benjamin's hour of triumph and gladness; for this he had
spent years of patient toil, and now it had come in such a strange,
unexpected way, it, and so much more than he had asked or looked for;
this princely home, this precious wife, and mother abiding with them
all the rest of her days; it was too much, such loving-kindness!

Marian understood; she did not express surprise when he brought out a
little worn psalm-book that she had never seen, and said:

"Sing this for me, dear, to some old tune that fits it; I wish I knew
what my father sang it to when I was a boy."

"I have a book of old music here, perhaps I can find the very one,"
she said; and then the pure voice soared out in the song of praise
his father had loved:

"Praise God, for he is kind;
His mercy lasts for aye;
Give thanks with heart and mind
To God of Gods alway.
For certainly
His mercies dure,
Most firm and sure,
Eternally."

The quaint rendering--new to her--pleased her, and she sang others,
closing in low, soft notes, with:

"The Lord's my Shepherd, I'll not want,
He makes me down to lie;
In pastures green he leadeth me
The quiet waters by."

And the dear old mother dreamed, as a strain or two of Lenox and St.
Martin's floated up to her room, that she was in the old home, and
"father" was conducting family worship. Little by little, with her
coaxing ways, Marian succeeded in effecting a change in her
mother-in-law's dress, and when one day everything was finished, and
she had her arrayed in a fine black cashmere, made according to her
own ideas of simplicity, the white hair crowne