Various

“ It is sad to watch the poor girl while she's being thus publicly pointed at before her school-fellows. She never says a word, nor attempts to defend herself. She sits quietly in her seat, her face growing paler, and her head falling lower with each blow of her accuser; and if you saw her heavy, tearless eye, Nelly, and her lips quite colorless, as I have seen them, you would pity her with all your heart, and long to go up and kiss her, and tell her not to mind it. ”

“ But, Nelly, it is Amy Darling you would love best—a bright, pleasant girl, all sunshine, except when she cries, and she cries immediately any one is hurt. We all run to Amy directly we are in trouble. She is like a young mother to us, and treats us with such tenderness that it is almost a pleasure to be in trouble to be comforted by Amy. ”

“ In suffering, in abject want and destitution, her heart still clung to her children, and threw around them a sphere of intenser affection, as all that was external grew darker, colder, and more dreary. They were her jewels, and she could not part with them. They were hidden away in her heart of hearts so deeply, that not a single one of them could be taken without leaving it lacerated and bleeding.
When the doctor entered, he found her lying upon the bed, with the body of her child hugged tightly to her bosom. Little Emma had crept away into a corner of the room, and looked frightened. ”

“ For perfect taste, the Parisian is unrivalled, and you will often see her dressed in a single neutral color—bonnet, dress, cloak, and gloves nearly the same shade. Next to her in the art of dress is the Philadelphia Quakeress, who has discarded the awkward and angular forms of costume prescribed by her sect, but adheres to its simple and sober colors. No class of American women are so well dressed in the street, and, indeed, no other class of women in the world are dressed better, save only the ladies of Paris, who matchless in taste, and perfect in the most refined science of costume. ”

“ READING WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT.—"Some ladies, to whose conversation I had been listening, were to take away an epic poem to read. 'Why should you read an epic poem?' I said to myself. 'You might as well save yourselves the trouble.' How often I have been struck at observing that no effect at all is produced, by the noblest works of genius, on the habits of thought, sentiment, and talk of the generality of readers; their mental tone becomes no deeper, no mellower; they are not equal to a fiddle, which improves by being repeatedly played upon. ”

“ A child softens and purifies the heart, warming and melting it by its gentle presence; it enriches the soul by new feelings, and awakens within it what is favorable to virtue. It is a beam of light, a fountain of love, a teacher whose lessons few can resist. ”

“ Only think—if there was never anything anywhere to be seen but great grown-up men and women! How we should long for the sight of a little child! Every infant comes into the world like a delegated prophet, the harbinger and herald of good tidings, whose office it is "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children," and to draw "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." ”

“ As a parlor instrument, it is, we believe, unrivalled. To those who appreciate rich, full, and sweet sounds, rather than mere noise; to those who love an instrument which seems, as it were, to respond to the feelings and passions of the player—which can at one time delight the ear with its organ-like tones, at another charm it with a melody so soft and tender as to start the tear of the listener—it will need no commendation. ”

“ Mamma's eyes were full of tears, and she kissed Charlie, now sleeping on her shoulder, over and over again, as if stooping down over him could hide them: Josephine and myself could not understand the scene till we were much older, and the picture had come to be spoken of as an heirloom in the family. But I saw something else that interested me very much, for I thought she might better have given it to me—Maude pull Robert Winthrop's scarlet geranium from her hair, and finally crush it under her slipper, as the decision of Alice Gray was told. ”

“ The lady principal, however, cannot bear Lucy, because she is idle, and up to fun. She tries to keep her down; but Lucy is like a cork in a pail, she is sure to come to the top again. The more she is pushed under, the more she rises. With all her mad-cap tricks, she is always at the head of the class. How she learns no one can tell, for she is never seen with a book. Meggy says it comes to her in her sleep. Professor Drudge told us last week that if Lucy could only be tamed into studying she could do anything, and I believe it. ”

