to play every kind of trick with me, I said to myself, "I must have this child. Whatever may come of it, I will risk-when the price of butcher's-meat comes down."

This I said in real earnest: but the price of butcher's meat went up, and I never have known it come down again.

came upon her "Early Margarets." But | And by the time I had brushed her hair I always think the White Juneating is a far and tied up the bows of her frock afresh, superior apple and I have a tree of it. and when she began to dance again, and My little garden is nothing grand, any more than the rest of my premises, or even myself, if it comes to that; still you might go for a long day's walk, and find very few indeed to beat it, unless you were contradictory. For ten doors at least, both west and east, this was admitted silently; as was proved by their sending to me for While I was thinking, our Bunny came a cabbage, an artichoke, or an onion, or in, full of apples, raw and roasted, and of anything choice for a Sunday dinner. It the things the children said. But at the may suit these very people now to shake very first sight of Bardie, everything else their heads and to run me down, but they was gone from her. All the other chilshould not forget what I did for them, dren were fit only to make dirt-pies of when it comes to pronouncing fair judg- This confirmed and held me steadfast in the opinions which I had formed without any female assistance.

ment.

and the little one approved of it. And then, our Bunny being in her best, these children took notice of one another, to settle which of them was nearer to the proper style of clothes. And each admired the other for anything which she had not got herself.

Poor Bardie appeared as full of bright spirit, and as brave as ever, and when she In spite of all her own concerns (of tumbled from jumping two steps, what did which she was full enough, goodness she do but climb back and jump three, knows), Bunny came up, and pulled at which even Bunny was afraid to do. But her, by reason of something down her I soon perceived that this was only a sort back, which wanted putting to rights a of flash in the pan, as it were. The happy little a plait, or a tuck or some manner change from the gloom of Sker House, of gear; only I thought it a clever thing, from the silent corners and creaking stairs, and long-faced people keeping watch, and howling every now and then-also the sight of me again (whom she looked upon as her chief protector), and the general air of tidiness belonging to my dwelling these things called forth all at once the play and joyful spring of her nature. But when she began to get tired of this, and to long for a little coaxing, even the stupidest gaffer could see that she was not the child she had been. Her little face seemed pinched and pale, and prematurely grave and odd; while in the grey eyes tears shone ready at any echo of thought to fall. Also her forehead, broad and white, which marked her so from common children, looked as if too much of puzzling and of wondering had been done there. Even the gloss of her rich brown poll was faded, with none to care for it; while the dainty feet and hands, so sensitive as to a speck of dirt, were enough to bring the tears of pity into a careful mother's eyes.

Gardy la! 'Ook 'e see, 'hot degustin' naily pailies! And poor Bardie nuffin to kean 'em with!"

"Come, you baby-chits," said I, being pleased at their womanly ways, so early; "all of us want some food, I think. Can we eat our dresses?' The children, of course, understood me not; nevertheless, what I said was sense.

And if, to satisfy womankind - for which I have deepest regard and respect-I am forced to enter into questions higher than reason of men can climb of washing, and ironing, and quilling, and gophering, and setting up, and styles of transparent reefing, and all our other endeavours to fetch this child up to her station

-the best thing I can do will be to have mother Jones in to write it for me; if only she can be forced to spell.

However, that is beyond all hope; and even I find it hard sometimes to be sure of the royal manner. Only I go by the Bible always, for every word that I can find; being taught (ever since I could read at all) that his Majesty, James I., confirmed it.

