een a religious tea-party at Chapman's house, where the
affair of the new church had been talked over, and the opening day
arranged. Mrs. Chapman was in her best dress, with a profusion of
ribbons streaming down her back, and a puffy cap on her head. She had
received a letter from the Reverend Warren Holbrook, accepting the offer
of three hundred dollars a year and board and washing, and saying, that
in addition to transcendentalism, he would advocate the equality of the
great human family. If these poor, benighted Dutch people who lived
about Nyack would only be regenerated and made progressive. Mrs. Chapman
found great consolation in this letter, and sat down to read it to her
dear husband, who had moved up nearer to the lamp and opened the last
great-work on the new doctrine.

When she had finished reading it she paused for a moment, and then
spoke. "Have you noticed, my dear," she enquired, and again hesitating,
"what has been going on between our Mattie--?" Again she hesitated.

Expecting what was coming, Chapman interposed by saying, "Don't be
afraid to speak, my darling; I know what you mean."

"I meant," resumed Mrs. Chapman, blushing and looking very serious, "I
meant, have you noticed the attention that sailor-boy--(young Toodlebug
did you call him?) horrors! what a name--was paying to our Mattie?"

"Burg, my dear, not bug," rejoined Chapman.

"People are beginning to talk about it, and they say such things!" The
good woman blushed, and assumed an air of great seriousness. "The young
man may be well enough, but then the Toodlebugs are only a common Dutch
family."

"Toodleburgs, my dear, not bugs. The name makes a great difference with
some people," rejoined Chapman, correctively. "Very natural, my dear,
very natural. The most natural thing in the world for young people to
make love. And the most natural thing in the world is that people should
talk about it. It is according to the principles of true philosophy. You
must not be alarmed, my dear, when you see young people make love. Harm
rarely comes of it, and it generally ends in a very small affair."

"Yes, my dear," replied the good woman, "and experience has proved to me
that it sometimes ends in a very large affair. A little flirtation
between young people--"

"Should be encouraged, my darling," interrupted Chapman.

"I was going to say," she continued, "was not objectionable. But when
looks come to be serious, the equality of things should be enq