shrunk from letting any signs thereof become manifest. | others did not feel much better. As to their dreams, At a distance the young man worshiped, scarcely they wisely kept their own counsel. That these had hoping that he would ever be, in the eyes of the maiden, some effect upon their spirits, was, no doubt correctly, more than a friend or acquaintance. But, when he inferred. heard of the love test, and was told that his face had appeared to the maiden, he took courage. The next time he met Lizzie, he drew to her side as naturally as iron draws to the magnet; and as he looked into her mild blue eyes, he saw that they were full of tenderness. The course of true love ran smoothly enough after that. On next Halloween they were made one, in the very room where, a year before, the never-tobe-forgotten love charm was tried." On the next morning neither of the sisters were very bright. Maggy was pale; Jane did not make her appearance at the breakfast table, and Kate looked so thoughtful as she sipped her coffee with a spoon, and only pretended to eat, that her mother inquired seriously as to the cause. "That a young girl, after sitting up until twelve o'clock at night, thinking of a certain nice young man, and then eating half a cupfull of salt, should dream that she was thirsty, and that this certain young man came and offered her water to drink, is not a very wonderful occurrence, and might be accounted for on very natural principles." "Of course," replied Aunt Edith, to whom the remark was made, as we sat, all but the girls, conversing before the parlor fire on the evening of that day. "And yet I have known of cases where the dreams that came were singularly prophetic. As for instance. A young friend of mine, when I was a girl, tried, though under engagement of marriage, this experiment. She dreamed that her lover came and offered Kate blushed, and seemed a little confused, but said her water, and that she declined taking it, which is nothing was the matter. considered an unfavorable omen. In a month after "I hope you have not been so silly as to try sweet- ward, although the time for the wedding was fixed, hearts," remarked Mr. Wilmot. the young man deserted her for another." "All that may have occurred," said Mr. Wilmot, "without there being any connection between the dream and the after event." "Oh, certainly. Yet you must own that the coincidence was a little singular," returned Aunt Edith. "There are hundreds of coincidences occurring daily that are far more remarkable." "Very true. But will you say positively that indications of things about to occur are never given? That no shadow of a coming event is ever projected upon our pathway as we move through life?" "As I do not know, positively, any thing on the Aunt Edith smiled, in her quiet, self-possessed way, subject, I will assert nothing. But, as a general prinas she replied "I hardly think, brother, you will find it any thing more serious than eating a salt egg on going to bed, or some trifling affair like that; for which I can readily excuse a young maiden." "To think they should be so weak as to believe in nonsense of this kind!" said the father. "I hoped that my daughters had better sense." "Don't take the matter so seriously, brother," replied Aunt Edith to this. "It has only been a little frolick." "It has been rather a serious one, I should think, to judge from the effects produced. Jane, I presume, is too much indisposed to get up; and I am sure both Maggy and Kate look as if they had been sick for a week." "They'll all come out bright enough before noon. Don't fear for that." The girls, however, were not themselves again during the whole day. Jane's absence from the breakfast table was in consequence of a nervous headache, from which she suffered nearly all day. And Kate and Maggy continued to look thoughtful, and to keep as much away from the rest of the family as possible. It came out, before night, that each of the girls, on retiring at twelve o'clock, had eaten a "salt egg." The consequence to Jane was a sick headache; and the ciple, we are aware that Providence wisely withholds from us a knowledge of the future, in order that we may remain in perfect freedom. If the knowledge of future events was given, our freedom would be destroyed, for the certainty of approaching calamity, or favorable fortune, would destroy our ability to act efficiently in the present. And as, for so good a reason, our Creator draws a veil over the future, I think it wrong for us to use any means for the removal of that veil." "To any one," replied Aunt Edith, "whose mind is as clear on this subject as yours, all seeking after future knowledge would be wrong. But all are not so enlightened. All have not the intelligence or ability to think wisely on Providence and its operations with To such, in their weakness, the kind Providence that withholds as a general good, may grant particular glimpses into the future, as the result of certain forms which may determine spiritual influences; as was the case in ancient times, when oracles gave their mysterious answers." men. to meet him even in his lowest and most ignorant | candle must not be greater than will melt away by the state, in order to elevate him. There may be a con- time the hour of twelve strikes. When the candle dition of the human mind that needs, for its aid, some burns down to the pins, they drop one