THE BOHEMIAN GARDENER.

I.

WALTER MARLOFF was the only son of a worthy and pious old man, who had the reputation of being the most skilful gardener in the part of the country where he lived. Walter was an only child, the child of advanced age too, and yet, tenderly as his father loved him, the old man's affection for his plants and flowers was scarcely less passionate. When the boy was able to walk in his hand, and understand what was said, he delighted to have him by him when he was at work in the garden, and told him every day strange and marvellous stories of the wonderful works and benevolence of nature. The most secret virtues of all herbs were familiar to him, and his fame in this way was so great that even the learned physicians of the neighbouring town did not disdain to consult him as to the composition of their medicines. The old man was accustomed to say, that there was no disease for which God had not created a specific in some flower or tree, if men would but study with patience the fields and forests, and not tamper with minerals, which he considered as belonging to the nether world, and all partaking more or less in the evil qualities of the powers of darkness.

Brought up under one so good, so kind, so skilful

and so devoted to his occupation, it might have been expected that Walter should have imbibed, almost unconsciously, both the art and the passion of his parent. But, strange to say, the youth never loved his hereditary trade. He acquired, indeed, such knowledge of the practical part of it as would have pleased abundantly any ordinary master; but he never entered into the warm and gentle feelings with which Isaac regarded every thing connected with the beautiful productions of nature. The old man, one would have thought, revered and worshipped every green leaf, considering the Divinity as stamped visibly in all its power upon the minutest fibre; and often told the lad that the air of heaven was made up of nothing but the breath of sweet flowers blooming eternally. Walter, however, continued to go through his work in the same dull manner, and sometimes smiled, and sometimes fretted, at his father's enthusiastic fancies. The mother perceived this settled distaste more clearly than Isaac would permit himself to do, and at last said to him one evening, when Walter was abroad, "Our boy will never be a gardener-he despises the quiet of that patient life, and will quit it when your bones are laid in the dust. Better were it, that, if this must be so, he should go from us now, in the vigour of his youth, and learn some trade more pleasing to him; for they that learn late, never learn easily, and seldom well; and as for the labour that is without love, it cannot prosper."

Isaac passed a sleepless night, ruminating deep and long on the suggestions of his wife, the wisdom of which he could not, on serious reflection, dispute; and next morning, when they were all seated together

at the table, it being, as it happened, a holiday, the old man, with a calm voice and a heavy heart, told Walter what his mother and himself had been thinking and saying. The young man was much confused, and would at first have endeavoured to give the matter the go-by; but, being entreated with grave kindness to speak his inmost mind openly, he at last took courage, and said it was with him even as they had guessed that he felt an inward and rooted aversion for the life of a gardener-and would fain be placed under the tuition of some skilful forester, that he might learn the use of weapons, and earn his subsistence as a hunter. On several occasions he had already made little excursions into the neighbouring mountains, and witnessed, with eagerness and delight, the bold sport of the woodmen. That vigorous and robust life had completely, he said, charmed his fancy. -"Once," he added, "the Duke's chief forester himself took notice of me, and even invited me to dine in his house after the work of the day was over, in company with all the sportsmen-but I could not accept his invitation, fearing that I should be detained late, and so give cause to uneasiness at home. But he seems a good-natured and amiable man; give me a little money in my purse, and permit me to try my fortune-first with him, or, if he cannot receive me, farther off among the hills, with some other master to whom he may direct me."

The old man sighed on hearing this, but at length gave his consent. He cautioned Walter very seriously, however, as to the necessity of his being careful of his person among these wild scenes and rough exercises; and enjoined him, above all, to have no com

munication with any of the miners whom he might meet with in the mountainous regions; " for many," said he, 66 are the dark stories that we have heard of that savage and godless race. Often, indeed, do they sell themselves to fiends, who shew them plenty of hidden treasures in the depths of the earth, and enable them to enjoy a merry and jovial life for a time, but never fail in the end to seize their immortal spirits as a possession and a prey. Beware, my son, of these unhappy creatures; for it is their constant delight to inveigle others into the snares which encircle themselves. Avoid them as ye would the visible enemy himself; shrink back from their greetings; and rather endure any privations than be obliged to them for hospitality or shelter."

After promising to obey carefully these instructions, and to give early notice of whatever might befal him, Walter packed up a few clothes in a knapsack, and prepared to set out. His father gave him ten golden ducats, nine of which his mother sewed into the skirts of his waistcoat; and, with tears and many blessings, the young man parted from his affectionate parents. He reached, the same evening, the little village on the extreme verge of the plain, and next day's noon found him already within the bounds of the mountain wilderness.

II.

FATIGUED with long journeying, and the oppressive sultriness of the hour, young Walter sat down to rest and refresh himself under the shade of a grand old grove of oaks, where the herbage was kept rich and luxuriant by a small clear streamlet, more beautifully

limpid by far than any that are to be met with in less elevated parts of the country. Having eat his crust, and sipped a little of the pure element from the brook, he felt himself irresistibly affected with drowsiness, and, stretching his limbs at length upon the soft and verdant turf, was soon buried in a deep slumber.

Two or three hot hours had thus passed over his head unnoticed, and his sleep was still as profound as ever, when suddenly the silence of the secluded place was broken by the clamours of hound and horn, and, starting at once from the midst of his dreams, the youth beheld a mighty company of huntsmen gallantly mounted, dashing in full career along an open glade or avenue of the forest at no great distance from where he stood. Hastily catching up his knapsack, and grasping his long ashen staff, Walter obeyed the impulse of the moment, and rushed with impetuous steps to join, if possible, in the stormy delight for which his spirit had so long thirsted. It so happened that the dogs were for a moment at fault almost immediately after he begun to run, so that he came up with the company, which, active as he was, he otherwise could scarcely have accomplished. One of the forester's attendants recognised him, and said, with a hearty smile, "Ah, here is our young gardener from the lowland once more; what a pity it is that we have no spare horse with us. I fear you will see little of the chase; for as soon as the stag is turned out of this thicket, he is sure to make right for The Black Leap, and all the way thither it is galloping ground."

At that moment the animal bounded from the underwood, and dashed once more with headlong vio