she thought I would give about eight dollars. She gave her 'services' you know."

"Services" said Mr. Pridefit, contemptuously.

I know you

John, you needn't laugh about services. think there are no services but lawyer's that ought to bring money. I wonder how you'd get along without services." 'But, Mrs. Pridefit, my services are very different from Mrs. Brown's."

"Yes, I suppose they are.

You sit in your office and talk half an hour to a man about some case of distress warrant, and ask him ten dollars for it, and Mrs. Brown will talk all day long about some case of real distress, and get nothing for it-that's the difference; and then she walks miles and miles. She said to-day she was tired out, and tomorrow she's going all around again, to get subscriptions, to get up a fair to pay off the church debt."

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Yes, I know, and wants you to make a lot of ice creams and jellies. She'll give her services."

"You know, John, every body must do something for the -demands of charity. I am sure I am very economical.

I

save all I can. I shall make that set of sable do this winter, and for this fall I had no new bonnet."

"Ah! yes!" said John, laughing, "but you sent your last year's bonnet to Madame Flummery's. She gave it only a professional twitch, a professional glance, put in inside fixins and strings, and sends me in her bill of eight dollars, when the whole extra fixings wouldn't cost two. She values her services highly, you see."

"Well, John, I only paid six dollars for all the material for my new morning dress."

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Yes, that was reasonable; but your dress-maker sent me in her bill, yesterday; a bill of eight dollars for her services in making it. But I suppose she furnished the sewing silk as you always say, and that must be French silk, too. I can't see but Mrs. Douglas's dresses fit just as handsomely, and she makes them herself."

"John, you men don't know any thing about these matters. It s every thing to have a French fit, and Madam Fixeria says my figure is so stylish it ought to have the best fit, and you know, John, you pay thirty-six dollars a dozen for your shirts, and they can't cost any thing like that.

You care so much about the fit, and twenty dollars

for that Imperial Dictionary-that was really extravagant. Twenty dollars would buy so many nice little things for my etagére. Why, Webster's dictionary was good enough for my mother, and it is good enough for me. I should never think of paying so much for a book. There are ever so many things I should think of buying before I bought thatand then, ten precious dollars for those dull quarterlies, with those long-winded articles about assimilation of law, or Prophetical Literature or Tithe Impropriation, or India Traditions, or Chineese Aphorisms, or some subject or place no body cares any thing about."

"Well," said Mr. Pridefit, without noticing his wife's sage criticisims," I hope you won't give any thing more in charity without going to see for yourself. It was a dastardly imposition, and although that man escaped the grave, he ought to be consigned to the Tombs in earnest."

Next door to Mrs. Pridefit lived two single ladies.

"Didn't I tell you?" said Miss Susan Simpson to Maria, (Susan was the elder, and the spokesman for the two,) " that Mrs. Pridefit would cut off that girl's curls, and she has, all those beautiful ringlets; she has bobbed them off close, and see, her feet can almost walk about in Mrs. Pridefit's gaiters. I say it is a sin and a shame," added Miss Simpson, shaking her head emphatically, "I'd like to give her a piece of my mind."

"I think you'd find she had mind enough of her own, if you should undertake to give her a piece of yours," said Maria, quietly.

Susan and Maria got along finely together-one always kept cool when the other was out of patience. "And do you know," added Maria, "that Mrs. Pridefit told Mrs. Venner yesterday, that the doctor had advised her to take more exercise for her health-she should keep but one girl for a while, and do a little sweeping herself, though Mr. Pridefit was much opposed to it. But I know how it is. Mr. Pridefit bought lots of Mr. Trap way up in Fifth avenue, expecting to sell soon at great advance. Hard times came,

and he couldn't sell-I know he's had to rake and scrape to pay for those lots, and Mr. Trap waits for no body, so they are obliged to economize, They came over here, Mrs. Pridefit says, because it was pleasanter; but you know, Maria, it was because it was cheaper."

"Yes, all for appearances," said Miss Maria, dropping off to sleep.

Venus looked down clear and bright, out from the cold sky, through the uncurtained windows of Mrs. Pridefit's attic; furnished with a broken bowl, a cracked pitcher, and the shattered remains of an ancient looking-glass, and a table with three trembling legs. The night wind whistled through the broken window pane over the old feather bed which lay on the miserably corded bedstead, covered by a single, faded, tattered spread, ornamented with little tufts of escaping cotton.

As Nepenthe repeated, "Our Father who art in Heaven” there was her mother's Bible open on the table and there -clear and bright as ever, on the first page were the words, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," that glorious truth mounted like a sky lark into that lonely comfortless attic, and was singing its consolation song as Nepenthe closed her weary eyes with-" Now I lay me down to sleep," the first rays of the shining light were dawning in her soul. The mild stars looked serenely down on that young head, nestled on the single straw pillow, the glossy brown hair waved on a cheek, not yet paled by want.

