me my cup is full. What more can the earth give? I have sounded its depths and soared to its loftiest hights. I would bless all, as I have been blessed. But amid all this splendor I can never be as happy as I have been in my old home beyond the sea; and whenever it shall please you to return, I shall be ready and only too happy to accompany you. I know your business is in Boston, and I will be contented to reside there, or anywhere you and Endura may wish, so that I may be ever near you. All that I have I owe to you, and it is all yours to do with as you may desire. So may you be blessed!”

Donald thanked her and told her that he had enough, but that as her steward he would continue to assist her to manage her estate; and he hoped she might live many years to enjoy it. But that he had duties to perform in the United States that would call him thither at an early day, and inasmuch as he could not think of leaving his wife behind him in France, it would be too much to expect that she would be content to remain after he and his wife should go away, even amid all the beauty and luxury which surrounded her. He said he would arrange to remain for a few months, during which time they would make the tour of France and Spain, and then cross over into Italy and spend the winter. In the spring he would return to America. But if Endura would rather remain at the chateau a few months, while he should go to Boston and return, he would not seriously object.

Just then Endura came in and he told her somewhat of his plans. She said that she could never consent to be separated from him again. So long as he wished to remain in France she would be contented, but nothing would please her more than to return to dear old New England. The opportunity was too favorable to travel through finished France and declining Spain to be omitted; and then to visit sunny Italy, which had been the dream of their life, would be a lasting pleasure. The very thought of that bright land of song and flowers, caused the blood in their veins to flow more free.

To think of visiting the Eternal City and standing beneath the great dome of St. Peters together, to tread upon the sacred pave where the pilgrims of centuries long past had trodden, was itself joy in anticipation. To breath the air of Rome, to walk above the buried thousands who long since mingled with the dust,-those who

once lived to love, to honor, and be beloved and honored, but whose names shall never more be recalled. They would behold the muddy Tiber, still going on as of old. There was the great Coliseum and the Vatican, a vast palace of the Pope filled with the finest works of the great masters, Raphael and Michael Angelo. What a wonderful city is Rome! If wonderful to-day, what must it have been at the hight of its ancient splendor, when it stood the empress of the world, and the greatest honor was in being able to say, "I am a Roman citizen."

All these thoughts arise in the minds of those who approach the Eternal City, or of those who contemplate a journey thither. It was no wonder then that Donald Kent determined to visit Italy, and his wife and mother anticipated it as much as himself. But first, la belle France, prosperous, happy France, must be visited. Her wonderful monuments, her beautiful temples, her grand forests, her beautiful vineyards, her castles and her cottages-France, the favored of the earth, the country of endless beauty and boundless resources, the country that paid millions upon millions indemnity for a great war, and lost vast territories which were given over to the conquerors; and yet grandly emerged, richer than the victors, and more glorious far than ever she has been before.

Such is the France of to-day, and her star is still in the ascendant. Independent France, Republican France, the mirror of civilization, the pride of her sons, the finished garden of the world. May she ever flourish as a Republic, growing wiser as time rolls on!

What of Spain? She gave Columbus to the world, and he gave us America, which has far outstripped all lands under the sun. While Spain has rapidly declined and shrunk, America has risen and expanded. In Spain we behold the monuments of past greatness crumbling to dust-the soil untilled, while rank weeds choke the vine that struggles for life; commerce is strangled; agriculture, neglected; art, declining; wealth, growing less; education, at a standstill-in short, ruin and decay at every turn. And this is the land of romance, once the peer of France, whose Armada awed and astonished the world. Misfortunes have overtaken her, her fleets were destroyed, earthquakes leveled her cities, fell diseases struck down her sons and her daughters, corrupt rulers stripped her of her apparel

and robbed her of her gold, and left her, as she is to-day, bleeding and naked, her people, as a whole, ignorant, superstitious and bigoted, without ambition and without aim. Pitied and despised Spain ! Once the mother of the children of the sun; now the decrepit dame of a degenerate people. Although Spain appears to be in decline, yet there is much to interest and instruct in poor old Spain.

A country

But a sunny land alone cannot make a people happy. which is oppressed cannot flourish. Slaves are not like free men. Taxation may enrich a few, but it impoverishes many who become discouraged and discontented, when they are no longer good citizens. Intolerance is another kind of oppression, and where it exists the country does not flourish. And, without doubt, this is one of the causes of the decline of New England. For we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the agricultural portions of New England is not what it was half a century ago.

It cannot all be attributed to bigotry, ignorance and intolerance. But that these three agents have had much to do with its present decay there can be little doubt. The productive soil of the far West has been another weight to pull her down. So that to-day New England is driven to the strait of importing the operatives for her mills as well as the bread to feed them with. But the time will come when the whole eastern coast from Maine to Georgia, will be made beautiful and inviting by new blood and new enterprises. But never again will the corn and the flax be the staples to enrich her. Instead of raising wheat and corn, and seeking a market for it abroad they will invite the people from crowded cities to spend the summers with them, to breath the fresh air and enjoy the pleasures of country life, for which they will demand a moderate compensation.

It is already being done to a considerable extent.

But upon

the

Such

present plan the expense is too great for those in moderate circumstances. To go to the country, as it is called, is but to go, as it were, from one city hotel to another. The latter more luxurious and extravagant than the former. are the watering places and summer resorts of the present time. The time will come when good, plain food at low prices, and pure country air will be what health and pleasure seekers from the city will look for. Where they will not be called upon to dress better than in their offices or work-shops, but they can put on the worst clothes they have, and not be ashamed of themselves.

Such will be the golden era for the over-worked poor of great cities, and the well-to-do and moderately rich will hail the day when they can take their families to the country to enjoy its blessings without making preparations a month or two beforehand.

May the day soon come when such a prophecy shall be realized. When New England will once more flourish, and our old homes be brightened as they were wont to be with youth and beauty, and her people be generous and polite. Christians of different creeds will learn to tolerate each other by feeling that they are journeying to the same goal. The rich invalid will meet the happy, healthy poor man with whom he would gladly exchange situations, and a general fellow-feeling will add to the happiness of all.

It is the fault of American travelers that they try to see too much. They fly from town to town and from city to city, and so tire themselves with expectation and worriment that they are unfitted to enjoy or appreciate the wonderful and the beautiful. Instead of going about it calmly in a methodical way, as they would to study a lesson that they would learn well. They skim over it in haste as many read books who know little or nothing of them when they are through.

What does a visitor know of the great art galleries of the world by simply passing through them? Perhaps some celebrated statue or painting which is well written up may detain him for a few minutes, simply that he may be able to say that he had seen it, without knowing any more about it than he did before.

Donald and his party did not travel in that way. They visited the different places, and during their sojourn they learned all that it was possible for them to learn. They studied the works of the old