Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh!

I confess I have yet to learn that a lesson of the purest good may not be drawn from the vilest evil.

Stranger, pause and ask thyself the question, Canst thou do likewise? If not, with a blush retire.

I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, I have no doubt, and, of course, if it ceased to beat, I would cease to be. But you know what I mean. I have no softness there, no—sympathy—sentiment—nonsense.

The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved: may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred; but beneath all this, there lingers, in the least reflective mind, a vague and half-formed consciousness of having held such feelings long before, in some remote and distant time, which calls up solemn thoughts of distant times to come, and bends down pride and worldliness beneath it.

Come in, -- come in! and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!

Around and around the house the leaves fall thick, but never fast, for they come circling down with a dead lightness that is sombre and slow.