enough composure to answer the gentle courtesy of their rather distant greeting. A sort of urban polish struck her country sense, making her feel at once that she was a rustic, and that they belonged to a wider and more cultivated world. She felt herself at a disadvantage, and was angry with herself that it should be so, in that house of all places in the world, where she had every right to hold up her head, and they had surely reason to be ashamed of themselves. Peter was the only person present who was at ease; the unwonted joy of finding himself in the " great parlour" had excited him. He had been wandering about examining the china vases and admiring the little rainbows which sunshine struck out from the cut-glass borders of the mirrors. "He's a fine man," she remarked in a querulous tone; "he'll look grand in his cloak and scarf when he stands over my grave with his hat off; and I think (though Dan'el, you understand is to be chief mourner) that he and his brother had better follow me side by side, and their two sons after them." How little Laura and Mrs. Peter Melcombe had ever thought about these old men, or supposed that they were frequently present to the mother's mind! And yet now there seemed to be evidence that this was the case. Two or three guarded questions asked the next day brought answers which showed her to be better acquainted with their circumstances than she commonly admitted. She had always possessed a portrait in oils of her son Daniel. It had He was very well pleased to include been painted before he left home, and two great-uncles among the new and in-kept him always living as a beautiful fairteresting objects about him. He came haired youth in her recollection. She up when called by one of them, an- took pains to acquaint herself with his swered a few simple questions with child-affairs, though she never opened her lips like docility, and made his mother more concerning them to those about her. sure than before that these dignified old men were treating him, her sister-in-law, and herself, with a certain pathetic gentleness that was almost condescension. Indeed, both the ladies perceived this, but they also saw that they could not play the part their old relation had assigned to them. Such a handsome collation as it was too, but each, after accepting a biscuit and a glass of cider (the very finest cider and more than ten years old) rose as if to take leave. One patted Peter on the head, and the other ordered the chaise. Neither Laura nor Mrs. Peter Melcombe could find courage to press them to eat, though their secluded lives and old-fashioned manners would have made them quite capable of doing so if they had felt at ease. They looked at one another as the two grand old men withdrew, and their first words were of the disappointment the grandmother would feel when she heard that they had hardly eaten anything at all. His first marriage had been disastrous. His wife had deserted him, leaving him with one child only, a daughter. Upon the death of this poor woman many years afterwards, he had married a widow whose third husband he was, yet who was still young, scarcely so old as his daughter. Concerning this lady and her children the poor old mother-in-law continually cogitated, having a common little photographic likeness of her in which she tried to find the wifely love and contentment and all the other endearing qualities she had heard of. For at rare intervals one or other of her sons would write to her, and then she always perceived that the second Mrs. Daniel Mortimer made her husband happy. She would be told from time to time that he was much attached to young Brandon, the son of her first marriage, and that from her three daughters by her second marriage he constantly received the love and deference due to a father. But this cherished wife had now died also, and had left Daniel Mortimer with one son, a fine youth already past childhood. Madam Melcombe, however, asked no question. She was found by them when Mr. Mortimer and his brother had withdrawn sitting in her favourite alcove with her chin resting upon her staff. She was deep in thought, and excepting that she Old Madam Melcombe's heart went watched the chaise drearily as it wound into mourning for her daughter-in-law down among the apple and pear trees and whom she had never seen. None but the was lost to sight, she did not appear to husband, whose idol she was, lamented be thinking of her sons. Nor did she her longer and more. Only fifty miles mention them again, excepting with ref-off, but so remote in her seclusion, so erence to her funeral. shut away, so forgotten; perhaps Mrs. Daniel Mortimer did not think once in a season of her husband's mother; but every day the old woman had thought of her as a consoler and a delight, and when her favourite son retired she soon took out the photograph again and looked sadly at those features that he had held so dear. But she did not speak much of either son, only repeating from time to time, "He's a fine man; they're fine men, both of them. They'll look grand in their scarfs and cloaks at my funeral.” It was not ordained, however, that the funeral should take place yet awhile. The summer flushed into autumn, then the apples and pears dropped and were wasted in the garden, even the red-streak apples, that in all the cider-country are so highly prized. Then snow came and covered all. Madam Melcombe had been heard to say that she liked her garden best in winter. She could wish to leave it for good when it was lapped up under a thick fall of snow. Yet she saw the snow melt again and the leaves break forth, and at last she saw the first pale-green spires shoot up out of the bed of lilies. But the longest life must end at last, the best little boys will sometimes be disobedient. lery at all, and yet this once of all mis fortunes it had rolled its last circle out so far that the balustrade had struck it, and in the leap of its rebound it had sprung over. At first he felt as if he should like to cry. Then a