our friend Mr. M. just then arriving, with a spy-[ter. I know not how that may be-but according glass under his arm, and mounted on a pair of sad- to all my knowledge of springs, it is the finest in dle-bags. He was alone however; Mr. B. having the world. One of our friends had told us the day sent a note of apology for not coming according to before, that springs were supplied by the rain from appointment. The spy-glass was of course very the surface of the earth; but I believe we all conacceptable; and if the reader had ridden, and cluded it would have to rain about every third day, walked where we did, and had fasted as long, he and require all the water both Peaks could furnish would have been very glad before the close of the to keep this particular one in operation. The docday, also to see the contents of the saddle-bags, and tor was a farmer too, and had been trying an exto ascertain what the ladies had put in the pockets periment recommended in the "Cultivator" for of an old Summer coat, which I had on, before we making springs, by digging a hole, no matter started. where, putting in a barrel, and then filling in with We very soon passed "Fancy Farm;" a planta- stones, after which the water was to commence tion of some 1500 acres, with an old gloomy look-running. In the doctor's case it did not commence ing brick residence, built many years ago by a however, and I believe he concluded that he and Scotch gentleman, and one of the most antiquated the "Cultivator" together could not manufacture buildings in appearance in the Old Dominion. I any such spring as that. Unfortunately there was always had the impression that there were ghosts no drinking utensil whatever, and we were obliged about that habitation, when I used to pass it in my to lie down and take it by " word of mouth.” Mr. M. boyhood, and to this day I am not certain that I said I was not "au fait" at such business, because could command the courage to stay there alone I was a city gentleman. in a boisterous wintry night, with the winds play- We remounted, left the road, and turned up a ing their gambols along the old halls, and through steep bridle-path leading to the top of the Peak, the frowning windows of that ancient dwell- and just then met three gentlemen, escorting as ing. However, we passed it without meeting many ladies—one of whom, in a light-colored dress, any other dangers than the reluctance of my colt was the object that had attracted our attention to pass the "mill," and his apparent determination as we first ascended the mountain. The descent to lie down with me in the stream which crossed at that point was really dangerous. One of the the road. ladies stopped, and seemed for a moment to About a mile further on, we began to ascend, hesitate about riding down; but she soon startwhat Mr. M. said he considered the commence-ed her steed, followed by the others, with the ment of the mountain. The road was rough, self-possession of ladies accustomed to the mounbeing sometimes covered with large rocks; and it tain roads. After riding about a mile and a quarwas becoming excessively warm, although most of ter, we came to the point beyond which horses the way was well shaded. After ascending for cannot be taken, dismounted, tied our steeds, took some distance, we got a view of the summit of the off the saddles, and commenced ascending on foot. Western Peak through the trees, which almost The way was very steep, and the day so warm embosomed us, and saw a white object moving on that we had to halt very often to take breath. As the rocks, which we determined to be the dress of we approached the summit, the trees were all of a some lady then on the top. As we advanced, the dwarfish growth, and twisted and gnarled by the road became still more rough and very steep, and winds and storms of that high region. There were the horses seemed to suffer greatly from the heat. also a few blackberry-bushes bearing their fruit, long The doctor proposed dismounting to walk-but Mr. after the season had passed below. A few minutes M. said he was principled against walking when longer brought us to where the trees ceased to he could ride; and we continued on to near grow but a huge mass of rocks piled wildly on "Wood's," where the road on which we were, top of each other, finished the termination of the crosses to the Valley of Virginia: and from which Peak. Our path lay for some distance round the point the two Peaks rise, one on each side, as sepa-base of it, and under the overhanging battlements; rate and distinct mountains. and rather descending for a while, until it led to a

It may be necessary to inform the reader, as part of the pile, which could, with some effort, be just intimated, that there are two "Peaks of Ot-scaled. There was no ladder, nor any artificial ter," standing side by side, almost isolated and un-steps-and the only means of ascent was by climbconnected with other ranges of mountains either ing over the successive rocks, very much to the way. One of them, the Eastern, is rounded at the discomfiture of all light-headed people. Mr. M. top; the other, terminates almost in a point, and is however was a skilful pioneer; and the doctor's the one almost exclusively visited. We turned our head to the contrary notwithstanding-we soon horses a little out of the road to what is called the "Big stood upon the wild platform of one of nature's Spring"-clear, cool, and bubbling from the ground, most magnificent observatories, isolated, and appaand sending forth a stream which some one present rently above all things else terrestrial, and looking said might supply the city of New-York with wa- down upon and over a beautiful, variegated, and at

