room to "get out stock" for the finishing of his bridge, leaving Jacob to proceed to the village alone. him, even now; but hastened into the tool- | his head-all the better fortified for his work by a good supper-he ran down the footpath to the barn, just in time to encounter Jacob at the little corner door, locking up for the night. He had soon sawed up another board into lengths, and wheeled them off to the brook. Now he was busy and happy again. The time fled away swiftly, as he hammered and whistled, and by-and-by, quite tired, he paused and stood up to take a look at the nearly completed structure before he went back for just a couple of lengths more to finish it well into the slope of the bank at each end. This was an after-thought. It had not occurred to him when he first began to nail his boards. "I guess I'll trim off the edges first," he said to himself, and down again he went to the work. Another half-hour passed by as he was thus employed, and to his great surprise the tea-bell sounded as he ran up the path towards the barn-yard again. John was disappointed at being called away from his work; and yet, he reflected, it could not have been at a more suitable juncture, as he was obliged to go back at any rate to the barn, and there would still be an hour or more of good daylight wherein he might easily finish the bridge after tea should be over. So he turned towards the house, and ran in the back way and upstairs to his own room, to brush his hair and wash his hands; for he well knew there would be no time gained by hastening to the table without proper preparation, and being sent away to make it., "Where now, Johnnie?" asked his father, rising from the table and taking his newspaper to go into the parlour for his evening reading, while John at the same moment seized his straw hat, and was departing by another door. "Down to the brook to finish my bridge. It's almost done, father, and it's a real beauty!" "Well," replied his father. "But don't stay there late. It becomes very damp along the brook after dark." "Yer sure yer'll dew it?" reiterated Jacob. "Of course I will. Don't I tell you so?" "An' hang up the key behind the kitchen door?" "Yes, yes," said Johnnie, snatching it from Jacob's hand, as he half held it out towards him. "There, go along; Briggs 'll be off somewhere, and you won't catch him." "I'm more'n half afear'd I'll stan' a chance o' ketchin' sunthin' else by termorrer mornin'," said Jacob to himself, as he moved reluctantly away. John sawed off his two bits of board and set off to the brook with them, first locking the barn-door and putting the key in his pocket. He would have to return to the tool-room after his work should be finished, and replace his tools, before finally locking up and carrying away the key to its usual place behind the kitchen door. His work at the bridge occupied him rather longer than he had anticipated. It was not quite so easy as he had imagined, to fit his board perfectly against the some had arrived that very day, before he and his father reached home; and there was such a deal to be talked of on both sides; John's bridge to be told of, and wondered at-they couldn't stop to go and see it to-night, but they would come over the first thing in the morning-and then Stephen and Howard had been round through the lane and out citing chase of a night-hawk, which Howard was very anxious to trace home to obtain an egg for his collection. "I saw him drop down," said he, “just in the edge of the trees, not far from a big oak that had a withered branch. I'll go there to-morrow, and hunt the whole place over. If the oak is hollow, I shouldn't wonder if the eggs were there. They do sometimes lay in such places; but generally right on the ground. They never make nests at all." what irregular surface of sods. He was obliged to fetch a spade and a hatchet, and to cut a little here into the bank, and there to trim away the edges of his finishing bits; but at last, in this way and with patience -the workman's chief implement, after all, let him labour in whatsoever fashion he may-he managed to wedge them in quite firmly and neatly: the ends of rough tim-over the field towards the woods, in the exber were wholly covered and hidden. One stepped directly from the green descent of sward to the smooth flooring of the bridge. Nobody who has not brought to a successful completion a toilsome and difficult, yet interesting and exciting, piece of work, can imagine with what a restful joy John sprang to his feet when the last nail was driven to the head, and throwing his hammer upon the bank, trod back and forth from end to end over his bridge. The mere contemplation of what he had done was so very pleasant that he could scarcely make up his mind to gather up his tools and leave it. But the twilight was deepening, and down here in the hollow it was almost dark; so at last he turned his back reluctantly upon it, and made his way as well as he could, laden with all his accumulated implements, up the hill and to the barn. After safely depositing his tools and lock-only began to collect this spring, when I ing the door, he was leisurely strolling along went up to Rhinebeck with my father for a the path towards the house, twirling the big week." key round and round upon his finger, when he heard his name called out, in a wellknown voice, from over the wall. "Hallo, Steenie! Is that you?" he responded quickly, turning round upon his heels towards the sound; and at the same moment, by the suddenness of his motion, the key flew from his finger and fell upon the grass. "Hold on a minute," he called out again, "till I pick up this! Never mind, though," he added to himself; "I'll just speak to Steenie, and then come back and find it." He was so heedless as not to consider how soon it would become too dark for him to discover it; and, strange as it may seem, in the end he quite forgot to