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LITTLE EDWARD. any of you born in New England, in the good old catechizing, church-going, school-going, orderly times ? If so, you may have seen my Uncle Abel; the most perpendicular, rectangular, upright, downright good man that ever labored Bix days and rested on the seventh. You remember his hard, weather-beaten countenance, where every line seemed drawn with " a pen of iron and the point of a diamond;" his considerate gray eyes, that moved over .objects as if it were not best to be in a hurry about seeing; the circumspect opening and shutting of the mouth ; his down- sitting and up-rising, all performed with conviction aforethought— in short,, the whole ordering of his life and convex Ration, which was, according to the tenor of the military order, " to the right about face — forward, march I " Now, if you supposed, from all this triangularism of exterior, that this good man had nothing kindly within, you were much mistaken. You often find the greenest grass under a snowdrift; and though my uncle's mind was not exactly of the flower garden kind, still there was an abundance of whole- tome and kindly vegetation there. It is true, he seldom laughed, and never joked himself; butno man had a more serious and weighty conviction of what a good joke was in another; and when some exceeding witticism was dispensed in his presence, you might see Uncle Abel's face slowly relax into an expression of solemn satisfaction, and he wesli look at the author with a sort of quiet wonder, as if it was past his comprehension how such a thing could ever come into a man's head. Uncle Abel, too, had some relish for the fine arts; in proof of which, I might adduce the pleasure with which hegazed at the plates in his family Bible, the likeness whereof is neither in heaven, nor on earth, ...
