Wilmer in his wife's room, and stood outside, the baby in my arms. It had been a stifling night, and doors and windows were all wide open, so that I could plainly hear the tender murmur of Wilmer's voice, and now and then a word from Doris. Then there was silence for one long minute-and in that silence I suffered too, remembering as only women do remember. Wilmer came out quickly, his eyes dim with the tears of which no man need be ashamed. 'Good-bye, little son,' he said, and bent to kiss the small wrinkled face upon my arm. As he did so there came a low, quivering cry from the room'Wilmer !' He glanced at me with an expression of agony. 'I cannot go back,' he whispered. 'Carry the boy to her, cousin-tell her to name him for her father. Good-bye, dear, kind cousin!" He grasped my disengaged hand, and I think he kissed me, and was gone in an instant. There was just that one cry from Doris, and then no more complaints. But as the weary weeks of waiting went by, often with heavy drain on the resources of the plantation; the work went on much as usual; we had to ride about a good deal, and neighbours went and came. But a gradual transformation set in, and things ceased to be as they had been, though the coloured people remained quiet, and absolutely faithful. The war went on with its changes and chances, and the end was not yet. Then there came an awful season of suspense. We knew that Wilmer had gone to the front with General Johnston, and for a long time nothing more. Doris, new to suffering as she was then, could hardly have held out so bravely had it not been for the boy. She is not the only woman who, in I cannot recollect exactly when it was that this torture of suspense was ended by a letter from Wilmer himself. I only know that Dick was able to crawl in a really alarming manner and keep his various attendants, white and coloured, in a constant frenzy of anticipation. Of course we were aware that the army of Northern Virginiaas it came to be called afterwards- was having by no means unvarying success, that there was even talk of the military operations nearing Richmond, and that Lee was still superintending the defences on the Southern seaboard. Wilmer now wrote that the struggle was becoming more intense, that he should feel more at ease about us if we were to follow the example of numerous other ladies, and proceed at once to Richmond; the plantation must take care of itself. Lee had been summoned to the capital, and he would turn the tide of war. He-Wilmer-was on his way to raise further levies and supplies from the plantations, and in the meantime we must endeavour to collect all the provisions we could to carry to the city. For himself, he could bear this separation no longer and so on, I suppose, for Doris ceased to read aloud. As it befell, however, we did not see Wilmer so soon as we expected. He contrived to send another letter, in which he bade us set forth immediately with everything we could scrape together. The road to Richmond was clear. He was unavoidably delayed, but hoped to meet up with us before we should reach the city. There were several directions for me about the horses, and I was requested to consult Uncle Bob as to the fitness for service of one of the two remaining colts. 'Tell cousin that Colonel thrives, and proves an easy horse to keep, in spite of severe work and short rations.' We now continued our preparations in good earnest, and in a day or two set off for Richmond, taking little Dick's Mammy, and leaving some faithful servants in charge. At a wayside depôt some miles south of the city, where we were detained in a manner common enough in times of war, Wilmer actually did fall in with us- -no longer quite the brilliant fellow of old, perhaps, for one month of that desperate strife was as XXVI-41 twelve of peace, and those who were alive at the close counted the four years as ten. But in the joy of meeting all else was forgotten. Wilmer's utter bewilderment, when he was proudly shown the beautiful boy, at whose contorted countenance he had aforetime gazed with more wonder than admiration, afforded us no little amusement; and when he discovered that Dick could actually stagger with bubbling peals of excited laughter from one pair of arms to another, and came fearlessly to play with the tarnished lace upon the soldier's uniform, his delight in his first-born flowed over, and he must needs mount him on 'Colonel,' to admire the way in which the strong little fellow held himself erect and surveyed us with wide-eyed, baby dignity. · Before we parted from Wilmer he told us that his contribution to our supplies consisted of a barrel of flour and a firkin of butter. It was the best he could do for us, and for these he had given eight hundred dollars-Confederate money, of course-and his best young horse. I tell you this, so that you may see what hard times we had fallen upon. Well, the days went on. In some skirmish Wilmer