come back and look for it at all. For Steenie had his famous New York cousin with him-Howard Sellinger, who John was interested at once; and struck very forcibly too with Howard's wonderful knowledge of the doings of birds. "I never heard of collecting eggs before," said he. "Can you get many different kinds ?" "Oh, yes," replied Howard. I have between twenty and thirty already, and I But I always thought it was such a horrid thing to rob the nests!" said Johnnie, rather suddenly bethinking himself. "Not when you do it scientifically," replied Howard, laughing. "The beauty of it is, the birds can't count; and as I only take one for a specimen, it doesn't hurt their feelings at all." "I wonder if my father would let me make a collection," said John. "My father's going to let me," said Stephen. "He didn't exactly like it at first, for that very reason, of robbing the nests; but I've promised him that I'll never take but one, and that Howard and I won't take them from the same nest; and so he has given me leave to begin. He says I shall learn a good deal of natural history by it, and he supposes people can't find out such things without taking some liberties." "I mean to ask my father right off," said | phen came. Why? What's the matter, Johnnie. "I can get some swallows' eggs father?" to-morrow. But I suppose they are not good for much, they're so common." "Oh, yes!" said Howard. "Begin with whatever you can get you must have all kinds in a collection. I've got six kinds of swallows' eggs. If I could only get some chimney-swifts, I should have them all. But they're very hard to get at." "Are there seven different kinds of swallows?" asked John, in amazement. Seven kinds of day-swallows," replied Howard. "The night-hawks are a kind of swallow too. They all belong to the same family." "How did you ever find it all out?" 66 'Oh, I've got some books of ornithology : I'll lend you one, if you want it. But we must go home now, Steenie. I promised your father I wouldn't keep you out late, you know." Johnnie was fully possessed with his new idea, and with the most enthusiastic admiration of Howard Sellinger. He hurried up to the house to make his immediate request of his father; but he found some visitors in the parlour, and his father and mother very busily engaged in conversation with them. So, after waiting about until his first excitement had a little subsided, he grew tired and sleepy, and concluded to go off to bed. All this time he never once thought of the key of the barn. It was after midnight when he was suddenly awakened by his father, who stood by his bedside with a lighted candle in his hand. "Johnnie! Johnnie!" said he, in a hurried, anxious tone; "wake up!" And then, when John started up in bed and looked wildly about him, he asked, more calmly and deliberately "Are you awake, Johnnie? Think! Can you tell me anything about the key of the barn ?" 'Oh-yes!" said Johnnie, in a startled, half-conscious tone; "I-yes--I dropped it, I believe. I'll go right and pick it up." "You dropped it! Are you awake, or dreaming, Johnnie? Did you have the key? And where did you drop it ?" His father uttered a sound that was like a groan. 66 Oh, Johnnie! Little Kathie is very ill. I was going to drive to the village for the doctor." "Oh dear, father!" cried Johnnie, terror-stricken. "What will you do? Can't you get in at a window?" They are all strongly fastened high up. I should lose time. I must walk." And he turned to go without further delay. "Let me go, father!" cried John, springing out of bed. "I'll run-I'll go quicker than any horse! I know the way." Mr. Osburn hesitated for an instant. He had already lost time. He disliked leaving his wife alone in her anxiety for so long a time as it would take him to walk to the village. Johnnie already had nearly all his clothes on. His father passed out into the entry, and moved towards his wife's dressing-room. She caught the sound of his step in the passage, and spoke. "Are you there?" she asked, in a tone of surprise and anxiety. "You can't surely have been already?" Mr. Osburn decided. He turned back quickly to the door he had softly closed behind him, and as softly opened it. "Take Go, Johnnie," he whispered. your shoes in your hand. Don't let your mother hear you." And almost in the same breath he reached the dressing-room again, and answered Mrs. Osburn. "I can stay with you now. A person has just gone down towards the village, by whom I have sent the message." "Is it anyone you know? Will he be sure to give it ?" "Oh yes, quite sure; make yourself easy. I am very glad not to leave you alone." Meanwhile John went out into the mid night. Under any other circumstances he would, perhaps, have been afraid for himself, as he passed out from his father's gate into the "On the grass-by the path-when Ste-high road, where nothing else was moving, and where the glooms from tree and hedge more the big barn-door slid back, anl lay so strangely. John knew the doctor's gig was getting Hardly more than five minutes longer, and dexterous hands had slipped the horse into his harness, and the doctor had as dexterously slipped into his clothes. The gig came round to the garden-gate as he descended the stairs. All was still-with an awful sort of quiet-ready. ness-except the weird noises of the night, which only made everything else seem stiller. Here and there a katydid chirped among the branches, and the frogs were piping in the brook. There seemed to be more stars blazing down upon him from the sky than he had ever seen before. But Johnnie did not stop to think separately and consciously of any of these things. The strange midnight scene about him only deepened and made more terrible the one feeling that his little sister was in danger, and that by his fault help was delayed. What if she should die! Down the hill to the brook his feet flew over the ground. Across the little