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good. Those nice cakes, did you eat some this morning?"

"We had toast for breakfast," I replied; before I could say more, he was absorbed in his book.

I took my sewing, that I might be with him the half hour before he went out. Just at this period a little boy who lived opposite, and who was in the habit of visiting us frequently, came in, and began his customary prattle.

"Oh, Mr. Packard," said little John, running to him, "let me see that book."

"What for," said my husband, keeping his finger on a paragraph.

"Why, because," said the rogue, "aunt Clara (the name he always gave me), aunt Clara got angry with it yesterday.'

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"Angry, my boy; how so?" said he.

"Why, sir, after you had done sipping your coffee, with the big book by your plate, and took your hat and walked out like a judge, she went to gather the cups to wash, and when she came to the big white book by your cup she dashed

it down on a chair, and said, 'I hate you!' and looked as if she was going to cry."

Edward leaned his head a moment over the chair on which he sat, and mused. I sewed as if life hung on my needle.

"Clarissa," he said, at length, with a sweet earnest voice and look, taking my hands in his, "I know now what is the matter with you. I have been to blame, dearest, in not consulting more affectionately the feelings of my own wife. It was not enough, it ought not to be enough for me, to have given you comforts and luxuries; you require sympathy. You have been struggling with the wants of your heart. I wish I had understood them before. As for this book," said he, playfully, "I cannot ‘hate it,' since it has given me such a revelation of my duty."

From that period his deportment at home had a perpetual view to my happiness and improvement. He brought books to read to me, calculated to interest while they elevated my literary taste. He referred to me for opinions,

and by sounding the depth and power of my intellect, found, that under his guidance there were occasions when even my advice might avail him. When a case occurred which obliged him to study at home, he detailed it in sim ple terms to me, told me the course he should pursue, and its probable results; while, satisfied and happy, I would sit by his side like Klopstock's Meta, "looking so still in his sweet face." Understanding his conduct and feelings, I began to be ambitious for him. Step by step he mounted the ladder of fame. I saw all eyes gazing on him with delight, heard every lip echoing applause; and those sights and sounds were doubly dear to me, for I knew every spring that moved his noble heart, and that his thoughts were mine before they were the world's

CHAPTER VII.

GREASE.

Chattels which, yesterday, good housewifery
Had rang'd, in cleanly and delightful order,
Lay now disjointed, broken, rent.-GOETHE.

In the subject I am about to introduce, I am confident of the sympathy of housekeepers.— The theme is grease, which, if I may be allowed a poor pun, has produced as many do mestic disturbances in modern, as it did political in ancient times. Who can tell the amount of temper that has been roused by this evil, from the single drop of lamp oil on the finger, to which the olfactory sense, though driven back, returns with painful tenacity, to the mass which, sinking in your white floor, looks fresher, like the stain on Blue Beard's key, for many a scouring?

I hope I may be excused here for a homely piece of advice, which is, that wives should not

only keep the lamps of their souls trimmed and burning, but attend to that department in their household economy. If they do not, their husbands may as well sit down to sup with the ladies of Queen Charlotte's Sound, whom Captain Cook describes as not only "drinking the oil from his lamps, but eating the cotton wick."

In return for the various attentions we had received, Edward and myself sent out invitations for an evening party. We had not the facilities for lighting our rooms which make it so little trouble now, by sending for a professor in the art, to produce a blaze that shall cast no shadow; but we treated ourselves to an astral lamp, they having been newly brought to this country. Being somewhat ambitious of intellectual display, and the time beginning to pass away when ladies did not feel themselves pinned to the same seat for three hours, we managed, by buying and borrowing, to collect some amusing novelties; among them was a magnifying glass, with splendid Italian views. These were arranged on the sofa table, illuminated

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