“You must take me into your counsels, Mrs. agreeable one which had greeted the ears of the Wilson, if you propose any alterations. I think it was Pope, yes it certainly was Pope, who said, he did not like to see even an old post removed, which he remembered from his childhood." "What a tiresome idea," said Arthur, "only think of the sentimental rubbish with which the world would be filled. We had as well live in a cemetery at once, as to bury the future under the relics of the past. I should always prefer a new post to an old one, a living tree to a dead oue, and in short, should cut off the entail of ugliness bequeathed us by the past generation as soon as possible." Mr. Wilson glanced at Arthur for a moment, as if collecting the discharge he designed levelling at him. The hyperbole is a figure of speech well adapted to the use of very young men, Mr. Seldeu, and I will not do you the injustice to take you verbatim et literatim." eldens during the day. It had been a day of unusual constraint and exertion, as continual effort had been necessary to make the day pass off with tolerable harmony. The Seldens were distinguished by hospitality, in the highest and noblest seuse of the word, they not only exerted themselves to promote the enjoyment of their guests, but carefully avoided every thing that could wound the feelings of the most unamiable or uninteresting; nor did they ever yield to the temptation of covert insinuation, or painful suggestion, which may often be indulged in, without violating any law of politeness. How much happiness, how much kindness had dwelt within these old walls; but clouds must gather over all the habitations of earth; the most lovely and beloved must prepare for the day of trial, and this thought often now came across the heart of Mrs. Selden, as she looked around on her earthly treasures. Who is wise enough in the mysteries of our nature to say, whether in "Indeed, I would not trust him," said Mr. Selden, laughing, with an old oak or elm, under which his father and grandfather had played, if deed "coming events cast their shadows before?" it began to exhibit the least vestige of decay, nor even with the picture of his great grandfather, if it had no beauty to recommend it." 66 A man who has no reverence for the past, ought to be put out of the pale of civilisation, and sent as a pioneer to the west," said Reginald. "No such bad fate," replied Arthur, smiling, "a wild life in the woods would have its charms. The Future is the domain of Imagination, the Past, of Memory, who would not prefer Imagination to Memory ?" "How sorry I am," whispered Mary to Margaret, "that Charles was obliged to leave us this morning, he would have been able, if any one could, to harmonize these discordant elements." "Yes, I have wished often he was here," replied Margaret. The conversation took now a more discursive and lighter turn, to the great relief of Charlotte. There was no further opportunity for skirmishing, though Mrs. Dunlop once availed herself of a pause in the conversation, to ask Mrs. Selden, in a tone which might be heard distinctly to the farthest end of the room, if she had heard that Mr. Sinclair was very near being killed by a fall from his horse the day before, in a fit of intoxication, and she looked from the corner of her eye at Charlotte, who was known to have listened favorably at one period to this gentleman's addresses. But Charlotte exhibited no trace of emotion, for she really felt none, but vexation with Mrs. Dunlop. Sinclair was no more to her now, than a silk dress she had worn out a year ago. CHAPTER XLII. He died, he died On whom my lone devotedness was cast! I might not keep one vigil by his side, I, whose wrung heart watched with him to the last! I might not once his fainting head sustain, It was one of those bright, clear, December mornings, which impart an exhilaration to the frame, more delightful than the softness of the balmiest summer day. Edith stood at an open window, drinking in the free, pure air, and gazed on the scene before her with deep and silent delight. Our individual tastes appear to be determined by the hidden analogies, which exist between the outward world, and that world of wonders that lies hidden in every human heart. Beauty lies before us, and around us, on the lap of creation, but it must be spiritually discerned, and the loftiest and most excursive faculties comparatively speaking, are so limited in their range, that only a portion of the glory around us is visible to any individual. The peculiar manifestation of beauty, which strikes each one most forcibly, is that which best accords with the interual world that they bear about them, but whose mysteries are as awful, and as unfathomable, as if they did not form a part of our natures. To Edith, a winter scene possessed peculiar charms, the sights and sounds around her on The day ended at last, and the last sound of this morning, inspired continually increasing encarriage wheels as they rolled off, was the most ergy and exhilaration. A huntsman's horn