University of Virginia Library

AN EMINENTLY THOUGHTFUL HUSBAND.

HE was a wonderfully practical man, and she was marvellously poetical. To her, life had been a dream edged with gold, and filled in with the loveliest of roseate hues. But to him had appeared every thing in the homespun garb of every-day life. He is a country merchant, and buys his goods in New York. His partner always went to the city on business connected with the grocery; but the partner was recently taken ill, and our extremely practical friend was obliged to go. It was his first visit to the great city, and he was to be gone three days. It was a momentous event to his fond wife. Do the best she could, her mind was

troubled with forebodings. It is difficult to tell just exactly how he felt; but, while it was evident he realized the importance of the step he was about to take, still he never lost sight of the fact that a mighty responsibility was resting on his shoulders, and that all private emotion must be subserved to public interests. His carpet-bag was packed, and his hand on the door to pass out of the house, when she bade him good-by. She put both arms about his neck.

"John," she sobbed, "you are going away."

This was so palpable, that it would have been madness to attempt a denial: so he merely observed,—

"Look out for my collar, Maria."

"You will think of your wife while you are gone?" she whispered huskily.

He was a trifle nervous under the pressure of her arms upon his collar; but he spoke re-assuringly,—

"I will bear it in mind, my dear."

"You will think of me as mourning your absence, and anxiously awaiting your return?" she murmured.

"You can trust me to attend to it," he replied, with as much firmness as if it had been a request for six barrels of mackerel.

"And you'll be very careful of yourself for my sake?" she suggested in a broken voice.

"I will see it attended to, my dear. But it is almost time for the train;" and he gravely sought to remove her arms from his neck.

"John, John!" she convulsively cried, "don't forget me, don't forget me!"

"Maria," he said with a tinge of reproach in his tone, "I have made a memorandum to that effect."

And then she let him go, still tearful, but confident "it would be attended to."