"This other one divides the muscles." "Murther! Murther!" "This," taking up a saw, "divides the bone. And this little illigant one scrapes it all clane; and, sure it's all over before you can wink, sit, or cry." "Murther! Murther! Murther! 66 Oh, ye villains, you're going to murther me. Help, help! Will nobody help a poor, miserable woman that's going to be murthered?" 66 Hould your row, Biddy," said Tim; none o' yer tantrums; sure, cuttin' off a bad leg's not murtherin' ye. Why, woman alive, it'll be over in a twinkling, and you'll never know the want o' your leg, for I'll buy you an illigant pair o' crutches. Och, Biddy dear! it's beautiful you'll look on crutches! soget up on the table there; it's got to be done." "Oh, Timothy, Timothy, and has it come to this? Ochone! but you're the heartless man to go and hack the legs off the wife of your bosom. Oh, Timothy, Timothy, that I should have lived to see this day!" "Botherashun! Biddy, give over now, you're wastin' the doctor's precious time. Have you the sthraps ready, sur?" "Sthraps! Sthraps! Sure, you're not going to bate me, Timothy ?" "Bate you; no, you goose, we're going to sthrap you to the table. Sure, it wouldn't do to have you sitting up, and running away wid a half-cut leg dangling after you like a broken stick. Are you ready now?" "But there's nothing the matter wid me leg, Tim. Oh, do let me alone this once, and you'll never hear me say leg as long as ye live, Tim.” "You promise that, Biddy?" "I do, Tim." "And there will be no more cowld tatties and red herrin' tails for supper?" "No more, Tim." "And no more steak and butter biscuits devoured before I get home?" "Never a one, Timothy." "And no more gills o' the best, Biddy?" "Arrah now, Tim." "Hurrah! Thin we'll be the happiest couple in the whole world. Pay the doctor and let him go, Biddy. You can give us your little bit of a count, sur." "That's aisy done," answered the doctor, as he rolled up his "Four-and-six-and it isn't much for such a speedy knives. cure." "There's your money, and it's plenty for doin' nothin'," said Biddy, with a frown. "Thank you, mum-good-bye, mum.” As he spoke, the doctor closed the door behind him; but quickly opening it again, he popped in his head and called-" But I'd rather have wrought the operation on your leg, mum." "Begone, you villain," roared Biddy, an operation on you wid that same leg." or I'll be afther makin" She made a rush at him, but the doctor slammed the door on his own nose, and they saw him no more. 66 ONE NICHE THE HIGHEST. BY ELIHU BURRITT. The scene opens with a view of the great Natural Bridge in Virginia. There are three or four lads standing in the channel below, looking up with awe to that vast arch of unhewn rocks which the Almighty bridged over those everlasting butments, when the morning stars sang together." The little piece of sky spanning those measureless piers is full of stars, although it is mid-day. It is almost five hundred feet from where they stand up those perpendicular bulwarks of limestone to the key of that vast arch, which appears to them only of the size of a man's hand. The silence of death is rendered more impressive by the little stream that falls from rock to rock down the channel. The sun is darkened, and the boys have uncovered their heads, as if standing in the presence-chamber of the Majesty of the whole earth. At last this feeling begins to wear away; they look around them; and find that others have been there before them. They see the names of hundreds cut in the limestone butments. A new feeling comes over the young hearts, and their knives are in their hands in an instant. "What man has done, man can do," is their watchword, while they draw themselves up, and carve their names a foot above those of a hundred full-grown men who have been there before them. They are all satisfied with this feat of physical exertion, except one, whose example illustrates perfectly the forgotten truth that there is "no royal road to learning." This ambitious youth sees a name just above his reach a name which will be green in the memory of the world when those of Alexander, Cæsar, and Bonaparte shall rot in oblivion. It is the name of Washington. Before he marched with Braddock to that fatal field, he had been there and left his name, a foot above any of his predecessors. It was a glorious thought to write his name side by side with that great father of his country. He grasps his knife with a firmer hand, and clinging to a little jutting crag, he cuts again into the limestone, about a foot above where he stands; he then reaches up and cuts another for his hands. 