“It is nice to be so highly appreciated,” she said, with a bright, winsome smile, “and I’m not the only one who is, for I’m perfectly sure that I drew the very highest prize in the matrimonial lottery.”
“I am to understand from that that I, too, am appreciated? Yes, I have no doubt that I am, at my full value,” he said.
“Little wife, I hope you find your new home not less enjoyable than the old, which I know was an exceedingly happy one to you.”
“I have always had a happy home, but never a happier than this that my husband’s love and care have provided, and which they make so sweet and restful!” she answered.
“O Levis, what a joy this newly expired year has brought me! I had not dared to look forward to a home with you for many years to come! I had thought of it as a great blessing that might come to me in middle life, but not in my young days.”
“Ah, God has been very good to us,” he exclaimed, feelingly. “I trust we have many years to live and love together on earth, and after that a blessed eternity in the better land.”
“Yes,” she responded, “how that blessed hope—making even death only a temporary separation—adds to the joy of mutual love! It is dear mamma’s great comfort in her widowhood.”
“Yes,” he said, “what an evident reality it is to her that her husband is not dead but only gone before, and that they will be re-united one day, never to part again. Dearly as she no doubt loved him, and sorely as she must miss him at times, her life seems to me serene and happy.”
“It is,” said Violet; “her strong faith in the wisdom and love of her heavenly Father makes her days to be full of peace and content.”
Presently the summons to tea brought the family all together; except the baby, who was still too young to know how to conduct herself at the table.