afternoon, speaking gratefully of the change. "Before you came, we never
really knew what religion was. It seemed something separate from the
business and everyday affairs of life, and we thought we could not well
afford to try its utility. We learned from you that it was the sweetener
of every thought and every act of the day. Wife and I have been
practising it as well as we could, and we find that it pours the oil of
happiness into the machinery of life, which often creaked so drearily
before."
How the good old man poured out his soul in thankfulness, that night, to
his Master, inspired with inexpressible joy by this evidence that his
Christian labors of love had been blessed in the hearts of his friends!
And so, having been almost worshipped by the Roydens during his stay,
and honored with abundant attentions from Mr. Corlis and his society,
Father Brighthopes went his way rejoicing and praising the infinite
Giver for such abundant blessings.
Chester and his bride, having prolonged their visit on his account,
departed at about the same time.
Some months later, this young couple sent for Hepsy to come and live
with them, in their new home in Sophronia's native town. The poor girl
gladly went. Henceforth she was resolved to devote herself entirely to
the happiness of Chester.
He needed her, and he was able to appreciate her self-sacrifice. He
would not have had much of a home without her. Sophronia was a sweet
girl; but of the art--more valuable than all other arts in a wife--of
making a comfortable home she was lamentably ignorant. Having been
petted as an heiress, she was a complete child. Wealth can purchase
certain luxuries, and insure an outside show; but the talent for making
home _home_ lies in the heart of the wife, and transcends in value all
the riches of the globe.
Had it not been for the good Hepsy, Chester must have led a miserable
life, with his unsatisfied domestic feelings, after all the romance of
love was over. She made his fireside, and, with the influence she
speedily acquired over Sophronia, drew her within the sphere of peaceful
home delights, teaching her a higher, holier love for her husband than
had ever entered the heart of the giddy young wife before.
And was Hepsy happy?
There are two kinds of happiness. One consists in the gratification of
our wishes and desires, the attachment of friends, the admiration of the
world.
Another sort of happiness lies in that noble and unselfish love, which
devotes itself to promote the welfare of others, quite forgetful of all
the thorns that pierce it as it treads the path of duty, and never
knowing the poison of envy or the gall of hate. This is the highest,
purest happiness known on earth; for it approaches the bliss of the
immortals, whose home is in the heavens.
Of the former, Hepsy--the poor, sickly, deformed girl--certainly had not
much; but the latter was showered upon her in rich abundance, falling
like the sweet dew, for want of which the thirsty flowers gasp and
wither in the sultry summer day, but which steals softly down, to bathe
their rosy cheeks and lily lips, only when they bow their heads under
the gloom of night.
J. T. TROWBRIDGE SERIES
Coupon Bonds.
Cudjo's Cave.
Drummer Boy, The.
Martin Merryvale, His X Mark.
Lucy Arlyn.
Father Bright Hopes.
Neighbor Jackwood.
Three Scouts, The.
End of Project Gutenberg's Father Brighthopes, by John Townsend Trowbridge