any thing short of assiduous and long on the other side. The band, to whose continued labors issuing in absolute fortunes we attach ourselves, numberfailure, that he is not meant to do much for the honor of God and the good of

mankind.

THE SKY LEAPERS.

A THRILLING TALE OF NORWAY.

Much of the interest felt in beholding a chain of lofty mountains, arises from the feeling that on lands such as these the foot of the invader has seldom rested, and has seldom long tarried. So often, from the pass of Thermopyla to the heights of Morgarten, have the brave proved their own hills to be impregnable, that no tale of overwhelming numbers will counteract the feeling that a mountain land so won has been betrayed by the cowardice of the inhabitants. Of this cowardice, history unfortunately gives us some proofs. But these few instances of weakness and treachery only serve to give the force of strong contrast to the bright examples of higher and nobler spirits. These reflections apply more especially to Norway, the tradition which often rouses the warm Norse blood, when told by some of the older peasants to the listeners round a cottage hearth on along winter's evening.

ed but three hundred warriors; but they were the flower of Sweden. They resolved to penetrate the barrier at the most inaccessible point, believing that the Norse would collect in the Southern country, where they were opposed by a Swedish army, and rest secure in the deep snow, which rendered the hills impassable, for the defence of their mountain frontier.

So they came, says the legendary story, to the foot of the wild pass of Ruden, a spot fated to be dangerous to the Swedes, and since strewed with the frozen corpses of the hosts of Labarre and Zoega, who perished there. Their company filled the few cottages of the small hamlet on the Swedish side of the barrier, where they arrived in the early part of the day. They were eager in their enquiries for a guide, being resolved to pass the hills ere night, lest tidings should reach the Norsemen of their approaching foe; but all their search proved fruitless. Many of the Swedes of the village had been over these mountains, but none were on the spot possessing that firm confidence derived from certainty of knowledge, and from conscious intrepidity, which could alone make them sure and willing guides in an expedition of so much peril and importance.

In 1612, there was a war between Norway and Sweden, distinguished from At last old Sweyne Koping, the the mass of the forgotten conflicts, at keeper of the little inn at which was one time so frequent between these the Swede's head quarters, shouted with rival neighboring countries, by the tra- the joy of one who has at once hit upon gic fate of Sinclair's body of Scottish the happy solution of a difficulty. allies, the remembrance of which is "By the bear!" he exclaimed, "could celebrated in many a fine Norwegian none of you think of the only man in ballad. It is a matter of history, that Jempteland fit for the enterprise, and the Scots landed on the west coast of he here on the spot all the while! Norway, to join their allies, the Where is Jaris Lindens?" Swedes, went along the only valley A hundred voices echoed the eager pass leading to Sweden, and were anni- question, and the leaders were told to hilated in the deep defile of Galbrans their regret that they must wait perforce dale, by the peasantry. At the time till the morrow, for the only man able when they should have arrived in Swe- or willing to guide them, (Lindens) had den, a small body of Swedes, encamp-gone forth on a journey, and could not ed in Jempteland, resolved to join return that day.

their allies, of whose movements they "Vell," said Erie Von Dalin, the had received intelligence, and escort chief of the Swedish detachment, "there them over the frontiers, crossing by the is no help for it. To-day we must de hill passes, and uniting with the Scots pend upon the kind entertainment of

our host; but beware, my brave men all, beware of deep horns of ale or mead. Remember," pointing to the rugged peaks glittering in the snow, "remember that all who would sleep beyond those to-morrow will need firm hands and true eyes. And good Sweyne, (addressing the inn keeper who was the chief person of the hamlet,) look well that no sound of our coming reach those Norse sluggards. There may be some here, who for their country's sake would cross the hills this night with warning."

"Thou art right, by Manheim's freedom!" cried the host; "here sits Alf Stavenger; he knows these hills better than his own hunting pouch, and would think little of carrying the news to his countrymen. I am sorry," he continued, turning to Alf, "verily I grieve to make an old friend a prisoner; but you must bide here in safe keeping till our men are well forwarded."

