ghter, who with her sister was on a visit at Portland, will
give a glimpse of this gay mood. Such mishaps as she recounts are liable
to occur in the best-regulated households, especially on a change of
servants; but they were rare in her experience and so the more amused
her:

I undertook to get up a nice dinner for Dr. and Mrs. V----, about which
I must now tell you. First I was to have raw oysters on the shell.
_Blunder 1st_, small tea-plates laid for them. Ordered off, and big ones
laid. _Blunder 2d_, five oysters to be laid on each plate, instead of
which five were placed on platters at each end, making ten in all for
the whole party! Ordered a change to the original order. Result,
a terrific sound in the parlor of rushing feet and bombardment of
oyster-shells. Dinner was announced from Dr. P., who asked, helplessly,
where he should place Mrs. V----. _Blunder 4th_ by Mrs. P., who remarked
that she had got fifty pieces of shell in her mouth. _Blunder 5th_ by
Dr. P., who failed to perceive that the boiled chickens were garnished
with a stunning wine-jelly and regarding it as gizzards, presented it
only to the boys! _Blunder 6th_. Cranberry-jelly ordered. Cranberry as
a dark, inky fluid instead; gazed upon suspiciously by the guests, and
tasted sparingly by the family.--And now prepare for _blunder No_. 7,
bearing in mind that it is the third course. _Four_ prairie hens instead
of two! The effect on the Rev. Mrs. E. Prentiss was a resort to her
handkerchief, and suppression of tears on finding none in her pocket.
_Blunder 8th_. Iauch's biscuit glace stuffed with hideous orange-peel.
_Delight 1st_, delicious dessert of farina smothered in custard and dear
to the heart of Dr. V----. _Blunder 9th_. No hot milk for the coffee,
delay in scalding it, and at last serving it in a huge cracked pitcher.
_Blunder 10th_. Bananas, grapes, apples, and oranges forgotten at the
right moment and passed after the coffee and of course declined. But
hearing that Miss H. V. was fond of bananas, I seized the fruit-basket
and poured its contents into one napkin, and a lot of chocolate-cake
into another, and sent them to the young princesses in the parsonage,
who are, no doubt, dying of indigestion, this morning. Give my love to
C. and F., and a judicious portion to the old birds.

_To a young Friend, Oct. 19,1873._

I am sorry that we played hide-and-go-seek with each other when you were
in town. I have seen all my most intimate friends si