Year: 1867

It was agreed on all hands that Ned
Stone was a very practical fellow. By
some this may have been said of him dis
paragingly, though others undoubtedly
applied the words in = complimentary
sense. Practically it has its eulogists,
but it has also It's censors. There are
people who will find fault with prose
because it isn't poetry; the same sort
of people consistently denOunce practi-
cality because Of its deficiency in specu-
latiEeness. For it is common form of
criticism to condemn a thing not so
much for being what it is as for not be-
ing something else; that desiderated
something else being, in most cases,
something entirely antipOdean and ir-
relevant to the original and disrelished
thing.


If Ned Stone had ever fault found
with him on the score that he a0as prac-
tical, and that he 10asHs pOetical, he
might have answered with Mistress Au-
drey-supposing (and it's a doubted
case) that he was informed of the exis-
tence of that rustic-''I do not know
what poetical is is it honest in deed
and word? Is it true thing?" Certain
ly in both word and deed he was him
self honest and true. For things that
were otherwise he was quite without
sympathy. Indeed, he was for the most
part without knowledge concerning
them; being simple, straightforward
gentleman, who went his own way, lived
his own life, did what it fell to his lot
to do, in a curiOusly sober, steady, home
ly fashion. He never swerved to the
right nor to the left. 1t did not occur
to him, apparently, to deviate from a
compact plan of consistent conduct. He
never seemed to say anything he did not
mean, or to mean anything he did not
say the while his openness had not
about it that element of offensiveness
which charaeterizes the unreserve of
some people, with whom speaking their
minds, aslthey phrase it, is rather like
cracking bad egg-&n operation better
pretermitted than performed.


Ned Stones mind ran pure and clear
as a brook You were, of course, atIib-
erty, if such was your humor, 70 deride
it as being merely water brook, after
all-preferring fount af strong olaret,
perhaps. Still the former, be itremem-
bered, is available at all times, and de-
lectable ever inits own mild way where
as the latter is only for occasions Of fes-
tivity at long intervals, never running
for any protracted period, nor always
quite clear, and, with all its charms, ca
pable, upon prOVoCatiOn, Of giving you
a headache or of throwing you into a
fever. .... .........ss .a


He was broker in the city-nothing
more nor less than that Whether his
labor and profits had to do with tea and
sugar. or ships or stock, I am not GER
tain. I found it sufficient to know that
he was a broker of some kind in the
city. The fact conveyed certain idea
to my mind. If had sought to enlarge
the idea by clarifying the fact, I might
have found myself less enlightened than
further confused about the matter; for
inquiry, L notice, often beWilders as
much as it instructs. He had been very
poor at one time of his life, and had to
work very hard. His industry, how
ever, had in the end met with its due
reward. Arrived at middle age, he was
very comfortably circumstanced; and he
saw no reason to doubt that his prosper
ity would continue. When he announc-
ed, therefore, that he thought of taking
to himself wife, it was felt generally
that the step he meditated was prudent
and proper one, and only what might,
under all the circumstances of the case,
have been reasonably expected. And
when he further stated that he had made
an offer of his hand to one Miss Geor-
gina Warren, the daughter Ofa wealthy
East India merchant, and that his offer
had been accepted by the lady, we, of
course, hastened to tender him our con-
gratulations on the happy occasion.


When I say ''we, I must not be un-
derstood as employing the editorial first
person plural by way of vailing my own
individuality, but as speaking on behalf
of myself and various other friends of
Ned Stones, who we're also my friends,
and who cordially agreed with me in
wishing Joy to our friend upon the pro-
posed important change in his life.


Ned Stone spoke of the matter in his
own simply sober way.


"Well, I know I'm getting on, he
said, "and if 1 am ever to marry, it's