the twelve Cæsars that had been emperors of Rome, till the old marble heads would seem to live again or I to be turned into marble with them. How I never could be tired with roaming about that huge mansion with its vast empty rooms, with their wornout hangings, fluttering tapestry, and carved oaken panels with the gilding almost rubbed out, - sometimes in the spacious, old-fashioned gardens, which I had almost to myself, unless when now and then a solitary gardening man would cross me.

How the nectarines and peaches hung upon the walls without my ever offering to pluck them, because they were forbidden fruit, unless now and then, and because I had more pleasure in strolling about among the old melancholy-looking yewtrees, or the firs, and picking up the red berries, and the fir apples, which were good for nothing but to look at, or in lying about upon the fresh grass with all the fine garden smells around me,— or basking in the orangery, till I could almost fancy myself ripening too along with the oranges and the limes in that grateful warmth, or in watching the dace that darted to and fro in the fish pond at the bottom of the garden, with here and there a great sulky pike hanging midway down the water in silent state, as if it mocked at their impertinent friskings. I had more pleasure in these busy-idle diversions than in all the sweet

flavors of peaches, nectarines, oranges, and suchlike common baits of children.

Here John slyly deposited back upon the plate a bunch of grapes, which, not unobserved by Alice, he had meditated dividing with her, and both seemed willing to relinquish them for the present as irrelevant. Then, in a somewhat more heightened tone, I told how, though their great-grandmother Field loved all her grandchildren, yet in an especial manner she might be said to love their uncle, John L————, because he was so handsome and spirited a youth, and a king to the rest of us. Instead of moping about in solitary corners, like some of us, he would mount the most mettlesome horse he could get, when but an imp no bigger than themselves, and make it carry him half over the county in a morning, and join the hunters when there were any out, and yet he loved the old great house and gardens too, but had too much spirit to be always pent up within their boundaries, and how their uncle grew up to man's estate as brave as he was handsome, to the admiration of everybody, but of their greatgrandmother Field most especially; and how he used to carry me upon his back when I was a lame-footed boy-for he was a good bit older than me many a mile when I could not walk

for pain.

In after life he became lame-footed too, and I did not always (I fear) make allowances enough for him when he was impatient and in pain, nor remember sufficiently how considerate he had been to me when I was lame-footed; and how when he died, though he had not yet been dead an hour, it seemed as if he had died a great while ago, such a distance there is betwixt life and death; and how I bore his death, as I thought pretty well at first, but afterwards it haunted and haunted me; and though I did not cry or take it to heart as some do, and as I think he would have done if I had died, yet I missed him all day long, and knew not till then how much I had loved him. I missed his kindness, and I missed his crossness, and wished him to be alive again.

Here the children fell a-crying and asked if their little mourning which they had on was not for Uncle John, and they looked up, and prayed me not to go on about their uncle, but to tell them some stories about their pretty dead mother.

Then I told how for seven long years, in hope sometimes, sometimes in despair, yet persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice W- -n; and, as much as children could understand, I explained to them what coyness, and difficulty, and denial meant in maidens, when suddenly, turning to Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked out at her

eyes with such a reality of representment that I became in doubt which of them stood there before me, or whose that bright hair was. While I stood gazing, both the children gradually grew fainter to my view, receding, and still receding, till nothing at last but two mournful features were seen in the uttermost distance, which, without speech, strangely impressed upon me the effects of speech: "We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of Alice call Bartrum father. We are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams"; — and, immediately awaking, I found myself quietly seated in my bachelor armchair, where I had fallen asleep.

Children in the Wood: an ancient ballad relating the fate of two orphan children who, by order of a cruel uncle, were left to perish in Wayland Wood.

in a sort after a fashion.

Abbey: i.e. Westminster Abbey, London, which contains numerous monuments to celebrated Englishmen.

peaches on the wall: In England peach-trees are trained like a vine on a wall that faces the south.

yew-tree: a tree belonging to the pine family; in oldfashioned gardens these trees were often trimmed to represent birds and animals.

orangery: a house where oranges are grown by artificial

heat.

irrelevant: having nothing to do with the subject under discussion.

representment: representation.

A

60. DICKENS IN CAMP

By Bret Harte

BOVE the pines the moon was slowly drifting,
The river sang below;

The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting

Their minarets of snow.

The roaring camp-fire, with rude humor, painted The ruddy tints of health

On haggard face and form that drooped and fainted In the fierce race for wealth ;

Till one arose, and from his pack's scant treasure A hoarded volume drew,

And cards were dropped from hands of listless lei

sure,

To hear the tale anew;

And then, while round them shadows gathered

faster,

And as the firelight fell,

He read aloud the book wherein the Master

Had writ of "Little Nell."

Perhaps, 'twas boyish fancy, -for the reader
Was youngest of them all, —

But, as he read, from clustering pine and cedar
A silence seemed to fall: