SEPT. 29 
r 
» y os mi fli a 
211 
Jne, readily. “ There Is plenty of room beyond 
for the carriage to pass. Besides, now that I 
think of It, we might, need to call In the doctor ; 
It would be a pity to lose the opportunity, when 
he is actually passing the door. 1 will ask him to 
wait one moment unfit T see.'* 
The Idea, which, In all truth, had only that 
moment flashed upon her, made Pauline look al¬ 
most bright. 
“ Just stop for a moment, Charlotte, and I will 
Jump down.” 
“Why should you Jump down ? Call to some 
one to come out. There must be some woman or 
girl to look after the bouse, There! Oh 1 will 
you come here for a moment ? ” calling herself to 
a girl who ran hastily out, perceiving alio might, 
be wanted. 
“ How is the baby ? ” inquired the other lady. 
“ Oh, baby Is as well as can be, miss, mother 
says. H was that bottle as you sent down, that 
did her all the good. She has never had no return 
of nothlnk.” 
“ And the pain Is quite gone ? ” 
“ Oh, yes, miss. She Is asleep, now. I have got 
her In the kitchen, to let mother have a bit of 
sleep too. Would you please to come In ? ” 
“ No, no-not to-day; not, If there Is no need. 
But there is Dr. Tyndall, you seo, close behind us. 
You are sure your mother would not like him Just 
to see the baby ? ” 
“ Oh, he couldn’t see not.hlnk, miss. And 
mother said yesterday as no baby could be better 
than she Is how, and-•” 
“ Then we had better go on,” so ld Miss Jermyn, 
raising the reins, “or we shall be In the way 
again. How he try the roads are this afternoon! 
If I had taken Tommy out, he would have crawl¬ 
ed at a foot’s pace; but this plucky little creat¬ 
ure minds nothing. Look, Pauline » is not that 
a flue lurid light upon Blundellsays 7 Ah, poor 
Kalph Blundell! Who would have thought this 
was to be t he end of him ! ” 
Trot, trot, trot, along the muddy highway, and 
the doctor’s brougham st ill rolls behind. 
He had not turned, as Paullue had feared he 
would, In the opposite direction. He was going, 
as they were, to the village. 
“ Where shall we stop first 7 ” Inquired Char¬ 
lotte. 
“ At the chemist,’s,” boldly rejoined her com¬ 
panion, “ Drive straight there.” 
“Tlio chemist’s? That Is at the other end. 
We shall have to clatter all down the street first,. 
Never mind, I like It. On such an afternoon It is 
something even to go a chemist’s; shopping In 
Hoxicy is absolute dissipation. What a splendid 
road this Is! 1 like a great, broad road, with 
walls on each side, and not a hill anywhere to 
check our speed. I do tike to go fast.. My heart 
sinks at the sight of our long rising ground out¬ 
side the hamlet. We are expected to got our, and 
walk up, In hot weather. Oh, Paulino look at, the 
river! How like a sheet of glass It lies 1 And 
those unearthly phantoms rising out of the mist 
—are those the poplars 7 What a ghostly land¬ 
scape 1 And to crown It all, that passing.bc.'i.” 
“ That 
“it Is not one, you know; it only sounds like 
It. It lsl'or afternoon service.” 
“ Afternoon service I ” repeated Pauline, turn¬ 
ing two helpless eyes on her companion. “ What 
afternoon service 7 ” 
“ You are rather addle-pated to-day, my dear ; 
excuse tbo polite remark. Wo always have after¬ 
noon service In Advent, and so I suppose have 
you, Yes, r know they have, at Iloxley.” 
“Yes, certainly, 1 remember.” 
“ And now ror the chemist's. Caudle 7 is not 
that the man 7 We send over to him now and 
then, as raarnma thinks his medicines are fresher 
than our little man’s at Pip ton. Softly over the 
bridge, Roger. Now, Pauline, look at the poplars. 
Look over your shoulder. 1 say ! there’s that old 
pill-box close to our heels again! It may pass 
now, for aught I care. There he goes, and gone 
to ou r chemist's too I What Is lo be done 7 We 
must go somewhere else. To the library 7”—[To 
be continued. 
THE MULE. 
