to reproduce. The toils of the forenoon, the heats of
midday, in the warm season, the slanting light of the descending sun,
or the sobered translucency of twilight have subdued the vivacity of the
early day. Yet under the influence of the benign stimulant many trains
of thought which will bear recalling, may suggest themselves to some
of our quiet circle and prove not uninteresting to a certain number of
readers.

How early many of my old breakfast companions went off to bed! I am
thinking not merely of those who sat round our table, but of that larger
company of friends who listened to our conversations as reported. Dear
girl with the silken ringlets, dear boy with the down-shadowed cheek,
your grandfather, your grandmother, turned over the freshly printed
leaves that told the story of those earlier meetings around the plain
board where so many things were said and sung, not all of which have
quite faded from memory of this overburdened and forgetful time. Your
father, your mother, found the scattered leaves gathered in a volume,
and smiled upon them as not uncompanionable acquaintances. My tea-table
makes no promises. There is no programme of exercises to studied
beforehand. What if I should content myself with a single report of what
was said and done over our teacups? Perhaps my young reader would be
glad to let me off, for there are talkers enough who have not yet
left their breakfast-tables; and nobody can blame the young people for
preferring the thoughts and the language of their own generation, with
all its future before it, to those of their grandfathers contemporaries.

My reader, young or old, will please to observe that I have left myself
entire freedom as to the sources of what may be said over the teacups. I
have not told how many cups are commonly on the board, but by using
the plural I have implied that there is at least one other talker or
listener beside myself, and for all that appears there may be a dozen.
There will be no regulation length to my reports,--no attempt to make
out a certain number of pages. I have no contract to fill so many
columns, no pledge to contribute so many numbers. I can stop on this
first page if I do not care to say anything more, and let this article
stand by itself if so minded. What a sense of freedom it gives not to
write by the yard or the column!

When one writes for an English review or magazine at so many guineas a
sheet, the temptation is very great to make one'