THE REPRIEVE.

BY LADY S

CHAP. I.

I write this short history of myself for the amusement of my descendants. I am now living in the prettiest of all pretty cottages, situated in a quiet village, three miles from the neat market town of Thornton. A large virginian creeper, mixed with honeysuckle and roses, covers all the porch and the front of this cottage. My duty is to attend daily upon my young mistress. In summer we walk out early every morning, never later than seven, so we thoroughly enjoy the morning's dewy freshness of that delightful season, with the charming odour of the many pretty wild flowers, and as we pass along the shady lanes or wander in the green fields we pluck the wild orchis, the blue forget-me-not, the meadow-sweet, the clover, ragged-robbin, sweet briar, with many other plants and flowers, whose names I do not remember. At eight precisely we return home. We find Miss Holmes, her governess, preparing the tea for breakfast. My young mistress has her straw hat and little cloak taken off by nurse Morris, then she hastens to kiss Miss Holmes, and eat her bread and milk. I have my modest meal at the side table. At a quarter to nine my dear young mistress, Miss Caroline Williams, is told to prepare for her lessons. She first asks permission to carry her large wax doll, with such lovely blue eyes, curly hair, and dressed in such a pretty dress-white muslin, I think, with a blue necklace on, and a tiny blue pair of boots to match-to Mre. Tenant, the good old housekeeper, who pretends to teach Mathilda (so the doll is called) to read, write and work. Mrs. Tenant kindly hems small pieces of calico, and writes pot-hooks in a small copy-book to make believe it is Miss Dolly's own performance; but as I generally accompany Miss Caroline on this visit to the housekeeper's room, and almost always remain there till the clock strikes twelve, when my young mistress returns from her studies to release Mathilda from hers, I can duly certify I have never yet seen Mathilda try to form a single letter in the copy-book, or even put in a single stitch of work. A lazy thing; as she is placed so she remains. Miss Holmes, my dear young mistress, and myself, repair to the shady garden, where my mistress and my self generally play about under the trees, which are such large ones as entirely to screen us from the summer sun. Mias Holmes occasionally, when it is too hot for us to play, kindly reads aloud to us some book of stories, anecdotes or travels. As the clock strikes one we go to the school-room dinner of boiled or roast mutton,

rice, tapioca, or batter pudding, varied now and then with a fruit tart or dumpling. As at breakfast, I take my dinner at the side table. At two I accompany my mistress to her mamma's dressing room, who is a sad invalid. Miss Caroline walks nearly all the way on tiptoe. She mounts a few stairs, then gently opens a door into a room, shaded by venetian blinds. The sombre effect of this is relieved by the room being papered with a lively green, and furnished with pretty chintz. On an easy sofa near the window reclines Mrs. Williams; she is, poor lady, always obliged to lie down ; she is carried from her sofa to her bed, and so her life is spent. Her greatest pleasure consists in seeing her dear little girl, her only child; but still for a large portion of the day she generally deprives herself of this pleasure in order that Miss Caroline's education may not suffer from any interruption. We generally remain an hour with the invalid; then once more Mathilda is taken to Mrs. Tenart. At five we are summoned to tea. After this meal we generally have some pleasant walk with Miss Holmes; at eight we return, wish Mrs. Williams an affectionate good night, my young mistress says her prayers, and we then retire to

rest.

Thus happily passes the even current of our days. I have now lived with dear Miss Caroline four years, and have never seen her punished but once-it was about a year ago, when Miss Bennet (a cousin) came to stay with us. This young lady was two years older than my mistress, possessing good abilities, but unfortunately employing these abilities in what was wrong: she was such a naughty girl, delighting in mischief, not innocent, light-hearted fun, but cruel mischief. It gave her pleasure to tease and get her young companions into scrapes; then, to avoid being corrected for her bad tricks, she artfully threw the blame upon others, telling, for this purpose, wicked falsehoods of Miss Caroline, or anyone she could, so that my young mistress was blamed for actions she had never committed.

One winter-day, when the snow rendered out-of-door exercise impossible, the two girls went to play at hide-and-seek; I was with my dear mistress, so I knew where she went, namely, into the schoolroom closet. Miss Holmes was with Mrs. Williams. We waited, after crying out twice (the concerted cry), some little time, when, at last, tired, we went into Mrs. Tenant's room. As for Miss Ann (naughty Miss Ann), she went into a closet nurse Morris had particularly forbidden either of the young ladies to enter. In coming out of it she tore her frock, and bruised and scratched her arm. To avoid confessing where she had been, and the probability of being found fault

with, she told Miss Holmes that her cousin, Miss Caroline, had not only torn her frock, but also hurt her arin: my poor young mistress, in consequence, had a long double lesson to learn, and nothing allowed her for her dinner but dry bread; and, what was a greater sorrow to her than anything else, she was not allowed for the remainder of the day to see her mamma. I did my best to comfort her in every possible

way.

