throughout the islands; 900 seminaries, conducted by native teachers, are established, and 50,000 children receive instruction in reading. Within a little distance of the very spot where Cook was killed, a school has been opened, and a building erected for the worship of the True God. The fortune of some others of the countries explored by him has hitherto been less auspicious; but in most of them missions are already planted with every prospect of success, and we may confidently look forward to the day when teachers of Christianity shall be established in all. It may be said, indeed, that in almost every quarter of Polynesia the seeds of civilisation are now sown, and it is a plant (as has been remarked) which seldom withers or decays, however slowly it may advance in growth. The hopes, therefore, can hardly be considered visionary which have been expressed by a late distinguished voyager, who, in sailing along the shores of New Zealand, anticipated the period when that magnificent country shall become the Great Britain of the Southern Hemisphere, when its now solitary plains shall be covered with large and populous cities, and the bays which are at present frequented but by the frail canoe of the wandering savage, shall be thronged with the commercial navies of empires situated at the opposite ends of the earth. When that day shall arrive, and the fertile islands of the Pacific become the seat of great and flourishing states, we may confidently predict that Cook will be revered, not with the blind adoration offered to the fancied Rono, but with the rational respect and affection due by an enlightened people to him who was the harbinger of their civilisation; and that among the great and good men commemorated in their annals as national benefactors, none will be more highly extolled than the illustrious navigator who, surmounting the dangers and difficulties of unknown seas, laid open the path by which the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion were wafted to their distant shores.-Edinburgh Cabinet Library. LITERARY INDUSTRY. Stowe, the famous historian, devoted his life and exhausted his patrimony in the study of English antiquities; he travelled on foot throughout the kingdom, inspecting all the monuments of antiquity, and rescuing what he could from the dispersed libraries of the monasteries. His stupendous collections, in his own hand-writing, still exist, to provoke the feeble industry of literary loiterers. He felt through life the enthusiasm of study; and seated in his monkish library, living with the dead more than with the living, he was still a student of taste; for Spenser, the poet, visited the library of Stowe, and the first good edition of Chaucer was made so chiefly by the labours of our author. Late in life, worn out by study and the cares of poverty, neglected by that proud metropolis of which he had been the historian, yet his good humour did not desert him; for being afflicted with sharp pains in his aged feet, he observed that his affliction lay in that part which formerly he had made so much use of.' Many a mile had he wandered, many a pound had he yielded, for those treasures of antiquities which had exhausted his fortune, and with which he had formed works of great public utility; It was in his eightieth year that Stowe at length received a public acknowledgment of his services, which will appear to us of a very extraordinary nature. He was so reduced in his circumstances, that he petitioned James I. for a license to collect alms for himself, as a recompense for his labour and travel of forty-five years in setting forth the Chronicles of England, and eight years taken up in the Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, towards his relief, now in his old age; having left his former means of living, and only employed himself for the service and good of his country.' Letters patent under the great seal were granted. After a penurious commendation of Stowe's labours, he is permitted to gather the benevolence of well-disposed people within this realm of England; to ask, gather, and take the alms of all our loving subjects.' These letters patent were to be published by the clergy When the Mysterious quench'd the visual ray He, trusting to the muse' adventurous wing, To hues unfading, all its charms transferr'd. Then woke the wondrous song of war in heaven," Of rebel angels hurl'd to flaming hell, Of man's first disobedience'-Eden lost, Printed and published by JAMES HOGG, 122 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh; to whom all communications are to be addressed. Sold also by J. JOHNSTONE, Edinburgh; J. M'LEOD, Glasgow; W. CURRY, jun. & Co., Dublin; R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, London; W. M'COMB, Belfast; G. & R. KING, Aberdeen; R. WALKER, Dundee; G. PHILIP and J. SHEPHERD, Liverpool: FINLAY & CHARLTON, Newcastle; WRIGHTSON & WEBB, Birmingham; A. HEYWOOD and J. AINSWORTH, Manchester; G. CULLINGWORTH, Leeds; and all Booksellers. C. MACKENZIE & Co., Halifax, Nova