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Show WOMAN'S EXPONENT. CLEANSING' FIRES. deaf, and the dead come not back again, but "Dut thank'd be memory her sweet power pan bring you are one of ray old time Back to my heart its early joys again; friends, and I Her magic power revives the Irozen spring ought to know you. Yes, yes, now you speak," Of youth and hope, and the chain : 1(jr..th.6 visitor had, in her excitement, exclaimed, " We knew each other well, when we "J'. Of sacred sympathies.'' were girls." "0, it is .Eminie; can it be Jsjt Again and again bright; fell, or a possible?'? and the two were,f)y this time, ensob choked as them, great they spoke of some folded 111 etrch otherVarmsin a loving and tendear with whom, departed one, they had been der embrace. "After all these .is Let thy gold be cast in the furnace; Thy rect gold precious arid bright; Do not fear the hungry fire, of hungry light: . With its cavern-iAnd thy gold shall return more precious, ''Fre'e from every spot and stain: "For gold must be tried by fire, And a heart must be tried by pain! es - , tear-drop- s lolfg years you have come back to us, to your4 old home 'and friends "jn New England," and by this time the. two were seated on the sofa by a warm, glowing fire, and the visitor had thrown oh" her wraps, and the two friends sat, as it were, entranced. I cannot tell you all that transpired in that short interview, but I can give you some idea of its effect; the Dr's wife every now and then saying, "It seems as though you had come from another world," and then again she. would say, "Of all the people inthe world, now that my mother aud her sister, Aunt Ursula, are dead, I would rather see you than any one." Frequently she would say, in. beginning a new sentence, "When we were girls, you know." In the cruel fire of sorrow Cast thy heart,, do not faint or wail; Let tny hand be firm and steady. . Do not let thy spirit quail; " , But wait till the trial is o'er, heart take And thy again; ' For as gold is tried by fire, So a heart must be tried by pain! ' - . : shall know by the gleam and glitter.' Of the golden chain you wear, By your heart's calm strength inl'oving, Of the fire they have had to bear. Beat on, true heart, for ever, ' Shine bright, strong golden chain; And bless the cleansing fire, : And furnace of living pain! . '" I - . . . . They talked on and on, and many of the re markable events in each one's life were re ' Selected. "WHEN WE JVERE GIRLS." , IIpw often women of mature years make Ibis expression to each other, when some little incidt n t of. the past is awakened, or when meeting with eaclf other after a prolonged ab- sence; how natural to say, "When we were .girls." And now I am going to givej'tfu an incident which actually transpired, not "when we were girls," but vhen we met again after a separation of forty years. 4 had-beeTwo girls who n playmates bp child--hoo- d ami intimate companions at school, who shared the same tasks, and whose lives seemed likely to run on in the same channel, year after year, and whose hopes ..and ambitions were similar, and whose tastes and inclinations were very like, and: who - had pledged, the - . . -- " - ' school-girl'-dter- n while yet young, drifted apart through religious tendencies and belief. Still loving tenderly, without any unpleasantness, each- - went her own Way. One to the far west, or what seemed so in those days, and the other re mained behind,. clinging to the old Puritanical. - -- notions of religion counted briefly, but In truth the visitor had most to tell, for her history was richer far, be cause ot the countries she had seen and the advancement she had made in adive work for her sex and for humanity, as well as because the' religion she had embraced, ami that took her from had so engrafted itself into her soul as to broaden and expand all her ideas, thoughts and energies. "How has it fared with you all these years, and what can you tell ine of our school friends? Yhere are the boys who stood in the front rank of scholarship, of wdiom we were all so proud?" "Questions like these from the visitor were answered one after the other m quick t n 11 succession, lniormation pi nan a nunureci old schoolmates was briefly given, and memory recalled many a scene and transaction in the pa.t, and in fancy they wandered over the same hills again, gathering 'berries, or rustlsd anion cr" th& fallen, frosty leaves under the chestnut trees, picking up the brown nuts, their . -- ir . old-fashion- - -- . -- 1 e " 1 . ; - . There is something particularly sad and solemn in going back over old places and' homesteads after the absence of years and finding the ' great changes that time has wrought, but when one meets a genuine friend, who has held you in her heart of hearts without questioning, it is a proof of constancy, of which we might all be justly proud it is so uncommon. Such a friendship is indeed golden. - Such meetings are like a foretaste of futurity, They afford us a dim, glimpse of that which may be when Wft shall roach "thai, nthpr shoro. " wliprp. our loved oues are waiting. Then shall we re count the dangers we have passed, the shipwrecks .we have encountered nere