board.". "Na, mem; it's no there." "It must be there! go search the table-drawer !”- "Mem, I canna find it."-" Stupid idiot! stand out of my road. I'm sure such servants! it cannot be far off. for I had it not ten minutes ago;" and so but all in vain. The smith's fingers are put in operation; and just as he has removed the lock, at the expense of the splintered timber, Peggy comes bouncing in with an Eh, mem, here's the key!" Nor is this the worst-by no means. Sickness is in the house, and the doctor orders an immediate use of jams and jellies; but the key has taken this opportunity of paying a visit to the terra incognita of "somewhere." was seen by somebody sometime ago, but nobody It got, and nobody had it; and, in a word, nobody knows any thing about the matter!-Company to tea!-down with the tea-cups, tray, urn, all in a smoke and a bustle. But, bless me! where's the sugar, ay, and the tea-canister—these indispensables of the repast? they are under lock and key-the lock, indeed, is safe, and at its post, like a carrier's dog, firm and unmoved—not to be tampered with-but the key-oh! the key-is at the "back of beyond," where the mare, according to immemorial tradition, was safely delivered of the fiddler. It must, in fact, either have sunk through the earth and become a gnome, or ascended through the air and been sainted, otherwise the search made for it would have been successful. Perspective becomes the order of the hour, till force has done the work of art, and a fine evening has been spent in useless and unavailing regrets for the "loss of the key." Let the gudewife keep the keys, then; and keep to the keys only-keep to them, as my granamother did, in the literal sense of the wordattach them (I do not care where or how) to her person, and be able at a moment's warning, to make that use of them for which they were originally hammered out and constructed. It is, after all, on such apparently trifling attentions or negligencies that much of the comfort or usefulness of life depends. Let any one. addicted to the negligence to which I have referred, fairly calculate the time lost, the convenience marred, the temper fretted, and the happiness hazarded, by such occurrences, and the amount will not fail to astonish as well as mortify. Little things are indeed great to little men-parva leves copiunt animos; but against this effect as well as evidence of our fallen and imperfect nature, it becomes us to guard. For great calamities or trying exigencies we stand, as it were, prepared; and the storm, whilst it arrests and stupifies, still nerves and solemnises our faculties ; "Shake ye old pillars of the marble sky, Yet still serene th'unconquer'd mind looks down But for the eternal "losing or mislaying" of the keys there is no remedy. Now, madam, do not flounce out of the room, and slam the door, so as to endanger the lights and the drum of my ears. What I have saidmy own conscience is my witness-I have said for your good; and if the medicine do but operate beneficially, a few painful throes, during the operation, will be of less consequence. And, in order to show you that I bear no manner of grudge against you, I mean, God willing, to |