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GLEANINGS AND RECOLLECTIONS.

Then Harry the Seventh in fame grew big
And Harry the Eighth was as fat as a pig.

With young Neddy the Sixth we had promising days;
But Mary made fire and faggot blaze;

Her sister Queen Bess was a glorious dame,

And shuffling King Jemmy from Scotland came.

8.

Poor Charley the First was a martyr made;
But Charley his son was a comical blade;
And Jemmy the Second, when hotly spurr'd,
Ran away-d'ye see me-from Billy the Third.

9.

Queen Anne was victorious by land and by sea;
Then to Georgy the First did the people agree;
But Georgy the Second had trouble and fear
Before he got rid of the young Chevalier.

10.

Georgy the Third did not very much shine;
But Georgy the Fourth was a gentleman fine;
The sailor-king Billy as next did succeed;
And the fair girl Victoria now reigns in his stead.

THE MAGPIE.

The magpie, a very handsome bird of the crow kind, is about eighteen inches in length. In colour it is variegated with black and white; the black part of the plumage having (particularly on the tail feathers) a beautiful gloss of purple, green and blue; the tints changing as viewed in different lights. Magpies are found in England, France, and other temperate regions of Europe; but are comparatively rare in America, where they are only met with in the north and Their food is of animal or vegetable substances, indiscriminately. These

west.

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mesticated they can be taught to repeat words, and even whole sentences. In their wild state, when they meet they chatter incessantly; seeming to carry on an earnest and animated conversation. They have a remarkable propensity for thieving and hoarding; and will steal not only food, but articles of which they can make no use: such as buttons, spoons, and jewelry. A tame magpie has been known to pilfer a piece of money, and hide it under the floor by dropping it through a chink or hole in one of the boards.

Their nests (which are often built in birds are very familiar, and easily do- very singular places) are ingeniously

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constructed, with the entrance at the side. ing much fatigued, she did not awaken

The outside is defended with a covering of sharp twigs, so interwoven as to stick out like thorns all over the surface. The inside is furnished with a thick bed of wool, or of any soft substance they can mat together.

We have seen an anecdote of a lady in England losing an expensive lace cap, which (with other articles of a similar description) had been spread on a grass plat to bleach or whiten, after washing. The cap mysteriously disappeared, and was supposed to have been stolen but there was no ground to fix suspicion on any person in particular. A few weeks afterwards, a magpie's nest was discovered in one of the garden trees, and in the nest was found the lace cap, which had been pulled to pieces by the bird and formed into a sort of mattrass for her young ones.

The famous story of the Magpie and the Maid, is said to be founded on fact. The Italian version of it is far more striking than the French; though the latter is the one most generally known, and has afforded a subject for a play and an opera.

According to the Italian account,— there is a tradition in Florence that a lady of that city on returning one night from a ball, having taken off her jewels, laid them on her toilette-table, and retired to rest, leaving the windows open on account of the heat of the weather. Be

Why is a lawyer like a tailor?

till a late hour next morning, and she then found that her pearl necklace was missing. The ornament was of great price, and she suspected it to have been purloined by her waiting-maid, who was the only person that had entered the apartment while the lady was asleep. The girl in vain protested her innocence. The laws of that country and period were always rigidly enforced on those who had neither wealth nor power to screen themselves from punishment, whether merited or otherwise. The unfortunate girl was imprisoned, tried, and being unable to clear herself of the suspected crime, was sentenced to death for the theft. On her way to the scaffold, there came up a sudden and violent thunderstorm. In front of the municipal hall, and near the place of execution, stood a statue of the goddess of Justice, holding in one hand a sword and in the other a balance or pair of scales. A flash of lightning struck the balance from the hand of the figure, and when it fell to the ground there was found in one of the scales a magpie's nest, containing the identical pearl necklace for which the poor girl was about to suffer death. Her innocence being now manifested, she was restored to the favour of her mistress; and her sufferings were repaid by unlimited confidence in her integrity, and numerous acts of kindness and munificence.

Why are hay and straw like spectacles?

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AFRICA is a part of the world famous for black people with curly hair, thick lips, and flat noses; a capital place for deserts and wild beasts. You may get there abundance of elephants' teeth, and plenty of gold-dust, and just as you have got them, very likely a lion will get you, and your gold-dust, and your elephants' teeth into the bargain. I never travel in Africa now, for it is not to my taste to be eaten by a lion, though it might be to his

to eat me.

If you wish to be broiled to death by the sun, to be smothered with hot burning sand, to die of thirst in a desert, or to be devoured by a wild animal, stop not a moment, but set off directly for Africa. Take my word for it, it is one of the first places in the world for these things.

Africa is the part whence slaves are obtained, to cultivate the West Indies, and other places. England has washed her hands from the pollution, and cleansed her heart from the guilt of slavery.

