evises
excuses for sparing the costly fabrics--pretexts which, to his shame it
is said, he is prone to misunderstand. If men such as he could guess at
the repressed longings for the brave array of other times that assail
the wearers of well-saved--therefore _passee_--finery, at sight of other
women less conscientious, or with richer husbands than themselves,
reveling in the latest and most enticing modes--if eyes scornful of
plain attire could penetrate to the jealously locked closet where
feminine vanity and native extravagance are kept under watch and ward by
the love the critic is ready to doubt,--print, gingham and stuff gowns
would be fairer than ermine and velvet in John's esteem.

CHAPTER VI.

CHINK-FILLERS.

At a recent conference of practical housewives and mothers held in a
western city, one of the leaders told, as illustrative of the topic
under discussion, an incident of her childhood. When a little girl of
seven years, she stood by her father, looking at a new log-cabin.

"Papa," she observed, "it is all finished, isn't it?"

"No, my daughter, look again!"

The child studied the structure before her. The neatly hewed logs were
in their proper places. The roof, and the rough chimney, were
complete, but, on close scrutiny, one could see the daylight filtering
through the interstices of the logs. It had yet to be "chinked."

When this anecdote was ended, a bright little woman arose and returned
her thanks for the story, for, she said, she had come to the
conclusion that she was one of the persons who had been put in the
world to "fill up the chinks."

The chink-fillers are among the most useful members of society. The
fact is patent of the founder of one of our great educational systems,
that he grasped large plans and theories, but had no talent for
minutiae. What would his majestic outlines be without the army of
workers who, with a just comprehension of the importance of detail,
fill in the chinks in the vast enterprise?

Putty may be a mean, cheap article, far inferior to the clear,
transparent crystal pane, but what would become of the costly
plate-glass were there no putty to fill in the grooves in which it
rests, and to secure it against shocks?

The universal cry of the woman of the present to the effect that the
sex has a mighty mission to accomplish, sounds a note of woe to her
who, try as she may, can find no one occupation in which she excels
and who feels that her only sphere