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points of the law, and in Canada the other tenth is thrown in. Old Joe's mother, an abominable Yankee Hecate, grinned like a whole bag-full of monkeys when informed that her son was expected to dis-locate as soon as sleighing began.

"Joe,' she guessed, 'would take his own time. The house was not built which was to receive him; and he was not the man to turn his back upon a warm hearth to camp in the wilderness. It was

neither the first snow nor the last frost that would turn Joe out of his comfortable home.""

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"It must be in the room, Bell, and it is impossible to remain here, or to live in the house, until it is removed.'

Glancing my eyes all round the place, I spied what seemed to me a little cupboard, over the mantel-shelf, and I told John to see if I was right. The lad mounted upon a chair, and pulled open a small door, but almost fell to the ground with the dreadful stench which seemed to rush from the

closet.

door.

"What is it, John?' I cried from the open "A skunk! maʼarm, a skunk! Sure, I thought the devil had scorched his tail, and left the grizzled hair behind him. What a strong perfume it has !' he continued, holding up the beautiful but odious little creature by the tail.

I saw

Frost Mrs. Hecate spoke a true word. came, sledges ran, thaw began-not an inch budged Joe. The sun gained power, a soft south wind fanned the frozen earth, the snow disappeared-still the reckless, dishonest scamp made no sign of removing, and replied with abuse to the remonstrances of those to whom his dwelling belonged. In the States, and with a brother Yankee, his obstinacy might have led to revolver and rifle work. The English emigrants patiently waited, to their own great inconvenience. Joe reckoned he shouldn't move till his 'missus' was confined an interesting event which was expected to come off in May. About the middle of that month the Joe family was increased by a sturdy boy, whereupon its chief declared his intention of turning out in a fortnight, if all went well. Mrs. Moodie did not believe him he had lied so often before; but he was determined to take her in at last, as he had done at first, for this time he was as "I could hardly help laughing myself; but I good as his word. On the last day of May they went, bag and baggage, and Mrs. Moodie begged Monaghan to convey the horrid creature sent over her Scotch maidservant and Irish away, and putting some salt and sulphur into a tin serving-man to clear out the dwelling, which plate, and setting fire to it, I placed it on the floor in the middle of the room, and closed all the doors she justly expected would be in bad enough for an hour, which greatly assisted in purifying the condition. But her expectations were far ex-house from the skunkification. Bell then washed ceeded by the reality. The malignity of these out the closet with strong ley, and in a short time people, who from her had received nothing no vestige remained of the malicious trick Uncle but kindness and good offices, was degrading Joe had played off upon us." to human nature. Presently the Irishman returned, panting with indignation:

"The house,' he said, 'was more filthy than a pig-sty. But that was not the worst of it; Uncle Joe, before he went, had undermined the brick chimney, and let all the water into the house. Oh! but if he comes here agin,' he continued, grinding his teeth and doubling his fist, I'll thrash him for it. And thin, Ma'arm, he has girdled round all the best graft apple-trees, the murtherin' owld villain, as if it would spile his digestion our ating

them.'

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"John and Bell scrubbed at the house all day, and in the evening they carried over the furniture, and I went to inspect our new dwelling. It looked beautifully clean and neat. Bell had whitewashed all the black, smoky walls, and boarded ceilings, and scrubbed the dirty window-frames, and polished the fly-spotted panes of glass, until they actually admitted a glimpse of the clear air and the blue sky. Snow-white-fringed curtains, and a bed with furniture to correspond, a carpeted floor, and a large pot of green boughs on the hearthstone, gave an air of comfort and cleanliness to a room which, only a few hours before, had been a loath

"By dad! I know all about it now. Ned Layton, only two days ago, crossing the field with Uncle Joe, with his gun on his shoulder, and this wee bit baste in his hand. They were both laughing like sixty. Well, if this does not stink the Scotchman out of the house,' said Joe, 'I'll be content to be tarred and feathered;' and thin they both laughed until they stopped to draw breath.