after the other, sign from the world of spirits; and wherever that and just as the last one falls, the apparitions of the state exists, such signs will be given. In the barbarous future husbands of those who try the charm will enter, times of any nation, we find a belief in supernatural it is said, sit down to the table and eat, and then rise agencies-in signs, tokens, and oracles-a prominent up and go away. characteristic. This is not so much an accidental circumstance as a Providential arrangement, by which to keep alive in the mind the idea of a spiritual world. The same is true among the unenlighted classes at the present day; and the reason is of a similar character. To people who know no better than to seek, by certain forms, to penetrate the future, true answers may be permitted sometimes to their inquiries; and this for a higher good than the one they are seeking." At this point in the conversation the young ladies came into the room, and the subject was changed. During the evening allusion was again made to the topic upon which so much had already been said, when, in answer to some question asked of Aunt Edith, she related the following: "Before I was married," said she, "there was a certain young man who paid me many attentions, but whom, from some cause or other, I did not particularly fancy. He was an excellent young man, of a good family, and, as sober and industrious as any one in the neighborhood. Still, for all this, I felt more like repulsing than giving him encouragement. He saw that I avoided him when I could do so without appearing rude, and this made him more distant; yet I could see that his mind was on me. I would often meet his eyes when we were in company; and he would come to my side whenever he could do so without appearing to be intrusive. His many excellent qualities, and the manliness of character for which he was distinguished, prevented me from treating him otherwise than respectfully. As a friend, I liked him, but when he approached, as was evidently the case, in the character of a lover, I could not be otherwise than cold and reserved. There were two or three other young men who appeared fond of my company, any one of whom I would have accepted, had he offered himself, in preference to this one. "Such was the state of my love affairs, when Halloween came round. A cousin, a young girl about my own age, was spending a few weeks in our family, and she and I talked over the matter of trying sweethearts. After looking at the subject in its various lights and shades, we finally determined to summon up the requisite courage, and burn a love-candle. So, after all the family were in bed, which was not until after eleven o'clock, we began to make preparations for this ceremony. Burning the love-candle is done in this way. A table is set with bread, cakes and fruit; or any other articles of food that may be selected. Plates for as many guests as are expected are also put upon the table; but no knives or forks, lest the guests should, by any accident, harm themselves. A little before midnight a candle, in which a row of nine new pins have been placed just below the wick, is lighted and set upon the table. The distance between the row of pins and the burning end of the Well, Lydia and I determined that we would try this love charm; so we arranged our table, placed upon it the candle in which were stuck the row of nine new pins, and sat down to await the arrival of the hour that was to open for us a page of the future. I shall never forget the deathlike stillness that reigned for a time through the room; nor how I started when the old house-dog suddenly raised, almost under the window, a long, low, melancholy howl. My heart seemed to beat all over my body, and I could feel the hair rising on my head. After a quarter of an hour had elapsed, we lit the candle and returned to our seats on the opposite side of the room to that in which the table was standing, almost crouching down in our chairs. As we did so, one of the shutters, which was merely drawn to without being fastened, flew open suddenly, and was slammed back against the side of the house, at the same time the wind began rushing and moaning through the trees I felt awful. Spirits seemed all around me, and I looked every moment for some fearful apparition to blast our sight with its presence. "Steadily the hand passed from point to point, and from figure to figure on the dial of the clock, my feelings becoming more and more excited every moment. At last came the warning that is given just before the striking of the hour, and the minute hand had but a point or two to pass before it was on the sign of twelve. My very breath was suspended. A few moments more, and then the hammer of the clock fell, and each stroke appeared as if made upon my heart. Suddenly there came a rush of wind past the house, and strange, wild, mournful tones it made; then the door swung open, and in came the apparition of a man. I saw in an instant that it was the one of whom I have spoken. His face had a fixed, dreamy, and, it seemed to me, troubled expression. He went up, slowly, to the table, and sitting down at my plate, took some fruit. For the space of nearly a minute it seemed to me, he remained there motionless; but did not eat. Then rising he turned away and left the room. During the brief period he remained, he manifested not the slightest