"You will have a fearful passage first," said an old peasant; "there is no moon now, and it will be pitch dark long before you cross the Næro."

"The night is to us the noonday," cried a young soldier; "for your crags we fear them not, were they as high as the blue heavens. Our life has been among rocks, and in our land we are called the 'Sky-leapers.""

"I will trust the young Norseman," continued the chief, "wounded pride and slighted love may well make a man hate the land that has spurned him, were it his own a hundred times."

As the day was fast wearing away, but little time was lost in preparation. Each man carried with him skates, to be used when, after climbing the rough ascent, the way wound along those nar row and difficult paths which skirt the face of the cliffs crossing the mountains. Their guide told them, when it grew dark, they would be guided by lighted torches, to be procured and used as he should afterwards direct them.

"I care not if I stay here to-night and forever," replied the Norseman. Erie now looked for the first time on During their slippery and rugged the speaker, and confessed that he had journey, Alf could not help admiring never beheld a finer looking man. In the spirit, coolness and activity shown the prime of the beauty of the North- by the party in scaling the dangerous ern youth, Alf Stavenger was remark- rocks; and they felt insensibly drawn able for a cast of bearing traces of a one to another by that natural, though higher mind than can often be discerned unuttered friendship which binds toin the cheerful, lusty faces of his coun-gether the brave and high-souled. trymen. "Does the valley marksman Still few words passed between them, speak thus?" said the host. though many of the Swedes spoke "Ah," answered the youth, "when Norse well, and Alf knew Swedish as you are thrust forth from the fireside, thoroughly as his own tongue. you can but seek another roof. If both sides were feelings which led them your own land cast you out, you are to commune with their own thoughts in fain to cling to the stranger-the ene- silence. my."

"Has Emlen's father been rough!" inquired Sweyne.

"Name him not!" replied the young peasant angrily. "They have heaped refusal and insult upon me let them look for my return?"

On

After some hours hard and successful climbing, they halted at the close of the day, on the snowy summit of a ridge, they had just ascended, to fasten on their skates. They had now to tra verse the long, slippery defiles so peculiar to Norway, where the pass runs "Aye, Skialm Hardner may one day upon narrow ledges of rock, at an aw wish I had wed his daughter-my name ful height, winding abruptly in and out shall yet be fearfully known through along the rugged face of the hills. out Norway. Swede, I will myself Here they formed in singly file, and guide your troop this night over the their guide taking the lead of the colTydel. Trust me fully, and you shall umn, kindled, by rapid friction, one of be placed to-morrow beyond those the pine branches, of which each had, white peaks." by his orders gathered an abundance

on their way. He said in a few brief hearts died within them; there was no and energetic words "that here must stopping their arrow flight-no turning they tempt the fate of all who would aside without leaping into the sheer conquer Norway, unless they chose air. to return; now were they to win their Alf Stavenger shuddered at the deathproud name of Sky-leapers." He bade leap of these brave men over the edge them move along rapidly, and steadily of the rock. His soul had been bound following the light of his torch. to them in their brief journeying toEvery man was to bear a blazing gether; and had they not come as his pine, kindled from his, and thus, each country's invaders, he would have loved pressing on the line before him, the them as brothers for their frank cour track would not be lost in the turns age. But Alf was at heart a true son and windings. of Norway. It is true he had resolved, in the desperation of his sorrow, to leave his fatherland forever, still, when he saw this band coming to lay waste the valley which he knew to be undefended, his anger was in a moment for gotten, and all his hot Norse blood was stirred within him. He was deterred, as we have seen, from crossing the hills to warn his countrymen; and he knew that when Jaris returned, he would be able and willing to guide the Swedes over the pass. He soon planThe dangers of the Næro, which ned his daring scheme. "Aye," thought make even the natives shudder at the he, while this waving train followed giddy narrow path and awful depth, his leading torch, "I told them that were half unseen in the darkness, and here they should earn the proud name all unfeared by these brave men, who of Sky-leapers! that here those who darted exultingly through the keen bracing night breeze of the hills.