Two days after this occurrence Miss Caroline's entire innocence was fully proved. It was found out in this manner: nurse had occasion to go into this forbidden closet, where the first thing she found was a basket of apples overturned, some of them missing; and there, also, hanging upon a large nail (which really had been the cause of the accident), what should she see staring her in the face but a large piece of white muslin! This nurse Morris took directly with her, and measured it with Miss Ann's torn frock. It fitted it exactly; and, looking into the young lady's drawers, she found nearly a dozen rosy-cheeked apples (the missing ones). They were of a rare kind, easily recognized, having been sent over by an old friend from America to Mrs. Williams.

My dear young mistress was delighted to have her innocence established, and to again see her own dear mamma still her kind heart felt sorry for her cousin's fate, for the very next day Miss Ann was sent home in disgrace by Miss Holmes, and was not, that I know of, ever seen again at Laurel Cottage.

The next morning we spent with Mrs. Williams, in Miss Holmes's absence; and Miss Caroline made Mathilda a pretty new frock, while her mamma read aloud a very interesting tale; then Miss Caroline read, her mamma working. So pleasantly passed the time away, occasionally a kiss, and soft caress, was exchanged between the mother and child; sometimes a gentle tear, though quickly chased away by a sweet smile, found its way down Mrs. Williams's cheek, as the mother thought of her darling having been so severely corrected while innocent.

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This was, as I have before mentioned, the only time I have ever known of the slightest imputed fault having been laid to the charge of this young lady. She was always obedient, anxious to learn her lessons, and to improve herself in her various studies. She was always happy and cheerful, for virtue brings its own reward; and the inward feeling, even children, is that of pleasure when they are aware they deserve praise instead of blame. But I must here observe, that, as time progresses, my spirits are not quite as buoyant as they used to be; for, however sprightly and healthy we may have been in our youth, we cannot expect to be the same as years silently creep on. The various infirmities of age, if not of sickness, at last overtake us, and we find our strength gradually but surely diminishing. Our walks, on my account, were shortened; for what was only once a pleasant excursion to me, is now scarcely accomplished without labour and pain. When, at last, my strength began so to fail me, that I was unable to take even a short ramble with dear Miss Caroline, I spent most of my time with dear Mrs. Williams, who kindly showed me much attention. Never, in the whole experience of my life, did I behold greater patience and fortitude in bearing severe pain and constant sickness, with all the wearisome confinement, the necessary attendants upon illness, than I witnessed in the mother of my young mistress. She looked forward with all a mother's pleasure to her little daughter's frequent visits. She was delighted with the wild-flowers Miss Caroline collected, looking out any new specimen in some of her various works upon botany, directing her daughter where to find out all the particulars relative to these flowers, with many interesting particulars, teaching her to press and properly preserve the best specimens, and afterwards to place them in a book adapted for the purpose, neatly writing a short description of each.

(To be continued.)

THE ANIMAL WORLD. (Partridge and Co., | 9, Paternoster Row, London.)-We do not think that we can serve the interests of this "Monthly Advocate of Humanity" better than by quoting the story of Grey-Friars Bobby, a small rough Scotch-terrier, grizzled, black, with tan feet and nose, whose likeness appears in the May part of the publication, and the narrative of whose fidelity and love is as follows :

"More than eleven years ago a poor man named Gray died, and was buried in the old Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh. His grave is now levelled by time and nothing marks it; but the spot had not

been forgotten by his faithful dog. James Brown, the old curator, remembers the funeral well, and that 'Bobby' was one of the most conspicuous of the

mourners.

James found the dog lying on the grave the next morning, and as dogs are not admitted, turned him out; the second morning the same; the third morning, though cold and wet, there he was shivering. The old man took pity on him and fed

him. This convinced the dog that he had a right there. Sergeant Scott, R.E., allowed him his board for a length of time, but for more than nine years he has been regularly fed by Mr. Trail, who keeps a restaurant close by. Bobby' is regular in his calls, being guided by the mid-day gun. On the occasion

was. There is no minister of justice to give us systematic action against poisoners of the public food and disturbers of the public health; there is no minister of public works to carry out the appliance for sanitary defence and the general welfare. A conviction is growing up among leading economists that there must be administrative reform by the deposition of the anomalous departments and the constitution of proper ministries; and as in such reform the supply of food and the care of the public health must be provided for, it appears to me (i.e. the writer), that the ultimate and higher mission of the Food Journal' must be to promote this action."

