hoops are stuck, Where I first met AMY THORNTON, and I voted her a "duck." ing all the year round, and never left her bed-'Tis the place, and in the greensward as of old the chamber without being dressed as if she were going on the street. Her two daughters made their appearance a little later. They were neat and elegant without affectation. At eight o'clock, whether the month was January or August, breakfast was laid on the table. Breakfast consisted eighty out of one hundred times of fried ham and eggs, and of very weak coffee in large cups. After breakfast the girls took their school-books and went unattended to school. As soon as Jane and Mary went off, Mrs. Gtied around her waist an apron as white as snow and ordered the servants to do their day's work setting the example herself. The house was cleaned and put to rights every day from the cellar to the garret. When everything was at last arranged, in rather cold, it must be confessed, but irreproachable order, Mrs. G retired to her chamber to dress a second time. She invariably went out every day on foot or in her carriage, from two to five o'clock, to pay visits to her acquaintances or to the dry-goods shops. She would often, without having the least intention to purchase, make the shopmen unroll twenty packages of goods, or she would examine whole boxes of ribbons, or try on a dozen shawls. This mode of killing time the despair of shopmen-is so common among American women, it has its own peculiar name, and is called "shopping." Mr. G's son was engaged in his father's office from morning till night, without a moment's rest. After dinner, he went to the theatre, or retired to the basement, to take in succession a lesson on the piano or a lesson in German. Such was the life of Mr. G and family, and such is the life of nearly all the commercial families in the United States, whatever their position of fortune may be. Before quitting the city of Brotherly Love, to give concerts in Baltimore, a little incident happened to me, which is so eminently characteristic I must tell it. I was at the hotel dinner-table by the side of a Frenchman whose acquaintance I had made. The dessert was placed on the table, and presently nothing remained in the plate but one cake. The Frenchman offered it to me. I refused, and begged him to keep it for himself. He courteously insisted, and pressed me to accept it. The cake looked tempting, and I reiterated my prayers to him. "It is for you," I said to my polite neighbor. if "I really do not want it." "But I beg you to take it. You will disoblige me you don't eat it." "Well, then, since you absolutely insist upon it, I accept it." I was about taking it, when an American sitting opposite to us, and who witnessed our reciprocal hesitations, gallantly took up a fork, crouched halfway over the table, lengthened his arm, adroitly stuck his fork in the cake and dexterously bore it off, to our great amazement. He quietly ate it, and did not seem to have the least suspicion there was the least ill-breeding in what he had done. CROQUET. COUSINS, leave me here a little, go to chicken and Leave me here, and when you want me let them AMY THORNTON! I can see her, with her mallet raised to strike, And her little foot placed deftly in the attitude I like. Many a morning when the dew-drops had been chased away by dawn, Did I look on AMY THORNTON moving slowly o'er Many a morn I saw her tresses fairly floating on the behind. A LEGEND OF PROVENCE. "I AM yet a king!" exclaimed Francis the First, vaulting into his saddle after the disastrous battle of Pavia had consigned him to a year's captivity, whose last month had more gall than honey, through his marriage with the Dowager Queen of Portugal, sister to his imperial and imperious captor Charles the Fifth. From the Iser to the Rhone whispers had crept forth that he returned to France a crestfallen man, who, after chaffing his proud spirit in bondage, had no means of breaking his chains, but by accepting a bride for whom he had small regard. However this may have been, he rode through Provence, where his subjects received him with every demonstration of joy, although, as he approached their gray old towns, he thought their giant gates looked down upon him with derision. He was wont to rally, and set spurs to his steed, and leave his retinue far behind; but on one occasion the townsmen, who had timely apprisal of his route, met him outside their walls, and he could do no less than rein up, and bow from his stirrups, which he courteously did, to the admiration of all who beheld him; for he who could wrestle with Henry the Eighth and throw him in lusty falls, was no more deficient in grace than in strength. They besought him to honor their tilt-yard with his presence, where, in festivity of mimic fight, they might celebrate his enfranchisement from the prison in Madrid. 