gladdened by the breeze, while the flowers bent even to the wet grass and rose again tearstained and shivering.

"The pixies ever bestow on their visitors a gift of their own choice; what will you have, Zacky ?" asked the king, in a faint voice. "Plase your honour, there's nauthing like hard cash," answered Zacky, eagerly.

66

Bring me the vervain, the fern seed, and the dill," cried the king; "sprinkle it with the juice of rue growing beneath the churchyard yew, mix it with the midnight dew, beneath the moon distilling. Now drink that," said the king, suddenly descending from his rush and his poetry together, and presenting to Zacky's lips a horn cup filled with a sparkling mixture.

Zacky drank it up, and instantly felt the ground quake beneath him; then he found himself going down, down deep into the bowels of the earth.

"This yur mine is deeper than ould Tresadian, Dolcoath, or Ding-Dong put together, I reckon," said Zacky, as he went on from ladder to ladder, scarcely pausing on the sollers, or rests, to take breath.

"You may well say so," said the king, "for we have passed through two seas and a continent."

Here to Zacky's surprise they began to twist about sideways, and go up a level instead of down.

"We are in the gold country," said the king, "look around." He stopped as he spoke, and Zacky was glad to do the same.

All the pixies were around them, and their golden crowns shone down from inaccessible galleries hanging high up in the darkness, or glimmered upwards from depths whither Zacky's giddy sight scarcely dared follow them. In a moment he perceived they were gone to light up the lamps that hung from roof and pillar in this vast palace. At a touch these blazed into light, and Zacky beheld a sight that struck him breathless.

Vast columns of gold and silver, hung with sparkling gems, supported a dazzling roof of sapphire studded with diamond stars. A paveanent of polished jasper and agate reflected the thousand thousand lights, the glittering forms of the fairies, the shining pillars, and resplendent roof.

"This is our treasure-house," said the king, "take what you will. But first," he cried, come hither, pixies, and give him his choice."

Down from the galleries, and up the agate stairs from unknown depths, came the rush of hurrying feet, thousands and yet thousands more of tiny pixies assembled like an army round their king. Then from out the serried ranks there stepped a sorrowful little spirit whose wings drooped heavily and who regarded Zacky with a wistful look. He held in his hand the shadow of a child, and yet it was not a shadow, for it turned, twisted, and changed like a vision, sometimes showing the child asleep in its mother's arms; sometimes playing in a garden, its tiny fingers filled with flowers; sometimes with brow intent frowning with infantine wisdom o'er a book; once training a little cart and horse with mimic earnestness; then lisping prayers at its father's knee with wistful look bent upwards, and the man's rough hand among his silken curls; and, lastly, in the placid sleep of death, with pale, quiet, angel face, and white hands crossed on its bosom.

"What shall I give you, Zacky ?" said the king, and his voice was fainter than before. "What's the good of memory ?" muttered Zacky to himself; "money, plase your honour," he said sturdily.

The drooping spirit grasped the shadow in the hollow of his hand, and every changing vision instantly vanished; then the pixies opened their ranks for him, and he crept in among them with weary wings, and lagging step.

Again a deep silence, save for a child's sob, which broke on the ear, and then died away as though it had never been.

The lights began to wave, and a creeping darkness came gathering in around them.

66

Bring a penny-royal from our mint," said the king, and his voice was like a faint echo now.

Through the waving light Zacky saw a hundred hands lift a round thing-whether leaf or penny he knew not-to his eyes, and rub them gently, then through his gathering blindness he surely saw the king pick from pillar and pavement a shining heap of gold, which Zacky took with greedy hands and thrust into his pockets. But as his fingers clutched the glittering metal the pixies faded away, the pillars fell down into dust, the lights died out, and total darkness sank over him. He groped a step or two forward in his blindness, and then fell heavily to the earth, dashing his head against a stone with a loud thud.