was heard at a distance, and the cry of the hounds |J. Gilmore, until Mr. Gerald Devereux can be in full chase, the woodman's axe resounded in apprised of the melancholy event. I have writthe neighbouring forest, the sweet, clear note of ten to Mr. Gerald Devereux to state the same the red-bird seemed an invitation to go forth into particulars herein contained, and to inform him the open air. She looked at the tracery of the that it will be necessary that he should come over leafless branches against the clear, hard tints of immediately to Ireland, to conclude some unfinthe sky, and admired the various forms and out- ished and important business, in which not only lines of the trees, made visible by the loss of his late uncle, but himself is interested, the detheir foliage, contrasted with masses of dark pine tails of which could scarcely be comprehended trees, whose sweet, yet solemn murmurings fell by a young female. I shall continue to act for feebly on her ear; and she felt new courage and my late respected employer, until the arrival of strength arise within her heart; new schemes of Mr. Devereux. I have placed the will, together usefulness, new plans of action presented them- with his letters and papers in a box, and consignselves to her mind, with all of which the idea of ed them to the care of Mr. Thomas O'Brien, a her father was combined, assisting her efforts, worthy and reliable man, who goes over in the sympathising in her interests, sharing her trials Black-eyed Susan.' Hoping that you will and her triumphs, as he had always done. How submit to the decrees of Providence, since sooner bright, how exquisite were these brief moments, or later we must all pay the debt of nature, and but she was suddenly aroused from this blissful take comfort from the thought that your late vision, by the arrival of the messenger who had father was respected and beloved by all who knew been sent to the neighbouring post-office. The him. I remain, blood rushed suddenly to her heart, yet she anticipated no evil, as she pressed forward to see if there was any letter for her. Mr. Travers took from the letter-bag, a large, ominous looking ship-letter, and handed it silently "Your ob't humble servant, "OBADIAH MCGRATH." time she had ever experienced such a sentiment, holding in her hand the letter which had dropped on the floor. Without uttering a word, Edith stretched forth her hand to take it, the writing was her father's, but the indistinctness of the characters, showed how tremulous was the hand that penned it. It ran thus: Juliana stood near Edith in silent awe, the first to Edith, who recoiled from it for a moment, with as much horror as she would have done from a death-warrant. The superscription was certainly not in Mr. Fitzgerald's writing, and Edith's hand, trembled so much, she could scarcely tear open the seal. Who cannot understand the speechless terror which paralyzes every "Even in this awful hour, my thoughts are faculty under similar circumstances, with an un-more with you, my darling child, than with mydefined apprehension, strong almost as convic-self. My end is rapidly approaching, and I shall tion, that the unopened letter contains the intel- see your face in this world no more, my own ligence of some dreadful misfortune. As she opened the letter, one inclosed within it fell on the floor, but Edith went on without heeding it, to read the ominous epistle, while all stood around her, gazing with awe and wonder at the changes her countenance exhibited during the perusal. "HONORED MISS : -: Edith. I feel an humble, yet strong hope that we shall meet in Heaven. I trust in the merits of a Redeemer, when all other supports have crumbled from beneath me. All earthly things are fading, receding, but the love of a Saviour is able to bear me, without trembling, through the dark, cold waters of the river of death. "It is only within the last few months that I have become sensible of the vital importance of "It is my sad office to communicate to you the this great doctrine of Christianity, that I have melancholy intelligence of the decease of my embraced it with my whole heart. Would to respected employer, and your honored father, God that I had done so earlier, and sought to Mr. William Fitzgerald. He expired on Tues- impress these great truths on your heart, my love, day, the 5th day of October, about a quarter past but I trust and believe that my death will be the six, P. M. His illness was of short duration; means of opening your eyes to the faith which his disease was pronounced to be Pneumonia. He can alone carry us through life, and support us was attended by Dr. McArthur, one of the best in death. Grieve not for me as one without physicians Dublin could afford. He had every hope. I do not ask you not to mourn for me, I attention which could be procured, was sensible know this would be impossible, we have been to the last, and departed this life as became a man so much to each other, but mourn with Christian and a Christian. His remains are sent to Nor- sorrow, not