or to his watch, and to the sun, which was still high. In one of these halts, he was overtaken by a young shepherd, with his dog, but in his Sunday clothes, for he was returning, as he told, from the Seceder meeting-house, which stood far off on the verge of the moor. In such circumstances, conversation was inevitable. An intelligent Scottish shepherd is not, by very many degrees, less curious than a Yankee farmer. and comforted him in all his afflictions. The hale country-side blessed her; and when, in the hinderend of the ither year, the plea about her tocher, carried on by the great Mr. Dennistoun, the Liverpool merchant, out of his own pocket-lose or win-for her behoof and her bairn's, was fairly won-conscience! ye would have thought it was the auld Dyeuke's birth-day come back, when rents were reasonable, and nae Radicals in the country-side. There was as good as five thousand pounds o' it-very convenient it came to buy back the stocking of the Fernylees, when Mr. Gilbert, seeing every year growing worse than the last in this rack-rent country, would be off to Van Dieman's Land, before the Dyeuke had gotten his last plack. Robin Steele will no let on what the new rent is; but if mercats bide up, there 's bread to be made out o' the Fern ylees yet, he says, if there were younger een to look after it. Yet it is just wonderful how the auld Maister, in his blindness, goes about the knowes, led by his grandson; "but he has kenned the braes all his days.' "An' ye have been in the Indies?-'Od, it maun be a queer country the Indies. Was't the place where they have the breed o' sheep Robin Steele tells about, with tails sae braid that ilk ane maun have a whirlbarrow to carry the tail o't after it. Ye'll have seen Sir Pulteney and young Craigdarroch, I reckon? It's a desperate place the Indies for making siller." The stranger said he had seen the gentlemen alluded to; and added, "And Robin Steele is alive still?" "Howt ay.-Sae ye kenned Robin? Alive! what should ail him?—a doure, steive auld deevil, who ran wi' the souplest o' us at the last games. "And as great a Whig as ever?" said the stranger, smiling. "Worse," said the man, laughing to see Robin's character so well understood; "a clean Glasgow Radical. It might cost auld Fernylees his tack, if the Dyeuke or the Factor were to hear the half O'Robin's nonsense-ay, and sense too, which they like far waur. The stranger held his hat before his face, while his companion eyed him keenly. "And Robin is still at the Fernylees?" "Ye may be sure o' that, and him in the body. How could the place do without Robin, or Robin without the place? All the three years the auld Maister lived in the village, Robin hung on about the farm; and so was there before him, to welcome him and his gude-dochter, when they went back." "His whom?" inquired the stranger, eagerly. 66 His gude-dochter-that's what the English call his daughter-in-law :-ye'll no understand our Scottish tongue. And a good dochter has she been to him-English and stranger to our country though she be. Yea, in truth, what Ruth the Moabitess was to ancient Naomi, and-better to him than ten sons. Mrs. Charles is, to be sure, an angel upon the yearth-sent to make up to that worthy patriarch o' the Fernylees i' the end of his day for the crossing and cumber he has had with his family, and fight with world's gear. I'm jalousing ye have aynce kenned something o' the Fernylees folk?" The stranger bowed in acquiescence. "Their tale is soon told. Old Fernylees gave up the farm to Mr. Gilbert, and brought home Charles' English wife and her child, just after that good-hearted, harumscarum, ne'er-do-weel, ran off from her and his bairn to gude kens whither-and-beyont. Tibby Elliott (if ye kenned the lave, ye would ken Tibby, for she was aye the tongue o' the trump in the house of Fernylees) grudged at first a fremit woman, with a young wean, coming home to be a burden on the auld Maister's sma' means; but He who brings good out of ill, made the sight o' that young English lady even the greatest blessing ever fell on the auld Maister's gray head. With her white genty hands she wrought wi' her needle and her shears, late and early, for him and her bairn; keeping a bit school for the farmers' dochters here about: and wi' her kindness and her counsel she stayed "My father! My father!" exclaimed the stranger, surprised and shocked by the information of his father's blindness; and the voluble young shepherd, considerably abashed, now knew in whose presence he stood. Where his now quiet companion's road struck off, Charles shook hands, and parted from him almost in silence. Charles suffered the shades of night to fall deep before he found courage to leave the hazel copse and approach the house, and peer over the windowcurtain into the