for the support of his family, and ought to have been
thankful, under the circumstances, that he was a tailor."

"So I think. And his wife ought to have been thankful too."

"And I suppose she would have been if he had possessed the manliness
to tell her the truth."

"No doubt in the world of that," returned Aunt Prudence, and then
resumed her narrative:

A week was spent by the young man in another vain effort to find
employment as a clerk. Then he avowed his intention to go to
Louisville, and see if nothing could be done there.

"Try longer here, Joseph. Don't go away yet," earnestly and tearfully
pleaded his wife. "You don't know how hard it is for me to be
separated from you. I am lonely through the day, and the nights
pass, oh! so heavily. Something may turn up for you here. Try for a
while longer."

"But our money is nearly all gone. If I don't go now, I shall have
no means of getting away from this place. I feel sure that I can
find something to do there."

His wife pleaded with him, but in vain. To Louisville he went, and
there got work at the first shop to which he made application. At
the end of a week he sent his wife money, and told her that he had
procured temporary employment. She wrote back asking if she might
not join him immediately. But to this he objected, on the score
that, as his situation was not a permanent one, he might, in a few
weeks, be obliged to leave Louisville and go somewhere else. This,
to his wife, was by no means satisfactory. But she could do no less
than submit.

Thus separated, they lived for the next three months, Fletcher
visiting his wife and child once every two weeks, and spending
Sunday with them. During the time, he made good wages. But both
himself and wife were very unhappy. Earnestly did the latter plead
with her husband to be allowed to remove to Louisville. To this
however, he steadily objected. Daily he lived in the hope of
securing a clerkship in some store, and thus, being able to rise
above the low condition in which he was placed. The moment he
reached that consummation, so much desired, he would instantly
remove his family.

At length, it happened that Fletcher did not write once, instead of
several times, during one of the periods of two weeks that he was
regularly absent. The Sunday morning when he was expected home
arrived, but it did not bring, as usual, his anxiously looked-for
presence. His wife was almost beside herself with alarm. No letter
c