FLOWER GARDEN, continued:- Page MISCELLANEOUS, continued:- Page POETRY, continued:-

294 Childhood, Anecdote of
294 Conversation, Family

..55, 234 Dress, Tirade against

Elegance, Toilet of

114 Handbill, Welsh

196 Language of Flowers, The..
257 Last Adieu, The

26 Ladies, Defend yourselves

175 Rheumatism, To the

234 Tradition

79 Voice of the Echo, The

295 Love in the Reign of the Roses
296 My Mother's Grave.

57 July.......

144 Delectabilis, Odor........

204 Dye, Hair...

296 For the previous Six Months, see Vol. II.
See also "Grandfather's Dream,"

235 Pp. 30, 353.

264 Drawings, to Set Chalk & Pencil.. 299
Insects, Cure for Bites of
Lumbago, for the
Mareschal, Extract of...

THE EDITOR AND HIS FRIENDS.-[APPENDIX.]

FRANK MEANWELL,

OR,

MISTAKEN PURPOSES;

A TALE OF THE MONTHS.

"I SHALL sell out to-day, my dear, all my | curly-headed boy, his only child, and halfshares in the Grand Marine Joint-Stock Mining Company," said Mr. Meanwell to his wife at breakfast; "yesterday they reached seventy pounds premium, and we cannot expect them to rise any higher; indeed, it will not be safe to keep them any longer if it had not been for Parker, I should have sold out the day before yesterday. I have no other shares; and after to-day, I shall have nothing more to do with this harassing kind of life."

jokingly said-" Come, Frank, repeat to your mamma the lesson that Mr. Capel, my clerk, taught you the other evening. Come, sir, what is the first axiom in the speculator's catechism?"

"I am sure, Harry, I shall be glad to see you less anxious, and more at home," replied his affectionate and gentle wife.

"Well," said he, "I will make an end of it to-day. I have risked our all in this; and you will be satisfied, I think, when I show you my banking book to-night; for I will sell all to-day, though Parker, and Bamford, and the rest, may remonstrate." "You know best, my dear," replied Mrs. Meanwell. "I never understood these speculations; indeed, the way in which we seem suddenly to have sprung to affluence, appears nothing short of a miracle to me. But, my love, if these shares in the Mining Company are so valuable, and such an advantageous investment as they have been represented to be, why should you be anxious to get rid of them ?"

The boy, whose age might be about ten years, got down from the chair in which he had been sitting, folded his arms behind his back, and striking the attitude of a schoolboy repeating a task, said with a serio-comic air-" Clever men create shares, and silly people buy them; and thus the wise relieve the foolish of the money with which they are not fitted to be trusted."

"Ha! ha ha! very good," said Mr. Meanwell; "and can you now remember the second answer in Mr. Capel's catechism? I forget the exact question, but I dare say you can tell me the answer, you little wag."

Frank was about to reply, when a servant entered the room, and laid upon the table that marvellous production of human genius-the morning paper, which immediately absorbed his father's attention.

Mr. Meanwell was a man about forty years of age, with a rather handsome figure, and an intelligent, cheerful face. His temperament was the pure sanguine

easily elated by hope, or depressed by anxiety. He was quickly carried away by excitement, and as suddenly chilled by ill

twenty-eight he had married, and applied himself to the business of silk-mercer with such diligence that he succeeded in establishing a business-house of good repute in London, from which he received sufficient income to live in ease, and to procure for his only son an excellent education. At this period of his life he came in contact with a person named Bamford, who had been in the same line of business, and who represented that he had relinquished trade for the more profitable business of speculation, stock-jobbing, &c. Bamford was just the man to dazzle Meanwell with his stories of fortunes made in a few weeks, and of enormous sums of money realized with little or no effort; and so rapidly did this influence grow, that, within a month or two after the acquaintance commenced, the silk-mercer's business was put into Bamford's hands to sell, and Meanwell had determined to devote his whole attention to obtain the princely riches, which-so his hopeful disposition dreamed-would immediately arise from speculation.

The public mania had raged wild and long. The avaricious desire to be rich, without the exchange of useful services, and without increasing the resources and general wealth of the country, seemed to possess every heart. From the highest to the lowest, a frenzy possessed the people. The capitalist withdrew his wealth from his manufactory, and the hitherto industrious labourer took his little accumulations from the savings-bank to subscribe to some novel scheme, as romantic as the tale of Aladdin with his fabled lamp. Guardians invested the property of their wards; the sole dependences of widows and orphans were staked upon the issue of plans which had not even the shadow of practicability. As long as persons were found foolish enough to buy at increasing rates, the general madness continued. Meanwell had realised considerable sums by the sales of shares, but he no sooner became possessor of the profits, than, intoxicated by his success, he risked the whole of his property upon a new and vaunted scheme. He was superstitious enough to believe that there was such a thing as "luck," and that this fabled influence was upon him to such a degree that he possessed a kind of infallibility. Hitherto, in his speculations, nothing im

portant had occurred to disturb this belief, or shake his superstition, for everything had gone smoothly up to the date at which this story commences.

Breakfast was proceeding as usual, the mother's attention being divided between the amusing conversation of her intelligent boy and the duties of the table, when Mrs. Meanwell was startled by a low moan from her husband, from whose hands the paper which he had been reading slipped, as he fell back in his chair. The gentle and affectionate wife sprang to his side with a shriek of fright, and supported his head in her trembling arms.

