1S2 
THE LADIES' FLOEAL GAEIjSTET. 
But the varses he set the most by was them of King 
Solomon describin’ the vartuous woman. I know the 
hull on ’em by heart. Them books upon woman’s spere 
by Dr. Tood and Dr. Fulton come out jest afore he died, 
and was the solace of his last hours. How many times 
when I was a-ministerin’ araound his dviu’ pillow, he 
quoted to me them lovely words of Dr. Fulton: 
“Woman is God's first gift to man, and to be helper to 
man is nobler than to be queen of Heaven. For this 
God created you. For this he presarves you.” 
One day. the squire added, smilin'. “ Jemima, you've 
ben to me a meek, lovin', industrus, devoted, obejent 
wife. I shall leave you the income of a third of my 
estate as long as you remain my widder. No sou of my 
own can bear my name and honors, but the Pettibone 
name must be kep' up, and tother two-thirds,—the hull 
when you are done with it,—goes to Solon Pettibone. 
my second cousin’s son. who is named arter me. When 
galls gets so uppish, and inderpendent in their idees as 
our galls, they'd better be left scratch for theirselves. 
leave ’em jest one dollar a piece.” 
“ (No, Susan Maria. I don’t think that was too bad. 
Our galls wen agin’ their par’s teechins, and it was his 
duty to punish ’em.) 
“ For nigh upon thirty years I was blest with this 
high, improvin' companionship, and, though a poor 
cretur at best, I tried in my humble way to be h “ help¬ 
meet ” for my husband. The squire was a master-hand 
for good victuals, and I made his likens and dislikeus in 
this line sich a study, that I ontirely won his heart. 
(And, galls, the straightest road to any man's heart, 
leads right through his stummick.) From rise to set 
of sun, my work was never done. I looked well arter 
the ways of my household. I never ate the bread of 
idleness. My husband was known in the gates, when 
he sot among the elders of the land, and that was 
glory enough for me. 
“You ask if the squire was kind to me? Matilda 
Jane. He made me keep my place; I don’t suppose 
you'd call that kind, but I was content. If I'd gone on 
the way lots of women in these days is goin’ on, he'd a- 
shut me up in a lunatic asylum, and sarved me right. 
He had a tremenjus will of his own, and I didn’t darse 
to oppose it. I do believe that if he’d a smit me on one 
cheek I’d a-tumed to him tother one also. In all 
things he was lord and master. I had promised to 
sarve, honor and obey him, and I kept my word. If 
I’d a sot up my Ebeuezer, and tried to have my say 
contrarywise to liis’n, I should a-roused a sperit no 
power on airth could quell. You have heerd of the 
irou hand in the glove of velvet. That was Squire 4 
Pettibone exactly. He jest quietly took it for granted 
that his word was law—like unto that of the Medes 
and the Persians, which cliangeth not. 
“My galls—there was three on ’em—didn’t grow up 
as they'd orter under sich pius teachins. They used to 
say to me: ‘ Mar, you’re a drudge and a slave. You 
don't dare say your soul's your own—you hain’t got the 
sperit of the worm that turns when it’s trod upon. 
Par thinks all women his inferiors, and he’s alius weep- 
in’ an’ bewailin’ the heavy cross laid upon him, in 
havin’ his children all darters iustid of sons.’ (It was a 
heavy cross. I never could forgive myself for loadin’ 
him with sich a burden.) 
“Jenny, our eldest, though her par kept a-dingin’ into 
her ears Johu Milton's words, “one tongue is enough 
for a woman ”—Jenny, she went on and larned Latin, 
French and German in spite of him. He used to call 
her his polyglot darter. Susanna, she went through 
college, and then up and studied medicine. Ruth, arter 
gittin a high-up edicatiou, graderwated from the Boston 
School of Oratory, and now reads and elocutes in public. 
“Jenny, she's married, and keeps house in a new-fan¬ 
gled. labor-savin’ sort of way, and seems to have her say 
about everything. Her husband thinks there’s only one 
perfect woman on the airth, and seems so dazed and 
dumfounded like at his luck in marryin’ that one, that 
he don't even have sperit enough to manage his own 
household. 
“ Susanna says that she is wedded to her perfession, 
Ruth, who a Hers was a saucy minx, declares that she is 
wedded to her art; that she don't wan’t to be like her 
mar—a man’s slave while he lives, and his relict arter 
he is dead. They’re bright, good-lookin’ galls, if I do 
say it, and might have their pick of the best, if’t want 
for their obstreporeous ways and highfalutin notions.” 
“If their par could comeback to the airth, and see how 
things is a-goin’ on everywhere, even in the bosom of 
his own famerly, he’d find hisself a-sayin’ oftener than 
ever, “Wa-al, this ere is a curus world!” and would be 
likely to make still more frekent use of that faverite 
plrrase of his’n, when things in the world didn’t go on 
to suit him, ‘O temporal O Moses!'" — F. A. S. in Boston 
Transcript. 
TRAVELING ABROAD. 
Maxy people who are fortunate enough to have 
leisure and the wherewithal to meet traveling expenses, 
have doubtless already made arrangements to spend the 
summer in other lands, while others are looking eagerly 
forward to some day in the future when their chateau 
en Espagne will not vanish before wide-opened eyes, 
but prove to he veritable castles which have endured the 
wear and tear of centuries. How these dreams may be 
realized, or in other words, how one can go abroad 
economically, is described by a writer in The Continent, 
who says: 
“In these days everybody wants to ‘ go abroad,’ from 
the fashionable ‘ Mrs. Gill,’ who is so ‘ ill ’ 
‘That nothing will improve her. 
Unless she sees the Tuileries, 
And waddles through the Louvre,’ 
to the country school-mistress, the sore-throated min¬ 
ister and the perennial bride and groom. How to go is 
a popular question every season, and I purpose giving 
definite instructions that will enable four ladies, under 
certain conditions, to travel for nearly five months in 
England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzer- 