'Tis a dangerous adventure; but as he puts his feet and hands into those gains, and draws himself up carefully to his full length, he finds himself a foot above every name chronicled in that mighty wall. While his companions are regarding him with concern and admiration he cuts his name in wide capitals, large and deep, into that flinty album. His knife is still in his hand, and strength in his sinews, and a new-created aspiration in his heart. Again he cuts another niche, and again he carves his name in larger capitals. This is not enough; heedless of the entreaties of his companions, he cuts and climbs again. The gradations of his ascending scale grow wider apart. He measures his length at every gain he cuts. The voices of his friends wax weaker and weaker, till their words are finally lost on his ear. He now for the first time casts a look beneath him. Had that glance lasted a moment, that moment would have been his last. He clings with a convulsive shudder to his little niche in the rock. An awful abyss awaits his almost certain fall. He is faint with severe exertion, and trembling from the sudden view of the dreadful destruction to which he is exposed. His knife is worn half-way to the haft. He can hear the voices, but not the words, of his terror-stricken companions below. What a mo ment! what a meagre chance to escape destruction! there is no retracing his steps. It is impossible to put his hands into the same niche with his feet, and retain his slender hold a moment. His companions instantly perceive this new and fearful dilemma, and await his fall with emotions that " freeze their young blood." He is too high to ask for his father and mother, his brothers and sisters, to come and witness or avert his destruction. But one of his companions anticipates his desire. Swift as the wind he bounds down the channel, and the situation of the fated boy is told upon his father's hearthstone. Minutes of almost eternal length roll on, and there are hundreds standing in that rocky channel, and hundreds on the bridge above, all holding their breath, and awaiting the fearful catastrophe. The poor boy hears the hum of new and numerous voices both above and below. He can just distinguish the tones of his father, who is shouting with all the energy of despair"William! William! Don't look down! Your mother, and Henry, and Harriet are all here praying for you! Don't look down! Keep your eye towards the top!" The boy didn't look down. His eye is fixed like a flint towards Heaven, and his young heart on Him who reigns there. He grasps again his knife. He cuts another niche, and another foot is added to the hundreds that remove him from the reach of human help from below. How carefully he uses his wasting blade. How anxiously he selects the softest places in that vast pier! How he avoids every flinty grain! How he economises his physical powers, resting a moment at each gain he cuts. How every motion is watched from below! There stand his father, mother, brother, and sister on the very spot, where, if he falls, he will not fall alone. The sun is half-way down in the west. The lad has made fifty additional niches in that mighty wall, and now finds himself directly under the middle of that vast arch of rock, earth, and trees. He must cut his way in a new direction to get from this overhanging mountain. The inspiration of hope is in his bosom; its vital heat is fed by the increasing shouts of hundreds perched upon cliffs and trees, and others who stand with ropes in their hands upon the bridge above, or with ladders below. Fifty more gains must be cut before the longest rope can reach him. His wasting blade strikes again into the limestone. The boy is emerging painfully foot by foot from under that lofty arch. Spliced ropes are in the hands of those who are leaning over the outer edge of the bridge. Two minutes more, and all will be over. That blade is worn to the last half-inch. The boy's head reels; his eyes are starting from their sockets. His last hope is dying in his heart, his life must hang upon the next gain he cuts. That niche is his last. At the last gash he makes, his knife-his faithful knife-falls from his little nerveless hand, and, ringing along the precipice, drops at his mother's feet. An involuntary groan of despair runs like a death-knell through. the channel below, and all is still as the grave. At a height of nearly three hundred feet, the devoted boy lifts his hopeless heart and closing eyes to commend his soul to God. 'Tis but a moment-there! one foot swings off he is reeling -trembling-toppling over into eternity. Hark-a shout noose. falls on his ears from above! The man who is lying with half his length over the bridge has caught a glimpse of the boy's head and shoulders. Quick as thought, the noosed rope is within reach of the sinking youth. No one breathes. With a faint convulsive effort, the swooning boy drops his arm into the Darkness comes over him, and with the words "God !" and "mother!" whispered on his lips just loud enough to be heard in Heaven, the tightening rope lifts him out of his last shallow niche. Not a lip moves while he is dangling over that fearful abyss; but when a sturdy Virginian reaches down and draws up the lad, and holds him up in his arms before the tearful, breathless multitude-such shouting! and such leaping and weeping for joy, never greeted a human being so recovered from the yawning gulf of eternity. THE RIDE OF JENNIE M'NEAL. BY WILL CARLETON. Paul Revere was a rider bold Well has his valorous deed been told; But why should men do all the deeds |