“I thought you had been crying," returned the other; 'your eyes look very red." "My eyes ache rather, as they often do now; that is why I have put away my work so early." The scene I would paint was a neatlyfurnished comfortable-looking room, in one of those thousand streets of London, which, without having any pretensions to consequence or consideration, are nevertheless thought very eligible by a large class of people, either for some individual or general advantages. In one corner, as if to be out of the way of the other occupants of the room, sat a young man of about four and twenty, working diligently at his ordinary employment, that of a watchmaker. Various implements and particles of minute mechanism, whose uses are incomprehensible to the ignorant, were before him, and the strong light of a partially-shaded lamp fell precisely on his work. Jasper Lawson was not a common character, and perhaps his employment, which, while it required pa tience and a certain degree of attention, like women's needlework, afforded much opportunity for the self-instruction of thought and reflection, might have had something to do in moulding his disposition. He was "the only son of a widow," to whose comfort, even in the matter-offact respect of pounds, shillings, and pence, he largely contributed; his mother having no other dependence except a small annuity, secured to her from some benefit society to which her husband had belonged. Lucy Freeling was the daughter of a distant relation, and had been left an orphan in early childhood; but the widow had so tenderly fulfilled the offices of a parent that Lucy had scarcely known her loss. The interest of a few hundred pounds, which should have been her's when she became of age, might have sufficed to bring her up in the station to which she belonged. But for a few years Mrs. Lawson had exceeded these limits for the purpose of giving her increased advantages for education; and when she arrived at the age of seventeen had paid a sum of money to place her for two years with a milliner and dressmaker. Although she was not old enough to make a legal contract, it was perfectly understood and relied on that this advance, so judiciously made, would be refunded when Lucy attained her majority. Alas! before that time arrived, the trustee in whose hands her little fortune was placed became a bankrupt; and that from such unexpected causes, that the circumstance of Lucy's money being engulphed in the general ruin arose less from fraud than from imprudence. But the eighty pounds debt which had been incurred was now a dreadful burden to those who had such slender means of repaying it. Nevertheless, the right-minded girl set bravely to work, determining, by the exercise of an art in which she had so prudently been instructed, to make up the sum by small degrees. The widow had also put by from her little income, and Jasper had worked hard to help out the repayment; and now the struggle was nearly over, a few more pounds were all they required. Lucy not unfrequently worked at home, instead of at the large establishment where she was employed; for her home, as we have before hinted, was centrically situated, and she lost very little time in going backwards and forwards; this had she done on the evening on which we have introduced her. But there was another person in that neat and comfortable parlour, and one who was now a frequent guest. Ralph Ashton was a lawyer's clerk, and on the strength of a situation which he considered rather above that of a journeyman watchmaker, he thought in his own heart that he somewhat condescended in joining their tea and supper table three or four nights a week. Not that such a feeling was by any means evident from his manner; on the contrary, the most casual observer might have felt pretty sure that Ralph Ashton was doing his utmost to make himself agreeable to Lucy Freeling, and to have betrayed his own self conceit, or certain other attributes of his nature, would have been a mistake unworthy of his cunning. He was good-looking, so far as a coarse kind of regularity of features, and a bright dark eye, might constitute good looks; and he had as mattering of superficial knowledge, and a certain speciousness of manner, which were likely enough to deceive a simple-minded inexperienced girl like Lucy. Even Jasper. his superior in every way, but diffident of himself, and endowed by nature with an almost womanly delicacy of sentiment and tenderness of feeling, had been caught by the outward seeming; and, though the knowledge racked him to the heart's core, did not wonder that Lucy regarded him with interest. Not so the widow. From the first moment of Ashton's acquaintance with her son, he had been disliked by her; although when pressed hard for a reason for her antipathy, she could seldom find any but the most trivial ones. Poor girl, she must suspect that the choice she has made is the overthrow of all my hopes for my old age." "Don't blame her, mother; perhaps she does not know all this. Long ago I should have given myself a fair chance, and told her that I loved her better than with a brother's love, instead of weighing words and looks, and smothering every expression of my feelings, from the romantic notion that I would not ask her to love me until I was in business for myself, and could place her in the position of a prosperous tradesman's wife. Idiot that I was, not to be sure that I should be forestalled." "And now that you are so near the summit of your wishes!" apostrophised his mother. "To my astonishment! The offer of Mondson to take me into partnership is a most extraordinary piece of good fortune." "He knows there are not half a dozen such workmen in London, and that a fortune is to be made by the improvements you have suggested," replied Mrs. Lawson with pride. "I can hardly forgive her for this, Jasper-and so much as I have always said against him-" There had been a whispered conference between those who were all but acknow- "Well," sighed Jasper, "from whatever ledged lovers, accompanied by downcast cause it is, it comes like a mockery now. looks and a flushed cheek on the part of I doubt if there will be any more imLucy; but Ralph Ashton had left some-provements of mine. I have little heart what earlier than usual, having several for anything." letters to write for his employer before morning, and Lucy, pleading more than ordinary fatigue, retired to rest, leaving Jasper and his mother