Deduke men ha Selana.]

Gone the Pleiades and moon,
Lo! of night it is the noon!
See! the Hours their watch are keeping;
Lovely lieth SAPPHO sleeping!

G. H. H.

AN ALLIGATORICAL SKETCH.

NUMBER TWO OF LIFE IN FLORIDA.

How thoughtful in you, my kind EDITOR, to have inquired of me touching
alligators! Think of my getting a summer's day and a more than
summer's-day delight out of this March month and latitude of forty-two,
and all by way of a thought alligatorical! Having taken that thought to
bed with me last night, I awoke about sun-rise, at the first burst of a
morning-hymn from the tree-tops at Picolata! The windows and doors were
all open, and as I glanced here and there, with what unspeakable joy did I
recognize the small cosy parlor with its comfortable lounges, the garden,
the river, the hammock, and the barracks; and with what a feeling of
delirium did I launch into the warm air to shout my delight!

Breakfasted upon hominy and syrup, fresh-made from H----'s plantation,
with alternate mouthfuls of--you can't think, Sir--straw-berries and
cream! Large, ripe straw-berries, just gathered by a pretty girl and some
one to help her, from the garden of Father Williams. Had a pleasant sail
on the St. John's after breakfast, and took the cool of the morning for a
ride through the barrens to Augustine, where I have been all day running
about town, half out of breath, dropping broken and hurried words on the
familiar thresholds, with ejaculations of 'Oh Lord!' and 'God bless you!'
and some things quite inarticulate and impossible to write;
_inspirations_, so to speak; after all which I am just now returned,
freighted with pleasant thoughts, to my closed windows, coal-fires, and
other northerly necessities. But for this, Sir, I thought to have done
with these 'Sketches,' as I like not that ambitious heading. 'Gossip'
would have been better, Sir, and more appropriate; and under that modest
title you would not have used the unintelligible stars that blaze to so
little purpose in my last paper. Ah! Sir, you should have considered how
difficult it is to gape--shocking word!--to gape gracefully!

And now to your queries: 'Is the alligator fond of his grandmother? Does
he devour his children? Does he hanker after little niggers? Is he wholly
depraved and given up to the sins of the flesh, or hath he some social and
playful qualities? And, lastl