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"Why do you speak so? happy in Chilton's love. There is surely nothing that life does not promise in fulness to you. Nothing but a morbid melancholy could make you feel in that way. You are happy, or should be. I entreat, that you are so."

Tell

me,

tastes and desires. She is his, as he is hers in life and death, and away from him feels the entire emptiness of her nature.' Does not Alice say this?" he questioned. "The Alice you knew died long ago. Fate murdered her. In her stead is the Alice Farnam before you, who is to marry Edward Chilton without this love of which you speak."

"Alice you are not yourself. There is no such thing as fate. God's providences control us at times, but to them alone we must bow, and not grow dumb before circumstances that are too weak for providences."

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But a dead father's expressed desire, the one desire of his last days, for months recognized by me, is that not a providence?" she entreated, her voice wavering between despair and a newly awakened hope.

Not unless your heart recognizes it as such, your"

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"Why my darling you are weeping,' said Robert, bending over to catch a glimpse of my face, drawing me tenderly to him. What ails my little girl?"

The tears choked me for a time, the only expression for my excitement. Seating me on a fallen tree, Robert waited patiently until I should speak. Finally, I brushed away the last tear. "Did you hear their conversation?"

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Certainly not, little girl. I was talking to you.'

"Yes, I know; but what will you say when I tell you I do not know a word you addressed me."

He raised his eyebrows: he looked questioning. "You listened to them," he asked.

"Yes, it was wrong. I was not conscious of listening, I felt such an interest, I could not help it," I attempted in justification.

She walked on without a word. He continued, excitedly, yet an excitement under the control of a strong will, but the words came sharp and clear," you love Chilton. Alice Farnam would never do the great injustice to herself or another "Yes, dear, I know, it was right to marry where she did not love. Alice, enough," he said, with a reassuring smile; the Alice I knew once would say to her" but it must have been something of conheart: A true woman's life finds in her sequence to bring the tears to these eyes. husband the full expression of her own. What was it?" She feels that in his every act he but obeys the promptings of her own diviner nature. She feels through the remotest fibre of her being, the perfect correspondence of their

"Dr. Pomeroy loves Alice," I ex claimed.

He started slightly. "I know that; but it is not like him to tell her of it. He knows of her engagement.

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"He did not tell her so, but it is not the less evident for that;" and I related to him what I had heard of the conversation. He listened to the end, only exclaiming at the close, "It certainly is pretty bad, and I'm surprised enough. "And so am I. Please explain how it comes that Alice is engaged to a man whom she does not love?

"This Edward Chilton was a ward of her father's, and since a short time previous to her father's death, her engagement has been known among her friends. I certainly thought she loved him, but from this it seems she entered into it only to please her father, whom she adored." "How very wrong in a father to require such a sacrifice," I exclaimed.

"Undoubtedly," he returned; "but uncle did not look at it in that light. He was a tender-hearted man, but dreamy and unobserving, and thought probably he was doing the only thing that would insure her happiness. It is strange what tyrants these good people will sometimes make of themselves when they try to be so unself

ish.

"Why does not Alice see it in this

way?"

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'She was educated in a peculiar manner, and her duty seems stronger that is bound by a promise to the dead."

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'Her ideas of duty must be educated anew. Her duty lies with herself and the living, not the dead. We should look to the future, not to the past. A living necessity is of more weight than scores of dead promises."

view yet," I exclaimed, after hosts of happy questionings an answers.

66

Nor shall we, for do you know it is really blowing hard, and so dark it would be foolishness to attempt sight seeing. We will postpone our view until next spring, when we can take a glimpse on our wedding tour."

I found Alice in our tent on reaching the camp, her cheeks and eyes all aglow. Lying awake, listening to the steady fall of rain on the canvas, the shivering of trees, the subdued voice of the waterfall, and Lucy's even breathing, Alice told me all.

