Contrast again, dear reader. Verily she is a goddess--and I adore her. Lo! she brings me back again in Sala to the busy streets of this city, and the office, and the 'exchanges,' and the rustling, bustling world, and the hotel dinner--to be in time for which I am even now writing against time--and I am thankful for it all. Sala has cured me. That picture drives away longings. Verily, he who lives in America, and in its great roaring current of events, needs but a glance at Sala to feel that _here_ he is on a darting stream ever hurrying more gloriously into the world and away from the dull inanity--which the merest sibilant of aggravation will change to insanity. Reader, our Andersen is an artist--as most children know. But I am glad that he seldom gives us anything which is so _very_ much of a monochrome as Sala. I wonder if Sala was the native and surnaming town of that _other_ Sala whose initials are G. A. S., and whose nature is 'ditto'? Did its dulness drive him to liveliness, even as an 'orthodox' training is said to drive youth to dissipation? It may be so. The one hath a deep mine of silver--the other contains inexhaustible mines of brass--and the name of the one as of the other, when read in Hebrew-wise gives us 'alas!' But I am wandering from the Northern pictures and fresh nature, and must close. THE NEW RASSELAS. ... And Joseph, opening the drawing room, told me the postchaise was ready. My mother and my sister threw themselves into my arms. 'It is still time,' said they, 'to abandon this scheme. Stay with us.' 'Mother, I am of noble birth, I am now twenty, I must have a name, I must be talked about in the country, I must be getting a position in the army or at court.' 'Oh! but, Bernard, when you have gone, what will become of me?' 'You will be happy and proud when you hear of your son's success.' 'But if you are killed in some battle?' 'What of that! What's life? Who thinks about being killed? When one is twenty, and of noble lineage, he thinks of nothing but glory. And, mother, in a few years you shall see me return to your side a colonel, or a general, or with some rich office at Versailles.' 'Well, and what then?' 'Why, then I shall be respected and considered about here.' 'And then?' 'Why, everybody will take off their hat to me.' 'And then?' 'I'll marry Cousin Henrietta, and I'll marry off my young sisters, and we'll all live together with you, tranquil and happy, on my estate in Brittany.'