alone. He had ex- "There it is, mother," interrupted the tinguished the lamp by which he worked, young man, almost fiercely; "if she love and only the light of a single candle re-him in the manner that I love her, the mained besides that of the sinking fire, more he is blamed the more will she cling which it was too late to replenish. He to him. Why, I feel if she were plunged was leaning upon the mantel-piece, look-into want and misery-her beauty gone, ing down, and apparently watching the or with evil tongues like harpies darting flickering embers; but the expression of his countenance was sad almost to solemnity. "Mother," he exclaimed, after a pause, and in a voice that trembled perceptibly, "I suppose it is all settled? The attempt is vain," he added, "I cannot hide my feelings from you." "I am afraid it is," replied the widow sorrowfully; "though Lucy has made no acknowledgment to me of her affection. at her, such an hour of woe would be the one in which I would show my adoration most passionately-most madly, if you like to call it so; she would still be herself, and it is herself that I love." Poor Mrs. Lawson was awed and pained by her son's enthusiasm. Like many other excellent-hearted and shrewd persons, she was quite incapable of following those subtle emotions, which are the most real in the world, and more than any she said, and she could but regard him as a dear brother. They were engaged, and all seemed fair before them; and Ralph even ventured to hint one day, from intelligence which he declared he had received but a few hours before, that perhaps after all Lucy would have her money. He did this advisedly, for he knew it was very likely that the news would reach her in a day or two from another quarter. Sorrow was coming however, as it generally does, from an unexpected source. The "aching" of her eyes, of which Lucy had com. We must take the reader a little behind the curtain. Ralph Ashton was quite as much in love with Lucy Freeling as his nature permitted him to be; but his was that common passion, a purely selfish one. He admired her beauty, and would be proud of a wife thus endowed, and with mental acquirements something beyond those common to her station. But his cunning brain worked upon two ulte-plained as the result of excessive applicarior objects which had nothing to do with these personal qualities. It so happened that a great deal of business connected with the affairs of the bankrupt trustee had passed through the office in which Ashton was employed, and he knew enough of it to form an almost positive opinion that Lucy would ultimately recover her little fortune. However, he took care to keep this knowledge to himself, and wooed her apparently with the most disinterested affection, not even at present hinting of the plan which in his own mind was well-nigh matured, that of establishing his wife at the west-end of the town as a fashionable milliner, well knowing that her taste, and skill, and superior manners would be sure to raise her to an eminence that must contribute greatly to his ease and comfort. In short he planned to himself becoming something like that very contemptible creature, of deathless memory, the renowned Mantalini. A few weeks passed over, and Ralph Ashton and Lucy Freeling were engaged to be married. In justice to the latter, we must say that she had only very lately suspected the deep feelings which her life-long companion, Jasper Lawson, entertained for her, and the discovery made to her by his vexed and disappointed mother pained her deeply. It is true Mrs. Lawson had sometimes hinted at her hopes for the future in phrases sufficiently intelligible to Lucy; but, alas! Jasper had concealed his affection but too well. The time had been, she knew, that he might have won her, but it was gone by, tion to her needle, became mere distressing, and on medical advice being obtained, the most alarming symptoms were discovered. With all the horrors of threatened blindness before her, Lucy was confined for several weeks to a darkened room; and months must elapse before there was any hope that under the most favourable circumstances she could apply herself to her ordinary occupation. During this time Jasper became a junior partner in the establishment to which he had belonged, and through his mother, his increased income contributed to the comforts and medical attendance of the poor sufferer. How could the poor destitute orphan refuse help from him who only asked to be called "her brother ?" She did not refuse it, nay, she felt that she would rather be assisted by him than by her betrothed. How strange are the intricacies of human feeling! During these months of suffering, the affairs of the bankrupt trustee had been thrown into Chancery, and there was little hope now of a settlement of them for years. Poor Lucy! little could she have thought that the day would come, and that soon, in which the loss of her money, months of suffering, partial blindness, and personal disfigurement, would appear to her like so many "blessings in disguise" that had combined to save her from a gulf of misery and ruin. When the cure, so far as it could be effected was complete, a white film still remained to mar the beauty and obscure the vision of one of those deep blue eyes, which had seemed like the stars of light and love to poor Jasper Lawson. Moreover the oculists declared that the preservation of the other eye depended on the most careful abstaining from anything like straining the visual organs. Only a few days had elapsed since this fiat went forth, and but once had Ralph Ashton seen Lucy since the bandages were removed, when she received a letter from him, dictated by that one virtue which those who possess no other are ever ready to put prominently forward-Prudence. It pointed out some facts which she really must have known before, and among them the great change in their future prospects her affliction had made. Hinted very intelligibly at the wisdom of a separation, and concluded by mentioning that unless she desired to see him he should refrain from calling again, and signing himself "ever her sincere friend." Lucy Freeling was for a while stunned by the blow; but though her young and susceptible heart had been caught and led astray, it was of a nature too fine to be broken by a mockery-a falsehood. "Do not tell me not to weep," she exclaimed a few days afterwards as she sat between Mrs. Lawson and her son, with