66 shared the honor of his presence, to none were his attentions so refinedly pointed as to the daughter of his venerable host. Perhaps some envied her the distinction, of which she appeared unconscious; and some of the envyers were surprised to see her retire from the hall, observing, as she passed, that this was a feint to draw the King more deeply in her toils. Ellen merely said she had arrangements to make for the morrow. "And why not for to-night, cousin?" asked the King, who, when the wine bowls had passed more than once, had followed her from table, and discovered her reading in a little oratory alone. "And why not to-night, fair Ellen?" reiterated he, suasively withdrawing the book from her hand. She did not reply, while he tossed over the illuminated leaves, where pictured saints seemed to frown upon him chidingly. The silence evidently disconcerted him, but he evaded his chagrin in smiles. "We come, charming cousin, to breathe unalterable fidelity in thy ear," said he. "What's a charmed portal, my lord?" said she, interrupting him, and drawing back. "We swear by thy mild blue eyes that none whom Francis ever loved shall be so beloved as Ellen," said he. 66 My Lord," said she, "I've heard of holy books bursting their clasps when perjured mouths come nigh. Beware of robbing my poor eyes of modesty, "By our faith, good liegemen!" quoth his Majes- their only clasping-seal. Towards me, I warn you, ty, we have had such hard knocks on the battle-practise neither falsehood nor inconstancy. field, that we are none in love of the shadows of tourney." And he waved his hand by way of adieu, when his horse started at an old Castellan whose hair was silver white, and beside whom stood his daughter, incomparably fair. Never had Francis seen beauty so rare, and so modest withal. She bore a massy salver, on which lay a bunch of rusted keys, and with downcast looks she said, "My Lord will please to accept the keys of this brave old town," and she held them towards him with such gracefulness, that in amaze he stooped from his saddle, stroked her dark tresses with his mailed hand, and inquired who she was. My name, my Lord, is Ellen, and this is my father, Peter Ingleverre," said she. "And your age, sweet damsel?" asked he. "Sixteen last Candlemas," rejoined the little maid, who looked a perfect woman, so innocent and yet so heroic, as she ventured to raise her head, that the King forgot his disasters of war in suddenly inspired love; and while he indulged in a pleasure he could ill conceal, between their hands the keys fell to the ground. This gave him a pretext to alight; and surrendering the bridle to a courtier, he graciously received her father, and between him and her walked into town. By this time the sun was on the wane, and Peter, who was governor, besought his Majesty to sojourn for the night, and he would soon have fifty prime cooks to prepare a royal feast. To this Francis, who nothing more desired than an invitation, consented; and he accompanied Ellen home to her father's house, where some time after a band of trained violars arrived to commemorate with songs the happy visit. "By our knighthood, we shall be true to thee, girl, till our heart hath no throb for any living creature." Will you love me till my hair be gray ?" "Enchantress! we shall love thee, wert thou a withered crone from which hideousness itself might recoil," cried he so affectionately that she paused. "And for what am I so vastly inestimable?" said she, hesitatingly. "It cannot be my tresses, -a few clips of the shears, and farewell my pride in ringlets to the winds. It may not be my brow, for care shall soon furrow it, and blanch my cheek, which now seems bloomingly. Care, too, shall more peak my chin, and charms, if I have any, be most perishable." "Lady, we love thee more for thy good sense than for thy beauty," said he; and in stepping closer towards her his spur struck the door, which closed with a spring. He rubbed his hands together, and expressed delight at an incident which created in her a considerable trepidation, that soon subsided into a calm. "I was childish enough to be alarmed; but I have nothing to fear from a true knight. His most Christian Majesty would not oppress the meanest of his subjects, or betray confidence where he is an honored guest," observed she, drawing a chair before her, and leaning in an easy posture over its tall, carved back. "Not for a diadem would we harm thee, dearest," said he. "Yet by our sword we would sooner forfeit every acre of old Navarre, and leave Italy the brightest jewel in our rival's crown, than forego thy love. Thou must be ours"; and the enraptured monarch disengaged her from the bulwark, and embraced her ere she could extricate herself from his arms. Ellen entertained the King with artless talk so interspersed with sense, that her conquest over her suitor became complete. And when placed by her "Hist! heard you no noise?" breathed she softside at dinner, he forgot venison and pasty, and ly, and she held her finger towards the door. He