nto the pathway
of destruction. Down came the whole side of the mountain in a cataract
of ruin. Just before it reached the house the stream broke into two
branches, shivered not a window there, but overwhelmed the whole
vicinity, blocked up the road and annihilated everything in its
dreadful course. Long ere the thunder of that great slide had ceased
to roar among the mountains the mortal agony had been endured and the
victims were at peace. Their bodies were never found.

The next morning the light smoke was seen stealing from the cottage
chimney up the mountain-side. Within, the fire was yet smouldering on
the hearth, and the chairs in a circle round it, as if the inhabitants
had but gone forth to view the devastation of the slide and would
shortly return to thank Heaven for their miraculous escape. All had
left separate tokens by which those who had known the family were made
to shed a tear for each. Who has not heard their name? The story has
been told far and wide, and will for ever be a legend of these
mountains. Poets have sung their fate.

There were circumstances which led some to suppose that a stranger had
been received into the cottage on this awful night, and had shared the
catastrophe of all its inmates; others denied that there were
sufficient grounds for such a conjecture. Woe for the high-souled
youth with his dream of earthly immortality! His name and person
utterly unknown, his history, his way of life, his plans, a mystery
never to be solved, his death and his existence equally a
doubt,--whose was the agony of that death-moment?

THE SISTER-YEARS.

Last night, between eleven and twelve o'clock, when the Old Year was
leaving her final footprints on the borders of Time's empire, she
found herself in possession of a few spare moments, and sat down--of
all places in the world--on the steps of our new city-hall. The wintry
moonlight showed that she looked weary of body and sad of heart, like
many another wayfarer of earth. Her garments, having been exposed to
much foul weather and rough usage, were in very ill condition, and, as
the hurry of her journey had never before allowed her to take an
instant's rest, her shoes were so worn as to be scarcely worth the
mending. But after trudging only a little distance farther this poor
Old Year was destined to enjoy a long, long sleep. I forgot to mention
that when she seated herself on the steps she deposited by her side a
very capacious bandbox in wh