Year: 1874

/


and inhospitable stones. Ny feet slippe


from the smooth and Shiny masonry b.


meath the water; and several times m


lace came in rude contact with the wa


when my foothold gave way on the i,


stant that | seemed to have found som


diminutiye rocky cleat upon which


could stay myself.


"Sir, did you ever see a rat browne


IN half.flled hogshead-how he swim


round, and round, and round, and afte


vainly trying the sides again and agai,


with his paws fixes his eyes upon tn


upper rim as if he would look himsel
out OF his watery prison?


- thought of the miserable vermin
thought of him as I had often watched
mus his dying agonies when cruel ur
snin OF eight or ten. Boys are horribly
cruel, sir; boys, women and savages
All childlike things are cruel; cruel
from want of thought and from Der.
verse ingenuity, although by instinct
cach OF these is SO, tendera,ag agr IS as
tefder to it's young as boy is to favor
ite puppy, the same boy that will tor
ture kitten out Of existence. thought
then, / say, of the rat drowning in a
half-tilled cask Of water, and lifting his
gaze out of the vessel as he grew more
and more desperate, and flung myself
on my back, and, floating thus, fixed my
eyes upon the face of the moon.


"The moon is well enough in her way,
however you may look at her; but her
appearance is, to say the least of it, pc
culiar to a man floating on his back in
the center of stone tank, with dead
| wall of some fifteen or twenty feet ris-
ing squarely on every side Of him!"
(The young man smiled bitterly as he
said this, and shuddered once or twice
before he went on, musingly) "The last
time ! had noted the planet with any
emotion she was on the wane. Mary
was with me; l had brought her out
here one morning to look at the view
from the top of the reservoir. She said
little Of the scene, but as we talked of
our old childish loves saw that its fresh
features were incorporating themselves
with tender memories of the past, and |
was content.


"There was rich golden haze upon
the landscape. and as my own spirits
rose amid the voluptuous atmosphere
she pointed to the waning planet, dis
ccrnible like faint cash in the welkin,
and wondered how long it would be be-
fore the leaves would fall. Strange
girl! Did she mean to rebuke my joyous
mood, as if we had no right to be happy
while nature, withering in her pomp, and
the sickly moon wasting in the blaze of
nOontide, were there to remind us OF the
gone forever?' They will all renew
themselves, dear Mary said l encour
agingly, and there is one that will ever
keep tryst alike with thee and nature
through all seasons if thou wilt be true
to one of us and remain as now child
of nature


"A tear sprang to her eye and then,
searching her pocket for her card-casc,
she remembered an engagement to be
present at Miss T.awsnn'a nneniru nf fa,
bOnnets at two o'clock!


"And yet, dear, wild, wayward Mary,
thought of her now. You have prob
ably outlived this sort of thing, sir; but
/, looking at the moon as floated there
upturned to her yellow light, thought OF
the loved being whose tears l knew
would flow when she heard of my singu-
lar fate at once, so grotesque yet melan-
choly to awfulness.


"And how often we have talked, too,
of that Carian shepherd who spent his
damp nights upon the hills gazing as l
do upon the lustrous planet! Who will
revel with her amid those old supersti-
tions? Who from our own unlegended
woods will evoke their yet undetected,
haunting spiritsg Who peer with her in
prying scrutiny into natures laws and
challenge the whispers Of poetry from
the yoiceless throat of matter? Who
laugh merrily over the stupid guess
work of pedants that never mingled with
the infinitude of nature through love ex
haustless and all embracing as we have?
Poor girl! she will be compan;onless.


"Alas! companionless forever-save
in the exciting stages of some brisk fir
tation. She will live hereafter by feeding
other hearts with loves lore she has
learned from me and, Pygmalion- like
grow fond of the images she has herself
crowned with semblance Of divinity
until they seem to breathe back the mys-
terry the soul can truly catch from only
| one.


| "How anxious she will be lest the
Coroner shall have discovered any Of her
notes in my pocket!


81 felt chilly as this last reflection
crossed my mind, partly at thought OF
the Coroner, partly at the idea of Mary
being unwillingly compelled to wear
mourning for me in case of such dis
closure of our engagement. 1t is pro-
voking thing for girl of nineteen to
have to go into mourning for deceased
lover at the beginning Of her second
winter in the metropolis.


"The water, though, with my motion
less position, must have had something
to do with my chilliness. see, sir, you
think that tell my story with great
levity; but indeed, indeed, l should grow
delirious did venture to hold steadily
to the awfulness of my feeling the great
er part of that night. think, indeed,
must have been most of the time hyster-
ical with horror, for the vibrating emo.
tions l have recapitulated did pass
through nv brain even as have detailed
them.


"But as now became calm in thought
summoned up again some resolution Of
action.


"'I will begin at the corner said J.
and swim round the whole inclosure.'
will swim slowly and again feel the
edges Of the tank with my feet. If die
must, let me perish at least from we'll
directed though exhausting effort, mol
sink from mere bOotless WEAKNESS II
sustaining myself till the morning shal
bring relief


"The sides of the place seemed t.
grow higher as now kept ny watery
course beneath them. 1t was not alto
gether dead pull. l had some variet.
of emotion in making my circuit. Whel
swan in the shadow it looked to mn
more cheerful beyond in the moonlight
! and when SWAN in the moonlight hat