THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The Children's Corner. IN MEMORY OF A PRAYING FATHER. [From a youth near Rochdale we have received these lines; and he expresses his hope that, as the Pioneer has been made a blessing to himself, it will be the means of blessing many more. We insert them, not for their poetic merit, but for the filial affection and pious feeling which they indulge.] My Father is gone from earth away, No more shall I hear him sing and pray. But now I am left here to weep, I, too, may soon be called to die, And leave my friends to mourn and sigh; Return I must to dust again. My tongue will then be silent too; Then with what joy shall I arise Father! we then with joy shall sing Hiding our faces 'neath our wings, And all whom here we loved so well P. F. A TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE. AN AMERICAN TALE, THAT WILL DO FOR SOME IN ENGLAND AS WELL. Two maidens, in youthful bloom and beauty, sat earnestly talking. Their thoughts were reaching into the future; for their talk was of marriage. 66 I like him well enough," said one of them, "but "What is the impediment, Alice ?" "His income is too small." 66 What is it?" Eight hundred dollars a-year." "You might live on that." "Live! What kind of living? "Not in a high style, I will admit." 66 Fanny. Eight hundred dollars! Why, father pays six hundred dollars rent; and I'm sure our style of living is plain enough! Eight hundred! O no. I like Harry better than any young man I have met. I could love him, no doubt.-But he can't support a wife in any decent kind of style." Did your father and mother begin their married life on a larger income than Harry now receives? Mine did not, as I have often heard them say." "Father and mother! Why, according to their story, Job's turkey was scarcely poorer than they were in the beginning.-Mother did all her own work even to her washing and ironing, I believe. Father's income was not over three or four hundred dollars a-year" "And they were happy together, I am sure.” "No doubt. In fact, I've heard mother say that the first hard struggling years of their life were among the happiest she has known. But that doesn't signify to me. That is no reason why ber daughter should go into the kitchen, and spend her years in washing, ironing, and cooking. If a man isn't able to support a wife genteelly, and in the style to which she has been accustomed, let him marry some cook, sewing girl, or washerwoman, who will manage his household with the needed economy. Young men who can't earn more than eight hundred or a thousand dollars a year, should not look into our circle for wives." "I don't like to hear you talk in this way, Alice. We are not superior beings, but only the equals of men." A TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE. "Did I say that we were superior?" "One might infer from your language that you thought so." 'I don't see how the inference can fairly be drawn." "Our circle for wives, you said just now." "Yes." "What do you mean by it?" "A circle of intelligence, refinement, taste, and cultivation," replied Alice. "No. My father, though living in good style, is not rich. I have heard him say more than once, that we were up to our income." "Then we have only our own sweet selves with which to endow our husbands. No houses or lands, from which to draw an income; nothing substantial on which to draw the claim to be supported in costly idleness. We must be rich, indeed, as to personal attractions." "We are educated, accomplished, and—and—” Alice was a little bewildered in thought, and did not finish the sentence. "Not better educated, or accomplished as girls, than most of the young men, who earn only from seven hundred to a thousand dollars a-year. In this regard, we are simply their equals. But it strikes me, that in another view of the case, we cannot claim even an equality. They are our superiors." "Not by any means. "We shall see. Here is Harry for instance. What is his income? I think you mentioned the sum just now." .86 Eight hundred dollars a-year." "That is the interest on-how much ?-let me see-about twelve thousand dollars. To be equal, as a match for Harry, then, you should be worth twelve thousand dollars." "How you talk, Fanny!" "To the point, don't I? If we are not superior to the young men who visit us; superior simply in virtue of our sex; then, our only claim to be handsomely supported in idle self indulgence, must lie in the fact, that we endow our husbands with sufficient worldly goods to warrant the condition." "You are ingenious." 66 No, it is matter of fact. What have you got to say against my position, Alice? Are we better than young men of equal intelligence and education? A TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE. "No; I cannot say that we are." 66 'If we marry we must look among those for husbands. Rich men generally select their wives from rich men's daughters. Our chances in that direction are not very encouraging. Your father has no dowry for his children; nor has mine. Their families are large and expensive, and but little or nothing of the year's income is left at the year's close. The best they can do for us, is to give us homes; and I feel that it is not much to our credit that we are content to lean upon our fathers, already stooping under the burden of years, care, and toil, instead of supporting ourselves. The thought has troubled me of late.” A sober hue came over the face of Alice, as she sat looking into the eyes of her friend. She did not reply, and Fanny went on: "There is wrong in this. On what ground of reason are we to be exempt from the common lot of useful work? We expect to become wives and mothers. Is this our preparation? Can you bake a loaf of sweet, light bread ?" "No." 66 Nor can I. Or roast a sirloin ?" "No." "Or broil a steak? Just think of it, Alice. We can manage a little useless embroidery, or fancy knitting; can sing and play, dance and chatter-but as to the real and substantial things of life, we are ignorant and helpless. And, with all this, forsooth, we cannot think of letting ourselves down to the level and condition of virtuous, intelligent young men, who, in daily, useful work are earning a fair independence! We are so superior that we must have husbands able to support us in luxurious idleness or we must have none! We are willing to pass the man to whom love would unite us in the tenderest bonds, because his income is small, and marry for money, one from whom the soul turns with instinc tive aversion. Can we wonder that so many of us are unhappy?" But eight hundred dollars, Fanny! How is it possible for a married couple to live in any decent style in this city on eight hundred dollars a-year?" 66 They may live in very comfortable style, if the wife is willing to perform her part." "What do you mean by her part, Fanny ?" "We will take it for granted, that she is no better than her husband. That having brought him no fortune beyond her own dear self, she cannot claim superior privileges." A TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE. "Well ?" "He has to work through all the day." "Well ?" "Under that equitable rule is she exempt?" "No. She must do her part, of course, if there is anything to do. She must keep his house if he can afford a house. But if he have only eight hundred dollars a-year! Why rent alone would consume half, or more than half of that. They would have no housekeeping in that case. They must board." 66 And the wife sit in idleness all the day long?" "She would have nothing to do." "Could she not teach? Or, by the aid of a sewing machine, earn a few dollars every week? or engage in some other useful work that would yield an income, and so do her part? "Yes, she might do something of the kind; but if marriage is to make workers' of us, it were better to remain single." "And live in un womanly dependence on our parents and relatives. No, Alice; there is a false sentiment prevailing on this subject, and as I think and talk, I see more and more clearly. Our parents have been weak in their love for us; and society, as constituted, has given us a wrong estimate of things.-We should have been required to do useful work in the household, from the beginning, and should have been taught that idleness and self-indulgence are discreditable. Our brothers are put into trades and professions, and made to comprehend, from the beginning, that industry is honourable, and that the way of useful work is the way by which the world's highest places are to be reached.-But we are raised daintily and uselessly, and so unfitted for our duties as wives and mothers, Our pride and self-esteem are fostered; and we come to think of ourselves as future queens, and are to be ministered to in all things, instead of being ministers, in loving self-forgetfulness, to others. No wonder that an anti-marriage sentiment is beginning to prevail amongst young men of moderate income, in all the large cities. The fault is in us, Alice. sin lies at our door. We demand too much in the co-partnership. We are not willing to do our share of work.-Our husbands must bear all the burdens." Alice sighed heavily. Her friend continued: The I have read somewhere that the delight of heaven is the delight of being useful. And it seem to me, as I dwell upon the thought, that the nearest approach to heavenly delight here, must |