Josephine, the nursery-maid, to whom his attentions had for some time been very obvious. 4. But, to his surprise, he found that their destination was very different; that James was carrying them to the Household Hospital, for the accommodation of his parents. The rest of the story will be best told in the Englishman's own words. 5. "Is it, then, for your parents, my good lad,” cried I, "that you are taking all this trouble?" 6. Trouble!" reiterated James, in a stinging accent; why, for five years past, the pleasure of fixing the old folks in peace and comfort, for the rest of their lives, has been my dream by night, my care by day. Trouble, sir? Ever since I chanced to be sent here on an errand by old Matthew's grandson, I have kept saying to myself, James, my boy! yonder is the place for the old folks. Manage to scrape together as much as will secure their old age an asylum in the Household Hospital, and you may henceforth sleep in peace. With that end in view, I have toiled early and late. 7. "Two hundred dollars is a trifle, when one looks back on the earning of it; but when one looks forward, the task seems hopeless. Twice, too, I have been cruelly thrown back. I was blockhead enough to lend sixty dollars, two winters back, to a countryman, a brother Auvergnat,who had drawn a bad number for the conscription; and though, by working hard, he might have paid me the money twice over, the fellow made off from Paris a few weeks afterwards, and has been heard of no more,-which was far from delicate of him, as the debt was a debt of honor, and regarded a brother Auvergnat. 8. "Monsieur may perhaps recollect, that he jeered me for being out of spirits, the Carnival before last, and gave me a dollar to keep Shrove-Tuesday with. That was the very time I lost my money; and that was the first I put, for luck's sake, into my new money-box. And luck it brought me, sir,-for, the very next week, the Count threw me a double gold Napoleon, because he happened to drive his cabriolet over my foot, as I stood chopping wood in the court-yard. It is true, I had a hard matter to hobble about for six weeks afterwards, the frost having got into the wound. But what was that to the good fortune of having gained seven dollars at a stroke?" 9. "But, my good James," said I, much affected by the recollection of his hard labors, and their scanty reward, why not apprise me of the object you had in view?" 10. "Because I knew Monsieur's good heart might lead him to do more than was altogether convenient to him. You paid me well, sir, for my services; and to have hinted a wish for further gains would have been begging. And yet, about three months ago, sir, when I happened to meet Anthony, the great-grandson of old Matthew, crying in the street, and heard from him, that the good old man was not expected to get through the night, and I went home, and broke my money-box, and found only fifty-five dollars, to add to the hundred and twenty registered to my name in the Savings' Bank, I own I had half a mind to implore of Monsieur the favor of a loan, of the twenty-five wanting, to make up my two hundred, in case of poor old Matthew being called away. 11. "By God's will, however, the old chap was spared, to toddle on a few months longer, and, luckily, in the busiest time of the year. Bless your heart! I have staid up, night after night, this winter, at the masked balls, at the opera, or at Musard's, till seven o'clock in the morning, which is an ugly hour to look in the face when you have had no sight of a pillow, and the snow too thick on the ground to admit of sleeping on one's wheelbarrow, at the corner of the street, during the daytime. 12. "However, there's an end to all things! All's over! All's safe! Last night my money was deposited with the Treasurer of the Hospital, to the last half-penny; and there's yet left behind," quoth he, jingling his pockets, and glancing good humoredly at the porter," enough to afford a handsome gratuity to those who are about to have charge of the old folks."- -My answer consisted in a hearty shake of the errand-man's horny hand. 13. "Monsieur must perceive," faltered he, as if apologizing for not having appealed for my assistance, "that it will afford twice the pleasure, both to the old people and myself, that this asylum is secured to them by my own industry, and not by the help of others. 'Tis a foolish thought, my good sir, for the like of us; but you see, poor as we are, and Christians too, we are proud. This is not a common almshouse, sir. The Household Hospital is a place where respectable folks are admitted, for pay. I would not have shoved poor father and mother into the Charity-ward, any more than into a lazar-house! Nor would I have liked to see them beholden to any but their own son, so long as he had arms to work for them. 14. "But all fear's at an end. Twenty cabriolets may drive over me now, or twenty choleras attack me. I have a right to be sick or sorry when I please. I have a right to sleep in my bed o'nights, and look the Count's saucy chap of a groom in the face by day. The old folks are safe! Whatever may happen to me, here is their berth, with food, raiment, and pocket-money, so long as it pleases God to spare them. It is a mightier relief than people dream of, to be relieved from all further anxiety concerning one's father and mother." And James wiped his forehead, at the mere recollection of his past cares, and present ease of mind. 15. "But all this time I am forgetting the cart," cried James. And, having hurriedly arranged with the porter to meet him in the chamber at three o'clock, he entreated me to return at the same hour, and be witness of the old people's inauguration. It was three o'clock, within three minutes, when I returned. On attaining the corner, the empty cart of my friend James stood at the gateway of the hospital. 