ws of the
"National House."

Only such unfortunates as have so far failed to visit Canaan do not
know that the "National House" is on the Main Street side of the
Court-house Square, and has the advantage of being within two minutes'
walk of the railroad station, which is in plain sight of the
windows--an inestimable benefit to the conversation of the aged men who
occupied these windows on this white morning, even as they were wont in
summer to hold against all comers the cane-seated chairs on the
pavement outside. Thence, as trains came and went, they commanded the
city gates, and, seeking motives and adding to the stock of history,
narrowly observed and examined into all who entered or departed. Their
habit was not singular. He who would foolishly tax the sages of Canaan
with a bucolic light-mindedness must first walk in Piccadilly in early
June, stroll down the Corso in Rome before Ash Wednesday, or regard
those windows of Fifth Avenue whose curtains are withdrawn of a winter
Sunday; for in each of these great streets, wherever the windows, not
of trade, are widest, his eyes must behold wise men, like to those of
Canaan, executing always their same purpose.

The difference is in favor of Canaan; the "National House" was the
club, but the perusal of traveller or passer by was here only the spume
blown before a stately ship of thought; and you might hear the sages
comparing the Koran with the speeches of Robert J. Ingersoll.

In the days of board sidewalks, "mail-time" had meant a precise moment
for Canaan, and even now, many years after the first postman, it
remained somewhat definite to the aged men; for, out of deference to a
pleasant, olden custom, and perhaps partly for an excuse to "get down
to the hotel" (which was not altogether in favor with the elderly
ladies), most of them retained their antique boxes in the post-office,
happily in the next building.

In this connection it may be written that a subscription clerk in the
office of the Chicago Daily Standard, having noted a single subscriber
from Canaan, was, a fortnight later, pleased to receive, by one mail,
nine subscriptions from that promising town. If one brought nine
others in a fortnight, thought he, what would nine bring in a month?
Amazingly, they brought nothing, and the rest was silence. Here was a
matter of intricate diplomacy never to come within that youth his ken.
The morning voyage to the post-office, long mocked as a fable and
screen