ase of young married
people, and it was on the increase.

No one seemed to doubt for a moment that Margaret would live with her
sister. There was no other home for her; she and Hester had never been
parted; there seemed no reason for their parting now, and every
inducement for their remaining together. Margaret did not dream of
objecting to this: she only made it a condition that fifty pounds of her
yearly income should go into the family-stock, thus saving her from
obligation to any one for her maintenance. Living was so cheap in
Deerbrook, that Margaret was assured that she would render herself quite
independent by paying fifty pounds a-year for her share of the household
expenses, and reserving twenty for her personal wants.

Both the sisters were surprised to find how much pleasure they took in
the preparations for this marriage. They could not have believed it,
and, but that they were too happy to feel any kind of contempt, they
would have despised themselves for it. But such contempt would have
been misplaced. All things are according to the ideas and feelings with
which they are connected; and if, as old George Herbert says, dusting a
room is an act of religious grace when it is done from a feeling of
religious duty, furnishing a house is a process of high enjoyment when
it is the preparation of a home for happy love. The dwelling is hung
all round with bright anticipations, and crowded with blissful thoughts,
spoken by none, perhaps, but present to all. On this table, and by this
snug fireside, will the cheerful winter breakfast go forward, when each
is about to enter on the gladsome business of the day; and that sofa
will be drawn out, and those window-curtains will be closed, when the
intellectual pleasures of the evening--the rewards of the laborious
day--begin. Those ground-windows will stand open all the summer noon,
and the flower stands will be gay and fragrant; and the shaded parlour
will be the cool retreat of the wearied husband, when he comes in to
rest from his professional toils. There will stand the books destined
to refresh and refine his higher tastes; and there the music with which
the wife will indulge him. Here will they first feel what it is to have
a home of their own--where they will first enjoy the privacy of it, the
security, the freedom, the consequence in the eyes of others, the
sacredness in their own. Here they will first exercise the graces of
hospitality, and the respon