bridge, with the booming of the great bull-frogs in his ears, he hurried on. Up the slope on the opposite side he slackened a little to take breath; and then down again into the village, between the rows of quiet houses, where people were all lying in their beds asleep, he went, panting. One woman, who happened to be wakeful, heard the quick thud, thud, of his feet upon the road, and put her nightcapped head out of the window. "What's the matter, boy? Fire?" she cried. Johnnie did not try to answer. He was saving the little breath he had to call the doctor. Doctor Doubleday heard the click of his garden-gate as it swung to behind the little messenger, and then the ring at the bell, pulled with all the strength of two small trembling hands. Jump in, little man," said he, kindly. "We'll be there in no time." The curious woman put her nightcap out again between the blinds as the wheels rattled by. "Oh!" said she, as she drew it in again. Somebody after the doctor. Wonder who's sick!" The frogs piped, and the katydids chirped, the stars blazed on wondrously, and the shadows still stretched over the road, but all sounded and seemed different and less ghostly, now that Johnnie was in human companionship again, and was bringing swift help to Kathie. Still he said nothing, and hardly drew a long breath. Every nerve was tense with anxiety. Mr. Osburn heard the wheels upon the gravel as they drove up to the door, and came down the front staircase with a light. His first words were to Johnnie said he, "And Now go "You have done well, my boy," with his hand upon his son's head. you have had a hard lesson. quietly up the other staircase to your room and to bed. We won't hurry mamma about both children at once. Kathie is suffering less." Johnnie, with a great swelling in his throat, passed through the hall and up the back stairway, as Doctor Doubleday ascended at "Who is it?" he called from his room the front with his father. But he could not above. "John Osburn," shouted the boy, with a husky voice from his long running. "My father wants you, sir, as quick as you can come! My sister's sick." go to bed while the doctor was in the house. He must first know something more about Kathie. He crept round to the door of his mother's dressing-room, and waited and And down he sat, exhausted, on the door- listened. He heard, now and then, a little stone. moan of pain, and once or twice his mother's voice asking some question, and the doctor's in reply. The doctor pulled a cord in his chamber, and another bell sounded loudly through the house. This roused his man, who un- He never knew himself how long he sat derstood the signal, and in two minutes there; but it had been in reality nearly an hour, when suddenly he heard Kathie her- the morning. I don't think you will have self quite plainly say :-any further trouble. It has been a pretty "It don't ache hardly any now, mamma: sharp case though, and a little delay might have been a serious thing." I'm getting rested." And then, in a minute or two, he heard the doctor's step across the chamber, and the opening of the farther door, and the sound of his voice through the entry as he said "I think she will continue comfortable now. Give her the drops once every hour, if she is awake; but let her sleep, if she will. I shall look in again in the course of Mr. Osburn accompanied the doctor down to the door, and returned by the back stairway to Johnnie's room. To his surprise, he did not find him in bed. into the passage again, and round towards the dressing-room. He went out There lay the boy upon the floor. For the first and only time in his life Johnnie had fainted away. IN 66 MURPHY'S YEAR. and in due time a certain number of copies were worked off, ready for issue at the close of the year. The advertisements of course excited some little curiosity, but far more ridicule, especially as Mr. Murphy predicted six weeks' incessant frost, commencing on New Year's day, which seemed a most unusual allowance for an English winter. He had, moreover, ventured to select one date, (early in February,) and print against it "coldest day." N the autumn of 1837, I was apprentice to Stevens and Pardon, Printers, Bell Yard, Temple Bar; and I remember, as though it were but yesterday, that one afternoon, a fellow-apprentice, who had been in the Governor's" room, came running into one of the composing-rooms with eyes and mouth naturally round, but made rounder by surprise, and said,--" Oh! what do you think? There's a gentleman downstairs with copy " for an Almanac to tell the weather for every day next In due time came New Year's day, a year!" He was habitually a blunderer, so Monday I think, and sure enough it opened his news was received with a shout of with a very sharp frost. "Murphy right!" laughter; "Well done, Jem; that's a good and so on, as each day dawned, the same 'un," and so on; but he vehemently asserted result appeared. Murphy became the hero that he could not be mistaken, and shortly of the day. Street gamins shouted at you had the laugh against us when the copy "Is Murphy right ?" Caricatures and comic. came up, and so his correctness was proved songs celebrated his fame. But more solid beyond doubt. Then we turned our raillery results attended his success: the almanac against the author, and Patrick Murphy, was in such demand, that even by working Esq., was unanimously voted a lunatic, for day and night, the machines could not supposing that he could possibly foretell supply copies fast enough. Steam itself the weather for the whole kingdom, when was overtasked; and sea-going captains every one knows that very different weather paid 7s. 6d. a copy, at the out-ports, for usually exists at the same moment in loca- an almanac published at 1s., I think, in lities not very far apart. However, laugh | London. who would, we had to set up the almanac, And still the frost went on, till people |