He placed the coolest and most active in the rear, that they might pass skillfully over the snow, roughened by the track of their leaders, and keep the line of lights, which was their only safety, compact and unreserved.

What a change from the toilsome climbing which had wearied the most enduring spirit! They flew over the narrow, slippery path, now lost and then emerging in the sharp turning of

the cliffs.

warred with Norway should brave their fate! I said that Skialm Hardner would At every step the windings became wish he had given me his fair daughter more abrupt, and it seemed to his near--that my name should be known over est follower, that even the guide look my land for a deed of fear and wonder! ed anxious and afraid, when almost I promised that they should sleep on close to him at a turning, he saw, by our side of the hills! Now will I keep the joining light of their torches, the all that I have sworn. 'Tis a pity for countenance of Alfturned back towards them, too, so young, so unsuspecting; the line of flying stars, with a troubled but two words have made my heart iron and sorrowful look. To encourage him -Emlen and Norway." he cried in a bold and cheerful tone, Alf well remembered one point "No fear! no danger!" where a long, straight path ended sud"On brave Stavenger! The Sky-denly in a peak of rock, jutting far inLeapers follow thee!" "On!" shouted to the empty air. The road was conback the guide with a cry that echoed tinued round so sharp a re-entering through the whole band, and quickened angle, that much caution and nerve was their lightning speed. Their torches needed, even by one well aware of the flew along in one unbroken straight danger, to wheel rapidly and steadstream of fire, till a wild death-scream ily round the face of the abrupt preciarose, marking the spot where light af- | pice, and avoid shooting straight over ter light dropped in the dark silence. the ledge of rock. He had fixed upon The depth was so terrible that all sound of fall was unheard. But that ery reached the sinking line, and their

this spot for the death leap; in fact the Swedes never could have passed it in safety without having before been ap

ed.

prised of the peril, and afterwards cau- | in an earthen vessel during the night tioned of its vicinity as they approach in a stream of running water. In the morning the uttr is found floating in When he looked back, as he led the small globulets on the surface of the line rapidly to their unseen and dread- rose water. It takes five hundred ful fate, he shuddered to think on what weight of rose leaves to produce one a death the brave and light-hearted men drachm by weight of the best uttr. It who followed him were rushing. A word is, however, seldom procurable unafrom the nearest follower roused him; dulterated, and that sold in the bahe shouted to hasten their rapid flight, zaars of India owes its scent mainly and darted boldly on, throwing his to sandal wood, from which a cheap leading torch far over the point where oil is easily procured. The best uttr they should have taken the sudden turn, is preserved in small bottles made of but he had nearly fallen into the ruin of rock crystal.—Journal of a Trip made his followers. With the sounding by three officers of the Hon. East speed of the flyers pressing hard upon India Company's Service from Jelum his footsteps, all his nerve was barely to Cashmere in 1849. sufficient after flinging his blazing pine straight forward as a lure, to check his own course, and bear him round the point which severed life from death.

His speed was slackened by turning and for a second, he fell senseless; every nerve had been strung for the decisive moment, and his brain reeled with the struggle.

sciousness to see the last of the line of torches dart into the empty space-then sink forever; and he listened with a cold thrill of awe and terror to the echoes of the death scream of the last of the Sky-Leapers.

Literary Gazette

ORIGINALITY. If we study great men, we shall find that they were not so much distinguished by originality as by range and extent of thought. If we require of them that absolute originalHe awakened to con-ity which consists in weaving, like the spider, their web from their own bowels, we shall not succeed in obtaining it. No great man was original. Least of all does originality consist of unlikeness to other men. A great man is a centre of things-seeing the wants of other men, and sharing their desires, adds also strength of arm to come OTTO OF ROSES.-On one occasion. I mentioned to him that knowing the the most indebted man-the greatest at their point. The greatest genius is otto of roses produced in Cashmere to be celebrated in India, I had been en: and country. The great man does not is a man in unison with his time poet deavoring to procure some, but found wake none for sale. He told me that the cle-ransack botany, and discover a up and say, I will square the cirpeople requiring it, generally made it new food for man-I have a new archfor themselves; and now Ghoolab Singh has absorbed the whole manuitecture in my mind-I will foresee a facture in his own hands. In the eve on by the genius of his contemporaries. new organic power. No, he is forced ning a small bottle was sent to me He stands where all the eyes of men containing about half-an-ounce. On in look, and their hands all point the diquiry I found this was of the very rection in which he should go. He finds best quality, (the perfume was deli the materials ready to his hands-they cious) and had cost in extracting it sixty have sunk the hills and bridged the riv. rupees. Uttr and not Otto, is the ers for his road. Men, poets, women, proper term. The rose leaves care have all worked for him, and he has fully picked and fresh, are boiled in a entered into their labors. Great genelarge copper vessel with a little water.ral power, we might almost say, conThe steam arising is condensed in a sists in not being original at all, but to still; this forms the rose water. It is the greatest extent receptive. distilled three times, and then placed

