Whom God Hath Joined: A Question of Marriage

The saying that no one can serve two masters has its exception in the case of a wife and mother, who is bound by her marriage vows and maternal instincts to love in equal measure her husband and children; but alas for the happiness of the family should she love one to the exclusion of the other, for from such exclusion arise many domestic heart burnings.
If marriages are made above,
They're oft unmade by man below,
There should be trust, and joy, and love,
If marriages are made above;
But should Heav'n mate a hawk and dove,
Such match unequal breeds but woe,
If marriages are made above,
They're oft unmade by man below.
Like doth not always draw to like--in truth Old age is ever worshipful of youth, Seeing in boyish dreams with daring rife, A reflex of the spring time of its life, When sword in hand with Hope's brave flag unfurled, It sallied forth to fight the blust'ring world.
It was about mid-day, and the train having emerged from the darkness of the St. Gothard tunnel, was now steaming rapidly on its winding line through the precipitous ravines of the Alps, under the hot glare of an August sun. On either side towered the mountains, their rugged sides of grey chaotic stone showing bare and bleak at intervals amid the dense masses of dark green foliage.
Sometimes a red-roofed châlet would appear clinging swallow-like to the steep hill-side--then the sudden flash of a waterfall tumbling in sheets of shattered foam from craggy heights: high above, fantastic peaks swathed in wreaths of pale mist, and now and then the glimpse of a white Alpine summit, milky against the clear blue of the sky.