couldn't, an' baby got so stiff and cold, an' I couldn't get him warm.' An' then, O Mis' Johnson, she began to scream again. It was awful, but after a while she was still again for several hours, an' I tried to get Jim to lay down, but he wouldn't leave her; an' his mother come up for him to get him to go down an' eat somethin', but he jes' looked at her, an' she went an' left him. "It was night when Rhody roused up agin', an' she looked so much better out of her eyes that I felt sort a cheered. "Jim,' she says, whispering, 'is that Aunt Nancy?' "Yes, dear,' he says. "Yes, dear,' I says. sleep, like a good girl.' 'Now go to "All right,' she says, 'you keep the baby, an', Jim, kiss me good night. I love you-Jim. We'll be-so happy -by-ourselves.' "The last words were a long time comin', an' Jim, after he kissed her, looked at me an' whispered, Send for the doctor.' I hurried out, but before the doctor came he was not needed. Rhody had said her last good night." How did Mary Ann take it?" said Mrs. Johnson, wiping her eyes. "Laws, she tuk on like all possessed, cried and hollered till I thought she'd go inter fits; but somehow I felt sorrier for the ole man. He'd stan' an' look at the pore thing after she was laid out, an' the big tears'd run down his wrinkled face, an' he says to me, 'She's too good fur this world, Nancy, Rhody was.' Just then the brakeman shouted the name of the town at which I was to stop, and I must gather up my traps. I leaned over and whispered to Aunt Nancy," "What did poor Jim do?" 66 The old lady's face flushed. you a-listenin'?" says she. "I couldn't help it," I said. Rhoda! But what about Jim, Aunt "This way, Madam," said the conductor briskly. "Let me have your valise." "Jim?" she whispered excitedly, "he like to went wild, but he was mighty quiet, an' soon's the funeral was over he sold everything he had and went to Californy." "Did he forgive his mother?" I asked, but the conductor took my arm and marched me out, and to this day I am wondering about "Jim" and his "Was mother and "ole man Curtis." If I knew where "Aunt Nancy " lived, I "Poor would write to her. MRS. GLADSTONE AND HER GOOD WORKS. BY MARY G. BURNETT. THE Mrs. Gladstone's father, Sir Stephen Glynne, died young, when his eldest daughter Catherine (Mrs. Gladstone) was scarcely five years old. Tradition remembers him as a very handsome, lively-minded man, and it is said that Catherine Glynne grew up very like her father. One of Mrs. Gladstone's first vivid impressions is of the fright she got by seeing the "mutes," then the fashion at important funerals, standing about the castle while her dead father lay in state. It gave her a life-long horror of elaborate and expensive funerals. Her father was succeeded in the baronetcy and estates by his eldest son, Stephen Richard, then but a little boy of eight. Lady Glynne, a daughter of Lord Brabrooke, was left with the sole charge of the property and the children. She was a beautiful woman of strong character. Fortunately about this time her brother, the Honorable George Neville, came to be rector of Hawarden parish. The castle and rectory were within a quarter hour's walk of each other, and it was This was about the year 1813. At that date Hawarden, in common with a village in Cheshire, had the deserved reputation of being the most wicked place in all the country round. Mr. Neville, with Lady Glynne's consent, closed the worst of the public houses, and inaugurated a system of education for the parish, setting up schools in Hawarden village and in the districts round. MRS. GLADSTONE'S EARLY TRAINING. It was a serious problem at the outset to obtain either teachers or scholars. It was necessary to employ bribery to get the mothers to send their children to school, and the aid of Lady Glynne and her young girls was brought to bear, in the first place, to talk the mothers over; and, secondly, to prepare a store of frocks, coats, cloaks, and other useful garments. These were given away as Christmas prizes, to recompense the mothers for remitting the services of their little girls, and the pence which the boys could pick up at scaring crows and such like juvenile occupations. It was a matter of still greater difficulty to find teachers who knew anything of the art of instruction; An old this was long before the day of colleges for elementary teachers. woman at Hawarden boasted to me that she had received for many years a Christmas prize for regular attendNaturally the question ance at school. was asked: "How was it, then, Mrs. Catheral, you never learned either to read or write?" "Oh, I never wanted to," said she. "I never tried. But I liked the pretty frock or warm cloak the Miss Glynnes always gave us for prizes at Christmas time, if we went to school regular." Then she