instructive to them. "We cannot," he said, "judge of the merits of a subject which we make personal. I am sorry we have come to this point, for I should like, right well, to make a convert of you. I shall comfort myself, as other people do, with the faith that my doctrine will prevail. It certainly will, if we make the equality, instead of merely claiming it."

Ah, there's the rub; how the deuce are we to make it?

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By the careful use of all the means we possess to train these young creatures; by giving them sound minds in sound bodies; by making them feel the dignity of well-informed minds, pure hearts, and refined manners. And for this we need not college education and foreign masters. Home is the best school,-the parent the best teacher. It is the opinion of some wise people, that the habits are fixed at twelve."

"The Lord have mercy on my children, then," interrupted Mr. Anthon.

"It is not my opinion," resumed Mr. Barclay; "but I do think that what is done after that is hard work, both for parents and children. However, as our children are, for the most part, at home till the age of twelve, we see how much we have in our power, and how wisely Providence has confided the most important period of life to the care of the parent, by far the most interested teacher."

"Well, well," said Mr. Anthon, who had too much reason for feeling uncomfortably under these remarks, "it can't be expected of a business man to do much with what you call home

education. The wife must see to that. My wife is a good soul, but she has not got Mrs. Barclay's knack. Come, is it not time for you to go to your office?

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Yes, past my usual time, by a half hour. I always allow myself an hour with my family at dinner."

-

"An hour! bless my heart! We get through at our house in about ten minutes, never exceed fifteen. My father made it a rule to choose the quickest eaters for his workmen. If they did not bolt in ten minutes, he concluded they were lazy or shiftless."

"Your father's bolting system would not suit me. I cannot judge for others, but I know that I am more diligent and active in business for having such an object ahead as a happy hour at home,(an hour I must say, in praise of my good wife, never abridged by a want of punctuality on her part;) and I return to my office with more strength and spirits, for the little rest I give myself after I have swallowed my food. This is my experience, and it should be so according to the best medical theories."

"O dear!" said Mr. Anthon, with something between a sigh and a groan, "I wish I had thought of all these matters when I was a younger man; but it's too late now.'

We would humbly recommend it to those for whom it is not too late, to think of "these mat

ters.

CHAPTER IV.

THE REVERSE OF THE PICTURE.

For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I? "

WE shift the scene to Mr. Anthon's dinnertable. Enter Mr. Anthon, shouting to a little girl, who was scampering through the entry; "Laury, call the folks to dinner."

Laura screamed at the top of her voice, "Mother, father has come to dinner. John,

Tom, Anne, Julia, Dick, where
Dinner is ready.'

you all?

are

"Sure to be away at dinner-time," said the father, "if they are under your feet all the rest of the day."

Tom and John, and they only, responded to the muster-call, and both entering the dining-room seized the same chair; "It's my chair," cried Tom.

No, it an't," says John; "I got it first."

Be done disputing, boys," interposed the father; is not there more than one chair in the room? Take another, Tom."

"It an't half fair," muttered Tom, obeying, however.

"Laury," said the mother, entering in the act of smoothing her hair with a side comb, "you an't surely going to sit down to dinner in your new frock, without an apron.'

"I can't find my apron, mother

I have looked there."

"Look in the bed-room."

"I have looked all over the bed-room."

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Well, then, look in the pantry; hunt till you find it."

By this time the fumes of dinner had reached the olfactories of Anne and Julia, and they came racing down stairs, and entered, slamming the door after them.

"Leave open that door," said the father; you always shut the doors in June, and leave them open in January."

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Mother, shan't John give me my place? asked Anne, too intent on her invaded rights to listen to her father.

"It an't her place, mother; I sat here yesterday.'

"But I sat here the day before."

"What consequence is it what place you have? Crowd in your chair there, next to John. We shall be through dinner, before you all get seated. Why don't you open the door, as I told you, Anne?

"Julia came in last, sir."

"I told you to open it."

"I did not know you meant me more than Julia."

"If you don't hear, and mind too, next time,

you shall go without your dinner."

This threat made little impression on Anne, for she was occupied in forcing her chair in be

tween her brothers, who were seated askew, or rather, as the French would say, en échelon. A natural consequence ensued; John's glass of cider was jostled out of his hand, and Tom's shin was pretty roughly hit (if one might judge from his outcries) by the leg of the chair. "All that cider over my clean cloth!" exclaimed the unhappy mother. "What are you crying for, "Tom struck me."

رو

Anne?

"I don't care if I did, she 'most murdered

"Laury, just hand me a piece of bread, too," said John to his sister, who had risen, at her father's request, to give him the bread.

"You may help yourself, Mr. John."

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Mother, can't Laury hand me the bread?" "How can you be so disobliging, Laury? hand him the bread."

Laura, without budging an inch, stretched out her arm to its utmost length; John snatched at the bread-tray, and between them it went to the floor.

"O!" cried the mother, "you are the worst acting children I ever saw. Sit down in your places, both of you. Julia, do you get up, and pick up the bread."

While Julia obeyed, Tom screamed out, "Mother, shan't Anne use the salt-spoon? She puts her fingers in the salt-cellar."

"Well, Tom put in his knife, mother, all drizzling with gravy; see here!" and she pointed to the salt-cellar, which afforded demonstration of the truth of her charge.