The Pains Of Fear

Think what that poor, dear, timld wouian undergoes who nightly looks ander her bed for the burglar sbe be ,ieves to be secreted there. who goos round the house af ter the servan ts are abed to see that all is safe. and that no ticket of leave man Is profiting by his lib orty to do her harm With what a sense of dread abe loeks tbedoorsof thosedark, underground places into which she dares uot peer Uhosta and robbers - she turns the key on both with a quick throb and treuibling band. tben beats a retreat with sver the same feeling of nameless terror, the same sensation of being followed by some vague horror, which she has not the courage to turn round and confront Night after night this tormeut is reuewed. as unfailingly as that which the old hag infjieted on the merchant Abudah If lue mght has its terrors so has the day its dangers Such a person as this iu the counirv dies a thousand deaths in qulc-k'ètii''essiön. and the one is as uniiecesaary # be.olr, A tramp loitering on the higLiway tueans robbiiv tirst and assassuiat ion. aftaq ■ i A fe4iicless cows goüg lioirieth muneil. ana drivcn by a chUd. are as daïfgeröüs p'ê '-stamppde o buftalos, heada dowu and. tal'.saloft., Cat tle in a Beid. however well the pub lic way across, malse that field tajj.o; for Is not each dtill, slow. grazing ox.oi ch mild eyed 'milky mother of the berd, each tangle polled yearHng calf, as dangerous as a wild buil, 'man mad," and to be approached only with caution and in forceï That distant, barking collie; that restless, neighing horse prancing up to the gap in the bedge. through which he thrusts his sociably inquisitive nose, that wayside encampment of tra veling gypsies -all the circumstancesof the country are so many causes of fear to the timid pedestrian, beating along the public road for a constitutional. and taking no pleasure Lu what she sees. In a carriage she fares no better. Up hill she is snre the horses will jib; down hül they will slip and fall, orthe pole will break, and Uien heaven have mercy on her soul! On the plain road, put to a sharp trot they will run away; indeed, tbey are ruiming away If they whisk their taLls they are about to kick, if they cock their ears they are sure to shy She screams at the stnallest difference between them and their driver; and when they have to meet another carriage, or pass a lumbering cart, she pinches her companion black and blue in the spasm of her fear The torment of fear is hard to bear when it is ceutered on one's self. What is it wben it spreads itself abroad and includes others- the beloved- in its meshes? For the beloved, indeed, is no security. Every railway journey includes a smash; every sea voyage is a foregone shipwreck; if an epidemie touches the outside fringes of the dibtrict, it is sure to make a leap into the home where the deav ones live. The smallesl cold is bronchitis; and when the little people cough they have whoopIng cough. no lesa. Some mothers raake their motherhood a long drawn agony by the fears with which they encompass their young Is the nurse a quarter of an hour beyond her usual timeï Straightway the grave is opened and the cherished and adored lie therein stark and cold Wild wanderings to and fro, wild surmísea as to what can havo happened, angry rejectlon of any comnjonplace explanation as to a longer walk than usual, a longer session under the trees than was ealculated on, passionate tears of frantic despair, passionale outbursts of as frantic wrath, when lol the nurse comes quietly up to the house door with her charge as fresh as a fiowef and as gay as a lark. and that voluntary descent into Hades provea itself as futile as it was unnecessary These fears accompany a mother of this uneasy kind all through life. When her boys go to school she is sure they will be mauled by the bigger ruffians of their class. maimed for life in the playground, overworked, underfed, put into damp sheets and moraUy corrupted Sho suffers more than tbey from the dire necessitie? of learning, and wishes that there was a royal road to knowledge where her dar lings could bowl along at railroad speed, with never a hill to climb nor a valley wherein to descend. She thinks the masters cruel and the curriculum inhuman, and wonders how 60 much can be expected from such young brains and All throngh life it is the same cry of evil The fortunes of war take her sons here and there, and the mother frets over i the possibilities of disaster, as if that pos sible event were proven fact and chanco had no side alley for escape. Aiid when It comes to mati-imony the whöle thinpr is renewed under another name; for surely was there never the girl born who was a 6t wife for the son of such a mother, while the finest man extant makes but a poor kind of a care taker for her daughterl So she perverts the gTeat gift of love and the divine glory of maternity into a scourge, and not a blessing, and weeps beuind her inantle of self made mourning because she has not the courage to believe nor the common sense to hope. - The Forum.