not unlike an enlarged star, with a dim 'continuation,' like the fainter light of the 'Milky Way,' of a clear, bright night. • Look at it! think of it!' exclaimed our friend. 'There in yonder sky, is an erratic, wandering body, with no fixed orbit, uncontrollable, so far as known, by any specific law, or regular celestial mechanism, which, after sweeping its awful cycle amidst the revolving worlds above us, suddenly ‘streams its horrid hair' on the midnight sky! How wide, how sublime, has been its celestial journey! And is it not a heavenly, an almost overpowering thought, that hereafter, in a world of unclouded light and knowledge, it may be vouchsafed to us to see with our natural eyes, and without the mistakes to which calculation is subject, the course of comets, the order of the solar and planetary systems, and fathom the depths of that dread arch of mystery that now hangs suspended above us!" This incident, which occurred many years ago, was forcibly called to mind a few days since, as we were steaming down from DOBB's, on the morning of the recent partial eclipse of the sun. Here was demonstrated not only the grandeur of the divinely-ordered movements of the heavenly bodies, but the sublimity of the intellect of the creatures of the ALMIGHTY. At the very moment predicted, we saw, through a bit of smoked glass, a faint rim of shadow clip the edge of the great orb of day, and continue its encroachment upon its diminishing light, until the exact ex

WHAT'S THE LAW.

tent that had been foretold was attained.

151

And then it was

that we thought of those who, at that precise moment, high upon the Alps, were looking from those towering forms of Nature that 'pinnacle in clouds their snowy scalps,' to see the mighty shadow of the eclipse roll along the vast region below, blotting out whole provinces of lovely Italy in its giant-march! It were worth the toil of a

twelve-month to witness that sublime spectacle.

SOMEBODY, we name no parties,' illustrated in our hearing the other evening the vague idea which some people, who enter into litigation, have of the powers of Law over any and all cases, under all sorts of circumstances. A man in a state of great excitement entered a metropolitan lawyer's office, and taking off his hat, and a chair by the table at the same time, and wiping the perspiration from his forehead with a damp red-and-yellow pocket-handkerchief, asked the counsellor 'in chambers' for his 'views' as to 'the law. 'Well,' said the counsellor, as to what law? — under what circumstances? State your case. I'll tell you what the law is, when you state your case. You want to know what the law is as to what?' เ Wal,' responded the client, scratching his head, and seeming to be greatly taken aback by this unexpected obstacle, ‘wal, 'sposin' a man leaves the state, and do n't come back ag'in ?

152

AN ANECDOTE.

THEN what's the law!" 'I never shall forget,' said our informant,' the blank disappointment exhibited in that client's face, when I told him that that was a case past any legal surgery of mine. 'Can't fetch him, eh? and he owes me more 'n fifty dollars!' Seeing that his 'case' was

'gone,' the client left also.

NUMBER SEVEN.

6

CHRISTMAS GREENS THE CROSS: A 'PICTURE IN LITTLE' OF WAR: RAFTINCIDENT ON THE OHIO: THOUGHTS OF THE DEAD ·WESLEY: SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES · A NEW READING: A PHILOSOPHER OUTWITTED: 'GREAT SHAKES OF A DUTCHMAN'S DOG: THE MYSTERIOUS PRINCE - -‘POISSON D' AVRIL': AN INDIAN ON THE GALLOWS: DEATH OF A MOTHER: THE 'YANKEE-PASS': A FEBRUARY NIGHT: A TESTACEOUS PHENOMENA: THE UPSHOT' OF MARRIAGE: 'DUBIOUS' SCULPTURE: DEATH OF AN INNOCENT • 'MRS. RAMSBOTTOM ' ABROAD: A CHURCH DEDICATION: 'UNDER-DONE APOSTLES: PLEASURES OF MEMORY: RUM versus WATER: TRICKS UPON TRAVELLERS: NIGHT-CONFLAGRATION · THE SILENT CITY

L

OOKING around, as we came in to-night, upon the an

nual Christmas-greens, in all tasteful forms, with which the hand of Affection annually decorates the sanctum, we met 'THE CROSS,' graceful in shape, and entwined with rosaries of red berries. Far back in memory we went instantaneously, and heard, for the first time as it were, in the little church of our 'boyhood's home,' this first verse of a hymn fall from the eloquent lips of the Rev. DERRICK C. LANSING:

'WHEN I survey the wondrous cross

On which the PRINCE OF GLORY died,

All earthly gain I count but dross,

And pour contempt on all my pride!'

How many are the cells of memory!-- how countless the things that are treasured there! - and how strangely

154 A PICTURE IN LITTLE' OF WAR.

they rise to the mind, amid one's daily cares and avocations! We shall know more of this mystery hereafter.

'THERE is tew sides to the matter of war,' says HOSEA BIGELOW, writing from Mexico; and he proceeds to illus

trate the fact:

"THIS kind o' sogerin' ain't a mite like our October trainin',

Where a chap could clear right out, ef it only looked like rainin';
Where the Cunnles used to kiver up their shappoes with bandanners,
And send the Insines skootin' off to the bar-room with their banners,
(Fear o' gittin' on 'em spotted,) and a feller could cry quarter
Ef he fired away his ram-rod, arter too much rum-and-water.
Recollect what fun we had — I and you and EZRY HOLLIS —
Up there to Waltham Plain last fall, a havin' the CORNWALLIS?
This sort o' thing ain't jest like that: I wish that I was furder!
Ninepence a day for killin' folks comes kind o' low for murder.
(Why, I've worked out to slaughterin' some, for Deacon CEPHAS BILLINS,
And in the hardest times there was I always fetched ten shillin's :)

This 'goin' where glory waits ye' hain't one agreeable featur',
An' ef it warn't for wakin' snakes, I'd be home ag'in, short metre !
O, would n't I be off, quick time, ef 't warn't that I was sart'in
They 'd let the day-light into me, to pay me for desartin'?'

HOSEA is not the only one, probably, who has lately ascertained that militia trainings and 'CORNWALLS' shamfights are quite unlike the actual 'pomp and circumstance of glorious war.'

A FRIEND once informed us that one of the most ridiculous sights he ever saw was on the Ohio river. He was