The smell of skunk and Yankee eradicated, there still was much to be done before the house could be deemed habitable. It swarmed with mice, which all the night long performed fantastical dances over the faces and The old logs pillows of the new comers. which composed the walls of the dwelling were alive with bugs and large black ants, and the fleas upon the floor were as thick as sand-grains in the desert. With the warm weather, then just setting in, came legions of mosquitoes, that rose in clouds from the numerous little streams intersecting the valley. But in spite of all these discomforts, summer was felt to be a blessing, and "roughing it" in the woods was far less painful than in the season of snow, and frost, and storm.

The banks of the little streams abounded with wild strawberries, which, although small, were of a delicious flavor. Thither Bell and I, and the baby, daily repaired to gather the bright red berries of nature's own providing. Katie, young as she was, was very expert at helping herself, and we used to seat her in the middle of a fine bed,

whilst we gathered farther on. Hearing her talk- for them an independent origin. His ethnoling very lovingly to something in the grass, which ogy is of the romantic school, and rather she tried to clutch between her white hands, call- loose. His imagination gets the better of his ing it 'pitty, pitty,' I ran to the spot, and found reasoning, and his "organ of wonder," to it was a large garter-snake that she was so affec-speak in the manner of phrenologists, is overtionately courting to her embrace. Not then aware developed. His habits of mind and training that this formidable looking reptile was perfectly do not seem to be such as to qualify him for harmless, I snatched the child up in my arms, and strict scientific research. He is more of the ran with her home, never stopping until I reached the house and saw her safely seated in her cradle." littérateur than the philosopher. His wriSixteen years elapsed after the departure tings are, in consequence, very amusing, but of Joe and his brood from her neighborhood require to be dealt with cautiously. The facts before Mrs. Moodie heard any thing of their must be winnowed from the fancies with fate. A winter or two ago, tidings of them which they are mingled, if we wish to use them for scientific purposes. reached her through one who had lived near them. Hecate, almost a centenarian, occupied a corner of her son's barn. She could not dwell in harmony under the same roof with her daughter-in-law. The lady in purple and her sisters were married and scattered abroad. Joe himself, who could neither read nor write, had turned itinerant preacher. No account was given of the hopeful Ammon.

Mrs. Mcodie's work, unaffectedly and naturally written, though a little coarse, will delight ladies, please men, and even amuse children. On our readers' account we regret our inability to make further extracts from its amusing pages. The book is one of great originality and interest.

From the London Literary Gazette.
MR. SQUIER ON NICARAGUA.*

ANY causes are combining to give great

Imaginative men are usually warm lovers and fierce haters. Our American envoy's appreciation of female charms is so intense, that he cannot pass a pretty woman without inscribing a memorandum respecting her in at length with additional expressions of admihis note-book, afterwards to be printed more ration. A pair of black eyes cannot sparkle His affection for the ladies is only equalled behind a lattice without being duly recorded. by his dislike of the "Britishers." The handsomest girl and the ugliest idol could scarcely distract his thought from the vices and crimes of England and the English. If he is to be trusted, the whole population of Central America regards every Englishman as a bitter enemy. He paints us in the blackest hues, and prophesies the fall of England with undisguised delight. Bluster about Britain is

which the writer will, when he knows more about us, be ashamed of himself. Every day it is becoming more and more the interest of Englishmen and Americans to pull together. Consanguinity and the love of "constitutional liberty are strong ties. They may be forgot. ten for a time, but in the end must work uppermost. Recent events have done much to remind us of our near relationship with our transatlantic cousins, and them of the AngloSaxon blood to which they owe their preeminence among the nations of the New World. The grasping and interfering quali

