EVERY NUMBER EMBELLISHED WITH A STEEL ENGRAVING. THREE DOLLARS A YEAR. VOLUME I. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION, ANN-STREET, NEAR BROADWAY. NEW-YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1843. THE STAR OF LOVE.-A SERENADE. THE star of love now shines above, Cool zephyrs crisp the sea; Among the leaves the wind-harp weaves Its serenade for thee. The star, the breeze, the wave, the trees, Their minstrelsy unite, But all are drear till thou appear To decorate the night. The light of noon streams from the moon, Though with a milder ray; O'er hill and grove, like woman's love, It cheers us on our way. Thus all that's bright, the morn, the night, We dedicate to thee. G. P. M. NEIGHBOURHOOD OF GLENMARY. We present you this picture, dear reader, as if it were the portrait of a friend—and it is like announcing to you that our friend is for sale, to tell you (purely in the way of advertisement) that Glenmary may be bought. This is but one of the chance nooks in its neighbourhood, and a sweeter knot of scenery was never tied together with the thread of a brook. When we left it last summer we addressed the following letter to the unknown purchaser and next occupant of Glenmary. SIR-In selling you the dew and sunshine ordained to fall hereafter on this bright spot of earth-the waters on their way to this sparkling brook-the tints mixed for the flowers of that enamelled meadow, and the songs bidden to be sung in coming summers by the feathery builders in Glenmary, 1 know not whether to wonder more at the omnipotence of money, or at my ow impertinent audacity toward Nature. How you can buy the right to exclude at will every other creature made in God's image from sitting by this brook, treading on that carpet of flowers, or lying listening to the birds in the shade of these glorious trees-how I can sell it you, is a mystery not understood by the Indian, and dark, must say, to me. I "Lord of the soil,” is a title which conveys your privileges but poorly. You are master of waters flowing at this moment, perhaps, in a river of Judea, or floating in clouds over some spicy island of the tropics, bound hither after many changes. There are lilies and violets ordered for you in millions, acres of sunshine in daily instalments, and dew nightly in proportion. There are throats to be tuned with song, and wings to be painted with red and gold, blue and yellow; thousands of them, and all tributaries to you. Your corn is ordered to be sheathed in silk, and lifted high to the sun. Your grain is to be duly bearded and stemmed. There is perfume distilling for your clover, and juices for your grasses and fruits. Ice will be here for your wine, shade for your refreshment at noon, breezes and showers and snow. flakes; all in their season, and all "deed.ed to you for forty dollars the acre! Gods! what a copyhold of property for a fallen world! Mine has been but a short lease of this lovely and wellendowed domain, (the duration of a smile of fortune, five years, scarce longer than a five-act play;) but as in a play PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. NUMBER 17. we sometimes live through a life, it seems to me that I have lived a life at Glenmary. Allow me this, and then you must allow me the privilege of those who, at the close of life, leave something behind them: that of writing out my will. Though I depart this life, I would fain, like others, extend my ghostly hand into the future; and if wings are to be borrowed or stolen where I go, you may rely on my hovering around and haunting you, in visitations not restricted by cock-crowing. Trying to look at Glenmary through your eyes, sir, I see too plainly that I have not shaped my ways as if expecting a successor in my life-time. I did not, I am free to own. I thought to have shuffled off my mortal coil tranquilly here; flitting at last in company with some troop of my autumn leaves, or some bevy of spring blossoms, or with snow in the thaw; my tenants at my back, as a landlord may say. I have counted on a life-interest in the trees, trimming them accordingly; and in the squirrels and birds, encourag ing them to chatter and build and fear nothing; no guns permitted on the premises.* I have had my will of this beautiful stream. I have carved the woods into a shape of my liking. I have propagated the despised sumach and the persecuted hemlock and "pizen laurel." And "no end to the weeds dug up and set out again," as one of my neighbours delivers himself. I have built a bridge over Glenmary brook, which the town looks to have kept up by "the place," and we have plied free ferry over the river, I and my man Tom, till the neighbours, from the daily saving of the two miles round, have got the trick of it. And betwixt the aforesaid Glenmary brook and a certain muddy and plebeian gutter formerly permitted to join company with, and pollute it, I have procured a divorce at much trouble and pains, a guardian duty entailed of course on my successor. First of all, sir, let me plead for the old trees of Glenmary! Ah! those friendly old trees! The cottage stands belted in with them, a thousand visible from the door, and of stems and branches worthy of the great valley of the Susquehannah. For how much music played without thanks am I indebted to those leaf-organs of changing tone? for how many whisperings of thought breathed like oracles into my ear? for how many new shapes of beauty moulded in the leaves by the wind? for how much companionship, solace and welcome? Steadfast and constant is the countenance of such friends, God be praised for their staid welcome and sweet fidelity! If I love them better than some things human, it is no fault of ambitiousness in the trees. They stand where they did. But in recoiling from mankind, one may find them the next kindliest things, and be glad of dumb friendship. Spare those old trees, gentle sir ! In the smooth walk which encircles the meadow betwixt that solitary Olympian sugar-maple and the margin of the river, dwells a portly and venerable toad; who (if I may venture to bequeath you my friends) must be commended to your kindly consideration. Though a squatter, he was noticed in our first rambles along the stream, five years since, for his ready civility in yielding the way, not hurried (Communicated.) MY COUNTRY COUSIN. "LAVATER was a fool," said I to myself, running my middle fingers up and down along the bridge of my nose, "yes, it is quite prominent; and yet I am an unconscionable-but I may be mistaken. Self-knowledge, they say, is the most difficult, and