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V Earthquake. BY EDGAB FAWCETT. A giant ofawfnl strength, hedumbly lies Far-prisoned among the solemn deeps of earth; The sinewy grandeurs of his captive girth His great-thew’d breast.collossally-mpulded thighs, And arms tliick-roned with muscle of mighty size, Repose in a slumber where no dream gives birth For months, even years, to any grief or mirth, _ — A slumber of tranquil lips, calm-lidded eyes! Yet sometimes to his spirit a dream will creep Of the old, glad past when, clothed i n dauntless . He walked the world, unchained by tyrannous And them while lie tossses restlessly in sleep, Dark, terrible graves for human shapes yawn wide, Or a city shrieks among her tottering towers! WILD WORK; A Study of Western Life. BY MARY E. BRYAN. tary gesture of distress and perplexity. The negro eyed her well satisfied, a gleam of cun ning in his face. He came near the paling. ‘ ’ Twould be mighty bad for you women and Vincent's little gal ef de men come over to you half drunk as dey will do. I’ll tell you what; I’ll do my best to keep ’em away—or to git ’em jes to rob de house and let you ’lone. I’ll do it, ef you’ll give me your gold watch and chain, and ten dollars before hand; yes, and your gold bracelet wid de red CHAPTER XXIX. Jim Nolan had not been gone an hour before Zoe regretted having permitted him to leave. It was hardly likely he would be able to get out of Cohatchie and he was all the dependance they had in case the negroes should really attack them, for Dan had no strength to offer any but the feeblest resistance. Besides, her brother grew better. The fever having risen to its great est intensity, began to cool, and a deep sleep— the most profound he had yet enjoyed—settled npon his restless limbs and disordered brain. The crisis was past. Zoe, who had so frequent ly seen diseases of this type, knew that the danger was over. She left his eldest child—a sweet little girl of twelve—to sit by his bed and brush away the flies, while she went out for a little change into the orchard. Standing there, with the great pear and apple trees overhead and the grass and clover under foot, she heard the young mocking birds twittering in their nests above her and saw the yellow wasps and brown bees feasting on the red pulp of the over ripe figs and the peaches that lay rotting in the grass. The orchard Vas only a narrow space — the rich cotton lands were grudgingly spared to mere fruit or flowers, and fields of the favor ite staple pushed up close around the little en closure set apart for Pomona. Up to the very paling, covered with vines of wild morning glo ry and trumpet flower, grew the wide-branched cotton, taller than a man’s head, and clustered thickly with blooms and bolls. In these thick ranks, she heard the rustle of some one approaching, parting the cotton limbs as he came. A negro emerged from the mass of green, glanced furtively around, and then com ing close to the paling beckoned her to ap proach. She knew him well. He was the hus band of her brother’s cook, and she had been kind to him and his family in various ways. She had always thought him an humble, stupidly inoffensive negro, what had changed the look of his face so completely? His expression now was a mixture of cunning and insolence. De ceit ill-concealed the triumphant elation that lit his usually dull, pig-like eye. As Zoe approached, lie asked: ‘What did you send that white fellow up to Cohatchie for ?' ‘On my own business,’ Zoe answered shortly for his manner was hardly respectful, ‘No use flyin’ off de handle. I jest wanted to tell you, you needn’t look tor him back. If he gits out of Cohatchie t’wont do him no good. Le vi already sen over ana got the dug-out, what he stole to cross in, and we’ve got .» witch all along de river.’ -i ain't saia we re going to do nothin’.’ ‘I am glad you are not. I thought you had more sense than to attempt any riot,’ she an swered protending indifference and moving away. Her assumed carelessness had the desired effect. It made him more eager to impart the news. ‘Yon don’t nnderstan.’ diggers aint goin’ to do nothin,’ he said, ‘but colored men is tired of bein’trampled on and is goin’to make a defence if no more. No sense you say, hey ? Yon think ’twould be sense though to set down hero and let de white folks shoot and hang us like dey done Mose Clark las’ week and Saul and Peter in Cohatchie dis morning, and do Lord knows how many more by dis time. Word come to us a month ago, dat dis rumpus was gwine to be. Strange colored man ’splained it to us. God showed it to him in his dreams and told him to tell ns we must stand stiff or we’d be run over and trampled out. We must hold our own, or we’d be buzzard meat afore we know it. Bet we jes went on and did’nt pay much ’tention, till dey begun to fire in our windows an’ down our chimleys, an’ uncle Mose Clark was shot in his traoks, an’ den we begin to git worked np and had meeting to talk over what we mus’ do, and of a sudden we hear dis news from Cobatchi; soldiers pourin’ in, ridin’ round, takin’ cullurd folks and Radicals, hangin’ and ’restin’ there, and coming down hereto kill out our race. We made up a comp’ny las’ night. I’m a ossifer— named a cuppural. We’re gwine to to stan’ up fur our rights if dey come over here atter us, and we’re goin’ too but you’ll know about dat soon enough. Only, I hearsay you’re pack in’ np your jewelry, and money and silver and goin’ to try to git away through de swamp by de bayou Prince Road, and I thought I may as well tell you ’taint no use. Levi aint agoin’ to let no waggin start from dis gate. Our folks is all through de swamp, and ef you got in there, they’d stop you soon nuflf. You couldn’t get away in time neither, efyou had a chance.’ ‘In time? Tom Ludd, tell me what you mean. Is there an attack to be made on the white peo ple here?’ ‘You’ll see in ’n hour from now.’ ‘Are they coming here ?’ •Of course, de fust place. Bound to have shot and powder and guns, and dey’s in dat store yonder, and two barrels er whisky ’long wid ’em ?’ ‘Are yon coming to the house ?’ ‘Bound to sack and barn every house from here down to Bronn’s store. Dat’s de word Levi give out.’ ‘Are you goin’ to kill as you go?’ ‘What else ought we to do to pay for what’s been done to us ? * Worst we could do wouldn’t be nuff, Lev: says. He’s goin’ to tell ’em ‘go ahead. Do as you have been done by.’ ‘An exceptional crime done by some outlaw ought not be revenged on innooent men and women. You would let them oome here to burn and kill us after all the kindness we have shown you Tom Ludd ? You said, I saved your child's life when it had spasms two weeks ago, is this the return you make ?, ‘How can I help what dey do ? I’m a ossifer for true, but Levi’s our bead; we must go by what he says. He lows no body to interfere. I m sorry for you all, and I’ll try to save your lives ef I can keen de {riddv-hnarlerl nnAH hflplr* keep de giddy-headed ones back; but dat 11 be bard to do, after dey've got to de whisky in de store.’ •They shan’t get that: I’ll stave in the heads of the barrels jnvself,’ \ His eyes sparkled with malicious triumph. ‘Like to see you do it! Levi’s got a guard over de store. When you go round to de front dere, you oan look over and see three collurd wid guns, settin on de store porohj -i clasped her hands together—an involun- j He was so intent he did not hear the panther like step behind him. ‘What are you doing here ? ’ interrupted a voice, strong and harsh but not loud—Levi’s pe culiar voice; and as the frightened ‘Cupperal’ turned round, he confronted the tall form and scornful face of his leader. ‘Blabbin’ and boastin—as its your trade to do —you thick headed fool.’ Clear out from here, and git to your business.’ Tom slunk away, grumbling inaudibly. Levi came up to the paling, his tall straight form towering above it, his gun on his shoulder, a pistol and a huge bowie knife in his rough leather belt. His stony, saturnine face, was lit with suppressed excitement, a sneer curled his mouth as he watched Zoe. His face and form, instinct with savage power, filled her with ter ror. ‘Levi’ she said ‘what is this you are going to to do.’ ‘The long tongned fool, told you I reckon.’ ‘Surely it’s not true that you mean to rob and destroy the few helpless whites left here ? ‘You’ll see for yourself what I’m going to do in less than an hour. My men are back there in the swamp, ready for anything. They re member Mose Clark and they think of their own color lyin' in the jail up yonder and swing ing to the trees to feast the buzzards.’ ‘That was because one of them shot a man and because the negroes had planned a riot.' •Who swung when Mose Clark was shot? And it’s not true any riot was planned, I’d a known of it, would’nt I ? I’d a been round Co hatchie the night of the ball. Twas a got-up thing that is what it was. Bat now, since we’ve had the blame, we'll have the game. We’ll not disappoint ’em. But I’ve no timo to waste. I come to git the key to your brother’s store. Will you give it to me?’ ‘No.’ ‘All right, we want to be civil, but there’s other ways of getting in,’ ‘Levi, can it be that you, we have never harm ed, would bring a mob cf drunken negroes into my brother’s house, turn thorn loose on him and his helpless wife and children? Would you be so cruel ? You have more sense than your fellows, you have complete power over them. Oh! Levi, could you use your power so wicked- ly?’ Twa’nt cruel to hang Saul and Peter this morning without fair trial ? Taint cruel to kill the Radicals or drive ’em out of the country be cause they’re friends to us ? Why don’t you look at that ? My men shall do what they like. If any’s killed, it’s only tit for tat.’ ‘One who would murder sick men and help less women, is a fiend and a coward,’ Zoe ex claimed, vehemently. He turned on her glar ing. ‘You’ll repent that,’ he muttered. Then, as he still looked at her, ‘You hate us, you white skinned women,’ he said. ‘You speak to ns kindly as yon do dogs, but you scringe if we chance to come close to you. It would do me good to humble you; to see you kneel to me. I’ll see it too before another sun shall set, my pretty one.’ He laughed sardonically at the white horror his words brought into her face. Still laugh ing his low, Indian-like chuckle. Zoe stood where he left her—fear &4d per- plexitv^seeming to root her to the spot. \ r iWhat._can.I_dO^, ’IS impossible; resistance out of our power. Jim Nolan can not come, his brother is not able to make any continued exertion. What must be done? I have no one that I can go to with this dreadful news but Dan Nolan. He may bo a ^hief and a murderer himself; he acknowledges that he is a criminal, but he is all I have to look to for help and advice.’ She started for the house and stopped as she saw youDg Nolan coming towards her.’ ‘What’s the matter ? What’s happened?’ he exclaimed as soon as he caught sight of her face. In a tew words she told him what she had just heard. ‘Why on earth did’nt yon call me when that fellow Levi was talking to you ? I’d a put a bul let in his smart body and put a stop to all of it. It’s his getting up. The first thing we must do is to go over to the store, burst open the whiskey barrels, and throw the powder and shot in the river.’ ‘Too late,’ she said, ‘look there.’ They had walked to a point where they could see a part of the store front. Three negroes with guns sat on the porch watching them. ‘I could take ’em off one after the other with my repeater,’ Dan cried. •No, you must not,’ Zoe interrupted quickly. ‘It would only hasten theattaok and make them more savage. There are plenty others to sup ply the places of those if you killed them. Look at that head above the cotton! There are spies all around us.’ ‘I see only this to be done. Go and get np your valuables and pnt them in the securest place you can think of. Tell your sister a part of what you apprehend, and tell yonr brother if he is conscious. Let Mrs. Vincent, yon and the children get into the small room when your brother lies. I well bolt the doors and windows as strong as I can. Then I will make the outer room secure and make my stand there with all the guns and pistols the house affords. A good number of the wretches will have to bite the dust before they get to you. Does that suit ?’ ‘In all except that I will stay with yon. I oan load and I can shoot a little. A well woman ought to be nearly as good as a sick man.’ She spoke more hopefully than she felt. She followed out Dan’s suggestions, but Bhe worked with a heavy heart. She pnt the money and jewelry and important papers into a small iron box. And as there was no ohance to bury it outside with all those spies around; she hit up on the expedient of putting it on a board that fitted into the dining-room chimney and push ing the board so far up the flue as to be almost out of reach. Even if the house is burned, these may not be destroyed, she thought; chim neys are often left standing- Her brother was awake and conscious. His little daughter was delightfully feeding him with soup. Zoo’s heart was almost broken when the girl turned her innocent, rose bud face to her, smiling as she announced that papa had swallowed six spoonfuls of soup. What a fate might overtake that lovely. But Zoe would not give way. She nerved herself with all the courage that was in her he- roio little frame. Very