America. Their own fertility and natural advantages, the commerce of the Pacific, and the gold of California, unite to attract the earnest attention of enterprising men and politicians towards them. At the present moment, the appearance of this full and able account of Nicaragua is peculiarly well-timed. The writer of it describes himself as "late chargé d'affaires of the United States to the Republics of Central America." His official position has evidently enabled him to get at much information that would otherwise have been inaccessible. His name is well and favorably known to ethnologists and antiquari-ties that bring down upon us the unmitigated ans by his researches into the history of the aboriginal monuments of the United States, and by his very curious, though somewhat fanciful, essay on "The Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America." The bias and extent of his studies make him a very competent person to investigate the antiquities of Nicaragua. The chapters devoted to this subject in the work before us are full of interest, and highly to be valued for the abundance of fresh observations they contain. Like many American archaeologists and historians, Mr. Squier is inclined to over-estimate the peculiarities and antiquity of the aborigines of the New World. If we understand rightly, he claims

Nicaragua; its People, Scenery, Monuments, and the Proposed Inter-oceanic Canal. By E. G. Squier. NewYork: Appletons.

censures of Mr. Squier are quite as prominently manifested in the doings of his countrymen; and whilst in one chapter he censures our meddlings with, and claims upon, the Mosquito shore, in another he anticipates something very like the annexation of all Central America to the United States.

The Mosquito country, about which we have seen of late so many very unsatisfactory paragraphs in our newspapers, is a thinly populated and most unhealthy tract on the Atlantic sea-board of Central America. It is inhabited by a mixed breed of Indians and Negroes, supposed to be ruled by a semicivilized individual, who rejoices in the entomological title of King of the Mosquitoes, one by no means inappropriate, considering the amount of small annoyance we have endured through disputes about his territory.

He is supposed to be under British protection; | other evidence, that a Mexican colony did it is difficult to understand exactly why. The exist in Nicaragua at the period of the dismain purpose we have in view seems to be covery of the country in the fifteenth centuthe securing a proper supply of the peculiar ry. This had been surmised before, but not hard woods of this region. Britons at home clearly made out. generally make peace over their mahogany; Much interest attaches to the population of abroad they seem to pick quarrels over it. Nicaragua, on account of the large proporCentral America includes an era of 150,000 tion of families of Indian blood, pure and square miles. Under Spanish dominion it mixed, of whom it is made up. The qualities was divided into the provinces of Guatemala, which enabled the ancient Indian people of Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Cos- Mexico, Central America, and Peru, to beta Rica. These became independent states come civilized nations after a peculiar fashin 1821, and subsequently united to form the ion, are not extinct, and seem to be retained "Republic of Central America." They sepa- and re-developed in proportion to the preva rated again, in 1839, into so many distinct lence of Indian over Spanish blood. The Inrepublics. Nicaragua, Honduras, and San dians of Nicaragua are remarkable for indusSalvador have recently confederated. The try and docility; they are unobtrusive, hosentire region of Central America presents pitable, and brave, although, fortunately for very marked and important physical features. themselves, not warlike. They make good These are the great plain, six thousand feet soldiers, yet have no morbid taste for the above the sea, upon which stands the city of military profession. The men are agricultuGuatemala; the high plain forming the centre rists; the women occupy themselves with of Honduras and part of Nicaragua; and the the weaving of cotton, and make fabrics of elevated country of Costa Rica. Between good quality and tasteful design. It is interthe two latter lies the basin of the Nicara-esting to find the Tyrian dye still employed guan Lakes, with broad and undulating ver- in their manufactures. They procure it from dant slopes broken by steep volcanic cones, a species of Murex inhabiting the shores of and a few ranges of hills along the shores of tho the Pacific. They take the cotton thread to Pacific, intermingled with undulating plains. the sea-side, where, having gathered together Of the two great lakes, the lesser, Managua, is a sufficient quantity of shell-fish, they paone hundred and fifty-six feet, and the larger, tiently squeeze over the cotton the coloring Nicaragua, one hundred and twenty-eight feet fluid, at first pellucid and colorless, from the above the Pacific ocean. The former is fifty animals, one by one. At first the thread is or sixty miles in length by thirty-five wide, pale blue, but on exposure to the atmosphere the latter above a hundred miles long by becomes of the desired purple. This color is fifty wide. On or near their western borders so prized that purple thread dyed by cheaper are the chief cities of the country. Enormons and speedier methods, imported from Europe, isolated volcanic cones rise to the height of cannot supplant the native product. With from 4000 to 7000 feet in their neighborhood mingled humanity and thrift they replace the or on the islands that stud them. Numerous whelks in their native element, after these remains of antiquity, ruins of temples, and shell-fish have yielded up the precious liquor deserted monolithic idols, give interest to for which they were originally gathered. The their precincts, whilst the scenery is describ- Indian population also exclusively manufaced as being surpassingly grand and beautiful. ture variegated mats and hammocks from the The sole outlet is the river San Juan, a mag- Pita, a species of Agave, and are as skilful as nificent stream flowing from the southeast- their ancient ancestors in the making of potern extremity of Lake Nicaragua, for a length tery. They do not use the potter's wheel. of about ninety miles, into the Atlantic. The Politically they enjoy equal privileges with climate is generally healthy, more especially the whites, and all positions in church and towards the Pacific side. Nicaragua is inha- state are open to them. Among them are bited by a population of about 260,000, one- men of decided talent. Physically they are a half of which, or more, is composed of mixed smaller and paler race than the Indians of the breeds, Indians, in great part civilized, com- United States, but are well developed and ing next in number, then whites, of whom muscular. Their women are not unfrequentthere are about 25,000, and, lastly, some 15,-ly pretty, and when young are often very 000 Negroes. They live chiefly in towns, and finely formed. cultivate the soil, which is very productive, Happily in Nicaragua no distinctions of and capable of supporting a much larger pop-caste are recognized, or, at any rate, they ulation. The natural resources of Nicaragua have no influence. Such of the people as appear to be very great. Sugar, cotton, cof-claim to be of pure Spanish blood are, in fee, indigo, tobacco, rice, and maize, are the chief productions. There is, besides, great mineral wealth. In ancient times the aborigines appear to have occupied considerable cities, and to have attained a civilization comparable with that of the Mexicans. Indeed, Mr. Squier has proved, by philological and

