SWEET ROSE ADAIR.
The pallid night falls like a cloud,
The pallid night falls like a shroud,
Between my hands my head is bowed,
Sweet Rose, sweet Rose Adair,
Oh, sad’'ning tears fall salt and slow;
Oh, mad’'ning tears confess my woe !
Deep in the grave they laid thee low,
Sweet Rose, sweet Rose Adair,
But once thy trembling hand I pre sed,
But once I held thee to my breast;
But now thou art among the blest,
Sweet Rose, sweet Rose Adair,
From love's sweet trance too soon [ woke,
1 reeled beneath that cruel stroke:
But hope still clasps the ruined oak.
Sweet Rose, sweet Rose Adalr,
Two stars gaze sadly through the skies,
Two stars that seem thy earnest eyes;
Thine eyes beseeching me to rise,
Sweet Rose, sweet Rose Adair,
Oh, swift their glancing light must be!
But swifter than it comes to me,
My joy-winged soul shall sweep to thee,
Sweet Rose, sweet Rose adair,
SPITS
AN UN-COMMON SENSE MATCH.
The weather had been very cold even
for January. For days nobody bad
stirred out unless compelled hy necessi-
ty, and, I’ve no doubt, our dear mother
bad longed many times for a change
which would allow her noisy children to
exercise their lungs and muscles out of
doors,
At last the change came, During the
forenoon the thermometer indicated a
rising temperature, and about midday
“the old woman up in the sky began
emptying feather-beds.”
Thick and fast the downy snowflakes
fell, wrapping every tree and shrub in a
garment of pure white and making
even the ‘‘stake and rider” fences, the
log barns and corn-cribs, things of
beauty which were too truly “joys not
to last forever.”
Hastily we children were clad in coats,
cloaks, scarfs, mittens, and all that par-
aphernalia of outer garments which
loving mothers provide and insist on be-
ing worn, despite the protests of the
wearers,
At last we were free and out upon the
hill fnear by, where there was grand
sport, sliding, snowballing, and making
SDOW Inen,
The afternoon slipped quickly by, the
snow ceased falling, and the evening
was setting down clear ard cold, when
upon the opposite hilltop there came in
sight a farmer's box sleigh, drawn by a
span of bay horses, Hastily we drove
our sleds to the foot of our hill and
reached it just in time for a “‘hiteh.”
The driver of this establishment was
in no wise visible,
The hand which guided the team
seemed not a hand but a huge wad of
buckskin and yam, and it proceeded
from a sort of tower of bed quilts,
blankets, buffalo-robes, comforters, sur-
mounted by a head-piece enveloped in a
green and red “Bay State” shawl.
There was a little crack undoubtedly
left for the eyes, but no eyes could be
seen by us,
Edging around a very little, but pro-
bably as much as circumstances would
allow, the roll of dry goods and furs in-
quired if **Yon house was ’Squire
Black's?”
We replied affirmatively, and settled
down to the enjoyment of a ride to our
own door, during which we exchanged
whispered speculations as to whom the
stranger might be,
When the sled stopped a committee of
us reported the arrival at the house
while the remainder watched the tying
and blanketing of the horses and then
formed a voluntary escort.
In answer to a muffled wrap father
opened the door,
“Squire Black, I suppose?’
“Yes, sir; come in. Getting quite
celd outside,’’ said my father, eyeing
his Guest curiously.
“Well, yes, we've had a fearful spell
o’ weather, and I've been on the road
for the last two days of it. I see you
don’t know me, Squire, and I swan, my
eyes were so full o’ frpst I hardly knew
you; but I reckon you'll see who I am
when I get this toggery ofl.”
