became aware of my looking at him. Immediately, he turned the parting in his hair towards the glass partition, as if he said to me with a sweet smile, "Straight up here, if you please. Off the grass!" In a few moments he had put on his hat and taken his umbrella, and was gone. up I beckoned the clerk into my room, and asked, "Who was that ?" He had the gentleman's card in his hand. "Mr. Julius Slinkton, Middle Temple." "A barrister, Mr. Adams ?" "I think not, sir." "I should have thought him a clergyman, but for his having no Reverend here," said I. "Probably, from his appearance," Mr. Adams replied, "he is reading for orders." I should mention that he wore a dainty white cravat, and dainty linen altogether. "What did he want, Mr. Adams ?" bow. "You were thinking," said I, "of effecting a policy on your life ?" "Oh dear, no! I am afraid I am not so prudent as you pay me the compliment of supposing me to be, Mr. Sampson. I merely inquired for a friend. But you know what friends are, in such matters. Nothing may ever come of it. I have the greatest reluctance to trouble men of business with inquiries for friends, knowing the probabilities to be a thousand to one that the friends will never follow them up. People are so fickle, so selfish, so inconsiderate. Don't you, in your business, find them so every day, Mr. Sampson ?" I was going to give a qualified answer; but, he turned his smooth, white parting on me, with its "Straight up here, if you please!" and I answered, "Yes." "I hear, Mr. Sampson," he resumed, presently, for our friend had a new cook, and dinner was 'Merely a form of proposal, sir, and a form of not so punctual as usual, "that your profession reference." has recently suffered a great loss." "In money ?" said I. "Recommended here? Did he say ?" 'Yes; he said he was recommended here by a friend of yours. He noticed you, but said that as he had not the pleasure of your personal acquaintance he would not trouble you." "Did he know my name ?" "Oh yes, sir! He said, 'There is Mr. Sampson, I see."" "A well-spoken gentleman, apparently?" Remarkably so, sir." 'Insinuating manners, apparently ?" "Very much so, indeed, sir." "Hah!" said I. "I want nothing at present, Mr. Adams." Within a fortnight of that day, I went to dine with a friend of mine-a merchant, a man of taste, who buys pictures and books; and the first person I saw among the company was Mr. Julius Slinkton. There he was, standing before the fire, with good large eyes and an open expression of face; but still (I thought) requiring everybody to come at him by the prepared way he offered, and by no other. I noticed him ask my friend to introduce him to Mr. Sampson, and my friend did so. Mr. Slinkton was very happy to see me. Not too happy; there was no overdoing of the matter; happy, in a thoroughly well-bred, perfectly unmeaning way. "I thought you had met," our host observed. "No," said Mr. Slinkton. "I did look in at Mr. Sampson's office, on your recommendation; but I really did not feel justified in troubling Mr. Sampson himself, on a point within the everyday routine of an ordinary clerk." I said I should have been glad to show him any attention on our friend's introduction. "I am sure of that," said he, " and am much obliged. At another time, perhaps, I may be less delicate. Only, however, if I have real business; for I know, Mr. Sampson, how precious business time is, and what a vast number of impertinent people there are in the world." I acknowledged his consideration with a slight "Just so," he returned, in a consoling way. "He is a great loss. He was at once the most profound, the most original, and the most energetic man, I have ever known connected with Life Assurance." I spoke strongly; for I had a high esteem and admiration for Meltham, and my gentleman had indefinitely conveyed to me some suspicion that he wanted to sneer at him. He recalled me to my guard, by presenting that trim pathway up his head, with its infernal, "Not on the grass, if you please-the gravel." "You knew him, Mr. Slinkton ?" Only by reputation. To have known him as an acquaintance, or as a friend, is an honour I should have sought, if he had remained in society: though I might never have had the good fortune to attain it, being a man of far inferior mark. He was scarcely above thirty, I suppose ?" About thirty." "Ah!" He sighed in his former consoling way. "What creatures we are! To break up, Mr. Sampson, and become incapable of business at that time of life!-Any reason assigned for the melancholy fact ?" ("Humph!" thought I, as I looked at him. "But I WON'T go up the track, and I WILL go on the grass.") "What reason have you heard assigned, Mr. Slinkton ?" I asked, point blank. 