The lost volume of Fichte But the Athenaeum is always was left on the door-step last calling in its books to examine night by some one who rang the them, and making us say where bell and ran away. It is rather Mr. Fred Curtis's books are. wet, but when it is bound will As if we cared. look nicely. The mistress of the Arbella But our drains smell School is dead. awfully, though the Board of Health says they do not. We have to go to evening parties among our friends, or seem stuck up. We hate to go, and wish there were none. We had rather come here. The increasing worthlessness of the franchise. With these papers they gathered all in the study just as the clock struck nine, and, in good old Boston fashion, Silas was bringing in some hot oysters. They ate the oysters, which were good--trust Anna for that-- and then the women read the papers, while the smoking men smoked and pondered. They all recognized the gravity of the situation. Still, as Julia said, they felt better already. It was like having the doctor come: you knew the worst, and could make ready for it. They did not discuss the statements much. They had discussed them too much in severalty. They did agree that they should be left to Felix to report upon the next evening. He was, so to speak, to post them, to strike out from each side the quantities which could be eliminated, and leave the equations so simplified that the eight might determine what they should do about it-- indeed, what they could do about it. The visitors put on their "things"--how strange that that word should once have meant "parliaments!"--kissed good-by so far as they were womanly, and went home. George Haliburton screwed down the gas, and they went to bed. CHAPTER II STRIKING THE BALANCE The next night they went to see Warren at the Museum. That probably helped them. After the play they met by appointment at the Carters'. Felix read his REPORT. 1. NUMBER.--There are twenty-one reasons for congratulation, twenty-four for regret. But of the twenty-four, four are the same; namely, the cursed political prospect of the country. Counting that as one only, there are twenty-one on each side. 2. EVIL.--The twenty-one evils may be classified thus: political, 1; social, 12; physical, 5; terrors, 3. All the physical evils would be relieved by living in a temperate climate, instead of this abomination, which is not a climate, to which our ancestors were sold by the cupidity of the Dutch. The political evil would be ended by leaving the jurisdiction of the United States.