slavery. Yet these
very men who, for selfish purposes, stir up the passions of our people,
by dwelling on cases of hardship in slavery, are greatly disappointed
when Napoleon III., at Villafranca, prematurely terminates a war of
unparalleled slaughter. They would have preferred, for the cause of
constitutional liberty and for its possible influence against the Pope,
that the fighting had continued a month longer; we hear no pathetic
remonstrances from them on the score of the killed and maimed, the
widows and orphans and the childless, of homes made desolate, by this
additional month of battle. Such is man, so inconsistent, so blinded by
party prejudice, so ready to maintain that which, in a change of persons
and places, he will denounce. He will be wholly blinded by individual
acts of suffering to all that is good in a system; and again, the good
to be effected by a war will blind him to the hundreds of thousands of
dead or mutilated soldiers, with five times that number of bleeding
hearts, rifled by the sword of their precious treasures."

I saw that I had prolonged my remarks to an undue length. We sat in
silence for a little while, looking into the fire, and listening to the
rain against the windows, when Judith called Mrs. North to the door;
and, after some whispering between them, Mrs. North said to her,

"Oh, bring them in; our company will excuse it."

The cranberries, it seems, were not doing well over the fire in Judith's
department, and she had hesitatingly proposed that they should be
promoted to the parlor grate, where, after due apologies, they were
placed. They soon began to simmer; then one would burst, and then
another, we pausing unconsciously to hear them surrendering themselves
to their fate, while one mouth, at least, watered at the thought of the
delicious dish which they were to furnish; the rich, ruby color of their
juice in the best cut-glass tureen, and the added spoonful, as a reward
for not spilling a drop on the table-cloth the last time they were
served, coming to mind, with thoughts of early days. And here I was
discussing slavery. Now, while the cranberries were over the fire,
making one feel domestic and also bringing back young days, it was
impossible to be disputatious, had we been so inclined. The Northern
cranberry-meadow and the Southern sugar-plantation seemed mixed up in my
feelings on this subject, qualifying and rectifying each other. Perhaps
the soothing presence of the cranb