d smoothly along on castors. I was just wondering
what all this meant, when the parlor door opened, and there marched in a
procession of parlor chairs, behind which gathered the plainer cane-seat
ones of the dining-room. Next came a solemn line of black, wooden kitchen
chairs. Then I heard a commotion above, and the staid bedroom seats made
a fearful racket as they came down the steps.

"Are we all in now?" said the easy chair, blandly.

A faint noise was heard on the steps, and presently in came an old arm
chair that had belonged to my grandmother. It had lain in the garret
covered with spider webs for years, and indeed it was quite infirm in the
joints, and must have had a hard time getting down two flights of stairs.

I now tried to move, determined to go and see what was the matter with
the furniture, but the _tired_ feeling crept all over me and I lay still.

"Well," said the easy chair, who seemed to be president, "we are ready
for business."

There was a confused murmur, and the next I knew one of the damask satin
parlor chairs was speaking in a very polished and dignified way about the
grievances of parlor chairs in general.

"It's too bad," said he, "to be always shut up in a close room except
when there's company. There are no better-looking chairs than we are. We
belong to a superior class of beings, and it is trying to one's nerves to
lead so secluded a life when one wants to be generally admired. These
cane-seat chairs, and those low, black, wooden fellows----"

"I trust there will be no personalities," said the easy chair. "The
kitchen chairs are wooden, but that is not their fault; and as to their
being black, that's a mere matter of paint, a mere matter of paint;" and
the easy chair shook his cushioned sides as if he thought this last
remark a piece of exquisite pleasantry.

"I say," continued Damask Satin, Esq., "I say that these common-place
fellows are constantly admitted to the society of the family, and we,
genteel as we are, have to live secluded. But for that matter I should
rather be shut up always than be forced into association with these
common cane-seat and those low, vulgar, wooden----"

"Order!" said the easy chair; "I must call Mr. Satin to order."

"Why, sir," said one of the cane-seats, "the insolence of that parlor
fellow is insufferable! He's good for nothing but show. Nobody likes to
use him. He wasn't made for any useful purpose. Talk about a thing being
trying to his nerve