little green walled parlor, where, in the blaze of the turf-fire, sat all that was dearest to him, the faces that had haunted him, asleep or awake, in the jungle, on the deck, or at the desk ! On one side of the fire, in his old place, sat his silver-haired blind father; on the opposite seat, his Agnes; and leaning on the old man's knee, with a book-yes, that was his boy! He was now prattling to the grandsire, who spoke and smiled to Agnes; and as she returned his speech and smile, he drew his hand caressingly over the child's head, as if complying with some fond request. Charles could stand no longer. He perceived his friend Tibby, unchanged in looks, dress, or bearing, spreading the cloth on the small table, from which she had just removed the Bible, probably after family worship, and he drew into the shade of the porch as she passed him to go to the outer kitchen, and smiled internally, yet not without a slight pang, as he heard her say, Na, Robin, ye'll see we are just going to have anither spoiled bairnthe auld game o' the young Chevalier ower again. There's the auld Maister consenting that the little rogue shall sit up this night, to the SABBATH NIGHT'S SUPPER: but, to be sure, there's a reason for it; for the bairn repeated the fifth Command in the distinct way it would have done your heart good to hear. I maun make him a pancake." 66 66 In ten minutes afterwards the boy spoken of, panting and rosy, came flying into the kitchen, crying, Robin, Robin shepherd! there's a grand gentleman sitting under Judon's ash, just where my grandpa' says his prayers: come and see him.' They went out hand in hand. In three minutes Robin was back-his eyes staring, his hair rising. "As I am a living sinner, Tibby Elliot, if Charles Hepburn be in the body, he is sitting under Judon's ash-and I have seen him!" Tibby turned round, the frying-pan in her hand; and brandishing it about, burst into the most extraordinary screaming and eldritch laugh her old friend had ever heard, seen, or imagined. Nervous disorders and hysterics were rare at the Fernylees. “I' the body! and what for should he no be i' the body! heich! heich! heich! Eh, sirs!" and down dropt the frying-pan; and Tibby raised her hands, wept and sobbed in a manner yet more frightful and eldritch. "As ye are a living sinner! and are na ye a living sinner? I could prove it. And what for should not Charlie Hepburn come hame, and appear in the body to his own bairn on the very spot where his godly father has wrestled- - -heich! heich! heich! heich! " and she went off into another fit of hideous and wild laughter. Robin was now almost at his wit's end. It was clear Tibby had lost her senses, so there was no time to lose with her. He had read or heard that cold water was a specific in hysterics, or vapors, or some female ailment or other; and seizing a large cog, that stood full on the dresser, he dashed its whole contents about her, leaving her in the middle of the kitchen like a dissolving Niobe. When Robin went again to Judon's ash no one was there-but through the same pane where Charles Hepburn had lately looked, he saw "the blithest sight had e'er been seen in the Fernylees since the auld maister's bridal." An instinctive. feeling of delicacy, which nature often denies to the peer to plant in the bosom of the shepherdswain, told Robin that this, however, was no sight for him—and he went back to his friend. "It's just Charlie Hepburn, Tibby lass! come home at last, a wise man and a wealthy. Losh, woman! ye surely canna be angered at me, a feal auld friend! for twa or three draps o'clean cauld water spilt between us, meant a' for your good? Let me help ye off with your dripping duds, and busk ye quick to welcome the Young Chevalier. If I've done ye offence, I'll make amends." ye "I freely forgi'e ye, Robin," Tibby sobbed; "freely forgi'e ye-ye meant weel. But this should be a SABBATH NIGHT'S SUPPER we ne'er saw the marrow o' in the Ha'House o' the Fernylees. And, save us, man! draw back the broche! Is this a time to scouther the single dyeuke, [duck meant this time, not Duke,] when I hae skailt in my joy the dear bairn's pancake. But ye are no caring, dear, deed are ye no!" cried the gracious Tibby, as the boy burst bounding upon them, and clasping Robin's knees, exclaimed, "That gentleman is my papa; I took him from Judon's ash to my mamma. Did you see him, Robin? He's a braw gentleman! I have looked at him all this time. Mamma cried, but my blind papa lifted his hands and said his prayers; and my other papa said to me, 'Run now, my boy, and call my trusty fere, Robin Steele. Let me have all my father's friends about me.' The " 'trusty fere" kept the child for some time; and then they went together to summon Tibby's old aid, now a decent shepherd's wife, and mistress