1854 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Apr. 2

gardens, resonant with the cluck of poultry and the
hum of bees. Inside all was quiet, cleanliness, thrift
and comfort. There was the old family clock that had
welcomed with steady measure every newcomer to the
household, that had ticked the solemn requiem of the
dead and had kept company with the watcher at the
bedside. There were the big, restful beds, the old open
fireplace, and the old family bible, thumbed with the
fingers of hands long since stilled and stained with the
tears of eyes long since closed, holding the simple
annals of the family, the heart and conscience of rhe
home. Outside there stood the master, a simple, up-
right, independent man with no mortgage on his roof,
no lien on his growing crops, master of his home and
over and above every other consideration in life,
master of himself.

There was the old father, au aged, trembling man but
happy in the heart and home of his son ; and as they
started to their home the hand of the old man went
down on the younger one's shoulder, laying there the
unspeakable blessings of an honored and grateful
parent, and enobling it with the knighthood of the
Fifth Commandment ; and as they reached the door
the old mother came with the sunset falling fair in her
face lighting up the deep, patient eyes, while with lips
trembling with the soft, music of her heart she bade
her husband and her son welcome to their home. Be-
yond was the housewife busy with her household
cares, clean of heart and conscience, the buckler and
helpmeet of her husband. Far away in the distance,
down the lane came the children trooping home after
the cows, seeking as truant birds do rhe comfort and
quit t of the home nest, and presently the night came
down on that home, falling gently as from the wings
of an unseen dove. And the old man while a startled
bird called from the forest and the trees were shrill
with the crickets' cry and the stars were swarming in
the sky, called the family about him and taking the
old bible from the table called them to their knees and
while the little babe nestled in the folds of its mother's
gown he closed the record of that simple day by call-
ing down God's benediction on that family and, that
home. Instantly the magnificent structure of his