stretch to the shore of a wide blue sea. On it are floating islets of snow; and from their surfaces rise smoke-colored figures like trees lone and in groves, vapory and casting no shadows on the silver-shored islets of that azure sea. Oh! it is beautiful exceedingly to watch those far away countries in the clouds, so fair to see! That trinity of tree! is it a symbol of the Triune All? And are those pilgrims of the world that there find rest, under the branches of that tree, within the shadow of the church, to be transported to the islets silver-shored and shadowless in the distant sapphire sea? Oh! it is beautiful to see those resting pilgrims and that tree, those islands and that sapphire sea; 'tis beautiful exceedingly to watch the cloudworld far away, in the lustre of a silver day. Northward the rain has ceased, and bursting forth through the leaden clouds, a gleam of sunshine just covers a field of ripened grain upon the hill side, and the bright yellow is gilded with a richer glow. Such are the golden-harvests that lie at the base of all worldly wealth. There abound the bread and wine that, taken in the shade of the great triune tree in those shadowless islands of the silver shored sea, have changed their material substance for the immaterial of the holy Three. The sun is again sinking low in the west, and the cloud-world has vanished, leaving but here and there a wrack behind. Cows are wending their way homewards from the green meadows, laden with their milky freights. Some are slowly wading the creek, and cooling their heated udders in the clear waters of the running stream. Is it the sight of the cows and stream, or is it the thought impression of another world that figured but now in the cloud-world above, that brings at this moment to my re- | collection the fording of the Rio. the talk there held years agone with honest old Kreisler, when he exposed his peculiar impressions concerning another world? If it is but a step from the sublime to the ridicu. lous, it is often not a span further from the serious to the ludicrous. I was journeying on horseback in the pleasant summer time, and at noon reached the ford of the Rio -, on the opposite side of which was the log house and thriving farm of Kriesler. It was pleasant to anticipate achieving my dinner and siesta at one of the not unfrequently met with good houses where the weary traveller found friendly reception and hospitable entertainment. For I had pleasant recollections of Old Kriesler, of his thick set figure, heavy featured and good-natured countenance, of Well, Kriesler, how goes it with you, old friend?" said I, inquiringly. Padly, Toctor, padly, since te teath of my old woman," replied the old man, with a sad shake of his head. “Is Mrs. Kriesler dead? I am very sorry to hear it. You must miss her very much. But the separations of time are unknown in the after meetings of eternity, my friend, and time is short." "I know it, I know it, Toctor. But I missis te old woman fery much, and sometimes I feels like I should not live mitout my old woman any longer. One tay, Toctor, I was veelin so padly and town in te stomach dat I could not eat anyding. So I just dought I would go and hang myself. Well, I just takes a piece of rope and goes town to a pig post oak py te spring; and I ties it to a pranch and climbs up into a stump, where I vixes te noose apout my neck. Well den, just I as was ready to jump off te stump and drop into heaven alongside my old woman, and was peginning to dink of dat country and te people dere it comes into my head apout old Noa. I slips te noose off my neck pretty quick and walks pack to te house, dinking all te time apout dat old Noa, and how I had lost more nor two tousand dollars in horses and cattle py dose tam copperhead shnakes dat old Noa put into te ark mit every creeping ting. Dere vill pe a vuss when old Noa and I meets, I dell you." There was no irreverent thought in the mind of honest old Kriesler when he thus divulged his peculiar impressions concerning another world. There is none in my mind in relating this singular instance of simplicity and honesty treading upon the verge of impiety. There will be none in the reader's, although honest Kriesler could not at first clearly discern the necessity of extending his forgiveness to all who had injured him; and who, when his perceptions were awakened to this necessity, felt his unfitness under an angry state of feeling towards one of its inhabitants for entering that heaven respecting which he seemed to entertain some queer notions peculiar to himself. Poor old Kriesler! he is now testing the realities of that other world. He died in his bed, with reverential hopes at his heart and good words on his lips. His stout bones lie below the green grass near the spring. May he rest in peace! And the surge of the breeze through the tall pine above me seems to repeat mournfully-" in peace, peace." Au Revoir, D. P. B. EPISODES O.F bad If the eyes of the little creatures of the air | ever become sufficiently schooled and vigorous to read the printed text of books on which they alight in their wanderings, we fancy one of the first books they would take to would be this very book about themselves. If they should extend their survey through the Trade, and learn how good subjects are oftentimes thrown away upon paper, and how frequently the style is disproportioned or altogether mal-apropos (we presume these little travelled gentlemen understand French, of course), the ponderous elephant, for instance, being treated of on thin paper in the common Natural Histories, and flowers