suggestive of a good time, rendered doubly interesting by the presence of the fair young lady, though we fear she is rather heartless, for she does not appear to have a particle of sympathy for the unfortunate fellow with the pug nose, who seems to be more astonished than hurt by his mishap. The sleigh-ride on the left is doubtless very exciting, and we hope our readers will see more in it in reality than they do of the picture. We are curious to know who are in the sleigh, and also whether they are subscribers to OUR Boys and Girls, which could be determined if only a little more of the driver's arm were exhibited. The dog keeps up well, and we join with the individual who is unanimously giving three cheers. The snow image appears to be about completed, and the Boys and Girls seem to be delighted with the icy-cold individual. The character of the flag on the snow fortress we are unable to determine, and therefore cannot sympathize with either party; but we hope both will have a good time; and fight the battle for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful as zealously as they do their mimic conflict. THE PRANK WE PLAYED ON THE CARPENTER. ONE BY WILLIAM L. WILLIAMS. NE Saturday afternoon, in the pleasant summer-time, Ike Denny, Joe Buckingham, and I were wandering listlessly through the streets of Merryport, at a loss to know what to do with ourselves. We had tried various -games, without being interested in any of them, and finally decided to look around and see what was going on. Merryport was a quiet place; yet there was always something "going on " there to amuse us boys. Perhaps it was a pig to be killed, a new fire engine to squirt, a vessel to be launched, or a load of hay tipped over- something to vary the monotony of country life. Our footsteps led us to Russell Square -a very pretty, green spot, in the heart of the town, where the fresh, clean sward made a charming couch to lie upon. Throwing ourselves upon it, we gazed into the air, and wished ourselves birds, that we could travel far up into the deep azure, and feel what it was to see the round world far beneath us. "Hallo!" exclaimed Ike; "there's old Whittle fixing the roof of the meeting-house." "He went up into the belfry first, and climbed down to the ridge-pole by that rope you see hanging there," replied I. "Let's go up there," suggested Ike. "Enough said," replied Joe and I; and we all three started for the meeting-house. The doors were all unlocked, and we easily found our way to the belfry, where we were delighted with the extensive view which met our gaze. On one side we could see the sparkling, blue waters of the rapid river which laved the banks of Merryport flowing on, until they rolled, in long, surging waves, against the glistening sands of the distant island. On the other side, we could see the green fields and wooded hills stretching back till they met the sky; and we all thought, and we think so now, that Merryport was the most beautiful place in the world. Then we examined the great bell, which hung so solemnly in the belfry, always ready for any duty whether to peal out a gladsome sound at a wedding, or to toll sadly at the funeral rites; to ring quietly and decorously for the solemn service of the sanctuary, or to send out the wild alarum for fire. The boys had heard it on all these occasions, and they regarded it with a good deal of awe and curiosity. Finally, Joe wished to test the weight of the ponderous tongue, and to swing it "just a little; " but it struck with a sharp, reverberating sound against the edge of the bell, startling us all, and causing old Whittle to sing out, "What are you about up there, you young villains? Leave that belfry quick, or I'll fling this hatchet at your heads! Come, clear!" "We might as well be going,” said Joe, “for I, for one, don't want to be tomahawked; the old chap is mad as a March hare, and will be at us tooth and nail if we stay a minute longer." "Shingle nail or tenpenny?" asked Ike. "Shingle," said Joe; and then he added, "By the way, I should think carpenters would always be out of health." "Because, if they do not have an ache, they always have anail," answered Joe; and we all laughed. | When we reached the foot of the flight of stairs leading from the belfry, my eye caught sight of the key in the lock of the door. "Look here, boys!" I exclaimed; "this is the way we'll pay off old Whittle for being sarcy to us; " and I turned the key, locking the door fast, and placed it in a sort of candlestick which hung from the ceiling. "Capital!" exclaimed Joe and Ike. "Won't the ancient curmudgeon have a job to get home "Deacon Whittle lingered long over his work that night; perhaps he would have "knocked off" sooner had he known how difficult his passage to terra firma was to be. But the sun had hidden itself behind the tall walnut trees on Turkey Hill before the busy tapping of the carpenter's hatchet had ceased; and still we three mischief-makers kept our watch upon the square, to see how "old Whittle" was coming out. one month's confinement in the house between school hours; but I managed to behave myself so splendidly that the sentence was commuted to two weeks. But we always laughed, and always shall laugh when we think of the prank we played on the carpenter. POETS' HOMES. BY THOMAS POWELL. Author