Onward we float where mellow sunset glory Streams o'er the lakelet's breast, And every ripple tells a golden story Of the transfigured west. Onward, into the evening's calm and beauty, To camp and sleep we go: Thrice bless'd are lives, in tasks of love and duty, That end in such a glow! --HORATIO NELSON POWERS. THE RUIN OF ME. (TOLD BY A YOUNG MARRIED MAN.) I am Poverty scuffing about in old shoes and rubbers. I _was_ one of those who, at a good salary, think up smart things to put around in the corners of the Chicago _Times_. When every newspaper, from the London _Punch_ down, was making jokes about Elihu Burritt's _Sanskrit for the Fireside_, it was I who beat them all by saying in solid nonpareil, "The best way to learn Sanskrit is to board in a family of Sanskritters." It was I who said, "Let the Communists carry pistols: they may shoot each other;" and, "Sara Bernhardt's children are articles of _virtu_." _O quam me delectat_ Sara Bernhardt! I love such diversified, such picturesque gifts. Sculpture, painting, acting, writing! This is why I loved Lydia, who was an adept at numberless arts and accomplishments. She was a brunette with a clear, cream-tinged skin, red cheeks, rolling black eyes, ripe velvety lips, and hair of a beautiful hue and rich lustre--raven black, yet purple as the pigeon's wing in the sun. I believe it is true that dark people belong to the pre-historic races: centuries of sunlight are fused in their glowing complexion. Blondes are beautiful--both the rosy ones with pinkish eyelids and warm golden locks, and the pale ones with ash-colored hair, gray eyes and dark brows and lashes--but a florid brunette excels them all. In seeing Lydia you would make the mistake that you usually make in judging girls: entering among them, you think their attitudes proclaim their traits. For instance, you take the most giggling one for a simpleton, but afterward learn that she is a good scholar and has accepted the Greek chair in a Western college, and looking again you see she has a strong frame, a capable head and large bright eyes. Lydia dressed in the mode, wore the high-heeled shoes that give such a dainty look to the foot and gait, and came into a room with a great effusion of fashionableness; yet she was not in the least what she seemed. She had a great deal of what is more pleasing than mere appearance, and that is character. She was ambitious and energetic. She did tatting when she did nothing else--said it concealed her lack of repose and liability to fidget. She was able to draw _la quintessence de tout_: she could make a mountain-spring of a mole-hill. She also had a touch of temper: those who are perfectly amiable are nothing else.