An Illustrated Monthly Rural Magazine 
FOR EVERY ONE WHO PLANTS A SEED OR TILLS A PLANT.- 
SUBSCRIPTIONS 50 CENTS PER YEAR. 
~ Advertising space $5.40 per inch. 
Vol. 6. AUGUST, 1885. No. 8. 
WIFE AND I. 
Come and di-ain a cup of joy, 
Now with me, good wife, 
And bi’ing the girl and boy 
Now with thee, good wife. 
Let all hearts be blithe and gay, 
It is fourteen years to day 
Since you spake the little “aye” 
That to me was life. 
When in wedding white arrayed 
I beheld you stand, 
Why, I almost felt afraid 
E’en to touch your hand. 
And when with love intent 
Your gaze on me you bent, 
You seemed a being sent 
From the “Better Land.” 
And an angel you have proved 
Since that good glad hour, 
Aye, wherever we have roved 
In sunshine and in shower. 
In all goodness you transcend, 
And all excellences blend 
* In the mother, wife, and friend, 
As a sacred dower. 
You have made my life more pure 
Than it might have been; 
You have, taught me to endure, 
And to strive and win. 
With your simple song of praise 
You sanctify our days, 
And our thoughts to heaven you raise 
From a world of sin. 
Come, let’s quit the dusty town 
With its noise and strife, 
And seek the breezy down 
That with health is rife. 
Work is good and so is play, 
Let us keep our wedding-day 
O’er the hills and far away, 
Happy man and wife. 
John George Watts , in Cassell's Magazine. 
DINES, 
Suggested by reading “Unknown is Best,” in June 
number of Seed-Time and Harvest. 
BY E. N. E. 
If the dead, sleeping under the grasses, 
C^n return from the shades of the tomb 
To their homes, they can look on what passes, 
With no feelings of anguish and gloom; 
For, not as poor, shoi’t-sighted mortals, 
With visions obscured by clay, 
Do the ones who have passed the dark portals. 
Look down on the earth-life to-day. 
And the wife, looking down from above, 
Where the light of her presence was shed, 
Who sees that her home is an Eden of love 
And another reigns there in her stead, 
Knows, too, that her memory is cherished 
Down deep in the depths of his heart— 
That his love for hex* never has perished. 
But still of his life forms a part. 
Would her joy be more full and complete. 
In the beautiful mansions of bliss — 
Her existence in that world more sweet, 
If he knew no pleasure in this? 
Could she wish him forever to languish? 
"Would it brighten her heaven to know 
That his life was one long night of anguish. 
All given to mourning and woe ? 
# 
The great, who have left their high places 
To be filled, while the multitude cheers, 
Had rather see bright, smiling faces 
Than a nation forever in tears; 
And the young and the fair who have gone, 
Must surely be gladder to know 
That the mirth and the pleasure go on, 
Than they would to see weeping and woe. 
With no pangs of sad misgiving, 
They can calmly look to- day 
On the lives that we are living, 
As we look on children’s play. 
