308 DATS OUT OF DOORS. 



and the suggestive ah ! all forewarn me of an attack upon 

 my fire. If an angel from heaven were to place the hick- 

 ory in order and every flickering flame was the perfection 

 of grace, it would avail nothing. There would be instant 

 interference from the first mortal who happened in. Of 

 course, I wish each one of my friends to consider himself 

 the exception that proves the rule ; at the same time, I 

 would have all my readers, who know me not, understand 

 that there are no exceptions. 



The pretty, fan-like screens for the face that I have 

 mentioned have ever interested me more than all else 

 about the hearth. It requires some effort to realize that 

 your great-grandmother was once a girl, but it is true, and 

 what might not these neatly decorated bits of board, which 

 shielded her pretty but not painted face — what might 

 they not tell us, could they but speak ! How steadily have 

 bright eyes gazed upon them that dared not look up; 

 how stealthily have they glanced aside, meeting other eyes, 

 yet shielded from all the company. Can it be possible 

 that in a quiet way there was a mild form of flirtation 

 even among the early Quakers ? These screens hint at it ; 

 and we do know that they were always widely awake to 

 all the world's real worth — witty, fond of literature, nor 

 accounted it vanity to see themselves in print. It is emi- 

 nently appropriate to take up the volumes of the " Evening 

 Fireside," published eighty years ago, and read the pithy 

 prose and dainty verses of many a young Friend. Indeed, 

 at least one of the contributors to this earliest of literary 

 weeklies has sat before my fire and held these screens, 

 listening, as I do now, to the moaning of the wind in the 

 chimney, singing then as now, as her poetry shows, a 

 melancholy song of long ago. But how different her 

 " long ago " from mine ! I think of the time when this 

 country was young, as long ago ; and my gi-eat-grand- 

 mother then was recalling the stories she had heard of her 



