strongest of men, was a mere bit of braggadocio, which surely
did not deceive even Laidley himself.

But what could he do? To stab with reproach, even to argue with this
nerveless, worn-out man, flaccid in mind and body, seemed to the kindly
old fellow as cruel as to torture a dying fish or other cold-blooded
creature of whose condition or capacity for suffering he could have no
just idea.

REBECCA HARDING DAVIS.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE SWEETENER.

Spring blossom, rose of June and autumn-cluster
Appeal alike unto the bloom of health,
In whose spontaneous, overflowing lustre
Is half the secret of the season's wealth.

The pallid cheek may warm to apple-flushes,
The fevered lip kiss fondly sweets of June,
The languid palate leap to fruitage luscious,
Yet weary of their day before the noon.

'Tis laughing Health, with an unhindered fountain
Of joy upbubbling from her being's core,
Whose lavish life embraces vale or mountain,
And drains delight at every opened door.

MARY B. DODGE.

AN ENGLISH EASTER.

It may be said of the English as is said of the council of war in
Sheridan's farce of _The Critic_ by one of the spectators of the
rehearsal, that when they _do_ agree their unanimity is wonderful. They
differ among themselves greatly just now as regards the machinations of
Russia, the derelictions of Turkey, the propriety of locking up the
Reverend Arthur Tooth for his Romanizing excesses, the histrionic merits
of Mr. Henry Irving, and a good many other matters; but neither just now
nor at any other time do they fail to conform to those social
observances on which Respectability has set her seal. England is a
country of curious anomalies, and this has much to do with her being so
interesting to foreign observers. The English individual character is
very positive, very independent, very much made up according to its own
sentiment of things, very prone to startling eccentricities; and yet at
the same time it has beyond any other this peculiar gift of squaring
itself with fashion and custom. In no other country, I imagine, are so
many people to be found doing the same thing in the same way at the same
time--using the same slang, wearing the same hats and cravats,
collecting the same china-plates, playing the same game of lawn-tennis
or of "polo," flocking into the