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VOLUME VI. AT THE 01,1) HOME SPRING. BY J. W. HATTON. One thy I met a fanner’s daughter, Who came iu baste fov a pail of water; Said sbe, “Itude boy, yoa hadn’t ought to,” When I kissed her then and there. She vowed I wrs a mugbty lad; S id she was angry—very mad; ; But I knew in my soul that she was ghd, Because I kissed her, 'hen and “lera. AVnen I had filled her pail with water, She still declared I “hadn’t ought to;” But to my arms I fondly caught her, And hugged and ) ned her, then and there* 'thus young we loved—too young to many, But o’er and o’er we vowed to lairv; That naught but death our live should parry, The love wo plighted then and there. Years have come years have ended; Years through which our faith extended, L util, at last, our love was blended, Tno love we plighted <heu and there. As round the spi'ug our children play, We fondly smile and bless the day When, most as young and quite as gay, We vowed to love each other there. — Ch'ccijo L r I 'jcr MISCELLANY. THE FATAL NOOSE The diligence from Paris to Chalons stopped one evening, just after dark, so.no miles beyond the little town of Itouviay, to set down an English lady and her child at a lonely roadside inn. Mrs. Martin expected to find a car* Huge ready to take her to the Chateau do Senarfc, a distance of some leagues, whither she was repairing on a visit but was told it had not vet arrived.— The landlady, a tall, coarsolooking woman, who showed her into the vast hall, that soiled at once as a sitting room and kitchen, observed that the roads were so muddy and difficult at night that there was little chance of her friend arriving before the morn* ing. ‘You had better, therefore/ she Said, ‘make up your mind to sleep here. We have a good room to offer you, and you will be much more comfortable between a pair of warm sheets than knocking about in our rough country, especially as your dear child seems sickly.’ Mrs. Martin, though ranch fatigued hy her journey, hesitated. A good bight's rest was certainly a tempting prospect ; but she felt so confident that her friends would not neglect her, that, after a moment she replied : ‘1 thank you, madarnc ; 1 will sit up for an hour or so ; it is not late, and the carriage may after all.— Should it not, I shall be glad of your loom, which you niay'prcpare at any rate/ the hostess, who seemed anxious H at her guest should not remain in the peat room, suggested that a lire bo made above; but Mrs. Martin found hciselt so comfortable where she w as, * l pile of fagots was blazing on the heartlq that she declined first to move. Her daughter, about five years of ago, p °on 'vent to sleep on her lap, and she beiself found that whilst her ears were anxiously listening for the roll of car thigo wheels, her eyes occasionally |h'scd, and slumber began to make its nsidious approaches. In order to prevent hersc I*’frern 1 *’frern giv ln o away, she endeavored to direct / 1 attention lo the objects around her. The apartment was vest, and lighted more by the glare of the fite than by the dirty candle stuck into a filthy tin 'audio-slick tlial stood’on one of the Png tables, iwo or tlnee huge beams stretched across halfway up the walls, leaving a space filled with flitting shad ows ab °ve. From these depended a llls ty gun or two, a sword, several a o s > hanks of onions, cooking uten hll3 ctc * There were few signs that the house was much visited, though a )'T of empty wine bottles lay in one 0,1 “ci. Ine landlady sat some dis tance from the fireplace with her two K nns, who had laid their heads togeth cr aml talked in a whisper. Mrs. Martin began to feel uneasy.— J ic idea entered her mind that she ia ' l fallen into a resort of robbers ; and thc wor <ls “CV e*’ die ” (it is she) j* •‘'■hi.n and to alarm her. The door l.ng into the road was lelt ajar, and a moment she felt an impulse to mart u P a °d escape on foot. But she ]j‘ ls * iU ' Horn any other habitation, and 1 People oJ the house rer 'y enter> tained any evil designs, hi would only precipitate the ca So she resolved on patience ed attentively for the approa friends. All she heard, how the whistling of the wine dashing of the rain, which 1 to fall just after her arrival. About two hours passed i comfortable way. At lengt 'vas thrust open, and a man, wet, came in. She breat freely, for this new corner rn: trate the evil designs of hei they had any. He was ai jo vial-faced looking an her with confidence by the fi\ bis manners. ‘A fine night for walking! shaking himself like a like a had scrambled out of a pone have you to give ine ? I am skin. Hope I disturb noboc mo a bottle of wine.' The hostess, in a surly, sic told her eldest son to serve lli man, and then addressing A tin said ; ‘You see your friends will i and you are keeping us up t pose, You had better go to ( I will wait a little longer reply, which elicited a kind of contempt. The red-haired man finishei lie of wine and then said : ‘Snow me a room, good vv shall sleep here to*night.' Mrs. Martin thought that a nounced these u ords he cast a ing glance towards her, and less repugnance at the idea ol thc night in the house. Wh fore, the red-haired man, aftc bow, went up stairs, she sa her friends had not arrived Hi as well show her to a bed ro ‘I thought it would come i last/ said the landlady. ‘Pie the lady's trunks up stairs.' In a few minutes Mrs. Mar herself alone in a spacious it, a large fire burning on the he: first care alter putting herd' was to examine the door, only by a latch. There wa inside. She looked around f thing to barricade it with, ccived a chest of drawers. T her strength. Sbe half iif pushed it against the door, tent with this, she seized a increase the strength of her cl The leg was broken, and v touched it, it fell with a eras floor. A long echo went through the house, and she heart sink within her. But died away and no one came piled the fragments of the tat the chest of drawers. Toh va tied in this direction she pro< examine the windows. They well protected with iron be wall were papered, and, afU examination,seemed to contaii of a secret door. Mrs. Martin now sank into to reflect upon her position, natural, after having taken tl cautions, the idea presented il they might be superfluous, smiled at the thought of \ friends would say when she n them the terror of the night, was sleeping tranquilly,the ro half buried in the pillow. Tli blazed up into a flame, wliils snuffed candle burned diml room was full of pale trembli ows, but she had no sup erst" tic Something positive could al her alai in. She listened att but she could hoar nothing blowing of the wind over the the pattering of the rain aga window panes. As her excite minished, the fatigue (which forgotten) began again to mi felt, and she resolved to und go to to bed. • Her heart leaped into her 1 For a moment she seemed paralyzed. She had undressed out the candle, when she acc dropped her watch. Stooping it up her eyes involuntarily towards the bed. A mass of and a luinu and a gleaming kt revealed by the light of the li l the first moment of terrified a presence of rnuid returned, that she had he’ self cut off a of escape by the door, and wa tnely to her own resources, uttering a cry, but trembling limb, the poor woman got intc side her child. An idea—a p suggested itself. It had flashed her brain like lightning. It wa ly chance left. ‘ Her bed was so placed that