T last we were in the bed of the clam, and

I had believed, and wilder; and jagged rocks, now that I stood beside them, had grown to twice the size they seemed before. There was no verdure anywhere, all was sharp bleak grey stone. It was an uncomfortable feeling to look up at the blue sky, and to feel yourself in an abyss of rocks, with no visible outlet by which to regain the living world; for here was no vestige even of life. To get up the rocks where the chamois lay was indeed not so easy as I had thought. Though none of them were high, some of them were almost perpendicular, and every little projection sharp as a needle; but what was worse than all, each piece of stone that might have served to hold by, or as a support to rest the foot on, crumbled away beneath a moderate pressure, so that if you placed your toe or the side of your foot on such a little projection, hardly broader, perhaps, than the face of your watch, but still sufficient, if firm, to help you upwards, just when you thought it might be trusted, and your whole weight leaned upon the edge, it would suddenly break like a dry stick; and if you happened to be some way up, you came sliding down again, tearing your knees, while your hands clutched at the sharp points to save yourself from falling to the bottom. Presently we reached a narrow ledge, and Xavier, who was in advance, sprang thence to a small crag opposite.

The space to be cleared was nothing, but it required great nicety in landing properly on the crag, and in stopping the instant your feet rested on it, so that you might not topple over the other side. The pinnacle of rock was very narrow, and all below sharp and pointed. Xavier, with his rifle well up behind his back, and his pole in his right hand, was over in a second, and stood as firm and upright on his lofty narrow footing as though he had merely stepped across. Should I follow? If I made the jump with too much impetus I should not be able to stop myself, and then

!

"Is there no other way, Xavier, of reaching where you are but by jumping over ?"

"No," replied he, "you cannot cross except by jumping; it isn't wide."

No; but the other side-that's the thing: it is deep, is it not?"

"Why yes, rather deep; but come, you can do it."

"I feel I cannot, so will not try," I replied, and began to look for some other way. The cleft itself across which Xavier sprang was only about twelve or fourteen feet deep. I was at the bottom of it, and while standing between the two rocks I thought I might manage to climb up as a sweep passes up a perpendicular flue, to which this place had great resemblance. I was nearing the top of my chimney when the chamois, seeing Xavier

approach, leapt down into the chasm below, so

Coming down the chimney, it not being narrow enough, I found to be more difficult work than getting up.

The chamois was now some distance below us, so we climbed down to a broad slanting surface of rock like an immense table, one end of which was lifted very high. The plane was so inclined that to walk there was hardly possible. Every now and then the brittle surface would crack off; however, difficult as it was, and in spite of a slip or two, I managed to proceed. At last I was obliged to go on all fours. Some minutes after I began to slip backward. The stone crumbled away as it came in contact with my thickly-nailed shoes, which I tried to dig into the rock and thus stop my descent. I strove to seize on every little inequality regardless of the sharp edges; but as my fingers, bent convulsively like talons, scraped the stone, it crumbled off as though it had been baked clay, tearing the skin like ribands from my fingers, and cutting into the flesh. Having let go my pole I heard it slipping down behind me, its iron point clanging as it went; and then it flew over the ledge, bounding into the depths below; in a moment I must follow, for with all my endeavours I was unable to stop myself. I knew the brink was near, and expected each moment to feel my feet in the air. Xavier, who by some means or other had got higher, looked round when he heard my stick rebounding from the rock, and saw my position. To help was impossible; indeed, he might himself slip, and in another moment come down upon me. He looked and said nothing, awaiting the result of the next second in silence.

I had made up my mind to go over the brink and thought all was lost, when suddenly one foot, as I still kept trying to hold by something, was stopped by a little inequality arresting my descent. I was very thankful, but still feared the piece of rock against which my foot leaned might crumble like the rest, and let me slip further. Hardly venturing to move, lest the motion might break it off, I gently turned my head to see how far I was from the brink. My foot had stopped not a couple of inches from the edge of the rock; but this much further and I should have gone backwards into it. With the utmost caution I drew up first one knee and then the other, and again crawled forward.

At length we reached the place where the chamois was last seen, and binding up my torn fingers in order not to confound the drops of blood falling from them with that of the chamois, tracked the wounded animal to a hollow so jagged and broken, that there was not a place broad enough to stand upon which was not sharp and cutting. At last, however, we reached him, as I was glad to find-dead.