beakers of wine; for though so many other ladies | heard none, nor had she; and she twined her small fingers round her wrist. "In two hours hence it | first sacrifice to the fume; and her pained eyeballs shall be midnight. Meet me here when the town clocks chime. Pray, my Liege, till then retire," said she, and she opened the door. "Dost mock us, Ellen? Say wilt thou keep thy promise?" "Assuredly my Lord does not doubt me when I say, yes? Yes, I shall meet your Majesty. See, the revellers from the hall seek you as one lost. Join them, and remember the appointed hour." Francis retired abashed, when with gentle force he had been expelled from the oratory; and Ellen quietly resumed her devotions for the night. Tranquilly she arose, and her manner betrayed neither excitement nor emotion, though from repeated efforts she made to trim the chamber lamp, and furtive glances she cast often at a mirror, dull must one be who could not distinguish that she was ill at ease. She paced round the apartment, which was small and meanly furnished, its only ornament being a few pictures in embroidery on Scripture subjects. In one corner were suspended loose sheets of vellum, parts of a missal for festival purposes, and in another seemed a perch to have been erected, upon which perched a hawk, but so in the shade that it was difficult to determine whether it was part of the ravelled tapestry or a real bird. ness. rolled in their sockets as if they were driven inward by gusts of fire. The fairness of her forehead at first became a dark olive hue, and assuming a charred blackness, the skin burst over the quivering veins. Her cheeks soon were bereaved of all blush and beauty, and her lips, if they had any similitude of fruit, partook less of the rowan than the sloe. She endeavored to allay the pain by averting her head from the vapor; but the evasion only increased her agony, for her neck, upon which drops of the sulphur crystallized, became acutely sensitive to the weight of a string of pearls. One by one she removed them from the smarting flesh; but the clasp behind had sunk so deep that its withdrawal gave her torture intensely severe. With inconceivable effort she preserved herself from insensibility, and with copious draughts of water allayed the burning fever in her throat. Her voice lost its sweetness, and she expressed her grief in such harshness and monotony that she started from her seat as the clock struck twelve. As peal after peal swept dismally along she tottered to the door, which she opened, and groping her way along the walls, for her eyes were dim, searched for hood and bells, which she shook. The perch in the corner rocked backwards and forwards, as the hawk on it flapped its wings and screamed so loudly at the sounds of its favorite emblems of chase, that the The King, who had been walking in the corridor, approached, bearing in one hand a small chamber lamp, and in the other a scabbardless sword. Ellen mustered sufficient strength to speak, for obscurely he saw that something was amiss, and he inquired the cause. "I will tell my lord most willingly," said she, and the screaming hawk pounced at divers shadows as if they were its prey. Alas! there was now no occasion to cast down her eyes, for little of their lustre remained. At length she sat on a low stool and encompassed her knees between her hands, rocking to and fro as if engaged in unravelling some painful train of re-chamber rang. flections. "If inward beauty can be nowise retained except by outward injury, better the body know scath than that the soul be defiled," said she, reviewing herself in the grotesque mirror, with a pensive expression which soon cleared into cheerful"Now, vanity aside," continued she, " Nell, did you ever think you were so pretty as to make conquest of a king? Never, Nell, never! Nell must be lovely to have accomplished that. La,what a toyshop of charms are temptingly piled in yonder glass," and she shook the oil so that wavy light fell on the mirror. "Blue eyes and black hair are peculiarities not often found together. Yet here I have them in Milesian perfection, albeit the average spirit of my eyes is half merriment, half melancholy. And cheeks are here, that though they may not shame the rose, they never knew the blush of counterfeit. Teeth, likewise, which, though passing white, any elephant-hunter would at one glance discover were no ivory; and lips which a truer wooer than my Lord Francis told Ellen were gushing ripe, any wild bird would know at first pecking were not worth sweet strawberries. Well, and as I was thinking, it's a pity all this toyshop should be in an hour or two as sad to look on as a sepulchre." She called her maid, and bade her bring a chafing-dish, heaped with live charcoal and sulphur in bar, which done the maid retired, and Ellen sat once more alone. Suspending the basin of a spiritlamp over the dish, she dropped in the sulphur, and as it fused into liquid, a