opened the paper. Her eye fell instinctively on the following paragraph
in the telegraphic column:--

"FIDDLETOWN, 7th.--Mr. James Tretherick, an old resident of this place,
died last night of delirium tremens. Mr. Tretherick was addicted to
intemperate habits, said to have been induced by domestic trouble."

Mrs. Tretherick did not start. She quietly turned over another page of
the paper, and glanced at Carry. The child was absorbed in a book. Mrs.
Tretherick uttered no word, but, during the remainder of the evening,
was unusually silent and cold. When Carry was undressed and in bed, Mrs.
Tretherick suddenly dropped on her knees beside the bed, and, taking
Carry's flaming head between her hands, said,--

"Should you like to have another papa, Carry darling?"

"No," said Carry, after a moment's thought.

"But a papa to help mamma take care of you, to love you, to give you
nice clothes, to make a lady of you when you grow up?"

Carry turned her sleepy eyes toward the questioner. "Should YOU, mamma?"

Mrs. Tretherick suddenly flushed to the roots of her hair. "Go to
sleep," she said sharply, and turned away.

But at midnight the child felt two white arms close tightly around her,
and was drawn down into a bosom that heaved, fluttered, and at last was
broken up by sobs.

"Don't ky, mamma," whispered Carry, with a vague retrospect of their
recent conversation. "Don't ky. I fink I SHOULD like a new papa, if he
loved you very much--very, very much!"

A month afterward, to everybody's astonishment, Mrs. Tretherick was
married. The happy bridegroom was one Col. Starbottle, recently elected
to represent Calaveras County in the legislative councils of the State.
As I cannot record the event in finer language than that used by the
correspondent of "The Sacramento Globe," I venture to quote some of his
graceful periods. "The relentless shafts of the sly god have been lately
busy among our gallant Solons. We quote 'one more unfortunate.'
The latest victim is the Hon. C. Starbottle of Calaveras. The fair
enchantress in the case is a beautiful widow, a former votary of
Thespis, and lately a fascinating St. Cecilia of one of the most
fashionable churches of San Francisco, where she commanded a high
salary."

"The Dutch Flat Intelligencer" saw fit, however, to comment upon the
fact with that humorous freedom characteristic of an unfettered press.
"The new Democratic war-horse from Calaveras has lately advented in
the le