The mule is the only animal that Noah didn’t 
take Into the ark with him. 1 have looked over 
the freight, list carefully, and could not sec a mule 
way-billed Tor any place. So clear-headed a man 
as Noah did not dare to lake one on board, as lie 
knew he would kick a hole through her In less 
than a week. 1 don't know a man on whose head 
you could pour quicksilver and run less risk of Its 
spilling oil than on Noah’s, lie was a dreadfully 
level-headed man, and before the freshet was 
over everybody on earth realized the fact. 
The origin of the mule is enveloped in a good 
deal of mystery. TradltIon Informs us that, when 
the flood had subsided, and the ark had laid on 
Mount Ararat, Noah was very much surprised In 
one of his observations to find a good healthy mule 
standing on tlm top of an adjoining mountain. 
The same tradition informs us that, the mule Is 
the only animal that lived through the flood out¬ 
side the ark. 
The mule can bn considered in a good many 
ways, though the worst place to consider him Is 
directly from behind, anywhere within a radius 
or ten feet, 1 never consider a mule from that 
point unless I am looking out through the flue of 
a boiler. 
The word mule comes from the Greek, and sig¬ 
nifies “to slop," and the mule himself comes to a 
stop also. Like multiplied by like produces like. 
Grasshoppers multiplied by grasshoppers produce 
a famine, and potato bugs multiplied by potato 
bugs produce a rise in the price of yeast. But 
when you try to multiply mules they don’t mul¬ 
tiply, and hence the word mule. You may study 
your arithmetic, and read through all of Train’s 
lectures, hut you can’t discover why that is so any 
more thau you could why a woman camiot put, on 
a rubber without leaning up against something. 
The mule has one more leg than a milking stool, 
and he can stand on one and wave the other 
three round In as many different directions, no 
has only throe senses, hearing, seeing and smell¬ 
ing. He has no more sense of taste than a stone 
Jug, and will oat anything that, contains nutri¬ 
ment, and he don’t care two cents whether it be 
one percent,or ninety-nine. All ho asks Is lo 
pass 1 dm along his plate, with whatever happens 
to bo handy round the pantry, and he won’t go 
away and blow how poor the steak Is. Ho Just 
eata whatever Is sot before him and asks no ques¬ 
tions. 
If I were to have a largo picture of Innocence to 
hang up In my parlor, and I did not wish to sit, 
for It myself, I should get a correct likeness of a 
mule. There Is Innocence enough depicted In a 
mules’ countenance to lit out a Sunday-school 
class. It looks as guileless as an angle worm. 
A mule never grows old or dies. Once brought 
Into existence ho continues on forever. The 
original mule Is now mivo somewhere In the 
South, and is named Robert Toombs, because ho 
is so stubborn. 
Mules arc chiefly found In the South and West. 
They have been more abused than Judas Isca¬ 
riot. A boy who would not throw a stone at a 
mule when ho got a chance would bo considered 
by his parents too mean to raise. 
The rnulo is a good worker, but he cannot be 
depended on. lie la liable to strike, and when a 
mule strikes human calculation falls to find out 
any rule by which to reckon when he will go to 
work again. It If useless to pound him, for lie 
will stand more beating than a sitting-room car¬ 
pet. Ho has been known to stand eleven days in 
one spot, apparently thinking of aomettilng, and 
then start off again as though nothing had hap¬ 
pened. 
Down south, when they have a surplus of 
small darkeys ou the plantation, they send them 
out- into the barnyard to play whore there is a 
loose mule. They always bid them good-by 
when they start out, for they are sure the parting 
will be Anal. This Is the most economical Style 
of funeral now in the market. 
To fully appreciate the mule one should listen 
to Ills voice. You never can really know whether 
you like a mule or not till you have heard him 
sing. 1 attended a tnulo concert at Fort, Hnelling, 
The programme opened with a soprano solo, and 
then swung Into a duet, and then pranced Off In¬ 
to a trio, followed up by a quartette, and ending 
with a full chorus of ltO mules. I didn't hear the 
whole thing, for when I camo to the regimental 
surgeon was standing over me, glvlug me power¬ 
ful restoratives, and I hoard him say that I 
might, possibly get out again, though I would 
never be a well man again. 1 have been through 
t he New York Stock Exchange, and spent part of 
a day m a boiler factory, and have been on one or 
two Sunday-school excursions for children, but, I 
never knew what noise was till 1 hoard a lot of 
army mules bray, 
Ono of the dead certaint ies about a mule Is that 
he is sure-footed, especially with his hind feet. 