the same time grand, wild, wonderful, and almost ting near, looking in the same direction with myboundless panorama. Indeed, it was literally bound-self, but not quite so sentimental; as I believe he less; for there was a considerable haze resting had the spy-glass trying to find a plantation he upon some parts of "the world below;" so that, in owned somewhere in the region of the aforesaid the distant horizon, the earth and sky seemed in-mountains. Further on down the Valley, and at a sensibly to mingle with each other. great distance, was the top of a large mountain, which Mr. M. thought to be the great North Mountain away down in Shenandoah county-I am afraid to say how far off. Intermediate between these mountains, and extending opposite and far above us, was the Valley of Virginia, with its numerous and highly cultivated farms. Across this Valley, and in the distance, lay the remotest ranges of the Alleghany and the mountains about; and I suppose beyond the White Sulphur Springs. Nearer us, and separating Eastern and Western Virginia, was the Blue Ridge, more than ever showing the propriety of its cognomen of the "backbone;" and on which we could distinctly see two zigzag turnpikes, the one leading to Fincastle, and the other to Buchanan; and over which latter we had travelled a few days before. With the spyglass we could distinguish the houses in the village of Fincastle, some twenty-five or thirty miles off, and the road leading to the town.

I had been there before. I remember when a boy of little more than ten years old, to have been taken to that spot, and how my unpractised nerves forsook me at the awful sublimity of the scene, and I cried for my friend to come down, unwilling "to reign in that horrible place." Years afterwards, I had gone there during a college vacation with some portions of a bridal party; amongst whom were a lady from Kentucky, another who is now a missionary in Greece, and a gentleman who bears one of Virginia's distinguished names. But on this day it was as new as ever; as wild, wonderful and sublime, as if I had never before looked from those isolated rocks, or stood on that lofty summit.

On one side, towards Eastern Virginia, lay a comparatively level country, in the distance, bearing a strong resemblance to the ocean; on the other hand, were ranges of mountains, interspersed with cultivated spots, and then terminating in piles of mountains, following in successive ranges, until they were lost also in the haze. Above and below, the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies ran off in long lines; sometimes relieved by knolls and peaks, and in one place above us making a graceful curve, and then again running off in a different line of direction. Very near us stood the rounded top of the other Peak, looking like a sullen sentinel for its neighbor. We paused in silence for a time. We were there almost cut off from the world be- I had often visited Bedford, and had been more low, standing where it was fearful even to look or less familiar with it from childhood; but at our down. It was more hazy than at the time of my elevation, distances were so annihilated, and aplast visit, but not too much so to destroy the in-pearances so changed, that we could scarcely reterest of the scene.

Turning towards the direction of our morning's ride, we had beneath us Bedford county, with its smaller mountains, farms and farm-houses-the beautiful village of Liberty, the county roads, and occasionally a mill-pond, reflecting the sun like a sheet of polished silver. The houses on the hill at Lynchburg, twenty-five or thirty miles distant, are distinctly visible on a clear day, and also Willis' Mountain, away down in Buckingham county.

cognize the most familiar objects. After some difMr. M. hallooed, and was some time after, an- ficulty we at length made out the residence of Dr. swered by what at first we thought the echo, but M. we had that morning left, and at that moment found to be a man at work in a tobacco-field on the rendered more than usually interesting, by containbase of the mountain, and whom we could just dis-ing, in addition to other very dear relatives, two tinguish. There was almost a sense of pain at the certain ladies, who sustained a very interesting stillness which seemed to reign. We could hear connexion with the doctor and myself; and one of the flapping of the wings of the hawks and buz- whom had scarcely laid aside the blushes of her zards, as they seemed to be gathering a new impe- bridal hour. tus after sailing through one of their circles in the air below us.

A little beyond this, I recognized the former residence of a beloved sister, now living in a distant North of us, and on the other side of the Valley Southern State. It was the same steep hill asof Virginia, were the mountains near Lexington, cending to the gate, the same grove around the just as seen from that beautiful village-the Jump, house, as when she lived there, and the same as North, and House Mountains succeeding each when I played there in my boyhood. And it was other; they were familiar with a thousand asso- the first time I had seen it since the change of ciations of our childhood, seeming, mysteriously, when away from the spot, to bring my early home before me-not in imagination, such as had often haunted me when first I left it to find another in the world, but in substantial reality. Mr. M. had gone off on another rock, and the doctor was sit

owners. I then saw it from the Peaks of Otter: but it touched a thousand tender chords; and I almost wept, when I thought, that those I once there loved were far away, and that the scenes of my youthful days could not return.

