ANNE CLEAVELAND.

Anne was the daughter of a wealthy farmer. She had a good New England

school education, and was well bred and well taught at home in the

virtues and manners that constitute domestic social life. Her father

died a year before her marriage. He left a will dividing his property

equally between his son and daughter, giving to the son the homestead

with all its accumulated riches, and to the daughter the largest share

of th personal property amounting to 6 or 7000 dollars. This little

fortune became at Anne's marriage the property of her husband. It

would seem that the property of a woman received from her father

should be her's. But the laws of a barbarous age fixed it otherwise.



Anne married John Warren, who was the youngest child, daintly bred

by his parents. He opened a dry good store in a small town in the

vicinity of B----, where he invested Annie's property. He was a farmer,

and did not think of the qualifications necessary to a successful

merchant. For five or six years he went on tolerably, living _genteelly_

and _recklessly_, expecting that every year's gain would make up the

excess of the past. When sixteen years of their married life had passed,

they were living in a single room in the crowded street of R----.

Every penny of the inheritance was gone--three children had died--three

survived; a girl of fifteen years, whom the mother was educating to be

a teacher--a boy of twelve who was living at home, and Jessy, a pale,

delicate, little struggler for life, three years old.



Mrs. W---- was much changed in these sixteen years. Her round blooming

cheek was pale and sunken, her dark chestnut hair had become thin and

gray, her bright eyes, over-tasked by use and watching, were faded,

and her whole person shrunken. Yet she had gained a great victory.

Yes, it was a precious pearl. And you will wish to know what it was.

It was a gentle submission and resignation--a patience under all her

afflictions. But learn a lesson. Take care to whom you give your hand

in marriage.