Emerson.

REAPING MACHINES.

Zadoc Pratt, in the United States Senate. There is yet a wide field for Within the past few years, a great improvement, we cannot limit man's number of harvesting machines have inventive powers and there cannot be been invented, seemingly the work of a doubt but that similar associations necessity-the mother of invention. for discussing and conversing upon Inventions of this kind belong more scientific and mechanical as well as particularly to the West. The large agricultural subjects, would produce a prairie farms could not be harvested vast amount of good. Our farmers, by hand labor, from the scarcity of la- perhaps, above every other class of borers in these new countries, but men, have realised the value of these above all, the magnitude of the grain associations. fields. We in the East can form no conception of their magnitude without. beholding them with our own eyes. In Michigan and Illinois it is not uncommon to see 400 acres of wheat in one

field.

In Ohio and Illinois they have Mc. Cormick's Reaper, which can cut 12 to 14 acres per day with one team and

IMPROVEMENT

N. Y. Paper.

The Mark Lane Express gives an acOF WET LAND.count of the improvements made on the farm of Lord Stairs, in Wigtonshire. One part was drained, subsoiland then produced forty bushels of ed, limed, and thoroughly pulverised, wheat to the acre, where only twelve were raised before; and carrots, turnips,

two men, and does this work well. They are made in Cincinnati. There is another Reaper called Easterly's, and mangel-wurtzel on the land averwhich can cut about 15 acres per day, and does well, but needs three horses aged twenty-three tons to the acre. A to work it. The principle of its con- over for peat, for thirty years, was morass, a part of which had been cut struction is excellent. There is anoth drained, pared, burned, limed, manured, er Reaper, called Woodward's, which and sown to oats. Crop, forty bushels does very well, the apparatus being to the acre. Next year top-dressed driven before the team and guided by with gravel and sand, limed, manured,

two wheels and a helm behind. There

[Four Scotch are five English.] Sev. five hundred and seventy-six bushels en acres planted to potatoes produced per acre. Previous to improvement,

sixteen acres of this land was barely sufficient to pasture two cows and their calves.

is another Reaper still, called Ayre's Ploughed, and two acres sowed to tur Reaper, which has not been so well nips, Dayle's Hybrid; some of them tried as the others and not so favorably weighed fifteen pounds each. The received, yet it may be much improved crop was forty tons per Scotch acre. and do well. There can be no doubt but that agricultural machinery is now engaging more attention than formerly. Our agriculturists are more advanced in the system of organization for the propagation of knowledge than our mechanics, and great good must be the result. Every State has its Agricultural Association, kept up at no little ANECDOTE.-The Philosopher Outexpense, but producing an incalcula done. A learned philosopher, being in ble amount of good. Our mechanics his study, a little girl came for some have no such associations. We hope fire. Says the doctor, "But you have soon to see them awaking to a true nothing to take it in;" and as he was sense of such a system. Our farmers going to fetch something, the girl have their State Agricultural Depart- taking some cold ashes in one hand, ment. Our mechanics are unknown put the live coals on with the other. in any of the State Departments. The astonished sage threw down his They ought to have a State Museum, books saying, "With all my learning] and connected and conducted on the should never have found out that expe. principle recommended by the Hon. dient."