yellow flame flickered up, and cast a dull halo around the chamber. She shook out her hair from the golden pins that bound it, and it fell luxuriantly to the floor, before she combed it with the greatest care, as if she intended to rebrush it again. Redressing her tresses never had more; for with scissors she clipped round and round till her head was negress bare, but not half so picturesque, for it had no curls! Smearing her forehead and cheek with oil, the sulphuric vapor arose in poisonous influence as she leaned over the fatal dish. Her eyelashes were the 66 My Lord, had I hearkened to your suit, my father's welcome had been paid with wrong, and your Majesty's chivalry been more eclipsed than my charms could brighten. Happily a brief pain has preserved your honor." "O infatuated, yet noble-minded girl, what hast thou done?" exclaimed he, casting down the lamp and sword, and covering his face with his hands. "Why didst thou not intimate thy heroic resolve, and the possession of worlds would not have made us ruin that loveliness which kingdoms cannot repair." You would have called it maid-sick martyrdom, or coquetry run mad, or epithets equally fantastical," said she, pressing her hand to her bosom. 66 Stay, there yet is hope. The injury thou hast inflicted is not irreparable," cried he, rushing to arouse the household, when she beckoned him back. I pray your Majesty be calm," said she; "the worst is past." "O heavens, how heartless! we seem to be the cause of all this wreck. O Ellen, canst thou forgive thy destroyer?" "Indeed I can; far better be thus than be a tarnished thing cast away, for maids to loath and men to scorn me. Now the worst they can say of me is that I spoiled myself of a questionable good to escape an evil.” "And what will they say of me, Ellen?" "That the good King Francis once upon a time, meeting a poor, plain girl in an obscure town, was Saturday so blinded with strange love, that she saw no way to restore him to sight than to lose her own." "Gracious and all mysterious God!" exclaimed he, appalled, "thou dost not say thou art blind?" "In sooth, such is my fear. Give me your hand, and I'll determine whether there is water in the well-spring of the brain," said she, with touching tenderness; and she shed a tear, which he kissed away as she endeavored to examine his palm. Ellen, Ellen, say thou canst see, and make me happy!" exclaimed the agonized monarch, falling on his knees, and resting his head heavily against her breast. "O, torture worst of all; and Ellen's blind!" and her tears fell plenteously on his upturned face, while he continued to ejaculate, " And she is blind! O, who will love her now, when she is blind?" "Won't you, my sweet Lord Francis, love me as though I were a dear sister long since dead?" 66 Dearest sister, I will," said he, kissing her hands fervently. "Sister Ellen, I will; and never till now knew Francis love so pure, so lasting." "Eh! yon keen crucible hath burned away all drossiness," said she, moving her hand over the chafing dish. ""T is with life as with this short episode of an hour. Nothing in the way of virtue was ever accomplished without pain. To horse, Lord Francis, and whenever you pray, remember Ellen Ingleverre." "And must we part thus, more dearly loved and doubly fair?" "Yes, and rejoice that no guilty blush crimson my cheek, nor criminal throb upbraid my heart for beating," replied she, as the hawk uttered such a piercing series of screams, that first her attendant, and then others, and finally retainers and revellers, rushed into or surrounded the room, where they discovered the sovereign surnamed "The Restorer of Learning, and the Great," deprived of forethought and firmness of mind. The most skilful leeches the town or court could afford were summoned; but their aid was only of partial avail. Facial beauty had forever bade farewell to her whose self-control was worthy the best days of chivalry. Eyebrightness had not, however, departed; and in the gray mists of the morn she saw her royal lover depart never more to return. In after life he was wont to say, that throughout his glorious career of war and peace he had met only two human beings eminently great, one the famous Bayard, the poor captain of a few lances, the chevalier sans reproach, from whose sword King Francis sought and received knighthood as earth's greatest honor, and the other the humble and lovely Ellen, who had taught him that love without purity is dishonor, and charms without virtue is shame. A RIDE BY MAR SABA TO THE DEAD SEA. Or all the sights in and around the Holy City, that undoubtedly which causes the most surprise, and is most at variance with preconceived opinions, is the aspect of the Dead Sea. Illustrated Bibles, panoramic views, or photographs, have stamped the salient features of the neighborhood firmly on the imagination in general, and the traveller feels comparatively en pays de connaissance in approaching the Jaffa Gate, or