ly of youth, pass them by with a sneer,
the uninteresting, colorless evergreens, and, like silly children with
nothing but eyes in their heads, stretch out our hands and cry for the
pretty flowers. We will make our little garden of life such a charming,
fairy-like spot, the envy of every passer-by! There shall nothing grow
in it but lilies and roses, and the cottage we will cover all over with
Virginia-creeper. And, oh, how sweet it will look, under the dancing
summer sun-light, when the soft west breeze is blowing!

And, oh, how we shall stand and shiver there when the rain and the east
wind come!

Oh, you foolish, foolish little maidens, with your dainty heads so full
of unwisdom! how often--oh! how often, are you to be warned that it is
not always the sweetest thing in lovers that is the best material to
make a good-wearing husband out of? "The lover sighing like a furnace"
will not go on sighing like a furnace forever. That furnace will go out.
He will become the husband, "full of strange oaths--jealous in honor,
sudden and quick in quarrel," and grow "into the lean and slipper'd
pantaloon." How will he wear? There will be no changing him if he does
not suit, no sending him back to be altered, no having him let out a bit
where he is too tight and hurts you, no having him taken in where he is
too loose, no laying him by when the cold comes, to wrap yourself up in
something warmer. As he is when you select him, so he will have to last
you all your life--through all changes, through all seasons.

Yes, he looks very pretty now--handsome pattern, if the colors are fast
and it does not fade--feels soft and warm to the touch. How will he
stand the world's rough weather? How will he stand life's wear and tear?

He looks so manly and brave. His hair curls so divinely. He dresses so
well (I wonder if the tailor's bill is paid?) He kisses your hand so
gracefully. He calls you such pretty names. His arm feels so strong a
round you. His fine eyes are so full of tenderness as they gaze down
into yours.

Will he kiss your hand when it is wrinkled and old? Will he call you
pretty names when the baby is crying in the night, and you cannot keep
it quiet--or, better still, will he sit up and take a turn with it? Will
his arm be strong around you in the days of trouble? Will his eyes shine
above you full of tenderness when yours are growing dim?

And you boys, you silly boys! what materials for a wife do you think you
will get ou