SUMMER NIGHT. Ob, silent nightl Ob, smothering stillness That settles down on drooping bough, Thou hold'st the earth in breathless slurabet Awake, but now. Gray mists arise From dow-wet flowers, That lend tholr fragrance to the night; And languid float on breath of summer An incense light A pale moon shines On weary grasses, That bend their heads with mournful grace; Then sinks behind the white clouds floating, And veils her face. Heat quivers oft In lightning flashes Along the soft gray northern sky, And illuminates the grand old forest In shade near by. A bird sings out In broken stanzas From yon tall bush with blossoms fair, Dream songs that, sung in drowsy snatches. Arouse the air, And echoes find In hidden music, That soft doscond from regiens high, And wake the sleeping, sultry breezes To softly sigh. —F. S. Ward, in N. Y. Independent ~ Br riflfwrL££ frS [Copyright, 1893, / Jfcy. by the Author.] 1 ll jTTHO is the girl 'UIIIBP ~ \Jlain to you the nature of your duties." So I hired myself out to my mother in-law as farm servant, without further ceremony, and immediately wrote and posted a letter to Nettie. On my return from the post office 1 met a burl# young man meditating at a spot where four roads meet. "Cap you tell me, sir," said he, "where Mrs. Abel Martin lives?" "Oh, yes, sir, I can tell you," I re sponded, affably. "But if you arc look ing for the situation, I may as well tell you that it's filled." The burly young man made some re marks, indicative, in a general way, of his opinion of the fickleness of woman kind, and departed, whilst I returned rejoicing to the old farmhouse. "Here's a very nice beginning," said Ito myself. "It is now my business to give as much satisfaction as possible." Fortune favored me in more ways than one. My mother-in-law sprained her ankle on the second (lay, and I played cook as well as man-of-all-work with distinguished success, and I had the satisfaction to hear her say to old Miss Priscilla Perkins that she didn't know when she had taken such a notion to anyone as she had to the new man. "He's too young and good-looking to suit me," observed Miss Priscilla, purs ing up her steel-trap of a mouth. "He is good looking, ain't he?" said my mother in-law. "But he's dreadful handy about tffe house, and heain'tone bit afraid of work. And you ought to have seen the oysters he stewed for my supper last night, and the cup of tea he made; why, I don't miss Jemima Styles one bit. If Nettie could have stayed single till she met such a man as this!" I smiled to myself as I laid out the kindling's for the breakfast fire. My accomplishments as "Jack-of-all trades" had never done me much good before. But now th*y were certainly winning rae much credit in the world. At the eml of the third day she had told me the whole story of her daughter's runaway with a "good-for nothing young city chap." On the fourth day she had consulted with me as to whether it was better to put the forty-acre lot into oats or rye, and I had won her heart by taking to pieces the old town clock, which had not gone for ten years, and restoring it to running order once again. And on the evening of the same day Nettie arrived, all blushing and trem bling. "Oh, Dick," said she, "is she very an gry?" "My dear, she hasn't any idea who I am." "But, Dielc—" "No buts, my darling," said I cheei fully. "Let us be 'Julius Cuosar' oven again. 'We come, we see, we con quer.' " And I dragged my unwilling little wife into the back room, where my mother-in-law lay on a sofa nursing her ankle. "Here's my wife, ma'am," said I, "and I hope she'll give satisfaction." Mrs. Martin jumped up, spite of the wounded ankle. "Nettie!" she cried, in blank amaze meut. "Oh, mother, mother!" faltered Net tie, throwing both hands around the old lady's neck, "please forgive me this time and I'll never, never elope again!" "i'lcuso, ma'am, we'll be go