with earthly idolatry. Tell Gerald folk, Virginia, at his particular request, in the it is my greatest earthly comfort to know that he Black-eyed Susan,' consigned to the care of will always continue to be to you an affectionate brother, tell him I leave every thing in his hands, he has always been to me a dear son, and that he must read these lines containing my last counsel to him, as well as to yourself, and prepare to meet his God, through trust in the Great Mediator. "I am composed, I fear not, my sufferings are not great—I thought once I would give the world to have you with me, but it is best that it cannot be so, you might have drawn my thoughts from higher, better things. "Farewell dear Gerald, dear Edith, my own, my darling. I am passing through the dark waters, but the floods do not overwhelm me, a Saviour's arm sustains me. God bless you both with His unspeakable grace is the last prayer of your father. But a little while and we meet again, think of this my -." He had evidently been unable to conclude the sentence, the last words were scarcely legible. Edith read every word of the letter, pressed it to her lips, her heart, but she remained rigid and immovable as marble, without uttering a sound, until her eye rested upon a lock of her father's hair, which had fallen from his letter. Then, for the first time, tears came to her relief, and convulsive sobs shook her frame with a violence that terri fied her awe-struck friends who stood in silence Well may thy heart be sad, Well may thine eye be weepingFor many a hope and joy of thine Hath he in his silent keeping. They pass with the dying year, And their light knows no returning, And thy soul shall mourn for the fleeting ray That passed as a meteor's burning. Come near-come bow thee down, A. E. E. MAPLE SUGAR MAKING. FROM LANMAN'S HAW-HO-NOO. It is in the month of April, and the hunting season is at an end. Albeit, the ground is covered with snow, the noonday sun has become quite powerful, and the annual offering has been made to the Great Spirit, by the medicine men, of the first product of one of the earliest trees in the district. This being the preparatory signal for extensive business, the women of the encampment proceed to make a large number of wooden troughs (to receive the liquid treasure), and after these are finished, the various trees in the neighborhood are tapped, and the juice begins to run. In the meantime the men of the party have built the necessary fires, and suspended over them their earthen brass, or ion kettles. The sap is now flowing in copious streams, and from one end of the camp to the other is at once presented an animated and romantic scene, which continues day and night until the end of the sugar season. The principal employment to which the men devote themselves is that of lounging about the encampment, shooting at marks, and playing the moccasin game; while the main part of the labor is performed by the women, who not only attend to the kettles, but employ all their leisure time in making the beautiful birchen mocucks, for the preservation and transportation of the sugar when made; the sap being brought from the troughs to the kettles by the boys and girls. Less attention than usual is paid by the Indians at such times to their meals, and, unless game is very easily obtained they are quite content to depend upon the sugar alone. If an Indian happens to return from the river with a fish, he throws it without any ceremony into the boiling sap, dipping it out, when cooked, with a ladle or stick; and therefore it is that we often find in the maple sugar of Indian manufacture the bones of a trout, or some more unworthy fish. That even a bird, a rabbit, or an opossum, is sometimes thrown IMPROMPTU TO SULLY.* Blest art thou, Sully, thus to trace Yes, Sully! thou art blest indeed! For wheresoe'er my footsteps move "With answering looks Of sympathy and love!" TENNYSON. N. into the kettle instead of a fish is beyond a doubt; and we are not positively certain that the civilized fashion of eating jelly with roast lamb may not be traced to the barbarous custom of cooking animals in hot sap. That this sap itself, when known to be clear and reduced to the consistency of molasses, is a palatable article, we are ready to maintain against the world, and we confess, that when not quite as fastidious as now, we have often eaten it in truly dangerous quantities, even in the cabin of an Indian. As we have already intimated, the sugar season is dependent upon the weather; but, even when it is prolonged to four or five weeks, it continues from beginning to end to be one of hilarity and gladness. At such times, even the wolfish-looking dogs seem to consider themselves as entitled to the privilege of sticking their noses into the vessels of sap not yet placed over the fire. And in this *While it is justly due the genius of this distinguished manner does the poor Indian welcome returning spring. artist to say that the portrait, to which allusion is here It is now about the middle of June, and some