From the moment our visitor had
stepped inside he had been engaged in
unwrapping one garment after another,
a process for all the world like peeling
an onion,
At last there stood revealed a young
man of four or five and twenty years, a
six-footer, with broad shoulders, face
bronzed by exposure to the weather, but
a goodly face to look upon, with its ra-
ther square jaw, ruddy cheeks, full smil-
ing lips, brown hair curling over a broad
forehead, and blue eyes, which answer-
ed my father’s questioning look by a
meny twinkle,
In a moment father extended both
hands and grasped the stranger's most
cordially,
“Youareone of Aunt Anna’s boys.”
A hearty laugh preceeded the reply.
“I wasn’t afeered but you'd git it
right, Squire, give you time enough.
I’m the little Joe Tolon you taught long
division to.”
We knew Aunt Anna was a former
landlady of father’s when he was a ped-
agogue; that she lived forty or fifty
miles away from us—a great distance in
those days—and our interest began to
flag after mot her came in from the kitch-
en, and the conversation was continued
about old neighbors of whose existence
we had been ignorant. We betook our-
selves to the kitchen, when mother soon
followed,
Presently, while Joe was caring for
his team father came in, and all un-
mindful of the adage about “little pit-
chers” said, with an air of one who
must be circu lest his risibilities
would betray him, ‘“‘Ma, what do you
suppose Joe has come for?"
“I'm sure I don't know,” replied
mother, composedly stirri another
handful of weal into the boiling mush
which was to be the piece de resistance
of our evening meal,
“He has come for a wife,”
“A wifel I did not know he was ac-
quainted around here,”
“He isn’t, He wants me to recom-
mel him to some girl who is strong,
able, and willing to work, knows how
to run a house and [hesitating a little
as he saw the contemptuouscurve of my
mother’s nose and mouth] and I've
spoken-about-Jane,”
“Squire Black!” exclaimed mother,
®
emphasizing her words still further by a
dash of the pudding stick which sent
the mush flying all over the stove.
Jane was a farmer's daughter, who
worked for us summers and went home
swinters to help do up the spinning, weav-
ing, and the like,
A mutually satisfactory arrangement,
as Jaue's services were more needed at
home in winter than the summer, and
mother thereby saved the board and
wages of a girl during the winter when
the work was not so heavy. Moreover,
mother often said that Jane put the
work ahead so when she was there that
she could not keep her busy the year
round.
An, help was help in those days. Bat
to return to our kitchen, Father had
changed his position, getting a little out
of the way of another charge from the
mush-pot, where the beating was going
on vigorously.
After a pause he began again, .
“Well, ma, Jane is not bound to mar-
ry Joe unless she wants to, But perhaps
she'll never get another chance as good.
You know yourself that any one of
Aunt Anna’s boys is bound to make a
good man and a smart one.”
“None too smart it he thinks to get
a wife this way,” snapped the mother.
“Let him try, ma, if he wants to; let
him try. It won’t hurt him to have the
conceit taken out of him.”
No reply, but the mush wasstirred as
never mush was before, Another pause.
“You know, ma, Jane has been keep-
ing company with that trifling Dan
Marcy.”
“Why doesn’t he marry a girl who
knows him if he wants to get married?’
sourly inguired er Dot the pud-
ding-stick relaxed its vigor slightly and
father ventured a little nearer the
speaker,
‘He says the girls up there are all
squaws, and down by his mother’s they
have too high notions.”
“Well, it’s a heathenish, Frenchified
way of courting a wife,” replied the
mother, *‘and if he were to come about
me that way, if 1 were Jane, I'd empty
a bucket of water over him."
“Maybe she will, maybe she will,”
chuckeled father, who would probably
have enjoyed that termination of the
affair as well as any.
“But, ma, you know Jane is terribly
homely, and——-"
What mother would have said was
cut short by the entrance of Joe bearing
a jar and package.
“Mother sent these to you with her
compliments, Mrs, Black.”