composedly, she told her brother and sister that she had some reason to fear an attack from a few exoited negroes. It was possible her fears were ungrounded, but she thought it better to take precautions and fasten the doors and windows securely. Her quiet manner had its effect, and injurious agi tation was in a great measure forestalled. When all was done that could be, she went into the outer room where Dan had just finish ed loading the guns and pistols. He was wqistling gayly, he looked as if the danger was an elixir to him. He expressed no regret, ex- { oept that Jim was not here to share the fun. Zoe went to the door. The afternoon sun steeped the luxuriant atmosphere in light and heat. The c|bala sung in the shade of the tall grass, the silver-winged grosbecks floated dream like across tne sky. All was quiet and at rest; nothing indicative of violence except those three men with guns lying on the gallery of the store, and negroes with guns had often lounged the** before. ‘Do yotfsee any sign of anything wrong?’ she asked Nilson. ‘Only this; the negro women in those tenant cabins are all standing at their doors looking down the river. They know what is coming and from what quarter.’ Five minutes passed. Zoe was at the lower end of the piazza. She uttered an exclamation. ‘ What do you see, sister Anna ? The very cloud of dust of the Blue Beard tale, on my word,’ he added seeing that she could not speak. ‘Courage! remember that we are to fight to gether. Dofi’t let heroism ebb out of these throbbing little veins.’ He took her hand as he spoke. It was cold as marble. With strained, terror-fascinated eyes she watched the cloud of dust that grew into duskey ranks of negrres, rapidly turning the curve in the road following the river bend. Nearer they came. The women at the cabin doors gave no sign, but stood and watched them like statues. Levi rode at the head. A few others wdhf“mounted: the rest were on foot; about half qI them were armed wih guns, the others had various weapons. Some carried fish gigs, some axes and hoes. ‘ Not more than fifty or sixty of them,’ Dan said, running his rapid eye down the motley ranks. ‘ Not bad odds to flight against when you consider the cowardice of the beast.’ They reached the store and Levi ordered a halt. Flinging himself from his horse and giv ing his gun to one of the men, he came aione towards the house. Zoe had already retreated into the room and fastened the door. Levi came up, entered the gallery and glancing haughtily at Dan, asked aloud for Zoe. ‘ She’s within. What do you want her? I’m here to answer for her , ’ Dan said, carelessly continuing to pull the ears of Zoe’s pet dog. ‘You can’t answer for yourself, yet,’ sneered the negro leader, and striding past him, he knockdd at the door, calling out for Zoe. She opened the door and stood before him pale as death bHt calm. ‘Iam here,’ she said, ‘What do you want?’ He looked at her in evident surprise before he said, ‘First I wapt the key to the store, do you still refuse to give it up?’ ‘I do ! nay break the store open if you will, I wili giie you no help in getting arms and liquor to use-for a lawless purpose.’ He pushed past her and entered the room,‘part ly closing the door behind him. ‘I see you are stubborn and proud still,’ be said, ‘Do you understand what is about to come to you? You are here in our power; no help can come to you; we have things in our own hands. In half an hour this house will swarm with men —niggers, you call them,—mad, drunk, furious, ripe for anything. This floor will run with blood, the roof will blttze over your head. With this before you, you hold a stiff neck still. You must beg for mercy.’ ‘I have plead with you for mercy, I do so again. Levi, as you hope for pardon from God do not harm my sick brother and his helpless wife and children!’ ‘And you?’ ‘Yes, me too. I love honor and life too well not to plead with you to spare me. Keep your men from tkbi house; do this and all the money and jewels If..ave, I will give to you. ‘I don’t wfcnt your jewelry and I’ll have all the money I neiTi before this night is over. Your begging is k\ lukewarm. Kd^cI to rue; remem ber I bave^/lur life and mcJre in my power. say.’ . She looked! 0 ! him with an eye that did not quail. ‘No, l»ie said, ‘I will not humble my self to pleaseryou. It would be useless; I see that in your jtace. Our doom is sealed. I will not kneel to receive insult. Go, I have no more to say to you I will die by my own hand be fore yon shall touch me.’ Cries of ‘Bring on the key. Break down the door,’ came from the mob at the store. ‘You’il see when the time comes, ’he cried with fury in his looks, ‘You shall feel my touch then. It shall clamp you like iron.’ He seized her wrist as he said the last words, his nails pressed into her flesh till the blood sprang. ‘Dan. Nolan, ’she called, but not loudly. She heard the click of Dan’s pistol close to her Suddenly Levi Adams loosed his hold of her, and sprang upon young Nolan like a tiger cat, trying to wrench the pistol from him. It went ofl in the struggle. A shout from the negroes on the bank echoed the report. Zoe reeled back against the wall. ‘It is all over,’ she thought ‘They will rush upon us in a moment.’ Tne scuffle between the two men ended in Levi's getting^he pistol in his possession and dashing Nolan to the farther end of the room. Once more Zoa. heard the crieB of the negroes, but she was too far gone with terror to notice that these cries differed from the others—to un derstand that these confused exclamations ex pressed alarm and dismay. Through a side window she saw several black forms rush by, ‘They are surrounding the house,’ was her thought. But through a back window she caught glimps es of negroes running wildly for the swamp, leaping the paling, crashing through the tall cotton. What did it mean? She flew to the front door. The negroes were all gone from the store, from the river bank. She looked down the road. There she saw a body of armed men riding swiftly towards her. Were they more negroes ? No, thank God! there, under the dusty hats, were white faces—blessed white faces. ‘We are saved; there are armed white men coming to our rescue,’ she said to Dan, who had staggered to the door, breathless from his strug gle with the negro bully. ‘Hooray! they are from the Texas line, some of’em, I’ll bet,’ cried the young fellow, with a feeble attempt at a cheer. ‘They came by the bayou Frinoe roaJt Jim said Alver had sent mes sengers to Sabinjb^arish.’ He waved hispid red silk handkerchief and shouted ‘Hooray Boys,’ as loud as he oould, as the cavalcade swept round the last river bend and came in front of the house. Neither he nor Zoe had noticed Levi Adams. At first, the ne gro chief failed to take in the situation. When he did comprehend it, he leaped out of the house by the back way and strove, with voice and ges ture, to stop the flight of his demoralized band. He shouted to them to hold, he cursed them, he implored them to come baok and make a stand, but to no purpose; they ran as only terrified ne groes or scared sheep can run. They had no whiskey in them to impart a fictitious courage. The sight of all these armed white men roun ding the bend in such dashing style strnok terror to. their souls, broke up their ranks as though a’ shower of shell from a near battery had bnrst among them, and sent them helter skelter in a wild race for the swamp. Levi saw that not one would stand to baok him. He saw the soldiers close to the store. His horse stood there—the yellow mustang that carried him like the wind. He made a dying leap over the palings; a few more bounds and he reached his horse’s side. He sprang into the saddle and caught the reins. Too late! half-a-dozen horsemen surrounded him, a (dozen guns were pointed at him. He was forced to surrender. Sullen and stoical—his bronze lace unmoved, he stood and submitted to the tying of his hands. A guard was left over him and the others hastened to pursue the fugi tive negroes. But as well hunt the coon or the possum * in their woodland coverts without the keen-nosed dog, as to hunt among these thick jungles, these vine-matted forests for Levi’s scattered flock. The soldiers rode back an hour afterward, with only one captive, Tom Ludd, the negro who had undertaken to negotiate with Zoe concerning her safety. Tom’s vanity like Absalom’s had occasioned his capture. Feeling his importance as an ‘ossifer,’ he had donned an ancient long-tailed coat, and the impalement of that coat on the back fence of the field had caused him to be taken prisoner. Pitiful enough he looked now. He was shaking with terror, his black face had a gray look, his eyes stood out like a trapped rabbit’s, he begged incessant- lv, piteously protesting his innocence. Levi flashed at him a single look of scorn. ‘Hush, fool,’ he muttered in his harsh gutteral tones. The negro leader seemed to notice nothing but not a