ws wave of newborn feelings--

"So bald sich das Herz ergiesst,
Stromt Welle auf Welle!"

I only know that I was as happy as possible, and astonished everybody by
the breakfast I ate.

You fancy, perhaps, that I wasn't really in love, or I wouldn't probably
have been hungry? Nonsense! Let me tell you that happy lovers are
always hungry, and have great appetites. It is only your poor,
miserable, disappointed suitors, who are in a state of suspense, that go
about with a hang-dog look and cannot eat. I firmly believe that
Shakespeare intended to convey the idea that Valentine was mad, or he
would never have put into his mouth such ridiculous words as those, that
he could "break his fast, dine, sup, and sleep, upon the very naked name
of love!" If that gentleman of Verona had been sane knowing how his
passion was reciprocated and that his lady loved him in return, he would
have had just as good an appetite as I had that morning; when, joyous as
a bird, I was as hungry as a hunter.

As for dog Catch, you should have seen how he galloped into his oatmeal
porridge after his walk--how the oatmeal porridge galloped into him
would, however, be a more correct form of expression. You should have
only seen him, that's all!

Next came church; and, of all occasions when church-going strikes even
an uninterested spectator, generally lacking in religious zeal, with
feelings of unwonted emotion, commend me to Christmas day. Then, to
paraphrase the well-known lines of the poet, those in the habit of being
regularly present at worship "went the more;" while those go now "who
never went before." People make a practice of visiting church on that
day who seldom, if ever, attend a religious service at any other time,
taking the year all through. It is like the wedding feast to which the
lame, the halt, and the blind were invited. Every one goes then; every
class and clan is represented.

Saint Canon's was a sight. Its garland-twined oaken columns, its
wreath-hung galleries, its scroll-work in the chancel--where "Unto us a
son is born," and the message of glad tidings, which the shepherds of
Bethlehem first heard when they "watched their flocks by night," and saw
the star in the east, two thousand years ago, shone forth in blazonments
of red and purple and gold--all reminded the congregation of the
festival they had assembled to commemorate; the day of peace and good-
will to all, that had dawned for them once more, as I t