13.  “Why, certainly, potatoes and ham must be supplied; but, having ministered to the first and most craving wants, why not add any other little pleasures or gratifications we may have it in our power to bestow?  I know there are many of the poor who have fine feeling and a keen sense of the beautiful, which rusts out and dies because they are too hard pressed to procure it any gratification.  Poor Mrs. Stephens, for example; I know she would enjoy birds, and flowers, and music as much as I do.  I have seen her eye light up as she looked upon these things in our drawing. room, and yet not one beautiful thing can she command.  From necessity, her room, her clothing,—­all she has, must be coarse and plain.  You should have seen the almost rapture she and Mary felt when I offered them my rose.”

14.  “Dear me! all this may be true, but I never thought of it before.  I never thought that these hard-working people had any ideas of taste!”

15.  “Then why do you see the geranium or rose so carefully nursed in the old cracked teapot in the poorest room, or the morning-glory planted in a box and twined about the window?  Do not these show that the human heart yearns for the beautiful in all ranks of life?  You remember, Kate, how our washerwoman sat up a whole night, after a hard day’s work, to make her first baby a pretty dress to be baptized in.”  “Yes, and I remember how I laughed at you for making such a tasteful little cap for it.”

16.  “True, Kate, but I think the look of perfect delight with which the poor woman regarded her baby in its new dress and cap was something quite worth creating; I do believe she could not have felt more grateful if 1 had sent her a barrel of flour.”

17.  “Well, I never thought before of giving anything to the poor but what they really needed, and I have always been willing to do that when I could without going far out of my way.”

18.  “Ah! cousin, if our heavenly Father gave to us after this mode, we should have only coarse, shapeless piles of provisions lying about the world, instead of all this beautiful variety of trees, and fruits, and flowers,”

19.  “Well, well, cousin, I suppose you are right, but have mercy on my poor head; it is too small to hold so many new ideas all at once, so go on your own way;” and the little lady began practicing a waltzing step before the glass with great satisfaction.

Definitions.—­2.  Ot’to-man, a stuffed seat without a back. 3.  A-sy’lum, a place of refuge and protection. 4.  Pa-thet’ic, moving to pity or grief. 6.  Bi-jou’ (pro. be-zhoo’), a jewel.  Cir’cum-stanc-es, condition in regard to worldly property. 10.  Sen-ti-ment’al, showing an excess of sentiment or feeling. 13.  Com-mand’, to claim.  Rap’-ture, extreme joy or pleasure, ecstasy. 14.  Taste, the faculty of discerning beauty or whatever forms excellence. 15.  Yearns, longs, is eager.

XXXVIII.  THE CATARACT OF LODORE.