A LUCKY FELLOW.

The Echo de l'Oise recounts the following bit of good fortune which has fallen to the lot of a young sailor, named Laurendeau. It appears that when only fourteen years of age, at Rouen, he saw a young English lady fall into the river when landing at the Quay. Laurendeau jumped in, and was fortunate enough to lay hold of her, but being caught by the clothes by some of the iron-work of the vessel, they both would have lost their lives had not persons present released him with a boathook. The mother of the young lady thanked him warmly, and made him a present, and also paid the expense he incurred in curing the wound he had received in the leg from the boat-hook. Laurendeau had neither seen nor heard of the persons for fifteen years, when an English gentleman came to him, and alluding to his act of courage, and in order to be certain of his identity, had his leg examined by a medical man, who clearly recognised the mark made by the hook. When thus certain of his man, the Englishman told Laurendeau that the young lady whose life he had saved wished to thank him in person, and to present him with an annuity for life of 10,000f., and at the same time he presented him with 500f. to pay the expense of his journey to London. The fortunate young man immediately made his preparations and started.

THE HAMMERSMITH GHOST.

The particulars of this tragical affair are as follows:-The inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Hammersmith had been for some days in a state of alarm, arising from the report that a ghost had been seen, which report so intimidated the residents of the place, that few would venture out of their houses after dusk, unless upon urgent business. A young man, however, who possessed more courage than the rest of his neighbours, determined to watch the proceedings of this visitant of the other world; he accordingly placed himself in a secluded spot, armed with a gun, and as near the spot as possible to where the ghost had been seen. He had not remained long in his hidingplace, when he heard the sound of footsteps advancing, and immediately challenged the supposed spirit; but not receiving any answer, he fired at the object. A deep groan was heard, and upon a light being procured, it was discovered that a poor bricklayer, who passed that way from his work on that evening rather later than usual, and who had on a new flannel jacket, was the innocent cause of this unfortunate occurrence. The young man was tried for murder, and acquitted.

WHAT WAS A POUND IN A.D. 1000?

In Alsace, at the end of the tenth century, the common money for current purposes was the pfennig. It was of copper, and sixty of them weighed exactly one marc, or half a pound avoirdupois, or 120 of them were a

pound weight. The price of a sheffel or bushel of wheat, weighing sixty pounds, or the same nearly as our English bushel, was seven of these pfennigs. Copper, probably, bore a higher value in proportion to silver than it does in the present day; or the bushel of wheat was sold for less than a penny farthing. About two hundred and fifty years later, in the same country, the same measure of wheat was sold at twenty-four pfennigs, or about threepence farthing. It appears by the accounts preserved in the cathedral of Strasburg that the wages paid to the masons employed in the erection of that edifice were from one and a half to two of these pfennigs. At the building of the great bridge of Dresden, in the thirteenth century, the labourers were paid two pfennigs daily; and, according to some fragments of mining accounts of Tillot and Château Lambert, the operative miners received no more than two pfennigs.-Jacob on the Precious Metals.

AN AMERICAN CUSTOMER.

Many years since, there did dwell in a certain town, not a hundred miles from that farfamed place where Orthodox divines are fitted up for their profession and calling, a certain D.D., notorious for his parsimonious. ness, which would run to the wildest extremes.

One day this doctor of divinity chanced into a hat store in this city, and, after rummaging over the wares, selected an ordinarylooking hat, put it on his reverend head, ogled himself in the glass, then asked the very lowest price of it, telling the vendor, that, he could give it cheap enough, he thought he might buy it. "But," said the hatter, "that hat is not good enough for you to wear-here is what you want," showing one of his best beavers. ""Tis the best I can afford tho'," returned the theologian. "Well, there, doctor, I'll make you a present of that best beaver, if you'll wear it, and tell your friends whose store it came from; I'll warrant you'll send me customers enough to get my money back with interest: you are pretty

extensively acquainted." "Thank youthank you!" said the doctor, his eyes gleaming with pleasure at raising a castor so cheaply: "how much may this beaver be worth?" "We sell that kind of hat for eight dollars," replied the man of nap. "And the other ?" continued the reverend gentleman. "Three." The man of sermons put on the beaver, looked in the glass, then at the threedollar hat. "I think, sir," said he, taking off the beaver, and holding it in one hand, as he donned the cheap "tile," "I think, sir, that this hat will answer my purpose full as well as the best." "But you'd better take the best one, sir, it costs you no more." "B-u-t-bu-t," replied the parson hesi tatingly, "I didn't know-but-per-hapsyou would as lief I would take the cheap one, and leave the other-and perhaps you would not mind giving me the difference in a fivedollar bill!"-New York Evening Monitor.