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which they will produce in the other; but finally they will succeed in healing the wound that has been so often and so obstinately torn open.

All quarrels probably rest on misunderstanding and only live by silence, which, as it were, stereotypes the misunderstanding. A misunderstanding which is more than a month old may generally be regarded as incapable of explanation. Renewed explanations become renewed misunderstandings. Kind words, patiently uttered for long together and without visible fruit, are our only hope. They will succeed. They will not explain what has been misunderstood, but they will do what is much better, make explanation unnecessary, and so avoid the risk, which always accompanies explanations, of reopening old sores.

F. W. FABER.

Rev. Frederick William Faber was born in England in 1814 and died in 1863. He was a minister of the Church of England until his conversion to Catholicity in 1845. Two years later he was ordained a priest and entered the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. He was a poet of no mean ability and wrote exquisite prose.

smiting: striking.-antecedents: previous history.-incompatible: unsuitable; disagreeing. - inveterate: deep-rooted; of long standing. intricately in a manner difficult to understand. — stereotypes: fixes; makes permanent.

He does much who does well what he does.

Primitive Habits in New Amsterdam.

In those happy days, a well-regulated family always rose with the dawn, dined at eleven, and went to bed at sundown. Dinner was invariably a private meal, and the fat old burghers showed incontestable symptoms of disapprobation and uneasiness at being surprised by a visit from a neighbor on such occasions. But though our worthy ancestors were thus singularly averse to giving dinners, yet they kept up the social bands of intimacy by occasional banquetings, called tea parties.

These fashionable parties were generally confined to the higher classes, that is to say, such as kept their own cows, and drove their own wagons.

The company commonly assembled at three o'clock, and went away about six, unless it was in winter time, when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies might get home before dark. The tea table was crowned with a huge earthen dish well stored with slices of fat pork, fried brown, cut up into morsels, and swimming in gravy.

The company being seated around the genial board, and each furnished with a fork, evinced their dexterity in launching at the fattest pieces in this mighty dish—

in much the same manner as sailors harpoon porpoises at sea, or our Indians spear salmon in the lakes. Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was also sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called dough nuts, or olykocks a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in the city, excepting in genuine Dutch families.

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The tea was served out of a majestic delft teapot, ornamented with paintings of fat little Dutch shepherds and shepherdesses tending pigs with boats sailing in the air, and houses built in the clouds, and sundry other ingenious Dutch fantasies. The young men distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replenishing this pot.

To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup — and the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum, until an improvement was introduced by a shrewd and economic old lady, which was to suspend a large lump directly over the tea table, by a string from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from mouth to mouth.

At these primitive tea parties the utmost propriety and dignity of deportment prevailed. No hoiden chattering and romping of young ones no self-satisfied struttings of wealthy gentlemen with their brains in their pockets — nor amusing conceits and monkey diver

tisements of smart young gentlemen with no brains at all. On the contrary, the young ladies seated themselves demurely in their rush-bottomed chairs, and knit their own woolen stockings; nor ever opened their lips excepting to reply to any question that was asked of them. As to the gentlemen, each of them tranquilly smoked his pipe, and seemed lost in contemplation of the blue and white tiles with which the fireplaces were decorated, wherein sundry passages of Scripture were piously portrayed.

The parties broke up without noise and without confusion. They were carried home by their own carriages, that is to say by the vehicles Nature had provided them, excepting such of the wealthy as could afford to keep

a wagon.

WASHINGTON IRVING.

Washington Irving, a genial and amiable writer, the first to win. European respect for American literature, was born in New York in 1783. His graceful style, his sense of humor, and the graphic power shown in his more serious works, will long retain the popularity which his early writings obtained. He died at Sunnyside, on the Hudson, in 1859.

invariably without change. - burghers: citizens. - incontestable : certain. averse: disinclined. - evinced: showed. - dexterity: quickness. fantasies: fancies. adroitness skill. decorum: politeness. - propriety: fitness. - deportment: behavior. — hoiden: rude. — divertisements: amusements. - sundry: several. — portrayed: painted.

The Story of Shakespeare's "Tempest."

There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of which were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, a very beautiful young lady. She came to this island so young that she had no memory of having seen any other human face than her father's.

They lived in a cave or cell dug out of a rock; it was divided into several apartments, one of which Prospero called his study; there he kept his books, which chiefly treated of magic, a study at that time much affected by all learned men.

The knowledge of this art he found very useful to him, being thrown by a strange chance upon this island, which had been enchanted by a witch called Sycorax, who died there a short time before his arrival. Prospero, by virtue of his art, released many good spirits that Sycorax had imprisoned in the bodies of large trees because they had refused to execute her wicked commands. These gentle spirits were ever after obedient to the will of Prospero. Of these Ariel was the chief.

The lively little sprite, Ariel, had nothing mischievous in his nature, except that he took much pleasure in tormenting an ugly monster called Caliban, for he owed him a grudge because he was the son of his old enemy,

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