“Mr. Easy!” she said, in surprise.

“Mrs. Mayberry, how do you do?” There was some restraint and embarrassment in his manner.  He was conscious of having neglected the widow of his friend, before he came.  The humble condition in which he found her, quickened that consciousness into a sting.

“I am sorry, madam,” he said, after he had become seated, and made a few inquiries, “that I did not get the place for your son.  In fact, I am to blame in the matter.  But I have been thinking since, that he would suit me exactly, and if you have no objections, I will take him, and pay him a salary of two hundred dollars for the first year.”

Mrs. Mayberry tried to reply, but her feelings were too much excited by this sudden and unlooked-for proposal, to allow her to speak for some moments.  Even then, her assent was made with tears glistening on her cheeks.

Arrangements were quickly made for the transfer of Hiram from the store where he had been engaged, to the counting-room of Mr. Easy.  The salary he received was just enough to enable Mrs. Mayberry, with what she herself earned, to keep her little ones together, until Hiram, who proved a valuable assistant in Mr. Easy’s business, could command a larger salary, and render her more important aid.

HUMAN LIFE.

By T. S. Arthur.

Benjamin Parker was not as thrifty as some of his neighbors.  He could not “get along in the world.”

“Few men are more industrious than I am,” he would sometimes say to his wife.  “I am always attending to business, late and early, rain or shine.  But it’s no use, I can’t get along, and am afraid I never shall.  Nothing turns out well.”

Mrs. Parker was a meek, patient-minded woman; and she had married Benjamin because she loved him above all the young men who sought her hand, some of whom had fairer prospects in the world than he had; and she continued to love him and confided in him, notwithstanding many reverses and privations had attended their union.

“You do the best you can,” she would reply to her husband when he thus complained, “and that is as much as can be expected of any one.  You can only plant and sow, the Lord must send the rain and the sunshine.”

The usually pensive face of Mrs. Parker would lighten up, as she spoke words of comfort and encouragement like these.  But she never ventured upon any serious advice as to the management of her husband’s affairs, although there were times when she could not help thinking that if he would do a little differently it might be better.  To his fortunes she had united her own, and she was ready to bear with him their lot in life.  If he proposed any thing, she generally acquiesced in it, even if it cost her much self-sacrifice; and when, as it often happened, all did not turn out as well as had been expected, she never said—­“I looked for this,” or “I never approved