in colored volumes painted with a house-painter's brush, these insects would take it as a very delicate compliment to their own graceful demeanor and elegance of habit, that Mr. Redfield has presented them so smoothly, so neatly, and with counterfeits of their own appearance, in the illustrations, almost as light and dainty as themselves. If to break butterflies on wheels is held to be a rude employment, we shall not certainly bring ourselves under a more comprehensive censure by attempting criticism of a book which treats of the whole tribe of moths, lady-birds, and glow-worms. As we do not in rambling the fields ask to have their various buzzings, tickings, whirrings, whizzings, and lullabies interpreted to us, but are content to let them speak for themselves, we shall deal in the same spirit by their gentle historian, and let him tell his own story in his own way, in his delicious chapter of INSECT MINSTRELSY. those simple notes of harmony or discord produced by many of the insect race, are of no Their mean importance in the scale of sounds. power must certainly, however, be attributed rather to associate ideas than to any intrinsic excellence in the sounds themselves, which, by indeed acquired a character and exercised an inmeans of such borrowed attributes, have often fluence directly opposite to their own inherent qualities. It accords not with our plan to say much of insect foreigners, whether musical or mute; but we may cite, as the earliest and one of the most striking examples of what we mean, the song of the classic Cicada or Tettix-the Tree-hopper; by a misnomer, the Grasshopper of the ancients. This was the Insect Minstrel to whom the Locrians erected a statue; some say for very love and honor of its harmony; others, as a grateful record of a certain victory obtained in a musical contest, solely by its aid. The story goes, that on one of these occasions, two harp strings of the Locrian candidate being snapt asunder in the ardor of competition, a Cicada, lighting at the moment on the injured instrument, more than atoned for its deficiencies, and achieved, by its well-timed assistance, the triumph of the player. "Thus highly was this insect's song accounted of, even at a period when music, heavenly maid,' could scarcely be considered young; yet as various species of Cicada have been described by modern travellers, one can hardly suppose that any better quality than shrilly loudness can have belonged to the Tettix of ancient Greece. "We are told, indeed, by Madame Merian, that an insect of a similar description was called the Lyre-player by the Dutch in Surinam. The notes of a Brazilian species have been likened to the sound of a vibrating wire; and those of "Sounds inharmonious in themselves and another, in the swamps of North America, to the harsh, Yet heard in scenes where peace for ever reigns, And only there-please highly for their sake. "A populous solitude of bees and birds, And fairy-formed, and many-colored things, Who worship [Him] with notes more sweet than words, And innocently open their glad wings, ringing of horse-bells. Similitudes these of sounds sufficiently agreeable; but contrasted therewith, and almost drowning them, come the discordant comparisons of numerous other travellers respecting the same or insects of an allied species. One is called, by Dr. Shaw,' an impertinent creature, stunning the ear with shrill, ungrateful squalling.' The noise of a species in Java is described by Thunberg as shrill and piercing as the notes of a trumpet; while Smeathman speaks of another, common in "IF measured by their influence on the mind, Africa, which emits so loud a sound as to be heard at the distance of half a mile, or, when introduced into the house, to silence by its song the voices of a whole company. The mighty 'waits' of the Fulgora, or Great Lantern Fly of Guyana, an insect not of the same but an allied family, has also obtained the name of Scaresleep, its din being likened to the sound of razor-grinding. "On the whole, therefore, it would appear pretty clearly that loudness is the main characteristic of the Cicada's song. Yet when we recognise, in this minstrel, the Anacreontic Grasshopper,' the Son of Phoebus,' the Favorite of the Muses, the Nightingale of the Nymphs,' the Emblem of Perpetual Youth and Joy,' the Prophet of the Summer,' we no longer marvel that its notes, however harsh, should have sounded melodious even in the ear of the polished Athenian. "To descend to present times and native performers, first, there is our own familiar and representative, the Hearth Cricket, for whose crinking chirp even we can scarcely challenge much intrinsic merit, yet do we regard it as a song, and a merry one; and why? because the faggot always crackles, and the kettle sings, if not in actual, in imaginative chorus. "In like manner the music of the cricket's country cousin (of the field), or that of the Grasshopper, though designated by some, of more critical ear than pleasant temperament, a disagreeable crink,' can never grate harshly upon either ear or heart which are in themselves attuned to nature's harmonies; for to these, as it rises from the dewy ground, it assumes the tone of an evening hymn of happiness, mingled in memory if not in hearing with evening bells and the shouts of emancipated village children. For the revival, doubtless, of some such associate memories, even the grave Spaniard is said to keep these insects after the manner of birds of song; and those that like it may do the same in England; Gilbert White assuring us, on trial of the experiment, that the field