dear," says she, turning to her husband, “ you may now see the stranger that was in the candle last night." 2. Soon after this, as they began to talk of family affairs, a little boy at the lower end of the table told her that he was to go into join-hand on Thursday. "Thursday!" says she, "No, child, if it please God, you shall not begin upon Childermas-day; tell your writing-master that Friday will be soon enough.” 1 3. I was reflecting with myself on the oddness of her fancy, and wondering that anybody would establish it as a rule to lose a day in every week. In the midst of these my musings, she desired me to reach her a little salt upon the point of my knife, which I did in such a trepidation and hurry of obedience that I let it drop by the way; at which she immediately started, and said it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and, observing the concern of the whole table, began to consider myself, with some confusion, as a person that had brought a disaster upon the family. 4. The lady, however, recovering herself after a little space, said to her husband with a sigh, “My dear, misfortunes never come single." ." My friend, I found, acted but an under part at his table; and, being a man of more goodnature than understanding3, thinks himself obliged to fall in with all the passions and humors of his yoke-fellow. "Do not you remember, child," says she, "that the pigeonhouse fell the very afternoon that our careless wench spilt the salt upon the table?" "Yes," says he, “my dear, and the next post brought us an account of the battle of Almanza." 66 5. The reader may guess at the figure I made, after having done all this mischief. I despatched my dinner as soon as I could, with my usual taciturnity; when, to my utter confusion, the lady, seeing me quitting my knife and 1 Rule XIV. * Rule XXVII., Rem. 2. 2 Rule I., Rem. 1. 4 Rule XXV., Rem. 2. fork and laying them across one another1 upon my plate, desired me that I would humor her so far as to take them out of that figure and place them side by side. What the absurdity was which I had committed I did not know, but I suppose there was some traditionary superstition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the lady of the house, I disposed of my knife and fork in two parallel lines, which is the figure I shall always lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reason for it. 6. It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived an aversion to him. For my own part, I quickly found by the lady's looks that she regarded me as a very odd kind of a fellow with an unfortunate aspect. For which reason I took my leave immediately after dinner and withdrew to my old lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound contemplation on the evils that attend these superstitious follies of mankind; how they subject us to imaginary afflictions and additional sorrows that do not properly come within our lot. 7. As if the natural calamities of life were not sufficient for it, we turn the most indifferent circumstances into misfortunes, and suffer as much from trifling accidents as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a star spoil' a night's rest, and have seen a man in love grow2 pale and lose his appetite upon the plucking of a merry-thought. A screech-owl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the voice of a cricket has struck more terror than the roaring of a lion. There is nothing so inconsiderable which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognostics. A rusty nail, or a crooked pin, shoot3 up into prodigies. 8. I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy presages and terrors of mind, and that is by securing to myself the friendship and protection of that 3 Wrong. Why? 1 Rule I., Rem. 6. 2 Rule XX. Being who disposes of events and governs futurity. He sees at one view the whole thread of my existence; not only that part of it which I have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. 9. When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to His care; when I awake, I give myself to His direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to Him for help, and question not but He will either avert them or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death' I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am sure that He knows them both, and that He will not fail to comfort and support me under them. THE FIRST SNOW FALL.-[LOWELL.] The snow had begun in the gloaming, And busily all the night Had been heaping field and highway With a silence deep and white. Every pine and fir and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an earl, 5 From sheds new-roofed with Carrara,2 10 The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, I stood and watched by the window 1 Rule X., Rem. 1. 2 A species of pure white marble. 3 To is understood after like. 15 I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn As did robins the babes in the wood. 20 Up spoke our own little Mabel, Saying, "Father, who makes it snow ?" Who cares for us all below. Again I looked at the snow fall, And thought of the leaden sky I remembered the gradual patience That fell from that cloud like snow, Alone can make it fall!" Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her, TO A WATERFOWL.-[BRYANT.] Whither, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. 1 Rule XX, 2 Rule XIV. 25 30 35 40 5 Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, 10 Or where the rocking billows rise and sink There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,- 15 Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, 20 And soon that toil shall end; Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart He who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 30 THE AMERICAN INDIAN'S IDEA OF DEATH.-[BANCROFT.] 1. The savage believed that to every man there is an appointed time to die; to anticipate that period by suicide was detested as the meanest cowardice. For the dead he abounds in his lamentations, mingling them with words of comfort to the living: to him death is the king of terrors. 2. He never names the name of the departed; to do so is an offence justifying revenge. To speak generally |