24. "Seventy-five thousand dollars,” replied Mr. Barton. 25. "Would that sum be sufficient to relieve you?" 26. "It would." 27. "Then, sir, you shall have it," said Strosser, as he stepped up to the desk, and drew a check" for twenty thousand dollars. "Take this, and when you need more, do not hesitate to call upon me. Remember that it was from you I received money to establish myself in business." 12 28. "But that debt was cancelled several years ago," replied Mr. Barton, as a ray of hope shot across his troubled mind. 29. True," replied Strosser, "but the debt of gratitude that I owe has never been cancelled; and now that the scale is turned, I deem it my duty to come up to the rescue." 30. At this singular turn in the tide of fortune, Mr. Barton fairly wept for joy. 31. Every claim against him was paid as soon as presented, and in less than a month he had passed the crisis, and stood perfectly safe and secure; his credit improved and his business increased, while several others sank under the blow, and could not rally, among whom was Mr. HawJey, alluded to at the commencement of this article. 32. "How did you manage to keep above the tide ?" inquired Mr. Hawley of Mr. Barton, one morning, several months after the events last recorded, as he met the latter upon the street, on his way to his place of business. 33. "Very easily, indeed, I can assure you," replied Mr. Barton. 34. "Well, do tell me how," continued Mr. Hawley; I lay claim to a good degree of shrewdness, but the strongest exercise of my wits did not save me; and yet you, whose liabilities were twice as heavy as my own, have stood the shock, and have come off even bettered by the storm." 35. "The truth is," replied Mr. Barton, "I cashed my paper 13 as soon as it was sent in.” 36. "I suppose so," said Mr. Hawley, regarding Mr. Barton with a look of surprise; "but how did you obtain the funds? As for me, I could not obtain a dollar's credit: the banks refused to take my paper, and even my friends deserted me." 37. "A little investment that I made some ten years ago," replied Mr. Barton, smiling, "has recently proved exceedingly profitable." 38. "Investment!" echoed Mr. Hawley-"what investment? 99 39. "Why, do you not remember how I established Strosser in business some ten years ago?" young 40. "O, yes, yes," replied Mr. Hawley, as a ray of suspicion lighted up his countenance; "but what of that?" 41. "He is now one of the largest dry goods dealers in the city; and when this calamity came on, he came forward, and very generously advanced me seventy-five. thousand dollars. You know I told you, on the morning I called to offer you an equal share of the stock, that it might prove better than an investment in the bank." 42. During this announcement, Mr. Hawley's eyes were bent intently upon the ground, and, drawing a deep sigh, he moved on, dejected and sad, while Mr. Barton returned to his place of business, with his mind cheered and animated by thoughts of his singular investment. LEDG'ER (led'jer). The chief book of accounts with merchants and others, in which their various transactions are collected and arranged. 2 ES-TAB'LISH-MENT. That which is fixed or settled firmly; here, a place for transacting business. SE-CU'RI-TY. Safety; any thing giv 5 notes, &c., are said to be "at par " when they sell for their original nominal value. XD'E-QUATE. Fully sufficient. 6 PEN'U-RY. Extreme poverty; destitution. 7 IN-TER-RO-GA'TIONS. Questions ; inquiries. en as a pledge that a debt will be 8 AS-PIR'ANT (or ǎs'pi-rănt). One who seeks eagerly; an ambitious candi. date. • IN-VĚST'MENT. The laying out of | 11 CHECK. An order for the payment money or capital in some perma of money. void. nent form, so as to produce an in-12 CĂN'CELLED. come. Annulled; made 10 LI-A-BIL'I-TIES. Pecuniary indebted- 13 PA'PER. A written promise to pay ness; sums of money which per- money; notes, bills of exchange, &c. son may be called upon to pay. XV. THE CHINESE PRISONER. PERCIVAL. [Thomas Percival was an English physician, born in 1740, died in 1804. He wrote a number of works on medicine and on morals.] 1. A CERTAIN emperor of China, on his accession' to the throne of his ancestors, commanded a general release of all those who were confined in prison for debt. Amongst that number was an old man, who had fallen an early victim to adversity, and whose days of imprisonment, reckoned by the notches which he had cut on the door of his gloomy cell, expressed the annual circuit of more than fifty suns. 2. With trembling limbs and faltering steps, he departed from his mansion of sorrow: his eyes were dazzled with the splendor of the light, and the face of nature presented to his view a perfect paradise. The jail in which he had been imprisoned stood at some distance from Pekin, and to that city he directed his course, impatient to enjoy the caresses of his wife, his children, and his friends. 3. Having with difficulty found his way to the street in which his decent mansion had formerly stood, his heart became more and more elated at every step he advanced. With joy he proceeded, looking eagerly around; but he observed few of the objects with which he had been formerly conversant. A magnificent edifice was erected on the site of the house which he had inhabited; the dwellings of his neighbors had assumed a new form; and he beheld not a single face of which he had the least remembrance. 4. An aged beggar who, with trembling knees, stood at the gate of a portico, from which he had been thrust by the insolent domestic who guarded it, struck his attention. He stopped, therefore, to give him a small pittance out of the bounty with which he had been supplied by the emperor, and received, in return, the sad tidings, that his wife had fallen a lingering sacrifice to penury and sorrow; that his children were gone to seek their fortunes in distant or unknown climes; and that the grave contained his nearest and most valued friends. 5. Overwhelmed' with anguish, he hastened to the palace of his sovereign, into whose presence his hoary locks and mournful visage soon obtained his admission; and, casting himself at the feet of the emperor, "Great Prince," he cried, "send me back to that prison from which mistaken mercy has delivered me! I have survived my family and friends, and, even in the midst of this populous city, I find myself in a dreary solitude. The cell of my dungeon protected me from the gazers at my wretchedness; and whilst secluded from society, I was the less sensible of the loss of its enjoyments. I am now tortured with the view of pleasure in which I cannot participate"; and die with thirst, though streams of delight surround me." 1 AC-ÇES'SION. Act of coming to; ar- 2 FÂL/TER-ING. Tottering; feeble; 4 POR'TI-CO. A covered space, sur- 5 PIT'TANCE. Small allowance or por. tion; a trifle. 6 TI'DINGS. News. 7 Ō-VER-WHELMED'. Swallowed up, as by the sea; overpowered; crushed. 8 DUN'ĢEON. A strong, close, dark prison, or room in a prison. 9 SE-CLUDED. Shut out or kept apart. 10 PAR-TIC'I-PĀTE. Partake; take part XVI. — THE LAKE OF THE DISMAL SWAMP. MOORE. [Thomas Moore was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1779, and died in 1852. He was a very brilliant lyric poet and song writer. In the latter part of his life he wrote many prose works. When a very young man, he visited America, and the following poem was one of the results of that visit. The subjoined introduction is by the author. "They tell of a young man, who lost his mind upon the death of a girl he loved, and who, suddenly disappearing from his friends, was never afterwards heard of. As he had frequently said in his ravings, that the girl was not dead, but gone to the Dismal Swamp, it is supposed he had wandered into that dreary wilderness, and had died of hunger, or been lost in some of its dreadful morasses." The Great Dismal Swamp is mostly in the north-eastern part of North Caro lina, but extends into Virginia. It is thirty miles long, and about ten miles wide. Lake Drummond is in the centre, and is about twenty miles in circuit.] 1. “THEY made her a grave too cold and damp And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, She paddles her white canoe. 2. "And her firefly lamp I soon shall see, 3. Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds; His path was rugged and sore Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds, Through many a fen' where the serpent feeds 4. And when on the earth he sank to sleep, If slumber his eyelids knew, |