A" the eye? Sketch. Considering the hard times, Madam Chairman, 1 move that the society study aoconomy in entertain. ments the coming winter The Ladies’ Aid is about to give a church sociable the first of the season. | suppose there will be others later on; we have always had refreshments, and shomid we dispense with them altogether 1 am afraid we would have a lot of empty benches.” The speaker paused, around the circle of matrons, served expectation in their faces and went firmly on. “1 won't make motion,” added, “at least not But the permiscion of the Chair, can not disemss this practical matter this meeting? In view of the of eggs and butter, of sugar and spice, of flour snd milk and everything else that goes into cake, can we afford to gerve rich cakes at our receptions? Shall we not decide to offer our friends oneegg cake and omit strong coffee? Weak coffee is better for the nerves anyway.” *One-egg cake is very plain and the men will stay away if we give them poor coffee, Can we not have the same grade of cake as formerly and make the coffee after the same recipe, for economy's sake cutting the cake thinner and pouring the coffee into smaller cups?’ This was the suggestion of a woman who had long been a social engineer in church mat- a she vost at price as suitable refreshments in a hard times year, and whose will and influ ence usually paramount in the counsels of the sisterhood, was a woman of large wealth and an income so safely bestowed by the forethough of her deceased father and sagac- ity of her husband, that she ought always to have been distinguished bY an open hand, yet this year years she had set an example of scant expenditure all along line She had been in the habit of keeping three malds; had gmissed two and was managing her home with a She had ar and was proudly year's bonnet. whose proposition one-eEx cake and weak coffee bad been thrown as a projectile into the quiet camp of Lire Ladies’ Ald. What they would have about had a tion been made and the question put to vote, nobody can tell, but as Mrs. Arkright ‘took her seat a modest little at the other of the room addressed the Chair, as everybody has learned to do by this and then in a low but distinct declared that one dis. were all of all the shi di domestic bought no this y¢ her new gowns wearing last She Is i; was of done it mo lady side rose She time, voice for she she said, "and will be com begin in the economize.” probably the majority pelled to, let us not church. Suppose we begin at home The children will thrive and flourish on bread and molasses, and we may, we must ur fhe little lady had finished thes speech and resumed hér place at the back of the room, Others followed her and the question was tossed back and forth like a ball from hand to hand. Finally, the decision was that where sacrifices made they must be as affluent of good cheer, as overfiow- ing of bounty, as ever before. egg cake was not to be accepted as “pitality. To one listener it seemed as if the Ladies’ Ald had been guided to the wisest conclusion. Retrenchment ls often advisable, and superfluities may be cut off, but hard times are made do otherwise reduce thelr expenses simply because the spirit of economy is in the air. Economy in its root meaning signifies government and suc cessful management, not merely the reduction to the minimum of every cent expended. The woman who in lavigh times runs her house on lavish lines, should not be suddeniy meagre because hor neighbors have to be, her own exchequer having suffered no re durtion. It is no credit to her to weal old clothes afford new thus revenues ol when she can ones, Ihmiting the the dressmaker and the milliner, not to set her servants adrift while she can as well as ever before keep them and pay them whe begin their economy, 80 to speak, at the church door, curtailing their do taking sittings instead of a and halving thelr contributions instead of doubling them, almost tempt Providence by an attitude full of the Divine goodness. — Herald WAReS, People nations, pew insult to The Christian A THANKSGIVING. “Ss many gifts to thank Him for, I said “His life and His arising from the dead. das me, And, best be, fair The of sun and calm ace of all, the hope So and smooth the way have come, I fain thank Him, but are dumb.” would \ fom all at once the outdoor stillness broke, childish spoke; I saw November snowflakes shine, A voice beneath my window flash and i wan face upturned to mine, rest, The Ladies’ Aid Society of Centre ville had for years done much of the selfdenying work that is. part of the province of women in most of our churches. When the church needed a new carpet or cushions or renovation inside or out, when a floating debt was to be raised or a mortgage de creased, the women went to work with a will, bad fairs and bazaars, suppers and concerts, and in one way or another managed to augment the treasury by goodly sums of money. Centreville was famous for notable housekeepers and good home cooking, but when the periodical return of hard times swept the land over like a chilling frost, the need of frugality sternly impressed on the poor man closed down with iron hold on the consciences and impulses of the rioh er neighbor who just then should have been spending instead of saving Mrs, Foster Arkright, who had pro uly «From the New York Mai. {Beprodunced From an Old and Rare Print. ) bill of fare; but when we are making an offering in the Lord's cause, don't let us set a fashion of being close: fisted and mean. I, for one, would greatly prefer serving no refresh. ments at our sociable to serving poor ones, nor do I believe in cutting the slices too thin or in using the smaller cups. Think of the young men and young women whose only experience of church hospitality is at our recep tions. Some of them are Away from home. Most of them are working very bard all the week. On Sunday they come to tHe church and the Christian Endeavor and meet sympathy and fel lowship, and are invited on Wednes- day evening to come to the church home and have a happy time. Part of this happy time culminates in the breaking of bread together, I think the bread and the cake and whatever ‘we give, let the times be what they may outside the church, should be of the finest of the wheat and the cholo est of flavoring.” - Loman ——" ————————— A my breast; is.