queer. It seemed just as natural for me to say upstairs as--"

"As it was for your mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother."

"Very well. We are in such an old house that I suppose I shall begin
to look and act like my great-grandmother. But no more theories to-
night--nothing but rest and the wood fire."

She soon joined me at the hearth again. Merton meanwhile had
stretched himself on the rag-carpet, with his overcoat for a pillow,
and was in dreamless sleep. My wife's eyes were full of languor. She
did not sit down, but stood beside me for a moment. Then, laying her
head on my shoulder, she said, softly, "I haven't brains enough for
theories and such things, but I will try to make you all happy
here."

"Dear little wife!" I laughed; "when has woman hit upon a higher or
better wisdom than that of making all happy in her own home? and you
half asleep, too."

"Then I'll bid you good-night at once, before I say something
awfully stupid."

Soon the old house was quiet. The wind had utterly ceased. I opened
the door a moment, and looked on the white, still world without. The
stars glittered frostily through the rifts in the clouds. Schunemunk
Mountain was a shadow along the western horizon, and the eastern
highlands banked up and blended with the clouds. Nature has its
restless moods, its storms and passions, like human life; but there
are times of tranquillity and peace, even in March. How different