How travelling through Germany two years before, the Doctor had been detained in the little village near her father's estate, and had raised her up to life by constant care and careful nursing, until with newly growing life a love as strong grew up with it. Then how her father's health gave way, and with the intense eagerness of a dying man, had implored her to give her hand to his ward. Influenced by his wishes, not knowing the Doctor's love for her, which would have been a sure anchor, she promised, and the engagement was made public, whereupon the Doctor left suddenly, and she had neither seen or heard of him since, until their unexpected meeting at the hall, a surprise to both.

All has been made clear between us to-night, Lily; but we cannot act alone by our feelings. We may be blinded; advise me?"

And I advised her as my own heart prompted.

"Advise her then, little girl. It would be a sad thing for Alice to bind herself for life to a man whom she does not love.” "Loving another man," I added. "What? not Richard, surely," he future. He is an honorable man, and questioned, doubtfully.

Before we slept, she said, "To-morrow night, if we reach uncle's, I will write Edward the whole, leaving him to decide our

"I believe so," I said. "Little prognosticator! by what art do you divine? By intuition, observation, or by value of experience?" bending over to look into my eyes.

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Certainly, by the two first, possibly

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by
I was unable to finish the sentence, not
having control of my lips.

"But we've not had our moonlight

will do what is best, I am convinced.”

The morning broke dull and chilly, with a fine constant fall of rain, with lowering clouds, and threatening aspect for future days.

Robert's good morning was not merely a shake of the hand, but an embrace and a kiss, which was followed by both from Lucy, half between laughter and tears.

"I never have been so happy in my life," she said. It is just what I've wanted

ever since we were caged together at boarding school.”

A SERENADE.

BY MRS. HELEN RICH.

"You never intimated such a thing," IO, come to the river to-night, love,

said.

you

"To be sure not, I'm a sensible person," with a show of dignity; "if I had, do you suppose I could have coaxed into the wilds of Wisconsin a year ago, and now again? Give me credit for a little sense, if you please?"

The meeting between the Doctor and Alice was the same as usual, to uninterested observers; but I knew all veils had been drawn aside, that perfect confidence was established.

By seven o'clock our arrangements were complete, and through the rain, we took our last look at Forestmoor falls, and quietly floated down the river.

There was little conversation, except at lunch, when I escaped observation long enough to acquaint Robert of my further knowledge.

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It will be all right in the end, believe me," he said, with his warm smile.

I

The moon is afloat on his breast;

The wind has sunk down to a whisper,
There's a bank, where the willow is bending,

The light has gone out of the west.

Of velvet, with violets blue;
There's a star looking down from yon heaven,
To smile on my meeting with you.

O, come to the river, to-night, love,

Its silver waves beat like the heart,
Where love sleepeth soft as the moonlight,
But not like its splendors to part.
I have murmured the song to thee, dearest,
And breathed thy sweet name to the air,
A sigh from the lip that thou lovest,

Is calling thee;-hasten, then, my fair.
Then come to the river, to-night, love,

We'll drink in the voice of its chime,
And the heaven that dwells in thy glances,
Shall rival that heaven divine.
And the ruby that flushes thy lip, love,
To mine shall be wine of delight;

will pledge thee a faith never broken,

O, come to the river, to-night.
Island Home, Wegatchie, N. Y., June, 1862.

WEEK IN THE CAPITAL OF THE GRANITE STATE.

BY MRS. S. M. PERKINS.

So down the river, between the bending willows, dripping like mermaids; between the heavily laden grass of the moor; be- A beautiful city in a sunny day is Contween the whispering trees and saddened cord. The shade trees are numerous, the meadows; with the still rain of an Octo-houses are, many of them, elegant, the ber day falling in ceaseless drippings; six happy hearts, warm with love and hope, floated quietly with the drifting tide: and when, as we moored the boat at the landing, in the early following darkness, the judge came out with questioning All right?" Each and all of us returned, and the years since have proven it true"All right."

