“Well,” said Mrs. Hill, wiping the tears away with her apron, “I really didn’t know, till now, that poor Mrs. McMicken was dead.”

“O, she is not dead,” answered Mrs. Troost, “but as well as she ever was, only she feels that she is not long for this world.”  The painful interest of her story, however, had kept her from work, so the afternoon passed without her having accomplished much—­she never could work when she went visiting.

Meantime Mrs. Hill had prepared a delightful supper, without seeming to give herself the least trouble.  Peter came precisely at the right moment, and, as he drew a pail of water, removed the towel from the well-sweep, easily and naturally, thus saving his wife the trouble.

“Troost would never have thought of it,” said his wife; and she finished with an “Ah, well!” as though all her tribulations would be over before long.

As she partook of the delicious honey she was reminded of her own upset hive; and the crispred radishes brought thoughts of the weedy garden at home; so that, on the whole, her visit, she said, made her perfectly wretched, and she should have no heart for a week; nor did the little basket of extra nice fruit which Mrs. Hill presented her as she was about to take leave heighten her spirits in the least.  Her great heavy umbrella, she said, was burden enough for her.

“But Peter will take you in the carriage,” insisted Mrs. Hill.

“No,” said Mrs. Troost, as though charity was offered her; “it will be more trouble to get in and out than to walk”—­and so she trudged home, saying, “Some folks are born to be lucky.”

* * * * *

VI.

HORACE GREELEY.

(BORN 1811—­DIED 1872.)

THE MOLDER OF PUBLIC OPINION—­THE BRAVE JOURNALIST.

Mr. Greeley lived through the most eventful era in our public history since the adoption of the Federal Constitution.  For the eighteen years between the, formation of the Republican party, in 1854, and his sudden death in 1872, the stupendous civil convulsions through which we have passed have merely translated into acts, and recorded in our annals, the fruits of his thinking and the strenuous vehemence of his moral convictions.  Whether he was right or wrong, is a question on which opinions will differ; but no person conversant with our history will dispute the influence which this remarkable and singularly endowed man has exerted in shaping the great events of our time.  Whatever may be the ultimate judgment of other classes of his countrymen respecting the real value of his services, the colored race, when it becomes sufficiently educated to appreciate his career, must always recognize him as the chief author of their emancipation from slavery and their equal citizenship.  Mr. Lincoln, to whom their ignorance as yet gives the chief credit, was a chip tossed on the surface of a resistless wave.