1 "Most likely a false one. You know what Rumour is, Mr. Sampson. I never repeat what I hear; it is the only way of paring the nails and shaving the head of Rumour. But, when you ask me what reason I have heard assigned for Mr. Meltham's passing away from among men, it is another thing. I am not gratifying idle gossip then. I was told, Mr. Sampson, that Mr. Meltham had relinquished all his avocations and all his prospects, because he was, in fact, broken-hearted. A disappointed attachment, I heard though it hardly seems probable, in the case of a man so distinguished and so attractive." "Attractions and distinctions are no armour against death," said I. "Oh! She died? Pray, pardon me. I did not hear that. That, indeed, makes it very very sad. Poor Mr. Meltham! She died? Ah, dear me! Lamentable, lamentable!" I still thought his pity not quite genuine, and I still suspected an unaccountable sneer under all this, until he said, as we were parted, like the other knots of talkers, by the announcement of dinner: together. "Then is it not monstrous," I asked myself, "that because a man happens to part his hair straight up the middle of his head, I should permit myself to suspect, and even to detest, him " (I may stop to remark that this was no proof of my good sense. An observer of men who finds himself steadily repelled by some apparently trifling thing in a stranger, is right to give it great weight. It may be the clue to the whole mystery. A hair or two will show where a lion is hidden. A very little key will open a very heavy door.) I took my part in the conversation with him after a time, and we got on remarkably well. In | the drawing-room, I asked the host how long he had known Mr. Slinkton? He answered, not many months; he had met him at the house of a celebrated painter then present, who had known him well when he was travelling with his nieces in Italy for their health. His plans in life being broken by the death of one of them, he was reading, with the intention of going back to college as a matter of form, taking his degree, and going into orders. I could not but argue with myself that here was the true explanation of his interest in poor Meltham, and that I had been almost brutal in my distrust on that simple "Mr. Sampson, you are surprised to see me so moved, on behalf of a man whom I have never known. I am not so disinterested as you may suppose. I myself have suffered, and re-head. cently too, from death. I have lost one of two charming nieces, who were my constant companions. She died young-barely three-andtwenty-and even her remaining sister is far from strong. The world is a grave!" He said this with deep feeling, and I felt reproached for the coldness of my manner. Coldness and distrust had been engendered in me, I knew, by my bad experiences; they were not natural to me; and I often thought how much I had lost in life, losing trustfulness, and how little I had gained, gaining hard caution. This state of mind being habitual to me, I troubled myself more about this conversation than I might have troubled myself about a greater matter. I listened to his talk at dinner, and observed how readily other men responded to it, and with what a graceful instinct he adapted his subjects to the knowledge and habits of those he talked with. As, in talking with me, he had easily started the subject I might be supposed to understand best, and to be the most interested in, so, in talking with others, he guided himself by the same rule. The company was of a varied character; but, he was not at fault, that I could discover, with any member of it. He knew just as much of each man's pursuit as made him agreeable to that man in reference to it, and just as little as made it natural in him to seek modestly for information when the theme was broached. As he talked and talked-but really not too much, for the rest of us seemed to force it upon him-I became quite angry with myself. I took his face to pieces in my mind, like a watch, and examined it in detail. I could not say much against any of his features separately; I could say even less against them when they were put III. On the very next day but one, I was sitting behind my glass partition as before, when he came into the outer office as before. The moment I saw him again without hearing him, I hated him worse than ever. It was only for a moment that he gave me this opportunity; for, he waved his tight-fitting black glove the instant I looked at him, and came straight in. "Mr. Sampson, good day! I presume, you see, upon your kind permission to intrude upon you. I don't keep my word in being justified by business, for my business here-if I may so abuse the word-is of the slightest nature." I asked, was it anything I could assist him in? "I thank you, no. I merely called to inquire outside, whether my dilatory friend has been so false to himself, as to be practical and sensible. But, of course, he has done nothing. I gave him your papers with my own hand, and he was hot upon the intention, but of course he has done nothing. Apart from the general human disinclination to do anything that ought to be done, I dare say there is a speciality about assuring one's life? You find it like will-making? People are so superstitious, and take it for granted they will die soon afterwards ?" -Up here, if you please. Straight up here, Mr. Sampson. Neither to the right nor to the left! I almost fancied I could hear him breathe the words, as he sat smiling at me, with that intolerable parting exactly opposite the bridge of my nose. "There is such a feeling sometimes, no doubt," I replied; "but I don't think it obtains to any great extent." “Well!” said he, with a shrug and a smile, "I wish some good angel would influence my friend in the right direction. I rashly promised his mother and sister in Norfolk, to see it done, and he promised them that he would do it. But I suppose he never will." He spoke for a minute or two on indifferent topics, and went away. I had scarcely unlocked the drawers of my writing-table next morning when he reappeared. I noticed that he came straight to the door in the glass partition, and did not pause a single moment outside. "Ye-es," he answered, deliberately looking at me; and then a bright idea seemed to strike him; or he only tells me he has. Perhaps that may be a new way of evading the matter. By Jupiter, I never thought of that!" Mr. Adams was opening the morning's letters in the outer office. What is the name, Mr. Slinkton" I asked. 