n wood; and _he_ knows she doesn't love him, or she never would
want to make him uncomfortable all his days by tilting and swinging him
about as no decent bird ought to be swung. Both are dead-set in their
own way and opinion; and how is either to be convinced that the way
which seemeth right unto the other is not best? Nature knows this, and
therefore, in her feathered tribes, blue-jays do not mate with orioles;
and so bird-housekeeping goes on in peace.

But men and women as diverse in their physical tastes and habits as
blue-jays and orioles are wooing and wedding every day, and coming to
the business of nest-building, _alias_ housekeeping, with predilections
as violent, and as incapable of any logical defence, as the oriole's
partiality for a swing-nest and the jay's preference of rotten wood.

Our Hero and Leander, then, who are arranging their cottage to-day, are
examples just in point. They have both of them been only children,--both
the idols of circles where they have been universally deferred to. Each
in his or her own circle has been looked up to as a model of good taste,
and of course each has the habit of exercising and indulging very
distinct personal tastes. They truly, deeply esteem, respect, and love
each other, and for the very best of reasons,--because there are
sympathies of the very highest kind between them. Both are generous and
affectionate,--both are highly cultured in intellect and taste,--both
are earnestly religious; and yet, with all this, let me tell you that
the first year of their married life will be worthy to be recorded as _a
year of battles_. Yes, these friends so true, these lovers so ardent,
these individuals in themselves so admirable, cannot come into the
intimate relations of life without an effervescence as great as that of
an acid and alkali; and it will be impossible to decide which is most in
fault, the acid or the alkali, both being in their way of the very best
quality.

The reason of it all is, that both are intensely "_set in their way_,"
and the ways of no two human beings are altogether coincident. Both of
them have the most sharply defined, exact tastes and preferences. In the
simplest matter both have _a way_,--an exact way,--which seems to be
dear to them as life's blood. In the simplest appetite or taste they
know exactly what they want, and cannot, by any argument, persuasion, or
coaxing, be made to want anything else.

For example, this morning dawns bright upo