all learn to know stole over his face. Then Nature rallied for the last her forces and strong, bright, triumphant, he opened the heavenly eyes. "Elinor!" "Dear Raymond!" "It is a glad new year!" and the eyes leaving her face, turned upward, upward, until they seemed to pierce the very skies as he repeated" a glad new year!" One moment, mysterious, holy - and the broken heart was healed on the bosom of its Savior. O Robert, thou who wast dead and art alive, let all the bells of gladness ring in thy happy new year. Thine is the old joy which all the poets of the world have sung; and earth has no greater gift for thee, than the love of a pure, devoted heart. O Raymond, thou who, dying, art alive forevermore, earthly ears may not list the celestial chimes that rang in thy glad new year! We only know that the highest bliss of earth is but the broken image of that glory into which thou art now received. We only know that God measured against thy brief pain His endless joy, and recompensed the lost hopes of earth with the boundless love of Heaven. THE WREATH OF YOUTH. "Go, bind it on thy daughter's brow; in her thou'lt still be fair "Twere well would all learn wisdom, who behold the first gray hair!" -THOMAS H. BAILEY. T will do very well for you, Mr. Bailey, to It wit to very well for, but what are we to do who have no daughter's brow to bind it on? - no other self to say the "folded veil" is more becoming than the discarded wreath, and join with us in admiration of the latter, as it now adorns the face of which we cannot be jealous? I see how easily it is often transferred by those to whom the transfer is but another mode of adorning self; who take more pride in beautifying its counterpart than they ever did the original. Tis a hard case to settle, is it not, Mr. Bailey? Perhaps your gallantry would not have permitted you to speak plainly, had you thought upon this point, or to admit there ever is a time when we single ladies must resign the wreath of youth. I have known gentlemen too polite for this; so, placing you among that number, I will answer for you. When this wreath is taken off, it must be replaced by the flowers of autumn — those tinted with the fadeless hues of immortality, which may be worn even to the Beautiful Gate, and, who knows? perhaps become the frame-work of the heavenly crown, which shall be given to the denizens of that "city, whose maker and builder is God." But, let me say, I do not recommend the transfer to those whose youthful wreath has been one of French artificial flowers. I know not the seasons and gradations of those, but do know that the wearers of them find it difficult to put them off, even when their daughters stand ready to receive them. To such, I fear, the autumn wreath would prove but a crown of thorns. I believe in flowers; I think they were made for us to enjoy. I mean veritable flowers, that grow in "valleys green, and on the mountains high;" such as out-rivalled "Solomon in all his glory," even though they "often bloom unseen." I have no patience with those, who, looking upon the earth as an inn, a stopping-place upon the journey of life, for that reason wish to deprive us of all enjoyment while tarrying here. I admit it is but a temporary abode, an inn, if you please, but furnished with every luxury that traveler can possibly need. Do any refuse to make themselves comfortable at a hotel because it is one? I think not. It is true you often hear from its tenants the expression, Well, it is not home, after all;" for Home, sweet Home" is the song of every heart. And so this great inn, the earth, is not our home. But, is that any reason why we should refuse the provision here made for us, flowers included? Such refusal would be as ungrateful as foolish. Travelers are generally the happiest people in the world; that is, with the exception of those discontented ones, who are unhappy everywhere. Traveling in company is certainly delightful, nor is the returning portion of the journey, with home in view, the least delightful part. Surely then, our life-journey should be pleasant, for, though we often pass over rough places, and experience cloudy weather, we are permitted to travel in company, and with home in view! But, to return to the wreaths we were talking of, is there any harm in wearing flowers? None in the least; for are not the autumn flowers made on purpose for the autumn of life, and immortelles for the snowy locks! I hope my answer to the question proposed to Mr. Bailey, may suggest to some still wearing the wreath of youth, the best way of acquiring a taste for autumn flowers. There is a time for all things," the wise man tells us, and Mr. Bailey evidently thinks so too, thus showing his wisdom. Now, we must either resign the wreath of youth at the proper season, or become a mark for ridicule, and find it of itself a burden, however we may cling to it. Though of the same opinion, as is already evident, I am far from wishing to show that with the wreath of youth we resign the enjoyments of life. Each season has its pleasures, if we would accept them; nor do I believe in the theory of the superior happiness of childhood. If we acknowledge the supremacy of mental over mere physical enjoyment, it is difficult to doubt the superiority of the happiness of the awakened and deepened powers of mind and heart, which come with later years, over the careless joys of childhood, as it is spirit life over that of this present world. Of course, in making this comparison, we must consider other things as being equal. He who has stained his later life with any special sin, cannot be considered a fair proof against my argument. But I believe there are few who have passed through a long life of comparative innocence, but would sustain me in it. I am not forgetting the trials and