y sayings of the little ones at home. Mrs. Judge
Robinson, with the artistic mendacity of your true _raconteur_,
accredited to her own four-year-old a speech about the stars being holes
in the floor of heaven, although it was said of this gem in "Harper's
Drawer," where she had read it, that "the following good one comes to us
from a lady subscriber in the well-known city of X----."

It could not be recalled afterwards how, from this harmless exchange,
they had come to be listening to passages from the adventurous life of
Childe Harold, read crisply by their hostess. Still less could the
ladies later comprehend how some of their number had been guilty of
innuendos--or worse--against the well-known Bard of Avon. Yet, so it
was.

Miss Caroline herself had refrained from abusing him--had seemed to have
forgotten him, indeed; but, as she read Byron to them, their hearts
opened to her--rushed out, indeed, with a friendly wholeness that
demanded something more than mere cordial applause of her favorite poet.
Some intimation of a sympathy with her view of the other poet came to
seem not ungraceful. During one of the reader's pauses to impress upon
them the splendors of the Byronic imagery, and eke its human
heart-warmth, good Aunt Delia, with defiant looks about the circle,
broke in with:--

"I shouldn't wonder if Shakspere _has_ been made too much over."

Mrs. Keyts stepped loyally into the breach thus effected.

"Westley thinks Shakspere isn't such an _awful_ good book," she said,
feeling her way, "though it seems to me it has some very interesting and
excellent pieces in it."

"Shakspere is _ver-ry_ uneven," remarked Mrs. Judge Robinson, in a tone
of dignified concession.

"There is always a word to be said on either side of these
matters--there is undeniably room for controversy." Thus Mrs. Potts, in
her best manner of authority, from the punch-bowl.

"Let the dead rest!" gently murmured Miss Eubanks, from her dreamy
corner of the biggest sofa. Her inflection was archly significant. One
had to suspect that Shakspere, alive and a fair target for dispraise,
might have learned something to his advantage if not to his delight.

Miss Caroline was both surprised and gratified. At the previous meeting
she had detected no sign of this concurring sentiment. She plunged again
into Byron with renewed enthusiasm.

The afternoon came to a glorious end, and the ladies departed with many
expressions of rejoicing. They had fou