and, about an hour after sunset, streaks and breaks in the clouds gave token that the worst was over.

It was not so, however; for about the same time a stream appeared in the hollow, between the rising ground to which the axmen had retired and the little knoll on which our shanty stood; at the same time the waters in the river began to swell again.

The darkness and increasing rage of the river, which there was just twilight enough to show was rising above the brim of the bank, smote me with I snatched my children by the inexpressible terror. hand, and rushed forward to join the axmen; but the torrent between us rolled so violently that to pass was impossible; and the river continued to rise.

I called aloud to the axmen for assistance; and when they heard my desperate cries, they came out from the shed, some with burning brands, and others with their axes glittering in the flames. But they could render no help.

At last, one man, a fearless backwoodsman, happened to observe, by the firelight, a tree on the bank of the torrent, which it in some degree overhung, and he called to others to join him in making a bridge. In the course of a few minutes the tree was laid across the stream, and we scrambled over, just as the river extinguished our fire and swept our shanty

away.

This rescue was in itself so wonderful, and the

scene had been so terrible, that it was some time after we were safe before I could rouse myself to believe that I was not in the fangs of the nightmare. My poor boys clung to me as if still not assured of their security, and I wept upon their necks in the ecstasy of an unspeakable passion of anguish and joy.

JOHN GALT.

THE CHILD-MUSICIAN.

He had played for his lordship's levee,
He had played for her ladyship's whim,
Till the poor little head was heavy,
And the poor little brain would swim.

And the face grew peaked and eerie,

And the large eyes strange and bright,
And they said too late" He is weary!
He shall rest for, at least, to-night!

But at dawn, when the birds were waking,
As they watched in the silent room,
With the sound of a strained cord breaking,
A something snapped in the gloom.

'Twas the string of his violoncello,

And they heard him stir in his bed : "Make room for a tired little fellow, Kind God!"

was the last that he said. AUSTIN DOBSON.

[Lemuel Gulliver, on his wonderful travels, has reached a country called Brobdingnag. Everything is on an enormous scale, so that, to the eyes of the inhabitants, the traveller appears no larger than a very small doll appears to us. Gulliver's lodgings are two wooden boxes.]

The greatest danger I ever underwent in that kingdom was from a monkey who belonged to one of the clerks of the kitchen. Glumdalclitch had locked me up in her closet while she went somewhere upon business or a visit.

The weather being very warm, the closet window was left open, as well as the windows and the door of my bigger box, in which I usually lived because of its largeness and conveniency.

As I sat quietly meditating at my table, I heard something bounce in at the closet window, and skip about from one side to the other. Although I was much alarmed, yet I ventured to look out, but not stirring from my seat; and then I saw this frolicsome animal frisking and leaping up and down, till at last he came to my box, which he seemed to view with

great pleasure and curiosity, peeping in at the door and at every window.

I retreated to the farther corner of my room, or box; but the monkey, looking in at every side, put me into such a fright that I wanted presence of mind to conceal myself under the bed, as I might easily have done.

After some time spent in peeping, grinning, and chattering, he at last espied me, and reaching one of his paws in at the door, as a cat does when she plays with a mouse, although I often shifted place to avoid him, he at length caught hold of the lappet of my coat, and dragged me out.

He took me in his right forefoot and held me as a nurse does a child, just as I have seen the same sort of creature do with a kitten, in Europe; and when I offered to struggle, he squeezed me so hard that I thought it more prudent to submit.

In these diversions he was interrupted by a noise at the closet door, as if somebody were opening it; whereupon he leaped suddenly up to the window at which he had come in, and thence upon the leads and gutters, walking upon three legs, and holding me in the fourth, till he clambered up to the roof that was next to ours.

I heard Glumdalclitch give a shriek at the moment. he was carrying me out. The poor girl was almost distracted. That quarter of the palace was all in an

uproar; the servants ran for ladders. The monkey was seen by hundreds in the court, sitting upon the ridge of the building, holding me like a baby in one of his fore paws.

At this many of the rabble below could not forbear laughing; neither do I think they justly ought to be blamed, for without question, the sight was ridiculous enough to everybody but myself.

Some of the people threw up stones, hoping to drive the monkey down; but this was strictly forbidden, or else very probably my brains had been dashed out.

The ladders were now applied, and mounted by several men. The monkey observing this, and finding himself almost encompassed, and not being able to make speed enough with his three legs, let me drop on a ridge tile, and made his escape.

Here I sat for some time, three hundred yards from the ground, expecting every moment to be blown down by the wind, or to fall by my own giddiness, and come tumbling from the ridge to the eaves; but an honest lad, one of my nurse's footmen, climbed up, and, putting me into his breeches pocket, brought me down safe.

JONATHAN SWIFT.

Dare to be true; nothing can need a lie;

A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.

GEORGE HERBERT.