Good Friday.--The English and Irish think it good to plant on this day,
because it was the day when our Saviour's body was laid in the grave.
Seeds, therefore, are certain to rise again.

At dinner the other day, Mrs. ------ mentioned the origin of Franklin's
adoption of the customary civil dress, when going to court as a
diplomatist. It was simply that his tailor had disappointed him of his
court suit, and he wore his plain one with great reluctance, because he
had no other. Afterwards, gaining great success and praise by his
mishap, he continued to wear it from policy.

The grandmother of Mrs. ------ died fifty years ago, at the age of
twenty-eight. She had great personal charms, and among them a head of
beautiful chestnut hair. After her burial in the family tomb, the coffin
of one of her children was laid on her own, so that the lid seems to have
decayed, or been broken from this cause; at any rate, this was the case
when the tomb was opened about a year ago. The grandmother's coffin was
then found to be filled with beautiful, glossy, living chestnut ringlets,
into which her whole substance seems to have been transformed, for there
was nothing else but these shining curls, the growth of half a century in
the tomb. An old man, with a ringlet of his youthful mistress treasured
on his heart, might be supposed to witness this wonderful thing.

Madam ------, who is now at my house, and very infirm, though not old,
was once carried to the grave, and on the point of being buried. It was
in Barbary, where her husband was Consul-General. He was greatly
attached to her, and told the pall-bearers at the grave that he must see
her once more. When her face was uncovered, he thought he discerned
signs of life, and felt a warmth. Finally she revived, and for many
years afterwards supposed the funeral procession to have been a dream;