wild and daring thought came and shook at the very doors of his heart. What if he climbed over the gate and got down, and, finding his top, brought it up so quickly that no one would ever know? His mother and aunt were gone out for a walk; his great-grandmother and the nurse were nodding one on each side of the fire. It was only three o'clock, and yet they had dined, and they were never known to rouse themselves up for at least half an hour at that time of day. He took one turn along the gallery again, peeped in at the parlour window, then in a great hurry he yielded to the temptation, climbed over the wooden gate, got down the rotten old steps, and in two minutes was up to his neck in a mass of tangled blossoms. Then he began to feel that passion of deep delight which is born of adventure and curiosity. He quite forgot his top: indeed, there was no chance of finding it. He began to wade about, and got deeper and deeper in. Sometimes quite over-canopied, he burrowed his way half smóthered with flowers; sometimes emerging, he cast back a stealthy glance to the It appears strange to put these things together; but if they had anything to do with one another, Peter did not know it. He knew and felt one day that he hadgallery. been a naughty boy, very naughty, for in fact he had got down into the garden, but he also knew that he had not found the top he went to look for, and that his grandmother had taken from him what he did find. This punishment he deserved; he had it and no other. It came about in this wise. At last he had passed across the lawn, arrived almost at the very end of the garden, and down among the broken trellis-work of the arbour three nests of the yellow-hammer were visible at the same time. He did not know which to lay hands on first. He thought he had never been so happy in his life, or so much afraid. It was a sweet April day, almost the But time pressed. He knew now that last of the month. All the cherry-trees he should certainly climb over that gate were in full flower; the pear-trees were again, though for the present he did not coming out, and the young thickets in dare to stay; and stooping, almost creepthe garden were bending low with lilac-ing, over the open lawn and the bed of blossom, but Peter was miserable. lilies, he began to work his way homeward by the wall, and through old borders where the thickest trees and shrubs had always grown. He was leaning his arms over the balustrade, and the great red peonies and loose anemones were staring up at him so that he could see down into their cen- At last, after pushing on for a little tral folds; but what is April, and what is distance, he paused to rest in a clump of a half-holiday, and what indeed is life fir-trees, one of which had been dead for itself when one has lost perhaps the most so many years that all its twigs and smaller excellent top that boy ever spun, and the boughs had decayed and dropped to the loudest hummer? And then he had ground. Only the large branches, gaunt taken such care of it. Never but once, and skeleton-like, were left standing, and only this once, had he spun it in the gal-in a fork between two of these and quite within his reach, in a lump of soft felt, or perhaps beaver, he noticed something that glittered. Peter drew it away from the soft material it was lying among, and looked at it. It was a sort of gold band perhaps it was gold lace, for it was flexible he had often heard of gold lace, but had not seen any. As he drew it away something else that depended from a morsel of the lump of rag fell away from it, and dropped at his feet. It might have been some sort of badge or ornament, but it was not perfect, though it still glittered, for it had threads of gold wrought in it. "This is almost in the shape of an anchor," said Peter, as he wrapped the gold band round it, "and I think it must have been lost here for ages; perhaps ever since that old Uncle Morti-staring at something above his head. mer that I saw was a little boy." "It's nothing particular," said Peter, unwinding it slowly from his hand, and humbly giving it up. "It's nothing but a little sort of a gold band and an ornament that I found stuck in a tree." Then Peter, observing by her silence how high his misdemeanour had been, began to sob a little, and then to make a few excuses, and then to say he hoped his grandmother would forgive him. No answer. So then with the piece of gold band wrapped round his hand he began to press on, and if he had not stopped to mark the places where two or three more nests were, he would have been quicker still. On and on, how dangerously delightful his adventure had been ! What would become of him if he could not get down to-morrow? "I wish I hadn't done it," he next said. He felt that he could not say more than that, and he looked up at her. She was not regarding him at all, not attending to what he had said, her face was very white, she was clutching the bit of gold lace in her hand, and her wide-open eyes were "Peter Peter! Peter!" she cried again, in a strangely sharp and ringing voice. It seemed as if she would fall, and Peter caught hold of her arm and held her, while the thought darted through his mind, that perhaps she had called him at first because she was ill, and wanted him to hold her, not because she had observed his visit to the garden. He felt sure she could hardly stand, and he was very much frightened, but in a moment the nurse, having heard her cry, came running out, and between them they guided her to her chair in the alcove. On and on, his heart beat with exultation; he was close to the steps and he had not been discovered; he was close to the top of them and had not been dis- "I'm very sorry, grandmother," Peter covered; he was just about to climb over sobbed, "and really, really I didn't take when he heard a cry that rang in his ears any nest or lilies or anything at all, but long after, a sharp, piercing cry, and turn-only that bit of stuff. I'll never do it ing he saw his great-grandmother in her cloak and hood