oke. If he had frozen to death, I should have
enjoyed that; but to die of sunstroke in February seemed inappropriate,
and I turned to the date of the paper. When I found it was printed in
July, I need not say that I lost all interest in it, though why the
trivialities and crimes and accidents, relating to people I never knew,
were not as good six months after date as twelve hours, I cannot say.

THE FIRE-TENDER. You know that in Concord the latest news, except
a remark or two by Thoreau or Emerson, is the Vedas. I believe the
Rig-Veda is read at the breakfast-table instead of the Boston journals.

THE PARSON. I know it is read afterward instead of the Bible.

MANDEVILLE. That is only because it is supposed to be older. I have
understood that the Bible is very well spoken of there, but it is not
antiquated enough to be an authority.

OUR NEXT DOOR. There was a project on foot to put it into the
circulating library, but the title New in the second part was considered
objectionable.

HERBERT. Well, I have a good deal of sympathy with Concord as to the
news. We are fed on a daily diet of trivial events and gossip, of
the unfruitful sayings of thoughtless men and women, until our mental
digestion is seriously impaired; the day will come when no one will be
able to sit down to a thoughtful, well-wrought book and assimilate its
contents.

THE MISTRESS. I doubt if a daily newspaper is a necessity, in the higher
sense of the word.

THE PARSON. Nobody supposes it is to women,--that is, if they can see
each other.

THE MISTRESS. Don't interrupt, unless you have something to say; though
I should like to know how much gossip there is afloat that the minister
does not know. The newspaper may be needed in society, but how quickly
it drops out of mind when one goes beyond the bounds of what is called
civilization. You remember when we were in the depths of the woods last
summer how difficult it was to get up any interest in the files of late
papers that reached us, and how unreal all the struggle and turmoil of
the world seemed. We stood apart, and could estimate things at their
true value.

THE YOUNG LADY. Yes, that was real life. I never tired of the guide's
stories; there was some interest in the intelligence that a deer had
been down to eat the lily-pads at the foot of the lake the night before;
that a bear's track was seen on the trail we crossed that day; even
Mandeville's fish-stories had a certain air of probability;