most instances, evidently partly of Indian descent. The Sambos, or offspring of Indian and Negro parents, are a fine race of people, taller and stronger than the Indians.

Mr. Squier's admiration for the gentler (in Nicaragua we can scarcely say the fair) sex, has led him to picture very vividly the charms

and appearance of the ladies he encountered not content with the revenues they derive during his travels. The following is a precise and tempting description:

"The women of pure Spanish stock are very fair, and have the embonpoint which characterizes the sex under the tropics. Their dress, except in a few instances where the stiff costume of our own country had been adopted, was exceedingly loose and flowing, leaving the neck and arms exposed. The entire dress was often pure white, but gene rally the skirt, or nagua, was of some flowered stuff, in which case the guipil (anglicè, vandyke) was white, heavily trimmed with lace. Satin slippers, a red or purple sash wound loosely round the waist, and a rosary sustaining a little golden cross, with a narrow golden band or a string of pearls extending around the forehead and binding the hair, which often fell in luxuriant waves upon their shoulders, completed a costume as novel as it was graceful and picturesque. To all this, add the superior attractions of an oval face, regular | features, large and lustrous black eyes, small mouth, pearly white teeth, and tiny hands and feet, and withal a low but clear voice, and the reader has a picture of a Central American lady of pure stock. Very many of the women have, however, an infusion of other families and races, from the Saracen to the Indian and the Negro, in every degree of intermixture. And as tastes differ, so many opinions as to whether the tinge of brown, through which the blood glows with a peach-like bloom, in the complexion of the girl who may trace her lineage to the caziques upon one side, and the haughty grandees of Andalusia and Seville on the other, superadded, as it usually is, to a greater lightness of figure and animation of face, whether this is not a more real beauty than that of the fair and more languid señora, whose white and almost transparent skin bespeaks a purer ancestry. Nor is the Indian girl, with her full, little figure, long, glossy hair, quick and mischievous eyes, who walks erect as a grenadier beneath her heavy water-jar, and salutes you in a musical, impudent voice as you pass-nor is the Indian girl to be overlooked in the novel contrasts which the 'bello sexo' affords in this glorious land

of the sun."

