THE SATURDAY MAGAZINE. A JOURNAL OF CHOICE READING SELECTED FROM LATEST FOREIGN LITERATURE. VOL. I' December 5th, '78 to May 31st, '79. BOSTON: OFFICE OF PUBLICATION, 11 BROMFIELD STREET. 1879. 8744.1901 INDEX TO VOL. I. NOTE: The sources of articles are named at the beginning or end of each, and these credits are not re- Hidden; poem Highland bothy; story 536 Picking up the pieces; a comedy 14 Pitcairn, great revolution in. By Mark Twain 473 Historiettes, scraps from (of Tallemant des Reaux) 223 Playing at courting; poem. By Charles Warren 144 Hoaxes, chapter of 373 Sonnets, two. By G. Barlow 349, 377, 405 Speech, slipshod 346 203 Plums; extracts from Dr. O. W. Holmes's address 107 291 712 Pouched animals 514 207 Riddle, the, of the ring; story. W. W. Fenn 713 55 597 Rorke's drift, fight at 567 623 255 727 614 330 31 Science and practical life. By F. W. Clarke 426 594 147 444 213 185 199 651 596 519 GREETING. The SATURDAY MAGAZINE begins now, because spccie payment is not only coming, but is here; because, therefore, business prosperity is not only going to revive, but is reviving; because, for the first time since 1873, it is a right time to start a new enterprise. It means to be agreeable, useful, cleanly, and honorable; a fountain of pleasant thoughts and fresh knowledge, and a helper of all that is good. It greets you kindly, and expects what it deserves. "Now, Mr. Baker, let us understand each other at once," Lord Hunsdon had said, leaning back in his official arm-chair, and tapping the massive signet-ring on his fat finger with the official paper-cutter. "I have the great pleasure, as I have said, of entrusting to you the task of my nephew's education. All I have heard of you and what little I have seen of you induce me to regard you as an excellent travelling tutor. It only remains for me to state my views, as briefly as I can,"-here a glance at the official clock,-"for I have to receive a deputation immediately. Cecil Manvers has a fortune of his own -his mother's money- and will in all probability succeed me in the title and property. I don't want the boy to turn out a bookworm, a milksop, or a scamp. Make him a well-informed, honorable English gentleman, with enough knowledge of the world to steer clear of its worst perils, and I shall be more than satisfied. And nothing could conduce better to this than two years on the Continent in such good hands as yours, Mr. Baker. I shall see you again, of course, before you leave England, but just now" -another glance at the clock my time is positively not my own." 66 And I took the under-secretary's hint, and retired, almost tumbling over the excited deputation as I made my way downstairs. Next week Cecil Manvers and I went abroad. Our first year of continental travel passed off pleasantly enough. I found my pupil not merely intelligent and quick to learn, but bright, frank, and unassuming, and singularly docile for so spirited a lad. The duties of what is sometimes [NO. 1. irreverently styled a bear-leader are not always enviable, but Čecil, to do him justice, was by far too generous a youngster to indulge in the sneers and slights that often fall to the lot of the roving instructor of gilded youth. He had the command his guardian's that early stinting in this respect of a good deal of money, for it was a theory of lays the foundation for subsequent extravagance; but he showed no inclination for the freaks and follies of his contemporaries, and over and over again did I congratulate myself on the good luck that had provided me with such a pupil. The Rhine, Switzerland, Tyrol, each and all of these we had visited in the pleasant summer-time; we had wintered in Italy, and the next spring found us in Paris. It was the time when the Grand Paris Exhibition-exhibitions had not as yet grown common enough to be classed as bores-attracted myriads to the then imperial capital of France. Emperor, court, and empire were in their first freshness, decked, too, with the prestige which success confers; for the great struggle with Russia was going on victoriously for the allies, and the cordial feeling between France and England was at its warmest. In 1855 people had not yet become ashamed of enjoying themselves, and whatever the merits of the show might be, it certainly secured the suffrages of the well-dressed, wellpleased crowds of holiday-makers. My pupil and I made the new Palace of Industry our daily lounge, and so did a French friend of ours, destined to play no unimportant part in this story. It was by accident that we had made acquaintance with Colonel the Baron Duplessis. Cecil had a walking-cane, with a handsome gold head, which had belonged to his father, and this cane he chanced to leave on one of the marble tables of the Exhibition monster restaurant. Half an hour later, when my pupil discovered his loss, and went back in hot haste to seek for his missing property, it was courteously restored to him, with a bow and a smile, by a tall, elderly Frenchman, with the inevitable red ribbon adorning his tightly-buttoned frock-coat, and of what his compatriots designate as a distinguished appearance. This old officer had observed ourselves as the occupants of a table near his own, and had been prompt enough to prevent the costly walkingstick from being purloined by a light-fingered under-waiter. This little kindness led in time to a friendship which might be called intimate. The colonel, as became a man of ancient lineage and reduced fortunes, lived in a gloomy old |