time, and I wish them out of the way, so that I can go to work. If
you'd had their noise and confusion about you all day, as I have, you'd
be glad to see them in their beds."

"You'll have to go," said Mr. Ellis, in a tone of disappointment that
he could not conceal. "But get up early to-morrow morning, and I will
tell you the rest of the story. Don't cry, dear!" And Mr. Ellis kissed
tenderly his little girl, in whose eyes the tears were already starting.

Slowly, and with sad faces, the children turned to obey their mother,
who, not for a moment relenting, spoke to them sharply for their lack
of prompt obedience. They went crying up-stairs, and she scolding.

The moment the door of the nursery closed upon the retiring forms of
the children, Mr. Ellis started to his feet with an impatient
exclamation, and commenced pacing the room with rapid steps.

"Temptations without and storms within," said he, bitterly. "Oh, that I
had the refuge of a quiet home, and the sustaining heart and wise
counsels of a loving wife!"

By the time Mrs. Ellis had undressed the children and got them snugly
in bed, her excited feelings were, in a measure, calmed; and from
calmer feelings flowed the natural result--clearer thoughts. Then came
the conviction of having done wrong, and regret for a hasty and unkind
act.

"He sees but little of them, it is true," she murmured, "and I might
have let them remain up a little while longer, I'm too thoughtless,
sometimes; but I get so tired of their noise and confusion, which is
kept up all day long."

And then she sighed.

Slowly, and with gentler feelings, Mrs. Ellis went down-stairs. Better
thoughts were in her mind, and she was inwardly resolving to act
towards her husband in a different spirit from that just manifested. On
entering the nursery, where she had left him, she was not a little
disappointed to find that he was not there.

"It isn't possible that he has gone out!" was her instant mental
ejaculation; and she passed quickly into the adjoining chamber to see
if he were there. It was empty.

For some time Mrs. Ellis stood in deep abstraction of mind; then, as a
sigh heaved her bosom, she moved from the chamber and went down-stairs.
A glance at the hat-stand confirmed her fears; her husband had left the
house.

"Ah, me!" she sighed. "It is hard to know how to get along with him. If
every thing isn't just to suit his fancy, off he goes. I might humour
him more than I do, but it isn'