below; but these two women studiously avoided all these,; and were careful to keep baukall the dark days, all the fiery ordeals, and .veTifvou had aeen them as they sat and held that sweet converse together, you would have known by the marked lines in their countenances, and the subdued and softened light that shone in their deep-se- t eyes, that the discipline of sorrow had left its sure 'impress. How like and unlike those two women .were, and yet how well they blended. Some day I will tell you more, for there is much more to tell, but well might" we say with Byron of such an one, "Thou art the friend To whom the shadows of long years extend." Auint Em. 1 ou.v lingers pricKeu auu uieeuiug uvm burrs What a picture these two women made as they sat there on that wintry day. - They had been so far apart. Many thousand miles had lain between them, and in such different spheres were their jives cast, that not a letter had fotirid its way from one to therother. Both had been engrossed with matronly cares and duties as well, and yet each acknowledged to the other, now that they had met again, how often and how tenderly they had thought of the time "when. we were girls." They met upon the same familiargroundof intimacy as in the former days; no icy barrier kept them apart even after forty years; they did not Question each other as to rank or came back wealth; the old feeling of girl-lovinstinctively, and their hearts rushed towards each other, removing all embarrassment. richThe'past came back to them in all its ness and glory, and they saw not the luxuriant in which furnishings of the handsome parlor snow they were seated, nor the fast falling 'all its without, but the old village home and other each fflmilinr haunts: and they reminded whole t)f this or that, until a description of the place and its surroundings had been grapmcmany ally given; They knew exactly Jiow fence rail the on peacocks used to sit perched by to under the locust .walk, as they went tiMinfll-llfC V.of l. linnnv ofhooi: every uuaso w tui ""fiv -- ----by it would seem, was recalled and retouched who sat, the. vigorous imagination of the-- two U1C vmwus as 'twere, entranced with tne 1 rpd home;-and-friends, . Each had her own peculiar life history; both were characteristic of the gin; and indeed just what might have been expected from their temperament and, training and education, rlnterwoveu in both their lives were the love of poetry and the bi u ti fu 1 i n 11 at u re," and this endowment descended children, for though they were New1 England girls they were not old maids. On a cold, wintry day, when snow lay deep, and we would scarcely expect a visitor from a distance, a lady alighted from a carriage at the door of a rather house in a town in the Old Bay- State, and after large, the bell, inouired for Mrs. Dr. ringing "0, yes, shg lives here." After having dismissed the coachman, the lady is admitted into the in and parlor, a moment more Mrs. Dr. enters, and the two schoolgirls, playmates and wiipamons meet alter forty years separation. It was a strange meeting two who had passed so through many experiences since they last wet; and the change of face and figure that motherhood and time bring with them and -aeitn:r would haveiciiown the other, only that the traveler had been told by the servant that she whom she sought was the mistress nf the mansion. Here stoocl the two little women, grown old and frpv-thp- v at each other 'far one moment only, and then, the .Doctor's grasping the hand of her visitor, sam: know you are not my cousin Irene, for she past. to-the- closely associaf ed. , . - 79 e R. S., Y. L. M. L A. & P.A. REPORTS. JUAIi STA K K. in the Nephi meeting house, September 17lh,188(j. Oii.thcstand were J Brest. Mary Bitch forth aud Counselors, Amy L. Bigler and Maranda Bryan, Hister M. W. Snow of Salt Lake City, Brest. Mary A. Hyde dety converie(I of the Relief Society of Sanpete Stake, and representatives of the different branches of Juab Stake; of the brethren, Brest. Charles Sperry, Bishop Udall, Batriarch J. S. Bigler " and others. After the usual opening exercises, Brest. M. A. Hyde addressed the sisters on theimportance of educating their children in the principles of their religion, and providing them with good bookst and making home pleasant and happy, for society is changing, and we must keep our young folks from the allurements of the evil one. A recitation, "The hand that rocks the cradle," etc., by 'Mrs. M. E. Teas- : . dale. "Sister . M. W. Snow referred to her long ex- perience with the Relief Society; said she had been a member of the R. S. organized by the Brophet Joseph in Nauvoo, and had witnessed --with pleasure the good which had been accomplished by the. sisters of Zion since that time. Spoke of the great responsibility resting upon-th- e teachers, and exhorted them to be humble and prayerful, 4hat they might be guided by the Spirit of God in all their visitations among the Saints. Bishop David Udall said, "We are highly favored in having the privilege of meeting in quarterly conference, to transact business for the Stake, and receive counsel from those who are inspired of God to teach us of the plan of salvation." - |