ng him John,--law, we never
thought of calling him anything else, and he always laughs and says,
"That's right." This is his oldest son, and everybody calls him Johnny.
That Boy of ours goes to the same school with his boy, and thinks there
never was anybody like him,--you see there was a boy undertook to impose
on our boy, and Johnny gave the other boy a good licking, and ever since
that he is always wanting to have Johnny round with him and bring him
here with him,--and when those two boys get together, there never was
boys that was so chock full of fun and sometimes mischief, but not very
bad mischief, as those two boys be. But I like to have him come once in
a while when there is room at the table, as there is now, for it puts me
in mind of the old times, when my old boarders was all round me, that I
used to think so much of,--not that my boarders that I have now a'nt very
nice people, but I did think a dreadful sight of the gentleman that made
that first book; it helped me on in the world more than ever he knew
of,--for it was as good as one of them Brandreth's pills advertisements,
and did n't cost me a cent, and that young lady he merried too, she was
nothing but a poor young schoolma'am when she come to my house, and
now--and she deserved it all too; for she was always just the same, rich
or poor, and she is n't a bit prouder now she wears a camel's-hair shawl,
than she was when I used to lend her a woollen one to keep her poor dear
little shoulders warm when she had to go out and it was storming,--and
then there was that old gentleman,--I can't speak about him, for I never
knew how good he was till his will was opened, and then it was too late
to thank him....

I respected the feeling which caused the interval of silence, and found
my own eyes moistened as I remembered how long it was since that friend
of ours was sitting in the chair where I now sit, and what a tidal wave
of change has swept over the world and more especially over this great
land of ours, since he opened his lips and found so many kind listeners.

The Young Astronomer has read us another extract from his manuscript. I
ran my eye over it, and so far as I have noticed it is correct enough in
its versification. I suppose we are getting gradually over our
hemispherical provincialism, which allowed a set of monks to pull their
hoods over our eyes and tell us there was no meaning in any religious
symbolism but our own. If I am mistaken about thi