received a flesh-wound which brought on a slight fever, and as he was so near to us was sent into the city to be nursed by his womenfolk. The compulsory inaction when movements of much importance were threatening, combined with the sight of the pale faces of his wife and child, and the smarting of his wound in the burning May weather, made poor Wilmer slightly irritable. Conjugal discomfort, even of the most trifling description, had been hitherto a thing unknown between these two; indeed, it had almost seemed to me as if both-and notably Doris, who was by nature a somewhat silent and gentle little person-made a religion of avoiding those miserable pettinesses which often go far to disgust one with what the world calls happy marriages. Wilmer was by training and disposition courteous to all; and, unlike too many of our own countrymen, did not consider it incumbent on him to make an exception of his wife. But now I was to be witness of the first jar; nothing in itself, yet to me, who held certain theories of my own about Wilmer's character, a dangersignal. It happened in this wise. One evening Doris was dressing his wound. I was present with a large fan, for, in order to see better, we had been forced to open the outside blinds; and though the sun was down those pests of the States, the flies, were still rampant, settling down in black swarms whenever the fan paused for a second. 'In three days more I must be gone,' observed Wilmer as he extended his arm for Doris to bathe with water which was very far from cool; for, among other minor miseries, we were enduring the warm season with little or no ice. It is time I was out of the city. And, Doris, can you guess whom I heard of in that flurry a few days since? Curtis Monkton! doing surgical work for the Yanks, and carrying dispatches, too, I don't doubt. The low hound! Only let me meet up with him face to face !' 'Oh, hush, Wilmer !' I interposed, trying to laugh off his excitement; for I fancied that from a sense of loyalty to one who had once proved a true friend Doris might speak in his defence. And somehow I dreaded that she should do so-to Wilmer. She paused a minute, and then said, as she proceeded to bind the arm with neat and steady fingers, 'Is it not possible, Wilmer, that a man may differ from us, and yet be equally conscientious?' She spoke very gently, as she always did, but her husband's big dark eyes flashed upon her with a look I had never seen in them before. He dragged at his moustache with his other hand, and said quickly, 'Doris, you don't mean to say that you defend that that cur?' It was evident that she would have taken refuge in silence had she had a choice, but he gave her none. 'Tell me, Doris,' he went on with irritating persistence, 'what do you mean? You cannot pretend that Monkton is not a traitor to the South?' She still hesitated, looking puzzled and astonished. Then she replied, as she adjusted the sleeve of his coat, 'We should be traitors, Wilmer, if we SOME acted so. But if Curtis does not think with us he cannot act with us. It is a great misfortune for him that his conscience makes him our enemy.' 'Conscience!-misfortune!' cried Wilmer, with a manner that was more nearly rude than I could have imagined it possible for his to be. What slippery minds women have! A thing is either right or wrong. The man who forsakes his country in her hour of need is a traitor, and should be shot before the whole army At that moment there came a thumping of small fists on the Venetian blinds across the doorway, attended by various inarticulate sounds. Doris sprang to admit the supplicant. 'Ah, sonnie!' exclaimed Wilmer, forgetting his vexation at the sight of his adored Dick. 'Come here, boy.' And as it must be owned that the faithless child had succumbed altogether to his father's fascinations, and treated his mother and myself as dust and ashes when Wilmer was present, down went little Dick on his hands and knees, and scrambled as hard as he could go towards the large rocker in the window. Wilmer called to me to lift the boy upon his knees, and soon the darkening room re-echoed to their shouts. Later, Aunt Judy brought the lamp. Doris came forward to close the blinds against the moths, and in passing pressed her lips to her son's dusky head. Her husband watched the caress a little jealously; perhaps, also, observing afresh how pale and wan she was; and as she began to move away behind his chair he leaned his head far back, so that he could meet her eyes. 