Mother, who knew the flavor of Aunt
Anna's cheese and honey of old, was
somewhat mollkified by these presents,
but she remained rather sulky all the
evening; even when Joe filled her wood-
box, piling the sticks as evenly as lath
in a bundle, filled the water-palis, cut
the kindling and did the milking, bring-
ing the pail in as clean, she condescend-
ed to tell him, as she would herself or
—but she checked herself and did not
say “or Jane.”
She would be no party Lo that iniqui-
iy.
He nearly won her when he repeated
his text promptly and correctly and
knelt reverently at prayers, and she told
father “he was a likely young man,
but” —her lips shut close, and she shook
her head when she thought of h
sion.
But before morning the sky cleared,
and things were hurried around for an
early start to Jane's,
During the ride it was arranged that
father was to introduce Joe's errand to
thea elders, and if they were willing Joe
might thereafter proceed as be liked.
So upon reaching the farm father and
Mr. Holton left Joe and the boys to put
out the team, and they came up to the
house and held a conference with Mrs,
Holton while Jane was busy building a
fire in the best room.
The ‘best room’’ of an old-fashicnad
farm house was dreary enough. This
one had a bright yarn carpet, several
split-bottomed and wooden chairs with
patch-work cashions, a low-backed rock-
ing-chair, a wooden ‘‘setiee,”’ a table
with the Bible, Baxter's “Call to the
Unconverted,” an almanac, and a file ot
the Christian Era. A few silhouettes
and prints from magazines were on the
walls; but after all, its only ornament
was its scrupulous cleanliness and its
big fireplace,
Jane bustled in and out on household
and hospital cares intent, being given by
general eonsent some opportunity for
acquaintance and a chance to seeand be
seen before being told our errand,
You already know what she saw,
What did Joe see?
Jane was, as father had said, undeni-
ably homely.
She was tall and angular, Her feet
and hands were large. Her hair was a
trifle woo red for auburn and not yellow
enough for gold. *“‘Carroty” is the
proper description.
Her light complexion was freckled,
but her cheeks would have shamed
the roses, Her eyes were grey; her nose
had grown very long and then, as if
wishing to make amends for that mishap,
had shaped itself into a. decided pug.
Her mouth was large and always smil-
ing, and smiling showed what was Jane’s
only beauty—a set of as regular and
white teeth as ever came from a dentist’s
hands,
Her dress was of blue flannel, every
thread spun and woven by herself,
The hour or two before dinner was
spent in viewing and discussing the
stock, in telling the scanty news, and in
talking over “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,”
which was then appearing as a serial, in
all of which Joe took his part sensibly
and modestly,
At noon we were summoned to an ex-
cellent and bountiful farm dinner. It
wins quite evident that by this time
Jane had been informed of our errand,
for from perfect unconsciousness she be-
came suddenly preoccupied, nervous and
blushing. Joe enjoyed his dinner and
did ample justice to it,
After we were all Sone mddtnly there
came & break and an awkward pause in
the conversation. Joe cleared his throat,
but without other sign of embarrass
ment began:
“Miss Holton, I see somebody has
already told you what I've come for, and
it’s right I should tell you something
about myself. The Squire here will
iS Nis
you about my folks,
|" “1 am 25 years old, have never been
wr
“ i
sick in my life, I don’t drink whiskey,
or swear, or chew tobacco, Iam amem-
ber of the Baptist Church when I'm
where there is one,
‘I've been raised to work and can
hold up my end with any man. I have
a hundred and sixty acres of land about
half cleared, There’s the paper: to show
for it, and Squire Black will tell you
they're all right.
“I've a good log house, log stable, and
80 on, I own the horses I drove down
here and a yoke of oxen besides, I don’t
owe any man a cent, I shall have cows
and chickens when I've a wife to take
care of em. Now, if you think you
can mage up your mind to marry me I'd
like to ask you a few questions,”
Jane said nothing, and Joe, evidently
taking silence for consent, proceeded:
“Did you cook this dinner?”
Still Jane was silent, but her mother
answered ‘‘yes’’ tor her,
Joe smiled. “Well, the Squire told
me you were a good cook or 1 wouldn't
have come out here.”
