hazy distance is shorn of its chief attraction, or dwarfed into
nothingness through contrast with some greater good looming grandly
against the far horizon."

Mrs. Markland uttered the closing sentence half in reverie; for her
thoughts were away from the sick woman and the humble apartment in
which she was seated. There was an abstracted silence of a few
moments, and she said:

"Speaking of your daughter and her husband, Mrs. Elder; they are
poor, as I understand you?"

"Oh yes, ma'am; it is hand-to-mouth with them all the time. James is
kind enough to Lotty, and industrious in his way; but his work never
turns to very good account."

"What business does he follow?"

"He's a cooper by trade; but doesn't stick to any thing very long. I
call him the rolling stone that gathers no moss."

"What is he doing in Charleston?"

"He went there as agent for a man in New York, who filled his head
with large ideas. He was to have a share in the profits of a
business just commenced, and expected to make a fortune in a year or
two; but before six months closed, he found himself in a strange
city, out of employment, and in debt. As you said, a little while
ago, he dropped the present substance in grasping at a shadow in the
future."