66 Beckwith." I looked out at the door and requested Mr. Adams, if there were proposal in that name, to bring it in. He had already laid it out of his hand on the counter. It was easily selected from the rest, and he gave it me. Alfred Beckwith. Proposal to effect a Policy with us for two thousand pounds. Dated yesterday. "From the Middle Temple, I see, Mr. Slinkton." "Yes. He lives on the same staircase with me; his door is opposite mine. I never thought he would make me his reference, though." 66 66 "It seems natural enough that he should." Quite so, Mr. Sampson; but I never thought of it. Let me see." He took the printed paper from his pocket. How am I to answer all these questions ?" According to the truth, of course," said I. "Oh! Of course," he answered, looking up from the paper with a smile: "I meant, they were so many. But, you do right to be particular. It stands to reason that you must be particular. Will you allow me to use your pen and ink ?" known Mr. Alfred Beckwith? That he had to calculate by years, upon his fingers. What were his habits? No difficulty about them; temperate in the last degree, and took a little too much exercise, if anything. All the answers were satisfactory. When he had written them all, he looked them over, and finally signed them in a very pretty hand. He supposed he had now done with the business? I told him he was not likely to be troubled any further. Should he leave the papers there? If he pleased. Much obliged. Good morning! I had had one other visitor before him; not at the office, but at my own house. That visitor had come to my bedside when it was not yet daylight, and had been seen by no one else but by my faithful confidential servant. A second reference paper (for we always required two) was sent down into Norfolk, and was duly received back by post. This, likewise, was satisfactorily answered in every respect. Our forms were all complied with, we accepted the proposal, and the premium for one year was paid. OUR DAILY BREAD. IN the time of Pliny, six different kinds of wheat were cultivated by the Romans; in the present time there are from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty different races of wheat: most of which, however, are distinctly referable to four or five principal types. The minor varieties are by no means permanent in their characters, except under special cultiva tion, and they degenerate when grown in unfavourable conditions. In like manner, favourable conditions readily bring out improved qualities in inferior kinds. But it must not be concluded from this, that Buffon and the other writers are correct in their views who regard the corn-grains as artificial products. The principal types appear constant, for Decandolle recognised the seeds of "Triticum turgidum" in specimens from the Egyptian mummy-cases; Loiseleur confirms this fact; and the Count de Sternberg, in 1834, raised plants of the common wheat from a sample obtained from an Egyptian tomb. This is further confirmed by a note presented to the French Academy of Sciences by M. Guérin Méneville. Some botanists-to whom the absence of wild wheat in most countries is an indication of the artificial origin of the corn of our fields-regard it as a product of long-continued cultivation. A few years ago, M. Esprit Fabre, of Agde, gave an account of the supposed production of wheat by a grass called "Egilops ovata," growing wild in the south of France. It never exceeds a foot in height, and has a short broad ear with but four spikelets, only two of them being fertile. It has long been known to produce a variety called "triticoides," from its approach in some degree to the character of wheat. When this grass, in its wild state, produces this variety, a portion of the characteristic bristles or awns of the valves disappears, and the spikelets are ge henerally barren. The ripe grain is long and He had been hovering about between his hat and his umbrella, for a place to write on. He now sat down in my chair, at my blotting paper and inkstand, with the long walk up his head in accurate perspective before me, as I stood with my back to the fire. Before answering each question, he ran over it aloud, and discussed it. How long had flattened, and silky at the top. Such were the seeds sown by M. Fabre in his garden: the seeds annually saved being sown year after year, for twelve consecutive seasons. In the first year they produced plants three or four times as high as the original plant. The awns of the valves were still further diminished, and had a greater resemblance to wheat; the spikelets of the ears were more numerous, and most of them were sterile, and the fertile spikelets yielded only one or two seeds. These seeds, however, in the next year, produced more perfect plants; the spikelets in the cars were more numerous than before, and they mostly furnished a couple of grains. The ears, when ripe, separated less early from the axis than the parent plant, and the grain was more farinaceous. A third year yielded still higher products. The fourth year presented no notable change. In the fifth year, the stem grew to a length of three feet, and the grains were large enough when ripe to burst open the valves of the flower. In the