an old Spanish Don, who hitherto had looked as if labouring under the combined effect of blue-pills and blue-devils. Many were arrived at that blessed state of self-felicitation when the great vacuum of the head would be inflated with the glorifying gas which ariseth from the fumes of wine. In fine, it appeared that Monsieur Gout fin had flitted through the assembly-rooms like a scavenger, appointed to sweep away the shades of sadness. The quart d'heure de Rabelais was arrived. All this time our asthmatic but long-winded voyageur had not for a moment flagged in his narrations, to the immeasurable amusement of his nearest neighbour, a hard-headed German, who, as he now sat, gorged no less with his Saxon repast than with the discursive intelligence which he drank in from the lips of Partout, reminded me of the "fat, foolish scullion" in Tristram Shandy. Evidently he had not read Munchausen; else it is difficult to conceive why his eyes should thus protrude until they threatened to drop out of their sphere into his gaping mouth, which remained so invitingly ajar while a tall bell-glass of Bohemian stood unemptied before him. A pale youth, whose flowing skeins of black silken hair and Salvator hat announced his profession, even if the neverabdicated portfolio at his side were not a sufficient confession of the artist, leaned over for a single moment unperceived, and dashed off a crayon-sketch of the arch-glutton, which he now held up to public gaze. A suppressed tittering, soon ripening into a gale of laughter, ensued; in which all joined, with the exception of the caricatured individual, who stared at the sketch without a sign of recognition, and of the Count, who was at this moment drawing the long-bow in a wolf-hunt on the Pyrenees-his mind being in a state of tension not readily to be relaxed by any ordinary incident of human life. their tapering feet dizzily flitting above a tesselated floor of pearl and ivory slabs--" "Apropos of ivory slabs," broke in my buon camarado, who had been watching like a hawk for an opportunity of strangling a subject which he foresaw would die hard: "shall we not have a game of dominoes for the ball-tickets while you finish your story ?" Every café on the continent is supplied with dominoes, so that the game was soon started. The Count lost, as he deserved to do; for his mind, like that of a dying gladiator, was far away, immersed in other scenes. His friend was almost almost equally heedless, being now intent upon the music. "How beautiful is that strain!" muttered he, a sort of inquiring enthusiasm overspreading the blankness of his face. "Lindpaintner, is it not?" : "Certainly glorious !" quoth the Count, who detested all music except his own voice, and who found difficulty in making himself audible. "Ludwig, tell them not to play so - loud," he continued to the music-inan, who was passing round with his plate, into which it is usual to throw a few kreutzers for the dinner-melody. "Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the bottle-holder, whose services, since the conclusion of dinner, might be esteemed supererogatory. "Mon Dieu! I have a wife somewhere about: positively I must go and see whether she has dined." "And I," said the Count," am engagé for a promenade with Mrs. Fledgefemme. Au revoir, at ten o'clock, and the ball." RARA AVIS IN TERRIS. "Ah, voici mon drôle !" laughed Ernest, as we stepped into the grand promenade. He motioned toward a long, sinewy figure, attired in an emerald-coloured coat and maroon pantaloons-a combination which, highly illu"Who goes to the bal paré?" asked Ernest, mined as it was by the rays of the declining as the Erlaught romancer paused to take breath. sun, bore no slight resemblance to a tall green "I have little taste for balls," responded the Assmanshausen bottle, half full of its ruby Count, speaking for the company; "they are liquid. A heavy gold rope, swung across his despairingly monotonous, unless indeed masque-stomach, and belayed in the recess of a siderade-balls, which are still " something new under the sun." I once enjoyed these things, but, hélas! tout cela est passé. Monotony is the recompense I have received from too much experience." "Il faut vivre," chirped the bottle-holder, who at length had pushed his plate aside in order to devote himself the more exclusively to a freshly-opened bottle." "Vous avez raison, mon ami. Let me see then; the last ball at which I can retain consciousnes of having sincerely enjoyed myself, took place in North India. Ab! non cuivis contigit adire Corinthum," continued he, with a complacent grunt. "The scene even now floats before me. I am extended upon a rug of golden fabric; inhaling gently from a hookah the fumes of tobacco impregnated with otto of roses. Ah! le bon vieux temps! The choicest dancinggirls of the East are performing before me; pocket, at once hegrimed and embellished the purity of a prolonged white waistcoat. His glistening, jetty hair was twisted into careless tendrils, which danced around the expansive projection of a most relentless shirt-collar, like waves dashing about the flying-jib of a yacht. The face thus garnished was one of those which "show up" handsome by fits and starts, according to the sentiment of the moment, which wrought its corresponding expression. But at this moment, as he half reclined against the balustrade, there was in his features a certain admixture of bonhomie and insolence; there was the roving glance, the wild eye and steady mouth, and the form of steel-lath, which, under an unmitigated new hat tossed to the back of his head, revealed, despite a slight coating of Parisianization, the