t, bo'," said Old Jack; "orders must be
obeyed, ye know," and away he went. "Well, mates," said one, "what was
the up-shot of it, if the yarn's been overhauled already? I didn't hear
it myself." "Blessed if I know," said several--"Old Jack didn't get the
length last time he's got now." "More luck!" said the man-o-war's-man;
"'tis to be hoped he'll finish it next time!"

From Fraser's Magazine for June.

SOMETHING ABOUT A MURDER.

FOUNDED ON FACT.

A Fair and gentle girl was Barbara Comyn, the only daughter of one of
the strictest and sternest old ministers that ever adhered to Calvin.
Yet Mr. Comyn was thoroughly conscientious in all his views; and when he
frowned, he did it not through love of frowning, but that he hoped, by
gathering a cloud upon his brows, to bring down from those eyes upon
which he frowned such showers of repentance as refresh and make green
the soul sin-withered and sere from the harsh and hot suns of vice. He
was, in truth, a worthy and good man; somewhat narrow of mind and
bigoted of creed, it may be, but utterly incapable of committing an
ungenerous or dishonorable action. Still, greatly as he loved his
winsome daughter, much as he prized her for that dead woman's sake, who,
as long as she lay in his bosom, had brought him comfort, and happiness,
and honor, he was something over-harsh with her, niggardly in the
bestowing of caresses, and liberal in the gift of unnecessary rebuke.
Very severe, then, was his displeasure, when she confessed to him, with
many blushes, that she loved her young Episcopalian kinsman, John
Percival.

The cousins had not been reared together, nor had they even met before
the youth had passed his twenty-fifth, the girl her nineteenth year. But
we are not of the opinion that young people are the more prone to fall
in love with each other for the being educated together in a sort of
family domesticity. Such facts are contended for in fiction, but
realities have convinced us that such things seldom happen; and if we
ever have the fortune to possess children of our own, and wish a son or
daughter to wed a particular individual, we shall take good care, not
only to conceal our intentions from them, but to keep the pair apart
from all brother-and-sister communism, until such time as each heart
begins to have its natural craving for a congenial spirit,--when, in
sooth, it looks for others than brothers and sisters to cling to. It is
a very old, perhaps a very vulga