While I was setting this grief to rest (for which she kissed me beautifully), many thoughts came through my mind about this little creature. She and I were of one accord, upon so many important Now this is not at all the thing which I points; and when she differed from me, wanted to put before you clearly; beperhaps she was in the right almost: cause I grow like a tombstone often, only which is a thing that I never knew to hap-fit to make you laugh when I stand on my pen in a whole village of grown up people. right to be serious. My great desire is to

and kept down with stones, like the parish | won the victory, and when I foresaw the mangle, and covered with a handsome demented condition of glory impending mound of sand. And not only this, but in spite of expense and the murmuring of the vestry, a board well tarred (to show their colour) was set up in the midst of it, and their number "35" chalked up; and so they were stopped of their mischief awhile, after shamefully robbing their poor importer.

upon our village (not only from five magnificent palls, each with its proper attendance of black, and each with fine hymns and good howling, but yet more than that from the hot strength of triumph achieved over vaunting Kenfig), then it came into my mind to steal away with Bardie.

A stern and sad sacrifice of myself, I assured myself that it was, and would be; for few even of our oldest men could enjoy a funeral more than I did, with its sad reflections and junketings. And I might have been head-man of all that day, entitled not only to drop the mould, but to make the speech afterwards at the Inn.

But if this was conducted handsomely, how much more so were the funerals of the five young white men! The sense of the neighborhood and the stir, and the presence of the Coroner (who stopped a whole week for sea air and freshness, after seeing so many good things come in, and perceiving so many ways home that night, But I abandoned all these rights, and that he made up his mind to none of braved once more the opinions of neighthem); also the feeling (which no one ex-bours (which any man may do once too pressed, but all would have been disap- often); and when the advance of sound pointed of) that honest black Evan, after came towards us, borne upon the western knocking so many men down in both wind from the end of Newton Wayn, parishes and the extra-parochial manor, slowly hanging through the air, as if the was designed, by this down-right blow air loved death of man the solemn singfrom above, to repent and to entertaining of the people who must go that way every one; and most of all, the fact that themselves, and told it in their melody; five of a highly respectable family were to and when the Clevice rock rung softly with be buried at once, to the saving of four the tolling bell, as well as with the rolling future funerals, all of which must have dirges, we slipped away at the back of it been fine ones, these universal sympathies compelled the house and the people therein to exert themselves to the utter.most.

of it.

- that is to say, pretty Bardie and I. For Bunny was purer of Newton birth than to leave such a sight without tearing away. And desiring some little to hear Enough that it gave satisfaction, not all about it, I left her with three very good universal, but general; and even that last young women, smelling strongly of southis a hard thing to do in such great out-ernwood, who were beginning to weep bursts of sympathy. Though Moudlin already, and promised to tell me the whole church is more handy for Sker, and the noble Portreeve of Kenfig stood upon his As we left this dismal business, Bardie right to it, still there were stronger rea- danced along beside me, like an ostrichsons why old Newton should have the feather blown at. In among the sand-hills preference. And Sker being outside eith-soon I got her, where she could see nother parish, Crowner Bowles, on receipt of a ing, and the thatch of rushes deadened guinea, swore down the Portreeve to his very vamps. For Moxy Thomas was a Newton woman, and loved every scrape of a shoe there; and her uncle, the clerk, would have ended his days if the fees had gone over to Kenfig. Our parson, as well, was a very fine man, and a match for the whole of the service; while the little fellow at Moudlin always coughed at a -word of three syllables.

There was one woman in our village who was always right. She had been disappointed three times over, in her early and middle days; and the effect of this on her character was so lasting and so wholesome, that she never spoke without knowing something. When from this capital female I heard that our churchyard had

every pulse of the funeral bell. And then a strange idea took me, all things being strange just now, that it might prove a rich wise thing to go for a quiet cruise with Bardie. In that boat, and on the waves, she might remember things recovered by the chance of semblance. Therefore, knowing that all living creatures five miles either way of us were sure to be in Newton churchyard nearly all the afternoon, and then in the public-houses, I scrupled not to launch my boat and go to sea with the little one. For if we steered a proper course no funeral could see us. And so I shipped her gingerly. The glory of her mind was such that overboard she must have jumped, except for my Sunday neck-tie with a half-hitch knot

4

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around her. And the more I rowed the
more she laughed, and looked at the sun
with her eyes screwed up, and at the water
with all wide open. "'Hare is 'a going,
old Davy?" she said, slipping from under
my Sunday splice, and coming to me won-
derfully, and laying her tiny hands on
mine, which beat me always, as she had
found out; "is 'a going to my dear papa,
and mama, and ickle bother?"

