have come to be called monkeys. I repeat, that I still leave untold, why fairies, like monkeys (but not because they are likened to monkeys), are said to wear hoods, or pucks, and are thence called hoods, or pucks, or goblins. The reason is exceedingly different, but too long in its explanation to be told at present. Monkeys are called pucks or pugs upon account of a natural appearance in their forms; fairies are called pugs or pucks, upon account of their imaginary dress. 'Hoods,' or 'peaks,' give the name in either case."

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I shall like to read about Robin Hood again," said Richard, now that I hear that people believed or called him a fairy; but I am thinking, papa, of what you said, the other morning, that there are none of these pretty Robin-red-breasts, and no singing-birds, and no birds that come about the houses, in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land ?"

What I said of the absence, in those countries, of so many of the natural productions to which we are accustomed in the Northern Hemisphere, and which includes plants as well as animals, is corroborated," returned Mr. Paulett," by the present lately made by our gracious Queen Adelaide, of a collection of Northern plants to the colony of Van Diemen's Land; but I did not go quite so far as to say that there were no small birds in those countries, to come about the houses. There is a species of swallow in great numbers, and still more familiar (as we may think) than any of our

own."

"But swallows are not so pretty, nor so easy to be acquainted with, as Red-breasts," interrupted Richard. "Perhaps not," replied his papa; "but their familiarity and confidence, in living among us, and in building about our houses, has everywhere recom

mended them to mankind; as is also the case with several other animals, including the stork, the dove or pigeon, and the dog. But these swallows of the Southern Hemisphere carry their confidence and familiarity very far. From the warmth and dryness of the season, the windows of a drawing-room, in the handsome house of a settler, were last year continually open during the breeding-time; and here, one pair of swallows built their nest within the room, but under the cornice; another, under the shelf, and at the corner, of the mantel-piece; and a third against the legs, under a table which was stationary in the middle of the room! This last was demolished, almost at its beginning, by the family, upon account of its inconvenience; the second was given up by the swallows themselves, because the children were continually prying into it; but, in the first, the young were actually hatched!"

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Mamma," said Emily, "I wish we had a pair of swallows, to build in our parlour !"

"I cannot say that I quite wish the same," replied Mrs. Paulett; but listen to what your papa is going to add."

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I mean only, once more," concluded Mr. Paulett, "to bid you young people remember the recommendations of your native country, and how much you have to be thankful for, in being born, and bred, and living in it! The presence of the small birds, and song-birds, as I have told you (after making allowance for the different productions of different countries, and especially of the two Hemispheres, the Northern and the Southern), is often due to agriculture and gardening, and to the other works of human industry. It is due, also, to the greater or less advancement of wealth, and

arts, and the other attendants upon civilization, in particular countries respectively; and it is proper, as I have said, that you should know and remember at what an eminent height your own country is standing in these respects, in order that you may be justly proud of your share in the distinction, and still more, that you may love it, and do your duty by it, as you ought. Even the southern part of this island has a beauty of landscape, as well as richness of production, depending partly upon climate, and partly upon wealth and civilization, such as strikes the eyes of strangers as exclusively English; but which, to natives, and especially to children, may seem nothing more than is to be met with every where else. A late Scottish traveller to the neighbourhood of the town of Bedford, makes the remarks which I shall read to you, upon the country which he saw there: I visited the spot,' says he,' one day in the spring, and shall not readily forget my morning's walk, and its accompanying circumstances. The landscape was truly English, and every thing seemed joyous and animated. The trees had not yet put forth their glorious garniture of leaves; but the brooks were perfectly transparentthe meadows rich with verdure; and here and there a tall fir-tree shot its green spiral branches into the air, and glistening masses of ivy twined round the trunk and arms of some old oak, or completely enveloped the marshy hollands and stunted elms. Birds were singing gaily in the lanes and hedges, husbandmen were busy sowing in the fields, and schoolboys were equally busy, primrosing, or violeting, in all the luxury of the Easter holidays. The poor man's spot of gardenground showed its knots of spring-flowers, and its border of daisies, primroses, and crocuses, with its budding

gooseberry and currant bushes; while the mistress of the cottage might be seen twirling her mop at the door in the sunshine, and thanking providence for the beautiful fine weather.' The tourist, had he been a native of England, might equally have remarked upon the rapid spread of luxurious novelties of the garden, in England, from the proudest scenes of Stow or Chiswick, to the palings of the humblest cottage. The dahlia

"The dahlia, gem-like in its velvet fold;"

which was unknown in England before the Peace of Vienna, when the late Lady Castlereagh brought it from the Austrian gardens, is now luxuriant and various in every cottage-garden in the south of England, disputing ground with the old marygolds, and even sunflowers, and vying with the richest productions of horticulture. But to this," continued Mr. Paulett, "I may add a description of the appearance of our whole island, from the pen of one who affects to write as a foreigner, and whose picture, though a little poetical and exaggerated, has yet a general consistence with truth: An American citizen,' says he, ' visits the continent of Europe, and on his way home passes some time in England. Here, he finds the roads, in every direction, far better than any he has seen before, and he sees more of them, on a given space, than in France or America. By the side of nearly all the great roads, he sees, for the first time, a well-kept footpath. In many places, the footpaths across fields are as dry, and smooth, and trim, as walks in pleasure-gardens. All the carriages on the roads are stronger and lighter, more useful and sightly, than those to which he is accustomed; and the vast number of those carriages

strikes him with astonishment. The strength and beauty of the horses, the quality and neatness of their harness, and the very whips with which they are driven, excite his wonder. He exclaims-What magnificent crops! What beautiful meadows! What fine cattle and sheep! What skill, &c. The mansions are palaces, the farmhouses mansions; the merest village of cottages has an air of comfort; whilst the number of those mansions, farm-houses, and villages, gives to the country the appearance of a scattered town. But then the towns! Many of them are so extensive, the houses in them are so well built, the shops have such a display of rich goods, the streets are so well paved, and contain so large a portion of good houses; these towns are so full of well-dressed people,—that each of them might be taken for a city. Even the smallest towns appear like sections of a wealthy capital; and the number of towns, large and small, is so great, that together with the great number of good houses by the road-side out of town, one seems to be travelling all day through one street.' This gentleman adds (what helps to explain so much of the description he has given), that the people of England have accumulated a greater capital [or, acquired a greater mass of wealth], in proportion to their numbers, than ever was heard or dreamed of before, by any nation, since the begining of the world *.'

"Another native of the same country (a minister of state), looking, not at our landscape and general surface, but at our metropolis of London, speaks in this manner of the great and always growing (and rapidly growing) greatness of that splendid city: 'I went to

* England and America. By an American.