lies is rapidly
becoming extinct. There will be found in the older villages very few
persons left who belong to this class, which was once far more important
and powerful; the oldest churches are apt to be most thinly attended
simply because a different sort of ideas, even of heavenly things,
attract the newer residents. I suppose that elderly people have said,
ever since the time of Shem, Ham, and Japhet's wives in the ark, that
society is nothing to what it used to be, and we may expect to be always
told what unworthy successors we are of our grandmothers. But the fact
remains that a certain element of American society is fast dying out,
giving place to the new; and with all our glory and pride in modern
progress and success we cling to the old associations regretfully. There
is nothing to take the place of the pleasure we have in going to see our
old friends in the parlors which have changed little since our
childhood. No matter how advanced in years we seem to ourselves we are
children still to the gracious hostess. Thank Heaven for the friends
who have always known us! They may think us unreliable and young still;
they may not understand that we have become busy and more or less
important people to ourselves and to the world,--we are pretty sure to
be without honor in our own country, but they will never forget us, and
we belong to each other and always shall.

I have received many kindnesses at my friends' hands, but I do not know
that I have ever felt myself to be a more fortunate or honored guest
than I used years ago, when I sometimes went to call upon an elderly
friend of my mother who lived in most pleasant and stately fashion. I
used to put on my very best manner, and I have no doubt that my thoughts
were well ordered, and my conversation as proper as I knew how to make
it. I can remember that I used to sit on a tall ottoman, with nothing to
lean against, and my feet were off soundings, I was so high above the
floor. We used to discuss the weather, and I said that I went to school
(sometimes), or that it was then vacation, as the case might be, and we
tried to make ourselves agreeable to each other. Presently my lady would
take her keys out of her pocket, and sometimes a maid would come to
serve me, or else she herself would bring me a silver tray with some
pound-cakes baked in hearts and rounds, and a small glass of wine, and I
proudly felt that I was a guest, though I was such a little thing an
attention w