of a neighboring bothie. Seated by the thrice-blest Agnes at the head of his board, the dim eyes of the venerable old man seemed on this night to beam with a heavenly lustre. "Nay, Robin, nay Tibby, ye shall sit by, and among us," he said, as the faithful old servants would on this night have withdrawn ; | Then, as it winds its way along A song which breathes of blessings dead, And hearing thus, beleaguering fears And in the future doubt. O, often then will deeper grow The night which round me lies; II. I have a bridge within my heart, The streams of life and death. Then, as it winds its way along Toward a distant sea, O pleasant is the spirit-song, That upwards floats to me. Of love" beyond compare," And hearing thus, a peace divine Soon shuts each sorrow out; A. D. F. R. From Hood's Magazine. THOMAS HOOD. Ir is with a heavy and an aching heart that we darken these pages, that have so often reflected the brilliant wit of our beloved Editor, and the calmer lustre of his serious thoughts, with the sad tidings of his approaching death; a death long feared by his friends, long even distinctly foreseen, but not till now so rapidly approaching as to preclude all hope. His sufferings, which have lately undergone a terrible increase, have been, throughout, sustain-fort, the other day, happened to be upon one of ed with manly fortitude, and Christian resignation. He is perfectly aware of his condition; and we have no longer any reason, nor any right, to speak ambiguously of a now too certain loss-the loss of a GREAT WRITER: great in the splendor of his copious imagery, in his rare faculty of terse incisive language, in his power and pregnancy of thought, and in his almost Shakspearian versatility of genius; great in the few, but noble works he leaves behind; greater still, perhaps, in those which he will carry unwritten to his early tomb. It is this indeed which principally afflicts him the Man is content to die-he has taken leave of his friends, and forgiven his enemies, (if any such he have,) and "turned his face to the wall;" but the Poet still longs for a short reprieve, still watches to snatch one last hour for his art; and will perhaps even yet, once more, floating towards the deep waters of eternity, pour out his soul in song. the turbid waters of the Missouri beat; but it is a wharf which will last for ages, and require no repair. The parade ground is a beautiful spot, surrounded on three sides by officers' and companies' quarters, and on the other, by stables capable of containing horses for six complete companies of dragoons. At this time there are six companies stationed at the fort, four of dragoons and two of infantry, none of which, however, are full. Once in every two months the troops are reviewed and drilled, and a few hours which we spent at the these occasions; and a finer looking set of officers and men we never expect to see. In any case, this, the last number of his Magazine that he may live to see, shall not go forth without some impress of the Master's hand-some parting rays of the Flame now flickering low in the socket. We have chosen for this purpose the beautiful conclusion of his "Ode to Melancholy," which those who know it will delight to read again, while for others it may help to solve the enigma of his many-sided genius, to account for the under-current of humor that often tinctured his gravest productions, and to justify the latent touch of sadness that was apt to mingle in his most sportive sallies. Truly, indeed, for the Poet's earnest heart, "All things are touch'd with Melancholy, That sounds with idiot laughter solely; Hood's "Ode to Melancholy," (1827.) Fort Leavenworth has long been regarded as an important military post; and now that it is proposed to create a new territory on the other side of the river, it acquires additional importance, as, in that event, it will no doubt be the seat of government, at least for a long time. It is convenient and accessible from all points on the frontier, and must, from its centrality, before long have the superintendency of Indian affairs. It is also the best point for emigrants to start from to Oregon, of the Kansas, on the one hand, and the Nemeha as by doing so they can keep between the waters and tributaries of the Missouri, on the other. Indeed, nothing now prevents emigration from this point but prohibition, and we have heard that this will be removed.-Weston Journal. 66 LIEBIG WHEN A BOY.