Chapter I: Preface

At breakfast we have no time to spare, for the duties of the day are clamoring for attention; at the noon-day dining hour some of the family are absent; but at six o'clock in the evening we all come to the tea-table for chit-chat and the recital of adventures. We take our friends in with us--the more friends, the merrier. You may imagine that the following chapters are things said or conversations indulged in, or papers read, or paragraphs, made up from that interview. We now open the doors very wide and invite all to come in and be seated around the tea-table.

T. DEW. T.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.
I.--The table-cloth is spread
II.--Mr. Givemfits and Dr. Butterfield
III.--A growler soothed
IV.--Carlo and the freezer
V.--Old games repeated
VI.--The full-blooded cow
VII.--The dregs in Leatherback's tea-cup
VIII.--The hot axle
IX.--Beefsteak for ministers
X.--Autobiography of an old pair of scissors
XI.--A lie, zoologically considered
XII.--A breath of English air
XIII.--The midnight lecture
XIV.--The sexton
XV.--The old cradle
XVI.--The horse's letter
XVII.--Kings of the kennel
XVIII.--The massacre of church music
XIX.--The battle of pew and pulpit
XX.--The devil's grist-mill
XXI.--The conductor's dream
XXII.--Push & Pull
XXIII.--Bostonians
XXIV.--Jonah vs. the whale
XXV.--Something under the sofa
XXVI.--The way to keep fresh
XXVII.--Christmas bells
XXVIII.--Poor preaching
XXIX.--Shelves a man's index
XXX.--Behavior at church
XXXI.--Masculine and feminine
XXXII.--Literary felony
XXXIII.--Literary abstinence
XXXIV.--Short or long pastorates
XXXV.--An editor's chip basket
XXXVI.--The manhood of service
XXXVII.--Balky people
XXXVIII.--Anonymous letters
XXXIX.--Brawn or brain
XL.--Warm-weather religion
XLI.--Hiding eggs for Easter
XLII.--Sink or swim
XLIII.--Shells from the beach
XLIV.--Catching the bay mare
XLV.--Our first and last cigar
XLVI.--Move, moving, moved
XLVII.--The advantage of small libraries
XLVIII.--Reformation in letter writing
XLIX.--Royal marriages
L.--Three visits
LI.--Manahachtanienks
LII.--A dip in the sea
LIII.--Hard shell considerations
LIV.--Wiseman, Heavyasbricks and Quizzle
LV.--A layer of waffles
LVI.--Friday evening

SABBATH EVENINGS.

LVII.--The Sabbath evening tea-table
LVIII.--The warm heart of Christ
LIX.--Sacrifice everything
LX.--The youngsters have left
LXI.--Family prayers
LXII.--A call to sailors
LXIII.--Jehoshaphat's shipping
LXIV.--All about mercy
LXV.--Under the camel's saddle
LXVI.--Half-and-half churches
LXVII.--Thorns
LXVIII.--Who touched me?

AROUND THE TEA-TABLE.