sorrows which await all as life advances, for even with these in the balance I believe I am right. The patience and faith which come with them, can dispose of them more completely than the buoyant spirit of youth, on which they oft appear to sit so lightly. There is, doubtless, a certain happiness peenliar to childhood and early youth that is never known in after years; but if we will but have it so, each season has its appointed enjoyments. "We may ever gather flowers by the way, if we only choose," as I was told by one now gone to gather them in the gardens of paradise. I was mourning that I was no longer able to cultivate them as I had been accustomed to. The cares of life were then fast pressing upon me, and crowding out some of its coveted pleasures. I took the kindly rebuke. I ever after thought of it when a wild flower or exotic a gift from a friend came as compensation for my loss. I have called it to mind when the many flowers of life I supposed most deeply rooted and secured, have been uptorn; I have repeated, "We may gather them by the. wayside if we choose." But, to return to our subject, did you think of us, daughterless ones, Mr. Bailey, when you told the mothers how to resign their youthful crowns? I think not, or you would have given us some hint of how to dispose of ours. Doubtless had you continued your advice to any length, you would have pointed out the autumn flowers even for those whose floral crowns may rest upon the heads of their rightful heirs, and to us, the many orphan brows on which no flowers ever bloomed. I anticipate what you might have said, I thank you for what you have spoken; and, as I look upon my first gray hair - I found it yesterday, and in imagination bebehold it still I will prepare to lay aside my youthful crown, and find some wreathless head to wear it. C. TO DIE IS GAIN. Throughout the Bible it is declared that the things that we are permitted to see in this life, are but imitations, glimpses of what we shall see here after. It doth not yet appear what we shall be." There are times when it seems as though our circumstances, our nature, all the processes of our being, conspired to make us joyful here, yet the apostle says we now see through a glass darkly. What, then, must be the vision which we shall behold when we go to that abode where we shall see face to face! What a land of glory have you sent your babes into! What a land of delight have you sent children and companions into! What a land of blessedness are you your selves coming to by and by! Men talk about dying as though it was going toward a desolate place. All the past in a man's life is down hill and toward gloom, and all the future in a man's life is up hill and towards glorious sunrising.-Beecher. I THE BATTLE OF THE FIRE. BY MRS. HATTIE TYNG GRISWOLD. AM sitting idly by my hearthstone, Gazing sad and lonely in the fire; On one side the hosts are clad in scarlet, And their arms are glittering white and cold. I can seem to hear the cymbals clashing, As the scarlet ranks are rent asunder, All the air is full of angry rushing, O'er the hearthstone flows a Red Sea flood, Red and gold, the hosts are thus contending REMINISCENSES OF SOUTHERN TRAVEL. BY MRS. MARY C. GRANNIS. LIGHT WOOD FIRES. " [F ever there was a "peculiar institution of our southern brethren which elicited our most unqualified approbation while sojourning among them, it surely was their cheery pine wood fires. How the brilliant tongues of flame leaped forth from the crackling sticks! an honest, rollicking blaze, as if a company of merry fire spirits, loosened from captivity, were holding a revel for their own enjoyment rather than for purposes of utility in warming chilly mortals who were spectators of their frolic. Amid all the trials and discomforts of those months passed in the land of "Dixie," its cheerful evening fires shine out from memory's canvas with a pleasant glow, lighting up many an otherwise dreary hour, and enabling us to bear with tolerable equanimity the inevitable accompaniments of a thriftless people, and an unsettled social system, almost chaotic during the first year after the revolution was crushed. But how treason ever could have lurked in the hearts of men sitting daily face to face with those hearty open fires, (whose honest light one would think must have searched and shamed them through and through for disloyal thoughts and evil plots,) this is one of the mysteries to us still unsolved. NEGROES AND NEGRO PREACHING. "As slow as a slave" was a saying occasionally heard in our early days, the significance of which we never fully realized until studying this new phase of character presented by the southern negroes, so recently emancipated, that old habits still prevailed. The contrast between their mode of work and that of ordinary domestics of the north was striking to a stranger, beholding for the first time the cuisine and other household arrangements of our southern neighbors, as seen during a five month's tarry in Mississsippi, Alabama and Florida. The most indolent, thriftless and dirty specimens of the class we found in central Mississippi; while those most tidy and industrious were seen in Florida. Climatic influence doubtless had much to do with the ordinary state of unthrift which prevailed under "the old system," affecting both mistress and servant; but the principal cause was the institution of slavery itself acting upon a race naturally lighthearted and easy; well for the owners that these traits prevailed, for had they been otherwise, something more serious than laziness and deception would have followed as an accompaniment of the "peculiar institution." Speaking of the natural thriftlessness of the negroes, a southern lady assured us that where a perfectly trained household was found, no domestic