TO OUR READERS. 



Just as we wrote the ubovc three words wo received a communication from "Wiltshire Rkctor," 

 on the envelope of which was written — "Nothing to say except — All's well." And what l)etter 

 saying could there be? Certainly none that touches more joyously the best chord of the heart. 



However, a pile of letters is before us ; let us see, as we hope, that they join in chorus 

 " All's well ;" — at all events that there will be no record of a severer visitation than green fly on 

 a Rose tree, or soft eggs in a poultry-bouse. 



First comes one from among the men of Kent, and it says : — 



"I started in the profession with a few pounds I had saved as an overworked lad ou the farm, and 

 I have been compelled to educate myself as best I could. I shall not soon forget the answer I made 

 to a jocular remark my poor father once made when he saw me sitting under a tree reading Thk 

 Cottage Gardener, as it was then called. He said, ' You will never make a gardener, for you are not 

 able to read me a column down that paper and explain it.' I replied, ' I should yet become a noble- 

 man's gardener, and be able to supply an article for the .Journal from my own pen." Now, as I have 

 accomplished one, I hope some day to secure the other." " 



That hope we know to be well founded, so that choruses "All's well." 



Next let us quote an Oxonian letter, where it tells this tale : — 



" At twelve years of age I left Jiome with just sixpence for my private fortune, and I educated myself 

 at odds and ends of time, and by steady perseverance and tolerable judgment in money matters, I had 

 saved sufficient to make a good start in life, and I was thinking of getting man-ied. The Russian war 

 came, and the finn with which I was connected got caught, as it were, wheel within a wheel in con- 

 nection with the corn trade of that country ; and one morning before breakfast a letter came to say that 

 my bard-earned fortune had taken to itself wings and flowai away. I ate my breakfast, tied on my 

 apron, and went to work again ; and now I am happy to inform voir that I am just independent of the 

 world once more, and, in strictly private confidence, I once more have serious tbouglit-^ of taking to 

 myself a wife." 

 No one but will mentally chorus, Thai's "All's well." 



Truthfully do we add that from the same pile of letters we could not quote one that would 

 cause a discord in the chorus, and when we turn to our lists of new and old contributors — of new 

 and old subscribers — tliere is no shadow upon them ; and we hope tliat for many years to come 

 they and we, whether looking back upon the past, dwelling on the present, or I'aising our eyes 

 towards the future, may be justified in saying — 



ALL 'S WELL. 



