Year: 1868

Dreary December days, with their
snow and sleet aud rain, have au in
huencc Of their own that leads us to-
ward peculiar enjoyment that we
feel at no other time. The desire to
hear Of and see the outside world
leaves us. Books como nearer to us;
their compauionship is almost like
that Of living persons; the sentiment
and wit and humor stand prominent
ly forward; the words seem written
in a bolder hand on such = day than
on one Of your common days.


We may not care to work on these
dreary days, Minnie will lay aside
her almost finished dress; John will
postpone his visit to the city, but will
hesitate to touch an implement in the
shop; old Uncle Joe, always busy
making an Ak handle or broom, or
nonding a wash tub, cares only to
recline in the rocking-chair in the
corner, doing, dreaming, listening,
it may be musing; Charlie won t whirl
his top nor mend his sled but sprawls
upon the floor, lying upon his back
framing fairy pictures or reading odd
stories; Addie coils himself, like n
privileged cat, on tho skirts of his
mothers dress, as she sits at her
knitting; little Nellie goes to sleep
with her doll in her arms, and the
cat forgets the hole in the corner to
such an extent that a daring little
mouse actually runs across Uncle
Joe'I foot, sir. The cold seems to
have paralyzed the desire to do, and
left only the capacity to enjoy; to
have taken away all uneasiuess as to
being idle, and left feeling Of gem
eral don't-carativeness as to results.


On such a day VIC love to gather
about us old letters, to dive in among
their records, to gather up the threads
of narrative, and to fit the scraps with
what we know ourselves into an un-
broken story. A little is told here
in letter from an old man; a little
there in a note from a sprightly
young miss; an explanatory flash
here from scientific young gent,
lighting the whole expanse for a mo-
meut, then leaving AL darker than
before; sunset-glow at another
point is impaired by tho letter from
some big. hearted man; a stormy
darkness made to surround all by
the letter OF some disappointed dys-
peptio; the story tinted in rainbow
tints by some enthusiastic girl. Put
all these together, and the patch =
work story of experience and of life
is we'll told.


Style tells so much in writing, and
clings so tenaciously to a man, you
need not always look at the signature
to learn whether the writer be young
or old, boy or girl, woman or man,
student or professor, lawyer or doc
tor, editor or merchant.


Each calling has its pet phrase5,
and each individual has his favorite
mode of expression, his certain words
to use at certain times, his channel
marked out in which he sails smooth
ly, out of which he founders terri
bly,. Letters that you received years
ago-the writers Of which may be
forgotten-preserve the writer's iden-
tity, and recall each characteristic,


/. On these dreamy December days,
we reyel among books and old letters
and new ones, too, with an interest
that is something like that with
which We listen to frst-class orator.
tb. deeper we go, the longer We stay
the ,,tronger the chain that binds
us to the place and the matter before
us. Yesterday l found among my
old papers, a bundle of letters re-
ceiyed during a sin weeks sickness
Unopened were ali, ard the secrets
we're all my own. Hee were the
words of friends, spoken two or three
mcnths ago, still unspoken to me-
They we're from persons in whom l
felt strong interest, aud it was with
a reproachful start that | acknowl-
edged that | had forgotten that they
must be performing their different
parts in life, Instead of resting quiz
etly in the cottage home among the
mountains of West Virginia.


The first that was opened was from
. fairv.lika little Miss. the sister of
our maniac soldier of old, who, when
/ last saw her, was frail aud fair, ris-
ing with uncertain movements from
the mysterious weakness Of a long
term Of sickness. (How naturally
we turn first to a woman's hand. y
She wrote two months ago from home
in her girlish way: "We are all al
home, aud / am 40 glad. The dark


ness is all gone now. Brother is not


with us, but then he is we'll and you
1 ko.nnok understand how much this