arrangement could be From the rude mud fireplace of a forest superior; but the mistress who succeeded in shanty; from the more civilized ones of achieving this result, did so by the most the neat log inns scattered here and there untiring effort, and in the exercise of an execupon the stage roads leading to interior vil- utive ability sufficient to have governed a lages, up to the marble hearths and mantels commonwealth. This was especially the with all the etcetera of polished fenders, shin- case with those establishments on plantations ing andirons and velvet rugs of the drawing-isolated from large towns, where a great room, the same ruddy blaze warmed and cheered the northern guests worn with sickness and weary with prolonged travel. In view of the merits of this burning and shining comfort, we cordially indorse the triumphant asseveration of the rough North Carolinian, who, when obliged to own the sterility of his native section of that State, clenched the matter by saying as a grand conclusive argument in its favor, number of slaves were employed. There was the cloth to be spun, woven, dyed, cut, and made into garments for the servants; provisions to be inspected, weighed, measured, and dealt out, both for the family table and the negroes; the little ones to be looked after, the old and infirm cared for, and the entire machinery of housekeeping with its throngs of company to be kept in smooth running order. No wonder is it that the Wall, but it beats all natur for light- energetic, faithful mistress, especially if the wood!" mother of several children, broke down in | appeared to be an especial delight to our the prime of life; a victim to that system, whose manifold evils always reacted, in one form or another, upon its advocates and upholders! The love of finery and gay coloring exhib. ited by the negroes was to us an amusing feature; we have seen combinations of the latter, which to say the least was quite startling, although instances of charming effect produced by contrast were not wanting, proving the existence of an appreciative eye, and a degree of taste as pleasant as unexpected. Some fine specimens of beauty of the blackest type, we saw among the negroes, which interested us, as affording proof that pure African blood is susceptible of developing physical perfection at least, even under conditions as unfavorable as slavery. We are inclined to believe that the slaveowner of whom we were informed, that he counted a mixture of the races a cardinal sin, and consequently kept his plantation stocked with none but genuine blacks, set as high an example, morally speaking, as could be obtained during the existing institution of slavery. That this was rather of an exceptional case than otherwise, the prevailing variety of complexional tints, from deep brown to the lightest shade of the octoroon, seemed to testify. It was very comical during the winter after the emancipation to hear the two sexes of ex-slaves give each other the title of gentlemen and ladies! colored brethren and sisters, yet, so modified ("revised and improved," probably,) and so ingeniously applied, as to defy one's attempts to interpret them in some cases; for instance, when one of the uncles with whom we were talking upon the subject of hiring out for field work and agreeing to take a certain share of the produce as an equivalent for labor,-he said in explanation of the impracticability of that arrangement: "Ye see, missus, de ole masses won't do as dey agree, dey is so discombedient!" And to this day we remain mystified respecting the precise meaning of the term, although by a little skilful manœuvre we induced him to repeat it twice during the conversation. But when a coal black exhorter in the church at Daphne, on the shore of Mobile Bay set forth the importance of "radication," wishing all his hearers to become "radicated" with divine truth, we felt sure of our ground, that he meant "irradiated;" and furthermore, we fully responded to the sentiment thus originally expressed. This was the only religious service that we attended among the ex-slaves, and from its striking peculiarity will long be remembered. No caricature of negro preaching by Dow Junior, could begin to give the flavor of the genuine article. That is indescribable in all its richness; no pen can fully sketch the peculiarities of voice, costume, gesticulation and expression of the speaker, much less give the spirit of the chief actors in an assembly of worship "I'm gwine to be married," said Sarah, pers like the one here mentioned; a few the fat laundress. touches here and there is all that we attempt. "To whom?" we asked, when the matter was so frankly announced. "Oh! to a gemman from New Orleans," and over the coming event Sarah was jubilant. "A lady is at de do', an' wants to see missus;" or "a gemman" ditto. Mistress leaves her work or company and goes to the door to find a colored male or female, who applies for a situation, or comes with some errand from a friend! Such little episodes in domestic life do not improve the temper of mistress, or add to her sense of happiness under the new dispensation! High sounding words "long drawn out There was a veritable "Uncle Tiff," with a profusion of gray hair standing out in fine style, and setting off to the best advantage a happy, shining face, that was unmistakably anointed with the "oil of gladness;" he it was who "lined out" the hymns from a muchworn book, after the primitive custom, leading the singing, which to our surprise did not keep the tune but strayed off into a medley of strains. The music, although breathing some sweetness, was about as coherent, or rather incoherent, as the preaching, much less so than the praying! A light colored speaker from Mobile occupied the pulpit; his discourse was less dis |