of "The Blind Wife," "Florentine Tales," "Simon de RICHARD HENRY HORNE. HORNE ORNE wrote several plays, wasted much time in dangling after managers, and then found that it had been labor in vain. We saw him climb into the belfry and disappear. Ten or fifteen minutes "rolled on," and I must not forget to relate here a little anecthe man of chips reappeared on the bell deck, dote, which Horne used to tell with evident looking anything but "chipper." He looked gusto. Meeting Mr. Bunn, the manager of anxiously around, as if to find help. We lay low, and kept very dark. Round and round Drury Lane, at a friend's house, he was enhe walked, peering over the edges, as if medi-couraged, by that specimen manager, to send for his perusal a tragedy, which he had just tating a leap into the street below; but not finished. After several months' fruitless ena place seemed soft enough for such a high jump. "He puts me in mind of our old cat," said Ike; "when I put her on a high place, she walks first to one place, and then another, but does not dare to jump." "Look at him; he is pulling up the bell rope," whispered Joe. Sure enough, he pulled up the long bell rope, and let it hang down on the outside of the church tower. It only came within about ten feet of the ground. But the " deacon" had made up his mind to risk it; and so he came down that rope till he reached the end, and then he dropped upon the stone steps with such a "jounce" that his hat came off, he lost his balance, and rolled, in a very undignified manner, down to the sidewalk. pent-up mirth burst forth, and with shouts of laughter, we sprang to our feet, and ran away. Then our But our retribution soon came; for Deacon Whittle did not sleep that night until he had called at each of our houses, and complained to our fathers, for he naturally guessed that we three boys were the culprits. The exasperated carpenter was assured that we should be properly punished; and so we were. Joe Buckingham was sentenced to be deprived of a week's visit to Boston, that he had been looking forward to with "great expectations." Ike Denny was sentenced to one day's solitary confinement in the garret, and to stay at home from a picnic to saw wood. I was sentenced to deavors to get an answer, Horne's patience was exhausted, and he proceeded to Drury Lane Theatre, to demand from Mr. Bunn the return of his manuscript. Bunn positively promised to send it to him without delay. The next day a parcel arrived, with the following note: — DRURY LANE THEATRE. MY DEAR MR. HORNE: I have searched everywhere, in vain, for your beautiful tragedy of Alsargis. I am afraid that I must have sent it to a wrong party. It was, to the best of my recollection, a tragedy in five acts. I therefore send you herewith three unclaimed farces of two acts each, which leaves a balance of one act in my favor. Believe me ever, Dear Mr. Horne, Yours, sincerely, ALFRED BUNN. Two years afterwards Horne received his long-lost tragedy. I have forgotten what became of the three farces. In 1841, he became joint editor with myself of a volume entitled Chaucer Modernized a work of great pretension, our contributors being Wordsworth, Leigh Hunt, Elizabeth Barrett (afterwards Mrs. Browning), Robert Bell, Barry Cornwall, and Leonhard Schmitz. An anecdote connected with this publication will illustrate Horne's love of practical joking. The proprietor and chief editor of the London Spectator was a snarling Scotchman, named Rintoul, whose distinguishing virtue was an fectly Shakesperian; his eyes a light bluishutter detestation of poetry. Very well know- gray; his hair, which is a light auburn, he ing the severe handling we should receive wore in long ringlets, reaching to his shoulfrom the canny Scotchman when our book ap- ders. He has a very sweet voice, and sings and peared, Horne proposed to me to commence | plays with great skill. He is a most amusing the campaign at once, and carry the war into companion, and relates an adventure with adAfrica. As the Spectator was renowned for its mirable effect. The recent articles in Dickens's atrabilious criticisms, we purchased a box of All Round the World, about Australia, are Cockle's anti-bilious pills, round which Horne from his pen. wrote, "To be taken one hour before the book is reviewed." On the volume we wrote, "This mixture to be taken one hour after the pills." The book and the pills were then enclosed in one parcel, and sent by a trusty messenger to Mr. Rintoul. | He is a man of great industry and research, and was despatched, in 1841, by the British government, to investigate the condition of the poor of Sheffield and Birmingham. He was also the Irish commissioner of the Daily News when it was started in 1846. His fearless exIn the next paper the book was very fairly posure of the sufferings of the Irish poor caused reviewed, Rintoul's only revenge being that, a great sensation at that time. He is of a very "Good as the book was, it would have been earnest, irritable nature, and, despite his great better had the contributions by those amateur genius, is somewhat too sensitive on the score writers - Thomas Powell and Richard Henry of criticism. He severed an old friendship Horne been altogether excluded." Horne with Heraud because he thought the latter had was jocularly indignant at being called an