'Dear!' he murmured entreatingly. She paused directly, and, stooping, laid her face to his. So the shadow passed-for the time." (To be continued.) CORRESPONDENCE CLASSES. BY ONE WHO HAS TRIED THEM. OME time has elapsed since teaching by | Correspondence was described in the pages of GOOD WORDS. It has since then gained so firm a footing that it may seem superfluous to discuss it further. To those, however, who have not had it specially brought under their notice, information regarding this simple and elastic system may be not only interesting but a boon. The Correspondence Class is intended for the extension of skilled teaching to any woman within reach of the post, who may wish to continue systematic education. One halfpenny throughout Britain, and the corresponding small book-post rate in regions beyond, will, fortnight by fortnight, lay on the desk of the tutor the exercises, questions, and answers of the pupil, however distant, and insure the regular reply, correction, and help. A fee is paid on entering the class to cover the postage of these replies, and to meet the expenses of the scheme. This fee averages 11s. per term of twelve weeks; three of these terms make up the annual course from November to June. Those who have spent their youth within reach of the classes and lectures which are so bountifully provided in large towns, and who, perhaps have even wearied of the abundance of such intellectual resources, can hardly imagine the mental hunger of many who are out of reach of these supplies. The eyes and the voice of one such come before me now. Feeble in health, scant of means, and living away from any centre of intellectual activity, yet, withal, eager and strong of spirit, her craving came out in the whispered words: "Do you know, I feel so hungry sometimes!" The eager, panting emphasis of the word "hungry" is not to be forgotten. Had this easy means of appeasing that hunger been known to me then, how gladly would it have been told, and how eagerly caught up by that modest, patient sufferer, who is now past all need! And it is hunger, more or less keen, which brings most women to those Correspondence Classes. The intellectual menu is ample and varied. It includes such subjects as grammar, arithmetic, history, geography, literature, composition, classical and modern languages, botany, logic, music, drawing, history, art, mathematics, &c.; so that a young girl's education in general, or some branch of instruction in particular, is provided for. To illustrate the former: Last winter an English family, detained by the health of one of its principal members in an inaccessible part of Switzerland, kept up the education of the daughters by this means. And many a solitary student might be cited to illustrate the latter. The writer, for example, beguiled the monotony of a foreign "healthresort" by the stimulant of a regular course of study. If, in wild cases of "hunger," the boon is felt to be so great, it is hardly necessary to point out what it must be in cases of great isolation, in which some women need the knowledge for the sake of those depending on them; while others, perhaps late in life, turn to study as a relief from care, from ennui, from disappointment, from dissipation of mind. And it is for women this opportunity is made. What a "pull "to use a boy's phraseology-the other sex has over them in this matter of education! However odious at the time is the enforcement of application-enforced, if need be, by birch, and later on by failure in examination and loss of place in the world's racethe habit of application once gained stands a man in good stead when he needs or desires to master any study. Let women, then, to whom neither birch-rod nor responsibility have taught this lesson, take a milder means of acquiring it for themselves. Let those who feel the need of discipline in work, take up some line of study, place themselves under the guidance of the "corresponding tutor," and habituate themselves to their self-imposed task, with all the minor matters of attention, regularity, neatness. Experience proves that they shall be amply rewarded. Another "pull" that boys till recently enjoyed over girls, but which this and similar efforts are rapidly diminishing, is the advantage of skilled University teaching. Far be it from me to disparage the laborious and conscientious Magnalls of print and the muchtried governesses of private life, who have taught and trained so many of our aunts and sisters, and ourselves too. But at this time of day there is no need to demonstrate the advantage of skilled teaching, and that such ought to be within the power of women as well as men. This is a form of "women's rights" so harmless and so obvious as to require no defence. Such a "right" the pupils of these classes enjoy. The services of qualified teachers are placed at their disposal, and these show a real desire to help forward any earnest woman student. I have said that this agency is both well known and well organized, but it might be still more widely known, and for this purpose it is well that those who have had pleasant experience of it should tell their experience to others, and so put them in the way of sharing it. The importance and interest of the Scripture department of this work may be specially enlarged upon. In this field, as we all know, not only is the schoolmaster