ill say, "Now, my dear, that hat will never do," and then I shall
have a new hat; and then I shall say, "My dear, it will never do for
me to be so fine and you to wear your old gown," and so my wife will
get a new gown; and then the new gown will require a new shawl and a
new bonnet; all of which we shall not feel the need of if I don't take
this pair of silk stockings, for, as long as we don't see them, our
old things seem very well suited to each other.'"

The girls laughed at this story, and I then added, in my most
determined manner,--

"But I must warn you, girls, that I have compromised to the utmost
extent of my power, and that I intend to plant myself on the old stair
carpet in determined resistance. I have no mind to be forbidden the
use of the front stairs, or condemned to get up into my bedroom by a
private ladder, as I should be immediately if there were a new carpet
down."

"Why, papa!"

"Would it not be so? Can the sun shine in the parlor now for fear of
fading the carpet? Can we keep a fire there for fear of making dust,
or use the lounges and sofas for fear of wearing them out? If you got
a new entry and stair carpet, as I said, I should have to be at the
expense of another staircase to get up to our bedroom."

"Oh no, papa," said Jane innocently; "there are very pretty druggets
now for covering stair carpets, so that they can be used without
hurting them."

"Put one over the old carpet, then," said I, "and our acquaintance
will never know but it is a new one."

All the female senate laughed at this proposal, and said it sounded
just like a man.

"Well," said I, standing up resolutely for my sex, "a man's ideas on
woman's matters may be worth some attention. I flatter myself that an
intelligent, educated man doesn't think upon and observe with interest
any particular subject for years of his life without gaining some
ideas respecting it that are good for something; at all events, I have
written another article for the 'Atlantic,' which I will read to
you."

"Well, wait one minute, papa, till we get our work," said the girls,
who, to say the truth, always exhibit a flattering interest in
anything their papa writes, and who have the good taste never to
interrupt his readings with any conversations in an undertone on
cross-stitch and floss-silks, as the manner of some is. Hence the
little feminine bustle of arranging all these matters beforehand.
Jane, or Jenny, as I call her in my good-natured