“It must needs have happened that my speech has here been melancholy, but indeed I should not speak of Mary so. She was the blythest, cheerfullest, most comfortable middle-aged wife that man ever had; behind our very darkest trouble a smile was always lying ready to struggle through it, and what a light it shed! One of your resigned immoveable females, who accept every blessing as a temptation, and submit, with precisely the same feelings to what they call every chastening, would have killed me in a week. George, my Mary acted at all times according to her nature, and that nature was as beautiful and blessed as ever fell to the lot of womankind. You might well think that Kate and Mary were two prizes great enough for one man to draw out of the marriage lottery, and yet I drew another. When I lost my beloved Mary, my third wife took her place in my inmost heart. “Kiss me, Charlotte,” said the old man, tenderly, and again she kissed him on the cheek. “And now,” continued he, “let us fill our glasses, for the New Year is coming on apace; and please to drink to the memory of my two wives, and to the health of her who is still left to me. The two first toasts must necessarily be somewhat painful to my dear Charlotte, and we will, therefore, receive them in silence, but the third we must drink with all the honours.” So after those, he stood up, glass in hand; and said to her, “Kate, Mary, Charlotte,--bride, matron, and dame in one, to whom I have been wedded this half-century,--for I have had no other wife, George,--God bless you, dear old heart! We have had a merry Christmas, as we have ever had, and I trust it may be permitted to us to have, still together, one more happy New Year. Hip! hip! hip! Hurrah!” and the echoes of our three times three seemed cheerily to roam all night about Tremadyn House. Now ready, Price Five Shillings and Sixpence, cloth boards, THE TWELFTH VOLUME OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS, Containing from No. 280 to No. 303 (both inclusive), and the extra Christmas Number. _The Right of Translating Articles from_ HOUSEHOLD WORDS _is reserved by the Authors_. Published at the Office, No. 16, Wellington Street North, Strand. Printed by Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars, London. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES This is from Volume XIII of the series. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Transcriber has generated a Table of Contents. Apparently misspelled words have been changed: page 11, where “cuting” has been changed to “cutting”. page 14, where “frightning” has been changed to “frightening”. page 18, where “eightteen” has been changed to “eighteen”. page 21, where “Transforest” has been changed to “Trasforest”. page 21, where “Bourdeaux” has been changed to “Bordeaux”. page 22, where “Bourdeaux” has been changed to “Bordeaux”.