but I am happy if a year's assiduous application has spared you one moment's mortification. I care for no approval, save for your gratification." "Dearest," he replied, "I do not yet half know you. I tremble to find how greatly you now excel all my fondest dreams of what I dared to hope you might be. To think of my little 'rustic wife' becoming the star of London!"

TALE OF THE MOUNTAIN STREAM.

BY MRS. JULIA H. SCOTT.

WHAT hast thou to tell me, wild mountain stream?
I will sit me down on thy velvet bank,

Where the daisies and bright yellow buttercups gleam,
Like the Druid whose spirit the moonbeams drank.
Where hast thou been roaming, so merry and free?
Come, give me thy joyous history.

I was born in the depths of a narrow glen,
Of a fountain as pure as the tears of the rose;
Far away from the troublesome haunts of men,
Where the star-flower forever in secret glows,
And the wild-balm flings to the misty breeze
The honeyed breath of the laden bees.

'Twas a bright spring morn when I ventured out
From a hiding place in my mossy cave:
O! merrily gamboled the winds about,

And dashed the spray from my shrinking wave;
And the red sun flaunted his glittering locks

In my face, as I leaped from the threatening rocks.

O! wild are the sights which the mountain stream sees, Though lonely and shadowed its course may be.

With terror I crept 'neath the frowning trees,

In the craven hours of my infancy,

And scarcely breathed when a sound was heard
That came not from leaves by the zephyrs stirred.

A spotted fawn came down from the hills,
With a stealthy motion and timid eye;
A moment he paused mid the murmuring rills,
Then sprang, like a star from the midnight sky;
And an eager greyhound came rushing by,
With a fallen tongue and a bloody cry.

Is such this bright world? I whispered low,

When above me the clashing of swords was heard, And I drank the blood of the fallen foe,

And mingled my wail with the evening bird's. 'Tis mournful, I said, but still best, I am sure,

To be patient with evils we cannot cure.

So I danced along with a heart of glee,
Giving out music where'er I went;
And sister rills came from each upland lea,
With the birch and the spice-bush redolent;
And our fond waves joined, till at last I took
The name and pride of a mountain brook.

Sometimes I dashed, with a courser's speed,

Down gulfs where the daylight never shines;
Sometimes I lay in some scalloped mead,

And dallied all day with its trailing vines;
Then stealthily wound away at night,
Like a cautious snake with the foe in sight.

Sometimes I rumbled through haunted caves,

Chatting with goblins and mocking fays;

Sometimes o'er the red men's shallow graves,

I swept with a dirge, in the moon's dim rays; And beauty and verdure sprang up where'er My voice rang out on the silver air.

A white rose bent o'er my glassy sheet,

And blushed at the beauty she there discerned;

A pale spruce buried her dying feet

In my depths, and the dew to her leaves returned; And I nursed into brightness those delicate gems That give but to water their pearly stems.

O, sweet are the sights which the mountain stream sees!

A fair babe fell in my arms and slept;

I bore its soft form 'neath the whispering trees,

And I hushed its last wail like a mother, and wept
As its blue lips I kissed; and its silky white hair
I turbaned with willow-leaves sorrowing there.

A grey-haired parson approached me one day,
With a youthful maiden of loveliness rare;
And he sprinkled her brow with my purest spray,
And offered to Heaven an eloquent prayer.
O, none but I heard the wild music that thrilled
Through the sky when that baptismal rite was fulfilled!

A wanderer sat by my gurgling side,

And repentance came down to his blackened heart; His hot tears fell in my hurrying tide,

As he vowed with the apple of sin to part.

And I saw the recording angel write

His name in a glorious book of light.

But, mortal, I tarry too long with thee;

I must hasten on to the sounding main, Gladdening all hearts as I wander free,

And soothing the brows that are throbbing with pain. Be thou, too, active, and learn of me To brighten thy road to eternity.

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