298 



TABLE-TALK AKD VARIETIES. 



hold work is as nothing. This 

 finished, all the little boots and 

 shoes come in for their share of 

 polish, the bare brown places cun- 

 ningly disguised beneath extra 

 blacking; and these being disposed 

 under a table in the order of their 

 size, in readiness for the morrow, 

 their infant wearers are next soaked, 

 soaped, and scrubbed desperately, 

 indued in clean night-gown and 

 close-fitting cap, fresh from the fire, 

 and hot enough to make the little 

 eyes -water, and off they go to bed, 

 all but one wise old woman of say 

 twelve years, already choke-full of 

 domestic economy, and the import- 

 ance of "the farthing out." In 

 quiet the poor mother now sits 

 down to a lifetime of patching, 

 darning, and translation of cloaks 

 into frocks, and frocks into pina- 

 fores, or anything else that may 

 most be required, lost, the while, in 

 subtle calculations bearing upon the 

 possibility of purchasing some ar- 

 ticle of apparel or household use, 

 the necessity of which is no longer 

 to be overlooked, until her husband 

 comes home ; and then she takes 

 her careful face and market basket 

 among the crowd we have already 

 seen, the husband, meanwhile, con- 

 centrating all his attention upon 

 the fire and frying-pan in sleepy 

 expectation of sausages. (Tait's 

 Magazine.) 



LITERARY LABOUR. 



I do not believe that anything 

 worth reading or hearing can be 

 v produced without labour ; and the 

 labour of writing weighs upon the 

 nerves and exhausts the spirits 

 more perhaps than any other. Let 

 any man sit down to prepare an 

 address for some public occasion, 

 and he will have an idea of this 

 labour. Doubtless it becomes easier 

 by habit, but the effect of routine, 

 and the perpetual recurrence of the 

 demand, once, if not twice, in every 

 week, creates a difficulty on the 



' other side. My own habit has been, 

 never to sit down to consider what 

 I shall write, as many do. I find 

 that my mind, such as it is, acts 

 most freely away from the study 

 and in the presence of nature. I 

 therefore construct in my own mind 

 an exact image of everything which 

 I intend to write ; and this, when 

 completed, can either be spoken or 

 written as the case requires. My 

 sermons are thus written in my 

 mind during the walks in the fields, 

 the cemetery, or the garden, and 

 when matured are committed to 

 paper in very little time. This has 

 given the impression that I write 

 easily and rapidly, when, in truth, 

 I have no advantage in this respect, 

 except, perhaps, that of a. better 

 system, which, after the experience 

 of years, I would recommend to 

 every writer, whatever his profes- 

 sion may be. (Pcabody). 



ORIGIN OF THE WORD DOLLAR. 



The derivation suggested for this 

 in Todd's edition of Johnson, is 

 confirmed by the particular ex- 

 planation of later lexicograph- 

 ers. In 1516, a silver mine was 

 discovered at Joachim's Thai (St. 

 Joachim's Dale) in Bohemia, and 

 the proprietors in the following 

 year issued a great number of silver 

 pieces, of about the value of the 

 Spanish psoduro, which bore the 

 name of Joachim's thaler, subse- 

 quently abbreviated into dollar. 

 Thus the dollar, like the guinea, 

 commemorates the place from which 

 it was originally coined. 



LESSON FOR YOUNG MEN. 



One day when Patrick Henry, 

 the American statesman, was sit- 

 ting in his office, a tall, thin, plainly 

 dressed young man, who had de- 

 scended the Cahawba alone in a 

 small boat, came in and inquired 

 for a school. The statesman sav? 

 that there was something in him. 

 and after eyeing him for a moment 



