By great economy, in view of approaching ill health, he had managed to lay up, since the increase in his wages, nearly the amount of that increase.  He had done this, by living upon the same amount that he before found to be inadequate to the support of his family.  How this was done, they only can know who have resolutely, from necessity, made the same experiment, and found that the real amount necessary to live upon is much smaller than is usually supposed.  This sum, about one hundred dollars, he had when he was thrown out of employment scarcely enough to last for three months, under their present expenses.  It was with painful reluctance that Wilmer trespassed upon this precious store, but he found necessity a hard task-master.

Amid the gloom and darkness of his condition and prospects, there was one bright star shining upon him with an ever-constant light.  No cloud could dim or obscure it.  That light, that cheerful star, was the wife of his bosom.  The tie that bound her to her husband was not an external one alone; she was wedded to him in spirit.  Her affection for him, as sorrow, and doubt, and fearful foreboding of coming evils gathered about him, assumed more and more of the mother’s careful and earnest love for the peace of her child.  She met him with an ever-cheerful countenance; gently soothed his fears, and constantly referred him to the overruling care of Divine Providence.  Affliction had wrought its proper work upon her affections, and as they became gradually separated from the world, they found a higher and purer source of attraction.  From a thoughtless girl, she had become a reflecting woman, and with reflection had come. a right understanding of her duties.  An angel of comfort is such a woman to a man of keen sensibilities, who finds his struggle in the world a hard and painful one.

Two months passed away in the vain effort to obtain employment.  Every avenue seemed shut against him.  The power of endurance was tried to its utmost strength, when he was offered a situation in an iron-store, to handle iron, and occasionally perform the duties of a clerk.  Three hundred dollars was the salary.  He caught at it, as his last hope, with eagerness, and at once entered upon his duties.  He found them more toilsome than he had expected.  The business was a heavy one, and kept him at fatiguing labour nearly the whole day.  Never having been used to do hard work, he found on the morning of the second day, that the muscles of his back, arms, and legs, were so strained, that he could hardly move himself.  He was as sore as if he had been beaten with a heavy stick.  This, however, in a great measure, wore off, after he began to move about; but he found his strength giving way much sooner on this day than on the preceding one.  At night, his head ached badly, he had no appetite, and was feverish.  On the next morning, however, he went resolutely to work; but he felt so unfit for it, that he finally, referring in his own mind to what he had