abroad, but the sceptic also. We can hardly open a magazine of the period without seeing the most sacred subjects presented under the freest handling. People of every age read these criticisms, and discuss them. Is it not wise, then, to make the sacred Scriptures the subject of a study as systematic, as interesting, as suited to our modes of thought, and as level to recent discovery and criticism, as we make other studies? Approaching them with reverence and earnestness, guided by the books of reference recommended, and aided by the friendly and accomplished mind of the tutor, the pages of the Bible become clearer and brighter. If we have to meet modern difficulties we are also armed with modern weapons. Such study, especially when the blessing of the Divine Author of Scripture is sought, cannot be useless. On the contrary, it is through such study, and not by a wilful blindness to the difficulties of Scripture and the comments of unbelievers, that a reasonable means is found of combating unbelief in the mind. For this end alone the Scripture work is invaluable. No effort on the student's part, however crude, to draw out for herself the meaning of a passage is trouble thrown away; and no honest endeavour is likely to pass unrecognised by such teachers as those who give their hearty labour to this cause, and who put "le cœur au métier." Many a Sunday hour, long and dreary to the unemployed, flies lightly over the head of the "corresponding" "Bible student, and many a week-day hour is also similarly brightened; SEPTEMBER 6TH. for in the fortnightly list of questions sent there will be points calling for search and thought, as well as others needing only memory and attention. How many girls who have quitted school or college, but who have the sense to know that their education, instead of being "finished," is only begun, would find these classes a genuine boon, were it for nothing else than to chase away ennui, or "to keep their wits on the grindstone!" To such, and to all who wish to improve themselves, the writer would commend the Correspondence Classes.* LOUISA CONOLLY. • Information on the subject may be had from the secrehead, Glasgow, or Miss Walker, 37, Gillespie Crescent, Edin taries, Miss Jane MacArthur, 4. Buckingham Street, Hillburgh. SUNDAY READINGS. BY BISHOP BROMBY. Read Psalm civ. 1, and Matt. vi. 19-34. THIS is the central petition of the Lord's Prayer. There is a beautiful symmetry running through it, balancing its different parts. It begins with the address to God, and it ends (in the version given by St. Matthew) with the ascription of the universal kingdom, power, and glory. The central petition is preceded by three connected with the glory of God, and it is followed by three others connected with man's spiritual wants. This short central one is the only one which encourages us to spread our temporal necessities before the throne of the Father; but while it does so encourage us, the isolation and solitariness of the petition teach us to attach a right value to earthly benefits relatively to the Divine glory and our own spiritual welfare. The great lesson of this central petition is this, that all earthly blessing comes from God. Bread is God's "gift." Man, indeed, co-operates with God in the visible part of clearing, sweetening, enriching, ploughing, and sowing; but the invisible part is God's. "Paul may sow and Apollos water, but God giveth the increase." "We plough the fields and scatter The good seed on the land, By God's almighty hand; The rich and the poor alike are led to own this utter dependence upon God. What if He were to send immoderate rains season after season, or shut up the heavens by a long, continuous drought. The prince and the pauper, the peer and the peasant, would have alike to confess that they are absolute pensioners upon God's bounty-neither freeholders nor leaseholders, but simply pensioners from day to day and hour to hour. How few like to acknowledge this! How few enter into the spirit of St. James's reproof-" If the Lord will, we shall do this or that (St. James iv. 15). By the same word, bread becomes food for man, and by that word the rottening seed which man sows in spring covers the landscape with the golden sheaves of autumn. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (St. Matt. iv. 4), making bread to be food for man and grass food for the cattle. The word bread should read a lesson to the rich. It should fill him with shame for past selfishness, as he is taught by this petition to pray, "My Father, I have forgotten thy other children; let me be no more filled with pride, but use my superabundance as a loan from thee, to lessen the sufferings and alleviate the poverty of my poorer brethren. Let these riches bind no more my grovelling soul to earth, but raise my soul to heaven. Teach me to say, 'What wouldst thou have thy steward to do with this abundance?' Shall I not devote it for the relief |