-Liebig was distinguished at school as booby," the only talent then cultivated in German schools being verbal memory. On one occasion, being sneeringly asked by the master what he proposed to become, since he was so bad a scholar, and answering that he would be a chemist, the whole school burst into a laugh of derision. Not long ago, Liebig saw his old schoolmaster, who feelingly lamented his own former blindness. The only boy in the same school who ever disputed with Liebig the station of "booby" was one who never could learn his lesson by heart, but was continually composing music, and writing it down by stealth in school. This same individual Liebig lately found at Vienna, distinguished as a composer, and conductor of the Imperial OperaHouse. I think his name is Reuling. It is to be hoped that a more rational system of school instruction is now gaining ground. Can anything be more absurd or detestable than a system which made Walter Scott and Justus Liebig "boobies" at school, and so effectually concealed their natural talents, that, for example, Liebig was often lectured before the whole school on his being sure to cause misery and broken hearts to his parents, while he was all the time conscious, as the above anecdote proves, of the possession of talents similar in kind to those he has since displayed-Dr. Gregory on the Head and Character of Liebig, in the Phrenological Journal. PROVING AN ALIBI.-A clergyman at Cambridge preached a sermon which one of his auditors com"Yes," said a gentleman to whom it was mentioned, "it was a good sermon, but he stole it." This was told to the preacher. He resented it, and called on the gentleman to retract what he had said. "I am not," replied the aggressor, "very apt to retract my words, but in this instance I will. I said you had stolen the sermon: I find I was wrong; for on returning home, and referring to the book whence I thought it was taken, I found it there."—Critic. FORT LEAVENWORTH.-Such is the loveliness of this situation, and so enticing is its society, that it allures back all who have once seen it and en-mended. 66 joyed the hospitality and kindness of the officers stationed there. Situated upon the bluff which at this place gradually slopes back from the river, it commands a fine prospect of the surrounding country, sprinkled over with trees and diversified by hill and dale-being at once a place of great strength and beauty. The landing is one of the best on the river, Nature having erected a stone wall the whole distance of the front, against which ALGE, OR SEA-WEEDS. [This little paper is abridged from the Inverness Courier newspaper. It is interesting as a fair specimen of the compositions of the numerous reflecting and observant men scattered over our country in the capacity of land-agents; and we have no doubt that its thoughtful reference to nature at large will, with most of our readers, be sufficient to excuse the local application of some of its details.]-Chambers' Journal. We have a great and growing antipathy at the term weed, and cannot help coming to the belief that Dr. Johnson was not following his own nose when he defined weed as an herb" noxious or useless," as we apprehend such an anomaly as a weed in the sense entertained by the doctor, has no place in nature. The doctor, if he had exercised his own judgment in the matter, would, we are convinced, have come to a different conclusion, and would, or at least should, have defined it as "an herb, the use of which is not yet understood." With all due deference to the great lexicographer, and as the term is probably too firmly fixed in our language ever to be eradicated, we would define weed as an agent for gathering, arranging, and storing up matter below the reach of, and intangible to, animal and the higher grades of vegetable life; thus fulfilling a great and mighty end in the scheme of creation-the gathering together of the stray substances which, amid nature's varied manufactures, has as it were slipped through her fingers, and would have run to waste, and converting them, by sure and certain processes, into tangible and useful compounds. Scotland at least; and, when taken in conjunction with the peaty and waste soils round our coasts, almost invaluable, as no species of manure reduces a rough peaty soil so quickly to a state fit for the production of human food. There is no need of waiting for the "meliorating effects of the atmosphere, where there is plenty of sea-weed. The lotter, with sea-weed at command, commences his spring labor at the middle of April, and by the middle of May, if the weather be propitious, will have planted potatoes sufficient to serve a numerous family all the year round; and that on the most forbidding peaty soils, never before touched by the spade of man, and of the value, in its natural state, of some three half-pence or twopence per Scotch acre. This is always done on what is called the lazy-bed system, which, in spite of the name, is perhaps the best system for "bringing in" all rough, deep, peaty soils, as the lotter can always calculate on a crop the first season by this modean immense affair