“ Darling as wushes to see ye, mum," said Peggy.
"That Mrs. Darling! Did you ever!" exclaimed Mrs. Philpot.
"She ain't nobody, is she?" said Mrs. Mudlaw.
"Nobody at all. Her husband is a cabinet-maker; but the colonel has charged it upon me to be polite to her just now. He wished me to call upon her; but I wouldn't condescend to stoop so low as that, though he made me promise to treat her with attention if she called."
"Well, I wouldn't do it, if I was you," said the cook. "I'd be mistress in my own house, anyhow." ”

“ Year after year, Mary grows paler and more sad, with not a friend in the world to cling to, but dearest Amy, who treats her more like a sister than anything else, being always by her side, as something told her that if the poor girl hadn't a crutch of some sort to lean upon she would assuredly fall to the ground. The lady principal has lost all hope of Mary being ever claimed, or (worse still) of her bill being ever paid. This makes Mary's position all the more melancholy, for she is pointed to as a kind of living monument to the cardinal virtues of the schoolmistress who keeps her. ”

“ Ladies we have seen who, no doubt, fancied themselves very splendid, poor things, because they were arrayed in the hues of the rainbow—a bonnet of pink perhaps, a dress of bright blue, or of some gay changeable silk, or mantilla of yellow, and a parasol of white. We have often longed to advise such unlucky persons to go to their hotel, and put on the neat and appropriate travelling-dress they had discarded for this horrible finery. ”

“ Oakford is now at the head of his profession. He has infused more life and spirit into his business than any other competitor in the United States. His store is pronounced the most beautiful in the world, his stock the most varied and extensive to be found anywhere. Oakford's success in his new establishment is unprecedented, and he deserves it, for his liberal spirit has spared no expense whatever to keep ahead in his branch of business. Philadelphia should be proud of this, and we feel assured they know how to appreciate him. ”

“ The mania for moving tables in the peculiar way that came in with the spirit-rappings was just such an occasion as the people in Westbridge would allow themselves to seize upon, as a legitimate means for gratifying the love for novelty and excitement that is inherent in mankind. ”

“ We used to wonder how people could eat beef, when there was roast turkey with dressing!
Then, at dessert, the plum-pudding made from our grandmother's receipt came on all in a blaze, which we thought the most curious thing in the world, and used to excite the incredulity of our schoolmates with describing. Then there were raisins and almonds, figs and apples, and a dish of sugar-plums, which mostly fell to our share. There, too, we could not account for the indifference of our elders and betters, though we were so much the gainers by it. ”

“ We consider Major Freas a model editor, bold and fearless in what is right, never lending his columns to anything of which he does not approve. He ought to be in the city, where his power could be felt. As an agricultural paper, the "Telegraph" stands first in the State, the major himself being a practical farmer. He has taken premiums upon several occasions, the last for some particular kind of roosters—crowing ones, we believe; but the major is used to crowing, the whole press having crowed upon the occasion of his enlargements and improvements. ”

“ Though Antony was an able general, a man of capacity and great personal courage, yet he had so involved himself in the dissipations and luxuries of the Egyptian court, whose crowning star was Cleopatra, that he was no match for the graver and more calculating Augustus. The charms of Cleopatra had completely unmanned him, and smothered, in a measure, his ambition.
Time did not serve to rally him from the lethargy, hopeless and fatal, into which her spell had thrown him. The chains which bound him grew stronger and stronger, and his desire to break them weaker and weaker. ”

“ Not so when the robust and vigorous youth of the nation began to tremble with advancing years, and to wreath its brow with gray hairs—a result not of age and toil and serious care, but of dissipation and inglorious ease, of wealth, and wine, and extravagant feasts. ”

“ Be a woman. To bear is to conquer our fate. No sorrow of yours can call back the happy spirit of your child. And, surely, you would not call her back, if you could, to live over the days of anguish and pain that were meted out to her? ”

