TWO boys, named Jacob Peters and Ralph Gilpin were passing along Chestnut Street one evening about ten years ago, when one of them, stopped, and said,– “Come, Ralph, let us have some oysters. I’ve got a quarter.” They were in front of an oyster-cellar. “No,” replied Ralph, firmly. “I’m not going down there.” “I didn’t […]

“HOW are you to-day, Mrs. Carleton?” asked Dr. Farleigh, as he sat down by his patient, who reclined languidly in a large cushioned chair. “Miserable,” was the faintly spoken reply. And the word was repeated,–“Miserable.” The doctor took one of the lady’s small, white hands, on which the network of veins, most delicately traced, spread […]

“IF they wouldn’t let him have it!” said Mrs. Leslie, weeping. “O, if they wouldn’t sell him liquor, there’d be no trouble! He’s one of the best of men when he doesn’t drink. He never brings liquor into the house; and he tries hard enough, I know, to keep sober, but he cannot pass Jenks’s […]

“ARTY! Arty!” called Mrs. Mayflower, from the window, one bright June morning. “Arty, darling! What is the child after? Just look at him, Mr. Mayflower!” I leaned from the window, in pleasant excitement, to see what new and wonderful performance had been attempted by my little prodigy–my first born–my year old bud of beauty, the […]

HE was a poor cripple–with fingers twisted out of all useful shape, and lower limbs paralyzed so that he had to drag them after him wearily when he moved through the short distances that limited his sphere of locomotion–a poor, unhappy, murmuring, and, at times, ill-natured cripple, eating the bread which a mother’s hard labor […]

“O, MAMMA! See that wicked-looking cat on the fence! She’ll have one of those dear little rabbits in a minute!” Mattie’s sweet face grew pale with fear, and she trembled all over. “It’s only a picture, my dear,” said Mattie’s mother. “The cat can’t get down, and so the rabbits are safe.” “But it looks […]

AFTER a day of unusual anxiety and fatigue, Dr. Elton found himself snugly wrapped up in a liberal quantity of blankets and bed-quilts, just as the clock struck twelve one stormy night in February. For over half an hour he had lain awake, racking his brain in reference to two or three critical cases which […]

IN a miserable old house, in Commerce street, north of Pratt street Baltimore,–there are fine stores there now–lived a shoemaker, whose wife took a particular fancy to me as a doctor, (I never felt much flattered by the preference,) and would send for me whenever she was sick. I could do no less than attend […]

“YOU remember Anna May, who sewed for you about a year ago?” said one fashionably-dressed lady to another. “That pale, quiet girl, who made up dresses for the children?” “The one I sent you.” “Oh yes; very well. I had forgotten her name. What has become of her? If I remember rightly, I engaged her […]

SCENE FIRST. “IT is in vain to urge me, brother Robert. Out into the world I must go. The impulse is on me. I should die of inaction here.” “You need not be inactive. There is work to do. I shall never be idle.” “And such work! Delving in and grovelling close to the very […]

“I WANT an hour of your time this morning,” said Mr. Smith, as he entered the counting-room of his neighbour, Mr. Jones. “Will it pay?” inquired Mr. Jones, smiling. “Not much profit in money,” was answered. Mr. Jones shrugged his shoulders, and arched his eye-brows. “Time is money,” said he. “But money isn’t the all-in-all […]

“YOU are a sly girl, Mary.” “Not by general reputation, I believe, Mrs. Martindale.” “Oh no. Every one thinks you a little paragon of propriety. But I can see as deep as most people.” “You might as well talk in High Dutch to me, Mrs. Martindale. You would be equally intelligible.” “You are a very […]

“IT’S nearly a year now since I was home,” said Lucy Gray to her husband; “and so you must let me go for a few weeks.” They had been married some four or five years, and never during that time had been separated for a single night. “I thought you called this your home,” said […]

WHETHER the Rev. Andrew Adkin had or had not a call to preach, is more than we can say. Enough, that he considered it his duty to “hold forth” occasionally on the Sabbath; and when “Brother Adkin” saw, in any possible line of action, his duty, he never took counsel of Jonah. Brother Adkin kept […]

CHAPTER I “WELL, Mr. Tompkins, what do you think about it? I wish you would speak. I’ve been talking at you for full ten blessed minutes, and you haven’t as much as opened your lips in reply.” “About what?” asked Mr. Tompkins, looking up with an air of surprise. “About what, indeed!” rejoined the lady, […]

THE chamber in which the sick woman lay was furnished with every thing that taste could desire or comfort demand. Yet, from none of these elegant surroundings came there an opiate for the weary spirit, or a balm to soothe the pain from which she suffered. With heavy eyes, contracted brow, and face almost as […]

“AND so, dear,” said Mrs. Waring to her beautiful niece, Fanny Lovering, “you are about becoming a bride.” The aunt spoke tenderly, and with a manner that instantly broke down all barriers of reserve. “And a happy bride, I trust,” returned the blushing girl, as she laid her hand in that of her aunt, and […]

A LITTLE thing clouded the brow of Mrs. Abercrombie–a very little thing. But if she had known how wide the shadows were often diffused, and how darkly they fell, at times, on some hearts, she would have striven more earnestly, we may believe, to keep the sky of her spirit undimmed. It will not be […]

“I SHOULD like to do that, every day, for a year to come,” said Mr. William Everett, rubbing his hands together quickly, in irrepressible pleasure. Mr. Everett was a stock and money broker, and had just made an “operation,” by which a clear gain of two thousand dollars was secured. He was alone in his […]

I DID not hear the maiden’s name; but in my thought I have ever since called her “Gentle Hand.” What a magic lay in her touch! It was wonderful. When and where, it matters not now to relate–but once upon a time as I was passing through a thinly peopled district of country, night came […]