ke umbrage at what we call
unseasonable weather, though no season was ever known to pass without
them. Unlike the rapid and delightful showers of warmer days, suddenly
succeeding to the sunshine, when the parched vegetables and arid earth
seize with avidity, and imbibe the moisture ere it becomes unpleasant to
our feelings, there had fallen a drizzling rain throughout the night;
the saturated soil returned to the atmosphere the humidity it could no
longer absorb; and there it hung, in chilling thickness, between rain
and fog. The birds did not sing, and the flowers did not open, for the
cold drop was on their cheek, and no sunbeam was there to expand them.
Nature itself wore the garb of sadness, and man's too dependent spirits
were ready to assume it--those, at least, that were not so happy as to
find means of forgetting it. Such was the case with my unfortunate self.

I had descended to the breakfast-room, at the usual hour, but no one
appeared; I looked for a book, but found none but an almanac. The books
were kept in the library--beyond all dispute their proper place, had I
not been in a humor to think otherwise. The house was too hot, and the
external air was too cold; and I was fain to betake myself to that last
resort of the absolutely idle--a mechanical movement of the body up and
down a given space. And, from the alcove where I walked, I heard the
ticking of the timepiece; and, as I passed the window, I saw the hands
advance; every time I had returned, they had gone a little farther.
"Threescore years and ten," said I to myself; "and a third or fourth of
it is nature's claim for indispensable repose--and many a day consumed
on the bed of sickness--and many a year by the infirmities of age--and
some part of all necessarily sacrificed to the recruiting of the health
by exercise. And what do we with the rest?" Nothing answered me but the
ticking of the clock, of which the hands were traversing between eight
and nine. They had nearly met, at the appointed hour, when the party
began to assemble within; and each one commenced, for aught I could
discover, the functions of the day, for neither their appearance nor
their remarks gave any intimation that they had been previously
employed. One, indeed, declared the weather made her so idle she had
scarcely found strength to dress herself; another confessed he had
passed an additional hour in bed, because the day promised him so little
to do up. One by one, as they dropped i