poor young vicar, handicapped from his very entrance
into the world by his weakness of character, to be overtaken on the
threshold of life by so terrific a fate. "Truly the ways of Providence
are past finding out," said Manske, sorrowfully shaking his head.

"I never did believe in Klutz," said his wife, thinking of her apple
jelly.

"Woman, kick not him who is down," said her husband, turning on her with
reproachful sternness.

"Kick!" echoed his wife, tossing her head at this rebuke, administered
in the presence of the friend; "I am not, I hope, so unwomanly as to
kick."

"It is a figure of speech," mildly explained the friend.

"I like it not," said Frau Manske gloomily.

"Peace," said her husband.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Elizabeth and Her German Garden

"What a captivating book it is--how merry and gentle and sunny, how
whimsically wise and tender! There is real humor in these pages,
and for that reason, if for no other, it deserves to live. The new
chapter, describing the author's pious pilgrimage to the garden of
her childhood, is inimitable in its way, and should not be missed
by any admirer of this most winning Elizabeth."--_New York
Tribune._

"Elizabeth is pure sunshine and without a shadow, the reflection,
as it were, of a quiet existence, and never a commonplace one; for,
without knowing it or suspecting it, she is an idealist. Elizabeth
never tires, for has she not her husband, her little ones, and her
books to talk about? These passages, as found in 'Elizabeth' in the
quiet history of a woman's life, act as useful tonics or are the
necessary sedatives in our somewhat fevered existence."--_New York
Times._

The Solitary Summer

"'The Solitary Summer' affords a generous harvest of beautiful and
poetic thoughts, together with some keen observations of life, all
of which are expressed in a graceful and supple prose.... It is a
privilege to have stood for a time upon the veranda steps and to
have caught a glimpse of that sane refuge."--_Chicago Tribune._

"Full of sunshine and fresh breezes, riotous with the bloom and
fragrance of flowers, spicy with the damp cool breath of pines....
The quaint, whimsical fancies of a cultivated, lovable woman create
a golden atmosphere through which we see her life, and we dream
with her on her bench in her garden, in the fields