The history of an almshouse in a country village, from the era of its foundation downward,--a record of the remarkable occupants of it, and extracts from interesting portions of its annals. The rich of one generation might, in the next, seek for a house there, either in their own persons or in those of their representatives. Perhaps the son and heir of the founder might have no better refuge. There should be occasional sunshine let into the story; for instance, the good fortune of some nameless infant, educated there, and discovered finally to be the child of wealthy parents. * * * * * Pearl, the English of Margaret,--a pretty name for a girl in a story. * * * * * The conversation of the steeples of a city, when their bells are ringing on Sunday,--Calvinist, Episcopalian, Unitarian, etc. * * * * * Allston's picture of "Belshazzar's Feast,"--with reference to the advantages or otherwise of having life assured to us till we could finish important tasks on which we might be engaged. * * * * * Visits to castles in the air,--Chateaux en Espagne, etc.,--with remarks on that sort of architecture. * * * * * To consider a piece of gold as a sort of talisman, or as containing within itself all the forms of enjoyment that it can purchase, so that they might appear, by some fantastical chemic process, as visions. * * * * * To personify If, But, And, Though, etc. * * * * * A man seeks for something excellent, but seeks it in the wrong spirit and in a wrong way, and finds something horrible; as, for instance, he seeks for treasure, and finds a dead body; for the gold that somebody has hidden, and brings to light his accumulated sins. * * * * * An auction of second-hands,--thus moralizing how the fashion of this world passeth away. * * * * * Noted people in a town,--as the town-crier, the old fruit-man, the constable, the oyster-seller, the fish-man, the scissors-grinder, etc. * * * * * The magic ray of sunshine for a child's story,--the sunshine circling round through a prisoner's cell, from his high and narrow window. He keeps his soul alive and cheerful by means of it, it typifying cheerfulness; and when he is released, he takes up the ray of sunshine, and carries it away with him, and it enables him to discover treasures all over the world, in places where nobody else would think of looking for them. * * * * * A young man finds a portion of the skeleton of a mammoth; he begins by degrees to become interested in completing it; searches round the world for the means of doing so; spends youth and manhood in the pursuit; and in old age has nothing to show for his life but this skeleton of a mammoth.