movement escaped his panther eye: he seemed not to stir in limb, but he had cun ningly managed to untie the cord that bound his hands and was fastened to one of his feet. The sight of some mounted men on the opposite bank of the river drew the attention of the guard, and taking advantage of the moment, Levi made a desperate effort to escape. With that wonder ful agility none had ever seen surpassed, he cleared the half circle of men with a single bound and ran for the swamp. Before the men, who had dismounted, could spring upon their horses, he had reached the cotton, and with bent head, was scudding down the rows, when a horseman, who seemed chief of the armed white party, came galloping from the swamp and rid ing before the fugitive, ordered him to halt. For answer, Levi snatched out a little derringer pis tol he had kept hid in his bosom, and fired it, the ball grazing the white man’s shoulder. In an instant the negro bully was seized in a grasp more powerful than his own, and the sharp click of a pistol at his head warned him to be quiet. A number of men rode up, and giving orders to ‘tie the negro, take him to the swamp, and make short work of him , ’ the horseman rode on to the house. He was a superb rider, and as he removed his straw hat that the wind might cool his heated head, he looked one’s ideal of the guerilla chief; long-haired with flowing beard, a proud, firm mouth, a falcon eye, a grand, full throat, and a broad chest and shoul ders, whose manly grace showed well in the easy, grey hunting shirt—the picturesque up per garb of the western ranger. He rode to the store and sat on his horse, looking at the miserable, cringing figure of Tom L^dd. That brave ‘ossifer’ was calling God to witness that he never ‘had no han in dese here wicked doin’s. He was a peaceable, hard-wuck- in\ stay-at-home nigger. He was jes’ stirrin’ his wife’s pot nv big hom’ly before de cabin, when he seed de soldiers cornin’ and seen t'oth er niggers runnin’ for de woods, and he like a skeered fool, mus’ ran too, and de soldiers cotcli him and think him guilty, but its all mistake.’ ‘But you had a gun in your hand, ’ said one of the men. ‘ A gun !—me ! ’ ‘Certainly you had a loaded gun. What were you going to do with that, you hypocritical, Rad ical Ethiopian. ’ ‘ Oh,’ chattered the terrified darkey forgetting his former story. • I tell you 'bout dat gun. I was jes goiu’ to de woods to shoot a squ’el for my poor sick wife. Dat's all, my good mas ters. ’pon my sacred word and honor, and I hope thunder strike me dead dis winite ef it aint de solium truth. Mandy—O-o-o-o Mandy,’ he called to his wife, who with her baby in her !U*ms lhad started from her cabin towards him with rimid, hesitating steps. -Come here and beg for your dear husband’s life.’ o-- • — —■ mo nuu ueg aese good, kind, fine-looking gentlemen to spare me dis onct and dey’ll never kotch me no where atter dis, cept in de cotton patch at de end uv a hoe. Jes tell ’em how it was. I was stirrin’ de hoinly pot—no, I was gwine to de woods to kill squirel for your soup oase you was delieaty, and I never had no han’ in dis, no mor’n dat chile dere on his mudder’s breast, what’s goin’ to be lef ’tliout a pappy ef you don’t spar dis poor innereent nigger to his vestracted famly.’ This allusion to her distressed condition and to the round-faced baby that sucked its thumb serenely and stared in big-eyed pleasure at the scene, brought hysterical sobs and shrieks from Mandy. Tom encouraged her grief by groans. ‘ Hush your screeching and get up from here’ commanded the man at whose feet the pair had dropped upon their knees, and whose com manding looks and the deference shown him, intitled him to be thought Captain of the party. At this instant successive reports of fire arms were heard coming from some distance in the swamp. Echo sent them back with startling distinctness from the opposite bank of the river. The men looked at each other significantly. ‘ They’ve settled with the nigger ring leader’ observed one of them laconically. ‘ Oh good Lord !’ howled Tom Ludd in de spair. ‘Mandy, run to Miss Zoe; git her to come here and beg for me, run Mandy ef you love me.’ His wife darted for the house: a few minutes afterwards she came back, and speaking a few words to the Captain, he set his gun against the side of the store and followed her to the house. Zoe, standing on the front piazza, trembled as she leaned against a post, her face blanched with horror. She had j ust nn derstood the mean ing of that volley she had heard fired in the swamp. Those shots had riddled the negro leader, an hour before so exultant in strength and power. . Bloodshed and violence were so averse to her nature that a sickening sensation overpowered her. She hardly looked at the man as he came up to her, his straw hat pulled over his face. ‘ Sir,’ she said, ‘ I sent for you to entreat you to spare that miserable negro yonder. He was led into this. He has not sense enough to look to consequences. There are extenuating cir cumstances connected with this action of the negroes that should lead you to be merciful. The leader is killed; let that suffice, and spare the life of this poor, ignorant creature. He has always been inoffensive and humble till to-day.’ •He shall be spared. I would grant a far greater request to you. ’ She looked up amazed. He stood before her, looking at her with the eyes whose burning, mournful intensity she could never forget. It was Hirne. I swore never to come back, never to see you again,’ he said, taking her hands and com ing close to her. ‘ I could not help it Fate draws irresistibly. Destiny must be accomplish ed. Are you not married yet?’ She shook her head; she could not well have spoken. ‘ Thank Fate for this much! but how pale you are—sweetest—dearest! You are ill, or you have passed through some cruel trial; you have been frightened to death, burdened with cares and fears for others. Hon glad I am that we came up when we did. How glad that I hap pened to hear of this outbreak here. I knew that here you lived and I urged the men on with out a moment’s stopping. Had we been ten minutes later—’ ‘Do not speak of it,’ Zoe cried, shuddering. ‘You have saved our lives. The negroes were about to break open the store, brutalize them selves with liquor and come over here., My brother is sick and confined to his bed.’ ‘And you without a protector? No wonder you are pale as a flower that the storm has drenched. But you are safe now. A part of the men have gone on to Cohatchie; the others will stay here and protect you. I will stay if the dis turbance is quelled in Cohatchie. If I might only protect you through life,’he said, looking at her as though he longed to clasp her. ‘Is dey gwine to spare Tom, Miss Zoe ?’ inter posed a piteous voice in the yard just below. They had forgotten Mandy. Hirne glanced down through the vines and laughed as he saw the distressed black face and the round-eyed baby. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I don’t doubt that Tom ought to hang, but be shall go free: not for his sake or yours, but for this lady’s here. Go and make yourself easy. He shant get his deserts this time, if he’ll promise io stick to his hoe and have no more military aspirations. Go and cook all the eggs and chickens you’ve got and make any number of corn pones for my men. They are hungry as wolves. Here, hold your apron.’ He threw a handful of Mexican dollars into her lap: ‘Get some dinner, or supper rather, quick as you can; or the soldiers may hang your Tom after all. Hungry men are savage.’ ‘It’ll be hard to pursuade the men to set the scamp free,’ he said as the woman moved briskly off. ‘Yet he hardly deserves to die—ignorant tool that he is—put up to what he tried to do by the unprincipled Yankees. I hear they have arrested the parish officers and are keeping them under guard- Why did they not hang them with their negro dupes ? The plot they tried to carry out was a fiendish one.’ ‘Are you sure it was a plot of the Radicals ? I have strong reason to think not.’ ‘It is hard for your tender heart to believe people can be so base, but you do not know the Radical capacity for baseness. If you had my experience ! I cannot believe that the peo ple of this parish will let these men go unpunish ed, and there is no punishment sufficient for them but death.’ His eyes that had been so soft a moment be fore, emitted a savage flash, his month grew stern in an instant. Zoe did not venture to pur sue the subject then. She saw in him once more that sudden transition into gloomy fierceness. It was as if he possessed two natures—one mag nanimous and tender, the other bitter, relent less. Again sue said to herself, ‘Some groat wrong has warped this noble nature- (TO BE CONTINUED.) Some cf tlie Wonders of Creation, Real and Imaginary, [By Samuel Levy.] In Gen., chap. 1. xxi, xxv, we find that God created the great sea monsters, every winged fowl after its kind, cattle and beasts»after its kind, and everything that creapeth upon the earth after its kind.” The prophets, to illustrate and substantiate these texts make frequent mention of gigantic monsters of the sea and earth, and the Rabbis stories in the Talmud of birds, fishes and animals are so preposterous, that such as they describe, could have only existed in their own imagination. In Job, chap, xl, xv, xxiv, we have an account of a Behemeth, whose outstretched wing is as large as a cedar, and whose frame is like bars of iron. Not. to be outdone by Job, we find a story in the Talmud of a Behemoth upon a thou sand mountains, a pair of whicn could have deso lated the whole world. What did the wholy one d.o ? He enervated the male m l mftdpthe female time to come. That period is to be a season of great feasting. The liquor to be drunk will be apple wine of more than seventy years old. The cup of David alone will hold one hundred and twenty one logs. In Isaiah, chap, xxvii: i, we are told “on that day will the Lord punish with his heavy great and strong sword, leviathan the flying serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent.” To illus trate this we are informed by the Rabbis, “that everything God created in the world, He createh male and female. And this he did with leviathan the flying serpent, and leviathan the crooked ser pent. He cheated them male and female, but if ihey had been joined together they would have desolated the whole world. What then did the Holy One do ? He enervated the male and slew the female, and salted her for the righteous in the time to come. In Amos, chap, iii, viii, the prophet speaks of a lion “who hath roared,” and says “who will not fear?” To illustrate this, a story is told in the Talmud of a lion which one of the Caesars wished to see. At 400 miles from Rome he roared, and the walls of that city fell down. At 3.00 miles he again roared, and all the people fell on their backs, and their teeth fell out, and Caesar fell off his throne. Unicorns are frequently mentioned in the Bible, and to substantiate scripture, the Tal mud informs us that a “young unicorn one day old is as large as Mount Tabor. Consequently Noah had great difficulty in saving an old one alive. He could not get it into the ark, so he bound its horns to the side ark. At the same time Og, King of Boshan, was saved by riding upon its back. In the year 035, A. D., a great dragon infested the neighborhood of Rouen, in Normandy, which did such prodigious mischief as to desolate the whole country. He was captured after a great deal of trouble, by a murderer, who carried it to the city, when it was strangled and then burned. The prophet Isaiah mentions flying dragons in chap, xxx, vi. In the fourteenth century an amphibious animal caused a great deal of trouble to the inhabitants of the island of Rhodes, by its depredations. Sev eral of them fell victims to its rapacity. Cows, horses and sheep, and often shepherds were drowned by it. It was killed by Dieu Donne De- Gozam, with the assistance of his dogs, to the joy of the inhabitants, who cut off his head and stuck it over one of the gates of the city as a monument of a victory of Gozom, whom they regarded as their deliverer. Bakewell, in his introduction of Geology, gives an interesting account of some large animal. The Megalosaurus, found near Tilgate, is some* thing similar in form to the monitor, but its size is enormods, and according to Curier, it must have exceeded seventy feet in length. The Iqua- nodon, to whom the groves of palms and ferns would be mere beds of reeds, must have been of such prodigious magnitude as almost to compare with that wonderful fish of the Talmud, which, when driven ashore, destroyed sixty cities, and sixty cities ate of it, and sixty cities salted it, and with its bones the sixty ruined cities were re build. • Raccoon and opossum may be good English, but they are not American, at least not Western. A letter from Paris mentions a visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the American Department, and that the Princess was so pleased with some of the goods she saw that she bought seven hundred dollars worth of them. At about the same time General Grant visited the department and was weighed, turning the scales at one hundred and sixty-seven and a half pounds. The shah of Persia has rented a magnificent villa near the sab nrds of Vienna, in which he, will wallow for several months , ‘