Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/15

Rh This picturesque abode was encircled by a small garden. The soil had been so carefully enriched and every inch of ground was under such high cultivation, that the narrow circuit yielded a wonderful profusion and succession of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. He who labored to implant good seed in human hearts, found his chief relaxation in the culture of this little spot of earth, and a never-failing enjoyment in pondering over and searching out the divine significance of its varied products.

To this sequestered home, far from the care and clamor of the guileful world, Mr. Mildmay carried his bride. Amy's domestic capabilities were now called into full play. Her knowledge of housekeeping was limited in the extreme, but she had sound sense, aptitude, ready hands, and a willing heart. She maintained that any woman of ordinary intellect, who has the will, can become an expert and thrifty housewife, and she soon exemplified the truth of her declaration.

Her orderly mind systematized and, by consequence, lightened all her labors. Household avocations were not drudgeries to her; she idealized them by the remembrance of the comfort they secured for him she loved.

She had the gift to evoke beauty out of the simplest combinations. As you crossed her threshold, the eye was charmed by the most tasteful disposition of furniture, light, color; by picturesque but