Her Mirror

At Y. M. U. A. hall Yeat.aso Okauo, a Japnese, ;old tho followiug story to a larj;e audi.'nce: "Ouco upon a time thcre lived in a littlo hamlet in Japan a yonug conple. Thay liad one chiid - a bcatitü'nl littlo girl whorn both ioved very dearly. It carne to pass while the child waa still a baby giri that the fathei was obliged to t;ke a long jonrney to the far distant aity. It was too far for him to take bis wile and chüd, so he left them at houie i and traveled alone. "Iu thatgreat city hj saw ruauy uew thiugs which, having lived in the peaceful littlo bamlec up among the monntftins all his Ufe, he harl never seen befove. He desired to taka home to his wife aome of tiiese new things which seemerl to him so wouderful. And the most wonderfnl gift be con Id take, it seomed to bim, was n mirror. He -wished to take honie to hiswife-the pleasui'o aud surprise he had experienced wheu he first looked into a mirror. So he took ohe homo to his wifo. "Wheu he arrived borne' be gave the present to his wife, and for tho flrst time she looked into a mirror. ' What do yon see?' her husband asked. She replied: 'I declare! I see a very pretty ! woman. She wears hor haví' jnst as I do mine, and she smiles and moves hor lips as if she were talking to me. ' Her husband told her that the mirror was a present for her, and behoped shewotild use it every day. But the wife thonght I it far too bcautiful and raro and costly a gift to use evury day, so sho put it carefully away and never spoko about it to the littlo daughterj who grew more biautiful and more like her mother every day. "By and by a great misfortune feil upon that little honsehold. The wife and motber feil siok, and it was soon evident that she runst die. As she lay upon her deathbed sho called her little daughter to her and told her that she was going to lose her mother forever. She conld point to no future life af ter death iu whioh they should be reunited, bnt in the love and sirnplicity of her heart she did the best she could. S. e told her little daughter abont tbc won derful mirror. 'After I ara dead, ' she said, 'take down that box and look into the mirror that it contains. There you will sec uiy face. And I want you to look into the mirror every day, that you may uever forget your mother, and that you may grow liko me more and more every day. ' "So the mother died. The little girl did as she had been told, and in the ■wouderful mirror she thougbt she saw her mother's face, young and beautiful - not as she had seen her, pale and ill as she lay dying, bnt fair and fresh as she had looked before the fatal íllness. And the littlo girl lookod into the mirror every day and thougbt of her motber and her many lovely ways, and so it came about that she grew to be more and more like her mother as the years went by. "-