The doctor, Mr. M. and myself, had, some time

He said his head was swimming, and that

before, gotten on different rocks, that we might | him. not interrupt each other in our contemplations. I he could not get down. I went to his relief, took could not refrain, however, from saying to one of the spy-glass he was holding, and turning his back them, "what little things we are; how factitious to the danger, and clinging to the rocks, I directed our ideas of what is extensive in territory and dis- his feet, and he was at length rescued from his untance." A splendid estate was about the size I pleasant dilemma. We returned more rapidly than could step over; and I could stand and look at the we had ascended, to our horses, and rode most of very house, whence I used often to start in days the way down, to the great peril sometimes of Mr. gone by, and follow with my eye my day's journey M., whose "principles against walking" led him to the spot where, wearied and worn down, I dis-to ride, when his Spanish saddle, which could not mounted with the setting sun. Yet I could look be girted tight, was sometimes on the neck of his over what seemed so great a space, with a single fiery steed. glance. I could also look away down the Valley of Virginia, and trace the country, and, in imagina-way with the road, where we borrowed a gourd; tion, the stage-coach as it slowly wound its way, day and night for successive days, to reach the termination of what I could throw my eye over in a moment. I was impressively reminded of the extreme littleness with which these things of earth would all appear, when the tie of life which binds us here is broken, and we shall be able to look back and down upon them from another world. The scene and place are well calculated to excite such thoughts.

It is said that John Randolph once spent the night on these elevated rocks, attended by no one but his servant; and that, when in the morning, he had witnessed the sun rising over the majestic scene, he turned to his servant, having no other to whom he could express his thoughts, and charged him "never from that time to believe any one who told him there was no God."

I confess also, that my mind was most forcibly carried to the Judgment-Day; and I could but call the attention of my companions to what would probably then be the sublime terror of the scene we now beheld, when the mountains we saw and stood upon, should all be melted down like wax; when the flames should be driving over the immense expanse before us; when the heavens over us should be "passing away with a great noise;" and when the air beneath and around us should be filled with the very inhabitants now dwelling and busied in that world beneath us.

We had each been lying for some time separately upon the rocks, and for the most part silently. We now drew nearer together, and as there were some good voices in the trio, we sang together on that elevated spot, which seldom hears any other music but that of the howlings of the angry storm beneath. Just as we were preparing to come down, we saw away off in the direction of Wythe county, what seemed to be almost a speck glittering through the haze with great brilliancy. We supposed it was the tin roof on the residence of some wealthy gentleman in that region.

After Mr. M. and myself had left the rocks, we heard the doctor make a signal of distress; looking back, we saw him seated on the highest pinnacle, with a large chasm in the rocks just below

There was a cabin at the junction of the path

and having unloaded the saddle-bags and my pocket, gave ample evidence that we had a taste for more than one sort of interesting objects. It might have been a questionable point at that moment, which was the most interesting view, that we had just seen from the Peaks, or that from the logs on which we were sitting, near the spring.

On our way home we stopped at "Fancy Farm," (don't be alarmed gentle reader, although we had been to the "Peaks of Otter,") to look at some sort of new-fashioned pigs-" no bone," I believe. The kind family there, were from home but we sat down on the grass in the yard, and disposed of the greater part of two watermelons furnished by a friend, and the remaining half of one of which, Mr. M. showed strong symptoms of wishing to put in his saddle-bags.

The evening was waning, and we soon hastened onwards--shook hands with Mr. M. at the fork of the road-greatly obliged for his kindness,—and about dusk reached the comfortable domicil we had in the morning left, with great satisfaction to the doctor, who had never visited the Peaks before, and with considerable fatigue to the gentleman who rode the colt.

PRAYER OF THE LONELY.

BY MRS. E. J. EAMES.
I.

God of my Spirit! Lo,

In utter loneliness of heart I bow,
Prostrate before thee now!
O Father, hear my prayer!
O, shield me with thy kind protecting care;
And give me strength to bear
Meekly the sorrows of my lonely lot—
Knowing that thou wilt not
Reject the meanest child of dust,
That putteth in thee its trust.

11.

God of my Spirit! hear

The humble prayer that on the wings of fear
Riseth to meet thine ear.

Thou wilt not, Lord, despise

A broken heart! The trembling sacrifice

Delighteth more thine eyes,

Than gifts and gold, in which the heart
Hath neither lot, nor part.

