nigh her any more! I knowed Tom'd
come back, an' now Net! they both hev saved each other, Lord's good
for't!'

'But Nobby?' she whispered.

'Lord brought us one, an' noo He's goin' to take back t'other,' said
Adam.

The child was twisting in his father's arms in the height of his pain.

'I knaw noo why 'twas I went away thet mornin', an' Nobby got t'bump,'
said Adam, looking on sadly.

The young sailor made no answer. The partial drunkenness of his first
night on shore was gone, and he only held his suffering child, wiping
the drops from its face. So they stood watching, and the hours went on.

'Zuhoeret!' cried Adam's wife. 'Die Weihnachtsglocken!'

It was the bells, ringing out the full morning carol. The child was
lying on his bed; he brightened up a little, then shut his eyes wearily,
and stopped writhing. For little Nobby it that moment became true that

'Christ was born on Christmas day.'

APHORISM.--NO. VII.

The sufficient reason why the common developments of intellect are so
poor, is not so much in the want of native capacity, as in the low moral
estate of our nature. Our hearts are so dry, our better affections so
dull, that we are not the subjects of stimulus adequate to the calling
forth of efforts suitable to the necessities of the case. Here and
there, one is so richly endowed in mind, that his love of science or art
may suffice to tax his powers to the full: but a world could never be
constituted of such geniuses. The mass of men, if ever to be led up to
any high plane of mental life, must be so under the promptings of
affections and passions which find their excitement in the more
practical spheres of our existence.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ON SECESSION AND STATE RIGHTS.

In the earlier numbers of _The Spirit of the Fair_, the newspaper
published by a committee of gentlemen for the benefit of the New York
Metropolitan Fair, appeared a series of very remarkable papers from the
pen of James Fenimore Cooper, the American novelist.[7] The history of
these papers is very curious, as announced by the editors of _The Spirit
of the Fair_, in their introductory, as follows:

'UNPUBLISHED MSS. OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.

'Our national novelist died in the autumn of 1850; previous to his
fatal illness he was engaged upon a historical work, to be entitled
'The Men of Manhattan,' only the Introduction to which had been
sent to the press. The printing office w