Scotia. No. 111. EDINBURGH, SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1847. A VISIT TO HOLLAND. FIRST ARTICLE. THE MAAS-ROTTERDAM-CLEANLINESS-ROUTE TO LEYDEN. It was on a fine morning in May that I caught my first glimpse of the Dutch coast from the deck of the Seahorse, one of the St George's Company's steam-packets, bound from Hull to Rotterdam. The shore stretched far and wide on all sides, low, flat, and uninteresting enough; only sand was visible, and no land was yet in sight. In the distance, steaming away to the south-east, was observed a French vessel, bound, as the captain told us, for Havre, most probably with a cargo of cattle on board. Under our bows was discerned a tiny Dutch boat lying to, pitching about in the waves, and sometimes quite hid from our sight. It contained our sea-pilot, whom we soon after had on board of us; and a fine stalwart seaman he looked, clad in a smart blue dress, very unlike what we had been led to anticipate of the physique of a Dutch sailor. An hour's steaming brought us into the mouth of the yellow Maas, and we left the sea-green water behind us. We now came in sight of the shore, with its dykes raised above the level of the dry land behind, which was still invisible. These sandhills, which surround the coast of Holland on all sides, are the bulwarks of the country; and the utmost care of the inhabitants is required to prevent them being carried away by the sea, and their whole country submerged and destroyed; for Holland, as most readers may know, is so unlike all other lands in this respect, that its very existence from day to day depends on the constant watchfulness of its coast population. The country literally keeps its head above water, or rather keeps itself dry under the level of the water, by means of untiring industry. And were these sandbanks, now in sight, and bound together by the bent and sea-grass growing upon them, consolidated by reeds and matting woven by the hands of man, to be washed away, Holland would again become, what it originally has been, an uninhabitabie continent of mud and water. The existence of Holland is a constant struggle between man and the ocean, in which the patient industry of the former has hitherto been the victor. The first sign of a town that we saw was the top of the spire of the church of Bril, and shortly after the roofs of the houses came in sight. The body of the church itself must be under the level of the water at high tides. This is the case with the towns even in the heart of the country, more especially towards the north; and I was afterwards informed that the top of the spire of Haarlem Cathedral was only level with the sea at its highest tides. Hence the constant watchfulness of the government and the PRICE 1d. people over the safety of their dykes, which run into the country in all directions, and are undergoing constant repairs and renovation at enormous expense. At Bril we took on board a river-pilot, and the sea-pilot then left us. We also shipped two customhouse officers, who sealed up the cargo, and remained on board till we reached Rotterdam. These officers are called werkers, for what reason I cannot exactly explain, for they sat and smoked their pipes in a very sleepy, lazy style all the time they were on board. The principal was a gruff, important, puffy-cheeked fellow, with a brown wig set over a broad head and a still broader face. We soon came in sight of the cultivated land on either bank of the river. It seemed rich and verdant beyond description, and the grass was most luxuriant when compared with the retarded vegetation of the English coast we had just left. Little comfortable-looking houses were seen on every side, together with numerous windmills, which are very substantial and at the same time picturesque objects in the landscape. Rows of trees stretched around in all directions, and in the green meadows were herds of as luxurious-looking cows as are to be seen in all England. The sun was shining in full power, and there was just wind enough abroad to fill the sails of the sleepy Dutch luggers which came creeping along, with their scoured hulls and gaily painted prows and sterns. Everything was bright, trig, and clean-looking; a picture of neatness and propriety such as one sees only in Holland. Passing Schiedam, famous for its gin, and appearing stuck all over with distillery chimneys and windmills, and also Delft-haven, or the port of Delft, we shortly after turned a bend of the river, and the goodly city of Rotterdam lay full before us-its quays crowded with shipping of all nations. We landed at the Bompjes, the principal quay, which extends for more than a mile along the banks of the river. It consists of a fine broad street, planted with a line of majestic elm trees; the noble range of houses forming the one side of the street being principally inhabited by the chief merchants of the city. We were allowed to go on shore without any scrutiny of our trunks, for which the Dons merited our thanks. On landing, many strange and