ke other folks. Like other folks they had a parlor, an
undeniable best parlor, shut up and darkened, with all proper carpets,
curtains, lounges, and marble-topped tables, too good for human nature's
daily food; and being sustained by this consciousness, they cheerfully
went on receiving their friends in the study, and having good times in
the old free-and-easy way; for did not everybody know that this room was
not their best? and if the furniture was old-fashioned and a little the
worse for antiquity, was it not certain that they had better, which they
could use, if they would?

"And supposing we wanted to give a party," said Jane, "how nicely our
parlor would light up! Not that we ever do give parties, but if we
should,--and for a wedding-reception, you know."

I felt the force of the necessity; it was evident that the four or five
hundred extra which we had expended was no more than such solemn
possibilities required.

"Now, papa thinks we have been foolish," said Marianne, "and he has his
own way of making a good story of it; but, after all, I desire to know
if people are never to get a new carpet. Must we keep the old one till
it actually wears to tatters?" This is a specimen of the _reductio ad
absurdum_ which our fair antagonists of the other sex are fond of
employing. They strip what we say of all delicate shadings and illusory
phrases, and reduce it to some bare question of fact, with which they
make a home-thrust at us.

"Yes, that's it; are people _never_ to get a new carpet?" echoed Jane.

"My dears," I replied, "it is a fact that to introduce anything new into
an apartment hallowed by many home-associations, where all things have
grown old together, requires as much care and adroitness as for an
architect to restore an arch or niche in a fine old ruin. The fault of
our carpet was that it was in another style from everything in our room,
and made everything in it look dilapidated. Its colors, material, and
air belonged to another manner of life, and were a constant plea for
alterations; and you see it actually drove out and expelled the whole
furniture of the room, and I am not sure yet that it may not entail on
us the necessity of refurnishing the whole house."

"My dear!" said my wife, in a tone of remonstrance; but Jane and
Marianne laughed and colored.

"Confess, now," said I, looking at them, "have you not had secret
designs on the hall- and stair-carpet?"

"Now, papa, how could you know it? I o