The Nicaraguan ladies occupy themselves with smoking and displaying little feet in satin slippers when daily they go to church and back. In the early evening they occasionally pay visits, and if a number of both sexes happen to assemble at the same house a dance is improvised, though regular parties or balls are rare and ceremonial.

At festival seasons the Nicaraguans have some curious customs, apparently derived from their ancient heathen worship.

In some of the Nicaraguan towns, especially in Leon, the pernicious practice of burying the dead within the walls of city churches is persisted in, even as in London, and, just as with us, against the opposition of all sensible persons, including the government itself. Fees to the church and attendant officials are at the root of the evil, and give it a vitality that defies all attempts at eradication. The priests of Leon have evaded all edicts about this nuisance, and have improved upon the practice of our metropolitan parishes; for,

from funerals, they charge according to the length of time (from ten to twenty-five years) the dead are to be permitted by them to rest in their graves. When the purchased time is up, the bones and the earth derived from the decomposed corpses are removed and sold to the manufacturers of nitre! The least warlike of citizens may thus in the end become a defender of his country, when converted into a constituent of gunpowder. The most quiet and unambitious of mortals may complete his career by making a noise in the world, when fired off from a mortar. Assuredly this is a very novel and original method of shooting churchyard rubbish, and we recommend a fair consideration of it to our vested parochial authorities.

Mr. Squier claims to be the first person who has described the ancient monuments of Nicaragua, or, indeed, to have indicated their existence. Excellent and numerous plates and cuts of these very interesting though rather frightful relics are given in his work. Hitherto the antiquities of the northern portion of Central America only have been explored, and are familiar to us through the researches of Stephens and of Catherwood. The Indians still reverence the shrines and statues of their ancient gods, and are apt to conceal their knowledge about their localities and existence. Those described by our traveller have mostly suffered dilapidation through the religious zeal of the conquerors. They appear to differ among themselves somewhat in degree of antiquity, but there is no good reason- -this is the conclusion to which Mr. Squier comes-for supposing that they were not made by the nations found in possession of the country. The structures in or about which they were originally placed were probably of wood, and great mounds and earthworks, like the teocallis of Mexico, were associated with them.

A section of Mr. Squier's work is devoted to an elaborate dissertation on the proposed interoceanic canal, illustrated by an excellent map. We recommend these chapters to the consideration of all who are interested upon this important subject. Like most parts of his book it is defaced by not a few sneers at, and misstatements about, the English. About the bad taste of these outbursts we shall not That they should come from a say more. man who is professionally a diplomatist, is evidence of his indiscretion and unfitness for his political calling. As an amusing traveller and diligent antiquarian, however, we can do Mr. Squier full honor, and were glad to see the just compliment lately paid to him in Lon don, when our Antiquarian Society elected him an honorary member.

[This interesting and important work of our countryman is reviewed in a flattering manner in most of the great organs of critical opinion in England, and its sale there, as well as in, this country, has been very large for one so costly.]

From the Dublin University Magazine.
THE HEIRS OF RANDOLPH ABBEY.*
IV. THE MIDNIGHT VOICE AND ITS ANSWERED
CALL.