unwonted sights met our eyes; how unlike everything to be seen in the country we had just left. Numbers of gaily dressed people were abroad; the Friesland women, with gilt and gold plates fastened over each temple, and their full lace caps with broad frills hanging down over their shoulders, especially attracting our attention. Sledges were drawn along laden with goods; and old family coaches, of the pattern of the last century, dragged by black horses with long tails, were lumbering by in all directions. Into the city we went, gazing at the endless canals covered with boats and barques, crossed everywhere by drawbridges, by means of which the intercourse from street to street is kept up; rows of majestic trees in almost every street and along the banks of the canals, where large ships were disembarking their cargoes almost at their owners' doors; the tall, clean, old-fashioned houses, scrubbed and polished-looking; men in caps smoking hard, as if this were their only business and they were paid for it; the humbler classes clattering along in their wooden shoes; these, and a thousand other novel sights, could not fail to keep the attention of the stranger perpetually awake. sides. The housewives and maids were engaged in street in what I found was a usual Saturday's employ washing the fronts of their houses, windows, and da -the pavements, and even the streets themselves. Nothing can equal the Dutch housewives for cleanlin Possibly they carry it even to an excess-washing scouring having no end throughout Holland, from loftiest window of their houses down to the meanest Cleanliness here is in fact reduced completely to a sys by it households are kept in a state of perpetual turn Each day has its peculiar work of scouring or scrubb sacredly set apart for it. For instance, as I afterwa learned, Monday is mirror-cleaning day, and, be it obser that it is no mean day's work to polish the mirrors Dutch house of modern dimensions, for windows, chim pieces, parlours, and bedrooms, are crowded with the Then Tuesday is chair and furniture cleaning day; and tear and wear of furniture by scrubbing alone must something tremendous in the Dutch housewife's exper ture: indeed, some of the rooms are only entered once week to be scoured, being too sacred and clean for Then Wednesday is tin and copper scouring day, when t pots and pans are made to shine like polished arm Thursday and Friday are washing days, one of linen. other of stairs, lobbies, passages, &c. And Saturday wish up with a general washing of fronts, when you see feel, if you come within reach of their squirts and mos thirty feet long, which the women flourish in triumph over a work complete, that Dutch cleanliness is no sloven. In her hands, dishclouts, scouringclouts, broc and mops of all sorts, wage an endless war against dust, di and spiders. Indeed, I should not wonder if the gen Aranea had in Holland become extinct; and truly, duria my stay there, I do not remember having seen a spide Perhaps they are still to be found stuffed or preserved. mummies and mammoths are in other countries, in pu museums or the cabinets of the curious, as the relics things which were. I have often seen the cleaning wo pumping her little engine vigorously (and almost every house is provided with its own) at some remote spot the third storey, where not a speck of dirt was to be seen But her eye was perhaps quicker to detect the dark spo than mine was; and she was prepared to encounter the falling deluge, which I was not. It was a fine evening, though early in the season, and I took a saunter through the town, extending my walk to the outskirts. I found a large part of the population abroad, well dressed and happy looking; all the young women of the humbler classes without bonnets, but smartly dressed about the head notwithstanding. The windows of many of the houses were thrown open, and through them family parties were seen sipping their coffee or their wine. The commoners, again, were promenading in large numbers under the shade of the lime and elm trees, or sitting in small parties round queer little tables surmounted with beer and other drinkables, puffing away at the perpetual pipe. There was no appearance of that Dutch phlegm which I had looked for. Small musical parties were here and there discoursing capital harmony; and in some of the 'publics' the sound of busy feet might be heard in the swift gyrations of the continental waltz. One feature of the whole may be noted, that though there seemed to be anary affair, and the Dutch housewife is anything but good deal of drinking (and it was the Fair time) there was no drunkenness; and a Scotch gentleman, resident for many years in the city, informed me that, in the greater number of cases, those found sinning against sobriety almost invariably belonged to the English and Scotch part of the population. 