Ho never misplaces them. If ho advertises that 
his feet will he at a certain spot at a certain time, 
with a sample of mule shoes, to which lie would 
call your attention, you will always find them 
there at the appointed time. lie la as reliable as 
the day or Judgment, and he never cancels an en¬ 
gagement. Every man now living who drove a 
mule team during the war draws a pension. 
1 never owned a mule. T came near buying one 
once. He was a fine-looking animal; his ears 
stood up like the side spires on an Episcopal 
church. Ills tall was trimmed down so that, it 
looked like a tar brush leaning up against him. 
He was striped off like the American Hag, and 
Raphael’s cherubs never looked more angelic than 
did that mule. lie looked all Innocence, though 
ho was so In no sense. The owner sat In the wagon, 
with his chin resting on Ids hand and Ills elbow 
resting on ills knee. In the other band lie held a 
stick with a brad on the end of It. l examined 
the mule and asked t he man a few questions, and 
out of mere form inquired if tlio mule was kind, 
or if he kicked. “ Kind 7 Kick ?” said the man, 
and these were the last words tie ever uttered. 
He reached his stick over the front of the wagon, 
and struck the brad into the mule. It was awful 
to see a man snuffed out as quickly as he was. It 
almost took my breath he fwent so suddenly, l 
never saw the thread of life snap so abruptly as 
It did on that occasion. He didn’t have time to 
leave a message for his family. That mule simply 
ducked Ids head, and then a pair of heels dew out 
behind : there was a crash, a flying of splin¬ 
ters, and that was all; and the next moment 
that mule and I stood alone, my face covered with 
astonishment two feet deep, and his covered with 
part of an old bridle. The next day 1 read an 
account In the. telegraphic news of a shower of 
flesh In Kentucky. I was the only man that 
could explain (bat phenomena, ana I did not 
dare to lent 1 should be Implicated In the affair 
with the other mule. 
1 have seen death in many forms, but don’t 
recollect of ever seeing a funeral gotten up with 
loss pomp and display than on that occasion. If 
I had my choice, to either work in a nitro¬ 
glycerine factory or take care of a mule, I should 
go for the factory, as In ease of an explosion there 
would be more possibility of my friends Hading 
some little mementoes of me with which to as¬ 
suage their grief. A very small piece of me would 
lighten a very mg sorrow. 
I will hunt round and If I find any other facts 
that belong to the mule, I will send them to you 
by express, C. 0. D .—nuiUnwre Han. 
fates' |lotffolio. 
CONDUCTED BY FAITH RIPLEY. 
A MOTHER’S HEART. 
A i.ittle dreamingr, such as mothers know; 
A little Uniformover dainty tbinga ; 
A happy heart, wherein hope all aglow 
Stirs Ilka a bird at dawn that wakes and sings— 
And that is all, 
A little clasping to her yearning breast; 
A little musing over future years; 
A heart that prays, " Dear Lord, Ihou Unowest best,, 
But spare my flower life’s bitterest rain of tears 
And that is alL 
A little spirit speeding through the night; 
A little home grnwn lonely, dark and chill; 
A sad lie art, groping blindly for the light; 
A little snow-chid grave beneath the hill | 
And that Is all. 
A little gathering of life's broken thread; 
A little patience keeping back the tears; 
A heart that sings, ’* Thy daring is not dead. 
God keeps her safe through lain eternal years 
And that is all. 
- ♦♦ ♦-- 
BELIEF FOR WEAK BACJKS. 
BY FAITH RIPLEY. 
How many women in a thousand are there who 
have never experienced a genuine baok-ftclto ? l 
should say about one. Judging from my own obser. 
vutton The large majority of women are martyrs 
to t.lielr backs. Are they born with weak bucks " 
Is this peculiar ache part of the heritage m wonk- 
nir. s which MiCBKJ.nr and others claim for wo¬ 
men 7 oh l no. Most women have to practice 
such devices as wearing corsets, carrying thirty 
or forty pounds of drygoods about their waists, 
(thereby crippling and weakening their muscles) 
and walking or standing at, Injudicious times, be¬ 
fore they succeed In developing a weak hack.’ Rut 
a refractory hack as a permanent Institution is so 
extremely Inconvenient that;moat women al¬ 
though unwilling to relinquish either stay’s or 
heavy skirts or to heed any admonitions as to 
when and how exercise should bo taken, are 
always opon to suggestions for the relief of this 
most tiresome ache. 