standing in the entrance of the alcove, and reaching out her hands as if she wanted to come and meet him, but could not stir. "Peter! Peter! Peter!" she cried, and her voice seemed to echo all over the place. Peter tumbled over the gate as fast as he possibly could; and as she still cried, he ran to her at the top of his speed. again." As he spoke he saw his mother and aunt coming up with looks of grief and awe, and on looking into his grandmother's face he beheld, child that he was, a strange shadow passing over it, the shadow of death, and he instinctively knew what it was. "Can't you move poor grandmother out of the sun?" he sobbed. "O do! I know she doesn't like it to shine in her eyes." "Hush! hush!" his mother presently found voice enough to say amid her tears. What can it signify?" All in a moment she seemed to become quite still, and though she trembled as she seized him, she did not scold him at all; while he mumbled out, "I only just" went down for a very little while. I only wanted just to look for my top; I didn't take any of the nests," he continued, mentioning the most valuable things he had been amongst, according to his own opinion. His grandmother had let go his hand and raised herself upright; her eyes were on the bit of gold band. "What's that?” she said faintly. After that Peter cried very heartily because everybody else did, but in a little while when his grandmother had been able to drink some cordial, and while they were rubbing her cold hands, she opened her eyes, and then he thought perhaps she was going to get better. O, how earnestly he hoped it might be so! But there was no getting better for Madam Melcombe. She sat very still for some minutes, and looked like oneness, my dears," she said, "all your kind- "Well, I thank you for all your kind Then she sank down into her chair again, and in a moment was gone. and Mytilus polymorphus, Pall. Is it possible IMMEDIATELY outside the sacred fane of | tained only shells of Cardium trigonoides, Pall., Ataschkja, where the eternal fires of Baku are religiously guarded, extensive chemical works have within the last few years been established for the preparation of petroleum. Here the combustible gases as they issue from the soil are collected and ultimately utilized as a source of heat in distilling the naphtha which is so abundantly distributed throughout the peninsula of Abscheron. A visit to this remarkable locality has enabled Herr Trautschold, of Moscow, to lay before the German Geological Society an interesting paper, "Ueber die Naphtaquellen von Baku," which appears in the current number of the Society's Zeitschrift. Accompanying the memoir is a map of the peninsula on which Baku is situated, showing the distribution of the numerous mud-volcanoes, the springs of naphtha, and the sources of the inflammable gases. Four distinct kinds of springs may be distinguished, according as they yield fresh water, salt water, naphtha, or gaseous products. The gases are most abundant in the neighbourhood of Ssurachany, while the naphtha is found chiefly in the district of Balachany. It would appear, however, that the soil throughout the entire district is more or less charged with naphtha; thus it exudes from the ground in company with the gaseous hydrocarbons, and it floats upon the surface of the salt water in the mud-volcanoes. The naphtha profusely thrown out from these sources becomes inspissated by exposure to the atmosphere, and ultimately hardens to a solid bituminous mass. This consolidated naphtha, known under its Tatar name of kir, is not only used as a fuel, but is employed in the town of Baku for roofing and other purposes. The naphtha is chiefly derived from beds of sand and sandstone of Upper Tertiary age, but the ultimate origin of this and of the gaseous hydrocarbons is a standing enigma to the chemical geologist. Trautschold could find in the naphtha-bearing beds no trace of vegetable structures which might have yielded the organic materials, and from some excavations in sand charged with naphtha he ob It seems to be very probable that the culti vation of sugar in Porto Rico, which has to a great extent succeeded that of cotton, will eventually give place to the growth of coffee on a large scale. Referring to this subject the British consul says : — The geographical configuration of the island would almost lead to the anticipation that some less succulent plant than the cane should supersede it in the district of Guayama. Some of the most fertile lands of the island are situated in it, and in favourable seasons no other part of Porto Rico can rival its fecundity; but the island is divided from east to west by a range of mountains, the highest of which, Laquillo, is at the extreme east, and at the southern foot of this mountain Guayama is situated. The tradewinds blowing from the north-east cause the rain-clouds to strike the northern side of Laquillo, and they are carried along the northern face of the Sierra, a limited portion passing over their summits to the south side. Thus Guayama and Ponce are subject to drought. In the rich and populous district of Ponce this natural impediment has been overcome by an efficient system of irrigation, but Guayama is less favourably situated in all respects; its position immediately south of Laquillo too often occasions the drought to continue, the soil is burnt up and divested of all fertility, and the residents are neither sufficiently rich nor sufficiently numerous to artificially irrigate their lands as their neighbours in Ponce have done. The consequence is, that the crops are very uncertain in their yield, and it is expected that if something is not done to ensure irrigation, there will very soon be no produce at all." Nature. 1 IN MEMORY OF BARRY CORNWALL. Pall Mall Gazette, Victoria Magazine, TO DEATH, By Algernon Charles Swinburne, 386 TO DEATH: AN ECHO, 396 406 417 431 438 440 442 444 447 386 386 PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 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