6 There was one circumstance which agreeably disappointed' me (as the phrase is), which I may here mention, and that was, the generally elegant appearance of the women. I confess I had been led to expect something very outré, in the way of proportions, in the Dutch fraus. | 'Dutch-built' is a common phrase at home, and I looked for a breadth and thickness about the female population which certainly I did not find. Never did I see a finer and better-looking set of women in any town in England or Scotland. They are for the most part fair or blonde, pale-complexioned, with the exception of the Friesland women (who have certainly colour enough), and handsome-often tall and graceful in person; but it must nevertheless be admitted, that in some respects they are heavy and un-English. The Dutch, however, have equally ridiculous notions of English dress and appearance as we entertain of them in this country. As we figure their men with immense stuffed breeches and conical hats, and their women squat and fat, with heavy quilted petticoats; they figure to themselves the Scotchman as gaunt and breechesless, and the Englishman (when full-grown) as a little man with a bald head and a biggish belly, dressed in a blue coat with gilt buttons and very long tails, his legs encased in top-boots, and his thumbs perpetually stuck in his waistcoat at his armpits! I remember being particularly amused by a small coloured engraving hung up in a German bedroom at Mentz, representing a personage in a costume similar to the above, and underneath it inscribed Mr Godam.' What a severe satire-but how much truth in the inscription on the English character! Next day was Saturday, and I walked about the town admiring its novelties; the statue of Erasmus in the market-place; the great church of St Lawrence, famous for its huge organ, and its lofty tower overlooking the canals, dockyards, rivers, and pastures for twenty miles round; the dockyard, which, however, will not bear a comparison with those of Devonport or Portsmouth; and numerous objects of curiosity in the place. On returning through a narrow street from one of these sights, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a deluge of water descending on all "Tis a pity that this Dutch virtue cannot be transplanted like Dutch bulbs, to some foreign soils which we know and that the system which works so well' here, could no be made to find its way into the homes and the towns of other nations, where cleanliness is yet a virtue more s mired than practised. How comes it that the Dutch have acquired this habit (for it has become one) more than the people of other countries? Is it because their country not so much the product of nature, but has been created by the untiring industry and never-ceasing energy of its inhabitants-dragged up from the very ocean, as it mig be said, and requiring the exercise of constant care for its preservation-this carefulness and industry extending into all the ramifications of domestic and public life? It has been alleged that the dampness of the climate-the land being principally beneath the level of the sca-renders this constant cleanliness necessary, in order to avert the contagions and diseases incidental to moist climates. However this may be, it is certainly a feature in the inhabitants of the country which is in no small degree worthy of the admiration of the foreign visiter. In the afternoon, I took the treckschuyt or canal-boat for Leyden. This is the common mode of travelling in the country, and though rather tedious, it is cheap. The treckschuyt is divided into two compartments, a fore and after cabin-each having its roof, on which those passe gers who do not love tobacco-smoke (with which the cabins are generally filled) and wish to see something of the country they are passing through, commonly assemble. The boat is dragged by a horse, at a pace of some four or five miles an hour; the horse being generally ridden by a boy, who is paid a few cents for each stage. L On emerging from the town, the intense Dutch character he country and people begins to show itself. All along banks of the canal are seen the snug mansions of the er classes, each with its trimly kept garden in front. host every house, too, has attached to it, and overging the canal, a lust-huis or pleasure-house, all of rn designated by peculiar names, and many of them ag inscribed on them very fantastic mottoes. Numefamily parties were observed in these lust-huisen as -passed, engaged at pipes and coffee, gossipping, and ying life in a sober meditative mood characteristically ech. Some of these pleasure-houses are, however, anyig but pleasant in summer weather, when the stench The stagnant water in the canals would be insupportable for the clouds of tobacco-smoke in which they drown Many of these villas are situated in the midst of large ds, a narrow neck of land connecting them with the inland. All of them have more or less of water about m, sometimes up to their front doors, close to which a ff is generally moored, showing that frequent use is de of this means of communication with the neighbourIn some places the surrounding country was hid from by the high embankments on either side of the