the rarest of all knowledge; and it is possible that I don't know myself yet. Lavater may be right, after all." Just as I had arrived at this consolatory conclusion, my soliloquy was interrupted by the entrance of my father with an open letter in his hand. "Richard," said he, handing me the letter, "your cousin Hugh will be down this week, and I shall depend on you to take him about, show him the lions, and make his visit as pleasant as possible." ly, however, nor with an obsequiousness unbecoming a republican, but deliberately and just enough; sitting quietly on the grass till our passing by gave him room again on the warm and trodden ground. Punctually after the April cleansing of the walk, this jewelled habitué, from his indif ferent lodgings hard by, emerges to take his pleasure in the sun; and there, at any hour when a gentleman is likely to be abroad, you may find him, patient on his os coccygis, or vaulting to his asylum of high grass. This year, he shows, I am grieved to remark, an ominous obesity, likely to render him obnoxious to the female eye, and, with the trimness of his shape, has departed much of that measured alacrity which first won our regard. He presumes a little on your allowance for old age; and with this pardonable weakness growing upon him, it seems but right that his position and standing should be tenderly made known to any new-comer on the premises. In the cutting of the next grass, slice me not up my fat friend, sir! nor set your cane down heedlessly in his modest domain. He is "mine ancient," and I would fain do him a good turn with you. "Fy, Richard!" said he; "your cousin devoted all his For my spoilt family of squirrels, sir, I crave nothing but time to you last summer, while you were at Beech Park." immunity from powder and shot. They require coaxing to I certainly cannot complain of any lack of attention come on the same side of the tree with you, and though during my visit. Hugh was so assiduous in his efforts to saucy to me, I observe that they commence acquaintance amuse me that he did not allow me a moment's quiet. And invariably with a safe mistrust. One or two of them have what with his driving me about the country over those horsuffered, it is true, from too hasty a confidence in my grey-rid roads, dragging me hither and thither to see this cave or hound Maida, but the beauty of that gay fellow was a trap against which nature had furnished them with no warning instinct! (A fact, sir, which would prettily point a moral !) The large hickory on the edge of the lawn, and the black walnut over the shoulder of the flower-garden, have been, through my dynasty, sanctuaries inviolate for squirrels. I pray you, sir, let them not be "reformed out," under your administration. Of our feathered connections and friends, we are most "Then, I suppose, I must give up all idea of visiting Saratoga." The old gentleman looked displeased. that waterfall, it's a miracle that he didn't break my neck through his hospitable zeal." Hugh did the best he knew how, but I hope you will succeed better in your efforts to entertain him; he, at any rate, is willing to be pleased." "Well, I will do my utmost to make his stay agreeable. As for the trip to Saratoga—" "It will not be necessary to relinquish it; perhaps Hugh will go with you; or, if he should not like that, after he gets pretty well domesticated with us, you can leave him to Ellen and myself for a week or so. You will not be gone longer. I have, too, a little business that you can transact for me while there. I will tell you what it is before you go." bound to a pair of Phebe birds and a merry Bob-o'Lincoln, the first occupying the top of the young maple near the door of the cottage, and the latter executing his bravuras upon the clump of alder-bushes in the meadow, though, in common with many a gay-plumaged gallant like himself, his whereabout after dark is a mystery. He comes every year Hugh had one peculiarity which, daring the whole of his from his rice plantation in Florida to pass the summer at visit, kept him in a state of perpetual uneasiness, and, Glenmary. Pray keep him safe from percussion-caps, and while it caused me a great deal of vexation, afforded, at the let no urchin with a long pole poke down our trusting same time, not a little amusement. This was an excessive Phebes; annuals in that same tree for three summers. nicety about what he called "points of etiquette;" an anxThere are humming-birds, too, whom we have compliment-ious solicitude lest he should violate some conventional ed and looked sweet upon, but they cannot be identified from morning to morning. And there is a golden oriole who sings through May on a dog-wood tree by the brook-side, but he has fought shy of our crumbs and coaxing, and let him go! We are mates for his betters, with all his gold livery! With these reservations, sir, I commend the birds to your friendship and kind keeping. And now, sir, I have nothing else to ask, save only your watchfulness over the small nook reserved from this large purchase of seclusion and loveliness. In the shady depths of the small glen above you, among wild-flowers and music, the music of the brook babbling over rocky steps, is a spot sacred to love and memory. Keep it inviolate, and as much of the happiness of Glenmary as we can leave behind, stay with you for recompense! ON A LOVELY COQUETTE. A woman with a winning face, As diamonds formed of dew. rule, and by this fear he was kept in a state of continual tribulation. Hugh was naturally fond of society, from which, notwithstanding, he permitted himself to be banished by these imaginary terrours. 66 Dick," he exclaimed one night, after returning from a brilliant assemblage of beauty and fashion, “I should have been perfectly happy to-night but for those cursed 'points of etiquette!'" When, after he had been some weeks in the city, I proposed to him to accompany me to the Springs, he positively refused to stir until he had gone through a preparatory course of reading, of which "The Drawing-room," "The Canons of Etiquette," "The American Gentleman," etc. formed the least considerable portion. Having my own reasons for wishing to set off as soon as possible, and being able to advance the potent plea of "business," to excuse my desertion, I committed Hugh to the care of my sister and the old gentleman, and started for Saratoga. There I encountered, as I had expected, Sophia and her father. The latter, at least, was glad to see me, for he could now M.play at his favourite game of billiards all day, whereas be N. P. W. |