living presence of a Mississippi Nimrod. Can the leopard change his spots? With all his bar-room abandon upon him, engrossed from time to time in the practice which so deeply offended the philosopher of Geneva, and which embroiled him with his friend Grimm; he was "making his nails," said Rousseau, "with an instrument made expressly for that purpose." Europeans seize upon the character of the Yankee, and comprehend it, probably, with as little difficulty as the characters of their own provincials; but it is the Kentuckian, the Mississippian, and all the others of that ilk, who compose the grand mystery of Americanism, who remain the great misunderstandables in their eyes. How the deuce men can come six feet high, and up to everything, from halfcivilized lands like theirs to handsome, wonderful, and refined lands such as these-all the while practising the nil admirari with unblushing ease and confidence--this is a speculation of arousing interest in our eyes. And yet the inexplicable transatlantics somehow contrive to elbow their way through custom-house and city, ruin and restaurant, with a sagacity which gradually wrings out an acknowledgment that the new-comers are too clever to be absolutely Vandal, although they do mark their track through ancient empires with barbaric gold, and rudeness, and innovation. To these same new-comers, indeed, the antiquities alone of Europe are the grand novelties; while the novelties of Europe, on the other hand, are fast becoming their antiquities. Blessed reader, oracular as this sentence may appear, forget it not, but ponder thereon. APATHY. Say, my friend, because no zephyr There is life beyond the vision, Must ye wait till faith, uncertain, Grasping at the pall of night? Lo! she comes, the pure, the golden, Which before thee seemed so still! Come, sweet Content, and give me eyes That happy realm, where thou art queen, Art all too mean that men should bow Themselves to thy authority, Ah, yes, I trust that thou art fair, Then touch these eyes, these mists remove, That make them blind to sights of love; Pour in thy light, all phantasies annul, Till that appear which is most beautiful. COME HOME. 'Oh, ye beloved-come home: the hour Come home come home! The lamps are lit, Come home! come home! 'Tis silent all, And meeting not thy smiling face, Come home! come home! We wait for thee And there is wanting round our home Come home! come home! The shadows fall Come home! come home! The gloom of night While we are waiting still and lone, SMILES FOR HOME. BY T. S. ARTHUR, "Take that home with you, dear," said Mrs. Lewis, her manner half smiling, half serious. "Take what home, Carry?" And Mr. Lewis turned towards his wife, curiously. Now, Mrs. Lewis had spoken from the moment's impulse, and already partly regretted her remark. "Take what home?" repeated her husband. "I don't understand you." "That smiling face you turned upon Mr. Edwards, when you answered his question just now." Mr. Lewis slightly averted his head, and walked on in silence. They had called in at the shop of Mr. Edwards to purchase a few articles, and were now on their way home. There was no smile on the face of Mr. Lewis now, but a very grave expression instead―grave almost to sternness. The words of his wife bad taken him altogether by surprise; and, though spoken lightly, had jarred upon his ears. The truth was, Mr. Lewis, like a great many other men who have their own business cares and troubles, was in the habit of bringing home a sober, and, too often, a clouded face. It was in vain that his wife and children looked into that face for sunshine, or listened to his words for tones of cheerfulness. "Take that home with you, dear." Mrs. Lewis was already repenting this suggestion, made on the moment's impulse. Her husband was sensitive to a fault. He could not bear even an implied censure from his wife. And so she had learned to be very guarded in this particular. "Take that home with you, dear! Ah me! I wish the words had not been said. There will be darker clouds now, and gracious knows, they were dark enough before ! Why can't Mr. Lewis leave his cares and business behind him, and let us see the old pleasant smiling face again. I thought this morning that he had forgotten how to smile; but I see that he can smile, if he tries. Ah! Why don't he try at home?" So Mrs. Lewis talked to herself, as she moved along by the side of her busband, who had not spoken a word since her reply to his query, "Take what home?" Street after street crossed, and still there was silence between them. "Of course," said Mrs. Lewis, speaking in her own thoughts. "Of course he is offended. He won't bear a word from me. I might have known, beforehand, that talking out in this "I know so! Only try it, dear, for this one evening." "It isn't so easy a thing to put on a smiling face, Carry, when thought is oppressed with care." "It didn't seem to require much effort just now," said Mrs. Lewis, glancing up at her husband with something of archness in her look. Again a shadow dropped down upon the face of Mr. Lewis, which was again partly turned away; and again they walked on in silence. "He is so sensitive!" Mrs. Lewis said to herself, the shadow on her husband's face darkening over her own. "I have to be as careful of my words as if talking to a spoiled child." No, it did not require much effort on the part of Mr. Lewis to smile, as he passed a few words, lightly, with Mr. Edwards. The remark of his wife had not really displeased him; it had only set him thinking. After remaining gravely silent, because he was undergoing a brief self-examination, Mr. Lewis said "You thought the smile given to