bed, and stood for some minutes shading his eyes with his hand, so as to throw the full light of the candle upon the quiet face before him. At last, to her intense relief, he appeared satisfied and left the room, leaving the chamber door partly open. She then heard him unlock the strong closet at the end of the gallery (into which her own and the other principal bed-rooms opened) and begin to move the plate about, as though he were proceeding to pack it up. Believing that he would leave the key in the door, she instantly resolved, if possible, to save her uncle's plate, and to secure the thief. Throwing something around her, she stole along the gallery, and finding the key where she had expected, she suddenly closed the door and locked him in. In vain did the man alternately call, threaten, and promise what he would do if she would only let him out. With the key in her hand, she ran up stairs to rouse the women-servants, who were not a little amazed to see their young lady standing beside them with such a story to tell. Neither of them wished for any more sleep that night; and, as soon as they were dressed, they all sat up together, watching and waiting for the daylight.

When morning came, the thief was soon removed to prison by the proper officers, and when tried for the offense, he admitted that had he believed it possible for any young lady to behave as his mistress had done, he should certainly have murdered her; but she had completely thrown him off his guard; and when he saw her, as he thought, so soundly asleep, he did not like to hurt her, for she had always been kind to him, and he had no personal grudge against her.

The presence of mind displayed by this young lady was most exemplary. Absence of fear, on occasions of sudden and peculiar danger, is a rare quality, and is the result of moral training, as well as constitutional courage. Nervous fears are never so easily overcome as in early years, and the habit of overcoming them is of inestimable value in preparing for the vicissitudes and trials of life. At the same time, we sincerely hope that no lady, young or old, may ever have her presence of mind tested by the unwelcome apparition of a man concealed behind her easy chair.

TRIALS OF A TWIN.

In form and feature, face and limb,
I grew so like my brother,
That folks got taking me for him,
And each for one another.
It puzzled all our kith and kin,
It reached a fearful pitch;
For one of us was born a twih,
And not a soul knew which.

One day, to make the matter worse,
Before our names were fixed,
As we were being washed by nurse,
We got completely mixed;

And thus, you see, by fate's decree,
Or rather nurse's whim,

My brother John got christened me,
And I got christened him.

This fatal likeness ever dogged
My footsteps when at school,
And I was always getting flogged,
When John turned out a fool.
I put this question, fruitlessly,
To every one I knew,

"What would you do, if you were me,
To prove that you were you."

Our close resemblance turned the tide
Of my domestic life,

For somehow, my intended bride

Became my brother's wife.
In fact, year after year the same
Absurd mistakes went on,

And when I died, the neighbors came
And buried brother John.

THE DOORSTEP.-E. C. STEDMAN.

The conference-meeting through at last,
We boys around the vestry waited
To see the girls come tripping past
Like snowbirds willing to be mated.

Not braver he that leaps the wall
By level musket-flashes litten,
Than I, who stepped before them all,
Who longed to see me get the mitten.

But no; she blushed, and took my arm!
We let the old folks have the highway,
And started toward the Maple Farm
Along a kind of lover's by-way.

I can't remember what we said,

"T was nothing worth a song or story; Yet that rude path by which we sped Seemed all transformed and in a glory.

The snow was crisp beneath our feet,

The moon was full, the fields were gleaming; By hood and tippet sheltered sweet,

Her face with youth and health was beaming.

The little hand outside her muff

O sculptor, if you could but mould it!So lightly touched my jacket-cuff,

To keep it warm I had to hold it.

To have her with me there alone,

'T was love and fear and triumph blended. At last we reached the foot-worn stone Where that delicious journey ended.

The old folks, too, were almost home;
Her dimpled hand the latches fingered,
We heard the voices nearer come,

Yet on the doorstep still we lingered.

She shook her ringlets from her hood,
And with a "Thank you Ned," dissembled
But yet I knew she understood

With what a daring wish I trembled.

A cloud passed kindly overhead,

The moon was slyly peeping through it,

Yet hid its face, as if it said,

66 Come, now or never! do it! do it!"

My lips till then had only known
The kiss, of mother and of sister,
But somehow full upon her own

Sweet, rosy, darling mouth-I kissed heri
Perhaps 't was boyish love, yet still,
Oh, listless woman! weary lover!

To feel once more that fresh, wild thrill
I'd give but who can live youth over?

NOBODY THERE.

I was the last new boy at school:
I must pay my "initiation fee,"
Twelve boys wanted a thieving tool;

The latter the reason, the former the plea.
With boast and bluster and bullying air,
They won consent from "the last boy there."

A stealthy walk 'neath a silver moon;

Then an orchard wall looking e'er so high; Next, "Here's the plunder! climb like a coon,” From the biggest boy with the blackest eye. "What a ninny you are; and how you stare! Nobody will hurt you: nobody's there."

They knew the place for scaling well,
And pushed me up with eager hands,

Till, trembling and weak, their victim fell

On the broad ledge guarding the Bellair lands.
A crooked tree leans down like a stair,"
They told me; and there it was,―right there!

Right there! And, on that stairway swung,
I crouched like a coward amid the leaves:

&

To right, to left, the ripe fruit hung

On that first and fairest of autumn eves,-
Crimson and gold, in a silver air,
Apple on apple, pear on pear,

Just within reach of my tempting hold,
The air astir with their fruity breath;-
Globe of crimson, pendant of gold:

What was to hinder loitering Seth?
Silent I hung on the old tree stair:
As silent the orchard,―nobody there.

High in the heavens hung the harvest moon:
Strange!-but it brought my mother's smile.
"Tell me all that happens, and write me soon,"
She said, through smiles and tears the while.
There were two of us only: God took one,-
A sister, the sweetest under the sun.

Somehow in that silvery hush,

Came the murmur of mother's prayer; And a little stream, 'mid banks of rush, Caught the gleam of my sister's hair. Still, crimson and gold, in a silver air, Hung apple on apple, pear on pear.

Down in the dark some tiny thing,
Under the daisies' silken hood,
Smote the quiet with bell-like ring,

Bringing an answer out of the wood,-
Two together: they make me reel,
Chiming in chorus, "Thou shalt not steal."

The twelve in waiting saw me bound
Over the wall with empty hands,
Panting, breathless. They flee the ground:
Far beyond lay the tempting lands.

"Was it Box?" said the bully, "or old Bellair?"
"Neither," I answered: "God was there."

LAND POOR.-J. W. DONOVAN.

I've had another offer, wife-a twenty acres more,
Of high and dry prairie land, as level as a floor.

I thought I'd wait and see you first, as lawyer Brady said,
To tell how things will turn out best, a woman is aliead.

And when this lot is paid for, and we have got the deed,
I'll say that I am satisfied- it's all the land we need;
And next we'll see about the yard, and fix the house up

some,

And manage in the course of time to have a better home.

WIFE.

There is no use of talking, Charles-you buy that twenty more, And we'll go scrimping all our lives, and always be land poor. For thirty years we've tugged and saved, denying half our needs,

While all we have to show for it is tax receipts and deeds!

I'd sell the land if it were mine, and have a better home, With broad, light rooms to front the street, and take life as it come.

If we could live as others live, and have what others do, We'd live enough sight pleasanter, and have a plenty too.

While others have amusements and luxury and books, Just think how stingy we have lived, and how this old place looks.

That other farm you bought of Wells, that took so many

years

Of clearing up and fencing in, has cost me many tears.