sixth year, none of the spikelets had less than two, and some had three grains; the plants had all the appearances of a true wheat (Triticum), and these they retained under cultivation in an open field for four successive years, yielding a crop similar to the corn of the country. These statements having obtained the corroborating testimony of Professor Dunal, of Montpellier, gave rise to much discussion; and, while some botanists looked upon them as solving the problem of the origin of our cultivated wheats, others saw in them only an illustration of certain laws of crossing or hybridation. M. Godron, of Nancy, whose observations led him to believe that the "triticoides" was a cross, fertilised an ear of the wild "Egilops ovata" with the pollen of common wheat. The seed of this specimen, when sown in the following year, produced-not the "ovata," but the "triticoides." By fertilising with a beardless wheat, he obtained a short-awned "triticoides," and with a long-bearded wheat a long-awned cross. This was thought to be the true solution of the question. The primitive grass did not develop into corn, but the corn was the result of a cross between the grass and the wheat. The geographical distribution of the grains is determined not by climate only, but depends on the civilisation, industry, and traffic, of the people, as well as on historical events. Within the northern polar circle, agriculture is found only in a few places. In Siberia, grain reaches, at the utmost, only to sixty degrees; in the eastern parts, scarcely above fifty-five degrees; and in Kamtschatka there is no agriculture, even in the most southern parts, at fifty-one degrees. The polar limit of agriculture on the northwest coast of America, appears to be somewhat higher, for in the more southern Russian possessions, from fifty-seven to fifty-two degrees, barley and rye come to maturity; on the east coast of America, it is scarcely above fifty to fifty-two degrees. Only in Europe, namely, in Lapland, does the polar limit reach the unusually high latitude of seventy degrees. Beyond this, dried fish, and here and there potatoes, supply the place of grain. The grains which extend furthest to the north in Europe, are barley and oats. These, which in the milder climates are not used for bread, afford to the inhabitants of the northern parts of Norway and Sweden, and the inhabitants of a part of Siberia and Scotland, their principal food. Rye is the next and prevailing grain in a great part of the northern temperate zone, namely, in the south of Sweden and Norway, Denmark, and in all the countries bordering on the Baltic, the north of Germany, and part of Siberia. In the latter, another very nutritious grain, buckwheat, is very frequently cultivated. In the zone where rye prevails, wheat is generally to be found: barley being then chiefly cultivated for the manufacture of beer, and oats supplying food for horses. There follows a zone in Europe and Western Asia, where rye disappears, and wheat almost exclusively furnishes bread. The middle, or the south of France, England, part of Scotland, a part of Germany, Hungary, the Crimea and Caucasus, as also the parts of middle Asia where agriculture is followed, belong to this zone. Here the vine is also found; wine supplanting the use of beer, barley is consequently less grown. Next, comes a district where wheat still abounds, but no longer exclusively furnishes bread: rice and maize becoming frequent. To this zone belong Portugal, Spain, the part of France on the Mediterranean, Italy and Greece; further east, Persia, Northern India, Arabia, Egypt, Nubia, Barbary, and the Canary Islands. In these latter countries, however, towards the south, the culture of maize or rice is always greater; and, in some of them, several kinds of Sorghum (Doura) and pea (Poa Abyssinica) come to be added. In both these regions of wheat, rye only occurs at a considerable elevation; oats are more rare, and at last entirely disappear; barley alone affording food for horses and mules. In the eastern parts of the temperate zone of the Old Continent, in China and Japan, our northern kinds of grain are very infrequent, and rice is found to predominate. The cause of this difference between the east and the west of the Old Continent appears to be in the manners and peculiarities of the people. In North America, wheat and rye grow as in Europe, but more sparingly. Maize is grown more in the Western than in the Old Continent, and rice predominates in the southern provinces of the United States. In the torrid zone, maize predominates in America, rice in Asia, and both these grains in nearly equal quantity in Africa. The cause of this distribution is doubtless an historical one, for Asia is the native country of rice, and America of maize. In some situations, especially in the neighbourhood of the tropics, wheat is also met with, but always subordinate to these other kinds of grain. Besides rice and maize, there are in the torrid zone several grains and plants, their enemies, the Emperor Julian built a fleet which supply the inhabitants with food, either of eight hundred barks, which he despatched used along with rice and maize, or entirely to Britain for corn. The historian Zosimus occupying their place. Such are, in the New states that, on its return, the inhabitants of the Continent, yams (Dioscorea alata), the manihot plundered towns and villages received enough (Iatropha manihot), and the batatas (Convol- not only