to a person whose capital or stock in trade consists merely of his "thews and sinews." If we may judge from the scramble there is for sea-ware all over the thickly-peopled parts of our sea-coasts in March, April, and May, there is evidently a very great demand and want of sea-ware for agricultural purposes; as, besides the great breadths annually cut from the shores at spring tides, hundreds of boats and men are yearly employed dragging it from the bottom with grappling irons-and a most laborious and tedious operation it is-to eke out the scanty supply, and which supply will become yearly more scanty as population increases and waste lands are being taken in. In the article of the alge, or sea-weeds, we are With these views, I need not say that I believe an particularly struck with the economy of nature in increase of the sea-ware round our coasts would be so singularly adapting the means to the end. The a very great blessing and advantage, and would office of these plants is to collect the stray sub-form a permanent source of subsistence to thoustances held in solution by the salt water, particu-sands yet unborn; and I am gratified to say that larly the alkalies and phosphates; and as these this can be accomplished to a very great extent in have to be extracted from the water, and not from a great many situations, and at an expense not the earth beneath it, the plants have no roots, likely to prove a barrier in this age of overflowing properly speaking, but simply processes for cling- capital. It is well known that sea-weed prevails ing to the hard and flinty rocks, as points of attach- most on our rocky coasts; and the reason of this ment; while, at the same time, in place of a firm simply is, that the weed requires a point of attachand erect stem to keep the branches and leaves ex-ment-something tangible and steadfast to hold panded, as in terrestrial plants, and which would be cumbrous and unhandy for plants which change their medium as often and as regularly as the tides, they are furnished with innumerable air-bags or vessels for accomplishing this purpose, so that the branches and leaves of the plant may come in contact with the greatest possible quantity of water consistent with its size-these air-vessels serving the double purpose of furthering the plant in its destined office, and when this is accomplished, floating it to our shores and beaches to be applied to useful purposes. * by-that it may spread its branches and leaves to catch the stray matter held in solution by the water. With this point of attachment, nothing further is required to constitute a perennial field of alge; nature does all the rest. And hence there need be no dread of greedy and slothful tenants over-cropping the land, dissipating the phosphates, and allowing the drains to choke up, and forgetting to pay the per centage on the capital you had invested in them. This is a bargain you are making with nature, and she never repudiates. Here, for once, that wise old saw of that In sailing or steaming round our west and wise old cock, Franklin-namely, that always northern coasts in the months of April and May, taking out of the meal tub, and never putting in, one is struck with the number of boats and men, soon runs to the bottom-is rendered null. There and horses and carts, and women and boys, and is nothing but cut and come again with the sea creels, all busily employed at ebb tide in cutting weed: it is, in fact, a modern exemplification of and carrying away sea-weed from the shores, for the widow's cruise and the barrel of meal on a the purpose of manuring the fields; and when we gigantic scale. In walking along the sea-coast at think of the immense quantities of potatoes raised ebb tide, we see that, wherever a beetling cliff almost exclusively by this manure, and the number projects into the sea, and, as a consequence, the of people who live upon them not only in the shattered rocks that tumble down from time to country, but in the towns to which they are ex-time are strewed along the beach, here it is that ported, we must come to the conclusion that the algæ, or sea-weeds, are a tribe of plants of vast importance to a large section of the population of the sea-weeds are most luxuriant. Now, what nature does in this case we can do artificially, and that to our advantage, as, from the laws that gove ern falling bodies, the beach must have a certain inclination before the shattered rocks can roll into, and remain in, the zone where the algae naturally grow. Now, the inclination required to be so great where stones roll in by their own gravity, that the breadth of this zone is consequently greatly narrowed, and instead of having a breadth of seaweed-as we may have artificially-of a half, or even a whole mile, we have frequently