OUR GUEST BOOK 



to her, painful silence; but the Constant Improver felt 

 that he had won an ally. 



What an ideal guest was that genial and learned 

 Scotsman, divine and author, who had so rare a sym 

 pathy, so perfect a combination of childlike frankness 

 tempered with manifold experience! How from his 

 playful anecdotes we learned to know his children and 

 his delightful home life! Pleased and proud indeed 

 were we to hear that his wife wished him to buy for her, 

 from our favorite shop in the city, various personal 

 articles, including, if I remember rightly, a hat! It 

 seemed to us a very daring commission. 



A well-known geologist is occasionally inveigled into 

 our neighborhood, when we always take advantage of 

 his presence to explore the surrounding country, learn 

 ing from him its origin and formation in language our 

 own ignorant eyes could not read. He is an expert in 

 botany too, and is tireless in seeking new wild flowers 

 and sending us strange plants to naturalize in our 

 woods. 



His colleague knows naught of country life except 



14 209 ' 