to last them during the winter, but, vulus batatas), the root of which, and the fruit after they had sown their lands in the spring, to of the pisang (Banana musa), furnish universal ar- leave them sufficient for their subsistence until the ticles of food. In the same zone in Africa, doura next harvest. Malmesbury says that, in the reign (Sorghum), pisang, manihot, and yams, occur. of Stephen, "London was a granary where corn In the East Indies and in the Indian Islands, se- could always be bought cheaper than anywhere veral palms and cycadeæ, which produce the else." King Richard, after his return from the sago; pisang, yams, batatas, and the bread-fruit East, issued a prohibition against the exportation (Artocarpus incisa), are eaten. In the islands of corn, "that England might not suffer from of the South Sea, grain of every kind disappears; the want of its own abundance." The violation its place being supplied by the bread-fruit-tree of this law is stated to have been punished with and the pisang. In the tropical parts of New merciless severity; some vessels having been Holland there is no agriculture. Nature does seized in the port of St. Valery, laden with Engall the work; the inhabitants living on the pro-lish corn for the King of France, Richard burned duce of the sago, of various palms, and some both the vessels and the town, hanged the species of arum. seamen, and also put to death some monks who had been concerned in the illegal transaction. After all this wild devastation, the king divided the corn among the poor. In 1382, a general proclamation was issued, prohibiting, under penalty of the confiscation of the vessel and cargo, the exportation of corn or malt to any foreign country, except to the king's territories in Gascony, Bayonne, Calais, Brest, Cherbourg, Berwick-upon-Tweed, and other strong places belonging to the king. Twelve years afterwards, all English subjects were allowed to export corn to any country not hostile, on paying the dues. In the high lands of South America, the distribution is similar to that of the other degrees of latitude. Maize, indeed, grows to the height of seven thousand two hundred feet above the level of the sea, but only predominates between three thousand and six thousand feet of elevation. Below three thousand feet it is associated with the pisang and other vegetables; while, from six thousand to nine thousand two hundred and sixty feet the European grains abound-wheat in the lower regions, and rye and barley in the higher; along with which, Chenopodium Quinoa, as a nutritious plant, must also be enumerated. Potatoes alone are cultivated at a height of from nine thousand two hundred and sixty feet to twelve thousand three hundred feet. To the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, wherever agriculture is practised, considerable resemblance with the northern temperate zone may be observed. In the southern parts of Brazil, in Buenos Ayres, in Chili, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the temperate zone of New Holland, wheat predominates; barley and rye make their appearance, however, in the most southern parts of these countries, and in Van Diemen's Land. In New Zealand the culture of wheat is said to have been tried with success; but the inhabitants make the Acrostichum furcatum their main article of sus tenance. Thus, it appears, in regard to the predominating kinds of grain, that the earth may be divided into five grand divisions, or kingdoms: the Kingdom of Rice, of Maize, of Wheat, of Rye, and lastly of Barley and Oats. The first three are the most extensive; maize has the greatest range of temperature; but rice may be said to support the greatest number of the hu man race. Corn was the chief export from Britain under the Romans, and in the fourth century the armies of Gaul and Germany depended for their subsistence upon these annual supplies. In the year 359, some of the Roman colonies situated in the Upper Rhine, having been plundered by The grain of wheat, like that of all other grasses, is popularly called a "seed," but botanically it is a fruit; because, in its ripe condition, it is enclosed in the adhering shell (pericarp) corresponding to the loose pod of such fruits as the pea or bean. This husk is formed of a much firmer substance than the body of the grain, and, in the process of grinding becoming separated, takes with it the outer layers of the grain itself. These outer layers differ from the central mass; while the body of the seed is composed of cells densely filled with the white starch granules which give the characteristic appearance to fine flour, the outer layers contain no starch, but oily and albuminous matter instead. Bran contains the husk, the coats of the seed, and the envelope of the body of the seed. If a portion of the flour be formed into a stiff paste, and then thoroughly washed, the water will carry off a considerable part of the dough, assuming at the same time a milky appearance, and a tenacious solid will be left behind, which is called the gluten. The milky liquid, if allowed to stand, will deposit a sediment, which is the starch. The liquid remaining after the starch has settled at the bottom, is colourless, but holds in solution dextrine, grape sugar, and albumen. It is called the extractive. These are the chief ingredients in flour, and the albumen and gluten are what are termed nitrogenised substances, having, chemically, a close resemblance to the flesh of animals. |