“Can you make good bread?”
A faint but rather indignant ‘‘yes’’
was heard from Jane, as if he had asked
if she could wash her face or comb her
hair,
“Can you milk and tend to milk, but-
ter, and cheese?’’
“Yes,” a little louder,
“Can you run a house and do all
kinds of housework?”
The cat seemed to have gotten Jane's
tongue again, and my mother, pitying
her embarrassment, replied with an ex-
haustive catalogue of Jane’s virtues us
a housewife. hen suddenly checking
herself as one who had said too much or
said it in a wrong cause she became silent,
but Lhe questioning went on,
“Can you sew?”
“Yes.”
“Can you knit?”
"yes
“Can you spin?”
“Yes? 3
“Can you weave?"
“Yes”
“As you've got to saying ‘yes’ I'd like
to go right ou and ask you to have me;
but I'll go out and feed my horses, and
you can talk with your folks and the
Squire and his wife, and give me the
answer to that question when [ come
mn.
“I want to say first that if you agree
to marry me 1’li try and do the fair
thing by you, and expect you to do the
sate by me.
“You can always have what you can
make from the butter and eggs and half
the wool for your own spending. It will
be very lonesome, for there won't be
another white woman nearer than five
miles for a while vet, and the work will
be hard, but pot harder than
you're used to, lf you go we'll have
go day after to morrow. Une roads are
very rough, and it will take two—may-
be three—days travel th
miles,"
It took Joe a long time to feed hus
team, and during his absence a4 great
deal of talking was done, When tie re-
turned Mr. Holton stood by the table
and there were Lleals
in the eyes of all the
said: “Joe, Jane
»
aye
e sixty odd
GOKU very sober,
women wel
LAS COI i
wilh yon, lie 8
girl always, aud we hope you
well,"
“i will, Mr. Holton,
solemnly answered Joe,
over to where Jans
chance it
%0 help me Lod
and he wa
stood and pul
arm around her and Kissed ber
Then there was a general handshak-
ing, and arrangements wer
the wedding next afternoon, alter which,
Joe and his wife were (lo Come
far as our house and the I
moruing start for howe
The wedding was an old-fashioned
country one, and not long after the cer-
emony Joe's sleigh was packed with a
cargo of feather beds, quilts, blankets
and housekeeping goods of various
kinds, and a nice cow (the pick of the
herd) tied behind, for Mr, Holton woud
not let hus daughter go empty-handed,
Every second year after that for
many years Jane came home for a visi,
The mtervening year she could not come
because ‘the aby was too Little to
bring,” and the numerous little Tolons
grew up in regular succession, heir
heads mounting one abeve the other like
the rounds of a ladder.
Father regalarly asked Jane when she
made these visits if soe had come for
her divorce,
Jane always replied: “Not this time,
I don't see but Joe and I get along as
well as those who take more ime for
their courting.”’
And Joe, who was always holding the
baby while Jane ‘*‘undid’ the bigger
ones at the time this question was asked,
would say approvingly: “That's so,
Jane,"
shaaie aad
bras a GS
HIOWIng
*
- *
“Dear me,’ said Jane, as, leaning on
Dr. Joe Tolon's arm, she threw back her
widow's veil, (she has worn that nearly
ten years now) and wiped her glasses be-
fore “The Heart of the Wilderness'’ in
the art gallery last fall-‘‘dear me, Joe,
that looks just like the piece of woods
opposite the door of the old house when
your tather brought me home. 1've seen
the deer browsing there many a time. 1
didn’t think then it would ever be a
city, but your father said it would, and
now the cars run over that very spot.
It's been a long, long time, Joe, but the
last ten years have been longer than all
the rest.”
Area of the United States.
