is a very silly, fellow.

11. _Civility to Women._

Civility is particularly due to all women; and remember that no
provocation whatsoever can justify any man in not being civil to every
woman; and the greatest man in the world would be justly reckoned a
brute, if he were not civil to the meanest woman.

12. _Spirit._

Spirit is now a very fashionable word. To act with spirit, to speak
with spirit, means only to act rashly, and to talk indiscreetly. An
able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions; he is
neither hot nor timid.

XIII.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

It is well to combine amusement with instruction, whether you
write for young or old.--_Anonymous._

I.--ELDER BLUNT AND SISTER SCRUB.

The house of the excellent Squire Scrub was the itinerant's home; and
a right sweet, pleasant home it would have been but for a certain
unfortunate weakness of the every other way _excellent_ Sister Scrub.
The weakness I allude to was, or at least it was suspected to be, _the
love of praise_. Now the good sister was really worthy of high praise,
and she often received it; but she had a way of disparaging herself
and her performances which some people thought was intended to invite
praise. No housewife kept her floors looking so clean and her walls so
well whitewashed as she. Every board was scrubbed and scoured till
further scrubbing and scouring would have been labor wasted. No one
could look on her white ash floor and not admire the polish her
industry gave it. The "Squire" was a good provider, and Sister Scrub
was an excellent cook; and so their table groaned under a burden of
good things on all occasions when good cheer was demanded. And yet you
could never enter the house and sit half an hour without being
reminded that "Husband held Court yesterday, and she couldn't keep the
house decent." If you sat down to eat with them, she was sorry she
"hadn't anything fit to eat." She had been scrubbing, or washing, or
ironing, or she had been half sick, and she hadn't got such and such
things that she ought to have. Nor did it matter how bountiful or how
well prepared the repast really was, there was always _something_
deficient, the want of which furnished a text for a disparaging
discourse on the occasion. I remember once that we sat down to a table
that a king might have been happy to enjoy. There was the light
snow-white bread; there were the potatoes reeking in butter; there
wer