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The sapling, green and tender, yields readily to wind and sun, and the hand of the trainer; the grown tree resists the storm, and 'tis well with it if it be not torn up by the roots; the aged trunk, dried to the core, spreads out its branches and perishes. This is human life.-Chapin.

If anything is made clear in the New Testament it is that the best affections of this earth are not changed when they are translated to heaven.-Ioid.

people are social and apparently good humored, and the weather is propitious for the most part, and with a heart to enjoy the short respite from care, the week will pass quickly and pleasantly. I have three or four friends with me to help enjoy the passing moments, and our thoughts, be they grave or gay, wise or foolish, are freely exchanged.

The Legislature is in session, and my friend and I found seats at an early hour, in the ladies' gallery. It was to me an impressive scene when his Excellency the Governor and Council and the “honorable Senate" filed into the House, and with the three hundred members stood uncovered, while the Chaplain asked God to guide them in that day's deliberations. It seemed no unmeaning ceremony, but an acknowledgment of God's presence and care, by the wise and good of the State. The prayer over, the Governor and Council and Senate withdrew, and the business is brought forward by the Speaker, a man

not slow of tongue or lacking in strength of voice.

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But soon an important bill is introduced and calls up the talent of the house. The bill provides for the granting of certain lands to Dartmouth College. We feel that we are in the nick of time as Profesfrom Hanover, rises and speaks in favor of the bill. He is an impassioned speaker, his logic is good, his arguments pointed, and his conclusions so well drawn, that I had no fears for the result. The bill would pass of course; there was no other way. But alas, for human expectations!

An old man rises, a member from Portsmouth, and replies to the learned Professor. He has not the fluency of speech by which we were just captivated; but he has seen the world and possesses good common sense, and a few sarcastic, earnest sentences, and the bill is defeated.

my conjecture was right. He is modest and deferential, and has made no speeches as yet; but I imagine that in future the public will in some way hear from him.

There is, as usual, a full share of lawyers in the house, whose tongues seem never at rest; their words flowing as easily as if there were ideas to accompany them. After listening to the speeches of several of them, I was forcibly reminded of the little girl's criticism on the remarks that were made by a stranger in her Sabbath school one day. The superintendent questioned the school about how much they remembered of the remarks. One little girl raised her hand, signifying that she could tell all about it. The school was called to listen to her version of it:

"He talked, and he talked, and he talked, and we all thought he was going to say somethin', but he didn't say nothin'." Precisely the case with some of these lawyers.

The Professor had referred to Daniel Webster, (whose full length portrait adorns the Representatives' Hall,) and thought Dartmouth should be regarded with favor as the Alma Mater of such a noble son of New-Hampshire. His opponent referred to graduates whom he had known, one of whom purchased a turkey and a goose, once upon a time, and was exceedingly troubled on his way home because he had forgotten to inquire which was the goose. The members of the house, taken as a whole, are as honest and intelligent looking a collection of men as one often sees together. Some are in life's decline, and their forms begin to totter with the burdens of many years. Others are in life's morning, with the future beckoning bright-class of professional men who really acly before them, But the greater proportion are in middle life-men upon whose shoulders rest the heavy reponsibilities of the present, and the weal or woe of the future. There is one boyish figure in his seat at our right, whose countenance and the shape of his head strongly resembles T. Starr King, as I saw him several years ago in Hollis-street Church, Boston. I fancied he was the young member from Sharon, of whom I had heard, that he was but just twenty-one, but was regarded as the most talented man of the town which he represented. I afterwards learned that

The physician has left his pills and his patients, (giving the latter a chance to recover,) the mechanic his tools, and the farmer his plough and horses, and here they gravely sit whirling their thumbs, or reading their daily paper, during the long and sometimes dull debates.

