THE “FAVORITE” CHILD, 282 A QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER, 283 WINTER, 284 A GAUNTLET FOR THE MEN, 286 SOLILOQUY OF A LITERARY HOUSEKEEPER, 289 A BREAKFAST-TABLE REVERIE, 290 A GLANCE AT A CHAMELEON SUBJECT, 295 FACTS FOR UNJUST CRITICS, 297 TRY AGAIN, 301 FAIR PLAY, 302 TO GENTLEMEN, 305 TO THE LADIES, 307 MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENTS, 309 A SABLE SUBJECT, 310 NEW YORK, 313 AIRY COSTUMES, 315 A PEEP AT THE OPERA, 317 HARD TIMES, 318 COUNTER IRRITATION, 321 SUNDAY IN GOTHAM, 324 ANNIVERSARY TIME, 327 WAYSIDE WORDS, 330 CHARLOTTE BRONTE, 332 FRESH LEAVES. A BUSINESS MAN’S HOME; OR, A STORY FOR HUSBANDS. CHAPTER I. “There’s your father, children.” The piano was immediately closed by the young performer, and the music-stool put carefully away, that the new-comer might have an unrestricted choice of seats; a wide space was immediately cleared before the grate which had been carefully replenished with coal but half an hour before; a stray cricket was hastily picked up and pushed beneath the sofa, and an anxious glance was thrown around the room by Mrs. Wade as her husband entered the room. “Too much light here,” said the latter, as he turned down the gas burner. “I hate such a glare. Waste of coal, too; fire enough to roast an ox, and coal seven dollars a ton;” and Mr. Wade seized the poker and gave the grate a vindictive poke. Mrs. Wade sighed--she had too long been accustomed to such scenes to do any thing else. It was not the first time, nor the second, nor the hundredth, that her unwearied endeavors to make home cheerful had been met with a similar repulse; the young people, so gay but a moment before, skipped, one by one, out of the room, closing the door noiselessly behind them as culprit-like they glided away. “Heigh-ho,” muttered Mr. Wade, as he threw himself down, boots and all, on the sofa, “heigh-ho.” “Does your head ache?” asked his patient wife. “I want my tea,” growled Mr. Wade, without deigning a reply.