disease; some are so lean that their bones would rattle, and others of
such ponderous size that their agility would crack the flagstones; but
many, many have leaden feet, because their hearts are far heavier than
lead.

It is a sad thought that I have chanced upon. What a company of dancers
should we be! For I, too, am a gentleman of sober footsteps, and
therefore, little Annie, let us walk sedately on.

It is a question with me, whether this giddy child, or my sage self, have
most pleasure in looking at the shop-windows. We love the silks of sunny
hue, that glow within the darkened premises of the spruce drygoods' men;
we are pleasantly dazzled by the burnished silver, and the chased gold,
the rings of wedlock and the costly love-ornaments, glistening at the
window of the jeweller; but Annie, more than I, seeks for a glimpse of
her passing figure in the dusty looking-glasses at the hardware stores.
All that is bright and gay attracts us both.

Here is a shop to which the recollections of my boyhood, as well as
present partialities, give a peculiar magic. How delightful to let the
fancy revel on the dainties of a confectioner; those pies, with such
white and flaky paste, their contents being a mystery, whether rich
mince, with whole plums intermixed, or piquant apple, delicately rose-
flavored; those cakes, heart-shaped or round, piled in a lofty pyramid;
those sweet little circlets, sweetly named kisses; those dark, majestic
masses, fit to be bridal-loaves at the wedding of an heiress, mountains
in size, their summits deeply snowcovered with sugar! Then the mighty
treasures of sugar-plums, white and crimson and yellow, in large glass
vases; and candy of all varieties; and those little cockles, or whatever
they are called, much prized by children for their sweetness, and more