4.

Hearts in that time closed o'er the trace,
Of vows once fondly poured,

And strangers took the kinsman's place,
At many a joyous board.

Graves which true love had bathed with tears
Were left to Heaven's bright rain;
Fresh hopes were born for other years—
He never smiled again!

FRIENDSHIP.

Small service is true service while it lasts;
Of friends, however humble, scorn not one:

The daisy by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dew-drop from the sun.

WORDSWORTH.

LEICHARDT.

'He who travels the untracked forest is in a continual state of excitement; now buoyed with hope as he urges on his horse towards some distant range or blue mountain, or as he follows the favourable bend of a river; now all despairing and miserable, as he approaches the foot of the range without finding water, from which he could start again with renewed strength, or as the river turns in an unfavourable direction, and slips out of his course. Evening approaches; the sun has sunk below the horizon for some time, but still he strains his eye through the gloom

for the dark verdure of a creek, or strives to follow the arrow-like flight of a pigeon, the flapping of whose wings had filled him with a sudden hope, from which he relapses again into a still greater sadness. With a sickened heart he drops his head to a broken and interrupted rest, while his horse is standing hobbled by his side, unwilling, from excess of thirst, to feed on the dry grass.

'How often have I found myself in these different states of the brightest hope and the deepest misery, riding along, thirsty, almost lifeless, and ready to drop from my saddle with fatigue. The poor horse, tired like his rider, stumbling over every stone, running heedlessly against the trees, and wounding my knees. But suddenly the note of Grallina Australis, the call of cockatoos, or the croaking of frogs, is heard, and hopes are bright again. Water is certainly at hand; the spur is applied to the flank of the tired beast, which already partakes in its rider's anticipations, and quickening his pace, a lagoon, a river, or a creek is before him!

"The horse is soon unsaddled, hobbled, and well washed; a fire is made, the teapot is put to the fire, the meat is dressed, the enjoyment of the poor reconnoiterer is perfect, and a prayer of thankfulness to the Almighty God, who protects the wanderer on his journey, bursts from his grateful lips.'

A STATE DIFFICULTY.

Amongst the presents carried out by our first embassy to China was a state-coach. It had been specially selected as a personal gift by George III.; but the exact mode of using it was an intense mystery to Pekin. The ambassador,

indeed, had given some imperfect explanations upon this point, but as his Excellency had communicated these in a diplomatic whisper at the very moment of his departure, the celestial intellect was very feebly illuminated, and it became necessary to call a cabinet council on the grand state question: Where was the emperor to sit?' The hammercloth happened to be unusually gorgeous; and partly on that consideration, but partly also because the box offered the most elevated seat, was nearest to the moon, and undeniably went foremost, it was resolved by acclamation that the box was the imperial throne; and for the scoundrel who drove, he might sit where he could find a perch. The horses, therefore, being harnessed, solemnly his Imperial Majesty ascended his new English throne, under a flourish of trumpets, having the first lord of the treasury on his right hand, and the chief jester on his left.

Pekin gloried in the spectacle; and in the whole flowery people, constructively present by representation, there was but one discontented person, and that was the coachman. This mutinous individual audaciously shouted : 'Where am I to sit?' But the privy-council, incensed by his disloyalty, unanimously opened the door, and kicked him into the inside. He had all the inside places to himself; but such is the cupidity of ambition, that he was still dissatisfied. 'I say,' he cried out, in an extempore petition, addressed to the emperor through the window-'I say, how am I to catch hold of the reins?'

'Anyhow,' was the imperial answer. 'Don't trouble me, man, in my glory. How catch the reins? Why, through the windows-through the keyholes-anyhow!'

Finally, this contumacious coachman lengthened the check-strings into a sort of jury-reins, communicating with

the horses; with these, he drove as steadily as Pekin had any right to expect.

The emperor returned after the briefest of circuits; he descended in great pomp from his throne, with the severest resolution never to remount it. A public thanksgiving was ordered for his majesty's happy escape from the disease of broken neck, and the stage-coach was dedicated thenceforward as a votive offering to the god Fo Fo, whom the learned more accurately called Fi Fi.

THE LORDLING PEASANT.

PART FIRST.

1.

The baron sat on his castle wall,

And beheld both dale and down ;
The manors that stretched so far away,
He knew to be all his own.

2.

The warders blew their sounding horns,
And their banners waved in air;
Their horns resounded o'er the dale,

Their colours shone afar.

3.

The baron he sighed as he looked above,
And he sighed as he looked adown;
Although the rich manors that stretched so far,
He knew to be all his own.

4.

Up then arose his ancient nurse

That had borne him on her knee

'And why dost thou sigh, thou noble youth, At a sight so fair to see?'

5.

Oh! then, upspake that noble baron,

And heavily spake he,

'But I've never a true and faithful wife

To share it all with me.

6.

'And if I should marry a courtly dame
(Alas! that it so should be),

She'd love my castle and love my lands,
But she would not care for me.'

7.

Oh! then upspake that ancient nurse'Now take advice of me :

If you'd have a true wife, then go and find A maiden of low degree.

8.

'And be thou disguised in plain attire,

And like a peasant rove,

But let her not know thy high degree:

So shalt thou prove her love.'

9.

Then called the baron his young foot-page,

Full loudly called he :

The bonnie foot-page full swiftly ran,

And knelt him on his knee.