Mr. Edwards came easily enough?” "It did not seem to require an effort," replied Mrs. Lewis. "No, not much effect was required," said Mr. Lewis. His tones were slightly depressed. "But this must be taken into the account; my mind was in a certain state of excitement, or activity, that repressed sober feelings, and made smiling an easy thing. So we smile and are gay in company, at cost of little effort, because all are smiling and gay, and we feel the common sphere of excitement. How different it often is when we are alone, I need not say. You, Carry, are guilty of the sober face at home as well as your husband." Mr. Lewis spoke with a tender reproof in his voice. "But the sober face is caught from yours oftener than you imagine, my husband,” rplied Mrs. Lewis. "Are you certain of that, Carry?" "Very certain. You make the sunlight and the shadow of your home. Smile upon us; give us cheerful words; enter into our feelings and interests, and there will be no brighter home in all the land. A shadow on your countenance is a veil for my heart; and the same is true as respects our children. Our pulses strike too nearly in union not to be disturbed when yours has lost its even beat." Again Mr. Lewis walked on in silence, his face partly averted; and again his wife began to fear that she had spoken too freely. But he soon dispelled this impression, for he said "I am glad, Carry, that you have spoken thus plainly. I only wish that you had done so before. I see how it is. My smiles have been for the outside world-the world that neither loved nor regarded me-and my clouded brow for the dear ones at home, for whom thought and care are ever-living activities." 1 his head smoothing back the dark hair, just showing a little frost from his broad manly temples. she A pleasant group was this for the eyes of Mrs. Lewis as came forth from her chamber to the sitting-room, where she had gone to lay off her bonnet and shawl and change her dress. Well did her husband understand the meaning look she gave him, and warmly did her heart respond to the smile he threw back upon her. "Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver," said Mr, Lewis, speaking to her as she came in. "What do you mean by that?" asked Mary, looking curiously into her father's face. "Mother understands," replied Mr. Lewis, smiling tenderly upon his wife. "Something pleasant must have happened," said Mary. "Something pleasant? Why do you say that ?" asked Mr. Lewis. "You and mother look so happy," replied the child. "And we have cause to be happy," answered the father, as he drew his arm tightly around her, "in having three such good children." Mary laid her cheek to his, and whispered: If you are smiling and happy, dear lather, home will be like heaven." Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were now at their own door, where they paused a moment, and then went in. Instantly, on passing his threshold, Mr. Lewis felt the pressure upon him of his usual state. The hue of his feelings began to change. The cheerful, interested exterior put on for those he met in business intercourse, began rapidly to change, and a sober hue to succeed. Like most business men, his desire" for profitable results was even far in advance of the slow evolutions of trade; and his daily history was a history of disappointments, in some measure dependent upon his restless anticipations. He was not as willing to work and to wait as he should be; and, like many of his class, neglected the pearls that lay here and there along his life-paths, because they were inferior in value to those he hoped to find | just a little way in advance. The consequence was that, when the day's business excitement was over, his mind fell into a brooding state, and lingered over its disappointments, or looked forward with failing hope in the future--for hope, in many things, had been long deferred. And so he rarely had smiles for his home. "Take that home with you, dear," whispered Mrs. Lewis, as they moved along the passage, and before they had joined the family. She had an instinctive consciousness that her husband was in danger of relapsing into his usual state. The warning was just in time. "Thank you for the words! said he. will not forget them." "I And he did not; but at once rallied himself, and to the glad surprise of Jenny, Will, and Mary, met them with a new face, covered with fatherly smiles and with pleasant questions, in pleasant tones, of their day's employments. The feelings of children move in quick transitions. They had not expected a greeting like this, but the response was instant. Little Jenny climbed into her father's arms. Will came and stood by his chair, answering in lively tones his questions, while Mary, older by a few years than the rest, leaned against her father's shoulder, and laid her white hand softly upon Mr. Lewis kissed her, but did not reply. He felt a rebuke in her words. But the rebuke did not throw a chill over his feelings, it only gave a new strength to his purposes. "Don't distribute all your smiles. Keep a few of the warmest and brightest for home," said Mrs. Lewis, as she parted with ber husHe kissed her, band on the next morning. but did not promise. The smiles were kept, however, and evening saw them, though not for the outside world. Other and many evenings saw the same cheerful smiles and the same happy home. And was not Mr. Lewis a better and happier man? Of course he was. And so would all men be if they would take home with them the smiling aspect they so often exhibit as they meet their fellow. men in business intercourse, or exchange words in passing compliments. Take your smiles and cheerful words home with you, husbands, fathers, and brothers. Your hearths are cold and dark without them. GREEK EMBLEMS.