Such, then, is the policy of this valuable monthly, a policy neither of parties or of classes, but which equally concerns rich and poor. If only for mooting the above reforms, and in its determination to continue to plead them, as well as to lay bare the frightfully dishonest and deleterious system of adulterations in food materials wherever they exist, the promoters of the Journal deserve the grateful support and encouragement of the community -and have, at any rate, our cordial wishes for their success. New articles of food, new preparations of it; information as to the kinds which are most economical, and, at the same time, the most nutritious and wholesome; articles on sanitary matters, on cooking, &c., &c, form the principal features of the work. A paper entitled "Vegetables Better than Nothing," is encouraging to Vegetarians; instances being given of whole communities being supported by farinaceous and vegetable matters. The Wallachians, we are told, are described by Volney as " Tall, well-built, robust and of a very wholesome complexion; diseases rare amongst them; temperate in their repasts; they prefer vegetables to fruit, and fruits to the most delicate meat." The miners of Belgium offer another example: "They have meat on Sundays, and festivals, but during the week they drink neither beer nor other fermented liquors. Coffee is their only beverage. Yet these workmen are hardy and healthy upon a diet of 2lbs. of bread per day, about 2ozs. of butter, 1oz. of coffee and chicory mixed, while for dinner they have in the evening a portion of vegetables mixed with potatoes, weighing at the most 1lbs." Lentils are said to be about the most nutritious vegetable we possess, but, for nyself, I can declare that I have never used or met with them at any other table; yet Mr. Adolphe Smith assures us that the substantial and delicious Indian dish called dahl is almost wholly composed of lentils. Here is the receipt:

"Stew a quart of split lentils till they form a thick soup. Have ready a pound of rice well boiled in milk, and drained off as dry as possible. Shake the rice up loosely in a dish, and, after mixing an ounce of curry-powder with the lentils, pour the lentil soup over the rice and serve it up."

Papers on food analysis are continued, and there is the first part of an article on "Mr.

Twining's Museum at Twickenham,” “which shows," says the writer, "a practical solution of the important question' How to ensure the working man a healthy and comfortable home."" "Our Home Production of Food" is a thoughtfully-written paper, the subject of which, commercially and socially speaking, is of vital importance. We find the subject of the "Waste of Fish Food" brought forward in the pages of the journal, a subject which calls for attention and amendment. From this paper we learn that many millions of lobsters are annually lost by sacrificing the spawn. Crabs and lobsters, it appears, like the oyster, are becoming fewer and fewer on our coasts, and less customary sights in the markets. The young of cod, it seems, are ruthlessly sacrificed; some of them when not weighing more than 8oz, and converted, by the oyster-mongers, into real "Finnon Haddies." Soles have their numbers thinned in the same reckless way, and are sold to the French under the name of "tongues." Smelt, also, are taken and sold under the most wasteful circumstances for its increase. These matters form but a small portion of those discussed in the pages of this journal.

THE CARLOW.-(Moffat and Co., London and Dublin).-Here in England, where we do not ask authors their creeds, we should have been better inclined to welcome "The Carlow" in its character of National rather than Catholic, since its catholicity expresses itself only in the narrowest spirit of bigoted sectarianism. It is not by such illogical and wrongly-argued articles as those entitled" English rule in Ireland" and "England as a Nursing Mother," that the cause of Ireland is to be served in this country. A temperate setting forth of the evils that beset her, written without party acumen, and in the spirit of truth, would find men and women too ready to weigh her grievances, and give them sympathy, and as far as in them lay their co-operation in obtaining their redress. But a writer who enforces his argument that "to judge of Mr. Gladstone's actions by his words it would seem that fear and fear alone will extort anything like justice from England" by the assertion that "1848 paved the way for further concessions, and Fenianism, as developed in the Clerkenwell explosion, wrought the downfall of the Irish Church," cannot hope, we think, to spread disloyalty in English homes, even under cover of poor Carlton's posthumous novel "The Red-haired Man's Wife." A writer who has the turpitude to write that "the same cause (Fenianism), added to the logic of the blunderbuss and the threatening letter, has opened England's eyes to the fact that a Land Bill was a something absolutely necessary if at least the Irish were ever to become either a contented or a loyal nation," should at least add to his account, that to these barbarous and unreasoning acts Ireland stands indebted for the "Peace Preservation Bill." The chapter on Geological Problems is a very agreeably written one on a most interesting subject. "What the Land Bill might be," is,

