ings of the summer breeze, was denominated the "southwest room." As the furniture of this best apartment of Farmer Larkin, may serve as a sample of the interiour of most of the Sanctum Sanctorums of the better sort of agriculturists at that early period, it may be well to add a brief description.

The bed, an indispensable appendage, was without either curtains or high posts, and decorated with a new woollen coverlet, where the colour of red gorgeously predominated over the white and green, with which it was intermingled. So small a space did it occupy, that if, like Og, king of Bashan, whose gigantic height was predicated from his bedstead of nine cubits, the size of our farmers should have been estimated by the dimensions of their places of repose, posterity would do them immense injustice.

A buffet, or corner-cupboard, was a conspicuous article, in which were arranged a set of bright pewter plates, some red and white cups and saucers, not much larger than what now belong to a doll's equipage, and a pyramidal block-tin tea-pot. The lower compartment of this repository, which was protected by a door, furnished a receptacle for the Sabbath-day hats and bonnets of the children, each occupying its own place upon the shelves. In the vicinity, was what was denominated a chist o' draws," namely, a capacious vault of stained pine, which, opening like a chest, contained the better part of the wardrobe of the master and mistress of the family; while, beneath, space was left for two or three drawers, devoted to the accommodation of the elder children. But the masterpiece of finery, was a tea-table, which, elevating its round disk perpendicularly, evinced that it was more for show than use.

Its surface displayed a commendable lustre, protected by a penal statute, from the fingers of the children. But an unruly kitten used to take delight in viewing, on the lower extremity of that polished orb, a reflection of her own round face, and formidable whiskers. Unhappily mistaking the appearance of these for an adversary, she imprinted thereon the marks of her claws, too deeply, for all the efforts of the good housewife to efface, and soon after expiated her crime upon the scaffold. A looking-glass, much smaller than the broad expansion of the Farmer's face, hung against the roughly plastered, yet unsullied wall. A few high, strait-backed chairs, and a pair of small andirons nicely blacked, whose head bore a rude resemblance to the "human form divine," completed the inventory of goods and chattels.

Over the low, wide fireplace, hung in a black frame, with

out the superfluity of a glass, the family record, legibly penned, with a space very considerately left for future additions. The apartment had an air of neatness, beyond what was then generally observed in the houses of those, who made the dairy, and spinning-wheel, the prime objects of attention. The white floor was carefully sanded, and at each door, a broad mat, made of the husks of the Indian corn, claimed tribute from the feet of those who entered. Where Madam Lwas seated, she had a full view of the family, surrounding their peaceful board, and so cordially engaged in doing justice to its viands, that not a glance wandered to the spot, which she occupied.

The table, covered with a coarse white cloth, bore at the head a large supply of boiled beef and pork, served up in a huge dish of glazed ware, of a form, between platter and bowl, though it probably would rank with the latter genus. A mass of very fine cabbage, appeared in the same reservoir, like a broad, emerald islet, flanked with parsnips and turnips, the favourite "long and short-saace" of the day. At the bottom of the board, was an enormous pudding of Indian meal, supported by its legitimate concomitants, a plate of butter, and a jug of molasses. Four brown mugs of cider, divided into equal compartments, the quadrangle of the board, and the wooden trenchers, which each one manfully maintained, were perfectly clean and comfortable.

Farmer Larkin, and his wife, not deeming it a point of etiquette to separate as far as the limits of the table would permit, shared together the post of honour by the dish of meat. At the left hand of the father, sat his youngest son, and at the right hand of her mother, her youngest daughter. Thus the male line, beginning at Jehu, and touching every one, according to his age, passed over the heads of Timothy and Jehoiakim, ending in Amariah, the nephew.

On the other hand, the female line, from the mother, who held in her lap the chubbed Tryphosa, passed, with geometrical precision, through the spaces allotted to Tryphena, Kesiah, Roxey, and Reuey, terminating with buxom Molly. She was indeed a damsel of formidable size, but of just proportions, and employed her brawney arm, in cutting slices from a large loaf of brown bread, which she distributed with great exactness by each trencher, as soon as her father had stocked it with meat, and her mother garnished it with vegetables. There was something pleasing in the sight of so many healthy and cheerful faces, and in the domestic order, which evidently prevailed,

LESSON XL.

