Year: 1872

FIXING TIE FIRES.


There is q period in the calendar ranging,
to speak roughly, from the middle of October
to the middle of November, in which and in
our climate we are more likely to suffer from
o low temperature than during the minus zero
term of tho midwinter. As yet the season Is
indefinite; we hesitate between light and q
heavy overcoat, and are sometimes unseasOn-
ably caught without an overcOat at all. Now
it is that it requires the incest judgment to
determine between fire and no fire, or the shut
and the open window. Now it is that through
erroneous decisions we suffer from cold, bark


like vigilant watch-dogs, and despOndingly
anticipate diphtheria. While we arein this chilly
purgatOry Gf we may be allowed the bul)
our life loses mach of its definite aim and pur-
pose. The evenings are not long enough for
work, and too long to be wasted. We have
been driven indoors before the indoor pro-
gramme has been arranged it is too early for
late, yet too late for early rising; 1t Is too
warm for the extra blanket, too cold to sleep
without it and our experiments in the way of
underwear may havo dreadfully fatal results
WepostpOne many things until Winter has come
to stay; it is not q time for this study OF that
book; the dinner hour and the play hour are
uncomfortably near each other; and the
weather, which is bright without being
warm, seems to partake Of our own hes
itancy and shiftlessness. Meanwhile, we have
a plenty of preparation akin in its discomfort
to the packing which precedes a Journey 1t
may be taken for granted that no furnace, no
stove, no steam-coil in any dwelling is ready
Co. oo+f Of
quently the busy artisans, bcset by an army of
imperative orders, do only the best they can,
which is not doing well at all. Promptness
means now the completion of that on Saturday
which was (under solemn prOmise) to have
been completed on the previous Monday. In
the best ventilated houses there is q smell of
hot iron and black lead. The aproned men
with their tool boxes go in and out, and per-
form mysterious operations upon pipes and
nuts and fues and registers. There is always
a chimney which smokes, although it was
never known to smoke before. Windows arc
to be duplicated; there is vast deal of pad
ding and listing to do, and the stOrm-door Is
to be fixed in its place. The frequent coal
cart dumps its black diamonds on the pave
ment and in street and place and square and
court there is the cheerful ring Of the shovels.


All this will soon be over, and the business
of Winter Will commence-a pleasant wise,
and profitable business, if we please to make
it so. We do not like to speak of the neces-
sity of intellectual cultivation, for there has
been so much said about it that the matter
has become q respectable bore. 1t is pretty
certain, however, that the work of the really
studous, suspended during the fragrant season,
will now be resumed. We may taste again
the positive and exquisite pleasure of q good
light, good fire, and good book; and few
are the mortal enjoyments which equal this.
Most men and women who are good for much
like little seclusion; shall we say that the
more they are good for, tho better they love
to be alone9 1t Is the intolerabe person who
is always obtruding upon us his company, whose
society is least worth having; it is only
those who do not depend upon company, who
are themselves company worth havlngj and
the best, at times, by their presence tease and
irritate us. Then it is that we comprehend
the merits of our silent friends standing in
their cloth or leathem coats upon the shelves,
ready for chat if we are in collOquial
mood, full to bursting with the cOstliest con-
versation if we care for it but not one of
them, pOcU, nSJOIldu, piiiiOoOpiOiJ SVoAg
teller, importuning us for recognition. How
pleasant it is to glance at their parti-colored
ranks, each Gearing his own uniform, and
suggesting TO us that all the arts and
sciences are out for holiday mas
querade-tall folio and chunky quarto, the
numerous and respectable family of the octavos
with q minnikin following of twelves and
sixteens-nice little fellows who seem almost
like flies perched upon the topmost shelf! AS
you glance hastily at the variegated array, no
forward and conceted gentleman or lady Qor
books are of both sexes) impOrtunes TO be
taken down and bathed in the light of your
readi2g lamp or warmed by your sea-coal fire.
Each modestiy waits till called to the front.
They are all the che6rf2l slaves of your mood,
and gay morocco and sober calf are equally
Pick and choose is the law of the
library, and you may sail, sing, fight, philoso-
phize with the companion OF your licensed
whim.


so he who is wise will welcome the Winter
evenings which make so many pleasures pos
sible, be they pleasures at home or abroad.
But lecture or so, an opera or two, few
balls and parties are enough-the solid and
a: "A - - .e thn NVinfov ia M homo