canal; se dykes' running in all directions inland, and, being with small bricks or clinkers, with their narrow ends they serve as the highroads of the country. On one these a heavy lumbering diligence or stage-coache of the most undiligent-looking machines possibleIs observed creeping along. It seemed with difficulty to tahead of our boat, though it was dragged by no fewer an six horses, in two rows, three abreast, and harnessed the machine in the most primitive manner. Heavy broad raps crossed their breasts, and these, joined to the ropes ted to the vehicle, enabled them to drag it on heavily ad deliberately. The horses were sleek-looking animals, ith long manes and tails; which latter, in dusty weather, re tucked up in a rather comical manner. Another singular feature of the country through which te passed was the immense host of windmills within sight all directions. There was no end of them, and by the ignboards over their lower doors they seemed to be emloyed for every possible purpose. They grind flour, snuff, ad mustard; they thrash out corn, saw wood, and drive ax machinery; they crush rapeseed, tear rags, and grind ones; and not the least important of their labours is that of pumping the stagnant water out of the meadows, and bus draining the low-lying lands and rendering them fit br the cultivation and the habitation of man. Some of these mills are of very large proportions and majestic appearance; others are small, tidy, neat, and gaily painted; others are such gems of picturesque beauty as Stanfield has painted so often and so well. Families generally inhabit the lower storeys of these edifices; for in the interior windmills are the only buildings visible on the small farms; no adjoining houses, stables, or barnyard. The windmill serves for all. The family lives below; and the four huge industrious arms of the mill are perpetually working for them above. It considerably detracts from the pictorial effect of these handsome objects that they are so generally found in straight rows, along the banks of the canals. They look like regiments drawn up in rank and file, such as might have set the combative zeal of Don Quixote on fire. But almost everything else is found in rows throughout the eastern parts of Holland. The country villas of the wealthy are built in rows; trees are invariably found in the straightest of rows, clumps of them being unknown; canals are in rows, and join each other in definite angles; the windmills are all in rows; the flowers, flowerpots, shrubs, and garden walks are in rows of the most precise and formal kind. The only things about which any difficulty seems to be found as to keeping in straight rows are the soldiers or schuttery, who apparently resist all attempts so to place them with the most desperate determination. As we penetrated still further into the country, the old peasant dress of the people attracted our notice. The women, many of whom peeped out as the boat passed their doors and whom het jagertie (the horseboy) contrived occasionally to astonish by the cracking of his long whip, though rather coarse and brawny in form and features, were, as usual, clean and well dressed. Many were decorated with close lace caps, some having the peculiar gold or gilt plates fastened on the temples, with ornaments dependent therefrom. The long upper jacket, fitted close to the chest and body, was also frequently to be seen. A general politeness was apparent among these peasants. Often was the little cap of our boatman lifted from his head, with a 'goeden avond!' Het is mooi weêr yu frau!' (Good evening! It is fine weather, ma'am !) and so on. Half way to Leyden, we stopped for a short time at Delft, an old decayed town, though formerly a place of great importance in Holland; and once the seat of the earthenware manufacture (hence called 'Delft ware'). The military arsenal of Holland is also situated here, and some extensive warehouses of the defunct East India Company, now unused. Delft is celebrated for several assassinations, the principal of which was that of one of its kings, William I. of Holland. The place seemed half deserted, and we had no heart to linger in it; hence we departed for Leyden, in sight of whose lofty domes and church spires, standing black against the setting sun, we arrived about seven o'clock, after an exceedingly delightful passage. THE FLOWER-BASKET. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF THE REV. CHRISTOPHER SCHMID. CHAPTER I. ABOUT a century ago there lived in the small market-town of Eichburg a very prudent and honest man called Jacob Rode. When he first came to Eichburg he was very young, and worked as an assistant in the gardens belonging to the count, who resided in the castle of Eichburg. Jacob's many excellent endowments, his kindness of heart, and the activity which he manifested, together with his prepossessing appearance, soon gained him the goodwill of all who knew him, as well as of the count himself. He was often employed in many little offices about the castle; and as the count, who was at that time a young man, had occasion to travel, Jacob was among his attendants. During his travels Jacob had taken care to store his mind with a vast variety of knowledge, as well as to acquire a more polished speech and demeanour; but what was of more importance still, he brought back his honest heart uncorrupted by the evils of the great world in which he had been moving. In consequence of this, the count was induced to reward the faithful services of Jacob, and provide for him a more profitable situation. Jacob might thus have become steward in the palace which the count possessed in the metropolis; but he always had a longing for the peaceful quiet of rural life, and as the lease of a small farm at Eichburg, belonging to the count, had just expired, Jacob requested that it might be let to him. The count immediately granted him the farm for his lifetime, requiring only as much wood and grain as might be necessary for the family, instead of a money rental. Jacob married at Eichburg, and maintained his family by the produce of his farm, on which he had erected a comfortable dwellinghouse, situated in the midst of a large and beautiful garden, one half of which was planted with fruit-trees, while the other furnished vegetables and other necessaries. After Jacob had lived for many years in the enjoyment of domestic blessedness, his wife, who was in every respect an amiable woman, was suddenly taken from him by death. His grief for some time was unspeakably great, and the good man, now advanced in years, underwent a visible change; his hair was now become grey. His sole joy and comfort was his little daughter, about five years of age, who alone of several children had been spared to him. She was called Maria, after her mother, whose very image she seemed to be. The child was already uncommonly beautiful, and as she grew up her beauty received a peculiar sweetness from her piety, innocence, modesty, and unfeigned kindness toward every one. There was something so indescribably sweet and attractive in her countenance, that her glance fell on the heart like the smile of a guardian spirit. Maria had scarcely reached her fifteenth year when she had learned to manage the whole affairs of the little household in the best possible manner. In the comely parlour a particle of dust was never seen, in the kitchen all the utensils glittered as if they were new, and the whole house was a pattern of regularity and cleanliness. Besides this, she was accustomed to assist her father in the garden with unintermitting industry; and the hours she so spent with him were among the happiest of her life. great delight in Maria's excellent understanding, and serene and lively disposition, and the pleasure was so much increased by her modesty and artless behaviour, that Maria often spent many hours in the company of the young countess long after the flowers of May had withered. Amelia at last gave her distinctly to understand, that as she wished to have her always near her, she would take her into her service. The girl, on her part, had become very much attached to the young countess, and when her birthday approached she bethought herself of making her some simple present. During the past winter her father had presented her with a very elegant work-basket, and Maria determined to fill it with flowers, and present it to Amelia on her natal day. Having gathered the loveliest the garden produced, she arranged them in the most tasteful manner, twining round the side of the basket a circlet of rosebuds and green moss, and surrounding Amelia's name and crest with a little wreath of forget-me-not. Then she showed her work to her father, who regarded it with a complacent smile, and set off with a light heart to the castle, to present it, with his good wishes and congratulations. Indeed, the garden of old Jacob was the most beautiful in the whole district; for as his daughter shared his own passion for beautiful flowers, he encouraged her taste by procuring every rare plant he could hear of, and their various excellences furnished the good man with constant topics of instruction and entertainment. The greatest ornament of the garden was a small apple-tree, not larger than a rose-bush, which grew in a plot in the middle of the garden. The father had planted it on the day of Maria's birth, and every year the little tree produced beautiful gold and purple streaked apples. Once it bloomed with peculiar beauty, and was covered over with blossoms. Maria noticed it every morning. Oh, how beautiful!' cried she in ecstasy, 'how beautifully red and white! The whole tree appears nothing but a large nosegay of flowers.' One morning, on visiting the garden, she found the frost had nipped it; the blossoms were destroyed-all green and yellow, and crumpled together by the heat of the sun. Maria wept at the sad sight. Thus,' said her father to her, thus is the bloom of virtue destroyed by sinful pleasure. Oh, child, tremble at temptation! You see how it shall be with you, not for a year