fifty made, presents a perfectly life-like image of its fair origibirchen canoes have just been launched upon the waters nal, it may well heighten our admiration of the modest of Green Bay. They are occupied by our Ottawa sugar-faint reflection, either on the glowing canvas or the humble loveliness and worth of one, who, in thus viewing even her makers, who have started upon a pilgrimage to Mackinaw.page, like gentle Eve beholding her beauty mirrored in The distance is near two hundred miles, and as the canoes the "clear, smooth lake" of Paradise, delicately "starts are heavily laden, not only with mocucks of sugar, but back" delighted and surprised; unconscious that the with furs collected by the hunters during the past winter, brilliant vision but beams and the Indians are travelling at their leisure, the party will probably reach their desired haven in the course of ten days. Well content with their accumulated treasures, both the women and the men are in a particularly happy mood, and many a wild song is heard to echo over the placid lake. As the evening approaches, day after day they seek out some convenient landing place, and pitching the wigwams on the beach, spend a goodly portion of the night carousing and telling stories around their camp fires, resuming their voyage after a morning sleep, long after the sun has risen above the blue waters of the east. Another sunset hour, and the cavalcade of canoes is quietly gliding into the crescent bay of Mackinaw, and, reaching a beautiful beach at the foot of a lofty bluff, the Indians again draw up their canoes, again erect their wigwams. And, as the Indian traders have assembled on the spot, the more improvident of the party immediately pro-altogether democratic tendency of his poems. True, all ceed to exhibit their sugar and furs, which are usually disposed of for flour and pork, blankets and knives, guns, ammunition and a great variety of trinkets, long before the hour of midnight. That the remainder of this night is devoted to feasting and dancing and tumultuous recreation, is a matter of course. But the trader who would obtain from the Indians their more unique articles of merchandize, usually visits the encampment on the following morning, when he is always certain of obtaining from the young women, on the most reasonable terms, their fancy mocucks of sugar, all worked over with porcupine quills; and a great variety of beautifully worked moccasins, and fancy bags, made of the sweet-smelling deer skin. In about a week after their arrival at Mackinaw, the Ottawa Indians begin to sigh for the freedom of the wilderness; and, before the trader has left his bed on some pleasant morning, there is nothing to be seen on the beach at Mackinaw but the smoking embers of a score or two of watch-fires. Then, in a happy day, I fell on Alfred Tennyson's poetry, and found there, astonished and delighted, the embodiment of thoughts about the earth around me which I had concealed, because I fancied them peculiar to myself. Why is it that the latest poet has generally the greatest influence over the minds of the young? Surely not for the mere charm of novelty? The reason is, that he, living amid the same hopes, the same sphere of observation as they, gives utterance and outward form, to the very questions which vague and wordless, have been exercising their hearts. And what endeared Tennyson especially to me, the working man, was, as I afterward discovered, the great poets are by their office democrats; seers of man tions common to all humanity; but in Alfred Tennyson only as man; singers of the joys, the sorrows, the aspirathere is an element especially democratic, truly leveling; not his political opinions, about which I know nothing, and care less, but his handling of the trivial, every-day sights and sounds of nature. Brought up, as I understand, in a part of England which possesses not much of the picturesque, and nothing of that which the vulgar call sublime, he has learnt to see that in all nature, in the hedgerow and the sandbank, as well as in the Alp peak and the ocean waste, is a world of true sublimity, a minute infinite-an ever fertile garden of poetic images, the roots of which are in the unfathomable and the eter awes the eye. The descriptions of the desolate pools and nal, as truly as any phenomenon which astonishes and creeks where the dying swan floated, the hint of the sil very marsh mosses by Mariana's moat, came to me like revelations. I always knew there was something beau tiful, wonderful, sublime in those flowery dykes of Battide shore; and here was a man who had put them into tersea fields; in the long gravelly sweeps of that lone words for me.