Mary," he murmured in a voice choking with emotion, "it is all over! It is too late!"

"What do you mean?-Oh! what is this?" exclaimed his wife," What, what is the matter? What affects you thus?"

Some moments elapsed before the sufferer could explain what had caused such an alarming scene, but at last, pale and gasping, he pointed to the newspaper, and bade his wife read a paragraph to which he directed her attention in the column headed "Share Market." It was in the following words:

GRAND MARINE JOINT-STOCK MINING COMPANY. A severe depression was experienced yesterday in the shares of this company, in consequence of a rumour (since confirmed) that Mr. Bamford, the chairman of the company, and holder of a large number of shares, had sold out, and had left the country. It was also stated that Mr. Billing, attorney to the company, and Mr. Bamford's confidential friend, had followed the had been allotted to him. Other awkward rumours example, and had disposed of the shares which were afloat with reference to the secretary, Mr. Parker. The effect of all this was immediately perceptible; a great anxiety to realise was manifested on all sides, and the shares, which were quoted in the list of the day before at prices varying from £68 to £72 premium, fell to par-were afterwards at discount-and at last so complete was the panic, that the shares became absolutely unsaleable.

Uninitiated as she was in such matters, the instinct peculiar to the sex enabled Mrs. Meanwell at once to perceive the magnitude of their misfortune, though she could not perfectly understand its nature, or how it had come about. Young Frank, too, was puzzled, and almost alarmed by the silent anguish with which his parents regarded each other; so running round the table, and looking in his father's face, he

sought to change the current of his thoughts by some of his humorous sayings:

“Papa,” said the boy, "are you better now?--because I have got something to tell you. See here," he added, pulling some slips of paper from his pocket, "here is some 'scrip' to sell; I have established a company, papa, and these are the shares. Why don't you laugh? Mr. Capel said my company was a very good one. It is called the 'Hot Mince-pie Company, and when the people have bought all the shares, the chairman-that's me-is to eat all the pies. Isn't that capital, papa?" And the boy laughed aloud.

"I don't know, Frank," said his father, musingly.

"Don't know, papa? Why, Mr. Bamford told me it was a capital idea, and that he would not forget it. The shareholders are to pay for the pies, and, ha! ha! the chairman is to eat them all, and, ha! ha! I am the chairman, and directors, and all."

It

contrast with the glaring whiteness of the
foot-paths; and one could almost fancy
they looked sulky and ill-tempered at each
other about the tempestuous weather.
was a miserable January day, when the win-
ter penetrated everywhere; now whistling
through the keyhole-now stealing up
through the crevices of the floor-now
plunging with a cloud of snow into the
narrow court-now loaded with millions of
icy crystals careering across the fields-now
roaring like sea billows over the roofs,
spitting its fury down the chimneys at the
hospitable fires, and rattling the slates and
tiles with a cheerless clatter, or tossing the
thatch into the air, and shooting a stream
of snow-flakes through the damaged
covering. Winter was everywhere.

Along the snowy streets, amidst the
hurrying crowd, a man with bloodshot eyes
and pallid face pushed hastily and rudely
on. There was a certain air of bitterness
in the manner in which he strode away, and
in his fixed onward look was expressed an
angry and stern determination. No cloak,
or over-coat, shielded him from the piercing
blast. Yet he seemed to heed it not.
on, he strode with fixed face towards the
centre of the great city. Friends met him,
and would have spoken-but he saw them
not. Hasty drivers warned him of danger

On,

The cloud darkened on Mr. Meanwell's brow; his son had taught him unconsciously a lesson. He rose abruptly from the table, as if stung with sudden anger, and leaving his breakfast untasted, walked hurriedly about the room, muttering to himself as he went. The gentle nature of his wife was too much shocked and alarmed-but he heard them not. Many, as they by his demeanour, even to attempt to soothe, or to console; she sat like a statue, with fixed eyes, listening to every word which fell from her distracted husband.

"So Bamford said he would not forget it -and he sells the very next day. Confound him!-if it had not been for him and his tool Parker, I should have sold out before him; but that was a part of his artful plan. I will find them both," he exclaimed, in a louder tone. "I will hunt them to the end of the earth. I will" The rest of the sentence was inaudible, as, in a high state of exasperation, Meanwell rushed from the room, and immediately afterwards from the house.

A bitter north-east wind went whispering along the streets, on which the newfallen snow muffled the usual sounds. Rushing round the corners, it bore upon its wings clouds of fresh flakes; while in eddies over the house-tops the white and feathery dust was tossed angrily into the air. The house-fronts seemed dingy in the

saw him coming, paused on their shivering way to note him as he passed along, and felt colder when he had gone by. The desolation of bleak January was in his heart, and looked out from his icy face, Medusalike, chilling the blood of those who looked thereon. On, on he strode!

In a narrow street, in which the tall and dark houses seemed to be elbowing each other out, and all struggling for the little space they granted for the thoroughfares here and there between them, amidst banks and counting-houses, insurance companies, and brokers' offices, was a building remarkable for the elegance with which its face was stuccoed. It looked like a young house in holiday costume, whose temper had not yet been made as morose as those around it; and though it was not quite so tall as its neighbours, it carried itself with such a jaunty air as if it considered that it was quite as good as the best of them. On each side of the door was fixed a large zinc plate, handsomely engraved, indicating