a hand in one of each; "I know you would comfort me as dearest mother and brother might. But do not tell me not to weep. It cannot be that man whom I loved; and with these foolish tears there seems to pass away some dream, some folly-better this-better this-a thousand times than to have been his wife. I feel it so. Believe it. I do indeed." A sharp irrepressible cry escaped Jasper Lawson, and both his mother and Lucy turned towards him. One look was exchanged, and throwing himself pas sionately beside her, he twined his armi round her waist, and pressed her to his heart with an impulse that would not be stayed. Mother, mother, did I not tell you this when hope was dead within me ?" Is there much wonder that Lucy's heart, released from the sway of a phantom love, clung now and for ever to the Tried and the True? THE LOVE OF NATURE. LIFE to a working man is a stern bread, or his weekly wages, has little reality. He who labours for his daily time to throw away in idle fancies. He can neither afford to indulge his imagination with the poet, nor to sigh over purling streams and faded flowers with the sentimentalist. He has duties that he must perform, and objects which he must attain. But though I thus speak, yet would I recommend a working-man to foster a love of nature in his heart. As he cannot enjoy the full feast of rural life, let his share. Let him value his little garhim improve such fragments as fall to den, his tree pots, or his tufts of houseto account, and making the most of his green, as the case may be, turning them botanic treasures. Reader, with excited emotions- And o'er his chariot float away?" If you have not, take the first opportunity of seeing the sun rise in the country, that you may bless God for your eyesight, and magnify his holy name. "Have you not marked the evening shade In all her changeful colours fade; The golden glow, the sapphire hue, The rosy red, the melting blue?" Then try your best to get a glance at the setting sun in the country, when gathering around him his robes of purple and gold, as a retiring monarch he withdraws himself from the world. The sight will be health to your affections and strength to your piety. You will love your neighbour none the worse, and your Bible all the better. This is a much more practical subject than it appears to be. It is much more connected with a working-man's happi ness, and the comfort and peace of those | source of blameless pleasure; but if ever around him, than he may suppose. The you should know what it is to bear the love of nature not only elevates the reproach of others, or of your own heart, intellect, but expands and purifies the the running brook, the waving tree, the affections. He whose heart responds to sighing breeze, and the gliding clouds of the beauties of creation, as a general heaven will be more pleasant to you, than rule, is a kinder man, both at home and the dwelling-places of mankind. Your abroad, than he who has no love for sorrow will be soothed; the peaceful them. scenery around will not wound you with reproaches, but rather have a tendency to tranquillize, if not to humble your heart, and to point your thoughts to Him who sees every tear of contrition fall; who hears every sigh that proceeds from a sorrowful breast, and who has promised that "a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise." The love of nature induces quiet and happy thoughts, which may be enjoyed even in hours of labour. It is a great tranquillizer of the ruffled mind, and a sweet soother of an angry heart. If you have it not, try hard to get it. If you have it rank it among your treasures. If, reader, you are a workman, and have a sovereign, and will lay it down on the table before you in a season of leisure to reflect upon it, you will, perhaps, find that the thoughts called up in your mind, are those of eating and drinking, of revelry and mirth. The head of the queen on the one side, and the crown, the harp, the lions, and the laurel on the other, however well executed they may be, will hardly, unless you are a diesinker, secure your attention. The selfish thought of what you shall do with the sovereign, or what you can get for it, or how you shall hoard it up, will be uppermost in your mind. But if, in a reflective moment, you look on a green leaf, or a blooming flower, you will most likely be struck with its beauty. It will unlock in your heart some pent-up love of country scenes. You will see, as it were, the green fields, and blue skies, and feel the fresh breezes blowing around you. Your emotions will be anything but selfish. You will be softened, and have more love for the world, and for those dear to you, and you will feel more disposed to ponder on His goodness who has studded the heavens with stars, and strewn the earth with flowers. I would neither foolishly nor fancifully push my remarks beyond discretion, yet am I truly in earnest in wishing you to be a lover of nature. As I have elsewhere said, "a taste for the beauties of creation is, at all times, a If you have a garden dig in it; if a tree water it; if only a tuft of housegreen regard it with pleasure, forgetting not Him who formed every tree of the field and every herb that grows, "from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." Again I say to the working-man, foster the love of nature in your heart, for you will and it to be an imparter of cheerfulness, a giver of pleasure, a promoter of peace, and a helper of piety. REASONING POWERS IN ANIMALS.recounts the following anecdote :-" One of M. BAILLY, in his Lettre sur les Animaux, my friends, a man of great talent and veracity, related to me the following facts, which he himself witnessed. He had a very intelligent monkey, with which he often amused himself by giving it nuts, of which the animal was particularly fond; and once especially, when he had placed some beyond the limits of its chain, so that and was watching its efforts and mathe animal could not possibly reach them, noeuvres to get at them, a servant passed by with a napkin under his arm, which the monkey immediately seized and employed to drag the nuts within his reach. mode of breaking them was an additional proof of sagacity; for laying them on the ground, he split them by striking them with a stone; but on one occasion, when the ground was wet from rain, and the blows only drove the nut into a hole, it took a piece of wood, on which it laid the nut, and then broke it." His |