party returning slowly towards us, with failure plainly written in their faces.

They had chased the rabbit as far as the hedge which divided the garden from the hop plantation, and the cunning little animal had crept into the very middle of it; so that, as it had not been trimmed that spring, they could not reach him, though they watched him, and surrounded him on both sides. After nibbling some of the green hawthorn twigs, he sat up and began to rub his face in the most placid style; till at last, when their patience was nearly tired out, he deliberately ran through the midst of them, and bounded away among the hop poles, till they lost sight of him.

We could distinctly hear the sound of Miss Palmer's spade behind the trees. Belle presently rose from the grass; perhaps, as she had unintentionally spoilt the auriculas, and as she knew that the possession of them had already been somewhat embittered to their owner, by the remarks we had made, she wished to shew some interest in the operation of planting them, or to see how far they were injured.

However this may be, she asked Juliet and me to give her each an arm, and we all proceeded behind the laurèstinus shrubs, to Miss Palmer's garden. Belle was vexed at the mischief she had caused; but in our inmost hearts, I believe we were both secretly pleased at it, as an instance of what seemed such strict poetical justice. Miss Palmer had taken advantage of our absence, to purchase plants which had been brought for us, and now these very plants were broken and spoilt by one of us; and she herself was scolded, instead of being compassionated on the

occasion.

Belle, limping slightly, advanced between us; but Miss Palmer continued to dig, and did not look at us.

The afternoon sun, already getting low, was shining full on her flushed face, and it seemed to me, that she held it inconveniently high, because her eyes were full of tears, and she wished to prevent them from falling.

Her spade went in several times, while she continued to look steadily before her; at last, she set it in so close to a pretty little plant, that I thought she would dig it up, and exclaimed, "O Miss Palmer, do you see your little heartsease?

On this she looked down, and the tears dropped on her cheeks; she hastily dashed them away, and then stooping, moved the earth from her heartsease, and taking up the flowerpots, began to turn out the plants and set them in the space she had dug over.

"I am afraid the auriculas are spoilt for this spring," said Belle.

"Yes," replied Miss Palmer, without looking either at us, or at them; and there certainly could not be any doubt about the matter, for every stalk was snapped, and every leaf was broken.

"Well, certainly," said Juliet rather sharply, "Belle has been severely punished for tumbling over them, she has hurt her foot very much."

"I am very sorry, and I said so at first," said Miss Palmer, still without looking at us.

"Oh, I beg your pardon," answered Juliet; "I did not hear you, and I thought, as Belle had said several times that she was sorry about the plants, it seemed odd that you did not say "

"Juliet, I wish you wouldn't," interrupted Belle, "I did not come here to make her say anything. I am sorry, and I did not remember that the pots stood there."

"Very well," said Juliet, "then that is all it seems; your foot will soon be well, and if it was worse, perhaps Miss Palmer would think it served you quite right."

There is no saying what passionate rejoinder might have been made to this, nor how far we might have forgotten all kindness and propriety, if the children, backed by Miss Ashley and Miss L'Estrange, had not dashed in upon our counsels, declaring that the rabbit had reappeared, that he was behind the yard palings, and that if we would come and help, they were sure that he could be surrounded and caught. Accordingly, Juliet and I ran away with them, Belle limped home to the house, and Miss Palmer was left behind to reflect on what had passed and plant her broken flowers.

Of course we did not catch the rabbit; but our zeal satisfied little Nannette that we were sorry for her loss, and anxious to repair it.

Many tears were shed that night by Speck's little mistress on his account; but the next day Miss Ward gave her another rabbit, quite as white and much less wild than Speck; so she was completely consoled, and he was forgotten.

That fine day was succeeded by a very rainy night, and it rained all the next day, so that little Nannette's rabbit could only be bought through the gardener, whose apprentice had one for sale, and who was allowed to bring it into the hall, and exhibit it to us there, as Madame said, "for once;" a phrase by which she prefaced nearly every indulgence, of the many she gave us.

The next day was also wet, and it was not till the following morning that we could go out. The leaves had expanded so much during the soft rain, and everything looked so fresh, that while we were dressing, we speculated as to whether we might venture to plant out our young geraniums that Madame was taking care of in the frames; and were full of hope for our different plants and seeds,

U

What then was our consternation on reaching our little gardens, to find Belle's beautiful polyanthus, her black polyanthus, which was the pride of her heart, and which even Madame had condescended to ask for an offset; that very black polyanthus which we had left so blooming, with every leaf, stalk, and flower, cut clean off level with the ground, just as if a knife had been passed over them by some person, who contented with despoiling the plant, had left its ruins lying just where they fell! The whole school stood round lamenting, with the exception of Belle and Miss Palmer; for the former, though her foot was nearly well, could not run yet; and the latter had exhibited no wish to come into the garden; on the contrary, she had expressed her disappointment that we were not going to take a walk instead; and as we well remembered afterwards, had said, "She was sure she should never take any pleasure in her garden again."

