2. "Twas pebble, rubble, and fallen tree,
'Twas babble, double, through every mile;
It battled on, with a shout and shock,
And white with foam was the rugged rock,
And dark were the hemlocks, all the while,
'Till the road grew broad, and the creek ran free.
It glassed along on the slippery slide,
And shot away with an arrowy glide,
It slipped its shoes, and, in stocking-feet,
Under the bank and in from the street,
Whirled in a waltz, about and out,
Sprinkled with gold and put to rout,-

And bright with the flash of the spotted trout!

3. It floats a name and it bears a boat;

'Tis Leonard's Creek, and is bound for the mill,
And makes you think, with its ripple and flow,
So light it trips to the stones below,
How her fingers go, when they move by note
Through measures fine, as she marches them o'er
The yielding plank of the ivory floor.
Beneath the bridge, with a rasping rush,
A bird takes toll, 'tis a thirsty thrush,

It nears the Gulf of the hemlock night,
Where stars shine down in the mid-day light;
It verges the brink of the shadow's lair,
Stumbles and falls on the limestone stair;
Clings to the mute and motionless edge,
Tumbles and bounds from ledge to ledge,
And thunders and blunders down to the sedge.
BENJ. F. TAYLOR.

XXXIX. -NEW-YEAR'S DAY IN YEDDO.

ON

N the sixth of February, 1864, the New-year's Eve of the Japanese year, I came to Yeddo for the second time. The officers who met our party allowed us to ar

range an immediate excursion through the city, for the purpose of seeing the preparations for the approaching festival.

2. The people had cleaned their dwellings from top to bottom, and put their furniture in the best condition. The sidewalks were heaped with matting, screens, and articles of bronze, porcelain, and lacquered ware, which the owners hastened to restore to their places. In the houses of the rich, this labor was intrusted to coolies, who performed it with many joyous and grotesque manifestations, stumbling over footstools, tumbling down stairs, or tossing in a blanket some careless or lazy comrade.

3. Some persons planted, on each side of their doors, young pine, or feathery bamboo trees, which they bound together at the top with garlands of rice-straw, ornamented with mandarin oranges and strips of gilded paper. They also hung the walls, under the balconies and roofs, with long bands of straw, interlaced with fir branches and ferns. The shops, portals of the temples, fountains, and booths of all kinds, were similarly ornamented.

4. Visitors from the provinces arrive in troops, — men and women, carrying, on the back of the neck, their baggage, wrapped in oil-paper, or silk from oak leaves, together with the indispensable umbrella. Four dancing priests make their way along, under a broad canopy of crape. A grotesque figure, with a dragon's head, dancing and leaping with wonderful contortions, and accompanied by a band of music, is an agent of the journeyman masons, collecting funds for their benevolent society.

5. Among those who appear in the streets, clad in motley garments, with fantastic head-dresses, and masks with birds' beaks, we distinguish porters, cooks, and valets, each in an appropriate disguise. They cover the head with a high conical hat of green paper, which almost

conceals the face, and go from house to house, singing, dancing, and collecting small coins for a festival fund.

6. The last days of the year are far from being entirely given up to festivities. The thirtieth day of the twelfth month is the painful time of settling bills. The master-mechanic, the shop-keeper, the head of a household, in short, every man with debts or credits, scours the city, and works in his office, until all his accounts are carefully regulated, according to the rule universally accepted in Japan, that no one shall commence the new year with debts. Not until this is accomplished, do they take their ease in the familiar restaurant, or join their wives and children in the festive preparations.

7. Another rule is, that on New-year's Day there must be flowers in every house. Most of the people buy, at the horticultural establishments, dwarf peaches, raised in pots of coarse porcelain, and covered with double-flowers. The Japanese have an astonishing success in dwarfing trees and plants, by allowing them the least possible quantity of soil, water, and light. Such is their liking for these Liliputian productions, that, in the toyshops, there are microscopic imitations of dwarf trees, laden with flowers, made of cut paper, every little detail being exactly reproduced.

8. In the neighborhood of the Niphon bridge, the clamors of the crowd indicate the situation of the large establishments where rice beer is brewed, and the docks where it is shipped, by thousands of barrels, to all parts of the country. Hundreds of coolies fill the streets, carrying barrels enveloped in matting, and suspended to bamboo poles. Those who buy small quantities of beer carry it in open vessels, and, verily, at great risk on Newyear's eve; for the crowd increases, rushing from all quarters to the last auction of this beer, which is the best of the year!

9. The policemen, ranged at short intervals along the sidewalks, endeavor by their voices.and gestures to keep the crowds in order. When their eloquence has been exhausted in vain, they plunge forward three or four steps, and use their fans at random, on the heads of the coolies and loafers who interrupt the circulation. old men, girls, mothers, and children, occupy the windows and balconies of the dwellings, and comfortably enjoy the sight of the tumult.

10. They are not satisfied to retire, until they have seen the procession of journeymen-brewers. The latter, after receiving their wages in the morning, go out and celebrate their first day of liberty, in the suburban gardens. There they have their banquets in the open air, followed by all sorts of wagers, and trials of strength and skill, until the fatigued foremen stretch themselves out under the cedar trees, with their legs luxuriously resting on the backs of the apprentices, while others move their heels in lively dances.

11. During the whole evening, the sky and the waters of the bay reflect the ruddy illumination from millions of lanterns. Here and there, a solitary lamp shows where the teacher of the district prepares the poems which he is to send, the next morning, to the parents of his scholars. In order to accomplish his task with a better chance of success, he places before his desk a vase of flowers, and a dish filled with rice-cakes, an humble offering to the sun. He first writes his verses on a piece of red paper; but at the dawn of day they will be copied on the fans which he presents to his patrons.

-

12. In most of the households, the evil spirit is exorcised at midnight. This is the exclusive duty of the

head of the family. with the sabre in his

Clothed in his richest garments, girdle, he passes alone through the

rooms, bearing in his left hand a box of roasted beans, on