various and quaint forms, arranged upon a square earthen altar beside him. Upon my word, I shall grow half afraid of him, myself."

"Like Katerfelto with his hair on end, at his own wonders wondering," suggested Flora, in a playfully malicious tone.

"A most benevolent magician, I am sure," observed Mrs. Woodbridge, smiling. "How very kind of you, Mr. Hamilton, how did you learn to arrange and provide for the accommodation of ladies, with such accuracy and taste."

"Experience makes fools wise," replied Mr. Hamilton laughingly; as if to turn off the conversation, he added immediately, 'please sit down and preside, Mrs. Woodbridge, the coffee is ready, and we will keep the lamp alight for our own benefit."

They placed the tripod on the top of the

earthern mound, where the flame waved and flickered in the breeze, whilst they drank their coffee; and Mr. Graham and Mr. Clarke began amusing themselves with fanciful conjectures as to how far it could be seen, and what degree of alarm the appearance would excite; and then went off, along with Mr. Hamilton himself, into an animated discussion on Macaulay's "Lays," moved to it, by Flora repeating the description of the Beacon fires in the West of England, ending with:

"And like volcanoes flared to Heaven, the stormy of Wales."

crags

They were recalled to more modern topics, by the question of Annie Carden, whether the mound on which they sat was really the one on which beacon fires had been once lighted. She addressed herself to Astley

Boyle, who could not answer her; and who referred the question to Mr. Clarke.

"Much as I grieve to destroy poetic fancies, and romantic associations, Miss Carden, I am afraid I cannot, with due attention to truth, say that I believe it was. Ask Hamilton, however; he has no more regard for a graceful fiction, or an elegant myth, than Niebuhr himself. He is, too, a folio edition of all the sciences, bound in one volume, Russian leather, gilt, lettered,

complete. Ask him who raised this mount."

Miss Carden turned to him.

"The engineers, when making Ordnance Survey, I believe," replied he.

the

"I

wanted to fancy it was some ancient relic, when first I came; but found it a case, like the antiquary's Prætorium."

"There!" exclaimed Mrs. Woodbridge;

"who has been the first to see the moon;

which of you would have noticed it, had I not called your attention ?"

They all now looked to the east, where Mrs. Woodbridge had been for some time stedfastly gazing, and saw, dim, and red, and undefined, through the vapour which hung on the horizon, the planet for which they had been waiting.

"Is that the moon ?" said Annie Carden in a tone of disappointment, and shivering in the cool air which just then swept over them. Mr. Clarke turned, and drew closer round her shoulders the large plaid in which he had previously lightly enveloped her, whilst he asked with a smile, if she thought it but a poor performance after all.

"Faint and dim," said she with a sigh; "unlike, indeed, the glorious moon on which I have so so often gazed in childhood-the

moon of more southern skies. Oh, the enchantment of a Jamaica scene by moonlight! from some spot high up among the mountains, from whence you look down on green valleys, rich in tropical vegetation; the shrubs sparkling with glancing fire-flies; the atmosphere loaded with perfume, floating on the still night air from groves of orange or citron, blossoming coffee plants, or the yet more delicious flowers of the mango. whole island stretching like a map at your feet, whilst beyond its shores lies the blue, blue sea, bathed in silvery moonshine, and extending almost to an indefinite space, ere it joins the over-arching purple sky, with the glittering stars, glowing with light, not coldly bright, like yours of of a northern clime."

The

"Did you prefer Jamaica as a residence?" enquired Mr. Clarke, anxious to prolong the

VOL. I.

M