The total area of the United States
end the Territories, not including"
Alaska, is, socording to the last census,
two million, nine hundred and seventy
thousand square miles, Of the States
Texas has the largest area and Rhode
island the smallest, the former,
When we hired the house at Painted
Post Short Corners we did not know
that there was a dog permanently at-
tached to the establishment, but we
found it out next day when he stepped
in unexpectedly just before dinner time
and ate up our beef, This was a seri-
ous matter at Painted Post Short Cor-
ners, for it was a journey of half a day
to the nearest butcher's, and the inhab-
itants subsisting chiefly on salt pork,
beef was not always to be had even
then. And after having had it ex-
plained to us that whoever lived in the
house Jibbers always lived there also,
we ivterviewed the agent,
The agent was bland, and smiled
upon us when he heard our tale,
“So Jibbers stole your dinner,did he?”
he replied, ‘*Well, you see, you must
cut a little switch and whip him.”
We explained that our desire was to
have Jibbers banished from our domain
forever, and that we could not under-
take the charge of his education, es-
pecially as it had been 80 neglected here-
tofore,
But upon this the agent uttered ejac-
ulations expressive of his astonishment,
and ended with:
“Send Jibbers away! Why,you don’t
know what a comfort that dog will be to
you, Mr. Summers. He's hungry now.
The last family we had in neglected
him and starved him, and he’s fam-
ished. When he gets filled up again,
he'll be inestimable, The greatest pro-
tector the ladies can haye, Go into the
woods with them and attack man or
brute who interferes with em; and your
place wouldn’t be safe without that
dog. The moment it was known that
Jibbers was gone, you'd have tramps
all day and burglars all night, Jibbers
is what makes the place so safe. Then,
you are near the water. If one of your
children falls in, that dog will save its
life,
“We must keep him, Mr. Summers,”
said my wife resolutely, *‘I've no
doubt we will find him a treasure, after
we've fed him up, poor fellow.”
Then we went home and tried to feed
up Jibbers,
An anacopda can be gorged. Jibbers
could not. He could eat all day and
all night, and moan with starvation be-
tween the bites, He ate everything.
We found him in the pantry once open-
ing jelly jars with his tongue, which he
thrust through the paper and swallowed
the contents at one gulp. He was s0
large that shelves were nothing to him;
80 heavy that no one could drag him
where he did not want to go; and so
obstinate that he would not stir unless
he desired to do so. But we fancied
that he must be a wonderful watch-dog;
for when our friend from the city, Miss
Slimmens, came down to see us, none of
us being at the gate on the moment of
her entrance, he attacked her with
vigor, and had despoiled her of all her
outward apparel as well as her back
curls—not as well pinned on as they
might have been-—befors she was
rescind,
“What
burglar?”
would he not have doue Lo a
said my wife.
But, of course, it was not natural
that poor Miss Slimmensshould forgive
Jibbers, or that she should cease to fear
him. One of his agreeable habits was
that of insisting on being with at
times, On these occasions he
woaned dismally, and regarded every
us
Sometimes his feelings overcame
him, and he helped himself to something
off of somebody's plate. Upen which
the sMicted one cried oul Dercely:
“Jibbers, go away?"
But Jibbers never went. However,
as we read in the regular chapter of
horrors in our daily papers of people
being murdered by tramps for five dol-
lars a head, we still felt that Jibbers
might be a treasure on emergency.
The time came when I was glad we
had Jibbers, 1 was obliged to leave
home and go to the city on business,
My wife, Miss Slimmens and the chil.
dren certainly would have the protec
tion of the hired man, but Jibbers’ bark
would warn them of any danger. Just
before my departure it occurred to us
that there might be some.
Jibbers, for the first time in his life,
entered the room with hus tail between
his legs and hid himself under the sofa,
Then we heard a voice at the door, and
turning, saw an undeniable tramp, who
explained to us that he was an honest
workingman who wanted something to
eat.