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It is some time since I was in Africa. "When I was at Timbuctoo," but that is too long a story to tell now. Houghton, and Mungo Park, and Tuckey, and Campbell, and Bowdich, and Clapperton, and Caillié, and Lander, and I, and halfa-dozen others, have done the world some service by our travels, but whether I shall accept a peerage and a pension, with a niche in the Abbey of Westminster; or, declining all recompense, look forwards to an inglorious but peaceful grave in a country grave-yard, concerns myself alone, and, therefore, would be a very improper subject to dwell upon, having already given you a chapter on myself.

But I ought to mention a few especial advantages which a traveller in the interior of Africa may reckon upon. He may ride on a camelopard, if he can catch one. He is sure to enjoy the cool springs of water of the country, when he falls in with them. And he may at any time, when opportunity favours his intention, cut a capital steak from the hip of a hippopotamus. Then again, the fertility of the sandy soil, the cleanliness of the Hottentots, and the politeness of the Caffres, never fail to yield pleasure and surprise whenever they strike the eye, or appeal to the heart. I do not say that these advantages are to be met with every day, but on that very account, when enjoyed they must be the more delightful. We value things according to their scarcity. An ostrich-feather in London is worth a score in Abyssinia,

and a draught of cold water in the desert, is more delightful than a bottle of champagne in France.

You may form some opinion of Africa, when you know that the deserts of Zaara alone are, with little interruption, two thousand seven hundred miles long, and seven hundred broad, and contain more than enough sand in them to smother the inhabitants of the whole world. It is a country of monsters, for almost every thing that is noxious, and fierce and terrible, may be found in Africa. If you travel by land, beware of the lion! If you journey by water, the crocodile will open his ravenous jaws to devour you, and insects innumerable will torment you. If you should ever go there, and live to come back again, you will have reason to go down on your knees for very thankfulness on the first spot of earth on which you set your foot. The dreariness of its deserts, the heat of its horrible climate, the fierceness of its beasts of prey, and the barbarity of its uncivilized inhabitants, will prevent you ever wishing again to visit a country, whose gold, and ivory, and ebony, and ostrich feathers, and drugs, are only to be had by bartering for them, health of body and peace of mind. If I ever again see that terrific country, Africa must assuredly come to me, for never while I have my senses will I again go to Africa.

As a specimen of the danger which the poor natives encounter, I will tell you the story of the caged lion.

I had travelled until the day was far

A LETTER FROM CARLTON BRUCE.

spent, when I was suddenly startled by the report of a gun. I looked round, but could perceive no one: however as the sound somewhat alarmed me, I thought it best to climb a high tree, that was near, from whence I might discern the cause of the firing. I now saw, at a great distance, a party of black men firing at a lion, who was already wounded, and lying upon the grass. He appeared a very large and fierce animal; and I was afterwards told that the blacks, having once wounded him, had hopes they might be able to take him alive, convey him to a distance, and sell him to the Europeans, who would be glad of such a prize to send into their own country.

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pursuers were enclosed in one fatal cage! I heard their screams with unutterable anguish; for it was entirely out of my power to assist them. I could only hasten from the dreadful scene, reflecting with horror on the dismal end of these poor Negroes. Whilst commiserating them, I forgot the pains of my own suffering, though my feet were very sore, and my body covered with blisters from the extreme heat of the sun.

Presently I was surprised and delighted to hear some one call to me in broken English: I turned and beheld a Negro, dressed lightly in European fashion. He told me he had left his native country when a boy; and after living several years in England, was now returning to his African friends. Observing me in an English dress, he conjectured I was a person in distress, as this was not a part of the coast for strangers to land upon.

With this view they consulted together what was best to be done, and one of them proposed taking off the roof of a hut, (which in their country, could easily be done, as the roofs are small, of a circular form, and simply made of a frame- I told him his supposition was right, for work of bamboo, covered with thatch,) only the day before I had suffered shipand throwing this roof over the lion, wreck, and I related to him all the sad while he appeared in so helpless a state. particulars. The compassionate Negro This invention was very much approv- felt for my destitute condition: he said, ed; and I saw them go to a neighbour- he would take me with him to his friends ing hut, strip off the thatch, and lift up that night, and set me forward, in a right the bamboo frame upon their shoulders; direction, next morning. "I have rebut before they returned, the lion had received much kindness from the English," covered his strength, and looked at them said the grateful black; “and to serve so fiercely, that they durst not approach you is now the only return I can make." him; and, to preserve themselves, were Just as he spoke, we turned into a little about to let the roof fall upon their own wood, at the farther end of which was a heads; when alas, the lion made a vio- village. lent spring, just at the moment the roof was lowered, and both the beast and his

"There," cried the black, joy sparkling in his eyes," there is my native vil

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