consciousness of our presence. You may be sure we did not remain long after he had retired, but went tremblingly up stairs, half frightened out of our wits, and buried ourselves beneath the clothes without stopping to remove our garments, where we lay and shivered as if both of us had ague fits. "Well, sure enough," continued Aunt Edith, "it turned out as the sign had indicated. I was married to the young man, and my cousin died an old maid. It was all folly I thought to struggle against my fate, and so from that memorable 'Hallow-Eve' received my lover's attentions with favor." "And were you so weak as to believe that any one did really come in?" said Mr. Wilmot." "I was," returned Aunt Edith. spent in determining what to do. My decision I "It was all your imagination," said the brother, marked by suddenly jerking the shutter back, and positively. slamming it loudly against the house. Concealed by "No, I believe not. I don't think it was possible the darkness, I perceived the effect of this. It was for both of our eyes to be deceived." "Then your cousin saw it too?" what I had anticipated. You did not in the least suspect the truth. As plainly as if I had been in the room, "So she would have averred, had you asked her I could now see all that was passing; and, as I underthe day before her death." Mr. Wilmot shook his head; while the girls looked credulous. I noticed that Kate glanced slightly around, every now and then, half fearfully. stood the particular charm you were trying, knew precisely what part I was to act in the ceremony. So, as I had all along believed myself to be the favored one, although you somehow or other appeared to think differently, I took the liberty of walking in, just as the clock struck twelve. "Yes. And in my heart I forgave him for the trick he played off upon me so adroitly." "Why, Aunt Edith!" exclaimed Maggy, taking a long breath. "How you frightened me! I really thought it was a spirit that had entered!" "One day," resumed Aunt Edith, "about two years after our marriage, something favoring an allusion to the subject, I said to my husband-There is one thing At this part of Aunt Edith's story she was interthat I never could bring myself to mention, and I rupted by a burst of laughter from all in the room. hardly like to do it now.' What is that?' he asked. "And so that was the explanation of the great mysI then related to him, minutely, all that I have told tery?" said Mr. Wilmot. "The troubled spirit was a you this evening. He looked grave, and was thought-real flesh and blood visiter after all." ful for some time. Then he said-' And there is also one thing about which I have never felt free to speak to you. I remember that night well, and shall have cause to remember it as long as I live.' Were you conscious of any thing?' I asked eagerly. Yes, of a great deal,' he replied. 'I saw, in fact, all that passed.' 'In a dream?' said I. 'No, while awake-as fully awake as at this time. To throw off all disguise, and speak without mystery, I happened on that night to be going home at a late hour, and in passing your house saw a light streaming through a small opening in the shutter. It instantly occurred to me that you might be up and engaged in some love experiments, as it was Hallow-Eve; so, stealing up softly, and peeping in, I saw that I was not in error. No very long time was "No, child. Spirits, I believe, are not apt to walk about and visit love-sick maidens, even on Halloween, for all that may be said to the contrary. The instance given you is the best authenticated I have ever known." This relation furnished abundant food for merriment, as well as for some sage reflections during the evening, and even Maggy, Jane and Kate saw reason to join with the rest in laughing over the folly of Love Tests at Halloween. THE ODALISQUE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR. IN marble shells the fountain splashes; And through the summer's moons of lustre The day, through shadowy arches fainting, The jasper pavement of thy room: That shoot from many a stately mosque. The voice of bird and tinkling water Sounds cheerly in the cloudless morn, And like the wave, whose flood of brightness Thou hast no world beyond the chamber And spicy cressets, dimly burning, No more, in half-remembered vision, Thy distant childhood comes to view; Has faded from thy morning's blue: triumph, the chief magistrate of a great and powerful nation. But pardon my degression, dear reader—I needed not to pen your own sentiments. It is time I should introduce you to some of my people, if I would interest you, as I hope I may, in their acquaintance. THE village of N., reader, where the scene of my story is laid, is truly a most lovely place, so far certainly as Nature is responsible; for a broad, beautiful river bounds it on one side, and a fine range of mountains, picturesquely grand, screen it on another. Wealth, too, has joined hands with Nature to assist in the perfect completion of what she had left as it were unfinished. Sweet cottages nestling in green shrubbery, and elegant mansions surrounded by spacious gardens and lawns, glistening with fountains or shady with groves, reveal to the beholder a harmonious conspiracy between taste and affluence to picture Paradisetian principle. She was the possessor, too, of ample in daguerreotype-every thing must be in daguerreotype in these days. The "first