PLAIN WORDS

THE CHURCH RECORD} London & Dublin. -The first of these, a "Christian Miscellany," edited by the Rev. Hamilton Magee, has also a chapter devoted to the "Peace Preservation Act," which shows the feelings with which it is regarded by gentlemen of less rabid tendencies than the Carlovian quoted above. The article is a continuation of the papers entitled "Rambles in Tipperary, by a Tipperary man." ." After describing the feeling which a fellow passenger had found rampant in England amongst all classes-the effect of the blunderbuss and threatening-letter system referred to above-who met his assertions that life and property were as secure in Tipperary as in most parts of England, by exclaiming "the Irish are worse than savages, brutes. We have tried to conciliate them; we had begun to give them the fullest measure of justice; it is all in vain! The more we do for them the worse they grow. Only brutes would shoot down men from behind a bedge. Deal with them as brutes, &c.," the writer goes on to inquire of him what the Tipperary people say about the "last act of the kind," and which is said to be "the most stringent ever passed," and is answered that the common people have the wildest notion on the subject and call it the "shut-up act," while the more thoughtful and intelligent people like it even worse;" it confounds, they say, two things that have nothing akin-agrarian outrage and national feeling."

The Nationalists feel very sore about this, and whilst Fenians are Nationalists the great body of Nationalists in Tipperary are not Fenians. They deplore as much as any the sad events in Meath, Mayo, and elsewhere, because of the stain left upon the whole country, and they resent being classed with assassins and rick-burners and writers of threatening letters. We love our country too dearly," they will tell you, "to bring disgrace upon her by such acts;" and perhaps they will add, "the national feeling is not to be put down by Act of Parliament, for it is a divinely-implanted feeling, and cannot be rooted out of the heart of a people."

To this passage the Red editor appends a note : "The Government will not seek by the Coercion Bill to put down' or in any way interfere with the expression of national feeling except in so far as it is likely to lead to lawlessness and bloodshed." Farther on the writer observes :

Ireland wants to be let alone, to be allowed to

legislate for herself; not separation from England, but a recognition of our nationality. England never can crush out our national life has she (pertinently inquires the editor) crushed the national life out of Scotland ?- -or keep it down in these days of enlightenment by repressive measures. The wise policy of England, the safe policy too both for England and Ireland is to satisfy this craving on our part for some

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And then the author turns to the chapter on Nationality" in John Stuart Mill's" Representative Government," and finds that it is there laid down. When the sentiment of nationality exists in any force, there is a prima facie case for uniting all the members of the nationality under the same government and a government to themselves apart. This is merely saying that the question of government ought to be decided by the governed. The difference in the two articles touching the same subject in these contemporary periodicals is that while the one irritates and disgusts by coarse and blundering vituperation, the other acts upon the reason and awakens thought. A writer on the subject " Is Protestantism able to maintain itself in Ireland?" sums up a forcibly-written paper in these words:

So far as our present subject is concerned it amounts to this, that the 1,300,000 Protestants [not all in the membership of one denomination, but professing the same fundimental truth-Ed.] will have Roman Catholics have done for hundreds of years, for the future to pay for their religious privileges as and as the Apostolic Church did for the first three centuries. There is vitality enough in this old Bible Christianity of ours to survive a greater catastrophe than this.

Throughout "Plain Words" we find a refinement of thought and expression, and breadth of religious feeling that should make it welcome to all homes.

SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE.

"THE WHITE HAND."--What is it? the title of the last new novel, a poem, or song? Neither, my fair readers; for notwithstanding the Daily Telegraph disclosures of "Bachelor Luxuries," we still believe in the robust simplicity of the manly toilet-and it is therefore only you whom it concerns. It is neitheralthough as interestingly mysterious as the first should be, and as fresh and sweet as we could desire either song or poem. "The White Hand" (composed and, so to speak, published by Lillian and Co., 8, Castle-street, Holborn) is a No. 5 glove of opal glass - a sort of pendent in proportion to Cinderella's glass-slipper, and contains a new and exquisite preparation for insuring that constantly-desired, but not always obtainable desideratum, a white band. In appearance it is a fragrant cream, with a tint of roses, the odour of which impregnates it. It is simply applied to the hands after washing, and leaves no unpleasant feeling upon the skin, which appears instantly to absorb and appropriate it. A very few times using gives charming proof of its efficacy in producing a white hand. It is sold by all chemists and perfumers.