Enter MRS. BARKER and HARRY WOODS.

MRS. BARKER-Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Allow me to introduce Mr. Harry Woods, of New
Orleans.
(All bow.)

MRS. HIGGINS-A beautiful day, Mrs. Barker.
MRS. BARKER-Yes, a beautiful day.

MRS. HIGGINS (Placing a chair)-Be seated, Mr. Woods.

MISS SLIMKINS-(Aside)-He's a good lookin' feller. MRS. BARKER-We always have a pleasant meeting in your house, Mrs. Higgins.

MRS. HIGGINS-Well, I'm glad you think so. I allers strive to keep myself respectable. Can you say as much, Mrs. Barker?

MRS. BARKER-Why, I am astonished, Mrs. Higgins What do you mean?

MRS. HIGGINS-Well, in the presence of this company I charge you with havin' a beau and your husband not six months dead. You also actilly flew at that beau and kissed him in broad daylight.

MRS. BARKER-Oh, I understand. Dear Harry, you see we have offended Mrs. Higgins.

MRS. WHITNEY-(Aside)—Dear Harry! The brazenfaced woman! (To MRS. BARKER.) Yes, and you have offended more than Mrs. Higgins. Indeed, the hull country is a blushin' at your behavior.

MRS. BARKER-Really, is this so? I am sure I was not aware that I was offending the good people of this neighborhood by receiving a visit from Harry.

MRS. WHITNEY-And do you say it is no offence to fly at a man and kiss him in broad daylight?

MRS. BARKER-I say it is perfectly right to kiss some pele at any time.

MRS. WHITNEY-And I s'pose you think it is right to kiss this feller whenever you want to?

you

MRS. BARKER-Mrs. Whitney, I do not wish to be invidious, but I would like to ask if think it proper to kiss Mr. Josiah Plankerton at your gate in the dusk of the evening?

MRS. WHITNEY—(Excitedly)—It isn't so? It isn't so! I'd like to know who seed me. I tell you it's a falsettofication. (Some of the younger members of the circle laugh.) Qh, you need n't giggle. Would you believe this base woman in preference to me? Would you believe a woman who had a beau before her dear departed husband was six months gone, and kissed him under the burnin' noonday sun? I actilly have a notion to get up and go home in disgust.

MRS. HIGGINS-No, Mrs. Whitney; don't retreat, or they will think that you are conquered. We have sot out with the determination of holdin' the widder up to the scorn of the world, and let us go forward in the work.

MRS. WHITNEY-Yes; you're right. I will perceed to the work. Mrs. Barker, you ought aetilly to be ashamed of yourself. A widder should conduct herself properly, and when she fails to do so the community should perceed to administer a severe rebuke. Your actions have brought down upon you the virtuous indignation of the excited populace, and the first thing you will know you will be fetched up before a church meetin' and you will be expelled in disgust and renown. Did any person ever hear of sich doin's? Kissin' a man in broad daylight and him a stranger!

MRS. BARKER-I suppose then the difference between your offence and mine is that I kissed a stranger and you kissed one who was not a stranger.

MRS. WHITNEY-I didn't! I didn't! I tell you it's

a falsettofication, and even if Josiah did kiss me, we had paid proper respect to our dear departed pardners before we forgot ourselves. (Some of the ladies laugh.) Oh, you need n't giggle! I tell you it's a falsettofication, and Mrs. Barker knows it.

HARRY-Perhaps if the ladies present were informed as to who I am, this storm would subside.

MRS. HIGGINS Who are you, anyhow?

MRS. BARKER-I thought I had introduced him. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Mr. Harry Woods of New Orleans.

HARRY-Annie, you had better tell them all.

MRS. BARKER-Ladies, you have meddled considerably with my affairs. I will now explain. Harry Woods is my brother-the son of my mother by her second husband. Is it any wonder that I "actilly flew at him and kissed him," as some of you have expressed it, when I had not seen him for five years?

MISS SLIMKINS-Land of oceans!

MRS. HIGGINS-Goodness gracious i
MRS. WHITNEY-Sakes alive!

MRS. BARKER-I would now suggest that in the future you be not so hasty in your conclusions, and that you would remember the excellent motto, "Mind your own business."

[Curtain.]

MISS HIGGINSON'S WILL.

CHARACTERS:-ARETHUSA WILDER; MISS SNIVEL; HESTER
BLUESTOCKING; AGATHA MARTIN; MILD-

WEED BUTTERMILK; RAPHAEL ANGLEOO;
LAWYER GAY.

SCENE-A parlor in Miss Higginson's house. Agatha dusting the chairs.

AGATHA-Well, who'd ha' thought it! Miss Mehitable has walked off the stage, and here's everybody and more too coming to hear her Will read. I notice they're all precious fond of her just now, though they let her pretty much alone when she was alive. (Knocking.) I reckon there's one of the vultures; it's about time.

[Goes to the door and admits MISS SNIVEL and ARETHUSA.]

ARETHUSA-Ah, my good girl, I suppose you recognize me. I am Miss Arethusa Wilder, the nearest relative of our dear friend who has lately departed.

AGATHA (Aside)—Yes; mim, I know you like a book. MISS SNIVEL-Ah, "this life is all a fleeting show!" Who'd have thought that Mehitable would have been cut off in her prime? She was like a rose full blown, and the frost, I might say, nipped it.

ARETHUSA-Very true, indeed, dear Miss Snivel; though I must say, she never suited me on the subject of capstrings. It is a lamentable fact that she was wearing at her sudden departure a headgear with yellow ribbons.

MISS SNIVEL-Ah, Arethusa, what are cap-strings and such vanities? We live in a vale of tears, and our mortal frames are but hindrances.

AGATHA (Aside)-She takes precious care of her mortal frame; she wont even stir out of doors when it rains.

ARETHUSA-My good woman, (to AGATHA,) you were, if I mistake not, our dear friend's lady in waiting.

AGATHA-I was her servant, miss, if that's what you mean; I don't understand French.

ARETHUSA-Ah, and probably you know more than you're willing to tell about the state of her mind—ahem! -in regard to her property, etc.

AGATHA-I haven't lived a dozen years in the house without learning a little.

ARETHUSA-Just as I supposed. And perhaps you'd not be unwilling for a slight compensation—

AGATHA-I never tell secrets, miss; not for bribes, leastways.

ARETHUSA-(Turning away)—A low-born rustic! She evidently does not understand the customs of Parisian society. And (applying her eye-glass) now that I notice her, she really has a green gown. Highly unbecoming.

MISS SNIVEL-Ah, Arethusa, my mind is filled with thoughts that are bitter as wormwood. I think of the days when Mehitable Higginson said to me: "Sarah Snivel, we are all sinners, and you're the most artful of them all." I forgave her then, I forgive her now, but I can't say that I don't think of it.

AGATHA (Aside)-What magnanimity! Perhaps she expects a compensation to the tune of a few thousands.

MISS SNIVEL-I feel as if Mehitable Higginson was a looking down from the clouds, and saying: "Sarah Snivel, bless you." (She hides her face in her handkerchief.)

Enter MILDWEED BUTTERMILK and HESTER BLUE

STOCKING.

HESTER-I protest, Mr. Buttermilk, the poems of Juliana Flayemalive strike me as much more calculated to thrill the hearts of mankind.