Everybody's exclamation was-"Who can have done this?" and poor Belle, when she arrived at the spot, stood silent for awhile with vexation; and then could not help remarking, how curious it was that her plant should have died so soon after she had destroyed the lovely auriculas. However, she took her misfortune very well, and began to pick up and examine the flowers, which were all beaten into the soil by rain, and bespattered with mould. "This had evidently been done with a knife," said Juliet. Just at that moment we observed that Miss Palmer was standing among us; we had been too much absorbed to notice her approach. "A knife, and nothing but a knife has done it," exclaimed Miss L'Estrange, stooping down more closely over the plant; "and here, Belle, is a foot-mark close to the root, not a new footmark."

"Oh," said Miss Palmer, "that might have been made in the chase after the rabbit."

"We never came this way," said one and another; "no one came near these gardens but Belle herself, just before she fell." "Then she made the foot-mark herself, perhaps," remarked Miss Palmer.

"How could she?" replied Miss Ashley, steadily; "don't you see that it points the other way ?"

"I was only trying to account for it," said Miss Palmer, reddening under Miss Ashley's eye.

'Well, I see no use in accounting for it," said Belle mournfully; "no accounting will make it grow again."

"I do see the use," replied her sister, "for it could not possibly have been cut WITHOUT HANDS.'

Upon this, Miss Palmer fixed her large eyes for a moment on Miss L'Estrange with a peculiar expression, and a thought flashed into my mind, which I would not for the world have

expressed; but which I saw plainly written on the faces of all my companions, and was conscious that Miss Palmer saw it too; but she did not continue to meet our gaze, she turned hastily round, and snatching up her rake, began diligently to work in her garden; but so timing the strokes of her tools, that she could hear every sentence we uttered, and sometimes turning half round, the rake suspended in her hand, she appeared intently to weigh our words.

"Well, this is a very mysterious thing," said Miss Ashley at last, "and I wish we could account for it." We all mentally assented to this, but no one said anything, till one of the youngest children exclaimed, after whispering to the others, "I have no knife, I hope Belle does not think I did it."

"Of course not child," said Belle; here the rake was worked very diligently.

"I am sure I did not do it," said another little girl; "and, besides, Belle has always been so very kind to me."

"There is no one that Belle ever is unkind to," said Miss Ward, who was always the first to say a generous thing.

"No," said little Nannette, "not on purpose; she did not spoil Miss Palmer's auriculas on purpose."

What an unlucky thing it was that Nannette's conscientious qualification should have been made just at that moment. There stood the little gardens opposite to one another; the mould artificially heaped up towards the centre of each; one was crowned by the broken auriculas, the other by the cut polyanthus. "I can only say," said Miss Ward, breaking the awkward silence-"I can only say, that I wish I had never seen this foot-mark; I don't think that all the years I have been at school, anything has happened that has made me feel so uncomfortable; for you see that this is not the foot-mark of a grown up person; it is not Belle's foot-mark either, it is shorter and wider; there are no hobnails in it, therefore it could not have been done by the gardener's boy; the polyanthus stands so far from the edge, that it could not have been reached but for the foot-mark. And that the plant was spoilt for mere malice and mischief, and not for the sake of getting the flowers, is evident; for they were all left just where they fell."

All this was perfectly true, and Miss Ward did not say it unkindly; but we were no nearer to the unknown culprit, and there was another pause, during which Miss Palmer continued her operations with her back turned towards us, till some one said, "Who was the last of us at these gardens ?"

Several remembered who had been left behind while we ran after the rabbit, and Belle went into the house, and there was a general, though silent nod towards Miss Palmer; who however,

did not turn round till little Nannette, with her brown eyes wide open, exclaimed bluntly-" But Miss Palmer-did Miss Palmer do it ?"

"No one said she did, child," said Miss L'Estrange, checking her instantly and angrily.

Miss Palmer had dropped her rake on hearing Nannette's speech; she now picked it up, and gathering her other tools together, turned and faced us; she was deeply flushed, and as she passed us, she said in a low voice, but distinct enough to be heard by us all-"But no one said she DID NOT.”

NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.

THE Bay of Naples is a picture-a beautiful picture-a perfect picture, one that you can look upon as a whole from one point and another, and then examine in detail, without being oppressed with its vastness, and without losing in its diversities the sense of completeness. In this respect, as a picturesque object to be seen and enjoyed, the Bay of Naples, is large enough to meet the conception of vastness, swelling outward into the sea, and in that direction bounded only by its horizon, and yet compact and definite enough to meet the sense of beauty. It has the further advantage of being flanked on either hand by massive mountains, while its islands give to it a pleasing variety without breaking its impression by their own prominence. The city, too, spreads gracefully around it, and rises over it in tiers of buildings crowned with forts and towers.

From whatever point it is viewed, whether from the bold promontory of Misenum on the west, or the smoking cone of Vesuvius on the east, from the castled heights of the city, from the long promenade that skirts its western margin, or from the deck of the retiring steamer, until it is sealed behind the island of Capri; it is still the same picturesque, beautiful imposing sheet of water, shimmering under the noon-day sun, or