only a few yards. upon the beach when under a full crop of buoyant sea-weed. The conveniency and accessibility of the situation will naturally influence the planter; as also the risk of the new-laid stones being lifted or sanded up; but this is easily guarded against. When we look at the miles and miles on end of barren gravel and sand on some of our seacoasts, without one vestige of vegetation, and our eye at last rests on some rocky corner abounding in marine vegetable life, we are struck with the All that is necessary to constitute a field of sea- difference, but merely imagine that this corner, weed, is to strew the shore under high-water mark somehow or other, is favorable to the growth of with rough boulders from the nearest cliff; and in sea-weed. We do not advert to the fact, that the order that the shores may be regularly planted, sea is imbued with the same qualities and influthe stones should be regularly laid down at the ences on the barren and gravelly beach as in the rate of about one in every yard square. This rocky and weedy corner; nevertheless it is the "planting" of the shores is not at all a new thing, same. The rent and shattered rocks precipitated but has been practised on a small scale in various into the sea from the cliffs above is the work of parts of the Highlands, and, in every instance that nature in her incessant career of building up and I have heard of, with the very best success. I pulling down. This operation we can happily lately visited a small patch that had been thus arti-imitate, to the extent at least of strewing our ficially done, some twenty or twenty-five years shores with the fragments of our mountains; since, and was quite pleased with the result, as it while nature at the same time "bears a hand,' looked better than any natural piece of sea-ware and clothes these fragments with perpetual verwithin miles of it. The piece consisted of about dure. one-third of a Scotch acre, and was done by a small lotter in liquidation of arrears of rent. He, the lotter, I believe, still enjoys the sea-ware of this piece, which he and a neighbor of his assured me could be easily disposed of at 24s. every two years, or, 12s. yearly, being at the rate of 36s. yearly per Scotch acre. I could not so easily ascertain the expense the job had actually cost, as your genuine Celt has an innate caution about him in all matters relative to pounds, shillings, and pence, and has as much dread of breaking through or establishing any precedent that may hereafter infringe his interests, as any lawyer who ever sat at the Queen's Bench. I, however, understood that the job had been the "dernier resort" of the landlord, and probably cost twice as much as it would have done, under ordinary circumstances. In looking at the job, I had no doubt that it could have been done in the present day at about £8 or £10 per Scotch acre. Supposing, then, the value of an acre of sea-weed at 30s., and the expense of creating it £10, the investment would be something about a seven years' purchase-no bad" spec," one should think, in the present state of the money market; and in stock as permanent as the earth itself. In carrying out improvements of this kind, little engineering skill is required. The only thing to be considered is the nature of the rock or stone to be laid down; and, contrary to what one would expect, land stones are greatly superior to stones taken from either salt or fresh water, and in all cases give, and continue to give, a much superior crop. The reason of this seems simply to be, the smoothness of the surface of rolled or water-worn stones not permitting the seeds of the plant, in the first instance, to form a lodgment; and, in the second place, being too smooth for the fibrous attaching apparatus of the plant to keep a permanent hold of. In regard to the size of the stones, little nicety is required; large stones will do equally as well as small; but it is evident they will be much more expensive in first laying down. Stones of from twenty to forty pounds would be a very handy size, and such as carry a close covering of lichens, and break with a rough granular fracture, will probably answer best. When too small, they are apt to be carried out to sea, or cast From the Forget-Me-Not. THE PROPHET IN THE WILDERNESS. LINES ON AN ENGRAVING BY MARTIN. WHEN, from before the threatening queen, To make its favoring shade his rest, He lifts the murmuring voice on high; His faithful God beheld him there; His grief to soothe, his meal prepare. And there with strengthening waters fed. SONNET ON THE DEATH OF LAMAN BLAN- GENTLE and kind of heart-of spirit fine; The Elia" of our later day-the sage Mourn a true worshipper; his lyric strain, And full of racy humor, we no more That mental treasury-that copious rill, |