I see the blue streams glancing in the mild and chastened light, And the gem-lit fleecy clouds, that steal along the brow of night. Oh! must I leave existence now, while life should be like spring, While joy should cheer my pilgrimage with sunbeams from his wing? Are the songs of hope forever flown? the syren voice which flung The chant of youth's warm happiness from the beguiler's tongue? Shall I drink no more the melody of babbling streams or bird, Or the scented gales of summer, as the leaves of June are stirred? Shall the pulse of love wax fainter, and the spirit shrink from death, As the bud-like thoughts that lit my heart, fade in its chilling breath? "I have passed the dreams of childhood, and my loves and hopes are gone, And I turn to Thee, Redeemer! O thou blest and Holy One! Though the rose of health has vanished, though the mandate has been spoken, And one by one the golden links, of life's fond chain are broken, Yet can my spirit turn to THEE, thou chastener! and can bend In humble suppliance at thy throne, my father, and my friend! Thou, who hast crowned my youth with hope, my early days with glee, Give me the eagle's fearless wing-the dove's to mount to Thee! "I lose my foolish hold on life, its passions, and its tears, How brief the yearning ecstasies, of its young, and careless years! I give my heart to earth no more, the grave may clasp me now; The winds whose tone I loved, may play in the cypress bough! The birds, the streams, are eloquent; yet I shall pass away, And in the light of Heaven shake off, this cumbrous load of clay, I shall join the lost, the loved of earth, and meet each kindred breast, 'Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest,'" A NIGHT OF TERROR.-PAUL LOUIS COURIER. I was one day traveling in Calabria; a country of people who, I believe, have no great liking to anybody, and aro particularly ill-disposed towards the French. To tell you why would be a long affair. It is enough that they hate us to death, and that the unhappy being who should chance to fall into their hands would not pass his time in the most agreeable manner. I had for my companion a worthy young fellow; I do not say this to interest you, but because it is the truth. In these mountains the roads are precipices, and our horses advanced with the greatest difficulty. My comrade going first, a track which appeared to him more practicable and shorter than the regular path, led us astray. It was my fault. Ought I to have trusted to a head of twenty years? We sought our way out of the wood while it was yet light; but the more we looked for the path, the further we were off it. It was a very black night, when we came close upon a very black house. We went in, and not without suspicion. But what was to be done? There we found a whole family of charcoal-burners at table. At the first word they invited us to join them. My young man did not stop for much ceremony. In a minute or two we were eating and drinking in right earnest-he at least; for my own part I could not help glancing about at the place and the people. Our hosts, indeed, looked like charcoal-burners; but the house! you would have taken it for an arsenal. There was nothing to be seen but muskets, pistols, sabres, knives, cutlasses. Everything displeased me, and I saw that I was in no favor myself. My comrade, on the contrary, was soon one of the family. He laughed, he chatted with them; and with an imprudence which I ought to have prevented, he at once said where we came from, where we were going, and that we were Frenchmen. Think of our situation. Here we were among our mortal enemies-alone, benighted, and far from all human aid. That nothing might be omitted that could tend to our destruction, he must, forsooth, play the rich man, promising these folks to pay them well for their hospitality; and then he must prate about his portmanteau, earnestly beseeching them to take care of it, and put it at the head of his bed, for he wanted no other pillow. Ah, youth, youth! how art thou to be pitied! Cousin, they might have thought that we carried the diamonds of the crown: and yet the treasure in his portmanteau, which gave him so much anxiety, consisted only of some private letters. Supper ended, they left us. Our hosts slept below; we on the story where we had been eating. In a sort of platform raised seven or eight feet, where we were to mount by a ladder, was the bed that awaited us-a nest into which ve had to introduce ourselves by jumping over barrels filled with provisions for all the year. My comrade seized upon the bed above, and was soon fast asleep, with his head upen the precious portmanteau. I was determined to keep awake, so I made a good fire, and sat myself down. The night was almost passed over tranquilly enough, and I was