TO GEORGE KEN) x. © fear'ess soul, whose strong uplifted arm Wielding with courage high Truth’s nased blade Rent Russiahy veil, and showed the horrors To a whole world in Judgment stern ar- rayed! O tender he rt, forgetful all of self, Striving to succor those that sit in grief, Bpending with joy thy strength that thou might’st bring Unto the sorrowing some sweet relief! And not in vain thy toil; thy loving words Robbed foul injustice of its cruel smart, And Tessages—'gainst which thou balanced ife— Brought hope to many. an agonizing heart, Nor is this all, for yet a day shall come strong, When God shall bare his mighty arm and sweep From off the face of earth this awful wrong. And thy brave soul, wating this recompense, Whether in heaven or on earth it bic e, Stall on that day of its sore travail see, And in that hour it shall be satisfied ! ~ Anna Thaxter Church, i i——— ~ A DREAM ROMANCE, » — Before I left home in America my mother called me to her. “You are going to England, Robin, my dear,” she said. “You will see your father’s people. It will be a new experience to you. You will see the place whore he was born, and portraits of his ancestors. Now, his is a very old family; but imine is just as old, only mine is French. We were titled people. An ancestor of mine was a Count—the Count Jouvin. He was a splendid creature, I am told, but in his youthful days a little wild. Dear, dear, he lived nearly two old letters that he had written, and his watch and his miniature. as well-born remember, you ure of the Count. You may show your aunts, if you like. stand, until my mother cried out: “Why, Robin, you are exactly like him! It might be your portrait.” Then I saw the likencss myself. 1 was indeed the cxact counterpart of this ancestor of mine—this wild young Count who had lived years be- fore. It delighted my mother very much to kzow it. I was silly enough to be pleased myself. When I left Americs I carried the miniature with me, and it arrived safely in England. My paternal uncle and his sisters lived in a fine old English mansion. tome miles from London. 1 reached the house, afier some hours of railway travelling, cold and weary, and ready for a good dinner: and having been admitted, 1 was left, for a few mo- ments, in a large parior, over the man- tel of which hung a very old picture of an English officer. He was a young man, with stern, gray eves, seemed to stare down upon me from the canvas in an aggressive sort of Way that, had he been alive, | should have expected a challenge on the spot. 1 supposed that he was an ancester of mine, but he did not look friendly, and I took a terrible dislike to him, though I laughed at myself for it. Try as I would to turn my eyes from his pictured face, they wandered back 200 a § | my elbow said, “Mr. Hobin I believe,” that I averted them, and that the family were absent, make me as comfortable as she until their return, and would I BUpper now or go to my room first? | chose supper, and having discussed it that there was no need of agreeable that night, for I weary and sleepy, and, stupid. The room into which I was ushered was a tremendous one, with a fireplace set about with a screen, and a four-post bed with curtains, in which ten persons could easily have The floor was of oak, with a rich carpet in the centre, and were straight-legged chairs, straighter tables rang-d about at tervals, All was stiff, and massive and ugly, with excep ion—that exception doing was both consequently, wide slept, Square there and in- one girl with powdered hair 2nd a very low-cut bodice, who held a half-blown rose in one hand and shaded her eyes with the other. It was an old picture, but the tints face as soft and new and from a living model who still awaited her seventeenth birthday instead of a couple of hundred years before, so that the belle who Fad sat for it might have died a withered octogenarian be. yond the memory of any living man, As I looked at the face an odd fancy came upon me. I felt that I had known this girl and loved her. I felt that I loved her still. I wanted to kiss those ripe, pouting lips—to hold the little round-tipped fingers that grasped the rose. 1 actually found tears in my eyes as [ turned away and prepared for repose, and I put out the light with a marvellous regrot at losing sight cf the face that so im- me, . ts 4a ‘“4m I falling in love with a pic- 7 1 asked myself; snd a sudden comical remembrance of Sam Weller's young y Who conceived a tender passion for ‘von of the vax images” in his window, ended the * matter by making we laugh aloud, Having laughed, I yawned-—having yawned, I fell asleep—slecping, 1 dreamed. I fancied myself not myself, bat another man—in fact, my titled an- cestor, the Count Jouvin., 1 walked up and down a long green lane, with my riding-whip in my hand: beyond, & groom held two horses, one bearing a lady's saddle. I seemed to be im- patient and looked at my watch often. I expected some one—who was it? At last I knew. A step sounded on the grass; a voice called “Henri,” 1 turned. The lady of the picture stosd before me. In living presence, I saw again the sweet face, the flowing hair, the white bosom, the snowy hand, its fingers holding a rose. I rushed to meet her. | pressed a kiss upon those hands. I led her forward. 1 spoke to her—not in my own language. Ispoke in French. told her that from that moment I was her slave, and she wept ; and I led her to the spot where the horses stood saddled and bridled, and we rode away, the moon shining down upon us, her eyes turned always upon my face. Out of this dream I was awakened with a start. It was still night. The room was dark. It was all a foolish dream, but I felt guilty and remorse- ful. Somehow it seemed that my con- impossible to sleep lost consciousness. Again I slept ; again I dreamt. ~~ lovely park. The branches were bare, feet, He was armed with a sword. us, Another stood a little Count Jouvin. this gray-eved Englishman and I. | dently endeavored to take my life. For a long while I merely defended myself, impossible, Oue wounded. Human further forbearance. of us mus: nature forbade My sword er. upon the ground. I saw the blood drip from the p int of my blade as | withdrew it. 1 heard my second mutter, “Il est mort,” and I heard the Englishman whisper, “Doctor, is he dead 7” I turned towards the doctor, saw for a moment his grave, square face, and then awoke. 