The Greater Wrong. He murdered her, you] nay—with one quick blow In her fair breast lot all her young life out, And then, abov i her, with a maniac's shout And shriek, rejoicoJ to see her lying low. He struck her down, you say, in lifo's glad spring, When hope and faith and love and joy were strong In her glad heart, and life was like a song: There oould not bo, you think, a sadder thing. I have seen murder that was fouler far: I have seen sweet hope slain, and joy, and faith, And tender true love stricken unto death, With weapons swoot as smiles and kisses are. The quick, sharp biow that does not mar nor miss, Nor torturo long, but lets the white soul go Unrobbed of all the best that souls can know, la very tenderness, compared to this. —Cai luCia Perry, i a Lippincott. AUNT DEBDRAH'S DRUDGE. I had workel in Annt Deborah's kitchen till nobody expected anything else of me. I had been retained in the house on sufferance at first, becanse Aunt Deborah's brother, my father, had run throngh all his property and was only distinguished for his shiftlessness and the size of his family. I suppose I was never missed from that superabund ant home oircle; anyway, they never came to see me nor never inquired after me, that I know of. Aunt Deborah had a great deal of company, being a rich and childless widow, and fond of society. But no one ever noticed me. I was not even snubbed, for it was not worth while to enub a mere drudge like me. My cousin, Elsie Allston, was also a member of my aunt's family, but she received very different treatment from that which fell to my lot. Her father was auntie's favorite brother; therefore she was educated and was understood to be certain of a homo and life's com forts always and of a fortune at Aunt Deborah's death. Yet I did not envy my fortunate cousin, for while I was let alone, and at least took pride in the consciousness that I earned my own living, Elsie was continually being taunted with her de pendence, and was kept in abject ser vility by constant threats of disinherit ance. Elsie would have been kind to me if I had allowed it, but I bad a sort of pride which forbade me to receive pat ronage from any one. I must be re ceived on an equal footing or not at all. The only pleasure of my life was un limited liberty to use the books in ray ..ant's great and ever-increasing library My rough work unfitted my hands for sewing, a fact for whioh I was suffi ciently thankful, as it increased my leisure hours. For the first two or three years of my stay I read novels exclusively. But ono of the novels happened to have a noblo and aspiring woman for its hero ine. Somehow, the story of that life haunted me day and night and I re solved to bo somothi'ig worthy of love and respect, whether I ever received my reward or not. My first step was to map out a line of thought and conduct, and a course of reading. My intellectual natnre was to be molded by some of the best books :n my aunt's library, and that ideal woman of whom I had read was to be my moral lever, lifting mo into an atmosphere of self-forgetting holiness and love. I believed that if Annt De borah's drudge never had an opportu nity of showing her devotion to the hnman race, her own sonl would grow rich by the quiet effort. It had been years since I formed this resolution when Mr. Gleason, forming one of a party of visitors, came to my aunt's house. But having oompany to cook for in the summer had come to be a settled thing, and all company meant to me was more drudgery and less time to read. There was no prophetio voice to whis per to my heart on the morning of Mr. Gleason's arrival that my fate, my hope and my despair, my blesaic g and my misery, bad come to me. He was only one more guest, to be cooked for and to be waited npon by the drndge. One day Elsie came to me with her aweet, weak face tearful and pleading. 44 Yon must help me, Hannah," said she. 44 Help yon do what, child ? " 44 T0 keep Aunt Deborah's good-will and marry Mr. Gleason. You see Mr. Gleason is very poor, and if aunt threat ens to disinherit me it may lessen my chanoes of getting him." I think my astonishment and disgust showed themselves in my faoe as I an swered : jf "Have you so little oonfldenoe in your prom y reach their destination be fore the fluctuation. Some keep their berries lor speculation, and often, in the spring, tbey command au enormous figure ; but keeping them in cellars dors not improve the quality, as more or less f them spoil. Nearly all these berries are shipped dir ct to New York, where there are established markets for them. It is difficult to state how many barrels of these berries go out of the Cape towns in a season, and still harder to esti mate the hundreds of dollars that come into them. A good yield is considered from eighty to 100 barrels por acre. If the soil is in good condition one oan reap 150 barrels. As the prices are at present (Sl7 per batrel). this could be called a profitable business. The crop fell short of its usual amonnt last year, and consequently the prices are the highest. An Arkansas Snake Charmer. Mr. Black, who resides in Hillsboro, Ark., exhibits a control and influence