

EDITOR'S TABLE. 



To Arriccs. I could not be so ungenerous as to take ndvantagc of a consent forced from you 



bv a i^evcre twinge of gout. I should surely expect os that " biggest toe " grows beautifully less, 

 YOU would forget past pain and regret the yes. I begin to think it wouldn't be a very light 

 thiiii; for myself or husband to change our present active lives for the goutee's easy-chair and 

 canes. It is hard to realize, when in the full tide of life and health, all the iuconvcniencct of sick- 

 ness and helplessness. The vividness of such things have seemed to come home to me in their 

 realitv this past trying summer, coining with pain and death to so many families. I have pressed 

 mv own with a trembling fear, and felt how much I loved them. I have felt the deep springs 

 of gratitude well up with a warm gushing, that not a pain or an ache has occurred in my large 

 household to quiver the heart-strings of sympathy. And rather than have my heart wrung 

 with sights and sounds of pain, I would dwell forever in a humble home, nor wish for change. 



But you read me wrong when you take me as disconted with my lot. I cannot say that I 

 have known such feeling. I have only felt at times an inefiable longirtg for the fulfillment of 

 plans for comfort and convenience which gild our future, and which we expect so surely some 

 day to enjoy. It was not the enjoyment of your perfected home for two years which dazzled 

 me, though I tried to prove how contented we could be there and our capability for it. It was 

 the thought that our home in that interim, under the supervision of one of so much taste, and 

 means at command, and who seemed to need some more stirring and active occupation, would 

 be made in a much shorter time than we could bring about, partly at least, what we wish it. 

 Your obtuseness in perceiving this is quite a convenient evasion, and you glance from this prin- 

 cipal point with a lawj^er-like cleverness of ingenious retorts upon your correspondent. 



I do not fancy we should return to such a home, though far short of yours in elegance, with 

 discontented spirit3. Such temporary enjoyment would no more make us unliai)py than a visit 

 to some rare museum of art and beauty, or to some distant friend occupying such a home. Should 

 my sons chance to journey to storied lands of old renown, where objects of classic beauty from 

 time immemorial were gathered, and come discontented because they could not dwell forever 

 there, or bring home all they saw desirable, I should confess that their parental training or self- 

 culture was somewhere deficient. Were you, sir, made a prey to discontent or envy by such 

 journeys? The treasure you brought with you was but a mite compared with that you left. 

 But could you not still enjoj^ those in memory, as well as these in possession ? I have 

 found it easy to enjoy the better and more beautiful things that surround others for a time and 

 lived them over and over again in retrospect, and felt them expand my intellect and heart, 

 instead of being ail shrunk up into an insignificant mi;mmy of discontent, as though my feast of 

 luscious fruits had been one of green persimmons. 



As to the shutting up of certain apartments as too choice for us, or beyond our orderly, skill- 

 ful care — to that I could not stoop. My haughty pride would not brook an insinuation that the 

 choicest spot in any grandee's palace was too fine, or beyond the appreciation and care of me 

 and mine. Because the wheel of fortune has landed you, sir, in a palace, and me in a cottage, is 

 it that we were not good enough for the palace? Allow me rather to suppose that it is because 

 you needed the reflected lustre of fine surroundings, and needed the appliances of convenince to 

 accomplish aught of note, but in the cottage might pass along a mere ordinary like many other 

 specimens of plodding humanity; while we were capable of reflecting brightness upon the cot- 

 tage and accomplishing much, unaided by favorable circumstances, and yet were not incapable 

 of doing justice to a palace home. Ah, I see, you deem us too plebeian for your patrician halls ! 

 "Well, there's a niche in this world for every one, but I don't know as it will be defeating or 

 thwarting our destiny if we exert ourselves to get out ofjthe cottage niche into the Jiouse niche of 

 our hope. 



So you are a grandfather ! then I fear past the time for entering into the full spirit of rearing 



home with all its appurtenances. A more youthful tide should quicken your veins 



the gusto of present enjoj-ment to insure final success. Ah, changes and great undertaki 



