So hour by hour, from flower to flower,
We sip the sweets of life:
Till ah! too soon the clouds arise,
And knitted brows and angry eyes
Proclaim the dawn of strife.
With half a smile and half a sigh,
"Amare! Bitter One!" we cry.

Last night we owned, with looks forlorn,
"Too well the scholar knows
There is no rose without a thorn "--
But peace is made! we sing, this morn,
"No thorn without a rose!"
Our Latin lesson is complete:
We've learned that Love is "Bitter-sweet"

Lewis Carroll.

In October Mr. Dodgson invented a very ingenious little stamp-case,
decorated with two "Pictorial Surprises," representing the "Cheshire
Cat" vanishing till nothing but the grin was left, and the baby
turning into a pig in "Alice's" arms. The invention was entered at
Stationers' Hall, and published by Messrs. Emberlin and Son, of
Oxford. As an appropriate accompaniment, he wrote "Eight or Nine Wise
Words on Letter-Writing," a little booklet which is still sold along
with the case. The "Wise Words," as the following extracts show, have
the true "Carrollian" ring about them:--

Some American writer has said "the snakes in this district
may be divided into one species--the venomous." The same
principle applies here. Postage-stamp-cases may be divided
into one species--the "Wonderland."

Since I have possessed a "Wonderland-Stamp-Case," Life has
been bright and peaceful, and I have used no other. I
believe the Queen's Laundress uses no other.

My fifth Rule is, if your friend makes a severe remark,
either leave it unnoticed or make your reply distinctly less
severe: and, if he makes a friendly remark, tending towards
"making up" the little difference that has arisen between
you, let your reply be distinctly _more_ friendly. If,
in picking a quarrel, each party declined to go more than
_three-eighths_ of the way, and if, in making friends,
each was ready to go _five-eighths_ of the way--why,
there would be more reconciliations than quarrels! Which is
like the Irishman's remonstrance to his gad-about daughter:
"Shure, you're _always_ goin' out! You go out
_three_ times for wanst that you come in!"

My sixth Rule is, _don't try to have the last word!_
How many a controversy would be nipped in the bud, if each
was anxious to let the _other_ have t