ry promise. 'I don't
expect to make much the first year,' said he; 'I shall be satisfied if I
'realize' all expenses. But do you think I shall clear myself the first
year?' 'I haven't the slightest doubt of it,' I replied; '_I cleared
myself_ before the first six months were up, and was d--d _glad_ to get
off so; and I rather guess that _you'll_ be too, in about half that time.'
And he was!' . . . Could there be a more affecting picture than that of a
fond mother learning for the first time from the tell-tale prattle of her
little ones that she is 'given over to darkness and the worm' by her
friends, who had disguised from her the fatal truth? Such is the scene
depicted in these pathetic lines:

'He speaketh now: 'Oh, mother dear!'
Murmurs the little child:
And there is trouble in his eyes,
Those large blue eyes so mild:

'Oh, mother dear! they say that soon,
When here I seek for thee
I shall not find thee--nor out there,
Under the old oak-tree;

'Nor up stairs in the nursery,
Nor any where, they say:
Where wilt thou go to, mother dear?
Oh, do not go away!'

There was long silence, a deep hush,
And then the child's low sob:
_Her_ quivering eyelids close: one hand
Keeps down the heart's quick throb.

And the lips move, though sound is none,
That inward voice is prayer.
And hark! 'THY will, O LORD, be done!'
And tears are trickling there--

Down that pale cheek, on that young head;
And round her neck he clings;
And child and mother murmur out
Unutterable things.

_He_ half unconscious, _she_ deep-struck
With sudden, solemn truth,
That number'd are her days on earth--
Her shroud prepared in youth:

That all in life her heart holds dear
GOD calls her to resign:
She hears, feels, trembles--but looks up,
And sighs 'THY will be mine!''

* * * * *

'I came down from Albany the other evening,' writes a correspondent, 'in
that floating palace, the KNICKERBOCKER steamer; I slept in your
KNICKERBOCKER state-room; arrived in town, I took after dinner a
KNICKERBOCKER omnibus, and rode up to the 'Westminster Abbey Bowling
Saloon,' named of KNICKERBOCKER; I called on you with my article for the
KNICKERBOCKER Magazine; and on my way down, enjoyed a delightful ablution
at the KNICKERBOCKER Bath; stepped into the KNICKERBOCKER Theatre, and
'laughed consumedly' over an amusing play; and fina