rsons, and have only
recorded such incidents as bore an added weight of evidence in the
shape of the sense, intelligence and unquestionable veracity of their
relators.

LUCY H. HOOPER.

AFTERNOON.

Small, shapeless drifts of cloud
Sail slowly northward in the soft-hued sky,
With blue half-tints and rolling summits bright,
By the late sun caressed; slight hazes shroud
All things afar; shineth each leaf anigh
With its own warmth and light.

O'erblown by Southland airs,
The summer landscape basks in utter peace:
In lazy streams the lazy clouds are seen;
Low hills, broad meadows, and large, clear-cut squares
Of ripening corn-fields, rippled by the breeze,
With shifting shade and sheen.

Hark! and you may not hear
A sound less soothing than the rustle cool
Of swaying leaves, the steady wiry drone
Of unseen crickets, sudden chirpings clear
Of happy birds, the tinkle of the pool,
Chafed by a single stone.

What vague, delicious dreams,
Born of this golden hour of afternoon,
And air balm-freighted, fill the soul with bliss,
Transpierced like yonder clouds with lustrous gleams,
Fantastic, brief as they, and, like them, spun
Of gilded nothingness!

All things are well with her.
'Tis good to be alive, to see the light
That plays upon the grass, to feel (and sigh
With perfect pleasure) the mild breezes stir
Among the garden roses, red and white,
With whiffs of fragrancy.

There is no troublous thought,
No painful memory, no grave regret,
To mar the sweet suggestions of the hour:
The soul, at peace, reflects the peace without,
Forgetting grief as sunset skies forget
The morning's transient shower.

EMMA LAZARUS.

OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE IN 1873.

Was George Washington born in Great Britain or America? Absurd as
this question must sound to an American, it has been gravely discussed
within the last few months by a writer in the London _Notes and
Queries_, who has the effrontery to say that Washington's own brief
assertion in a letter to the effect that he was born in Virginia
cannot be conclusive. "No man's unsupported testimony," he adds, "as
to the place of his birth would be taken in evidence in a court of
justice, for his knowledge of the event must necessarily be from
hearsay or from records." This is