EDITOR'S TABLE. 



are no longer for you! Rest you in the quiet enjoyment of gathered perfections. Dispence all 

 the happiness you can to those about you. Instruct, advise, and lecture all the inquisitive and 

 ignorant idlers so likely to hover about one in your position, and rouse them to walks of useful 

 activity. Let the world about you enjoy the mental and bodily labors of your many years and 

 collected treasures. It is but a little while you can enjoy them, and you cannot take them 

 hence. So will you pass down to the dark valley with a peaceful quiet, feeling conscious that 

 the talent for such accomplishment, and the wealth to execute great plans, bestowed upon you, 

 have not been selfishly expended. 



Shall I mistrust that you are not the possessor of such varied and all-comprehensive talent as 

 I supposed you? Surely I see nothing incompatible in the enjoyment of all you boast, in addi- 

 tion to wildwood, prairie, and all more truly natural things and occupations. And I see no 

 reason why one cannot enjoy more than one degree or class of objects, pursuits and pleasures. 



How can I help "persisting" that you are " unfortunate"? Are you not continually rousim^' 

 my tenderest sympathies? Kow they are awakened afresh, and unbidden tears spring, as ever 

 and anon like a solemn knell, rings through my soul with its sad^vibrations, " hope, which to me 

 alas, is lost!" They echo there till I feel my heart with rueful sorrow swelling. How can you 

 live without that feeling which seems to tinge unconsciously every hour of my life. It never 

 would do for you to come here without a lively, hopeful spirit. Could I relate to you the trials 

 of the past season, and difficulties of obtaining " help" of any sex or age — such longino^s, and 

 searchings, and enquirings, and hopings for something or somebody — then wondering whether 

 that whole class of helpful humanity has been obliterated, that there seems none to be roused 

 anywhere, you would see that one need have a stock of hope, high, broad and well grounded. 

 And there are many other things for which one need have a vast store in reserve. 



I fear you underrate the comprehensiveness of Mrs. Atticus' talent. Circumstances have never 

 sounded their depths. "Women, I think, more than men possess a vast amount of undeveloped 

 energy and capability, and there's no telhng till this is called out by circumstances what an 

 amount, and what very varied things, she can do — gliding from sphere to sphere of duty with 

 ease and facileness. If Mrs. Atticus is not such an one, then j'ou have somehow spoiled her. 

 But I'll warrant, place her here for instance, you would find every nook and corner of the house 

 still in fastidious neatness. She would find time to impart some of the accomplishments and 

 learning of other days to her children and attend to your Ainn^vs practically as well as theoreti- 

 cally ; and at evening visit with you, or at some social gathering join in converse on literature, 

 and taste, and science with others whom you might fancy, knew you not to the contrary, had 

 never entered the kitchen except to order the cook, or cut out whole stores of garments needed 

 by a numerous household, but merely directed her sempstress. Such are the women the West 

 produces. If she had once had her choicest silk dress and crape shawl ruined by the blundering 

 of a stupid Dutchman, who, in his attempts to put the carriage in order, had daubed the whole 

 "gear," and every part of wood work and leather work, with a superfluous quantity of grease 

 to make it shine. While you were wondering how in the world you would ever teach that stupid 

 fellow what and how to do, she would insinuate Bridget into the taking out pails of water and 

 sponges, and superintend the whole operation, and even take the sponge in hand herself, when 

 fearing for the fate of the delicate lining. And Bridget couldn't object at going out of her sphere 

 to finish the "gear" when madam encouraged by showing and touching up any difficult places 

 herself. An educated imaginative woman has more ingenuity about work that she has never 

 even seen performed, than an ignorant servant, devoid of ideality, who has never cultivated 

 aught but muscular power, and directed his ideas and powers only in certain directions. At 

 evening she would with you turn over your drawings and engravings, and you would not dream 

 so "sticky a substance as grease" had ever pointed her fingers. Such diversity of talent does 

 West, where help is poor and scarce, call forth in daughters more tenderly reared in the 

 ated East. Yet they are none the less capable of passing their lives happily and profitably 