and best" lady in the village of N. was Mrs. Josepha Tower. This lady was a widow, and in every respect, in heart, and mind, and manners, she was a truly elegant and accomplished woman. She belonged in a measure to the "old school," and she possessed an uncommon share of sterling common sense, and the firmest and most uncompromising Chris wealth, and diffused it with a liberality which reflected honor on her generosity, as well as poured a stream of happiness into her bereaved and widowed heart. The earlier part of Mrs. Tower's life had been passed in a Southern city, though she was proud to claim a birthright on New England's soil, and an affinity with the upright and earnest New England heart in her purposes and dispositions. When the cholera with pestilential breath swept over the city of C, it numbered among its victims her husband and her only child; and as the staff and centre of her hopes were thus suddenly cut down at a single stroke, Mrs. Tower turned her face toward the home of her childhood, and sought amid the green hills and quiet streams, where those fresh and careless years had been passed, for that alle But the moral-perhaps it would be more charitable to say the conventional aspect of the village, is not so lovely as the natural aspect. A certain line of distinction has been drawn in society, and has long been assuming a greater and greater stringency, as an old generation passes away, and a new one refining upon its ancestor succeeds it. It is not the aristocracy of family and birth-the pride of nobility, as in Englandnor the aristocracy of wit and talent, as in France-nor yet the true aristocracy of intellect and moral worth but the peculiarly American aristocracy of money! Caste, determined by the possession or non-possession of estates and bank-stock, is scarcely more rigidly guarded on Hindoo ground than here-and intermar-viation to her sorrows which she must have sought in riages between the "higher and lower classes"-ridiculous names it is true, to be applied to society in republican democratic America—are regarded as sufficient reason for casting off all association with the degraded party, whatever rank said party may have sustained before. vain among scenes where her irreparable losses would be constantly suggested by contact and association. She came forth from the furnace of her affliction like gold seven times purified, and resolutely declining even the consideration of a second marriage while her heart was bound so fast in its wedlock to the grave, she consecrated her influence and her wealth to the noble purpose of promoting the well-being and the happiness of her fellow sojourners in a wilderness world. The star of her hope had gone out while she yet watched it in midheaven, and why should she not henceforward bind herself to the unselfish aim of spreading abroad the joy which had taken its flight from her own bosom, leaving in its place a calm and holy resignation? So to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, "from the river to the ends of the earth," flowed the rills, all fresh and fertilizing, which found their re And here I cannot forbear a passing remark on the obvious inconsistency of this principle. The accidents of fortune are so very variable, and its mutations such matters of every day experience, that a more fluctuating or uncertain standard of station could not possibly have been chosen. The possessor of half a million to-day, in a few years may die alone and in penury, the miserable tenant of a deserted garret, while the ragged, shivering, homeless boy, who pays his last hardly earned copper for the privilege of sleeping on an untenanted board, may at length find himself in the enjoyment of the "highest honors in the gift of his country-servoir in her kindly and world-embracing benevolence. men," the honorable master of thousands, with a once starving and outcast beggar child the sharer of his emoluments and the elegant mistress of his mansion. The son of the rich man may die unknown and unblessed in the prison or the almshouse, " while the son of the maid servant who cleaned the President's kitchen," may be carried to the "white house" in Every thing tasteful and elegant in the matter of household appointments, was always to be found at Mrs. Tower's. Books, not laid upon the shelves of her library merely to dazzle by their gilding, but to be read by every body who would read-pictures and statues-for she was a generous patroness of the artsmusic and flowers, and the most refined and polished Mrs. Tower had withdrawn from the circle a few minutes to examine the dispatches brought in by the evening mail, but returning soon with a smile of unusual gladness illuminating her pensive face, and an open letter in her hand, she said— "Well, girls, I have intelligence here that makes me very happy. I have at length prevailed with a young friend of mine, to leave the city and pass a few weeks with me during the hottest of the season, and I am so very glad-" society, were among the most familiar attractions one | cordially invite to the queenship of his affections. He always found at the residence of that excellent lady; was verily so happy and contented as an inmate of and yet I tell my readers only the truth when I say Mrs. Tower's family in the pursuit of his daily duties that with all her wealth, and her truly enviable social -so happy in the