Of course, we gave him somé@hing,
I always feel that hungry people need
something to eat, whatever they may
be. And after the man had gone Miss
Slimmens was discovered perched on a
chair with her feet tucked under her,
“1 know he was crouching for a
spring as tigers do,'’ said she, “and I
thought he might make a mistake and
come at me.”
“He was hiding,’’ said [,
afraid of the man.”
But Jibbers, as though denying the
assertion, at this moment arose to his
feet and began not only to bark, but to
how! with terrific energy, and rushed
out of the door at full speed,
“He suspects the tramp of dishonest
purposes. He has been watching him,
the intelligent creaturei” cried my
wife, .
At that moment shrieks were heard,
and, rushing out en masse, we found
Jibbers endeavoring to swallow a little
boy who come to sell a pnt of
blackbe and who was quite too
small for him to bite,
To comfort the infant we bought his
fruit at an éxorbitant price, and having
pibgeniting him with Sake, Rauried him
on outward way, ibbers
horribly.all the while...
Then I bade my family adieu, and
though I had begun to understand that
Jibbers was a coward, I fancied that,
like many another, he might frighten
people by the noise he made.
After I had Fone, MisSiinnaens and
HY wait took a walk with the children,
Ji accompany
en en
mouth wile o
YS pie oh
pleasant to Miss Slimmens, believ-
od such conduct indicative of -
madness,
Alter this they
“He was
Slimmens, who slept with her, between
the shoulders
“What's the matter?” shrieked that
lady. .
“Hush, Amy!” smd my wife, *Lis-
ten!”
They hstened, Not a word was
needed, A heavy and horrible snoring
was heard to proceed from beneath the
bed--undeniable snoring—and, at In-
tervals, a heavy person was heard to
turn himself uneasily.
‘It is the tramp!”
wife,
“Yes, gasped Miss Slimmens,
“While he is asleep is our only time,”
said my wife,
Thereupon. shaking and trembling,
the poor soul crept into the nursery,
and bolted the connecting door.
“We must think beforehe wakes,”
said my wife, “One of us must call,
the man; he Has a pistol ’
“We'll wake the burglar, and he'll
murder us!’ said Miss Slimmens,
“We must do it softly,” said my wife.
““Will you stay with the children?”
“I'm afraid,” said Miss Slimiens,
“Then call Peter.”
“And be murdered on the way?”
said Miss Slimmens,
However, she went and returned with
Peter, who carried a revolver in his
hand.
“*A thafe, is it, undther yer bed,
mum?” said Peter, **Aisy now, we'll
have him out, Sure and he is snorin’
as paceful as a saint, He's dhrunk, no
doubt, Come out of that wid ye!”
There was no answer.
Peter thrust his hand under the bed
and drew it back with a yell.
“I'm stabbed!” shouted he; “‘and I'll
take that from no man. Come out, or
I'll shoot!’
There was no answer, Peter fired.
There was a horrible howl, and then
silence,
“I've killed him,” said Peter, ‘It's
the furst man I iver killed, but I've
rasons to show for it. Here's where
he stabbed me-—the blood drippin’ from
it.”
“That's a bite, Peter,” said my wife.
HA Faith it is,” said Peter.
“The villain, wtat a mouth he had!”
Then he dived under the bed, and as
the horrified women retreated, shriek-
ing, came out again faster than he
went, with something heavy and black
flving after him.
It was Jibbers, The snoring of a
large dog is exactly like that of a man;
and it was Jibbers—not a burglar—who
had been asleep under the bed. There
was a trifling graze on his hipd leg, but
otherwise he was uninjured.