riding past Absalom's tomb. But the outlook to the east from the heights of Scopus or Olivet has been unprovided for by expectation; the ill-omened waters form one enlivening feature in the drear, stony landscape; their sparkling blue relieves the dun hillocks that roll one upon another from the foot of Olivet to the shore of the lake, and the weird outline of the Moabite mountains on the farther shore. And At whatever time the pilgrim may visit Jerusalem, the three days' tour to the Dead Sea via the monastery of Mar Saba and home by Jericho, or reversing the route, is a matter of course. happy those who make it, as we made it, in the coolness of latter October, for at the time when the Holy Places are most resorted to, viz. at Easter, the heat in the deeply-sunk valley of the Jordan is terrific. It is an excursion to be made with feelings that amount to awe, for it comprises association sufficient to afford meditation for a lifetime. On the morning after our arrival in Jerusalem, we had been taken by the American consul to the top of Scopus, and the sight of the Dead Sea, and the thicket that marked the course of the Jordan, made us long to get down there, and examine more closely the many wonders disclosed to us in that glorious view. The view from Scopus would be accounted magnificent in extent anywhere: it may safely be called the most interesting view in the world, commanding as it does, on one side, the whole of Jerusalem, the valleys that surround, and the hills that stand round about it, from Neby Samwil and Gibeah on the northwest to the range of Olivet on the east, and away to the Frank mountain on the south, overlooking Hebron; on the other side, the deep trench along which Jordan flows, hidden by clumps of trees and underwood, opening out into the bright expanse of the Sea, which, on the day we saw it for the first time, was dancing in the sunlight. Alas! the journey to the Dead Sea is now shorn of much of its romance. There is no longer the delight of putting yourself under the protection of some victorious sheikh, ready to do battle à outrance for you against all comers. The visit is carried on upon the same methods as Mr. Cook's excursions. There is an appointed tariff, and upon payment of it guides are meted out to you as they might be at Chamounix or Zermatt. We paid a napoleon apiece. It is certainly cheaper yet than the ascent of a Swiss mountain, and six very dirty-looking Arabs were appointed to us, highly armed and pictorially arrayed. With our two muleteers, our dragoman, our cook, and our two selves, my companion being an American gentleman from the Far West, whose delight was in recalling constantly the big distance he was off from his big country, we sallied forth, a respectably large cavalcade, from the Jaffa Gate. We rode along the valley of Hinnom. On our right, far above and standing backwarder than it gle file up the path, approached it at the back, delivered in our credentials from the authorities at Jerusalem, and were admitted. No female has ever entered within the walls, and many a British pilgrim of the other sex has, in pitching her tent among the jackals outside, railed at the ungallantry of the Mar Saba monks. We were established in a large guestchamber, furnished all round with divans. One of the monks brought us glasses of raki and figs, which is the staple of their fare, and most courteously as did of old, when the buildings of the city came down upon the valley more, was the wall of Zion; behind it, the Armenian quarter. On the other side of the valley lies the Hill of Evil Counsel, the vast sepulchral pits which bear the name of Aceldama, and the Refuge for aged Jews built by Sir Moses Montefiore. At the southeastern corner of the city the valley is intersected by another near the fountain of En Rogel, the valley of Jehoshaphat, which sweeps between the chain of Olivet and the ridge of Moriah, and to the west opens out on to the plain-sisted the cook we luxurious Westerns had brought country, over which passes the path to Bethlehem. We followed up the same valley we had threaded since leaving the gate, which soon turns abruptly to the left among the hills which shut out the view of Jérusalem. The descent was rapid, and till we came to the turning the view back towards the angle of the Zion wall, standing at the very edge of a considerable precipice, was striking in the extreme, causing one to realize the accuracy of Scripture expressions as to the proud situation of the City of God. It is from this point alone, perhaps, that it is brought home to one; for from the Mount of Olives one looks down upon the Temple area, and, in consequence, the fall of the ground into the valley of the Kidron is dwarfed; and the Jaffa and Damascus roads approach the city nearly on a level. The farther we rode the more grandly did the walls cut the sky line, till the turn of the gorge deprived us of this evidence of civilization, and plunged