a fancy. To me, I know, they then sounded as if they were the shouting, howling, or laughing of the fiends with which my imagination had peopled the gloomy cave which swung over me. 10. In twenty minutes the ringing was done. Half of that time passed over me without power of computation-the other half seemed an age. When the bell stopped, I was roused a little by the hope of escape. I did not, however, decide on this step hastily, but, putting up my hand with the utmost caution, I touched the rim. Though the ringing had ceased, it was still tremulous from the sound, and shook under my hand, which instantly recoiled as if from an electric jar. 11. A quarter of an hour probably elapsed before I again dared to make the experiment, and then I found it at rest. I determined to lose no time, fearing that I might have lain there already too long, and that the bell for evening service would catch me. This dread stimulated me, and I slipped out with the utmost rapidity, and arose. I stood, I suppose, for a minute, looking with silly wonder at the place of my imprisonment, and penetrated with joy at my escape. 12. I then rushed down the stony and irregular stair with the velocity of lightning, and arrived at the bellringer's room. This was the last act I had power to accomplish. I leaned against the wall motionless and deprived of thought, in which posture my companions found me, when, in the course of a couple of hours, they returned to their occupation. 13. But that was the last of my bell-ringing, and I have never altogether recovered from the shock of that awful experience. Even now, the chimes of sabbath bells, once sweet to my ears, strike me like a wave of agony, and ever recall the roaring cavern of that cathedral bell. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. "TW WAS the night before Christmas, when all Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse. Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap, 2. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. 3. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled aud shouted and called them by name: "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer, now, Vixen ! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixen ! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!" 4. As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly, 5. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, 6. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, 7. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose. He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle; But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all! and to all a good night!" CLEMENT C. MOORE. NOTE.-St. Nicholas, whose Dutch name is Santa Claus, is the patron saint of boys. He is said to have been Bishop of Myra, and to have died in the year 326. The young were taught to revere him, and fiction represents him as the bearer of presents to children on Christmas eve, His fabled home is among the icebergs and eternal snows of the north. "THO Scru'ti nize, examine carefully. Ex u' ding, giving out; discharging. An ten'naē, organs of touch in insects. Băr ri cad'ed, obstructed. HOSE who live in glass houses must not throw stones;" but, as there is no rule without exceptions, we throw it out as a suggestive inquiry to any of our captious young friends, whether the little winged dwellers in glass hives, exemplary in all the relations of life, and faultless in their social and moral qualities, may not be privileged to have a fling in any direction. 2. Active, happy, and too kindly to use their stings while unprovoked, their pleasant humming falls on our ears as one of those soothing sounds in nature, like the plashing of the waterfall, the sigh of the wind among the trees, or the music of the "hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune," which harmonize with all good and sacred thoughts. 3. But the bee was not born merely to hum; it hums only to beguile its work. Let us watch the little tribes as they pass to and fro from their hive this morning. We need not fear their stings if we stand aside, and do not put ourselves in the way of the busy citizens. If some |