"No, my pretty, you must wait for them
to come. We are going to catch some
fish, and salt them, that they may keep
with a very fine smell, till your dear papa
brings your mama and all the family with
him; and then what a supper we will
have!"

"'Ill 'a," she said; "and poor Bardie too?"

But the distance of the supper-time was a very sad disappointment to her, and her bright eyes filled with haze. And then she said, "Ness" very quietly, because she was growing to understand that she could not have her own way now. I lay on my

It

oars and watched her carefully, while she
was shaking her head and wondering,
with her little white shoulders above the
thwart, and her innocent and intelligent
eyes full of the spreading sky and sea.
was not often one had the chance, through
the ever-flitting change, to learn the calm
and true expression of that poor young
creature's face. Even now I could not
tell, except that her playful eyes were
lonely, and her tender lips were trembling,
and a heartful of simple love could find no
outlet, and lost itself. These little things,
when thinking thus, or having thought
flow through them, never ought to be dis-
turbed, because their brains are tender.
The unknown stream will soon run out,
and then they are fit again for play, which
is the proper work of man. We open the
world, and we close the world, with noth-
ing more than this; and while our man-
hood is too grand (for a score and a half
of years, perhaps), to take things but in
earnest, the justice of our birth is on us, -
we are fortune's plaything.

time M. Jousset lost them, through their drying. up from accidental exposure seven days subsequently. On being crushed in the dark the liquid exuding from one of these eggs, and spread on glass, was highly luminous, and remained so until the moisture had entirely evaporated.

CHANGE IN THE HABITS OF A BIRD. A of the size of a pin's head on the following day. writer in Nature records a remarkable instance The skin of these eggs was so delicate that they of the entire change of habits in one of the na- could not be touched without breaking it, the tive birds of New Zealand since the colonization micropyle was very apparent, and their colour of the island by Europeans. The Kea (Nestor yellowish; it was most worthy of note, however, notabilis) is a member of the family of Tricho- that they were endowed with brilliant phosphorglossinæ, or brush-tongued parrots, feeding nat-escence immediately after being laid, up to the urally on the nectar of various indigenous flowers, or occasionally on insects found in the crevices of rocks or beneath the bark of trees. For several years past the sheep in the Otago district have been afflicted with what was thought to be a new kind of disease, first manifesting itself in a patch of raw flesh on the loin, the wool gradually coming completely off the side, and death being often the result. It was discovered that this was caused by the attacks of the Kea, or mountain-parrot, which threatens to become exceedingly destructive to the flocks. THE Florentines are anxious that their city It is supposed that the taste for this kind of food should lose nothing by the transfer of the capiwas first developed from the parrots being in- tal, and have effected several important imduced in the winter season, when their proper provements during the last year. Outside the food was scarce, to attack the "meat-gallows "gate of San Miniato a new square has been laid on which the carcases of sheep were hung to dry of the skins.

out with trees and fountains to serve as a memorial of Michael Angelo, and cadre for bronze copies of David and the recumbent figures from the Medici chapel. The principal entrance to the church of the Badia has been opened up and restored in the style of the Early Renaissance, PHOSPHORIC PROPERTIES OF THE GLOW- and a fine door by Niccolo di Pietro on the north WORM. According to M. Jousset (Comptes of the cathedral has been so efficiently cleansed rendus, Sept. 4, 1871) the ova of the glowworm as to be scarcely recognisable. It is unfortushare the phosphoric properties of the parent in-nate that intrigues and dissensions delay the sect. Two specimens confined in a glass tube still more important works for completing the by the experimenter deposited about sixty eggs fascade of the cathedral.

