ページの画像
PDF
ePub

is laying her eggs, which generally occupies four or five days, the cuckoo contrives to deposit her egg among the rest, leaving the future care of it entirely to the hedgesparrow. This intrusion often occasions some disorder, for the old hedge- sparrow at intervals, whilst she is sitting, not only throws out some of her own eggs, but sometimes injures them in such a way, that they become addle, so that it frequently happens, that not more than two or three of the parent-bird's eggs are hatched but, what is very remarkable, it has never been observed that she has either thrown out or injured the egg of the cuckoo. When the hedge sparrow has sit her usual time, and has disengaged the young cuckoo and some of her own offspring from the shell, her own young ones, and any of her eggs that remain unhatched, are soon turned out: the young cuckoo then remains in full possession of the nest, and is the sole object of the future care of the foster-parent. The young birds are not previously killed, nor the eggs demolished: but they are left to perish together, either entangled in the bush that contains the nest, or lying on the ground under it.

[ocr errors]

ANTIQUITY AND WONDERFUL PERMANENCY OF THE HINDOO MANNERS.

WHILE our forefathers (says the author of Sketches of India,) were clad in wolf-skin, dwelt in caverns, and lived upon the produce of the chase, the Hindoo lived as now : as now his princes were clothed in soft raiments, wore jeweled turbans, and dwelt in palaces. As now, his haughty half-naked priests received hisoffsprings in templesof hewn and sculptured granite, and summoned him to rites as absurd, but yet more splendid and debauching than the present. His cottage, garments, household utensils, and implements of husbandry or labour, were the same as now. Then, too, he watered the ground with his foot by means of a plank balanced transversely on a lofty pole, or drew from the deep bowerie (well,) by the labour of his oxen, in large bags of leather,supplies of water to flow through the little channels by which the fields and gardens are intersected. His children were then taught to shape letters in the sand, and to write, and to keep accounts on the dried leaves of the palm or cocoa, by the village-school-master. His wife ground corn at the same mill, or pounded it in a rude mortar with her neighbour. He could make purchases

in a regular bazaar, change money at a shroff's, or borrow it at usury, for the expenses of a wedding or festival. In short, all that the traveller sees around him of social or ci vilized life, of useful invention or luxurious refinement, is of yet higher antiquity than the days of Alexander the great; so that, in fact, the eye of the British officer looks upon the same forms and dresses, the same buildings, manners, and customs, on which the Macedonian troops gazed with the same astonishment.

NAPOLEON

WAS about to breath his last! A slight froth covered his lips-he was no more!--such is the end of all human glory!

Antommarchi's "Last Days of Napoleon."

"Tis not the end-he will live again
In the days and years to come:
His name shall stir the hearts of men
As 'twere a battle-drum?

And kings whose sires he had uncrown'd

Shall shrink and tremble at the sound.

"Tis not the end-although his life
So darkly pass'd away,

Not, as it should pass, in the strife

Of some great battle-day;

Yet men shall turn from might and power,

To think upon that lonely hour.

"Tis not the end-for many an age,

The high-soul'd and the brave,
Shall dare the ocean pilgrimage

To seek his silent grave;
These to forget his faults and pride,
While fancy shadows HOW HE DIED.

[ocr errors][merged small]

;

LOVE is like the shadow seen
When the sun first lights the skies
Stretching then o'er all the green,
But dwindling as each moment flies.
Friendship is the shadow thrown,
When the day its noon has past,
Increasing as the sun goes down,
E'en till it has looked its last.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

THE SOLDIER'S WIFE.

22

"Far from scenes of soft'ning pleasure,. Love's delights, and beauty's charms; Far from friendship's social leisure, Plung'd in murdering War's alarms."

22

M'Niell.

PLAYING on his flute in a slow and pensive strain, the ears of Walden were suddenly struck by the mournful cries of a child and the complaining voice of a distressed woman.

