was with difficulty appeased, by every one reminding her that Jack "never was good, egg nor bird," that " you can't get milk from a paving-stone," or "make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," and such like consolatory expressions. So at last the storm blew over.

But it was near

So ended the station dinner. proving a dear dinner to Johnny Lennon, for Polsh took a strong hatred to him. And, reader, if you like this sketch, I may next year, if I live, tell you how Johnny was tried before the great Lord Norbury, for robbing the Beaghans; and how Polsh swore hard against him; and how Johnny, though innocent, had liked to be hanged; with sundry other strange events.

L'ENVOY.

Go, little tale, and say, reader, beware that thou take not me for a picture of the general character and habits of Irish farmers: the Beaghans were sui generis, and resembled no others. I have been writing to exhilarate thee, and thereby promote thy health-for what saith the old saw ? " Laugh and be fat:" and to instruct thee in the nature of a station, and other things, with which, peradventure, thou hast been hitherto unacquainted.

21

THE GUITAR.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE POET'S OFFERING."

How softly and sweetly it sounds from afar,
O'er the blue waters, the lively guitar;
How softly and sweetly, beneath the bright moon,
On the lonely parterre, in the crowded saloon.

How softly and sweetly, when daylight is gone, And the dim floating shadows of evening come

on;

How softly and sweetly, from window or bower, It cheats of its sadness the wearisome hour.

How softly and sweetly its delicate notes,
Wide o'er the landscape in harmony floats;
How softly and sweetly its quivering chords
Give accent and meaning to musical words.

How softly and sweetly-hark! hark! o'er the bay

Two answering lovers in unison play!
Now in a plaintive and sorrowing strain-
And now in the accents of gladness again.

How softly and sweetly some beautiful nun,
When the task of her Ave Maria is done,
Steals to the lattice and mournfully plays
To the friends and the lovers of happier days.

How softly and sweetly it sounds from afar,
O'er the blue waters, the lively guitar!
How softly and sweetly, beneath the bright moon,
On the lonely parterre, in the crowded saloon.

THE RUSTIC TOILET.

BY M. R. MITFORD.

"To hold the plough for her sweet love."
SHAKSPEARE.

A PLEASANT and a stirring scene was the barnyard of Farmer Holden of Hilton, one of the principal tenants of our friend Colonel Lisle of that ilk, (if it be permitted to a Southron to borrow that expressive phrase,) on one of the pleasantest and sunniest evenings of this last most sunny month of April, when, as if to overset all the calculations of all the almanac-makers from Mr. Murphy downward, and in direct defiance of those safer general prognostics derived from old experience, there has not fallen in this fair county of Berks, from the first to the thirtieth, one single drop of rain. A bright and a lively scene did the barn-yard of Hilton Great Farm exhibit on that bright April evening. Seen between the large wheat-ricks and bean-stacks and hay-ricks, the barns and stables, the cart-houses, hen-houses, and pig-sties, which, together with the old-fashioned rambling dwelling-house, large