LADY RANDOLPH took leave of Lilias at

power; but as yet she had heard no other instrument than an antique harpsichord of her grandmother's, and such singing as the village girls regaled her with when they stood

at

work in the train had wonder, then, that

this wonderful strain had an effect upon her like that of enchantment; it seemed to take possession of her whole soul, and absorb every faculty. She became, as she listened, utterly unconscious of all things, save that this entrancing melody drew her towards it with an irresistible attraction; the sound was so distant, yet so clear, she could not tell if even it were within the house at all; but she did not ponder on its position, or on the nature of it; only, like one who walks in sleep, she rose mechanically on her feet to go to it. If her mind, steeped in that marvellous melody, could reflect at all, it was to conclude that she had fallen asleep and was dreaming, so that she had no thought but the longing not to awake from a dream so beautiful. Slowly drawn by the sweet sounds, as by invisible chains, she moved towards the door and opened it; then, sweeter, louder than before, floating into her very soul, came that angel voice, with the full swelling chords that seemed, as it were, to clothe it, filling her with a sense of enjoyment so intense, that she would have felt constrained to follow after it, even had she known it would lure her to some murderous precipice, like the dangerous sirens in the haunted woods of Germany.

the door of her room, and she having, with infinite trepidation, declined the services of the lady's maid, who seemed to her rather more awful and stately than the lady herself, soon remained alone in the magnificent apartment which had been assigned to her. She looked all around it with a glance of some disquietude, for the vastness of the room, and the dark oak furniture, made it look very gloomy. She contemplated the huge bed, which bore an unpleasant resemblance to a hearse, with the utmost awe; it seemed to her that there was room for a dozen concealed robbers within the massive folds of the sombre curtains, and the reflection of her own figure in the tall mirrors, looked strangely like a white ghost wandering stealthily to and fro; the only gleam of comfort that shone in upon her, was from the glimpse of the midnight sky that could be seen through the chinks of the window-shutters. As the night was not cold she went and threw the window open, feeling that the companionship of the stars would destroy all these fantastic fancies; and very soon her sense of loneliness and oppression passed away, for there came a soft wind that lifted the curls of her long fair hair, and kissed her cheek caressingly, and she could not help believing it was a breeze from the Irish hills Truly there was a strange fascination in that bore to her the blessing of her kind old this soft and sublime music, filling the quiet grandfather; gayly as ever she closed the night as with a soul, whose breathing was window and went to sit down, wondering if melody. And Lilias yielded without a ever she should feel inclined to sleep again thought, or effort, to the entrancing power, after the excitement of the last two days. which, like a mesmeric influence, drew her She had unbound her hair and let it fall imperiously towards it, panting and breatharound her like a golden veil, when, sudden-less, as though she feared the sounds would ly, a sound came floating towards her, on the still night air, which irresistibly attracted her attention.

die before she reached them-every faculty concentrated in the sense of hearing. She hastened rapidly along the passages down the It was a sound of music, deep solemn mu- wide staircase, and, guided by the deepening sic, rising with a power and richness of me- volume of the strain, reached the door of the lody she had never heard before; whence it great hall, which stood open. She passed came, or how it was produced, she could not within it, and at once discerned, that from conceive, for it seemed to her unpractised ear this room proceeded the wonderful harmony not to proceed from one instrument, but from which had so allured her, the instrument many, and yet there was through it all a whose solemn tones formed the accompaniunity of harmony which could result from ment was evidently the magnificent organ the influence of a single mind alone: now, it which stood at the further end of the hall; swelled out into soft thunders that vibrated and, as she had never heard one before, it is through the long passages up to the very roof not to be wondered at that now, when a of her vaulted room, and deep into her beat-hand endowed with extraordinary skill drew ing heart, then it died away to a whisper forth its full power, she should have been faint as the sigh of a child, only to rise again enraptured; but it was not so much the mamore glorious than before; and, over all, jesty of sound, swelling from the noblest inheard distinct as the lark in heaven at morn-strument in the world, that had so won the ing's dawn, there thrilled a voice of such unearthly sweetness that she could not believe it belonged to an inhabitant of this world.

Lilias had one of those sensitive passionate souls over whom music has an uncontrollable Continued from page 387.

VOL. V.-NO. IV-31

very soul within her as the voice, sounding almost celestial to her ears, which still was thrilling with unutterable sweetness through the echoing hall. However glorious those deep low chords, it was yet only the metal which gave them forth; but there was a spi

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