only but for your whole life, if but once those high hopes entertained of thee should be allowed to disappear. Then, like thee, should I weep tears of heartfelt grief and sorrow. Not a moment of happiness should then be left me on earth; with a broken heart and sorrowful eye I should sink into my lonely grave.' The tears stood in his eyes, and his words made a deep and lasting impression on the tender-hearted Maria. In this manner, under the care of a loving and prudent father, Maria grew up blooming as a rose, innocent as a lily, modest as a violet, and hopeful as a tree full of beauti-dresses would be the best thing, dear mamma; and if you ful blossoms. With many a peaceful smile the old man will allow me, I would give her the one with the pretty admired his beautiful garden, which so well rewarded his red and white flowers on the dark green ground. It is industry and care, but with still greater gratitude and little worse than new, for I have only had it on a few satisfaction did he observe the more beautiful fruit which times, and it would make a holiday dress for Maria; she his instructions and care were daily producing in his be- can easily alter it a little to suit herself. If you have no loved child. objection, I will give it to her.' The young countess was seated at her toilet, and her maid was dressing her hair for the festival of her birth. Amelia was uncommonly delighted, and could hardly find words to express her admiration. Oh, come with me to my mother!' said she, rising; and taking Maria by the hand, led her to the next room where the countess was. 'Oh, look here, mamma!' cried she, as soon as she reached the door. What an uncommonly beautiful present Maria has brought me. You never saw such a fine basket, and I am certain you cannot find more exquisite flowers anywhere.' The countess was highly gratified with the present. 'Indeed,' said she, it is very lovely; I wish I had a painting of it! The little basket with the flowers, on which the dew is still resting, would make such a beautiful flowerpiece. The present does great honour to Maria's good taste, but much more to her kind heart. Stay here a little. my child,' said she to Maria, at the same time nodding to Amelia to follow her into the next apartment. We cannot allow Maria to go without a present,' said she to her daughter. What do you think we can give her?' Amelia thought for a moment. I think one of my One morning in the beginning of May, Maria had been in the neighbouring wood to cut some willow and hazel twigs, of which her father was accustomed to make neat little baskets; there she had found some May-flowers, the first of the season, which she gathered and made into two nosegays, one for her father and the other for herself. When she was going home through the meadow, the Countess of Eichburg and her daughter Amelia met her. They commonly resided in the metropolis, and had come to Eichburg only a few days before. As soon as Maria saw two ladies, she stepped aside to make room for them Nancy (so was the maid called) remained standing. on the narrow footpath, and remained respectfully stand-Your ladyship will not wear that dress to-day?' said she. ing at a little distance. Surely, surely,' said the countess; when one makes a present they ought always to give something that will be useful. Go now, my good children,' said the countess, as she and Amelia came back to Maria, and look after the flowers that they do not wither before dinner-time. For, as we have guests to-day, the flower-basket will be the greatest ornament on the table. I leave Amelia to thank thee, Maria.' So there are May-flowers already?' said the young countess, addressing Maria, who immediately offered a nosegay to each, which they accepted with pleasure, and the countess, drawing out her purse, wished to give something to Maria. But Maria said, 'Oh, no, I can accept nothing! Will your excellency be so kind as to allow a poor maiden, who has received many favours at your hand, the pleasure of contributing slightly to your enjoyment without thinking of any recompense?' The countess gave a friendly smile, and requested Maria to come every morning to the castle with a nosegay as long as there were any May-flowers to be had. Amelia took Amelia took Maria to her own apartment, and ordered her maid to go and fetch the dress. No,' said Amelia; I will present it to Maria.' That dress!' said she, snappishly. Does your mamma know of it?' 'Bring the dress,' said Amelia, rather quickly, and let me care for the rest.' 6 Nancy turned hurriedly away to conceal her vexation. Her face was red with anger; she tore the dress of the young countess ill-naturedly out of the trunk. 'If I durs: only tear it to tatters,' said she, before that garden beggar should get it! For one thing, she has stolen frora me the favour of my lady, and now she comes to steal this dress from me too; for all cast dresses belong to me of right. Oh, I could scratch the eyes out of the little flower dealer!' Nancy restrained her rage as well as she could. |