at least twenty. He has contrived the nicest plan for sending letters to me, and the moment I get one I will send you a copy, for as it will be the first either of us ever had, you will, of course, be curious to see what a real love letter is like. I am afraid I shall find it very dull and stupid at home these holidays, for mamma talks of my sketching and going on with my French a little; and then I know I shall have to teach Lucy and Jane their lessons, and help to mend the stockings, and do a hundred other disagreeable things that I can't bear. I do think, don't you? that it is very shameful that we can't have our holidays all to ourselves. Poor Theodore! I dare say, he is very unhappy, for he sighed so when he squeezed my hand at parting, and I think I saw the tears in his eyes. Pray write to me immediately, and give me your advice in this affair; but pray don't tell any one. I shall write to Louisa, Marianna, Belinda, Isabella, and all the rest of our set tomorrow.

Good bye, my dearest Rosabella Anne, think of me sometimes, and believe me to be, with the greatest sincerity,

Your ever faithful,

And most truly affectionate,

JULIANA.

PS. I forgot to say that, from my description, Theodore said you must be a most interesting and delightful character.

It would, doubtless, be very easy, and perhaps edifying, to write now in quite a different strain,-to dilate on the excellencies of many boarding-schools, in opposition to the follies of others, the general injustice done to governesses, and all persons engaged in that delightful task of teach

ing the young idea how to shoot, or, according to the Irish reading, how to fire,-of the contrarieties of children's tempers, and the unreasonableness of parental expectations, the mischief arising from school friendships, and the superlative absurdity of school-girl correspondencies, wound up with a few judicious remarks on the present style of education, and the best means of remedying the evils connected therewith:-but, as this paper is already too long, it is needless to make it longer; and; as it has been a trifling one hitherto, it is too late to make it a serious one now.

M. J. J.

THE FLIGHT OF XERXES.

I SAW him on the battle eve,

When like a king he bore him!
Proud hosts in glittering helm and greave,
And prouder chiefs before him:

The warrior, and the warrior's deeds,

The morrow,

and the morrow's meeds

No daunting thoughts came o'er him ;-
He look'd around him, and his eye
Defiance flash'd to earth and sky.

He look'd on ocean;-its broad breast
Was cover'd with his fleet;

On earth, and saw from east to west
His banner'd millions meet:

While rock, and glen, and cave, and coast,
Shook with the war-cry of that host,
The thunder of their feet!
He heard th' imperial echoes ring,
He heard, and felt himself a king!

I saw him next alone;-nor camp,
Nor chief his steps attended,

Nor banners blazed, nor coursers' tramp
With war-cries proudly blended:-
He stood alone, whom Fortune high
So lately seem'd to deify,

He, who with Heaven contended,
Fled, like a fugitive and slave,
Behind, the foe,-before, the wave.

He stood,-fleet, army, treasure-gone,

Alone, and in despair!

While wave and wind swept ruthless on,

For they were monarchs there:

And XERXES in a single bark,

Where late his thousand ships were dark,`
Must all their fury dare ;-

Thy glorious revenge was this,
Thy trophy, deathless SALAMIS!

THE RUINED CITY;

AN ADVENTURE IN GUATEMALA.

M. J. J.

*

LED by my beautiful companion and preserver, I now found myself in the midst of a strange and luxuriant vegetation. I was surrounded by an immense forest of palms and tropical trees, which diffused an intense perfume through the whole atmosphere, and dazzled the vision with the radiance of their blossomed hues. The deep green nopal was there, and the scarlet-leaved manitas, the giant torch-thistle, and the towering agara with its blossoms like a starry constellation. Flowers of magnificent dyes were scattered amidst the narrow valleys,

and the green uplands, which were discernible through the stems of the large-flowered bignonia, of the airy capià, of the broad-leaved and white-stemmed cecropia, and through the mailed and columnar trunks of macauba palms, embraced midway by the living tendrils of the passion-flower, or covered to the top of their waving and feathered summits by the climbing tufts of the paullinia, and the gaudy blossoms of the coronilla. Wherever the eye turned, nature presented itself on the same vast, magnificent, and singular scale. Enormous nests of wasps and termites were suspended from the trees; the conic dwellings of the warrior ant, large as the huts of the natives, arose from the soil; and ever and anon, as if like blossoms scattered by the evening breezes from the trees, was seen a flight of gem-bright chupaflores, or butterflies, as magnificent in hue, and superior in dimensions. It was not difficult for an European, so situated and so attended, to have fancied himself in the Hesperian garden attended by one of the beautiful Atlantidæ.

"What sounds are those?" I said to my fair companion, which burst like the pealing of a distant organ on the ravished silence of the evening?

"They are," returned Annalitta, "the Syren sounds * with which the kings of the Rattlesnakes, who inhabit yon blue mountains to the left, allure the wandering traveller into their dominions. On stormy nights, more formidable echoes are heard in their vicinity; the groans of captive spirits retained in penal fetters within their impassable boundaries by the Great Manetho, whose emblem I carry in my tiara, this scarlet hand-flower of the mystical tree

manitas.

"Look through yon vista of nopals, vuccas, and agaras,

* The Loxas di musica, noticed by Humboldt, and which account for the music of Memnon's statue.

to the point where the sun is sinking in the west, and mantling earth and heaven in dyes of inimitable beauty. You may now behold the vast bosom of Manetho's lake reflecting the golden splendour of the heavens like an unruffled mirror, bounded on the back-ground by a woody chain of mountains rising like a paradise full of luxuriance and beauty to the painted clouds; and studded by gem-bright islands, whose flowery banks are reflected by the golden ray, which falls slantwise from the western hills on the dark blue wave. Beyond that empurpled headland, where you now behold a bark canoe stealing along the surface of the water, filled with painted Indians, whose gaudy feathers glare brightly in the golden effulgence of the setting sun, is the floating island of fountains, Manetho's paradise of good and happy spirits."

"And may not mortals reach that realm of happiness, Annalitta?" I inquired; "it is surely not prohibited to beings such as you?"

"To me, and all," she answered, blushing, "who wear the garment of a fallen nature. Many have made the effort to reach it, but all have failed. Perhaps, that bark of my countrymen, now vanishing like a speck from our gaze, is bound in quest of the samead venture. Unhappy they, if such be their design. A long madness or a sudden death will be their guerdon. True! they may pierce yon mountain-barrier, and lull the mighty serpent king with charms stronger than his own; they may quell the rage of the fierce cougar, who, ever couched in act to spring, guards the access to his realm. They may then behold the isle of joy and beauty within an arrow's flight of their adventurous bark; they may see the flushing reflection of its fruits and flowers in the empurpled waves; they may inhale the fragrance breathed from its sunny blossoms; they may hear the voice of song and music resounding