Ertile parts of Virginia in a southerly direction, and crossing Maryland and e

E comes a broad slice of the bark, leaving an ominous, gaping wound. Another pair of blows extends the gash, and when twenty such have
fallen,
behold a girdled tree. This would suffice to kill, and a melancholy death it is; but to fell is

quite another thing.... Two deep incisions are made, yet the towering crown sits firm as ever. And now the destroyer pauses,--fetches breath,--wipes

his beaded brow, takes a wary view of the bearings of the tree,--and then
with a slow and watchful care recommences his work. The strokes fall doubtingly, and many a cautious glance is cast upward, for the whole immense mass now trembles, as if instinct with life, and conscious of approaching ruin. Anoth er blow! it waves,--a groaning sound is heard--... yet another stroke is necessary. It is given with desperate force, and the tall peak leaves its place with an easy sailing motion accelerated every instant, till it crashes prone on the earth, sending far and wide its scattered branches, and letting in the sunlight

upon the cool, damp, mossy earth,

for the first time perhaps in half a century. * * * * * From "Western Clearings." =_209._= THE BEE TREE. One of the greatest
temptations to our friend Silas, and to most of his class, is a bee hunt. Neither deer, nor 'coons, nor prairie hens, nor even bears, prove half
as powerful enemies to anything like regular business,
as do these little thrifty vagrants
of the forest. The slightest hint of a bee tree will entice Silas
Ashburn and his sons from the most profitable job of the season, even though the defection is sure to result in entire loss of the

offered advantage; and if the hunt prove successful,
the luscious spoil is generally too
tempting to allow of any care for the future, so long as the "sweet'nin" can be persuaded to last. "It costs nothing," will poor Mrs. Ashburn observe; "let 'em enjoy it. It isn't often we have such

good luck." * * * * * =_Margaret Fuller Ossoli, 1810-1850._=
(Manual, p. 502.) From "At Home and Abroad." =_210._=

Ve hounded by my own thoughts, fearful of my shadow, eating charity from peasants? I c

Is distinguished
air of a latter-day
man of the world and his intimate knowle dge of everybody's business and ancestry. He was often ordered to go with her at a moment's notice.

But this was the first time she had refused to say where they were going, or why, and there was a hint of malice in her smile that made his blood run
cold. He was a connoisseur
of malice. Marcia leaned on his arm as she went down the steps to her litter. She permitted him to help her in. But
then, while her companion was following through the silken
curtains, she leaned out at the farther side and whispered
to the nearest eunuch.

Livius, climbing into his own gilt vehicle and lifted shoulder-high by eight Numidians, became aware that Marcia's eunuchs had been told to keep an eye on him; two yellow- robed, insufferably impudent inquisitors
strode in among his own attendants. An escort
of twenty praetorian guards and a decurion was waiting at the

gate to take its place between
the lictors and Marcia's litter, but that did not
in any way increase Livius' sense of security. The praetorian guard regarded Marcia as the source of its illegal privileges. It looked to her far more than to the emperor
for favors, buying them with lawless loyalty to her. She ruined discipline by her support of every plea for increased perquisi

Hild!" he said. "She is dead, Mrs. Pitman!" "Not she-

Ek. It too k all we could beg, borrow and steal. But now--we

have to come

, the g

En the harvest was at last gathered, then came the procession of robbers to levy their blackmail
upon it: first the Church carted off its fat tenth, then the king's commissioner took his twentieth, then my lord's people

made a mighty inroad upon the remainder; after which, the skinned freeman had
liberty to bestow the remnant in his barn, in case it was worth the trouble; there were taxes, and taxes, and taxes, and more taxes, and taxes again, and yet other taxes--upon this free and independent pauper, but none upon his lord
the baron or

the bishop, none upon the wasteful nobility or
the all-devouring Church; if the baron would sleep unvexed, the freeman must sit up all night
after his day's work and whip the ponds to keep the frogs quiet; if the freeman's daughter--but no, that la st infamy of monarchical government is unprintable; and finally, if the freeman, grown desperate with his tortures, found his life unendurable under such conditions, and sacrificed it and
fled to death for mercy and refuge,
the gentle Church condemned him to eternal fire, the gentle law buried him at midnight at the cross-roads with a stake through his back, and his master the baron or the bishop confiscated all his property
and turned his widow and his orphans
out of doors. And here were these freemen assembled in the early morning
to work

was clear. She had expected the apron to be there and he would look it

Es made the Colonel bow assent, and she continued, "After that
there is a blank, with misty recollections

of another box on the table, and a walk across hot sands with Sha ky, and

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H transmit to Congress the report of the Commissioner of P

Sel had been lost here, and all the cr

Arnestly that she might live for him, who loved her so devotedl

heart, which she could not h

The morning." "Tell us," said Margaret. Hester quietly seated herself
on the bed. "It concerns our valued friend, Mr Hope," said Mrs Grey.
Hester's colour had been going from the moment Mrs Grey entered the
room: it was now quite gone; but she preserved her calmness. "He was
safe when Sydney lost
sight of him, on the ridge of the hill, on the Dingleford road; but he
afterwards had an accident." "What kind of accident?" inquired
Margaret. "Is

he killed?" asked Hester. "No, not killed. He was found insensible in
the road. The miller's
boy observed his horse, without a rider,
plunge into the river below the dam, and swim across; and another
person
saw the pony Sydney had been riding, grazing
with a side-saddle on, on the common. This
made them search, and they found Mr Hope lying in the road insensible,
as
I told you." "What is thought of his state?" asked Margaret. "Two
medical men were called immediately

from the nearest places, and Mr Grey saw them

last night;