urt,
And thought that all of married life
Was just such pleasant sport:--
My spirit flew in feathers then,
No care was on my brow;
I scarce could wait to shut the gate,--
I'm not so anxious now!

I remember, I remember,
My dear one's smile and sigh;
I used to think her tender heart
Was close against the sky.
It was a childish ignorance,
But now it soothes me not
To know I'm farther off from Heaven
Then when she wasn't got.

THE COUPON BONDS

BY J.T. TROWBRIDGE

(Mr. and Mrs. Ducklow have secretly purchased bonds with money that
should have been given to their adopted son Reuben, who has sacrificed
his health in serving his country as a soldier, and, going to visit
Reuben on the morning of his return home, they hide the bonds under the
carpet of the sitting-room, and leave the house in charge of Taddy,
another adopted son.)

* * * * *

Mr. Ducklow had scarcely turned the corner of the street, when, looking
anxiously in the direction of his homestead, he saw a column of smoke.
It was directly over the spot where he knew his house to be situated. He
guessed at a glance what had happened. The frightful catastrophe he
foreboded had befallen. Taddy had set the house afire.

"Them bonds! them bonds!" he exclaimed, distractedly. He did not think
so much of the house: house and furniture were insured; if they were
burned the inconvenience would be great indeed, and at any other time
the thought of such an event would have been a sufficient cause for
trepidation; but now his chief, his only anxiety was the bonds. They
were not insured. They would be a dead loss. And, what added sharpness
to his pangs, they would be a loss which he must keep a secret, as he
had kept their existence a secret,--a loss which he could not confess,
and of which he could not complain. Had he not just given his neighbors
to understand that he had no such property? And his wife,--was she not
at that very moment, if not serving up a lie upon the subject, at least
paring the truth very thin indeed?

"A man would think," observed Ferring, "that Ducklow had some o' them
bonds on his hands, and got scaret, he took such a sudden start. He has,
hasn't he, Mrs. Ducklow?"

"Has what?" said Mrs. Ducklow, pretending ignorance.

"Some o' them cowpon bonds. I rather guess he's got some."

"You mean Gov'ment bonds? Ducklow got some? 'Tain't a