r the solid men of Boston got in the way of wearing their hair
thin in front a quarter of a century ago, and all the solid men of Boston
will, for the next century, wear their hair thin in front.

There are fewer dandies in Boston than in most cities. Clothes, as a
general thing, do not make fun of the people they sit on. The humps on the
ladies' backs are not within two feet of being as high as in some of the
other cities, and a dromedary could look at them without thinking itself
caricatured. You see more of the outlandishness of fashion in one day on
Broadway than in a week on any one street of Boston. Doubtless, Boston is
just as proud as New York, but her pride is that of brains, and those, from
the necessities of the case, are hidden.

Go out on the fashionable drive of Boston, and you find that the horses are
round limbed, and look as well satisfied as their owners. A restless man
always has a thin horse. He does not give the creature time to eat, wears
out on him so many whip lashes, and keeps jerking perpetually at the reins.
Boston horses are, for the most part, fat, feel their oats, and know that
the eyes of the world are upon them. You see, we think it no dishonor to a
minister to admire good horses, provided he does not trade too often, and
impose a case of glanders and bots on his unsophisticated neighbor. We
think that, as a minister is set up for an example to his flock, he ought
to have the best horse in the congregation. A minister is no more sacred
when riding behind a spavined and ringboned nag than when whirling along
after a horse that can swallow a mile in 2.30.

The anniversary week in Boston closed by a display of flowers and fruits in
Horticultural Hall. It was appropriate that philanthropists and Christians,
hot from discussions of moral and religious topics, should go in and take a
bath of rose leaves and geraniums. Indeed, I think the sweetest anniversary
of the week was that of these flowers. A large rhododendron presided.
Azaleas and verbenas took part in the meeting. The Chinese honeysuckle and
clematis joined in the doxology. A magnolia pronounced the benediction. And
we went home praying for the time when the lily of the valley shall be
planted in every heart, and the desert shall blossom as the rose.

CHAPTER XXIV.

JONAH VERSUS THE WHALE.

Unbelievers have often told us that the story of the prophet swallowed by a
great fish was an absurdity. They say that, so long in the