Said Sydney Smith, as quoted in the course of the present volume, “We have the memory of one we received in our youth, which lasted us forty years, and we believe it will be one of the last things we shall think of when we die.” “I would often ask her,” says Farjeon, “being of an inquisitive turn of mind, ‘Mother, what have you got for dinner to-day?’ ‘Bread and Cheese and Kisses,’ she would reply merrily. Then I knew that one of our favorite dishes was sure to be on the table, and I rejoiced accordingly. And to this day, Bread and Cheese and Kisses bears for me in its simple utterance a sacred and beautiful meaning. It means contentment; it means cheerfulness; it means the exercise of sweet words and gentle thought; it means Home!” It is in the home-centre that we are first taught “such kisses as belong to early days;” it is there that the maternal embrace proves an efficacious restorative for infantile grievances. “Who was it caught me when I fell, And kissed the place to make it well? My mother.” The boy goes forth from the juvenile attractions of the Kiss-in-the-Ring to the later allurements of the mistletoe bough; the youth of larger growth finds exhilaration in the sportiveness that incites him to “Catch the white-handed nymphs in shady places, And woo sweet kisses from averted faces.” As the years glide away, destiny leads him to “The overture kiss to the opera of love;” while in the maturer days of manhood courtship brings the happy day when, as a bridegroom, he meets his bride, “And claims her with a loving kiss.” Then come the kisses of connubial and parental love, and, finally, “Life’s autumnal blossoms fall, And earth’s brown clinging lips impress The long cold kiss that waits us all.”