Luke's wife

by Evelyn R. Garratt

"I'll see what I can do," she said quietly.

Luke's face beamed.

"Thank you dearest," he said. "I'll go round at once and relieve mother's mind."

Rachel sighed as she heard the front door close after him.

She looked down gravely at the child in her arms.

"I wonder if I have done right," she thought. "Anyhow my little baby I won't neglect you for any number of Mothers' Meetings or Sunday Schools. You and Daddie must come first."

Then she sang again—

"The mouse ran up the clock,
The clock struck one,
Down the mouse ran,
Dickory, dickory, dock."

"Ah! Me! The life of a clergyman's wife is difficult," she sighed.

And besides all the work and care, poverty stared her in the face. She could not help fancying that Luke's great coat was turning green; and that he was growing thin, notwithstanding all her efforts to provide him with nourishing food. That he was unconscious of it himself she felt sure.