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9 THE COUNTRYMAN, Conversation of the Vultures: (Supposed to be held between an old Vulture and her young ones, and overheard by a Bohemian shep herd while tending his flocks.) i “ My children,’’ said the vulture, ‘ you have seen me snatch from the farm the household fowl, seize the leveret in the bush, and the kid in the pasture. But you remember the taste of more delicious food. I have often regaled j ou with the flesh of man.’ ‘ Tell us,’ said the young vultures, ‘ where man may be found, and how he mav be known. His tiesh is surely the nat ural food of the vulture. Why have you not brought a man in your talons to the nest.’ * He is too bulky,’ said the mother : * When we find a man, we can only tear away his flesh and leave his bones on the ground.’ ‘ Since man is so big,’ said the young ones, 1 how do you kill him ? You are afraid of the wolf and the bear : by wbat power are vultures superior to man ? Is man more defenceless than a sheep V * We have not the strength of man,’ re turned the mother, ‘ and I am sometimes in doubt whether we have bis subtlety : and the vultures would seldom feed upon his flesh, lu-d not nature that devoted him to our use, infused into him a strange feroci ty, w hich I have never observed in any other being that feeds upon the earth. Two herds of men will often meet, and shake the ground with noise, and fill the air with fire. When you hear noise, and see fire which flashes along the ground, hasten to the place with your swiftest, wing, for men are surely destroying one another. You will find the ground smoking with blood, and covered with carcasses, of which many are mangled for the use of the vul ture.’ * But when men have killed their prey,’ 6aid the pupils, ‘ why do they not eat it? When the wolf has killed a sheep, he suf fers not the vulture to touch it, till he has satisfied himself. Is not man another kind of wolfV ‘ Man,’ said the mother, is the only beast who kills what be does not devour, and this quality makes bim so much a benefac tor to our species.’ ‘ If men kill our prey, and lay it in our way,’ said the young one, ‘what need shall we have of laboring for ourselves V ‘Because man will sometimes,’ replied the mother, * remain for a long time quiet in his den. The old vultures will tell you when you are to watch bis motions. When you see bodies of men in great numbers, moving closely together like a flock of storks, you may conclude that they are bunting each other, and that you will soon revel in human blood.’ ‘ But still,’ said the young one, ‘ I would gladly know the reason of this mutual slaughter. I could never kill what I would not eat.’ ‘ My child,’ said the mother, * when I was young, I used to visit an old vulture on the Carpathian Rocks. He. had fed, year after year, on the entrails of men. He said that as the boughs of an oak aie dash- ; ed together by the storm, that swine may fatten on the fallen acorns, so men are, by some unaccountable power, driven one against the other, till they lose their mo tion, that vultures may be fed. And those that hover round them, pretend that there is, in every herd, one that gives direction to the rest, and seems t,o be more eminent ly delighted with a wild carnage. What it is that entitles him to such pre-eminence, we know not. He is seldom the biggest or the fleetest, but he shows, by his eagerness and diligence, that he is more than any of the others, a friend to the vultures.’ ” A Phenomenon—Sword in the Heavens. “ We are informed by gentlemen whose veracity cannot be questioned, that on the 23d ult., near Grooversville, Georgia, a phenomenon of remarkable significance was witnessed in the heavens, at about 4 o’clock in the evening. It was a perfect represen tation of a sword—handle, blade and point all visible. The blade was red, and the handle silver color. The blade pointed to the northeast, and the handle to the south west. It was high up in the heavens, ap pearing to the eye to be about twenty feet long, and two feet broad. Soon after it was witnessed, a wind springing up, heavy clouds appeared, and screened it from view. We are not one of those who attach a pe culiar significance to remarkable dreams, believe in witchcraft, or view every celestial phenomenon as an omen of good or evil. But no similar phenomenon to the one in question has been witnessed for many gen erations, and we are, therefore, owing to the peculiar circumstances surrounding us, inclined to regard it as significant. Flavius Josephus, iu his history of the Jews, refers to a similar appearance in the heavens just previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. He says that a star, resembling a sword, stood over the city, and a comet that continued a whole y ear. Another wri ter, we are informed, describes the sword as hanging over the city with the point down. After the destruction of Jerusalem, the star disappeared. This phenomenon has always, by learned divines, been described as the “ Sword of the Lord." From the destruction of Jerusalem to the present pe riod, no such representation has been beheld in the heavens.” The above is copied from the Family Friend of Monticello, Fla., in order to show what folly and fanatacism exist, even in our day. “ Here’s Tour Mule.’* The editor of the F. & F. having been written to concerning the origin of the above phrase, says : “ It is said to have originated near Manassas, sometime last year. A member of an Alabama Regi ment was imitating the nasal intonations of a certain long-eared animal, when one af ter another of his comrades joined in the refrain; whereupon a member of a Missis sippi regiment remarked, ‘ here’s your mule.’ Instantly there was a deafening chorus of ‘here’s your mule,’ from the Mississippians, which completely drowned the braying of the Alabamians: whereup on, it is said, the original brayers were pe culiarly indignant, and avowed that they could whip the Mississippians : but timely intervention prevented any attempt at the fulfilment, of the belligerent purpose.” In response to the above, “A Member of the 6th Alabama” writes to the F. & F. as follows:—“Having seen in the Fireside your answer to the interogatory, as to the origin of the phrase, ‘Here’s your mule,’ I take this method of correcting you. It originated from a member of the 6th Ala bama Regiment, Capt. Weem’s Co., from Russel Co., Ala., on their way from Mont gomery to Corinth, Miss., about the latter part, of May, 1861. I was a member of that company, and on the cars at the time, but do not recollect the exact particulars of it, but suppose it started, as you said, (by Perkins, for that was his name) imita ting a mule, and some one in his own com pany cried out,‘here’s your mule, Perkins’ —and from that the whole regiment got hold of it, and it finally spread over the whole army at Manassas, after wc got there. Poor Perkins was taken prisoner, just be fore the battle of Manassas, while out on picket, and did not have the pleasure of participating in it. He was kept in Wash ington 6 months, and finally released on parole. It was a general saying amongst the boys, that he had gone to Washington city to hunt his mule. I should have said that there was no Mississippi regiment about, when it originated. I wish you to publish this for the information of ‘C. D. K.’ ” _____ “ Few people know how to be old.”