Now, 1 have no novel method of treatment to 
propose : in fact, my little prescription'has been 
advocated by physicians for years. I only want 
to again draw attention to tho virtues or the jrffa, 
Mth, 
The usual remedy for a back-ache la “lying 
down;” now, this process consumes an hour or 
more Of time, the desired result Is not always ob¬ 
tained, and at best the relief Is only temporary • 
while a fifteen minuto 8ltz-bath will rest a tired’ 
hack, and If the baths aro persisted in, they will 
eventually effect a cure. 
v”'ds Is a good deal to chili,., but my exp,Men,-, 
)"stifles me In putting the case strongly „nd 
i hose who have already tried, or those who may¬ 
be Induced lo try these bulbs will I have no doubt, 
corroborate what I have said as to their efficacy’ 
Now, as to how tlio bath shall be taken ; Tim 
water should ho pleasantly cool,—not, so cold as 
to be painful—and 1 would recommend the addi¬ 
tion of common salt, In tile proportion of a 
cuprul or salt to a pall of water. There shoo'd be 
water enough In the bath to cover the hips, in 
Hie larger towns nnd cities zinc tubs designed 
especially for Khz-baths are sold. They are shut- 
low In front, with ) high backs and arni-rosts on 
the sides; they are both comfortablo and con¬ 
venient, but any woman or Ingenuity can im¬ 
provise a sltz-buth, only It should bo borno In 
mind that tho bath must be sufficiently huge to 
hold enough water to cover the loins. 
The bath should bo or ten minutes duration 
and should be taken twice a day; to be followed 
by a brisk rubbing with a coarse towel. I would 
also recommend as an additional means of 
strengthening the muscles of the back and of tho 
abdomen, painting those parts lighllij with tinc¬ 
ture of “ Iodine” three times a day. 
-—•+-+>+--- 
INSANITY AMONG FARMERS’ DAUGHTERS. 
In the last report made by Dr. Parsons, Medi¬ 
cal Superintendent or the New Vork city Lunatic 
Asylum, there are two remarkable statements. 
One Is, that during the past year, nil the patient.-) 
ad milled were women —four hundred and seven¬ 
ty-eight, hi number —showing an alarming in¬ 
crease of Insanity among women. The other 
statement Is, that of these patients, farmers’ 
daughters runk numerically highest, as to social 
position, numbering forty-three, while farmers’ 
wives number nine. 
A report of this nature, so painful and startling, 
very forcibly suggests the question, “ Why should 
the largest proportion of these women who have 
become Insane be found to be the daughters of 
farmers7" being tumble to render a satisfactory 
answer to myself for (.Ids fact, I have pm the 
question to various persons, and the reply has al¬ 
most Invariably been, “Too much hard work.” 
This undoubtedly may have something to do in 
producing mental malady by breaking down the 
nervous system, but I opine that the trouble lies 
deeper—that It. Is born of discontent; that It is 
an outgrowth ol tho same dissatisfaction that 
drives so many farmers’sons into other occupa- 
ttons. Concerning this, very much has been writ¬ 
ten and various plans suggested, “ How to keep 
the boys on the farm;” but whoever heard of one 
of these philanthropists telling us how to do in 
order to keep the girls on the farm 7 
Now, l Imagine there Is no class of men and 
women so much preached at, as farmers and rurm- 
erlnes; and In many cases the preachers, who alt 
perked up in the i-obes of agricultural wisdom, 
would. If put to a practical test, not, do a whit bet- 
ter than do the sons and daughters nr An am and 
Eve at whom they direct their critical arrows. 
But It is equally true ( hat no other class of work- 
cis, so far as their social Ulo and mu roundings 
are concerned, more deserve the castigation they 
get, tho unasked-for advice, etc., simply because 
they do not do hair so well as they might, do, If 
they only applied themselves to tlielr avocation 
with the »arno will and pride and determination 
to be somebody and to conquer obstacles that 
men and women in other profeasloris and trades 
exercise. 
Regarding farm life, as f do, as tho ono out of 
which the largest and truest happiness can 
be extracted, it. would seem that of all tho 
girls in the world, a fanner’s daughter should 
bo t he histone to suffer from mental disease. And 
that she does, and t hat her malady results from 
her position, shows that, there Is somewhere In it 
something wrong. 