satisfaction and regard of his people, position, Mrs. Tower was the only woman in the whole that it seldom occurred to him that "it is not good for circle of N. aristrocracy who had independence enough a man to be alone." The mammas and blooming to bid defiance to conventional proscription, and invite young ladies, however, adopted that doctrine as one of whom she pleased to tea with her-whether it was the the most important, prominent and practical of the President's lady or her washer-woman. Mrs. Tower whole creed, and most especially did they set their to be sure had too much politeness to invite those whom faces against so Popish a practice as the "celibacy of she knew her aristocratic neighbors did not choose to the clergy!" recognize as equals when she invited them; but she heartily despised the principle which governed her wealthier acquaintances, in excluding the worthy poor from their society because they were poor; and in the face of all expostulation and astonishment, she disdained such unreasonable trammels and acted accordingly, though she well knew what surprise her decision occasioned, and what gossip it furnished. But the fault-finders-what could they do? They could not proscribe Mrs. Tower, for she abounded in that one great requisite for elevated station-a plenty of money --and she could gather into her house more distinguished people from the circle of her private acquaintance, than half the village put together-they could not lose the pleasure of such agreeable levees as Mrs. Tower made for strangers who were visiting her at all seasons of the year. Beside, just now when my story commences, the young minister of the village was an inmate of her family, and being unmarried and unbetrothed, and there being at the same time, a goodly number of young ladies unmarried, but marriageable, in the most important families of his parish, the minister, Rev. Louis Style, became a very interesting character, aside from his public capacity, and the unconscious prize in quite an extensive lottery. But more of the Rev. Louis Style anon. CHAPTER II. One lovely evening in summer, a circle of young ladies was sitting in the delicious moonlight that streamed fitfully through the glancing leaves and fragrant clusters of honeysuckle that shaded the veranda of Mrs. Tower's residence, chatting joyfully-the girls I mean-not the honeysuckles or the moonlight, though I could not vouch that they exchanged no love whispers audible to the ears of fairies-laughing merrily over the ices and fruit, and of course, gossiping. | "O, so am I," interrupted Miss Charlotte Varley, a very languishing young lady, who had great hopes of success with Mr. Style, since she had joined his communion and was a teacher in his Sabbath-school-but withal a belle-" a young gentleman from the city will be very refreshing this terrible weather-I hope he is a pious man, Mrs. Tower-we have so few of thoseand that he will bring us some new plans about Sabbath-schools and benevolent societies such as are found to be most useful in the city!" Miss Varley closed her remarks with a small sigh, and looked at Mr. Style for pious sympathy. Mr. Style that moment turned away to pluck a drooping blossom that hung near him, and some of the ruder minxes indulged in mischievous glances and a smothered laugh. "I declare, Charlotte," interposed Miss Emilie Jones, who was one of Miss Varley's most sincere despisers, "the effervescence of your regard for Sabbathschools and 'cent societies,' has quite anticipated the sequel of Mrs. Tower's story-you did not allow her time to say whether we are to be favored by the accession of a lady or a gentleman to our little country community-but consulting your own fancy, I suppose you took it for granted it must be a 'pious young gentleman."" The color deepened in Charlotte's really beautiful face, as a glimpse of her ridiculous position flashed from Emilie's playful satire, and to increase her confusion, the girls all laughed more saucily than before. There might have been some serious heart-burnings, but Mrs. Tower came to the rescue. Mrs. Tower had been more than usually agreeable, though she was always lovely; and as to Mr. Style, he had carried every heart. The girls had all been completely captivated; some by his calm and manly beauty, and some by the flashing brilliancy of his ripe and richly cultivated mind, and some by those inex- "Charlotte is entirely excusable, young ladies," she pressible fascinations, which, had he been a man of the said, "and I am responsible for her remark by my own world, would have made him irresistible in all society. ambiguity. My friend is a lady, and one of the loveBut Mr. Style was a man of pure and exalted piety, liest of her sex in mind and heart. I have not seen and would have conscientiously feared to use his her since she grew into a woman, but I am confident slightest power to interest a heart to which his own from what I know of the development of her character, must stoop from its own moral height to meet, or to I shall not be disappointed in the promise of her childwhose affection he could not earnestly respond. In-hood. She will be here in two weeks at most, and deed so fastidious was the Rev. Mr. Style, that he had possibly sooner. Now I am old and dull girls, and I never met the lady, as he determined, whom he could shall draw largely on your vivacity for her entertain |