looked in my eyes, and said, 'Can you doubt me now, my husband?'

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No, my queen of wives, I do not. I feared for a moment you might have fallen into the temptation of taking up goods on credit, a custom too common among wives, and it shocked all my feelings. Forgive me this seeming severity, and charge it to the singular excitement produced by the first bill ever brought from a merchant's Ledger against my wife.

"Still, my dear, there is something else to be done. How can this be explained to Messrs. Bush & Bull? How came the charge upon their books; and, being there, how are they to be satisfied of its incorrectness? If wrong, what must they say of their clerks; if correct, what must they think of me? I would rather pay it than be suspected of seeking to evade what they will regard as an honest debt.'

"But that would be unjust to yourself, and also to me,' said my wife. I cannot endure the imputation of having things charged.' After a brief reflection she added:

"The circumstances of the case may furnish a clue to the fact that the dress was paid for. I purchased two dresses on that day. After selecting the Mazarine blue, I looked over a variety of goods for another. Not finding one to my taste, I asked Mr. Brown, who waited on me, to lay the Merino aside for a few moments, and went into the

next store, where I found one that suited me. On returning to Bush & Bull's, I found Mr. Brown occupied in a remote part of the store, and after waiting some time, tɔld Mr. Smith, another clerk, of the purchase, requested him to wrap up the dress, and paid him for it. It is likely these gentlemen will recollect the affair, and it may be easily settled.'

“The next morning I called on Messrs. Bush & Bull, and after stating the facts—and I felt an honest pride in doing it that my wife never allowed a bill to be made against her, I showed them her own entry of the purchase, and related the occurrences as she had given them to me. They expressed their readiness to do what was right in the case; and regretted that the absence of Mr. Smith, who had left their employment, and was now residing in New York, would prevent an early adjustment of the amount involved. I suggested that their Blotter might contain entries that would obviate the necessity of waiting till Mr. Smith could be heard from. On examining this we found the following facts: The charge against Mrs. Harebell was in the writing of Mr. Brown. Immediately under it, in the writing of Mr. Smith, Cash was credited with $10 75, for one Mazarine Blue Merino Dress. And both of these entries bore the same date of the entry in Mrs. Harebell's memorandum book. On discovering these coincidences, Messrs. Bush & Bull promptly credited the

account by error, and receipted the bill in full of all demands. That was my wife's first and last bill."

"And so, after all your noise and trouble, you only saved ten dollars and seventy-five cents! That comes as near much ado about nothing' as anything I've lately met with," said the lady, who had been listening to the recital with eager attention and a varying countenance.

"Pardon me, my friend: the money was the least important feature of the affair. It was the pure principle involved, embracing, as we think, a sound maxim in trade, and a very material element of Christian character. A Christian precept requires us to 'owe no man any thing.' "But what is such a bill as that? Ten dollars and seventy-five cents! You ought to have paid it and never breathed it to your wife."

"That would have been a palpable injustice to my wife, as I should then have always feared she was practising deceptions upon me. No it was better to have the matter settled. The peace of a family is gone when distrust comes between husband and wife."

"But can so small a sum as that produce a rupture between husband and wife? Affection must be very feeble in such a case.

"As a mere matter of dollars and cents, the sum is little or great according to the wealth or poverty of an individual. But smaller things than that have broken the strongest cords that love ever wove, and turned the paradise of

home into a perdition of suspicion and bickering. It was not the money, but the character of my wife; and not as the world might judge her, but as she had lived enshrined in my confidence, that was at stake. Could I err in striving to keep the full length portrait of her integrity hung up in the secret chamber of my soul?"

"And could it be taken down, and crushed for so slight a cause ? said the lady, with emotion she could not suppress, but strove to conceal.

"Humanity, my friend, is frail. Confidence reposes upon the small things of life. Inspiration teaches, that fidelity in little things is the foundation of trust, not only for great things, but for all things. A little leak,' says

the proverb, will sink a great ship.'

It is true of life; especially of married life. He that is faithful in little may be safely trusted with much."

"But since everybody knows your ability to pay your wife's bills, why should it affect her character to make one?"

"I spoke mainly of her character in my estimation-the world of which she is the sun. But I will answer with regard to the outside world of trade. A husband's ability, I think, is not the correct standard of measurement in such cases; for this is often falsely estimated. It may mislead a man's wife; and his creditors may suffer by it. His real ability, after all, may have no other foundation than the character and extent of his credit. That receives shocks

enough without any addition from the bills of his wife. Ships sometimes founder in a smooth sea and under a tranquil sky: so men are ruined, and few suspect the leaks that have brought them down to poverty and suffering." After a pause of some minutes, she said, with an effort at cheerfulness that contradicted her feelings:

"You carry your views to such extremes that I shall not be much surprised to find, some of these mornings, the public cautioned against trusting your wife, accompanied with the information that you will pay no debts of her contracting.'

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"Happily for me, my friend, I am spared the temptation of meditating anything of the kind; but I should not feel surprised if many a bill-pursued husband often thought of it as the only probable relief from insolvency."

"Well, you've preached a long sermon about that Mazarine blue Merino dress, and making bills, and all that, but, after all, I don't see the force of your objections to taking up goods on credit. Would you have a woman to be always dogging her husband for money. We are nearly slaves at the best- you would make us wholly so."

"No. Not slaves, but free. The debtor is a servant to the creditor. Getting goods on credit, is so much like, and so often is, taking them, that no one ought to indulge in it. As to dogging, I believe every husband would prefer to be dogged by his wife, rather than by her creditors. He can beg her to wait; and a kiss will go farther