For why? Methought, last night, I wrought A murder in a dream! "One that had never done me wrong, A feeble man, and old; I led him to a lonely field,— The moon shone clear and cold; "Two sudden blows with ragged stick, "Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone, And yet I feared him all the more, There was a manhood in his look, 66 That murder could not kill. 'And, lo! the universal air Seemed lit with ghastly flame; "O God! it made me quake to see "My head was like an ardent coal; My wretched, wretched soul, I knew, A dozen times I groaned; the dead "And now, from forth the frowning sky. I heard a voice,-the awful voice "I took the dreary body up, "Down went the corpse with hollow plunge, And vanished in the pool; Anon I cleansed my bloody hands, And washed my forehead cool, And sat among the urchins young, That evening in the school. "O heaven! to think of their white soula I could not share in childish prayer, Like a devil of the pit I seemed, Mid holy cherubim. "And peace went with them, one and all, But guilt was my grim chamberlain, And drew my midnight curtains round, With fingers bloody red. “All night I lay in agony, In anguish dark and deep, My fevered eyes I dared not close, For Sin has rendered unto her "All night I lay in agony, "One stern tyrannic thought, that made "Heavily I rose up, as soon "Merrily rose the lark, and shook But I never marked its morning flight, For I was stooping once again Under the horrid thing. "With breathless speed, like a soul in chase, I took him up and ran; There was no time to dig a grave Before the day began: In a lonesome wood, with heaps of leaves, I hid the murdered man; "And all that day I read in school, But my thought was otherwhere; As soon as the midday task was done, And a mighty wind had swept the leaves, "Then down I cast me on my face, And first began to weep, For I knew my secret then was one "So wills the fierce avenging sprite, And years have rotted off his flesh, "O God! that horrid, horrid dream Again, again, with dizzy brain, The human life I take; And my red right hand grows raging hot, "And still no peace for the restless clay, The horrid thing pursues my soul,— It stands before me now!" The fearful boy looked up, and saw That very night, while gentle sleep Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn, With gyves upon his wrist. SHYLOCK TO ANTONIO.-SHAKSPEARE. Signor Antonio, many a time and oft In the Rialto you have rated me About my moneys and my usances; Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe; You call me--misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, And all for use of that which is mine own. Well, then, it now appears, you need my help; Go to, then; you come to me, and you say, Shylock, we would have moneys; you say so, You that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold; moneys is your suit. What should I say to you? Should I not say, Hath a dog money? is it possible A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, With bated breath, and whispering humbleness, Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; You spurned me such a day; another time JOSH BILLINGS ON "GONGS."-H. G. SHAW. Josh Billings relateth his first experience with the gong thusly: I kan never holi eradicate from my memory the sound ov the first gong I ever herd. I was settin on the frunt step ov a tavurn in the sity ov Bufferlow, pensively smokin. The sun was goin to bed, and the hevins fur and near was a blushin at the performance. The Ery Kanal with its golden waters was on its way to Albany, and I was perusin the line botes a floatin by, and thinking of Italy (wher I uste to live) and gondolers and gallus wimmin. Mi entire sole, was, as it were, in a swet-i wanted to klimb -i felt grate, I aktually gru. There are things in this life not tu be trifled with: there are times when a man brakes luce from hisself, when he sees spiruts, or when he kin almost tuch the mune, and feels az if he could fil both hans with the stars of hevin, and almost swear he was a bank president, that's what ailed me. But the koarse ov tru luv never did run smuthe, (this is Shakspeare's opinyun tu,--I and he often thunk thru one quil,)-jist az I waz duin mi best,-dummer, dummer, spat, bang, beller, crash, roar, jam, dummer, rip, whang, roar, menjus, rally, jump, I struck the centre ov the sidewalk, with anuther I klared the gutter, and with anuther I struck the middle ov the street, snortin like an injun pony at a band uv musick. I gazed in despair at the tavurn, and mi heart was swelled up as big as a outdore uven, my teeth were as loose as a string ov bedes. I thot all the crockery in the tavurn had fell down. I thot of fenomonons. I thot of Gabril and hiz horn. I was jist on the pint ov thinkin somethin else when the landlord kum to the front step uv the |