beginning to be comfortable, when just at the time it appeared to me that day was about to break, I heard our host and his wife talking and disputing below me; and, putting my ear into the chimney, which communicated with the lower room, I perfectly distinguished these exact words of the husband: "Well, well, let us see-must we kill them both?" To which the wife replied, "Yes!" and I heard no more. How should I tell you the rest? I could scarcely breathe; my whole body was as cold as marble; had you seen me you could not have told whether I was dead or alive. Even now, the thought of my condition is enough. We two were almost without arms; against us, were twelve or fifteen persons who had plenty of weapons. And then my comrade was overwhelmed with sleep. To call him up, to make a noise, was more than I dared; to escape alone was an impossibility. The window was not very high; but under it were two great dogs, howling like wolves. Imagine, if you can, the distress I was in. At the end of a quarter of an hour, which seemed to be an age, I heard some one on the staircase, and through the chink of the door, I saw the old man with a lamp in one hand, and one of his great knives in the other. The crisis was now come. He mounted-his wife followed him; I was behind the door. He opened it; but before he entered he put down the lamp, which his wife took up, and coming in, with his feet naked, she being behind him, said in a smothered voice, hiding the light partially with her fingers-"Gently, go gently." On reaching the ladder he mounted, with his knife between his teeth, and going to the head of the bed where that poor young man lay with his throat uncovered, with one hand he took the knife, and with the other-ah, my cousin!-he SEIZED-a ham which hung from the roof,-cut a slice, and retired as he had come in! When the day appeared, all the family, with a great noise, came to arouse us as we had desired. They brought us plenty to eat; they served us up, I assure you, a capital breakfast. Two chickens formed a part of it, the hostess saying, “You must eat one, and carry away the other." When I saw them, I at once comprehended the meaning of those terrible words, "Must we kill them both?" INDEMBERANCE.-CARL PRETZEL. "Vill der times efer come, vill dot day efer break, -BAYRUM. Der many wrecks of human peobles vat efery tay we see, as we walk dot shtreet ofer, should been a shtrong incendif to bring to your minds der trooth of dot old atferb vich did said, nefer dou'd put dot teif in your mouth vot vould shteal your prains right avay gwick oud." Dose vas a dhrue remarks in some inshdances, und in odders it don'd abbly to der cases; for der man vat vould trink himself dot fatal combounds, commonly called vhisky, vas mitout sences, und der man mitout sences he could fool dot teif, on ackound he got no prains to shteal right avay gwick oud. How many young mans hafe been cut down, shust as der brightest brosbects vas looming him ub, by a kobious use of dot fatal fire waters; und vat shtronger incendif do you vant, dhen to saw der young mans trunk like a post-hole, mitout a fife or dhree-cent pieces in der dwo-dimes National Pank, or a rag of a new bair of clothes to his backs. Who ish der reason of dot decay, und how is der matter mit dot lowness down of der yooth? Yoost look you back und say, who makes oben der flood-gates of all dot zin und unhabbiness. Vas dot der drinker? nein; vas dot der dealer? nein; vas dot der manufackdure? vell, I baed you. He vas der feller, und mine brayer vos dot he should been combelled to look down indo his deep shtills, filled shucpfull of dheir outsites in mit dher tears of wifes, modhers and sisders, und been made to feel himself der hefy emotions of . greif und sorrows, vat causes each leedle dear-drob to drickle dheir feadures down. I yoost dink dot der zin of Mister Kain vould been notting, in kombarison to der afflictions of his soul, on dot periods. Young mans, nefer don'd trink some tings. Demberanco vas der froot of goot tings. Indemberance vas ids destroyer. Der first makes you habby like der deuce; vhile der seckond brings on your head misery und crime, und in der eshtimation of your friends you vas a toadshtool, mitout one re deeming feadures. Enyhow, your feadures would soon brove It, of you shduck to it. HOW HE SAVED ST. MICHAEL'S. So you beg for a story, my darling, my brown-eyed Leopold, And you, Alice, with face like morning, and curling locks of gold; Then come, if you will, and listen-stand close beside my knee To a tale of the Southern city, proud Charleston by the sea. It was long ago, my children, ere ever the signal gun as one; Long ere the wondrous pillar of battle-cloud and fire Had marked where the unchained millions marched on to their hearts' desire. |