Oh! merciful God!' exclaimed the poor creature, hear with compassion the moans of my unhappy babe! Walden ceased to play ; and looked over the hedge, he surveyed the child with compassion, while the woman lay on the grass to rest herself: he asked in a soft voice, Why the poor infant cried?' 'He is hungry,' replied the woman, weeping bitterly: We have not had any thing to eat since yesterday morning! Gracious God! since yesterday morning: wait here a few minutes, and I will return.' He fled away with incredible swiftness, reappeared in a short time with a bowl of milk and a small loaf, towards which the child stretched out his arms, and the woman to whom he delivered them, began to feed it. 'Sit down, my good woman, and eat of it yourself,' said Walden, 'I will take care of your infant.' Placing himself on the grass beside it, he dipped a bit of the loaf in the milk and patiently assisted his little famished charge. The child looked up in his face and smiled:-Walden pleased and affected at this intuitive mark of gratitude kissed his little forehead. What is your occupation?" he asked the woman who was eating with avidity; 'You

are I suppose the mother of the creature? Where do you live? No it is not my own,' replied she and I did not know his parents. I am the wife of a poor soldier, my worthy Sir, and I have travelled beyond Berlin, a great way my husband had been away from me three years, and I wanted to see him again-for I loved him dearly, My own two children I left with their grandmother, and I sold every thing I did not absolutely want at home that I might carry him a trifle of money. Accordingly I set out and got to the end of my journey, just as my husband had marched with his troops, to drive a party of Austrians from some little village: so when itwas all over, and they had done what had been ordered, I ran to the place to meet him; (here the poor woman burst into tears) and when I got there, he was dying with wounds, yet he knew me and stretched out his hand, saying 'Oh! Annette!—our children!' Those were his last words: I thought I should have died too; but God willed for the sake of our little ones, and this babe, that I should live. In the same house where my poor husband expired, was the wife of an Austrian soldier, who died two days afterwards, and left this babe which nobody on earth seemed to take care about: almost all the village had been burnt down, and all the inhabitants had run away; so that when our soldiers marched I begged them to take the poor child with them: but then they said to me, What could we do with it?" And that was very true; but to let the child stay, and die with hunger, was impossible; so I resolved to take it, let what would happen and I set out to return to my own home, with the young thing in my arms. In my way I was weary enough; but never met with any body that took compassion on me, or my burden, so I walked on; but I fell sick, as you may see by my looks, and spent the little money I had left, and then I sold my clothes, and every thing I could spare; all went except these poor rags; yet, still I thought if I could but get home I should do very well. I am used to hard work, and I could even do for this little creature, who has nobody in the world but me, to put a morsel of bread into its poor mouth; so I cannot bear to let it starve.' As she said this she pressed the child to her bosom and her tears dropped upon it whilst she repeated, 'If I was but able to work; or, could I but get enough to keep it, till I reach my home!' Poor babe!' said Walden, poor, yet happy creature; who in losing her who gave thee birth, found a second mother!-Eyes

6

[ocr errors]

that drop tears of pity on thy lot, and a heart that loves thee!-No; thou shalt not, from hard necessity, be deserted!' Walden then wrote upon a leaf of his pocket book the name of the woman, and that of the village, where she informed him she lived with her family; and giving her a small sum of money, promised that he would remit the same to her every year. The woman on holding it in her band, (which had not contained so much before,) exclaimed Oh; this it too much, worthy sir:" and being desired to keep it, she added, 'We shall now be rich indeed!-my little ones, and this one, and their grandmother-we shall all be rich!' 'Good creature!' exclaimed Walden, with emotion, you are rich indeed, in a heart to which all other riches are dross; your humanity to this orphan will be better rewarded; but if this were my last crown, you should have it!-Hasten away, or may be tempted to take the child, to have the pleasures of bringing it up, that it may love me as it will you.' On hearing this the woman hastily pressed the infant to her bosom, and giving Walden a farewell benediction, pursued her journey with alacrity.

ON A PRIMROSE.

I LOVE thy unassuming bloom
Pale tenant of the lowly vale;
I love to greet thy sweet perfume,
Borne of the bosom of the gale.

E'er tim'rous Sol look'd smiling forth
To hasten rosy spring's return;
Or Flora decked the drooping earth,
Thou modest bloom'd beneath the thorn.
Though wintry evens on thee blew,
And prostrate bent thy tender form ;,
Yet still thou unprotected grew,
Regardless of the wreaking storm,
Oh! may I learn from thee sweet flower,
Beneath life's angry storms to bend,
Calm may I mark the tempest low'r
And meekness all my steps attend..

[ocr errors][merged small]

'NAY Woman is not the soft sex, my dear Fan, Or, why is her heart hard as stone?

Pray, tell me, was Eve form'd of flesh, like the man?' No no, she was form'd of the bone.'

« 前へ次へ »