There are five clergymen in the house, two Congregationalist, two Methodist, and one Universalist. One peculiarity I noticed in them: They are all comparatively young men, and yet they seemed care-worn and prematurely old. I should judge that they were earnest, thinking men, who had seen hard service in combatting the sin and wickedness of the world. There is no

complish so much, or toil so hard, as the conscientious clergymen. If a lawyer make a half-dozen able speeches in a year, he is set down as a talented advocate. But the clergyman spends as many or more years in preparation for his work, and then he has fifty or seventy sermons to prepare in the year, with constant demand upon his time for funerals and parochial calls. And the sermons must be no commonplace productions, but they must be systematically arranged, the illustrations to the purpose, the logic right; or else the speaker is subjected to the severest criti

cism. No wonder so many of them fail in physical health, and pass to the grave before their time.

There are the usual number of lobbymembers present, book-agents, &c., who have an eye to their own interests. One gentleman of vast proportions is pointed out to me. "That is Mr. who wants to go to Congress next year." Is he a member of the house? I asked. "O no! only a lobby member," was the reply.

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It is amusing sometimes to see the anxiety of poor mortals to take the highest seats, forgetful of the words of Christ concerning the lowest seats. One would not think the way to Congress lay through this house, and if it was necessary to come like a bee among the flowers, and dally awhile with one member and then with another.

It would be interesting to know what that gigantic man is saying to them all. But probably like the ancient apostle he becomes all things to all men, hoping thereby to win some. But doth He that ruleth the universe, and sitteth up one and putteth down another,, require so much help in carrying on His work? Could He not accomplish His purposes without it? They may succeed in gaining the coveted place, but if in gaining it, their integrity and manliness is gone-it is not worth the having. It is sometimes with them as with the ancient Israelites, "He gave them their desire, and sent leanness into their souls."

The "honorable Senate," twelve dignified, elderly men, have a more quiet time than the house; and I should prefer a seat there, because the air is purer, both morally and physically. I have heard no exciting debates there, perhaps they all think alike on every subject.

The State House is a fine, stone edifice, surrounded by a large yard, well shaded by maple and elm trees. The Nashua Cadets perambulated the streets one day, and were addressed in this yard by Gov. Berry. They were a fine military company, and as there is now a call for more soldiers in the field, they will probably soon be off to the war. How few will re

turn.

His Excellency the Governor is not an eloquent speaker. He reminds one of a trembling school-boy with his first declamation. Yet you feel that he is a good and true man, and you can trust him. I reverence him from my heart because he has always been a friend to the poor and down-trodden.

The members of the Legislature have held a weekly temperance meeting, and a weekly prayer meeting, which have been well attended. Each religious Society in the place have an annual festival during the session, finding it more profitable to have it at this time, when so many strang ers are in the city. I attended one of these gatherings where all were as gay as need be; a crowd were there, but my heart was not in the merry-making. The music saddened me. I did not enjoy the tableaux, or speaking, or feasting. From one corner I observed the scene, where every countenance was strange. It was my only hour of home-sickness. It grew to a late evening hour, and in spite of my efforts at self-control, my heart went one hundred miles away, to a village-home where two little girls were quietly sleeping, and perhaps dreaming of their absent parents. I left the hall, the music, the gaiety, and wept myself to sleep that night like any child. But a beautiful morning came, and a cheerful message from home gave me better spirits.

That day we visited the Asylum for the Insane, a pleasant retreat, where I should judge the poor unfortunates are well cared for. They can at least have the advantage of good medical treatment, which cannot always be obtained in their homes. Yet I know one cannot always tell about such places by merely looking them over. Of course the best side is out on visiting days, and the restored ones who come back to us, do feel that they are often unkindly treated. Still I believe they are merciful institutions, and where the patient is cruelly treated, such cases form the exception, not the rule. Should the time ever come

when what little reason I possess should be dethroned, I would thank my friends to place me out of harm's way, in an Asylum for the Insane. Far better there than to be the theme of a rural neighborhood's gossip.

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