Year: 1864

flowers, and its bright LehIgh fire, and cosy
cushioned chairs; that cosy parlor, where
the little round table, with its snowy cloth,
had been SO often spread and the fragrant
coffee, and delicate tea biscuit, and racy
newspapers had been so often discussed ;
where John in his slippers and dressing
gown, with his dark hair pushed off his
broad forehead, read to us page after page of
some favorte author, while the wind was
welcome to whistle itself dumb outside the
threshold, and old winter to pile up the snow
at the door till he got tired of it. 1t was
hard


John wslkeesup and down the floor with
his hands O. ed behind, and Mrs Harris
went round the room, hunting after her spec
tacles, when they were comfortably reposing
on the bridge of her fine Roman nose.


A knock at the door! A note for John


Enclosed, find $500, to pay Mr.. John
Harris's house rent the coming year.


A FRIEND"


John rubbed his eyes, and looked at his
mother; his mother looked at me, and l
looked at both Of them; and then we cried
and laughed till we nearly had the Mysteries.


But who was the friend 2 That was the
question We were all born Yankees, and
did our best at guessing but it didn't help
us. We'll, at any rate, it was very nice, all
round.


Mrs. Harris and 1 had not got our femi-
nine tongues still till the next day, when
John came back, in the middle of the fore
noon, with another riddle, to drive our wo-
manly curiosity still more distracted He
was requested to call Immediately a note
he had just received, read-at Mr..
& Co.'S, and accept the head clerkship, at
salary Of 81, 400 a year; being highly re-
commended by person, whose name his
new employers declined giving. That was
greater puzzle still. John and his mother
had rich relations, to be sure, but though
they had always been interfering in all their
plans for making living, they never had
been known to give them anything except
advice, or to call on them by daylight:
and it wasn't at all likely that the leopard
would change his spots, at that late day
No, it couldn't be Johns rich relatives, who
were always in such panic lest the upper
tendon should discover that their cousins,
the Harrises lived in an questionable part
of the town, dined at one clock, and noticed
tradespeople and mechanics.


We are too sensible to believe in fairies,
and who the mischief was emptying the
horn of plenty in that way at our feet, was
the question


When we awoke the next morning, we
found in the back yard a barrel of apples,
barrel of -four, keg of butter, and bag of
buckwheat -four, labelled, for Mr. John
Harris, - street


John declared (after pinching himself to
see if be were really john that he fastened
the gate inside the very last thing before he
put on his night cap. Mrs. Harris said some
body must have climbed over and unfastened
it; and | jumped right up and down, for
bright thought had just struck me, and
was determined to hold on to it, for | didn't
have bright thought every day


what now?' said John, as l capered
round the room.


'Oh, nothing said I, only it takes wo-
man, after ALL to find out a secret--and to
keep it, too | added, swapping my fingers at
him.


That day [ thought it would do me good
to ride about in an omnibus. | tried several.
IL didn't make much difference to me
whether they went up street or down, or
where they finally stopped. [ was looking
more at the passengers.


By-and-by l saw the person l wanted.
Said I, in a whisper, sitting down beside
him, House Observation-Disclosures
crackers and buckwheat, all for giving you
a seat in an omnibus


Didn't [ know that the fairy was the
nice old man with silver locks Didn't he
bribe me to hold my tongue, by telling me
that he might get a peep at John and his
mother? Didn't he come and didn't I look
as much astonished when he called, as if it
hadn't been settled two days previous? But
how was [ to know that Mrs Harris would
turn out to be an old love of his How was
John to know, when he felt such an irresist-
able impulse to be kind to the old man, that
his hair had grown white loving his mother?
How was the old man to know why he loved
John so WELL and thought him one of the
finest young men he had ever seen How
was | to know that [ was to turn out to be
what always SO mortally hated-a feminine
matchmaker?