and raised my hands to heaven, while I entreated forgiveness in the language of agony. Suddenly the clock of the church sturck ten, and Mary stood before me. I never saw her look so beautiful. She was melancholy; but a smile sat upon her lips, and she regarded me with a look of divine satisfaction. My heart leapt for joy, for I found that what I had done was good. She vanished away in the darkness of night; but the admonition with which she had hitherto charged me, followed not, and I drew from it an omen that my repentance had truly begun.

I need not pursue this subject farther. I am an

altered man.

The blood of a fellow-creature still cries against me; but a contrite heart may do much to silence its voice. The appearance of Mary is no longer terrible-now that the change has commenced within me. She has been my good angel since the moment of my crime till the present day. She has hovered around me; and, by appearing at short intervals, has terrified me from a commission of iniquity. She has kept my conscience awake, and at last melted its stubborn nature to virtue and repentance. Heaven did not send her to be my punishment, but For years I regarded her as a demon

to be my guide.

come to torment

me; but this was only while I was hardened in sin. Without her warning voice, I had travelled on in my former ways, and perished unforgiven. Even now, I feel I could not do without her. I cannot trust my own strength, and nothing but her nocturnal visits could keep my spirit in the true path to wisdom and happiness.

THE BARBER OF GOTTINGEN.

ONE night about ten o'clock, as the Barber of Got. tingen College was preparing to go to rest, after having scraped the chins of upwards of a dozen of students, the door of his shop opened briskly, and a short, burly, thickset man made his appearance. He seemed to be about fifty years of age. In stature he did not rise above five feet, but this was amply compensated by a paunch which would have done honour to a burgomaster. His face, his legs, and, in truth, his whole frame gave equal tokens of embonpoint; and spoke in eloquent terms of good living and freedom from This worthy personage had on a broad-brimmed glazed hat, a brown frock-coat, and brown smallclothes, with copper buckles at the knees. His hair, which was curly, and as black as pitch, descended be. hind, and at each side underneath the rim of his hat. His whiskers were thick and bushy; and his beard appeared to be of at least four days' growth.

care.

The salutation which he made on entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Barber, was more remarkable for freedom than for politeness. He pushed the door

roughly aside, and strutted into the middle of the room, placing his hands jockeywise into his coat pockets, and whistling aloud.

"Can you shave me, I say?" was his first address

to the astonished tonsor.

"Sir ?" said the latter, with a stare of surprise, as he turned round and encountered the eye of this new arriver.

"I say, can you shave me?" thundered out the latter with increased loudness.

The barber was a tall, meagre, spindle-shanked figure of a man, somewhat up in years, and not remarkable for an extraordinary share of courage. He had, however, too high an opinion of himself-being no less than peruke-maker to the professors of Gottingen-to stand tamely by, and be bearded in his own house. His indignation got the better of a feeling of dread, which, in spite of himself, began to creep over him; and he heard the demand of his visitor with rather an unusual share of resolution.

"You ask me if I can shave you, sir," said he, ceasing from the operation of strapping a razor in which he was engaged, "I can shave any man that ever wore a beard; and I see no reason why you should be more difficult to shave than other people, unless peradventure your chin is stuck over with bristles like a hedgehog, or some such animal.”

"Well, then, why don't you shave me?" returned the other, throwing himself upon a chair, pitching his hat carelessly to one side, and stretching out his

"Come

short plump legs as far as they would go. along my old boy; now I am ready for you." So saying, he unloosed his neckcloth, laid it down, and grasped and rubbed his neck and chin with both hands with an appearance of peculiar satisfaction. But the College Barber was in no mood of mind to relish such freedoms. He stuck his Dutch spectacles upon the tip of his long skinny nose, projected forward his peering chin in a sarcastic, sneering manner; and eyed the stranger with a look anything but favourable. At last he broke silence

"I said, sir, that I could shave any man but"But what?" said the other, aroused by the gravity of his tone, and turning round upon him.

"But it is not my pleasure to shave you." And he commenced strapping his razor as before, without taking any farther notice of his neighbour. The latter seemed astounded at what he heard. He, in fact, doubted the evidence of his ears, and gazed upon the Barber with a look of curious astonishment. His curiosity, however, soon gave way to anger; and this was indicated by a most portentous heaving about the chest, and an increased flushing of his rubicund face. His cheeks were at length blown out and distended with genuine rage, till they acquired something of the rotundity and proportions of a good large pumpkin.

"Not shave me!" ejaculated he, emptying his lungs and cheeks at once of the volume of air accumulated within them. The rushing out of this hurricane of

wrath was tremendous.

The Barber trembled from

top to toe when he heard it, but he uttered not a word.

"Not shave me!" He was silent as before.

"Not shave me!" repeated the little man a third time, louder than ever, and starting from his seat with a bound perfectly remarkable for his corpulency. The shaver got alarmed, and well he might; for the other stood fronting him-his arms a-kimbo-his eyes flashing fire, and all his attitudes indicative of some hostility. The strap was dropped, and the razor quietly deposited upon the mantel-piece.

"Do you mean to do me an injury in my own house?" said the Barber, with all the courage he could

muster.

"Donner und Blitzen! Who talks of injuring you? I wish you to scrape my beard. Is there anything

extraordinary in that ?"

"I can shave no man after ten o'clock," replied the Barber. "Besides, my business is solely confined to the professors and students of the university. I am strictly forbidden to operate on the face or head of any other person, by the most learned Doctor Dedimus Dunderhead and the Senatus Academicus."

"Doctor Dedimus Dunderhead!" observed the other with a contemptuous sneer. "And who the devil may he be ?"

"He is the Provost of the University, and Professor of Moral Philosophy thereunto," answered the Barber, not a little scandalized at hearing that learned man spoken of in such terms.