ere?" he asked, with more than usual
tenderness in his voice.

"I have never been happy since we left there," the poor wife
replied, sinking forward and biding her tearful face on his breast.

Parker was confounded. He had never dreamed of this. Rachel had
always so patiently acquiesced in all that he had proposed to do,
that he had imagined her as willing to remove from one place to
another as he had been. But now a new truth flashed upon his
mind--"Never been happy since we left there?"

"We will go back, Rachel," he said, with some emotion. "If I had
only known this!"

And they went back. But somehow or other Rachel Parker did not
recover the healthy tone of body or mind that she had lost. By
strict attention to business and continuing at it for some years in
one place, her husband got along well enough, though he did not get
rich. As for Rachel, she gradually declined and three years after
her return was laid at rest.

THE SUM OF TRIFLES:

OR, "A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY GAINED."

BY T. S. ARTHUR.

"SAVING? Don't talk to me about saving!" said one journeyman
mechanic to another. "What can a man with a wife and three children
save out of eight dollars a week?"

"Not much, certainly," was replied. "But still, if he is careful, he
may save a little."

"Precious little!" briefly returned the other, with something like
contempt in his tone.

"Even a little is worth saving," was answered to this. "You know the
old proverb, 'Many littles make a mickle.' Fifty cents laid by every
week will amount to twenty-six dollars in a year."

"Of course, that's clear enough. And a dollar saved every week will
give the handsome sum of fifty-two dollars a year. Bat how is the
half-dollar or the dollar to be saved, I should like to know? I
can't do it, I am sure."

"I can, then, and my family is just as large as yours, and my wages
no higher."

"If you say so, I am bound to believe you, but I must own myself
unable to see how you do it. Pray, how much do you save?"

"I have saved about seventy-five dollars a year for the last two
years."

"You have!" in surprise.

"Yes, and I have it all snugly in the Savings' Bank."

"Bless me! How have you possibly managed to do this? For my part, it
is as much as I can do to keep out of debt. My wife is as
hard-working, saving a woman as is to be found anywhere. But all
won't do. I expect my nose will be at the grindstone all my life."

"How much does your tobacco cost