There are some people who involve in themselves so many of the elements which go to make up our confidence in human nature generally, that to lose confidence in them seems to undermine our faith in human virtue. * * * * * [Sidenote: Wit.] Truly, wit, like charity, covers a multitude of sins. A man who has the faculty of raising a laugh in this sad, earnest world is remembered with indulgence and complacency. * * * * * [Sidenote: Value of ready expression.] But so it always is. The man who has exquisite gifts of expression passes for more, popularly, than the man with great and grand ideas, who utters but imperfectly. POGANUC PEOPLE. [Sidenote: Opinionated people.] Miss Debby was one of those human beings who carry with them the apology for their own existence. It took but a glance to see that she was one of those forces of nature which move always in straight lines, and which must be turned out for if one wishes to avoid a collision. All Miss Debby’s opinions had been made up, catalogued, and arranged at a very early period of life, and she had no thought of change. She moved in a region of certainties, and always took her own opinions for granted with a calm supremacy altogether above reason. Yet there was all the while about her a twinkle of humorous consciousness, a vein of original drollery, which gave piquancy to the brusqueness of her manner, and prevented people from taking offence. * * * * * [Sidenote: Difficulty of confession.] It is curious that men are not generally ashamed of any form of anger, wrath, or malice; but of the first step towards a nobler nature,—the confession of a wrong,—they are ashamed. LITTLE PUSSY WILLOW. [Sidenote: Animal spirits.] When people work hard all day, and have a good digestion, it is not necessary that a thing should be very funny to make them laugh tremendously. * * * * * [Sidenote: First false step.] Boys, and men too, sometimes, by a single step, and that step taken in a sudden hurry of inconsideration, get into a network of false positions, in which they are very uneasy and unhappy, but live along from day to day seeing no way out. QUEER LITTLE PEOPLE. [Sidenote: Marks of genius.] “Depend upon it, my dear,” said Mrs. Nut-cracker, solemnly, “that fellow must be a genius.” “Fiddlestick on his genius!” said old Mr. Nut-cracker; “what does he do?” “Oh, nothing, of course; that’s one of the first marks of genius. Geniuses, you know, never can come down to common life.” * * * * * [Sidenote: A busy-body.] Old Mother Magpie was about the busiest character in the forest. But you must know that there is a great difference between being busy and being industrious. One may be very busy all the time, and yet not in the least industrious; and this was the case with Mother Magpie.