“ The history of that age, with what afterwards befel that proud empire, teaches with a plainness that is unmistakable that, when a nation or state loses its self-respect, and the people cease to pay a proper regard to social proprieties, and due respect and deference to female character—when woman is denied the charity she merits, or when she herself is encouraged to step beyond her generously accorded limits, its heart is unsound and its path is descending. ”

“ She is said, by Roman historians, to have been an "admirable woman"—affectionate and piously observant of her father—one of the most learned of Roman women.
In the earlier days of Rome, the noblest matrons were noted for nothing more than their excellent domestic habits—industry, frugality, and devotion to and affection for their families. The greatness of that vast empire was founded not more in the devoted patriotism and persevering energy of the Roman citizens, than in the incorruptible virtue, the sacrificing spirits, and noble hearts of Roman matrons. ”

“ It was like one, benumbed with cold and hunger, standing on the threshold of a mansion blazing with light and warmth and costly cheer. Many a young maiden has bartered her hand for gold without Alice Gray's bitter need, now, even in our own day, or for the baubles of rank and position. ”

“ THE FEMALE TEMPER.—No trait of character is more agreeable in a female than the possession of a sweet temper. Home can never be happy without it. It is like the flowers that spring up in our pathway, reviving and cheering us. Let a man go home at night, wearied and worn by the toils of the day, and how soothing is a word dictated by a good disposition! ”

“ But, then, John had bored her so about that dinner at Colonel Philpot's—she was out of patience with it. Yet what right had she to be out of patience with John? He never was out of patience with her, and she could but acknowledge that he often had reason to be so. So she resolved to make it up as soon as possible.
"John," said she, as she handed him a cup of tea, "I've a great notion to try that potato pudding. I believe I could make one."
"No doubt of it, Hester," said her husband; "you can do almost anything you try to." ”

“ It is a wonder for a school, where there are so many girls, that not one of [249] them is jealous of Amy. Such a thing would appear unnatural. It would be like being jealous of your mother, or of a nurse who had tended you through a long illness. We are too grateful to be jealous; for there is not a girl in the school, big or little, but who has some cause to be grateful to her. The little girls she protects, and saves them from being bullied; and the big ones she advises when they are in a mess, besides helping them through their tasks. ”

“ That was the climax of the table-moving mania in Westbridge. What might have happened, if we had gone on, cannot be conjectured. We might all have been hearing mysterious rappings, and conversing with those most earthy spirits, whose utter barrenness and poverty of intellect have not hindered them from misleading some of our thoughtful and earnest minds. ”

“ Open, unrestrained merriment is a safety-valve to the heart and disposition. If overburdened with the noxious gases of care, pull the string of wit, up flies the valve of fun, and out go the troubles and vexations of life to the four winds of heaven. ”

“ The material of which the sheet of paper which the reader now holds in her hand, a few months ago, perhaps, hung with its ragged fellows from the back of some mendicant, fluttering along the street—or perhaps commenced its career in the lining of some dress, in all its purity of white and stiffening, and gradually descended through the various grades of usefulness, until at last it was fished up out of the gutter and thrust into the rag-picker's bag to meet a host of others that had travelled over the same despoiling scenes of ragdom. ”

“ PROCESS OF FERTILIZATION.—The young seeds or ovules are contained in the interior of the pistil before the flower opens, and continue to grow until that time, but no longer, unless they are acted upon by the pollen of the anthers. The necessity of this process shows why it is that stamens and pistils are so constantly found in flowers, and why the former surround the latter so nicely as they in general do; and, even in circumstances which seem somewhat adverse to fertilization, still some admirable contrivance is always found to bring about the same end. ”

“ Dutton's, I found the company already assembled. I saw all the familiar faces I had met so often lately around, not the festive, but the scientific board, and mingled with them were few not so often seen of late. Seated in the place of honor, on the luxurious sofa, were two stout and stately dowagers, guarding between them their niece, Edith Floyd, a lovely, blooming little beauty of sixteen, with brown eyes and fair hair falling in soft curls on either side of her face. ”