Peter took him to the village when
he went to the doctor's with his hand,
and he said it was to buy him some
dog’s meat. When he returned he did
not speak of Jibbers, and we asked no
questions,
I think Peter knows what became of
him: but whoever hires that house
another season will not find a dog to let
with the place.
whispered my
bite?
co QU ——
Bailway Car Wheels,
A railway car wheel of a new pattern
is exhibited in Cleveland, Ohio. It is
claimed that with this wheel accidents
by reason of breakage, are impossible,
The body differs from the ordinary
wheel, It has a rim to which the tire,
which is of steel and entirely separate,
is attached. The tire is secured by
bolts so arranged that it is impossible
for them to come loose, Should the
tire from any cause break, the bolts
would still hold it to the body of the
wheel and no accident could result. *'I
prefer to make a further examination
before [ express an opinion on its
merits.” said a prominent practical
railroad man, when asked his opinion
of the wheel by a reporter,
American railroads have 10,000 000
car wheels in use at present. Ii takes
about 525 pounds of pig iron to make
one wheel, About 1,250,000 wheels
wear out every year, and the old ones
are recast, Eight years was the former
estunated life of a car wheel, but the
general adoption of the standard guage
and the increased facilities for loading
and unloading have marerially increased
the service a wheel may be called on to
pertorm.
The feregoing figures are on freight
car wheels. On parlor cars and the best
passenger coaches paper wheels are
used, They give entire satisfaction ao-
cording to the statements of officials.
It is claimed for them that they are
light yet stronger and less liable to
break than the iron wheels and are not
affected by the weather. Then again
they are almost noiseless, which is a
special advantage in having them on
passeuger coaches.
Ages Ago.
A cinerary urn has been discovered
on the farm of Cuttyhill, Longside, in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The shape of
the urn is globular, fifteen inches in di-
ameter and eleven inches in depth. It
was formed of a brownish sort of clay.
The bones which filled t e receptacles
crumbled into dust on being touched.
Between the town of Marino, on the
Alban Hills, near Rome, and the farm
of the Frattoochia several statues, busts
and other works of sculpture have been
found, They are 18 in number, and ic-
clude statues of Marsyas, of an athlete,
a faun, a Silvanus, and a copy of the
Laoccoon smaller than the original, The
Marsyas measures three metres in
height.
Many very old and rare silver coins in
excellent preservation were lately found
on & rock in a burn near Portree, Scot.
land. Antiquarians consider the “find”
a very interesting one, The authorities
ve come into possession of about 53
of these relics, Some of the coins are
of the reigns of Elizabeth and James
VI, and bare dates ranging from 1573
to 1602,
Among the graffiti which Professor
Sayce has found scrawled on the ruins
of the temple of Seti at Abydos,
is one that may not disclose importan
historical facts, but cannot be denied
the touch that makes the whole world
kin. It is Greek, and reads: “I Nika-
nor, Am come with Herakleia—drunk.’
But a fierce polemic might be waged
even on this text. For instance, was
Heraklela drunk, or Nikanor?
a
To know how to wait 1s the great
secret of success,
The Lost Lace.
Some five years since a party of ladies
and gentlemen were engaged in the in-
fantine sport of hunting the handker-
chief, It was Christmas tide, when
such childish sport is permissible, with
the addition of a sly embrace beneath
the mistleto bough, The gams grad-
ually became a romp, the greatest in-
genuity being used to hide the hand-
kerchief where it would be Impossible
to find it. The whole house was finally
in an uproar of laughter and excite-
ment over the adventures and misad-
ventures of the seeker and his or her
ultimate fate.
At last, after a number of exciting
forfeits had been scored to several of
the company, one of them said he would
hide the handsomest handkerchief in the
room where it could never be discovered.
His proposal was greeted with hilarious
comments, but the hostess instantly
offered a costly bit of point lace as the
article to be hidden, under the condi
tion that the gentleman should not de-
stroy or swallow it, He also made his
condition, which was that all should
shut their eyes and not open them un-
til he said the word, on pain of instant
death,
The party composed itself for the or-
deal, and the hider then walked several
times about the large drawing-room
into the hall and rooms beyond. In
five minutes he returned and cried out,
“Seek!” The search began, and it
went on until one and all were ex-
hausted. Up stars and down stairs,
the whole house and its contents were
ransacked, but in vain. No handke:-
chief was visible, nor was it found,
though the party vowed it should be be-
fore day dawned. The gentleman pos-
itively refused to betray his secret, al
though be solemnly declared it was
safely stowed away within reach of all.
