ment of remorse, gratitude, and many
feelings new to him, he hesitated for a moment, and then told his story,
he related his trials, his sins, his sorrows, his supposed wrongs, his
burning anger at the terrible fate of his only parent, and his rage at
the exultation of the crowd: his desolation on recovering from his
swoon, his thirst for vengeance, the attempt to satisfy it. He spoke
with untaught, child-like simplicity, without attempting to suppress the
emotions which successively overcame him.

When he ceased, the lady hastened to the crouching boy, and soothed him
with gentle words. The very tones of her voice were new to him. They
pierced his heart more acutely than the fiercest of the upbraidings and
denunciations of his old companions. He looked on his merciful
benefactors with bewildered tenderness. He kissed Mrs. Leyton's hand,
then gently laid on his shoulder. He gazed about like one in a dream who
dreaded to wake. He became faint and staggered. He was laid gently on a
sofa, and Mr. and Mrs. Leyton left him.

Food was shortly administered to him, and after a time, when his senses
had become sufficiently collected, Mr. Leyton returned to the study, and
explained holy and beautiful things, which were new to the neglected
boy: of the great yet loving father; of Him who loved the poor, forlorn
wretch, equally with the richest, and noblest, and happiest; of the
force and efficacy of the sweet beatitude, "Blessed are the Merciful,
for they shall obtain Mercy."

I heard this story from Mr. Leyton, during a visit to him in May. George
West was then head ploughman to a neighboring farmer, one of the
cleanest, best behaved, and most respected laborers in the parish.

[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]

BORAX LAGOONS OF TUSCANY.

In a mountainous district of Tuscany, lying about twenty miles west of
Sienna, are situated the extraordinary lagoons from which borax is
obtained. Nothing can be more desolate than the aspect of the whole
surrounding country. The mountains, bare and bleak, appear to be
perpetually immersed in clouds of sulphurous vapor, which sometimes
ascend in wreathed or twisted columns, and at other times are beaten
down by the winds, and dispersed in heavy masses through the glens and
hollows. Here and there water-springs, in a state of boiling heat, and
incessantly emitting smoke and vapor, burst with immense noise from the
earth, which burns and shakes beneath your feet. The heat of the