But at the same time my likin' for a person mustn't be strong enough to overthrow my principles. And when she asked me in her sweet axents, "How I liked her lecture, and if I could see any faults in it?" I leaned up against Duty, and told her, "I liked it first-rate, but I couldn't agree with every word of it." Here Josiah Allen give me a look sharp enough to take my head clear off, if looks could behead anybody. But they can't. And I kept right on, calm and serene, and sez I, "It wuz very full of beautiful idees, as full of 'em as a rose-bush is full of sweetness in June, but," says I, "if I speak at all I must tell the truth, and I must say that while your lecture is as sweet and beautiful a effort as I ever see tackled, full of beautiful thoughts, and eloquence, still I must say that in my opinion it lacked one thing, it wuzn't mean enough." "Mean enough?" sez she. "What do you mean?" "Why," sez I, "I mean, mean temperature, you know, middleinness, megumness, and whatever you may call it; you go too fur." She said with a modest look "that she guessed she didn't, she guessed she didn't go too far." And Josiah Allen spoke up, cross as a bear, and, sez he, "I know she didn't. She didn't say a word that wuzn't gospel truth." Sez I, "Married life is the happiest life in my opinion; that is, when it is happy. Some hain't happy, but at the same time the happiest of 'em hain't _all_ happiness." "It is," sez Josiah (cross and surly), "it is, too." [Illustration: "YOU GO TOO FUR."] And Serena Fogg said, gently, that she thought I wuz mistaken, "she thought it wuz." And Josiah jined right in with her and said: "He _knew_ it wuz, and he would take his oath to it." But I went right on, and, sez I, "Mebby it is in one sense the most peaceful; that is, when the affections are firm set and stabled it makes 'em more peaceful than when they are a-traipsin' round and a-wanderin'. But," sez I, "marriage hain't _all_ peace." Sez Josiah: "It is, and I'll swear to it." Sez I, goin' right on, cool and serene, "The sunshine of true love gilds the pathway with the brightest radiance we know anything about, but it hain't all radiance." "Yes, it is," sez Josiah, firmly, "it is, every mite of it." And Serena Fogg sez, tenderly and amiably, "Yes, I think Mr. Allen is right; I think it is." "Wall," sez I, in meanin' axcents, awful meanin', "when you are married you will change your opinion, you mark my word." And she said, gently, but persistently, "That she guessed she shouldn't; she guessed she was in the right of it." Sez I, "You think when anybody is married they have got beyend all earthly trials, and nothin' but perfect peace and rest remains?" And she sez, gently, "Yes, mem!"