16. "The old people have arrived, then?" said I to the porter. "Arrived! and I fear in some trouble,” he replied; "for my wife, who helped to escort them, was seen running from the house just now, to the infirmary, to fetch one of the nuns some ether." 17. The odor of that powerful restorative reached me, the moment I entered the gallery containing the little household chamber of the new comers. The door was ajar, the opposite window open. I heard the ominous sound of human sobs within. 18. My heart sank in my bosom. The joy of the old people had been too much for them. One of poor James's parents had, perhaps, fallen a victim to the agitation and hurry of removal. Peeping anxiously in, I prepared myself for the sad spectacle of expiring age. 19. "He is better now," were the first words that struck my ear, as I entered the room. When, lo! wonder of wonders! I descried poor James, with his bronzed cheeks, white as ashes, sitting propped in his chair! while the nun, sister Patronille, and a venerable-looking peasant couple, administered to his aid. It was the strong man who had fainted. Overcome by the exquisite delight of installing hist parents in their long-wished abode, consciousness had for some minutes been suspended in the Herculean frame of JAMES THE ERRAND-MAN. MR. EDITOR, LESSON CXIV. The great Horse Race. Though we live so far from the centre of the world, and girt in by the mountains too, we have heard something about the great race on Long Island. The newspapers, -for we have now and then one, even here, the newspapers told us, a good while ago, that there would be rare sport upon an unparalleled bet; and lately, the result has been telegraphed from Louisiana to Passamaquoddy. 2. Though you could scarcely have been Christian spectators of the race, if you had tried, you have, I dare say, heard more about it than I can tell you; and yet, my fingers burn, to convey a few words, with permission, to your numerous readers, if readers you can retain after this. 3. As every body went from every where, you may infer, perhaps, that I too was perched, rara avis,* on some pine tree near by, or that, with my wife and daughters, I stood behind the motley multitude, stretching my back to its utmost longitude, and looked over a forest of heads and plumes of all colors, to see the sport. But I tell you, in good and sober truth, I was not there; and, however strange you may think of it, my wife and daughters were not in the pavilion. I can only speak from hearsay. 4. It was, it seems, one of the finest days of the season -the very 66 sun of Austerlitz." Not a cloud, I suppose, sailed that way, to cast a momentary shadow over the brilliant and joyous scene. What a spectacle! The North and the South, fired with a most magnanimous emulation, and marching briskly to the appointed rendezvous. Every town, and almost every village, from Georgia to Maihe, as * Rara avis, a rare bird; meaning, as an unusual occurrence-in a place where it was not to be expected he would be found. the fourth of July orators used to say, fully represented in this biped and quadruped congress. 5. See New Jersey, with immense reinforcements from beyond the mountains and rivers, moving in solid columns towards the scene of action:-New York pouring out myriads, from all its eastern vomitories; and Connecticut launching all its craft upon the Sound, and hastening with sails, and oars, and sweeps, to the sandy arena. Fifty thousand people, at least, on the ground; and then what princely betting! Forty thousand dollars to begin with! to begin with, I say, for what signifies such a trifle, compared with the hundreds of thousands which, it seems to be admitted on all hands, were staked upon the two four-footed champions of that proud day? 6. O, how thrilling, and chilling, and stilling the first heat! Henry half a length ahead-two to one against Eclipse, if you dare-two to one agreed all round the course. Truly, this must have been the most heart-stirring and patriotic gambling, that ever was seen in our country. Now, I like things on a grand scale; card playing, for fifties and hundreds, is a mean, two-penny business, and the honorable managers of the race prohibited it. I never liked it, and am resolved that I never will. But there is something in tens and hundreds of thousands to make one proud of the American character. 7. Second trial, Eclipse ahead; and now they stand heat and heat. Every jockey's-I beg the gentlemen's pardon,but every jockey's heart is in his mouth-the question is to be decided in eight minutes. It is decided; Eclipse, against the world, comes off victorious. 8. And now, where is the laural, the niche, the monument, the bronze, for the northern champion? He has earned for himself an imperishable name. It must, it will go down to the most distant generation of horse-racers, at least, if not a good deal further. 9. But I am running before my story. Let us go back a heat or two, and take breath. What added mightily to the sport was, to see the North pitted against the South; or, if you please, New York versus Virginia. How must it tend to obliterate all sectional jealousies, and tighten the silken cords of brotherhood, to meet every half year at the Washington and Union races, upon bets of half a million! 10. If this does not preserve a good understanding on |