us into true Judæan desolation. with us in preparing our meat dinner, with the worthy monks it being a perpetual jour maigre. They then took us over the buildings, which are very extensive and for the most part newly built, and from every part of which there is a giddy view right down into the depths of the ravine. There are some ghastly associations attached to this strange place. Many times has the monastery been laid open to pillage and its inmates to massacre, and its strong natural position caused it to figure often in the wars of Ibrahim Pasha. The shrine of the founder, St. Saba,-the institution claims an existence of fourteen hundred years,- has a little chapel to itself; the larger church contains pictures of the scenes of blood the convent has witnessed, and is gorgeously decorated. Russia has spent lavishly, both here and in the Greek Church at Bethlehem, ever anxious to keep alive her prestige in the Holy Land, and to show the zeal of her national communion with regard to the Holy Places. We spent a pleasant evening in watching the effect of moonlight on the savage scenery, sitting for some time on the outer wall, which drops 400 feet perpendicularly into the gorge. The opposite side was within a stone's throw, and the solemn silence was only broken by the howling of the jackals and other inmates of the rocky caves. Following the valley of Kidron, the path lay along the brook, or rather its stony course, for now, except in the rainy season of spring, the stream is dry, the gorge narrowed, and hardly a vestige of vegetation cheered us, though in the early year we heard these forbidding precipices were a blaze of color from wild-flowers. Now there is no color but Up at three next morning, breakfasted, and startwhat is given by the yellow sandy rock and occa-ed by torchlight, as it was still pitch dark, and the sional tufts of Syrian thorn. Our Arabs, when we had got out of sight of the town, became very demonstrative, and danced about to and fro on the narrow path, screeching their own peculiarly ear-piercing yell, and brandishing their arms. We suspected this display of couleur locale; and it certainly had a non-natural, theatrical air, as if got up for our special behoof, and tending towards backsheesh. It is certainly an immense damper to the pleasure of Eastern travelling, the ever-present idea that every little courtesy on the part of those around you has its price, and sounds in damages immensely disproportionate to the benefit enjoyed. road down the chasm dangerous; retracing our steps of the day before to the entrance of the convent-gorge, we struck to the northeast among the hills, and rode for some time in silence, impressed by the associations which gave so much food for thought. Suddenly, just as it was getting gray, we saw beneath us the waters of the Dead Sea, lead-colored in the gloom; we rode parallel to it for some way, getting occasional glimpses through the hills, and watched the sun rising in green and orange splendor over the mountain-wall of Moab opposite. At length, when it was quite light, we climbed the last hillock, and saw before us the great flat valley, the line of wood cutting in from north to south, and the northern bay of the sea. Just at this time we met some Arabs, with whom our escort tried to get up a disturbance; we supposed with a view to remuneration, for the Bedouins were very few in number, looked very harmless, and seemed very glad to go away. Our fellows assumed such a bullying tone towards them, as made us suspect their steadiness in any real emergency; such, however, owing to the immense interest of our excursion, and ex-notwithstanding the harrowing tales we had heard in Jerusalem of pillaged Franks struggling bootless and shirtless across the burning Ghôr, and negotiat ing for Arab under-garments at Jericho, was very little present to our minds; nor were we destined to undergo greater hardships than what the inevitable draught of Dead Sea water, heat, and creeping things afforded. We had left Hauser's Hotel after an early breakfast, and after a six hours' ride, principally at a foot's pace, we reached our resting-place for the night, the Greek convent of Mar Saba. We had been terribly uncomfortable on our hard saddles, with the midday sun beating on our white umbrellas; but all was swallowed up in wonder at the magnificent savagery of the gorge for the last half-hour. The valley had up to this point been simply wild and featureless; it became now a mountain pass, which, taken as a whole, no Alpine marvel could surpass. Its weird grandeur and utter barrenness were pressed in its name, - the Valley of Fire. Reddish yellow cliffs shut in the bed of the torrent, for which alone there was room beneath. They were honeycombed with curious holes, and about a third of the way up, on the right side, jammed on to a ledge of the cliff, its outer wall one with the wall of the valley, stood the monastery. We rode in sin- | |