tenance beamed with vivacity and intelligence. Her disposition was ingenuous and amiable. Nature, to human view, had endowed her with those qualities requisite for the wife of such a person as Mr. Johnson.

With pain she discovered his weaknesses, yet forbore to chide him for his faults; but by her persuasive mildness, often caused him to acknowledge that

'Kindness has resistless charms.'

She endeavored, as far as practicable, to conceal the faults of her erring husband, even from her nearest friends. Would that it might truthfully be said that he was grateful for her efforts to do him good, and abstained entirely from the evil practice she so much deprecated; but it was otherwise.

One son and a daughter were the only children of these parents, which lived any considerable time. The son was the eldest. His birth was an event which its mother hoped would be the means of entirely reclaiming his misguided father from the path of folly. The father doted upon his son with peculiar fondness. Ever after the birth of this little one, he spent every leisure moment with the infant and its mother. The wine cup was abandoned, and Mrs. Johnson considered herself a happy wife and mother. A year or two passed on, during which period her happiness was uninterrupted. Just two years from the birth of little George, as the son was called, a little daughter was added to the family, whom they named Frances.

Not long after this event, Mrs. Johnson accidentally be

came acquainted with the circumstances under which Mr. Johnson left his home ere she saw him. Until this time, she had been a stranger to the fact that he was either a wedded man or a father, previous to his marriage with herself; and it would have been her wish still to have remained ignorant of his past foibles. As it was, she resolved to bury them in her own bosom, as she could easily overlook his failings.

Time passed away pleasantly with Mrs. Johnson, until little George attained his fourth year. She had been spared the grief and mortification, during that time, of knowing that her husband had been entirely overcome by indulging his former sinful practice. As long as thta was the case, she considered herself favored, though not exempt from those trials which are alike the lot of all.

At this time, their darling son was attacked with alarming illness. The event, in itself, was painful to the feelings of the fond mother; and her distress was greatly augmented by the want of fortitude evinced by her companion on this trying occasion. She strove to cheer him and help to sustain his spirit, by every effort in her power; still, she was compelled to acknowledge the fact, that no power less than omnipotent could support the mind of her deeply afflicted husband.

As the child sank, from day to day, beneath the prostrating effect of acute disease, which his anxious parents were told, by the medical attendants, must unavoidably prove fatal, Mrs. Johnson longed for the sustaining sympathy of her husband. She valued that of other friends; but his sympathy was to her more valuable than that of

all the world besides. She was one of those who could

say, from heart-felt experience,

Sympathy, dear boon of Heaven,
Granted mortals here below!
Loveliest, sweetest gem that's given,
To assuage our ev'ry woe.

Earth may boast no lasting pleasure;
Still, there's joy unmingled here,
Gently flowing without measure,
From soft pity's gentle tear!

When the brow with care is shaded,
And our transient comforts fly,
When the breast by grief's invaded,
Sweet is sympathy's soft sigh!

Poor Mrs. Johnson! her heart was made to bleed anew, in this hour of affliction, as she saw her husband turn from the couch on which lay their dying child, to drown his sorrows in the inebriating cup, which she had flattered herself he had abandoned forever. All fortitude forsook the unfortunate man, as he saw the eyes of his lovely George about to be closed forever in death. He was

overwhelmed, and imagined that his spirit could not be sustained, and yielded again to the temptation of the indulgence of that weakness, by which he had been so often enslaved.

After the death of George, a more than midnight gloom pervaded the dwelling of this sorrowing mother; for, while the precious remains of her much-loved boy lay clad in the habiliments of death, beneath the same roof lay his father, in an apartment remote from his child, stupified with

stimulating drink. The heart-stricken wife and mother mourned more deeply, in view of this one great fault of her husband, than she did at the bereavement she had been called to endure. Her sensitive mind was lacerated with the thought, that spite of every means which her inventive fancy suggested, to hide the failings of her companion, whom she loved but too well, his disgrace could not be entirely concealed from the large circle of acquaintance and friends, who came to offer consolation to this afflicted family.

Mrs. Johnson was obliged to endure the mortification of apologizing for the inability of her husband to be present at the funeral of their son. She pleaded his indisposition as an excuse for not leaving his room, while, at the same time, she blushed to reflect upon the cause. Day after day passed, during which this misguided man contrived to procure either strong drink or a substitute, of which he partook so freely as to render him incapable of attending to his business. His companion was almost disheartened; though she constantly strove to arouse him from his state of degradation, and to awaken anew in his breast the sense of self-respect which he seemed to have lost.

One morning, soon after he awoke, he appeared perfectly conscious of his miserable situation, and wept at the recollection of the past. His anxious wife improved this opportunity to lead his thoughts from himself, and endeavored to impress upon his mind a sense of his obligations again to resolve to rise above the debasing weakness into which he had fallen. In reply to her kind entreaties, he exclaimed 'Oh, it is no use for me thus to resolve-I have not firmness to execute such a purpose!'

Encouraged by this answer, Mrs. Johnson affectionately responded, 'You have more firmness, my dear husband, than you imagine; be determined once more to act like a man, not only for your own sake, but for mine, and that of our own dear little Frances.'

Would that I could,' said he, mournfully; 'but my business has been neglected, and I have lost the confidence of my friends, which I fear I shall never regain.'

'Do not indulge such thoughts,' replied his wife; ‘remember, you have still every thing to incite you to virtuous action. If you have done wrong, stop not to think of it too long, but determine at once to forsake the wrong and pursue a more elevated course.'

Mr. Johnson struggled many days, with a sense of shame on the one hand and duty on the other, until at last he yielded to the belief that he could never again be respected, and secretly left his home, and travelled to a place about one hundred miles from the city where was left his disconsolate wife, to bear alone the accumulated weight of sorrow which his sinful conduct had brought upon her. Weeks passed, and no tidings came from the fugitive father of her child. She settled. his business as well as she could, and was obliged to admit the unpleasant truth, that she suffered pecuniarily, besides enduring the disgrace which she was called upon to bear.

After the lapse of a few months, Mrs. Johnson received a letter from her husband, in which he informed her of all he had experienced since he left home. With great interest she perused this communication; for, with all his failings, she was still si cerely attached to her com