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treatment.* The truth is, poisons are
curious things. It is said by those who
have tried the experiment, that milk ,
which you know is perfectly harmless to
most stomachs, will produce death if in
jected into the veins ; and that the poison
of a rattlesnake, which is deadly enough
when mixed with the blood, may be re
ceived into the stomach without injury.
More than this, there is nothing more ne
cessary to life than air, received into the
lungs; yet if a bubble of it were intro
duced into the veins by careless bleeding,
it would produce instant death. So, you
see, poisons are not always poisons, and
wholesome things are not always whole
some.”
Simpson was a decided invalid for sev
eral days, and never recovered his looks,
bad as they were, so long as he and the
others were together. The men never
failed, on every fair opportunity, to rally
him upon his love of physic, and from
that day forth they dubbed him Doctor.
Mo sign as yet appeared of the missing
boat, and no clue could be obtained of
either its passage or its fate. The spot
was now passed abreast of which it had
been seen by the cutter, and Dr. Gordon
began to feel very uneasy at discovering
how unbroken the shoal was to seaward,
and how heavily the surf rolled over it
under all winds from the Gulf. He fear
ed that if his young people reached land
at all, they had been compelled to con
tinue much farther down the coast. To
these apprehensions, however, he gave no
expression, except by an occasional inter
change of thought with Tomkins or
Wheeler, who, in return, said all they
could to fill him with hope.
A little before sunset that evening they
came to anchor at the south-eastern ex
tremity of a little wooded key, which was
about one and a half miles long, by a half
or a quarter of a mile broad, and which
was densely covered with dwarf palmet
toes, and other small growth, with an oc
casional tree of larger proportions. A
pleasant location for encamping was se
lected under a wide-spreading live oak,
whose umbrageous canopy was so thick
ly lined with masses and long flowing
streamers of grey moss, that the tents,
though brought ashore, were not pitched,
all being satisfied with the leafy shelter
In all cases of poisoning, the first aim should he to rid
die system of the offensive matter, then to neutralize the
Poison that remains, or to sheathe the parts against its
effects. In protecting the stomach, the chief resort is had
to oil or grease, white of eggs, paste gruel of flower and
water, sugar and water, etc.
In poisoning from opium, the emetic should be follow
ed by very strong coffee ; constant motion, under compul
sion, if necessary, and dashes of cold water on the head
and breast.
hor strychnine (nux vomica) in poisonous doses, cam
phor is used.
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
of the tree, and the mild and steady dry
ness of the air.
So little work remained to be done,
that four of the men were despatched to
the seaward side of the island to recon
noitre, and to learn the probability of wa
ter for their next day’s supply,—namely :
Wheeler and Jones to the northwestern
end; Thompson and Wildcat to the south
western. They returned about dark, re
porting “No water to be had;” but
Wheeler and Jones reported quantities of
wild turkeys, of which they might have
brought back a shoulder-load had it been
right for them to shoot; and Thompson
and Wildcat each brought a turtle, which
had been caught on the southwestern
beach.
The night was magnificent. A splen
did moon, almost at the full, hanging over
the mainland and the intervening belt of
water, gave to eveiything around a soft
and cheerful beauty, while Jupiter, the
brightest star of the sky, except Venus,
shot his silvery rays through the crevices
of the oak with a persistent glory that
seemed to convey hope and courage by
their very steadiness.
By nine o’clock all were abed, except
Thompson. He had been for sometime
watching, without being able to under
stand it, a tinge of red light in the north
and northwest, which kept increasing un
til it eclipsed in its lurid glare the bright
ness of the moonlight. Not liking the
appearance, he called for Wheeler, (who
v T as sailing master by day and Corporal
of the guard by night,) and pointed it out
to him, —indeed it needed no pointing
out, only that a person should be in a po
sition to see it, for the whole northern
and western horizon were now” a-blaze
with light.
“It is fire !” said Wheeler. “ The whole
island is on fire, or soon will be?”
All hands were immediately roused
from their incipient slumbers, and called
to the duty of fighting the approaching
foe. So rapid had been its progress with
in the past few minutes, that when the
men came out, they could distinctly hear
the roar, like that of distant surf, or of a
coming storm, and see the live flames
leaping into the air and dancing among
the tree-tops. The island was in a fear
fully" combustible state. The fallen and
half decayed herbage of the palmetto, ap
parently untouched by any previous fire,
covered the earth, like so much tinder, to
the depth of one, two or more inches,
while the green, fan-like leaves rose to the
height of three or four feet above it, and
waited only a few moments heat to make
them as inflammable as the stratum be
low, and the wind, rising, as it usually
does with a fire, stimulated the flames to
a fury indescribable. The men who came
out at the call of Tomkins were first as
tonished, then fascinated with the terri
bly beautilul scene, and would have look
ed at it longer in eager admiration, but
for the voice of command—
“To your work, men! You have no
time to lose. Two of you—Magruder and
Thompson—carry back to the beach such
things as are liable to be hurt by the fire.
Wheeler and Jones, do you help me clear
a ring around the oak. Doctor, do, if you
please, take charge of the sick man, and
of anything else that may seem to you
necessary. Wildcat may render his as
sistance to either you or me.”
Poem for the Little Ones.
A London paper says Thackeray’s Magazine paid Ten
nyson sixteen hundred dollars for writing a poem, of
which the following verses are just one-half:
What does little birdie say,
In its nest at peep of day ?
Let me fly, says little birdie —
Mamma, let me fly away.
Birdie, rest a little longer,
Till thy tiny wings are strbnger;
So she rests a little longer,
Then she flies away.
What does little baby say,
In her bed at peep of day ?
Baby says, like little birdie,
Let me rise and haste away.
Baby, sleep a little longer,
Till your little legs grow stronger;
And after waiting like the birdie,
Baby, too, shall fly away.
-»♦
Beautiful Allegory.
BOM the German the fol
r l° w^n § beautiful allegory
is translated:
Sophronius, who was a
wise teacher, would not
' suffer even his grown up
sons and daughters to associate
with those whose conduct was not
'A* pure and upright.
“ Dear father,” said the gentle Eulalia
to him one day, when he forbade her in
company with her brother to visit the
volatile Lucinda, “ dear father, you must
think us very childish, if you imagine we
should be exposed to danger by it.”
The father took in silence a dead coal
from the hearth, and reached it to his
daughter.
“It will not burn you, my child; take
it.”
Eulalia did so, and behold her delicate
white hand was soiled and blackened, and,
as it chanced, her white dress also.
“ We cannot be too careful in handling
coals,” said Eulalia, in vexation.
“Yes, truly,” said her father, “you see,
my child, that coals, even if they don’t
burn, blacken. So it is with the company
of the vicious.”
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