Mrs. Carroll felt the words of her husband, as a rebuke.  This silenced all opposition.

“I know that I am weak and fearful,” she murmured, leaning her head upon her husband, and concealing her face.  “But I will try to have courage.  If you feel it to be your duty to accept this call, I will go with you; and, come what may, will not vex your ears by a complaining word.  It was only for our little ones that I felt troubled.”

“The Lord will provide, Edith.  He never sends any one upon a journey at his own cost.  Fear not:  we have the God of harvest on our side.”

The will of Mr. Carroll decided in this, as in almost every thing else.  He saw reason to accept the call, and did not therefore, perceive any force in his wife’s objections.

The school, from which a comfortable living had been obtained, was given up; an old home and old friends abandoned.  Prompt as Mr. Carroll had been to accept the call to Y—­, the process of breaking up did not take place without some natural feelings coming in to disturb him.  How he was to support his wife and children on three hundred dollars, did not exactly appear.  It had cost him, annually, the sum of five hundred, exclusive of rent; and no one could affirm that he had lived extravagantly.  But he dismissed such unpleasant thoughts by saying, mentally—­

“Away with these sinful doubts!  I will not be faithless, but believing.”

As for Mrs. Carroll, who felt, in view of the coming trials and labor, that she had but little strength; the parting from the old place where she had known so many happy hours, gave her deeper pain than she had ever experienced.  Strive as she would, she could not keep up her spirits.  She could not feel any assurance for the future,—­could not put her entire trust in Heaven.  To her the hopeful spirit of her husband seemed a blind confidence, and not a rational faith.  But, even while she felt thus, she condemned herself for the feeling; and strove—­with how little effect!—­to walk sustainingly by the side of her husband.

THE CHANGE.

Six months have elapsed since Mr Carroll accepted the call to Y—.  He has preached faithfully and labored diligently.  That was his part.  And he has received, quarterly, on the day it became due, his salary.  That was according to the contract on the other side.  His conscience is clear on the score of duty; and his parishioners are quite as well satisfied that they have done all that is required of them.  They offered him three hundred a year and the parsonage.  He accepted the offer; and, by that act, declared the living to be adequate to his wants.  If he was satisfied they were.

“I don’t know how he gets along on three hundred dollars,” some one, more thoughtful about such matters, would occasionally say.  “It costs me double that sum, and my family is no larger than his.”

“They get a great many presents,” would, in all probability, be replied to this.  “Mr. A—­, I know, sent them a load of wood some time ago; a Mr. B—­told me that he had sent them a quarter of lamb and a bushel of apples.  And I have, two or three times, furnished one little matter and another.  I’m sure what is given to them will amount to half as much as Mr. Carroll’s salary.”