1 was the Count Henri Joavin of the past century no longer. I was once more myse.f—Hobin den, an Au erican, on a visit to his English relatives: and there was a polite knock at the door, and a calm English servant brought my aunt's love, and had | slept we fast would be ready in half an hour When 1 had dress d. I had still an uncomfortable memory of my dream, as of a thing that had actually happen. ed. I could not quite believe in my vwn identity, and I still felt an odd tenderness for the girl in the old pic- ture. 1 looked atit long and earnest.y, and it smiled upon me. “You are, doubiless, mv grandmoth- great-grandmother,” 1 said. look- ing back over mv shoulder: do believe I've fallen in love with you." Then I went down stairs to be wel- comed by a prim old gentleman, who himself my uncle, and law. ers ns were my sunts. They were kind, hospitable, cheery. They asked los ing questions about my father, and the: bragged a little about our good eld family as to one as proud of i themselves, and all the while the gray- eyed officer stared sternly down upon me from his tarnished frame on the oak panelled wall. At last it was im- possible to avoid speaking of him. “This is an ancestor of mine, | supe pose, sir?” I said to my nnele. “Yes, Robin,” replied he. ves: that was Col. James Rawden.” “He doesn’t look cheerful,” said 1. “‘He must have been avery unhappy man,” said my uncle. “Of course, as you may guess, he lived two hundred years ago, and he died in a duel.” “A duel?” | cried. “Priscilla.” said my Aunt Deborah, “the gentlemen will excuse ne.” I arose aud opened the door for the When I had closed it my uncle went on: “Yes, Robin, this long gone ancestor of ours died in a duel. It seems that he as two ladies, cold and stern to win her love, She, remember, was not of our blo wl, Her picture hangs over the mantle piece in the room you slept in. Perhaps you remarked it? She eloped with a French nobleman. Col. Rawden followed him fought him. The killed Lim. It's a sad story. She must have been a pretty girl, and he a fine, vrave fellow, but it all went somehow. “Yes,” said I, still repulsed by the cold, gray eyes of the picture, though I tried to soften my heart to it: “and, of course, no one knows the name of the Frenchman. It is so very long ngo.” “The Freucaman was the Count Henri Jouvin,” said my uncle. “Why, my dear nephew, you look ill.” I felt ill, but gave no explanation. But I did not speak of my mother's aristocratic ancestors during my visit to my father's relatives: and to this day I shudder when I recall my strange dream. Coupling it with my lHkeness to the Count Jouvin, the sense of ident- ity with him which I felt even on awakening, and the passion with whch the beautiful picture on the wall of my ancestral mansion inspire | me. I ask myself if there can be any truth in the fancy some have entertained that one soul sometimes inhabits more than one body. For if 1 could have faith in this, I should believe that I, Kobin Rawden, wus once no other than the Count Henri Jouvin, and I do not re- #pect that fellow, end am not pleased with the idea, S— a ——— ot ~ The Sea Novell t. “How came you, Mr. Russell,” | asked, writes an interviewer of Mr, W. Clark. Russell, ‘how came you, a practical sailor, to take to novel writ- ing? “Well, the taste for writing first came to me in a very curious man- ner at sea. We were homeward bound from Sydney, and when abreast of the i ro when the batten hen-coop was dis- covered missing. The captain told me to look for it. 1 couldnt find it, whereupon the captain grew angry. | was ‘cheeky,’ and so the captain or- dered me below, bread and water and irons, a prisoner for the rest of the voyage. Having naught to do, I took to reading Tom Moore, and that start- ed me to the writing of poetry. 1 didn’t go to sea again. “I then wrote “John Houldsworth, Chief Mate’; that was my first nautical novel. Then a well-known publisher asked me to write one for him, and ‘The Wreck of the Grosvenor’ was my response to his request. However, his reader returned it with the remark that furniture. It wasaccepted by Marston. me ashore. ‘No,’ footed, and I shall stick to the sea.’ My object is to keep the standard ele- vated, written for boys, and yet England, which is a great maritime country, possesses no great sea novelist.” I loudly demurred: «Mr. Russell, vou are fishing; however, let that pass—are your stories founded on fact?"-—¢Yes, very often: for in. mutiny at sea, in which the steward had thrown over a bottle containing an account of it. 1 pondered over ‘The Sea Queen’ was suggest. ed by the true story of a captain's wife, who was on board a steamer, and all the crew, except the captain and mate, fell ill. They worked in the engine. room, she steered and brought the vessel into the haven where they would be. This sea-novel-writing vocation is very dear tome. All my sailors are men 1 have met in the foc'sle, kept watch with, gone aloft with; they are a fast dying type in this age of steamers, And how vast a distinction there is between the bluejacket snd the mer- chantman! The one lithe, active as a cat, full of his ideas of discipline: the other slow, grumbling, discontented, full of bad food and constant plaint. Haif the profanity of poor Jack is to be found in the filthy scut- tie