MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 55 



strawberries, there are ice-creams and 

 cake and lemonade, and that sort of 

 thing ; and one always feels so well the 

 next day after such a diet ! But as so 

 cial re-unions, if there are good things 

 to eat, nothing can be pleasanter ; and 

 they are very profitable, if you have a 

 good object. I agreed that we ought to 

 have a festival; but I did not know 

 what object to devote it to. We are 

 not in need of an organ, nor of any pulpit- 

 cushions. I do not know as they use 

 pulpit-cushions now as much as they 

 used to, when preachers had to have 

 something soft to pound, so that they 

 would not hurt their fists. I suggested 

 pocket-handkerchiefs, and flannels for 

 next winter. But Polly says that will 

 not do at all. You must have some 

 charitable object, something that ap 

 peals to a vast sense of something ; 

 something that it will be right to get up 