I think the things hardest to boar la the life of 
farmers’ daughters are, in the majority of cases, 
not the deprivation or luxuries and privileges bc- 
yond their reach, but the annoyances they are 
obliged to bear from the Indifference, careless- 
ness, or thoughtless unkindness of their faUionj 
and brothers. One who has seen the world, trav¬ 
eled, been In society, spent seasons at tho centers 
of fashion, would In no sense bo touched perhaps 
by what rcuders the llfeor many a farmer's daugh¬ 
ter truly wretched. Rut young people or Inexpe¬ 
rienced people, cannot be philosophic. They have 
not yet learned how to Judge of life In a vast and 
comprehensive sense, which la, after all, the true 
way to regard it, It a girl has an Innocent and 
praiseworthy taste for some speem l “nonsense,” 
such as a passion for flowers, her efforts toward 
their cultivation should bo seconded by t,he “ men 
folks” rather than snubbed or regarded with In¬ 
difference. 
I remember hearing a friend who had been a 
hand on a farm, say that tho great trial of her 
girlhood was her being deprived of the privilege 
of taking a drive on Saturday evenings in tho 
summer lime, Just the same as did her brothers. 
The “boyB” preferred to go together, or with 
“some Other girl,” and although she, tlio sister, 
had tolled all the week quite as Industriously as 
her brothers, and would equally have appreciated 
tlm little recreation at the end of It quite as fully 
as did they, yet she was doprl ved of it, because she 
was a girl, or because she did not, happen to own 
a horse and know how to harness and drive it as 
did Tom and Jack. 
Girls who are young ladles, are apt to be far 
more sensitive to homo appeurnnees than their 
elders, and It Is well that they are so. But how 
often are their aspirations and efforts laughed at, 
and they themselves styled as “ putting on airs,” 
or the whole mature promptly disposed of by 
father or mother with a contemptuous “ Pshaw!” 
I remember reading, not long ago, of a man who 
shot, himself from aheer despair because bis wife 
had pulled up some tomato vines that had been 
his pride, and upon which he had lavished hours 
ol toll. One laughs ar (hr idea of a man who la 
ready to kill himself for such a trivial niattor, but 
trivial matters often work more miscliler than 
larger ones. By their very smallness, they lodge 
deep in the mind, pricking the Imagination into 
heated action until everything In the world as¬ 
sumes an abnormal and hopeless lute. Thu value 
of anything, Jitter all, is the preclousuesa attached 
to It, be it, a fortune of a million or dollars, a rose 
tree of a Jack-knife: and the loss of t he latter to 
one individual may produce as poignant sorrow 
as the Iohh or the rose tree or the money to an¬ 
other. 
Ab to the “ hard work" Imposed upon the wives 
and daughters of farmers, there Is unquestionably 
far too much of It. Rut that seems often unavoid¬ 
able; still hard work, If accompanied with kind¬ 
ness, Consideration and sympathy, never yet drove 
anybody mad; It Is tho hard work along with 
hard hearts and hard toolings, that, breed discon¬ 
tent und despair. Who Katharine Phillips may 
tie, or have boen, I do not know; but once upon a 
time sho wrote a stanza that embodies a great 
truth, and which Is well worth committing to 
memory, and being repeated to ono’s-seir when 
everything goes wrong and the girls think about 
doing something desperate. Here aro the linos: 
“ Opinion in tho rate of things 
From lioneo our peace doth flow; 
I have a better fate thau kings 
BeeauBO I think it ho !" 
Mary A. E. WAOER-FisiiEit. 
Bryn Mawr, near Philadelphia. 
-* -. 
OUR GIRLS. 
BY MAY MAPLE. 
Indeed l what a heathenish race they aro, If wo 
are to Judge by what we read of them. It la Im¬ 
possible to take up a newspaper or a periodical 
without seeing some uncalled for slur cast upon 
the “girls.” 
If they are really such an Ignorant, lazy, doll- 
faced, extravagant, useless set, why, in the uaina 
of Mercy and Charity and all good angels, does 
not some magnanimous person come forward and 
do a missionary work In our native land, teaching 
these good-for-nothing girls that there Is work 
for them to do In the world’/ Certainly they 
have capacities that might possibly be better 
developed. 
Perhaps, though, It would bo bettor to exile 
them all for a while to tho “Faderland” whore 
they would be obliged to learn not only kitchen 
work, but farming generally. It would no doubt 
be a great benefit to the young men who “can¬ 
not afford to marry, because It coats so much to 
keep up an establishment." 
