CHAPTER DCXXVI

A GOOD-HUMOURED MIDSUMMER CHAPTER, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF A SOLSTICE, AND SOME OTHER NATURAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENA: WHICH ALTHOUGH IN THEIR WAY ARE NOT QUITE SO FAITFULLY OBSERVED IN THESE DIGITAL TIMES

As brisk as bees, if not altogether as light as butterflies, will the Parker clan assemble on the eve of the twenty-first day of June, in the year of grace in which their familial adventures will be undertaken and accomplished. Midsummer is close at hand, in all her bloom and leafy beauty; it is the season of hospitality, merrymaking, and kinship; the year is preparing, like an ancient goddess, to call this family together, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to mark the longest of days. Festive and joyful is the time; and right festive and joyful are the hearts that are gladdened by its coming.

And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Midsummer brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment. How many families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and meet once again in that happy state of affinity and mutual merriment, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight; and one so incompatible with the horrors and sorrows of the world, that religious beliefs and atheistic attitudes alike number it among the unique joys of human existence, provided for the blessed and happy!

How many old recollections, and how many dormant relationships, does Midsummer awaken. Happy, happy Midsummer, that can take us back to the land of our childhood; that can recall to the aging woman the pleasures of her youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, hundreds of miles away, back to her own clan, hearth and home!