rs.
Simmons; "that tune don't fit any hymn _I_ know. P'r'aps, though, they
sing it in some of them churches up to Cincinnaty," she charitably
continued.

"Cap'en," said she, at breakfast, next morning, when the other guests
had departed, "is your mind at peace?"

"Peace?" echoed the captain--"peaceful as the Ohio at low water."

The captain's simile was not so Scriptural as the old lady could have
desired, but she remembered that he was but a young convert, and that
holy conversation was a matter of gradual attainment. So, simply and
piously making the best of it, she fervently exclaimed:

"That it may ever be thus is my earnest prayer, cap'en."

"Amen to that," said Captain Sam, very heartily, upsetting the chair in
his haste to get out of the room.

For several days Mrs. Simmons lived in a state of bliss unknown to
boarding-house keepers, whose joys come only from a sense of provisions
purchased cheaply and paying boarders secured.

From the kitchen, the dining-room, or wherever she was, issued sounds of
praise and devotion, intoned to some familiar church melody. Scrubbing
the kitchen-floor dampened not her ardor, and even the fateful
washing-day produced no visible effects on her spirits. From over the
bread-pan she sent exultant strains to echo through the house, and her
fists vigorously marked time in the yielding dough. From the third-story
window, as she hung out the bed-linen to air, her holy notes fell on the
ears of passing teamsters, and caused them to cast wondering glances
upward. What was the heat of the kitchen-stove to her, now that Captain
Sam was insured against flames eternal? What, now, was even money, since
Captain Sam had laid up his treasures above?

And the captain's presence, which had always comforted her, was now a
perpetual blessing. Always pleasant, kind, and courteous, as of old, but
oh, so different!

All the coal-scuttles and water-pails in the house might occupy the
stairway at night, but the captain could safely thread his way among
them.

No longer did she hurry past his door, with her fingers ready, at the
slightest alarm, to act as compressors to her ears; no, the captain's
language, though not exactly religious, was eminently proper.

He was at home so much evenings, that his lamp consumed more oil in a
week than it used to in months; but the old lady cheerfully refilled it,
and complained not that the captain's goodness was costly.

The captain brought home a book o