A willing heart is all that I can bring,-
Accept the offering!

III.

God of my Spirit! thou

Who see'st all things, see'st even now,

The bitter tears, that flow

Down this pale cheek;

well have been directed to the Smith family of the U. States, and would have been about as likely to have reached its distinctive destination with the superscription" John," as with that of the "Messrs. Coffins;" but so, it seems, it came; and the arrival of such a letter could not but produce a "sensation." Such a sensation as it did produce, is not likely to occur again for some time. Not at any

Thou know'st this frame, so weary, wan, and weak! rate, till old Tristam himself rises and congregates

Thou know'st there are none to speak

Kind words of hope, and sympathy,

And tender love to me!
Father-behold how my full heart is bow'd-
Smile on me through the crowd!

IV.

God of my Spirit! hear,

And O! draw thou my lost affections, near
To thine own blissful sphere.
Never, O never more,

On the poor things that perish, let me pour
Vain worship as before.

But O my Father-make me only thine-
Thine altar be the shrine

Where every offering of my soul is brought-
Be thine my every thought!

Eames' Place, 1841.

CONFUSION OF THE COFFINS.

his twenty-five thousand lineal and collateral descendants, for an onslaught upon the Hump-backs. If their North Carolina correspondent had addressed the Nantucketers by the limited cognomination of "All the Browns," or the more specific designation of "Some of the Smiths"-nay, had he directed his letter to "My relations at Cuddy-hunk,” or to "Pretty much every body that uncle Starbuck used to know at Cape Pogue," there might have been some clue to the personage who might claim the "abstract" right to open it; but a missive bearing the broad superscription of this letter, was as latitudinarian as a Northern politician's construction of the Constitution, and as indefinite and unsatisfactory as the title-deed of Joe Bowers' farm in No Man's Land, and about as intelligible as its boundaries; which, as they are recorded on the Register's book at Squibnockett, run thus: "East North-West half South one hundred and odd rods to the spot where there was formerly a pile of stones-thence West South-East a considerable distance to a good place for a house-thence in a direct line along shore over the clam bluff as it stood before the tide washed it away, to the fish stakes, which are supposed to have been once erected thereabouts; and from thence to the place of departure, following the course of the beach as it is believed to have existed before the arrival of our forefathers."

There is a pleasant joke upon the people of the good town of Groton, in Connecticut, bearing this wise: A gentleman passing in the ferry-boat from New-London, happened incidentally to mention in a rather audidle voice, the name of Avery; whereupon no less than fourteen of his fellow-passengers jumped suddenly from their seats, and required to know what he wanted of them! The story may or may not be literally true, but the Averys in that town are, and always have been, "plenty as black- Just about as easy was it for our excellent friend, berries," and we are quite willing they should al- the postmaster at Nantucket, to ascertain the true ways remain so; for they are a very respectable direction of this mysterious epistle. He had been race, and some half a score of them fought va- puzzled in his politics, and abominably perplexed liantly at Fort Griswold, and have their names in his polemics many a time and oft, and had even honorably inscribed on the lofty granite obelisk, suffered in the wear and tear of sconce in his enthat commemorates that gallant and glorious exhi-deavors to decipher the difference between a whig, bition of devoted patriotism. Thus much for what idiot, and a loco-foco body—but never had his powwe deemed an appropriate preface to an incident, ers of discrimination been put to so severe a task which we find recently recorded in Nantucket-an incident that puts the multitudenousness of the Averys altogether in the back ground.

as when he essayed to find out the true identity of this letter-writer's correspondents. Giving over the attempt as a "bad job," so far as his own unAccording to the "Natucket Inquirer," published assisted gumption was concerned, he determined on that goodly sand-heap, a letter was lately re- upon calling in the entire insular wisdom in that ceived at the post-office, directed "To the Mes- behalf. He gave public notice of such a letter; sieurs Coffins." It came from one of the ramifi- and at this point commenced the popular effervescations of that renowned race in North Carolina, cence of what is our duty to speak. Such another where the grandfather, or great grandfather of the resurrection had never been known since the setwriter bearing that cheerful name, had settled a tlement of the island. The "Messrs. Coffins" great many years ago, and who was desirous of came tumbling into the post-office from all quarcommuning with some of his relatives in Nantucket. ters. From shore and ship-from Main to MarketThe letter, as the "Inquirer" remarks, might as Street-from Siasconsett to the Sheepfolds-and