WHO

HO invented boots and shoes? Benedict Baddouth (one of the most learned men of the sixteenth century, was a shoemaker, as was likewise his father), wrote a treatise on shoemaking, and traced the art to Adam. As we cannot hope to find higher antiquity, we adopt this last conclusion of Baddouth, and take it for granted that our great progenitor was the first to turn his attention to our poor feet, and executed boots and shoes in the first style of art.

There is no doubt that boots and shoes were known at a very early period of the world's history-that is to say, coverings for the feet were generally adopted by ancient nations. The sandal was probably the original form of foot gear-that is, a sole preserving the foot from contact with the road, and fastened in its position by straps attached to the sole crossed over the instep, and bound round the leg. Soles of bark, wood, raw hide, and ultimately leather, were used, and the straps or thongs variously disposed, so as effectually to secure the sole at the bottom of the foot. The Egyptians wore sandals; those of the priests were made of papyrus, the plant which was used for literary purposes, and has given the name to paper; those worn by women and the upper classes were usually pointed and turned up at the end like our skates. Some had a sharp flat point, others were nearly round; they were made of flexible materials, and often lined with cloth. It was not unusual to have the figure of a slave painted on the inside of the shoe, partly for ornament and partly to humiliate the enslaved classes, who were thus literally trodden under foot. The shoe was merely an addition to the sandal, and we find that it was adopted at an early period, although sandals still continued in use, and are still very extensively worn in the East; in appearance some of them are exceedingly tasty. There was, so to speak, quite a run on feet, and it was all in vain for austere people to denounce the fashion. When Holofernes fell in love with Judith, it was not the general splendour of her attire-her bracelets, rings, and necklace-but her sandals that ravished his eyes. We are reminded of those lines

"Her feet beneath her petticoat, Like little mice peeped in and out, As if they feared the light." In describing the charms of the prince's daughter, Solomon says, "How beautiful are thy feet with sandals."

A shoe is but a covered sandal-a successful attempt to obtain a more complete covering for the foot. Ancient Roman shoes were at first formed of rude untanned leather, and were only worn out of doors, even by people of quality. Wooden shoes were generally worn by the poorer people, as they are still in France and in some parts of the north of England. When tanned leather came into use the people of quality adopted the new fashion so readily that the law-which in this respect was what Mr. Bumble declares the law to be in all respects, an ass-interfered, and refused to allow

any but those who had served the office of ædile to wear red slippers. Roman senators wore shoes or buskins of black, with a gold or silver crescent at the top of the foot. The Emperor Aurelian forbade any man to wear coloured shoes, allowing them only to be worn by the ladies; and Heliogabalus forbade women to wear jewelled shoes. The Roman soldiers had their boots studded with iron nails, points outwards; but luxury found its way even into shoe-nails, and the officers adopted gold nails, which, supposing them to have been paid for out of the public money, must have formed a considerable item in the annual balance-sheet.

Our ancient British forefathers, so far from exposing their poor feet to the sharp stones and rough weather, adopted shoes which they manufactured of cow-hide, specimens of which have been discovered in ancient graves. When the Romans set foot in our island they, of course, brought their shoes with them, and the pattern was adopted by the Britons; the Saxons introduced boots, not unlike the modern Blucher; but whether Roman, Briton, or Saxon, religious people seem to have invariably adhered to sandals; the bishops, priests, and deacons all wore sandals; all the saints in all the illuminated missals were represented as wearing them also; devout persons on pilgrimage employed them: hence when the young lady is requested to furnish some distinct particulars whereby her young man may be recognized, he being on pilgrimage, she

answers:

"By his cockle hat and staff, And by his sandal shoon." The Normans appear to have devoted particular attention to their feet covering, and to have dyed their leather all the colours of the rainbow in order to add grace to the effect; sometimes the upper part of the shoe was made of satin, gashed here and there, not as a relief to corns, but as showing the lining of a complimentary colour below; the toes were always pointed, and sometimes twisted into fantastic forms-now like a ram's horn, now like a cow's-horn, now like a scorpion's tail. The clergy inveighed against the fashion, and could detect the smell of brimstone in the devices of the shoemakers: they could very well afford to abuse them, as ecclesiastical law enjoined a simplicity of attire, which made them very wroth indeed, as it might have done with you or me; for is it not written, As well out of the world as out of the fashion?