-The Greeks had a peculiar emblem of female duties which they frequently put upon the sculptures of their tombs, consisting of an owl, a muzzle, and a pair of reins, reminding the careless and the idle that the chief excellences to which a good woman could aspire were emulation of the owl in watchfulness, the guarding of the mouth lest unbecoming things should be uttered, and the ruling of a family with the same dexterity as was shown by the charioteer in the public games, HELENA'S TROUBLES. (By Author of " Watching and Waiting.") Flushed from exercise, and bearing with her the bloom and scent of the woods, Helena, singing gaily, broke in upon the Sabbath-eve stillness of the parsonage, and laughing at Aunt Sabrina's consternation as she threw over the dreamy lady's dainty lace cap a delicate wreath of flowers, ran lightly up the stairs and tapped at the rector's study-door. "Is that profound theological paper quite completed?" she asked, standing upon the threshold with a hesitating air, and peering with strained eyes into the dim room beyond. The rector, leaning wearily back in his comfortable chair, pointed to the MS., on the last page of which the ink was not yet dry, and heaved a sigh of relief; whereupon the intruder, with a little nod of satisfaction, went forward and deposited her basket of tender herbage on the table. the innocents and begged a part in their foolish games, I daresay new life would have been infused into your meditations," replied the girl, raising the sash, and letting in a flood of radiance from the low afternoon sun. "See," she said, pacing up the broad path of light running straight from the tall window, "it is like walking the golden streets of the Celestial City." "But the jasper walls, the gates of pearl, the pure river clear as crystal, and the tree of life with its twelve manner of fruits and leaves for the healing of nations-ah, where are they ?" murmured the rector, with that sort of desolate feeling we have sometimes when the things we have most energetically preached for the comfort and strengthening of others, seem to ourselves, for the moment, so vague and uncertain, so dim and far away. that the fruit of the tree of life is theirs, that 'the Lord God giveth them light,' and his name even now is written on their foreheads." "Jasper walls, gates of pearl, crystal water, and "A mysterious awe oppresses me when I tree of life-why, they are here, if our eyes were enter here," she said, glancing timidly around. pure enough to behold them," cried the jublilant I feel as if I had gained admittance to the la- traveller on the road of gold. "Did not the boratory of some miracle-working alchemist, a angel of God testify to John that they who do dark, secret chamber, filled with strange odours, his commandments may have right to the tree and furnished with singular apparatus, the use of life, and may enter in through the gates into of which is unknown to those not skilled in his the city? Surely that is no vain promise, neieraft. I always find myself casting my eyes ther is the fulfilment afar off, for he says 'the furtively about, half in hope and half in dread time is at hand,' and 'Behold I come quickly, of discovering the hidden machinery by which and my reward is with me, to give every man you turn out those wonderful, learned, compli- according as his work shail be.' Therefore, I cated sentences on the mysteries of faith and reckon that they who do faithfully obey His of justification, and of the doctrines of bap-divine laws are already within the City walls, tism, and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment,' with which you weekly lull your hearers to forgetfulness of earthly things, and lift them to a state of heavenly beatitude; for it were a bold mouth indeed that should declare the trances into which some of your people do fall in sermon-time are not altogether holy and fraught with celestial good to their souls, for certain it "Aye, so I have learned. However, I supis that in those abnormal states they plot no pose no one need be troubled on that score who mischief and imbibe no false doctrines. Would in deed and thought obeys its manifest teachyour reverence permit me to let in a little na-ings; and I think, were we to question one tural light on your gross darkness? A breath who, so far as he understands, fulfils the law of of pure air, a glimpse of the glorious, calm | God, he would tell us that it is not necessary space above, a gleam of sunshine on the floor, that a man should die to enter the kingdom of would be a revelation of God in this sepulchral heaven, that its ineffable joy, and light, and place." peace wait on no other condition than obedience, which, if not possible in this life would never be required of us. But I did not come here to talk theology with you. Judging from the many sad-coloured volumes scattered hereabouts you must be freshly-primed, and if you should open your mouth, would overwhelm me with arguments which I could only answer foolish woman-wise with hesitating 'yes,' or Yes, fling open the window, Helena" said the reetor, languidly, hearkening, as he always did, with a kind of amused pity, to the freespoken sentiments of his privileged niece. "I closed it merely because the boisterous merriment of the village children playing on the green disturbed my meditations." "A thousand pities. If you had gone out to "What warrant have you for such faith?" "The warrant of God's Word-no less, and certainly more cannot be asked." "But God's Word may be wrongly interpreted." M |