lation.

But a few days ago I was talking with a lady, a most estimable lady
living on a little New England farm of some five or six acres. Her
husband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, industrious man, but one
who spent practically all of his earnings in drink. When he died the
little farm was unpaid for, and the wife found herself without any
visible means of support, with a family of several to care for. Instead
of being discouraged with what many would have called her hard lot,
instead of rebelling against the circumstances in which she found
herself, she faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that there were
ways by which she could manage, though she could not see them clearly at
the time. She took up her burden where she found it, and went bravely
forward. For several years she has been taking care of summer boarders
who come to that part of the country, getting up regularly, she told me,
at from half-past three to four o'clock in the morning, and working
until ten o'clock each night. In the winter-time, when this means of
revenue is cut off, she has gone out to do nursing in the country round
about. In this way the little farm is now almost paid for; her children
have been kept in school, and they are now able to aid her to a greater
or less extent. Through it all she has entertained no fears nor
forebodings; she has shown no rebellion of any kind. She has not kicked
against the circumstances which brought about the conditions in which
she found herself, but she has put herself into harmony with the law
that would bring her into another set of conditions. And through it all,
she told me, she had been continually grateful that she has been able to
work, and that whatever her own circumstances have been, she has never
yet failed to find some one whose circumstances were still a little
worse than hers, and for whom it was not possible for her to render some
little service.

Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and most grateful is she for it,
that the little home is now almost paid for, and soon no more of her
earnings will have to go out in that channel. The dear little home, she
said, would be all the more precious to her by virtue of the fact that
it was finally hers through her own efforts. The strength and nobility
of character that have come to her during these years, the sweetness of
disposition, the sympathy and care for others, her faith in the final
triumph of all that is honest and true and pu