Street car, and some trifling occurrence made them first bowing ac- quaintances, then visitors at each other's homes, then hand-shaking and hearty friends. Sometimes taking another person's hat or um- brella by mistake — though umbrellas, as a rule, arc not taken by mistake — led to apologies and explanations, and these to acquaint- anceship, and that to intimacy. How hard it is to avoid being either friends or foes to one who lives next door to us, or has rooms in the same house, or lives directly opposite, and whom we find ourselves unconsciously sur- veying through our window when he or she is contemplating us in the same way and time ! How hard it is to escape having some feel- ing toward every one we are brought in contact with, the butcher, baker or grocer who supplies our physical needs, the partner with whom we dance at a ball, the person who lends us a hymn-book at church, or shows us the place we are looking for! The footman ■ becomes familiar by bringing us letters frequently, and the car-driver by taking up our fare so often. A French exile once wrote to the third Napoleon asking pardon and permission to return to France, on the ground that he had been the first to lay his hand upon him and arrest him when he was made prisoner and shut up in the fortress of Ham. The emperor could not resist the plea of such familiarity as this, and at once made out his pardon, which he sent him with an autograph letter. Every day that dawns upon us may bring us a new acquaintance or end an old friendship. We jostle each other and tread upon each other's feet in the hurly-burly of life. All our friends were once strangers to us, and any stranger may become our friend. The solitary are " set in families;" households are composed of individuals, and communities of households. " Man is a gregarious animal," said the old logician, and abhors isolation as much as sheep do. The household is a shecpfold, and in the fields of life the hu- man sheep must graze together and hold the pasturage in common. But scabby sheep are avoided by the healthy ones, and morally un- wholesome persons should be avoided by families and individuals % 3i8 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. from an instinct of self-preservation and for the protection of the young. "Avoid bad company," is a precept which needs to be fol- lowed as much inside as outside of the home. Be courteous, there- fore, to every one with whom you have to do, but do not be weak enough to allow any one to thrust their company upon you against your own inclinations.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Street car, and some trifling occurrence made them first bowing acquaintances, then visitors at each other's homes, then hand-shaking and hearty friends. Sometimes taking another person's hat or umbrella by mistake — though umbrellas, as a rule, are not taken by mistake — led to apologies and explanations, and these to acquaintanceship, and that to intimacy. How hard it is to avoid being either friends or foes to one who lives next door to us, or has rooms in the same house, or lives directly opposite, and whom we find ourselves unconsciously surveying through our window when he or she is contemplating us in the same way and time ! How hard it is to escape having some feeling toward every one we are brought in contact with, the butcher, baker or grocer who supplies our physical needs, the partner with whom we dance at a ball, the person who lends us a hymn-book at church, or shows us the place we are looking for! The footman becomes familiar by bringing us letters frequently, and the car-driver by taking up our fare so often. A French exile once wrote to the third Napoleon asking pardon and permission to return to France, on the ground that he had been the first to lay his hand upon him and arrest him when he was made prisoner and shut up in the fortress of Ham. The emperor could not resist the plea of such familiarity as this, and at once made out his pardon, which he sent him with an autograph letter. Every day that dawns upon us may bring us a new acquaintance or end an old friendship. We jostle each other and tread upon each other's feet in the hurly-burly of life. All our friends were once strangers to us, and any stranger may become our friend. The solitary are " set in families;" households are composed of individuals, and communities of households. " Man is a gregarious animal," said the old logician, and abhors isolation as much as sheep do. The household is a sheepfold, and in the fields of life the human sheep must graze together and hold the pasturage in common. But scabby sheep are avoided by the healthy ones, and morally unwholesome persons should be avoided by families and individuals % 3i8 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. from an instinct of self-preservation and for the protection of the young. "Avoid bad company," is a precept which needs to be followed as much inside as outside of the home. Be courteous, therefore, to every one with whom you have to do, but do not be weak enough to allow any one to thrust their company upon you against your own inclinations.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home