;
Mr. Sewell was placing my case of instruments under the seat, and Mr.
Jaffrey had gone up to his room to get me a certain newspaper containing
an account of a remarkable shipwreck on the Auckland Islands. I took the
opportunity to thank Mr. Sewell for his courtesies to me, and to express
my regret at leaving him and Mr. Jaffrey.

"I have become very much attached to Mr. Jaffrey," I said; "he is a most
interesting person; but that hypothetical boy of his, that son of Miss
Mehetabel's--"

"Yes, I know!" interrupted Mr. Sewell, testily. "Fell off a step-ladder
and broke his dratted neck. Eleven year old, wasn't he? Always does,
jest at that point. Next week Silas will begin the whole thing over
again, if he can get anybody to listen to him."

"I see. Our amiable friend is a little queer on that subject."

Mr. Sewell glanced cautiously over his shoulder, and tapping himself
significantly on the forehead, said in a low voice,--

"Room To Let--Unfurnished!"

The foregoing selections are copyrighted, and are reprinted by
permission of the author, and Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers.

ALEARDO ALEARDI

(1812-1878)

The Italian patriot and poet, Aleardo Aleardi, was born in the village
of San Giorgio, near Verona, on November 4th, 1812. He passed his
boyhood on his father's farm, amid the grand scenery of the valley of
the Adige, which deeply impressed itself on his youthful imagination and
left its traces in all his verse. He went to school at Verona, where for
his dullness he was nick-named the "mole," and afterwards he passed on
to the University of Padua to study law, apparently to please his
father, for in the charming autobiography prefixed to his collected
poems he quotes his father as saying:--"My son, be not enamored of this
coquette, Poesy; for with all her airs of a great lady, she will play
thee some trick of a faithless grisette. Choose a good companion, as one
might say, for instance the law: and thou wilt found a family; wilt
partake of God's bounties; wilt be content in life, and die quietly and
happily." In addition to satisfying his father, the young poet also
wrote at Padua his first political poems. And this brought him into
slight conflict with the authorities. He practiced law for a short time
at Verona, and wrote his first long poem, 'Arnaldo,' published in 1842,
which was very favorably received. When six years later the new Venetian
republic came into being, Aleardi was sent to repr