ber that
Mr. Purblind left home in a hurry this morning, with scarcely a bite of
breakfast; he took very little luncheon, and----"

"Well, we had dinner at the usual time, if he'd said he was hungry, I'd
have hurried it."

"He was not hungry--he was much more than that. Did you ever see a vessel
whose fuel is well-nigh exhausted drag herself into port? What is the
first thing to be done?"

"I don't know--replenish her?"

"Yes, put coal on board. Now when I saw your husband walk up to his
front door, I said to myself, he needs coaling. A good home should be a
good coaling station; remember that."

"But what of me?" she asked with some impatience, "I, too, have my
worries and exertions--do I never need coaling?"

"Frequently," I answered.

"Well, who is to coal me, I should like to know?"

"Yourself."

"That's rather one-sided, I think. Why shouldn't my husband look to
that?"

"My dear," I said earnestly, "I never knew but one man who saw when his
wife needed coaling, and attended to her wants. When he died (for the
gods loved him), it was found that his shoulder-blades were abnormally
large--at least so the doctors said, but I knew all the time that his
wings had budded."

"Well, this life is too much for me," murmured Mrs. Purblind drearily.

"Then don't attempt the next."

"I shan't, if I can help it, and yet I'm like to soon, for Mr.
Purblind's mother is coming on a visit to us, and I know she'll worry
the breath out of me."

"Don't let her."

"How can I help it?"

"By keeping the peace with her."

"Oh, I've tried that before; I've done everything I could for her, and
deferred to her, and ignored myself until I seemed to fade out of
existence, but it didn't work."

"Oh, yes, it did, for it made her ten times as troublesome as before."

"It certainly did, but what do you mean?"

"I mean that a mother-in-law is like a child, in that she is spoiled by
having her own way."

"But what can I do?"

"Walk calmly on, doing the best you can, but recognizing your own
authority and dignity, and finally she will come to recognize it. Be
mistress of your own household, and director of your own children--all
this quietly and pleasantly, but without wavering, and in the end she
will respect and probably admire you, though she will never think you do
just right, or are just the woman who ought to have married her son."

"But I've always been in hopes of making her love me as she loves her
own daughter.