Pity and Love were seen In earnest converse on the humble green; Grief too was there, but Grief Sat down with them, nor struggled from relief. Strong Pity was, strong he, But little love was bravest of the three. At what the sad one said Often he smiled, though Pity shook her head. Descending from their clouds, The Muses mingled with admiring crowds: Each had her ear inclined, Each caught and spoke the language of mankind From choral thraldom free... Dickens! didst thou teach _them_, or they teach _thee_? _September, 1850._ [From "Light and Darkness," by Catharine Crowe, Author of "The Night Side of Nature," &c. &c.] THE TWO MISS SMITHS. In a certain town in the West of England, which shall be nameless, there dwelt two maiden ladies of the name of Smith; each possessing a small independence, each residing, with a single maid-servant, in a small house, the drawing-room floor of which was let, whenever lodgers could be found; each hovering somewhere about the age of fifty, and each hating the other with a restless and implacable enmity. The origin of this aversion was the similarity of their names; each was Miss C. Smith, the one being called Cecilia, the other Charlotte--a circumstance which gave rise to such innumerable mistakes and misunderstandings, as were sufficient to maintain these ladies in a constant state of irritability and warfare. Letters, messages, invitations, parcels, bills, were daily missent, and opened by the wrong person; thus exposing the private affairs of one to the other; and as their aversion had long ago extinguished everything like delicacy on either side, any information so acquired was used without scruple to their mutual annoyance. Presents, too, of fruit, vegetables, or other delicacies from the neighboring gentry, not unfrequently found their way to the wrong house; and if unaccompanied by a letter, which took away all excuse for mistake, they were appropriated without remorse, even when the appropriating party felt confident in her heart that the article was not intended for her; and this not from greediness or rapacity, but from the absolute delight they took in vexing each other.