e close, stifling air of
their wretched homes into that which is pure and fresh."

"Nothing could give greater pleasure than to have these poor, emaciated
babies and wan-faced women look up at you with a smile, as if saying, 'O
how this cheers us.' I wonder if it will ever be?"

"'Tis hard to tell," was the reply. "But suppose you had a carriage,
your husband might object to your using it in this way."

"Then I should not use it at all." Here Agnes looked as if at that time
rejecting its use.

Ruth laughed. "Wait, my dear, until you get it," she said. "Or before
you give yourself away, it would be well to ask the gentleman, if, in
case you owned such a thing, you could use it for such purposes."

"Not I indeed. No man ever finds me asking him such a question; what was
_his_ would be mine. But I shall know, when I see the man, what manner
of spirit he is of."

This occasioned another laugh, in which Agnes joined, and the two,
banishing the thoughts of sick babies and pale-faced women, had a gay
time. In the meantime, the children had scrambled over rocks to gather
lichen, and dug holes deep enough to bury a kitten in, in their efforts
to get moss; they had sailed little nut-shell boats down the stream, and
in the many ways that children have enjoyed themselves. Everybody was
hungry of course, so by the time Agnes was ready for her ferns, there
were empty baskets in which to place them. But they read and talked
before that, and walked through the woods on the other side out to the
river, finding several beautiful plants on their way. Then at the last
the ferns were gathered, and Agnes did wish they could have had more
baskets. But Ruth informed her she might have gone home by herself if
she had.

"Now that is my idea of enjoying oneself," said Agnes, as tired but very
happy, she laid her head on her pillow.

"Yes, that is rational, sensible enjoyment," replied Ruth. "I wish
sensible people would have the moral courage to act sensibly in this
matter of rest and recreation. But it would shock a great many quite as
much as it did Guy. Now I think it is well and often necessary for
persons to have a more decided change, when their health requires it,
and their means will allow. But this thing of going to fashionable
resorts, for the sake of appearance, spending hundreds of dollars in
mere dissipation; coming home envious and dissatisfied at the greater
show made by others, instead of seeking change for the good of it