Mrs. Herbert did not utter the threat which came to her lips; for her mind shrunk from the thought of punishing her child, especially as his fault was a consequence of her own actions.  But, as he continued to cry on, and in a louder voice, she not only began to feel excessively annoyed, but deemed it her duty to compel a cessation of what could do no possible good, but rather harm.

“Eddy, you must stop this crying!” Firmness had changed to sternness.

The words might as well not have been spoken.

“Then you are not going to stop!” The tones were angry now; and, as Mrs. Herbert uttered them, she caught the arm of her child with a tight grip.

At this moment, the sound of the latch-key was heard in the street door.  It was dinner time, and Mr. Herbert entered.

“Bless us! what’s the trouble here?” the father of Eddy exclaimed, good-naturedly, as he presented himself in the parlor.

“The trouble is,” said Mrs. Herbert, in a fretful voice, “that I promised to buy him a book, and forgot all about it.”

“Oho!  Is that all?” Mr. Herbert spoke cheerfully.  “This trouble can soon be healed.  Come, dear, and let us see what I can do for you.”

And Mr. Herbert drew forth a small, square packet, and began untying the string, with which it was bound.  Eddy ceased crying in an instant, while a rainbow light shone through his tears.  Soon a book came to view.  It was the book.  Singularly enough, Mr. Herbert had, that morning, observed it in a store, and thinking it would please his child, had bought it for him.

“Will that do?” he said, handing the book to Eddy.

What a gush of gladness came to the child’s face.  A moment or two he stood, like one bewildered, and then throwing his arms around his father’s neck and hugging him tightly, he said, in the fullness of his heart,

“Oh! you are a dear good papa!  I do love you so much!”

Ere the arms of Eddy were unclasped from his father’s neck, Mrs. Herbert had left the room.  When, on the ringing of the dinner bell, she joined her husband and child at the table, her countenance wore a sober aspect, and there were signs of tears about her eyes.  What her thoughts had been, every true mother can better imagine than we describe.  That they were salutary, may be inferred from the fact that no promise, not even the lightest, was ever afterwards made to her child, which was not righteously kept to the very letter.

THE TWO HUSBANDS.

“Jane, how can you tolerate that dull, spiritless creature?  I never sat by his side for five minutes, without getting sleepy.”

“He does not seem so very dull to me, Cara,” replied her companion.

“It is a true saying, that there never was a Jack without a Jill; but I could not have believed that my friend Jane Emory would have been willing to be the Jill to such a Jack.”