"Mother! mother!" broke out from the slightly parted lips as she started uneasily in her sleep.

Sleep calmly, Nepenthe, on thy hard pillow.

ter than thou was cradled in a manger.

One bet

Let the mild stars

keep watch, and "He will give His angels charge concerning thee."

CHAPTER VI.

MRS. JOHN PRIDEFIT IN THE DARK.

"Oh, charming realm of Nothingness,
Which Nowhere can be found.

While Nothing grandly reigns supreme
O'er Nobody around!"

She had pur

MRS. JOHN PRIDEFIT was in fine spirits. chased that day, an elegant coiffure, mouchoir, and brocade. They were all bargains-she had saved enough on these articles to pay for the poor man's coffin. It was eveningMr. Pridefit had gone out to draw up a will for a sick man.

Mrs. Pridefit sat with her satin slippers resting on the register on her lap lay a mouchoir fragrant with millefleurs, and the last new novel was open in her hand. She had drawn up the table-adjusted the shade over the gas-carefully arranged the folds in her dress, and fixed herself for a good comfortable evening.

She was becoming deeply interested in the plot, and weeping over the pathetic passages, when the letters began to look uncertain and dim-the room to grow dark, and in a minute more, perfectly dark. Groping her way to the bell, she soon summoned Nepenthe, whose dishes were yet unwashed, to the rescue.

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Nepenthe, you ought to keep the metre covered with a flannel blanket-you have put me to a very great inconvenience by your carelessness."

"I did cover it, ma'am," said Nepenthe, timidly.

"You thought you did," said Mrs. Pridefit, sternly. "Now bring me some sort of a light immediately-the lamp you use in the kitchen will do."

Nepenthe soon returned with a large junk bottle, from which arose a dripping tallow candle.

"I am sorry, ma'am," said she, "but Mr. Pridefit broke the lamp the other evening in the cellar."

"Well, well," said Mrs. Pridefit, "you must have cracked it then, you are so careless "-(looking dismally at the new luminary, shedding a ghastly light on rosewood, velvet, and brocatel.) "You saw Mr. Pridefit fix the metre the other night you can put in a little alcohol, as he did."

Half stumbling over the enormous rat which guarded the entrance, by the aid of a duplicate bottle luminary, Nepenthe found the way into the cellar, and without shutting off the gas, commenced operations to illuminate Mrs. Pridefit's parlor; knowing as much about gas and gas metres as she did of the climate, soil and productions of Liberia.

Into the first orifice she opened, she poured the alcohol, while some of the gas escaping communicating with the blaze of the candle, which holding at least a precarious position in the old bottle, had fallen forward into the valve.

Fire! fire!" shrieked Nepenthe, at the top of her voice, and in such terrified tones, that even the immovable Mrs. Pridefit hurried down stairs as quickly as possible.

Shutting off the gas, she poured over the metre and Ne.

penthe the contents of a pail of water, which erst her delicate hands could never have lifted.

"How could you be so stupid?" said she, in angry tones. "Didn't you know enough to shut off the gas before putting in the alcohol? You have done quite enough for one night -you have half frightened me to death-you can put up the alcohol, and wipe the floor "-and Mrs. Pridefit sailed away up into her sepulchral-looking parlor, illuminated by the poorest and darkest of tallow candles-such as she only allowed in her kitchen.

"Stupid thing," thought she, "I'll never let John go away again until I am sure of a light-then the Rev. Dr. Smoothers may call this evening; and how dull and common every thing will look, with nothing but this old candle. My new picture and this dress would light up so well. I declare I'd like to pound her. No light in the hall, either! How provoking!

Poor Nepenthe was walking the floor and ringing her hands, both of which were badly burned. Poor child, it was her first blister. She knew not that a little sweet oil from the castor, could have eased so soon her agony, and so she walked up and down the kitchen floor the whole evening, moaning with pain.

Mr. Pridefit came home late, cold and tired, and bewildered with perplexing suits, claims and counter-claims. Nepenthe's swollen eyes and hand bound up in an old handkerchief, attracted his attention. As a matter of policy, Mrs. Pridefit was induced by her husband to bind up with sweet oil and cotton, the poor blistered hand.

"Didn't I tell you, John," said Mrs. Pridefit, as she was hunting up some cotton, "to get a dry metre? If you had taken my advice, all this trouble would have been saved. I wish you would pay some attention to my wishes. What should I do if Dr. Smoothers were to call now? He is so fastidious and refined. He said he would certainly call this week, and there's only one more evening this week when he will be at liberty. It looks as if we were nobody and nobody lived here."

There was a great hubbub in Mrs. Pridefit's house for a week or two. She had kept dinging at Mr. Pridefit, until he had promised to have all the modern "conveniences" introduced. So up stairs and down, everything was remodelled.