cricket, while supplied with moist green leaves, will sing as merrily in a paper cage as in a grassy field. "To the man of transparent skin and opaque fancy-or no fancy at all-the hum of the Gnat is suggestive, we know, of nothing but angry cheeks and swollen temples, with corresponding sounds of pshaws! and buffets; but to those who are less outwardly and more inwardly sensitive, the horn' even of this insect bloodhunter is not without its melody, with sylvan accompaniments, such as the ploughboy's whistleo'er the lea, and the gurgle of pebbly brooks, red in the glowing sunset. When and wheresoever a bee may happen to flit, humming past us, be it even near an apiary in the Adelphi, or a balcony hive at Hammersmith, is one not borne at once upon her musical wings to the side of some healthy hill? and does one not forthwith hear in concert the bleating of flocks, the bursting of ripened furze-pods, and the blithe carol of the rising skylark? or, our thoughts taking a turn more homely, we listen in fancy to the sound of tinkling cymbal played by rejoicing housewife to celebrate and accompany the aerial march of a departing swarm. "Thus sweet and infinitely varied is the concert of concordant sounds, all of the allegro character, which may be assembled for the pleasing of the mental ear, even by the simple and single, and passing strains of the above and other insects which make melody in their mirth; and then how numerous are the correspondent images-glowing, smiling, dancing, waving, glittering-which are wont at their bidding to be conjured up before the mental eye! Glowing embers-smiling flowers--dancing leaves waving cornfields-glittering waters-all intermingled in a haze of merry motion-an imaged dance of life got up within the chamber of the mind,' at the stirring of, sometimes, but a note of Nature's living music." FIRST MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold, When a new planet swims into his ken, HOMER. KEATS. PART 1. HOW I WENT то THE My face is well tanned, and I don't mean to deny it. Well, what if it is? I'm none the worse for it; and, as far as complexion is concerned, care no more for being made nutbrown, than the "nut-brown maid" herself. I say, 66 as far as complexion is concerned;" but what sense is there in injuring one's feelings about it, and having a pack of deuced good-natured friends-they think they're witty, I don't-cracking their stupid jokes about one's ears, and making one's phiz-now, indeed, as the African troubadour expresses it, a "phiz-o'-mahogany"-a target for all their pointless shafts? Here come three clever fellows, shall I dodge around the corner? No, I'll face them, that's flat. 66 Why, hallo, Peter, where have you been ?" "And how do you do?" "And what in the name of Pluto have you been doing?" COUNTRY. outside in the morning, polished his facethe only part visible which did not appear to be of the right color-and he only found out his situation when, aroused by the breakfast bell, after having given his boots a shower-bath, he endeavored to pull himself on. I think it's rather improved his appearance, after all-given his face character, eh ?" Go your several ways, gentlemen, I confess to a very aboriginal complexion at this moment; in fact, look like a practical specimen of amalgamation, and begin to have some serious scruples touching the constitutionality of the "Fugitive Law." What a humbug May is! I publicly announce it now as my firm, fixed, and unalterable belief that we might decimate the English language, and provided that same word "humbug" were left, we should yet get on admirably. Every man or woman, priest or player, horse or dog, farce or funeral, dinner party or dose of medicine, that we do not happen to like, is-a bumbug. There are two sides to everything, and one side is—a humbug. There is a record extant of a parson who preached what men should practise for a thousand dollars per annum, but would not practise what he preached for less than fifteen hundred. Men called him—a hum "Oh, I heard all about it," says Number One. "His well known curiosity led him the other day into one of those establishments where people put beans into huge burners, and they (the beans, not the people) come out coffee. Nothing would do but he must open the door of one of these machines as it was going around, and putting his head too far in, his nose caught, he lost his balance, and entered the burning crater, cor-bug. poreally, made one revolution in less time than even France ever did, and came out black as you see him. He felt rather unwell after it, for it gave him quite a turn." Another's stipend was but three hundred, and although far from "great" in the pulpit, he practised the severest kind of morality, never kissed his wife on Sunday, chopped off "Not a true bill," chimes in Number his dog's tail because he was a sad dog, and Two. "He went home the other night very would not cease wagging it on that day,thirsty, and particularly oblivious, and mis- said dog ceased to be a wag, but made a taking a bottle of ink for a jug of milk-most emphatic stump speech on the occapunch, swallowed the whole of it, nor discovered his blunder until the next afternoon, when, having risen to write a note of apology for neglecting an engagement, sudden indisposition-he discovered the ink was non est, and his face dark as a thunder-cloud from the action of the supposed milkpunch' upon his blood. His physician put him immediately upon a diet of sand and blotting-paper, but it's no go." 6 "Wrong again," winds up Number Three. "You know how absent-minded he is; well, when