nd
useful improvements which were required upon his farm, with a view
simply to profit, nature took the work of ornamenting it under her own
special and particular charge.

The sphere of Mary Erskine's duties and pleasures was within doors.
Her conveniences for house-keeping were somewhat limited at first, but
Albert, who kept himself busy at work on his land all day, spent the
evenings in his shanty shop, making various household implements and
articles of furniture for her. Mary sat with him, usually, at such
times, knitting by the side of the great, blazing fire, made partly
for the sake of the light that it afforded, and partly for the warmth,
which was required to temper the coolness of the autumnal evenings.
Mary took a very special interest in the progress of Albert's work,
every thing which he made being for her. Each new acquisition, as one
article after another was completed and delivered into her possession,
gave her fresh pleasure: and she deposited it in its proper place in
her house with a feeling of great satisfaction and pride.

"Mary Erskine," said Albert one evening--for though she was married,
and her name thus really changed, Albert himself, as well as every
body else, went on calling her Mary Erskine just as before--"it
is rather hard to make you wait so long for these conveniences,
especially as there is no necessity for it. We need not have paid for
our land this three years. I might have taken the money and built a
handsome house, and furnished it for you at once."

"And so have been in debt for the land," said Mary.

"Yes," said Albert. "I could have paid off that debt by the profits of
the farming. I can lay up a hundred dollars a year, certainly."

"No," said Mary Erskine. "I like this plan the best. We will pay as
we go along. It will be a great deal better to have the three hundred
dollars for something else than to pay old debts with. We will build a
better house than this if we want one, one of these years, when we get
the money. But I like this house very much as it is. Perhaps, however,
it is only because it is my own."

It was not altogether the idea that it was her own that made Mary
Erskine like her house. The interior of it was very pleasant indeed,
especially after Albert had completed the furnishing of it, and had
laid the floor. It contained but one room, it is true, but that was a
very spacious one. There were, in fact, two apartments enclosed by the
walls and the roof, th