in. Meanwhile, I am making ready. Alex
and Emma and little Helen--who is a pretty big Helen now--are to
be my escorts as far as Buffalo on their way to Niagara. After
that is all plain sailing, and Jane Carter and I can manage very
well for ourselves. It seems like a dream to think that I may
see you all so soon; but it is such a pleasant one that I would
not wake up on any account.

I have a little gift which I shall bring you myself, my Katy;
but I have a fancy also that you shall wear some trifling thing
on your wedding-day which comes from me, so for fear of being
forestalled I will say now, please don't buy any stockings for
the occasion, but wear the pair which go with this, for the sake
of your loving

COUSIN HELEN.

"These must be they," cried Elsie, pouncing on one of the little packages.
"May I cut the string, Katy?"

Permission was granted; and Elsie cut the string. It was indeed a pair of
beautiful white silk stockings embroidered in an open pattern, and far
finer than anything which Katy would have thought of choosing for herself.

"Don't they look exactly like Cousin Helen?" she said, fondling them. "Her
things always are choicer and prettier than anybody's else, somehow. I
can't think how she does it, when she never by any chance goes into a
shop. Who can this be from, I wonder?"

"This" was the second little package. It proved to contain a small volume
bound in white and gold, entitled, "Advice to Brides." On the fly-leaf
appeared this inscription:--

To Katherine Carr, on the occasion of her approaching bridal,
from her affectionate teacher,

MARIANNE NIPSON.

1 Timothy, ii. 11.

Clover at once ran to fetch her Testament that she might verify the
quotation, and announced with a shriek of laughter that it was: "Let the
women learn in silence with all subjection;" while Katy, much diverted,
read extracts casually selected from the work, such as: "A wife should
receive her husband's decree without cavil or question, remembering that
the husband is the head of the wife, and that in all matters of dispute
his opinion naturally and scripturally outweighs her own."

Or: "'A soft answer turneth away wrath.' If your husband comes home
fretted and impatient, do not answer him sharply, but soothe him with
gentle words and caresses. Strict attention to the minor details of
domestic management will o