enjoy the consolations and the sweets of domestic affection. Though there was one ever gazing upon him with an almost breaking heart, he neither felt his own misery nor hers, but looked upon all things with an eye bright and fiery indeed at times; but not, like the stars, illuminate with knowledge.

In this mood he would sit for hours with his arms folded, and gazing upon the vacant air, sighing sometimes, but never conscious of the presence of his once beloved wife who sat before him, and watched his steadfast countenance till she wept at his want of sympathy. Day passed after day, and night after night, but there was no change in the darkness of his mind till one morning, as he sat, his reason as it were returned upon him like the dawn of day, when the sky is first streaked with light, and the world gains a weak intelligence of the things that are in it. He had been looking for some minutes on his wife without knowing her, but tears glistened, for the first time, in his eyes, and at last two large drops, and with those his delirium, were shed from his eyelids. He immediately recognized his wife, and cast himself into her

arms.

The joyful lady, in her turn, found it hard to retain her senses. After returning his caresses in the tenderest manner, she hastened immediately to Don Rodrigo, who, though severely hurt, had got better of his wound, and watched the more dreadful malady of his friend, sometimes indeed, in hope, but more commonly in despair of his recovery. At the first news, therefore, he ran hastily to the room, and soon cast himself into the arms of his friend: but the latter received him coldly; and before Rodigro could finish even a brief salutation, he felt the other's arms loosening from around his neck, and beheld his head suddenly drop as if it had been displeasing that their eyes should meet again. It seemed, indeed, that his malady had already returned upon him; but in another moment the body fell forwards on the floor, and instantly the blood gushed from a hidden wound in the side which had hitherto been concealed by the mantle. A pair of scissors, covered with blood and broken, for the wound had been desperately bestowed, dropped from him as he fell: for, to show more sadly the lady's own joyful forgetfulness, she had supplied the weapon for this dreadful catastrophe.

As for the miserable lady, it was feared, from the violence

of her grief, that the same dismal blow would have been her death; but her heart had been too long inured to such sufferings to be so speedily broken; and at last, attaining to that peace which belongs only to the comforts of our holy religion, she devoted her widowhood to God, and cheerfully ended an old age of piety in the convent of St. Faith.

THE OWL.

"What great eyes you have got! RED RIDING-HOOD.

“An indiscreet friend," says the proverb, "is more dangerous than the naked sword of an enemy; and truly, there is nothing more fatal than the act of a misjudging ally, which, like a mistake in medicine, is apt to kill the unhappy patient whom it was intended to cure.

This lesson was taught in a remarkable manner to the innocent Zerlina, a peasant; to conceive which, you must suppose her to have gone by permission into the garden of the Countess of Marezzo, near the Arno, one beautiful morning of June. It was a spacious pleasure-ground, excellently disposed and adorned with the choicest specimens of shrubs and trees, being bounded on all sides by hedge-rows of laurels and myrtles, and such sombre evergreens, and in the midst was a pretty, verdant lawn with a sun-dial.

The numberless plants that belong to that bountiful season were then in full flower, and the delicate fragrance of the orange-blossoms perfumed the universal air. The thrushes were singing merrily in the copses, and the bees that cannot stir without music, made a joyous humming with their wings. All things were vigorous and cheerful except one, a poor owl, that had been hurt by a bolt from a crossbrow, and so had been unable by daylight to regain his accustomed hermitage, but sheltered himself under a row of laurel-trees and hollies that afforded a delicious shadow in the noontide sun. There, shunning and shunned by all, as is the lot of the unfortunate, he languished over his wound; till a flight of pert sparrows espying him, he was soon forced to endure a thousand twittings as well as buffets from that insolent race.

The noise of these chatterers attracting the attention of Zerlina, she crossed over to the spot; and, lo! there crouched the poor bewildered owl, blinking with his large bedazzled eyes, and nodding as if with giddiness from his buffetings and the blaze of unusual light.

The tender girl being very gentle and compassionate by nature, was no ways repelled by his uglines: but thinking of his sufferings, took up the feathered wretch in her arms and endeavored to revive him by placing him on her bosom. There, nursing him with an abundance of pity and concern, she carried him to the grass-plat, and being ignorant of his habits, laid out the poor, drooping bird, as her own lively spirits prompted her in the glowing sunshine; for she felt in her own heart, at that moment, the kind and cheerful influence of the genial sun. Then, withdrawing a little way and leaning against the dial, she awaited the grateful change which she hoped to behold in the creature's looks; whereas, the tormented owl being grievously dazzled, and annoyed more than ever, hopped off again, with many piteous efforts, to the shady evergreens. Notwithstanding, believing that this shyness was only because of his natural wildness or fear, she brought him over again to the lawn, and then ran into the house for some crumbs to feed him withal.

The poor owl, in the mean time, crawled partly back, as before, to his friendly shelter of holly. The simple girl found him, therefore, with much wonder, again retiring towards those gloomy bushes.

"that

"Why, what a wilful creature is this," she thought ; is so loath to be comforted. No sooner have I placed it in the warm, cheerful sunshine which enlivens all its fellow-birds to chirp and sing, than it goes back and mopes under the most dismal corners. I have known many human persons to have those peevish fits, and to reject kindness as perversely, but who would look for such unnatural humors in a simple bird."

Therewith, taking the monkish fowl from his dull leafy cloisters, she disposed him once more on the sunny lawn, where he made still fresh attempts to get away from the overpainful radiance, but was now become too feeble and ill to remove. Zerlina therefore began to believe that he was reconciled to his situation; but she had hardly cherished this fancy, when a dismal film came suddenly over his large round

eyes; and then falling over upon his back, after one or two slow gasps of his beak and a few twitches of his aged claws, the poor martyr of kindness expired before her sight. It cost her a few tears to witness the tragical issue of her endeavors ; but she was still more grieved afterwards, when she was told of the cruelty of her unskilful treatment; and the poor owl, with its melancholy death, was the frequent subject of her meditations.

In the year after this occurrence, it happened that the Countess of Marezzo was in want of a young female attendant, and being much struck with the modesty and lively temper of Zerlina, she requested of her parents to let her live with her. The poor people having a numerous family to provide for, agreed very cheerfully to the proposal; and Zerlina was carried by her benefactress to Rome. Her good conduct confirming the prepossessions of the Countess, the latter showed her many marks of her favor and regard, not only furnishing her handsomely with apparel, but taking her as a companion on her visits to the most rich and noble families, so that Zerlina was thus introduced to much gayety and splendor. Her heart, notwithstanding, ached oftentimes under her silken dresses, for in spite of the favor of the Countess, she met with many slights from the proud and wealthy, on account of her humble origin, as well as much envy and malice from persons of her own condition. She fell therefore into a deep melancholy, and being interrogated by the Countess, she declared that she pined for her former humble but happy estate, and begged with all humility that she might return to her native village.

The Countess being much surprised as well as grieved at this confession, inquired if she had ever given her cause to repent of her protection, to which Zerlina replied with many grateful tears, but still avowing the ardor of her wishes.

“Let me return," said she, "to my own homely life; this oppressive splendor dazzles and bewilders me. I feel, by a thousand humiliating misgivings and disgraces, that it is foreign to my nature; my defects of birth and manners making me shrink continually within myself, whilst those who were born for its blaze perceive readily that I belong to an obscurer race, and taunt me with jests and indignities for intruding on their sphere. Those also who should be my equals, are quite as bitter against me for overstepping their station, so that my