300 WOULD I WEBB A BOY AGAIN! 



" That coon, for instance," interrupted Smith, " that came 

 so near getting shot by his chattering." 



" I call the gentleman to order," said I ; "the Doctor has 

 the floor." 



" I sometimes think that it is no great thing after all 

 to be human ; " the Doctor continued, bowing his acknow- 

 ledgments for my protecting his right to the floor. " Mind 

 is a great thing, but there is more of sorrow, anxiety, and 

 care clustering about it, than these wild things we hear and 

 see around us suffer through their instincts. Eeason, know- 

 ledge, wisdom, are great things. To stand at the head of 

 created matter, to be the noblest of all the works of God, 

 the only created thing wearing the image, and stamped with 

 the patent of Diety, are proud things to boast of. But 

 great and glorious and proud as they are, they have their 

 balances of evil. They bring with them no contentment, no 

 repose, while they heap upon us boundless necessities and 

 limitless wants. We are hurried through life too rapidly 

 for the enjoyment of the present, and the good we see in 

 prospect is never attained. When we were boys we longed 

 to be men, with the strength and intellect of men ; and now 

 that we are men, with matured powers of body and mind, 

 true to our organic restlessness and discontent, we look back 

 with longing for the feelings and emotions of our boyhood. 

 What a glorious thing it would be if we could always be 

 young not boys exactly, but at that stage of life when the 

 physical powers are most active, and the heart most buoy- 