over the reptile family astonishingly mysterious. In the woods, creeks or wherever he finds a snake, it matters not of what type of deadly poison and venom it may be, hesncoeeds in eaptnr ing it alive and suffering as little from the clasp of its fangs as if it were an ordinary pin-scratch. He bandies and fondles them about his person with as mneh indifference as if they were eo many harmless toys. He will allow the largest rattlesnake to deliberately strike and bury his fangs into his flesh, and apparently snffir no inconvenience or serious oonsequenous from the tragic risk. By a ocrtain weed or growth of vegetation he olaims to destroy the of feot cf the bite. When bitten he chews and swallows the juice of the weed, which aots like a charm. A Boy's Couplet. Bald a teacher to a class in composi tion, "Make a rhyming couplet includ ing the words nose, toes, corn, kettle, ear, two, and boil.'* There was silence for a little while, and then a little boy held ap his hand in token of ensoesa. "Bead the couplet," said the teaohar, and the boy read: •'A boil in the kettle's worth two on yonr nose, And a ooru on iliooaria worth two on your to ah It ia with happiness as with watches, the less oompliaated ths low easily leranged. The Parmer. Let the wealthy and great 801 l in splendor and state; I envy them not, I declare it; 1 eat my own lamb, My chicken and ham, I shear rny own fleece, and I wear It; I have lawns, I have bowera, I have fruits, I have flowers, The larh is my morning alarmerf So, jolly boys, now Hcro'e Godspeed the plow, Long life and auccesa to the farmer, PUNGENT PARAGRAPHS. The original Boar-hea rant worms. It is a terrible come down for a man to fall out of a balloon and be obliged to walk home. It takes the whole legislature to change a man's name. A woman can change hers by the act of a single man. A correspondent wants a core for lazinesv Let him try nitro-glyoeriua placed underneath his rocking ohair. A dynamite mine in Russia is not nearly so destructive as a brand neiT ten-million dollar silver mice in Colors ado. "H'ml" ejaculated Fogg. "Bo they say this play is taken from life ? S should say rather that the life is taken from the play." " No, yon don't; you must pay as you go I" exclaimed the landlord, as Lflj canght an impecunious boarder trying to skip away. "Does poultry pay V asked a stranger of a city dealer. "Of course," was the reply, "evon the little chic la ens shell out." Old Crusty, who has two pretty daughters, says he has kept a bullda for years for the express purpose of dis tribnting the males. " Who was the mots est man?" asked a Sunday-school teacher. "Moses.* "Very well; who was the meekest woman ?" '• Never was any." Persons with boys in the family should know that the boys have a and that, they always stand on it. il reads: " Scolding doesn't hurt, whip ping doesn't la6t long, kill they daFsnt.* Physiology—" Mother, what hav* people got noses for ?" asked a child of her mother, who hod seen better days. "To turn up at poor folks, my child,"! was the oynioal response. Don Carlos, the would-be king oj Spain, and his wife have parted. Thd cause of the disagreement is not given, bnt the neighbors say she used the royal scepter to stir soap with, and set a hen on fourteen duck eggs in his kingly crown. Every little drug sloro has a soda water fount, Whicheimply raisos ructions with a fellow's bank account. For he meets his girl at twilight, when he* coming home from biz, And ho sweetlv has to ask her if she'd like t bear it fiz. "Poor man," exclaimed the physi cian, as he approached the patient's bed, "ho seems to bo suffering from neuralgia" "You're mistaken," said the sick man. " Her name isn't neuralgy, it's Sophia, and we've only been married six months." J. M. S.: "Can yon giro me any recipe for preserving fence pos's. PJeaso reply in your next issue." We can't doit. We have asked several ladiev and all of thera emy they never tried it* believing that it vonld take too muoh sngar, and that the thing wonldn't be much of a delicacy anyway. But they say if yon want to know how to fli to matoes or cau green corn, they can flood yon with information. "Is Mr. Vanderbilt in?" asked a gentleman of a person who was lounging at the entrance of the officers' apart ments at the Grand Central depot, New York. The latter regarded his inter rogator with a look of mingled pity and contempt as he answered: "In ? Well* I shouli say so Lake Shore stook was OS three weeks ago and now it's 113. He's in abont 8510,000 if he's in m cent,'* A Texan stopped into a Philadelphia tonsorial saloon to have his hair oak The offl dating artist having enveloped his victim's neck in towels and com pressed him seenrely in the ohair opened the conversation by aayingt " Yon are a little nervous sir, I per ceive Allow me to wy tl at oar 'OapiV lary Elixir* not only covers bald heads with a luxurious growth of hair, bnl calms the mind and restores the who la nervous system to a bt alt by equilibrium. What do yon do for nervousness fli Texas?* The representative of the Lea • Btar Btate looked np serenely and an swered: "We usually go gut uad kill ft harbor." |y