and before that at Barbadoes, and one or

two other islands."

"Did you see much of the islands?"

"We visited most of them, and the United States, and also part of South America."

"Then you are familiar with mountains and forests, bananas and palms, tree-ferns, sugar-canes, and earthquakes, I suppose," said Astley.

"Oh yes!"

And nutmegs, and pimento," continued he;" and the blue sea, and lilac sky, the waves of fire, and the stars of a southern hemisphere.'

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"Yes, very lovely they are, I assure you. Your cold English winds, and dull landscapes, and frigid manners, are sadly chilling after the feelings of my early home; and, as to flowers, ah! you should have seen my garden up in the mountains of Jamaica!"

"And are you really English by birth?" "Half Spanish, half English by blood; very American in some of my tastes and feelings. Especially in my love for American poets and poetry."

"I can fancy you must think us uncongenial, indeed; but, when you know us better, I think you will find much real, genuine benevolence and kindness, under the cold, stiff manners which offend you."

"It is the greater pity, then, that the manners should be so stiff and formidable."

Perhaps we are like your own сосоаnuts-dry and tough externally, but worth the trouble of penetrating; and you know that the hard tough husk and shell have their uses for other purposes, besides defending the nut."

"Well, that is a favourable view of your national character; I am often, however,

tempted to repeat, as descriptive of my feelings on first coming to England, those lines,

"Till fell the frost from the pure cold Heaven, as falls the plague on men,

And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen.''

"I am very sorry such a blight should have come on your feelings, did you come home expecting to like us?" inquired he, as he gathered and threw away the small tufts of green moss which grew on the wall.

"Why, yes," said Annie, looking up with animation from her drawing. "I said to myself all the patriotic verses I could remember about England, and expected to be completely captivated by the first glimpse of the land of my sires."

"And you were disappointed ?"

"I found the day-dream in which I had indulged, was a day-dream, and nothing more. The first wish of my heart, to tread on the free soil of England was granted, but under circumstances so different from what I had anticipated. Ah! you cannot imagine the blight which fell on me. Mary alone was with me, and she was ill, helpless, to all appearance dying; and of all strangers, strange relations are the most chilling. The frost of my reception went to my heart."

Astley, apparently, was so very busy dividing a small heap of pebbles into three or four exactly even parts, that he seemed unable to look up and answer. The fact was, he was doubting whether Annie Carden was affected or not. The doubt did her injustice, however, she was really perfectly natural, and completely sincere.

She went on, without his speaking.

"I should have died, but for Mary, of horror and despair; the snow of that winter! and then I was always doing, or proposing to do, or wishing to do wrong things; and shocking my aunt; such bad wrong things; sins against etiquette, and propriety, and decorum. I found England anything but free! At last, I grew afraid to speak at all!"

"I can easily understand that the difference in our manners would strike you. I mean the difference between us and foreigners. Everybody acknowledges that we are nationally stiff and formal; but I do not think we are nationally cold or unkind. We say fewer obliging things than our neighbours, but are as substantially charitable, perhaps."

Charitable! well, if you mean in feeding the hungry and nursing the sick, yes; but charitable in thinking well of others, and judging kindly of strangers, strange customs