about retiring last night he stood himself up outside the door, locked it, and put his boots in bed. The servant finding him sion-put stones on his children's heads of a Saturday night to check their growth, and tied up the weathercock to keep it from turning. Men said he was-a humbug. A. owns a museum. He inherits it from his father. Contented with his collection as it is, he makes no wonderful additions or particular fuss about it. The people, tired of seeing the same things, call his stuffs, all stuff, his stereotyped learned dogs and quasi ventriloquists holding ideal conversations with Peter down cellar, all bosh; and, finally, himself-a humbug. B. buys him out, and presto! change, the world is ransacked, and nature herself turn . lend a hand to any such Daniel Lambertism, and his face would not countenance the proceeding. Consultation after consultation was held, but still the wonder grew, and the patient finally came to look for all the world as the Tun of Heidelberg might be supposed to, if it should walk off upon a pair of drumsticks. ed topsy-turvy, women of the ton, mere Other things militated against his success. maids of six hundred weight, wait upon mer- The lower had not kept pace with the upper maids from Fegee, and preposterously pin- man. His I beg pardon, but I must say guid juveniles, supposed to be from the so-legs seemed specially diminutive, the Highlands-they have lived high, anyway-manual terminations of his arms refused to attend upon the fancied wants of salmon-tailed mermen from the Jolly-longways-off Group. Lusus naturæ, found in Sancho's dominions, sixty feet under ground, with nothing sticking out but the head, come trotting in, mounted upon woolly steeds from the peaks of Popocatepetl. The exhibition shop is all glare and glitter; many-colored lights flash from every window, and a dense crowd of musicians (?) from exalted balconies pour down terrific blasts upon the devoted heads and into the tortured ears of the passers-by; countless flags, streaming from every loop-hole, prove there is no flagging in his endeavors; people from all sorts of quarters and quarters from all sorts of people pour in; the world pays him tribute, and the world pronounce him--a humbug. But May is a thorough-paced humbug, in the fullest acceptation of the term. I had succeeded during the past winter in humbugging myself into the belief that May was what the poets have described her, instead of being as she is, a saucy jade, no better than she should be. I had read Thomson, and Wordsworth, and Goldsmith, and old Isaac, and Lamb, and Miss Mitford -wonderful fancy old maids have for country and cats-until I became as mad as a March hare about green fields and purling brooks, lost my appetite, couldn't sleep o' nights, and so the Doctor advised me to go into the country in May. The opinion of doctors cannot always be depended upon, e. g. A certain gentleman of an uncertain mind, or rather of mind that did not properly develope itself early in the morning, from some mysterious and unknown cause, had acquired, and was constantly acquiring a degree of pinguidity and rotundity that was perfectly marvellous. He consulted the most eminent Esculapii without satisfactory result. They measured him daily, and found the rate of increase to be perfectly regular. At last he attained so orbicular a form that his friends deemed him worthy of Aldermanship, and in reality he appeared competent to represent a full board. Unfortunately, he had never kept a noted dram-shop, run a line of omnibuses, conducted an eminent stone-cutting establishment, or distinguished himself extensively in the soap and candle way; and so, of course, had not the most remote chance of being elected. 1. The same similitude suggested itself to his physicians, and drumsticks naturally recalling a drum to their minds, they thought how much his round body was like one. From this point, by induction, they soon arrived at the fact that both drums and overrotund mortals are frequently tapped, and so they tapped him. The return made was, "no effects," and pronouncing it a decided case of "dry dropsy," they gave up the patient as a case, and the tapping as a bad job. One however, more persevering than the rest, caused a new instrument-something upon the pod-auger principle-to be prepared, and lo, after a deep incision, out it came filled with several hundred round pieces of linen. The doctor was visited with an idea! He hemmed seven times, sucked the top of his cane for five minutes and a half, rubbed his nose violently, and having cleared his head by the use of his handkerchief, spoke: "Mr. Blank, how often do you change your linen?" "Every day." "What do you do with that which you take off?" "Dear me, I never thought of that. I am afraid that I have got it all on now." And so it proved. I am happy to say that the quondam fat gentleman lived; and that, being a great sportsman, the linen wads suggested to him the invention of something similar for guns, from the profits of which manufacture he soon recuperated his fortune that had been seriously impaired by a too large expenditure in shirts. However, trusting the doctor's word, I believed that a trip to the country was just what I needed, and trusting the poets' rhyme, I believed that May was precisely the month for such a trip. In order not to be deprived of one moment's enjoyment, I, after much study and consultation of proper authorities, drew up the following chart to regulate my daily pursuits while ruralizing. I divided the day into nine parts; five æsthetic, three gastronomic, and one soporific: |