which was hidden from
vulgar eyes by green silk curtains behind the glass. It would have been
instructive to get a look at it, as it always is to peep into one's
neighbor's book-shelves. From other sources and opportunities a partial
idea of it has been obtained. The Widow had inherited some books from
her mother, who was something of a reader: Young's "Night-Thoughts;"
"The Preceptor;" "The Task, a Poem," by William Cowper; Hervey's
"Meditations;" "Alonzo and Melissa;" "Buccaneers of America;" "The
Triumphs of Temper;" "La Belle Assemblee;" Thomson's "Seasons;" and a
few others. The Major had brought in "Tom Jones" and "Peregrine Pickle;"
various works by Mr. Pierce Egan; "Boxiana," "The Racing Calendar;" and
a "Book of Lively Songs and Jests." The Widow had added the Poems
of Lord Byron and T. Moore; "Eugene Aram;" "The Tower of London," by
Harrison Ainsworth; some of Scott's Novels; "The Pickwick Papers;" a
volume of Plays, by W. Shakespeare; "Proverbial Philosophy;" "Pilgrim's
Progress;" "The Whole Duty of Man" (a present when she was married);
with two celebrated religious works, one by William Law and the other
by Philip Doddridge, which were sent her after her husband's death, and
which she had tried to read, but found that they did not agree with her.
Of course the bookcase held a few school manuals and compendiums, and
one of Mr. Webster's Dictionaries. But the gilt-edged Bible always lay
on the centre-table, next to the magazine with the fashion-plates and
the scrap-book with pictures from old annuals and illustrated papers.

The reader need not apprehend the recital, at full length, of such
formidable preparations for the Widow's tea-party as were required in
the case of Colonel Sprowle's Social Entertainment. A tea-party, even in
the country, is a comparatively simple and economical piece of business.
As soon as the Widow found that all her company were coming, she set
to work, with the aid of her "smart" maid-servant and a daughter of her
own, who was beginning to stretch and spread at a fearful rate, but whom
she treated as a small child, to make the necessary preparations. The
silver had to be rubbed; also the grand plated urn,--her mother's before
hers,--style of the Empire,--looking as if it might have been made to
hold the Major's ashes. Then came the making and baking of cake and
gingerbread, the smell whereof reached even as far as the sidewalk in
front of the cottage, so that small boys returning fr