From Chambers' Journal.
MARINE FLORA.

composed chiefly of the remains of calcareous infusoria; here it is the minute cryptoIN examining the law of creation, it is games that constitute broad tracts of land, easy to recognize that life rests upon a a base for the whole vegetable kingdom. general principle of striving after perfec- It is they who pulverize the rocks, and, tion; which, starting from the simplest from the accumulation of their own dead organism, becomes ever more complicated, bodies, provide the vegetable earth from following the march of continual progres- which all life emanates. Each disappearsion. Thus, in the mineral kingdom, there ing in turn, is replaced by a higher series: is no proper organization-nothing but the sea-weeds prepare for lichens; then the mathematical sketch which crystalliza- come the mosses, then the ferns, and finally tion offers us; in the two higher kingdoms, the trees with visible fruits and flowers. living evolution begins. The organ, whose It necessarily follows that the cryptogames first element is the cell, shews itself, and pass through their existence in the most henceforward there is manifested a re- rapid manner, and multiply to an immense markable parallelisin between structure extent; hours are to them seasons, and and function, which, marching side by side, days are years. The mushroom, for inrise in the scale of life. Sea-weeds, fungi, stance, will increase its cells by sixty miland lichens, forms of a single kind of cell, lions in a minute, according to a calculahaving neither stems, leaves, nor roots, tion of Fayer; and the seeds of most of are the lowest plants; after them come the class are so innumerable. that thoumosses, provided with stems and leaves; sands are in every seed-vessel, and hundreds then the ferus and club-mosses; and by an would he required to cover a pin's head. ascending scale from these first-born of Sailors have often traversed hundreds of or creation, rise the most brilliant examples miles over seas of a red colour, which proof the whole vegetable kingdom. On the ceeds from a microscopic sea-weed; and very threshold of existence too, there ap- the imagination must picture the rapidity pear very extraordinary beings; elemen- with which it is multiplied when it can tary life seems to hesitate at its starting- change so great an extent of water. It is point. In certain fermented liquors there to this that the Red Sea owes its name; may be seen gelatinous films, which give the accumulation in certain gulfs giving it birth to myriads of cryptogamous plant the appearance of blood. But whilst givand microscopic infusoria. There is some- ing life to many, they are equally to be times mineral matter without crytallization, or vegetable and animal matter without organization; marking the close affinity between the lowest classes of vegetables and minerals. Another remarkable character of elementary life is the extreme energy and insatiable necessity of using their superabundant strength, which will have been noticed by all who have seen a drop of water magnified. The lowest orders of plants manifest a similar vitality, and crossing the boundary-line between them and animals, borrow a special attribute of the latter, the power of moving.

Before entering upon some of the peculiarities of sea-weeds, it may be well to explain, that by cryptogamous plants, to which they belong, are meant all those in which the flowers and seed-vessels are hidden, or only partially visible. The class is remarkable for the extremely microscopic smallness of the plants, which prevented the study of the subject until the middle of the eighteenth century, and nature shews in them how she can make the largest things out of infinitely small elements. Sometimes it is the atom that forms the mountains, seeing that they are

feared as destroyers; the largest trees of the forest attacked by these cryptogames must fall; lichens, fungi, and mosses reduce the trunk to dust; and it is a wonderful spectacle to see such gigantic bodies a prey to these minute transformers. Most people know the Merulius destruens, which spreads itself in thin membranes over the roofs of cellars and damp vaults, dividing the bricks and crumbling them away. There is another fungus quite as redoubtable, known under the name of dry-rot, which has attacked and destroyed ships of war scarcely out of dock, and brings to ruin the most solid edifices, if not properly defended; so that if we say that in nature everything begins with cryptogamous plants, it is also by them that everything ends.

If we turn to vegetable life in the ocean, we shall find a flora animated, complex, and confusing to all classification: there is here the strange spectacle of animals living in plants, as in the sponge; and minerals growing in animals, as the coral. The marine flora, properly so called, consists almost entirely of sea-weeds, of which about two thousand species are known, growing in marshes, lakes, streams, and