kis
is willin'," and I always like to please Grandfather. I have just read
David Copperfield and was so interested I could not leave it alone till
I finished it.

_September_ 1.--Anna and I have been in Litchfield, Conn., at Father's
school for boys. It is kept in the old Beecher house, where Dr. Lyman
Beecher lived. We went up into the attic, which is light and airy, where
they say he used to write his famous sermons. James is one of the
teachers and he came for us. We went to Farmington and saw all the
Cowles families, as they are our cousins. Then we drove by the Charter
Oak and saw all there is left of it. It was blown down last year but the
stump is fenced around. In Hartford we visited Gallaudet's Institution
for the deaf and dumb and went to the historical rooms, where we saw
some of George Washington's clothes and his watch and his penknife, but
we did not see his little hatchet. We stayed two weeks in New York and
vicinity before we came home. Uncle Edward took us to Christie's
Minstrels and the Hippodrome, so we saw all the things we missed seeing
when the circus was here in town. Grandmother seemed surprised when we
told her, but she didn't say much because she was so glad to have us at
home again. Anna said we ought to bring a present to Grandfather and
Grandmother, for she read one time about some children who went away and
came back grown up and brought home "busts of the old philosophers for
the sitting-room," so as we saw some busts of George Washington and
Benjamin Franklin in plaster of paris we bought them, for they look
almost like marble and Grandfather and Grandmother like them. Speaking
of busts reminds me of a conundrum I heard while I was gone. "How do we
know that Poe's Raven was a dissipated bird? Because he was all night on
a bust." Grandfather took us down to the bank to see how he had it made
over while we were gone. We asked him why he had a beehive hanging out
for a sign and he said, "Bees store their honey in the summer for winter
use and men ought to store their money against a rainy day." He has a
swing door to the bank with "Push" on it. He said he saw a man studying
it one day and finally looking up he spelled p-u-s-h, push (and
pronounced it like mush). "What does that mean?" Grandfather showed him
what it meant and he thought it was very convenient. He was about as
thick-headed as the man who saw some snuffers and asked what they were
for and when told to snuff the candle with, he