somewhat too sharply reviewed one of his amateur, for he was then forty years old, and works. Nevertheless, he is a true man, and had been an author of repute for twenty years. the day is not distant when he will be conHorne's retaliation consisted, afterwards, insidered one of the finest poets and dramatists persuading as many friends as he could, when of the age. The religion of Mr. Horne is they published a new volume, to forward it to Unitarian. Rintoul, with some cooling medicine; and in recording in the magazine - the Monthly Repository, which he edited that at the dinner of the Literary Fund, "Mr. Rintoul, of the Spectator, indulged in the luxury of a superb plate of thistles, which he munched with natural relish." The next year Horne assisted me in writing A New Spirit of the Age - a work chiefly remarkable for containing the first portraits ever published of Browning, Tennyson, and Carlyle. Horne's remaining works are, An Exposition of the False Medium, Ballad Romances, and Judas Iscariot, besides numerous occasional pieces in prose and verse. In 1846 he married Elizabeth Foggs, the daughter of a well-known artist; and in 1850 he went to Australia with William Howitt and his son, whither they were attracted by the gold discoveries. His career there has been very varied, having performed the roles of golddigger without success, mounted patrol, and finally police magistrate of Ballerat. turned to England a few months since, and intends, we believe, visiting this country in the course of the year. He re In person Horne is short, and inclined to corpulency. His face is remarkably fine, his features being regular and delicately chiselled, THE magnificent gardens of Mehemet Ali, in Egypt, are now the property of his only surviving son, Halim Pacha. All the way from Cairo to these gardens extended an avenue of majestic acacias, many of them planted by the hand of Mehemet Ali himself. It appears that this great man has a wicked grandson, Ismail Pacha, who, in a fit of spite and revenge against his uncle Halim, has most maliciously ordered the entire destruetion of these trees. AT the great Handel festival, recently held at the Crystal Palace, in London, the chorus consisted of more than four thousand trained voices. The Prince and Princess of Wales did not deign to lend the grace of their presence to the festival, much to the disgust of the music-loving public, who confidently expected to see them there. THE Admittetur - a prize of sixty dollars for the best entrance examination at Trinity College - was awarded to John M. Bates, of Waterford, N. Y. THEY have twenty duels a week at Heidelberg. THERE are three thousand students in while his forehead, which is very bald, is per- the art schools of London. 3 I THE ORATOR. DIRECTIONS.-Words in sMALL CAPITALS should be emphasized; words in CAPITALS should be strongly emphasized. The numbers refer to the gestures represented in the margin; and when followed by the sign, the position should be continued to the next number. The gesture should correspond with the emphasis. The asterisks * indicate the more important rhetorical pauses. sweep of overwhelming ARMIES, no ponderous 'TREATISES on the rights of man, no HYMNS to liberty, though set to martial music, and resounding with the full diapason of a million human throats, can exert so persuasive an INFLUENCE as does the spectacle of a great 'REPUBLIC, occupying a quarter of the civilized globe, and GOVERNED quietly and sagely by the PEOPLE itself. No man outside a "MADHOUSE "HOPES or A REPRESENTATIVE REPUB- WISHES, since the war, to 'UPSET the Amer LIO. BY J. LOTHROP MOTLEY. NEV [EVER BEFORE did a REPRESENTATIVE republic, on any considerable scale, EXIST. Popular REPRESENTATION the election of men to speak each for a hundred thousand or more of their fellowcitizens at some common central 4 point, FAMILIAR as we are with it; so much so that it seems like one of the ELEMENTAL LAWS -was entirely 1UNKNOWN to the republics, great and small, of ANTIQUITY, or of the MIDDLE AGES. That which makes the democratic republic POSSIBLE and perfectly CONVENIENT on the vast scale of THIS Country, was never 'IMAGINED BEFORE. The democratic FORCE in OLDER republics 6 EVAPORATED USELESSLY or "EXPLODED BALEFULLY, because no ENGINE had been invented by which 5 7 * We ican republic. The thing cannot be **DONE; MAN becomes 2MASTER of the super-derived from an old Norse custom of divinaRUNIC LETTERS appear to have been human STRENGTH of men, of the aggregated THOUGHT and 'WILL of great multitudes. tion, which consisted in shaking up a bundle of little sticks, and from the characters they formed a prophetic language was educed. Runic letters are in the form of sticks thus thrown together; and all over Denmark, Norway, and Sweden may be seen rude runic inscriptions upon large rocks. The language is so nearly allied to the Gothic, that these inscriptions — of which more than a thousand have been found- can easily be read by an tiquarians; but they throw no light upon the early history of these countries. Most of the inscriptions are epitaphs on tombstones, to which Poe alludes in his poem of "The Bells," "In a sort of runic rhyme." A SMART girl in Iowa, sixteen years old, recently despatched a large lynx with a corn-cutter, after two dogs had retired from the contest. |