-Alton Locke. soul. Who could have taken my jewel? I could by writing her a letter of dismissal-but ere the not conjecture, and I durst not inquire; because fatal sentence, "I have decided not to marry inquiry would end in a disclosure of my love-you, my Judith," could be finished, I seemed to engagement with a Jewess-a secret, which in my present state of mind, I could not bear to reveal. hear thunders roll at a distance, and to see the lightning flash of my tutelary angel as he descended at this awful moment; and then a moniAfter some days my conscience smote me for tory voice within me would whisper, Cast not withholding so important a communication from that pearl away?' Then I could not-for my my parents, who had a right to know my matri-life I durst not-wilfully cast that pearl away. monial scheme; and who were best qualified to The eve of the last day had arrived when I teach me by their cool and experienced judg- must write to secure the stipulated conveyance. ment, how to distinguish the dictates of sober To defer my answer beyond the next day, would reason from the illusions of passion and the sug-be in effect to discard my beloved Jewess. The gestions of prejudice. Freely could I tell them sun of the evening had set in the deepest gloom all but the one fact, that although my Judith was of a cloudy atmosphere; my soul was gloomy as the best and the most beautiful of maidens, and the shadow of death. My powers of mind and wealthy withal, yet she was that most disagreea- body were almost prostrated by long and deep ble thing-a Jewess. Oh misery! how often melancholy, now reaching the acme of a doleful when the story was on the point of my tongue, hypochondria. I sat in my room; my candle did I shudder and draw back at the thought of burued dimly with its knobbed, unsnuffed wick. telling that. But that was the critical point of I leaned over the back of my chair with my the case; to withhold that would be to evade the gist of the difficulty. elbow behind it and my temple supported with the palm of my hand; my eyes were half Days and weeks rolled on but gave no return closed, and scarcely sensible of the glimmering of brightness to my soul,-no decisive result to light in the room. Horrid spectres now for the my agonizing reflections. I moped and mused first time flitted across the fields of my imaginaand pined away. My friends observed my mel- tion, and disappeared. Then they reappeared, ancholy air and haggard looks. They ascribed | bloody and fierce; they stopped and gloated and all to returning consumption, and often took grinned at me, until I almost fainted with terror. counsel about the means of cure. Alas! they I was verging to absolute madness. Suddenly little dreamed that the malady was consuming I heard a low tapping at the door. I started up, the heart and not the lungs. shuddering with dread; for I conceived that murThus I drooped and hesitated, until the month derers were coming with daggers to stab me. of May was three-fourths gone. I had not writ-"Who is there?" I cried, with a scarcely audible ten even the friendly letter which my Judith had voice. "Me, massa Willie," was the answer. so earnestly requested. What a beast was II felt instant relief, when I recognized the voice Now the time was come when I must decide the of old Hannah, my nurse, in infancy, who alShe matrimonial question, either by action or by pro ways had for me a mother's affection. crastination. I must now write to my lovely Jew-opened the door softly, and completed my restoess, or forfeit all claim even to her friendly regard. ration to sober sense by the sight of her honest I had promised to write my decision at the latest by the sharp-visaged miser Levi, who would embark at New-York on the first day of June. Often did I sit down with pen in hand, resolved to write something. But what could I write? That I was well? No. That I had decided to marry her? No. That I had consulted my friends? No; not even that. That I was tormented with doubts and fears, and yet unable to decide? Yes. But why write a fact which could only distress her? Better not write at all: the failure of the promised letter might be imputed to accident. I had it in my grasp, I lifted both hands aloft But on second thoughts, this appeared unfeasi- and cried, "Thank God, thank God, I have her Go down ble; for she had reason to expect several letters; once more." Then I said quickly, and all could hardly fail. One other course re- now, aunt Hannah, I wish to be alone." She mained; I might if I pleased say to her, For-was amazed, as well she might be, but retired get me, lovely Judith.' In a misanthropic mood, promptly, saying as she went, "That can't be when every thought was dark and bitter, I twice money, no how, that makes Massa Willey so sat down in desperate resolve to end the strife glad." I hastily locked the door after her, VOL. XVI-93 face. "Massa Willie, I don't want to 'sturb you now, when you got so poorly again. I jist came to ax you if that slut Poll that Massa hired last Christmas, didn't take this curious piece 'o money, or whatever it is, from you. I thought it must be your'n, for I know it ain't none o' her'n. See. here it is," said she, coming forward and holding up what I saw instantly to be my locketcase-my talisman! As the famished tiger or the boa-constrictor springs upon his prey, so did I spring forward and clutch my jewel; and when 64 |