Richard the Lionheart had his boots striped with gold; John Lackland, his brother, had his boots spotted with golden circles; and Henry III. had his boots chequered with golden lines, every square enriched with a lion. In the splendid court of Edward III. the boots and shoes were of the most magnificent character. The clergy as well as the laity appear to have taken up the prevailing fashion, and, according to Chaucer, the young priest Absalon had

"Paul's windows corven on his shoes;" that is to say, a device analogous to the pat

the vagaries of Madame Mode. It cut them short if they happened to be an inch beyond the statute, and lessened their enormous width when they spread out in that direction. The shoes of the Tudor period were remarkable for the little shelter which they gave the feet, the stocking was well exposed, the toes being scarcely covered with a narrow edging of puffed satin. In the reign of Elizabeth the chafinery came into fashion. These were high wooden supports, short stilts, on which ladies mounted in order to look down upon the men -many of these stilts were curiously painted; and when the fashion was carried literally to a great height it was essential that somebody should attend my lady if she walked abroad to save her from a tumble, or pick her up if such an accident befel.

Boots with gentlemen were highly esteemed in the days of King James, and, indeed, throughout the Stuart period. Thick, clumsy riding boots,-boots with tops that turned over in walking, and displayed an ornamental lining; then there were the broad boots, edged with lace, worn by the scamps and dandies; high-heeled boots, red-heeled boots, boots as unlike boots of our time as boots can be.

Short boots, or shoes and buckles, were fashionable in the days of William III., except for riding, when the heavy boot was still worn. The ladies wore fixed clogs, and what those ladies suffered may be guessed from the fact that it was necessary to invent instruments to expand the shoe. "Shoemakers," says an authority of that date, "love to put ladies in their stocks; but these wedges, like merciful justices, upon complaint, soon do ease and deliver them." High-heeled shoes were worn

Wittington reprend courage,
Dans la ville il est entré;
Travailleur, instruit et sage,
Il s'élève par degré.
Son maître avait une fille
Jeune, modeste, et gentille;
Whittington est adoré.

Il obtient la main d'Elise,

by the ladies for three parts of the eighteenth century; they raised their fair wearers some inches, rendered walking difficult, running impossible-except running into debt; the gentlemen usually wore shoes and stockings; but all this changed, the heels of the ladies sank down, slippers came into vogue,-gentlemen adopted boots; "bucks" and "bloods," that is to say, the fast men of that age, addicted themselves to top boots;- gradually slippers disappeared, and the present form or forms of boots were brought in for the ladies, -boots of a convenient and tolerably comfortable build for the gentlemen,-as if, finally, the patron of the shoemakers, St. Crispin, had inspired his devotees with a little wisdom, to which it is hoped they will stick to the last. Our poor feet have suffered much from the shoemaker at various periods of history; for however ridiculous the fashion, the foot was sure to be put in it. The Chinese women pride themselves on their little feet, and cripple themselves for life in order that they may look small; Englishwomen, ay, and some men, have done the same, when all that a tight boot can ever show is a narrowness of understanding.

Our advice is, never wear a tight boot, because it is painful and injurious; never wear boots that are wet through, if you can help it, because, in all probability, you will catch cold; never wear dirty boots, because it is slovenly; never wear boots that are unfitted for your position, because it is snobbish; and, lastly, never allow yourself to occupy the position of the stump orator, who, when he declared that he stood upon the soil of freedom, received the cutting rebuke-" You stand in a pair of boots you never paid for!"

BALLADE.

Et pendant leur union,
Quatre cloches dans l'église,
Répétaient en carillon :-
Wittington! Wittington!
Tu seras Lord Maire de London.

Associé de beau-père,
Wittington, par son labeur,
Son ordre, son savoir-faire,
Devint riche et grand seigneur;
Par la faveur populaire,

Il fut déclaré Lord Maire.
Jugez quel fut son bonheur !
On fétoya dans la ville,

On tira force canon,

Et des cloches, plus de mille,
Répétaient en carillon :-
Wittington! Wittington!

Te voilà Lord Maire de London.

We shall be delighted to receive ver sions of the above, done into English by any of our boys who are disposed to favour us.