most joined in the laugh,
being of an easy, unenergetic temper.

Hints for characters:--Nancy, a pretty, black-eyed, intelligent
servant-girl, living in Captain H----'s family. She comes daily to make
the beds in our part of the house, and exchanges a good-morning with me,
in a pleasant voice, and with a glance and smile,--somewhat shy, because
we are not acquainted, yet capable of being made conversable. She washes
once a week, and may be seen standing over her tub, with her
handkerchief somewhat displaced from her white neck, because it is hot.
Often she stands with her bare arms in the water, talking with Mrs.
H----, or looks through the window, perhaps, at B---- or somebody else
crossing the yard,--rather thoughtfully, but soon smiling or laughing.
Then goeth she for a pail of water. In the afternoon, very probably, she
dresses herself in silks, looking not only pretty, but lady-like, and
strolls round the house, not unconscious that some gentleman may be
staring at her from behind the green blinds. After supper, she walks to
the village. Morning and evening, she goes a-milking. And thus passes
her life, cheerfully, usefully, virtuously, with hopes, doubtless, of a
husband and children.--Mrs. H---- is a particularly plump, soft-fleshed,
fair-complexioned, comely woman enough, with rather a simple
countenance, not nearly so piquant as Nancy's. Her walk has something of
the roll or waddle of a fat woman, though it were too much to call her
fat. She seems to be a sociable body, probably laughter-loving. Captain
H---- himself has commanded a steamboat, and has a certain knowledge of
life.

Query, in relation to the man's missing wife, how much desire and
resolution of doing her duty by her husband can a wife retain, while
injuring him in what is deemed the most essential point?

Observation. The effect of morning sunshine on the wet grass, on sloping
and swelling land, between the spectator and the sun at some distance,
as across a lawn. It diffused a dim brilliancy over the whole surface of
the field. The mists, slow-rising farther off, part resting on the
earth, the remainder of the column already ascending so high that you
doubt whether to call it a fog or a cloud.

* * * * *

_Friday, July 28th._--Saw my classmate and formerly intimate friend,
Cilley, for the first time since we graduated. He has met with good
success in life, in spite of circumstance, having struggled upward
aga