Description of a Spring Freshet, or Inundation.-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

Ir was one of those fine mornings, in which a softer season makes its first effectual resistance against the lingering claims of winter; like a buxom infant, springing from the arms of a wrinkled dame, whose caresses chill it. Still the influence of the Sire of storms was perceptible. The small streams moved but torpidly, between margins of ice, or beneath a thin veil, which might have hidden their progress, had it not been revealed by a cold, subterranean murmuring. Over the larger rivers, small boats were seen gliding, while their cheerful navigators repelled with long poles those masses of ice, which assayed too near an approach; or supporting themselves on the slippery surface, collected the drift-wood, which adhered to them. Other labourers were busily employed in replacing bridges, which the swollen waters had injured or destroyed; for seldom did the spring-tide floods pass Nbut the faces of the inhabitants gathered gloom from the prospect of an additional weight of taxation.

While the solitary amateur admired the wrath of the resounding streams, the richer, and less romantic burgher would calculate the cost, like Marlow in the well-furnished inn, apprehending "how horridly a fine side-board, and a marble chimney-piece would swell the reckoning." But the labourers, who had nothing to pay, and foresaw gain from being employed about broken bridges, and dilapidated fences, contented themselves with lamenting, in a less rueful tone, the evils of their almost insular situation.

Considerable loss and suffering had frequently been sustained, in the southern extreme of the town, which occupied the ground at the junction of the two principal rivers. These waters, when swollen by dissolving snows, and the increased revenue of their tributaries, came rushing down with great power. Inundated streets, merchants lamenting the loss of their goods, and sometimes of the warehouses which contained them; or millers gazing with uplifted hands after their floating fabrics, attested the ravages of the triumphant flood. Here and there, the sharp eaves of a fisherman's hut, or the upper story of some building of larger dimensions, would rise above the encompassing element; while the boats, employed to take from their windows the sick, or the softer sex, encountered

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continual obstacles from trees partly immersed, and fences, planted like chevaux de frise, beneath the treacherous waters. Occasionally, a bridge from some neighbouring town has been borne along, a reluctant visitor; in one instance, a structure of this sort glided by, displaying in unbroken majesty a toll-gate, upon whose topmost bar, a red-winged cockerel was perched. Having evinced his fidelity to his favourite roost, by adhering to it during all the shocks of its midnight disruption, morn beheld the undaunted bird, clapping his wings as he passed the town, and sending forth shrill notes of triumph, from excitement at his extraordinary voyage of discovery. Once, an infant, in his cradle-ark, suddenly washed from the cabin of his slumbering parents, glided over the bosom of the pitiless surge. He was rescued-not by the daughter of Pharaoh, and her maidens, but by the father, urging on his light boat with eager strokes, while the mother, not standing "among the flags by the river's brink," but wading unconsciously into the cold, slippery channel, received with extended arms, the babe smiling as he awoke.

LESSON XLI.

The grave of the Indian Chief-PERCIVAL.

THEY laid the corse of the wild and brave
On the sweet fresh earth of the new day grave,
On the gentle hill, where wild weeds waved,
And flowers and grass were flourishing.

They laid within the peaceful bed,
Close by the Indian Chieftain's head,
His bow and arrows; and they said,
That he had found new hunting grounds.

Where bounteous Nature only tills

The willing soil; and o'er whose hills,
And down beside the shady rills,
The hero roams eternally.

And these fair isles to the westward lie.
Beneath a golden sun-set sky,
Where youth and beauty never die,

And song and dance move endlessly.

They told of the feats of his dog and gun,
They told of the deeds his arm had done;
They sung of battles lost and won,

And so they paid his eulogy.

And o'er his arms, and o'er his bones,
They raised a simple pile of stones;
Which, hallowed, by their tears and moans,
Was all the Indian's monument.

And since the Chieftain here has slept,
Full many a winter's winds have swept,
And many an age has softly crept
Over his humble sepulchre.

LESSON XLII.

The Congress of 1776.-CUSHING.

How imposing was the spectacle of that assembly of the conscript fathers of America! The noble stand they took at the threshold of the temple of liberty; the glorious oath, which, like another Hannibal, each of them individually swore upon its altar; and their influence over the subsequent destinies of our country, will authorize us, on this solemn occasion, to pause and contemplate the men, the time, and the circum

stances.

The forms, under which the highest intellectual powers of man exhibit themselves, are as numerous and diversified as the subjects, to which his restless enterprise and insatiable curiosity impel his attention. The scope of mind is boundless as all space, and the duration of its efforts endless as time; for there is no clime, nor country, nor age, nor circumstance, where the human soul cannot display the brightness of the celestial fire, with which it is warmed and animated. The frozen regions of the polar circles, where the soul would seem to be bound in fetters of ice, and the burning plains of the tropical zone, where all the organs and faculties of action are relaxed by the exuberant heat of an equatorial sun, even these extremities of climate afford a theatre for the exhibition of genius, ample enough to show that its operations are not wholly limited to those happy climes, where it