The Old Folks' Party.

cards for your golden wedding , Judge , " said Nellie to Henry , soon after . " How many of those who were present at your Avedding will be present at your golden Avedding do you suppose 1 " " Not more than two or three , " replied Henry , " and yet the whole village was at the Aveddinn-. "

"Thank God , " he said a moment after , " that our friends scatter before they die . Otherwise old people like us would do nothing but attend funerals during tbe last half of our lives . Parting is sad , but I prefer to part from my friends while they are yet

alive , that 1 may feel it less when I die . One must manage his feelings or they Avill get the better of him . " "It is a singular sensation , " said George , " to outlive one ' s generation . One has at times a guilty sense of having deserted his

comrades . It seems natural enough to outlive any one contemporary , but unnatural to survive them as a mass , —a sort of risky thing , fraught with the various vague embarrassments and undefined perils threatening one AVIIO is out of his proper place .

And yet one doesn ' t want to die tho'igh convinced he ought to , and that's the cowardly misery of it . " " Yes , '' said Henry , " [ had that feeling pretty strongly when I attended the last reunion of our alumniand found not one

, survivor within five classes of me . I was isolated . Death had got into my rear and cut me off . 1 felt ashamed and throughly miserable . "

Soon after , tea was served . Frank vindicated his character as an old beau by a tottering alacrity in serving the ladies , while George and Henry , by virtue of their more evident infirmit y , sat still and allowed themselves to be served . One or two declined tea as not agreeing with them at that hour .

The loquacious herb gave a fresh impulse to the conversation , and tlie party fell to talking in a broken , interjectory way of youthful scenes and experiences , each contributing some reminiscence , and the others chiming in and adding scraps , or perhaps confessing their inability to recall tbe

occurrences . ' AVhat a refinement of cruelty it is , " said Henry at last , " that makes even those experiences which were unpleasant or indifferent when passing , look so mockingly beautiful when hopelessly past . "

" Oh , that ' s not the right way to look at it , Judge , " broke in Grandma Fellows , with mild reproof . " Just think rather how dull life would be looking forward or backward if past or coming experiences seemed as uninteresting as they mostly are

when right at hand . " " Sweet memories are like moonli ght , " said Jessis , musingly . " They make one melancholy , however pleasing they may be . I don ' t see why , any more than Avby moonlight is so sad spite of its beauty ; but so it is . "

The fragile tenure of the sense of personal identity is illustrated by the ease ancl completeness with which actors can put themselves in tbe place of tbe characters they assume , so that even their instinctive demeanour corresponds to the

ideal , ancl their acting becomes nature . Such Avas tbe experience of the members of the club . The occupation of their mind during the Aveek , with the study of their assumed characters , had produced an impression that had been deepened to an

astonishing degree by the striking effect of the accessories of costume and manner . The long continued effort to project themselves mentally iuto the period of old age was assisted iu a startling manner by the illusion of the senses produced by tbe decrepit figures , the sallow and wrinkled faces , and the Avhite heads of tbe group . Their acting had become spontaneous .

They were perplexed and bewildered as to their identity and in a manner carried away by the illusion their own efforts had created . In some of the earlier conversation of tlie evening there had been occasional jests and personalities , but the talk had

now become entirely serious . The pathos and melancholy of the retrospections in which they were indul ging became real . All felt that if it Avas acting now , it was but the rehearsal of a coming reality . I think some of them were for a little while

not clearly conscious that it was not already reality , and that their youth was not for ever vanished . The sense of age was Aveighing on them like a nightmare . In very self-pity voices began to tremble and bosoms heaved with suppressed sobs .

Mary rose and stepped to the piano . It indicated how fully she bad realized her part , that , as she passed the mirror , no involuntary start testified to surprise at