added, "Bless you! you should have seen the prizes in those days! They were worth looking at; none of your books and rubbish, like what children get in these days." In such an atmosphere did the children of Lady Glynne grow up, systematically ers of the movement, amongst whom were young Gladstone and many other brilliant young men, destined to be friends through life of those two bright and beautiful young girls at Hawarden. Thus a happy childhood matured into womanhood, under revolutionary influences. The breezes of intellectual and spiritual awakening stirred the air. Theirs never was a life of mere social excitement which so often plunges the trained to assist their mother and uncle in everything they projected for the parish good. Then came the full tide of the Oxford movement, which swept like a wave of light and heat through the sluggish heart of English religious and social reform, though it landed some of its brightest lights afterwards in Romanism. The names of Pusey, Keble, Manning, and Newman were household words at Hawarden Castle. Catherine's brothers were then at Christ Church, Oxford; and, in the midst of it all, intimate with the lead débutante into a whirl of pleasure without feeding the better life. They entered, it is true, into all the pleasures of London seasons, their beauty and bright minds fitting them to enjoy these to the full. But behind and above it all was the intelligence which kept. them in touch with the movement of their day-a movement which, when turned into practical channels, brought about, for example, the great work of Florence Nightingale, who re-created. the hospital-nursing service. The same potency inspired the establishment of homes and refuges and many of the philanthropic schemes which have made the last forty years so notable. Certain it is that Catherine Glynne came under the influence of the Oxford movement, and was predisposed by it to take a leading part in the philanthropic work of the day. MARRIAGE AND PHILANTHROPY. ginning Mr. Gladstone has been president and his wife a regular visitor. The object of the refuge is to give shelter to persons out of work and in temporary distress, to enable them to tide over their difficulties, and to find fresh employment.. MISS GLYNNE (MRS. GLADSTONE), 1838. In 1839 she married William Ewart Gladstone, whose great genius already foreshadowed his future eminence. The same day her younger sister married Lord Lyttleton. Those who were eyewitnesses of that double wedding, and all the wonderful festivities in the village, are becoming few, indeed. In her married life Mrs. Gladstone found occupation to the full. She was always the true and careful mother who would not give over her duties to another, even to the best of nurses. She was devoted to her husband in his incessant political toils. She did not need to look around her for work. Still her assistance was from the first prompt to the further ance of any schemes where a helping hand was needed. Mrs. Gladstone soon became a centre for philanthropic work of all kinds. She and Mr. Glad stone started Newport Market Refuge, which is now carried on at Westminster, with an industrial school attached. Begun in Soho in 1863, it was Mr. Gladstone's idea, for he saw many friendless wander It does not take in the practised casual, or loafer, but weary, sore-footed travellers, who have walked far in search of work and found none. Such are always admitted as far as room permits, and have the assurance of a week's lodging free, with the prospect of an extension of time if the committee see a reasonable chance of their getting work. In the course of a single year about thirteen thousand nights' lodgings and thirty thousand rations have been granted, and three hundred and nine men and women have obtained employment, or else have been sent home to their friends. It need scarcely be said to those who have kept pace with recent events that the most vital feature of General Booth's great work in London follows closely the model set by the Gladstone institution. It was soon found advisable to add a Boys' Industrial School to the work of the Refuge. Many lads in distress were constantly being discovered, who would certainly drift into a life of idleness and dishonesty if not taken in hand. So the managers of the Refuge determined to try this novel combination-refuge and school-which, hazardous as it was at its commence THE ORPHANAGE, HAWARDEN. ers as he went at night between the House of Commons and his home. Mrs. Gladstone threw herself into his scheme, and the work was started with an efficient committee. From the be ment, has proved an entire success. In 1866 a sharp epidemic of cholera reached England, and the East End of London was severely attacked. Mrs. Gladstone came in contact with it, in |