The mystification became terrible,
At length, as the impossible grew
wearisome, the guests departed for their
respective homes, tired out, and it
must be confessed, rather disgusted and
fractious “with all this child's play.”
The owner of the handkerchief was in-
finitely nettled by the affair, and as the
gentleman shortly after left for Europe,
she crossed him from her good books,
not even accepting the graceful amends
which he made from Paris; for she re-
turned to him an exquisite mouchoir
purchased in that charming city,
Last week a careless housemaid,
while dustiug a terracotta bust
standing in a niche of a cabinet,
Jet it fall to the floor, where it broke to
pleces, Stoopin: to gather them up,
she found stuffed in the head a lace
handkerchief, which she took with fear
and trembling to ber mistress. Madame
was completely dazed for a moment,
and then the circumstances of the
Christmas party, with the handker-
chief's strange disappearance five years
before, returned vividly to her mind.
It was her long-lost treasure that had
been stuffed into the empty head of a
“Laughing Girl,” where it might have
remained till doomsday but for the
parlor maid's duster. It was the lady’s
turn now to “be sorry’ and ask pardon;
but. alas! her regrets for-her share in
a practical joke would have to be sent
to the next world. The gentleman who
had hid the handkerchiet was no longer
living.
—-—-
Mercy Warren.
One of the very best bits of reading
left to us from the early days of the
American republic isthe correspondence
carried on in 1807 between John Adams
and Mercy Warren, and first published
in the centennial volume of the Massa-
chusetts historical society. Mercy War-
ren was a woman of rare ability and
character, the sister of James Otis, the
wife of Gen. James Warren, and the
author of the history of the American
revolution. John Adams, reading this
book after his retirement from office,
took offence at certain phrases, and cor-
pesponded with her at meat length
about them. showing in advancing years
an undiminished keenness of mind and
only an increase of touchy egotism. He
makes it, for instance, a subject of sin-
cere indignation when the lady in one
case speaks of Franklin and Adams in-
stead ot Adams and Franklin, Mrs
Warren, on her side, shows to the great-
est advantage, keeps her temper and
gives some home thrusts. She shows
clearly in this correspondence how
strongly and even justly, a portion of
the most intelligent people of Mr.
Adam’s own state dreaded what she
calls his “marked and uniform prefer-
ence to monarchic usages;" she brings
him to the admission that he hates ‘‘de-
moeratic’’ government, and is satisfied
with such republicanism as that of Hol-
land-—a nation which, as he himselfisays,
*‘has no idea of any republic but an ar-
istocracy’’—and that he counts even
England a repulic, since a republic is
merely “a government of more than
one.” She even quotes against him bis
own words, uttered in moments of ex-
cited impulse, recognizing monarchy as
the probable destiny of the United
States. But the most striking fact,
after all, is that she, a refined and culti-
vated woman, accustomed to the best
New England society of her time, is
found dissenting wholly from the feder-
alist view of Jefferson. *‘1 never knew,”
she bravely says, in answer to a sneer
from Mr. Adams, “that ‘my philosophi-
cal friend’ Mr, Jefferson was afraid to
do his duty in any instance. But this 1
know-he has dared to do many things
for his country for which posterity will
probably bless his memory; and 1 hope
he will yet, by hus wisdom, justice, mo-
deration and energy, long continue the
blessi of peace in our country and
st the republican system to
which he has uniformly adbered.” Such
a tribute from a woman like Mercy
Warren—a woman then nearly eighty
“1 say, old fellow oan
great kinduess. ” “Well, what
I am $50 short this morning, and it
you oan lend that will
“iim, y a alng obligation quite
you,
. Good 0