places.'

The world never will be right until we change

My love,' he answered, 'I thought you wanted us all to be in the same place.'

"Not I indeed,' she said, 'you are much more suited to be a slave than I am; content that everything should be as it is, so that you may not have the trouble of moving it—augh!'

Very true, my dear.'

"I only wish they would make ME an Inspector of Police-I would soon get things in order-I only wish I was a man!'

"I wish you were, my dear!'

"But it's high up above Bloomerism, and all other follies I've got, sure enough; only as the lark said, I must come down some time. 66 6 At last the house became a fair Babel, worse than what I've heard of Donnybrooke itself, when the boys used to cry out, 'Oh! the glory's left ould Ireland,-twelve o'clock, and no fight; and when the poor fellows would be going about the Fair green, shouting, 'Who'll fight me for the sake of St. Patrick.' The man of the house was sorely to be pitied, he was a mighty quiet man; and impossible as it may seem, very fond of his vixen of a wife (talk as you will, there's mighty little reason in love,) and his babby; and moreover, he was very little at home at all, which ought to have made her all the pleasanter when he was in it, for it's very easy to find words going sharp, when a man's ever and always molly coddling about a house, and bothering about every in and out, no ways becoming to him. Of late, she was always grumbling when he went out, though it was about his business-and yet never peaceable when he came in; I wondered how he took it so easy, but there is no use ever interfering betwixt married people; no matter how bitter they are tonight, they may be all like sugar and honey to-morrow morning, and whatever you say to one, is sure to go to the other they're not safe to make or meddle with; if you want to make peace, you must never let one know what the other says when they're in their 'tiffs;' and to keep quit of that you must tell more woppers than is at all pleasant to carry, particularly when the priest is cross, and puts heavy weights on the penances.

་་

I kept as clear of both husband and wife as I could, though they would come now and again, and tell me their troubles; the landlady blaming the tyranny of mankind, and the badness of the laws, and the husband bewailing that she had got among the bloomers; I hinted that may be if the dress which she only wore at their meetings was burned, it might put her off her fancy; but he said, 'he couldn't do that she looked so pretty in it;' was not that foolish? but Aunt, dear, men is that-and think more of a pretty face with a sharp tongue-than of a plain one, that has nothing to say but goodness. Well, he gave in to her-it seemed so in everything for ever so long, but I sometimes thought that smooth water runs deep. One evening he told her he was going to have a few of his friends come there, and he hoped she would do her best to make them comfortable; she rose at this, and said she wasn't going to be no man's slave, and that if he had company, he must attend to them himself; and that she would dress as she pleased, and have one of her own friends with her, and sit at the head of her tea-table-like the Queen; well, he said he hoped she would wear the dress, and have her friend by all means, and he would give her as little trouble as possible; instead of this putting her into good humour, it made her quite fractious, for she liked to be contradicted, that she might have something to complain of: they went on jangling all day,-I heard her say:

"You know you don't wish any such thing-Oh yes! you would like finely to be trampled upon, as all poor women are-but I don't wait on your friends, you may depend on that: you may snub me as you always do, and set the baby crying, that my maternal feelings may be worked on to attend to it; you may spill the tea kettle into the fire, that I may be forced,—yes, Mr. Peter Creed,―forced to light it again, you having first sent the other white slave out for cigars and muffins,-but from this hour I'll pluck up a spirit!' "Which spirit, my love?'—

"And so they went on; I wondered how he could bear it; for she told him over and over again, he was only fit for woman's work; but my dear mistress says, its always the way,-the gentle quiet men get the vixens; and surely young maids are so gentle, that one wonders where the old vixens come from! However, in the course of the evening, as she was flourishing down in her bloomers,' she told me, that she had made up her mind not to do a hand's turn, let Peter manage as he might; but sit as grand as Cromwell, at the head of her tea-table, pour out her tea, and talk of the wrongs of woman! She was as proud of her beautiful chaney as of her baby. Well, about an hour after, before any one came, I met a strange woman on the stairs, a very tall, thin woman, and then there was a knock at the door; Mrs. Creed kept firm, the poor servant was out; but to my surprise, the tall woman sprang up from somewhere, and introduced the gentlemen to the bloomer ladies in the parlour,oh what a skrietch the landlady gave. Why,' she said, that is Peter, that is my husband,-in my best apple silk.'

Changed places-that is all,' said the Inspector of the P Division coolly; we agreed, my good friends, (the first time we have agreed since the new movement,) that I was intended by nature to be one of the fair sex, and my wife-(according to the old fashion, to be one of the foul; so I have taken her place, and when the hour comes, she will accompany you to Great Scotland Yard, and take my duty, while I attend to the house and baby.' After this speech, he plumped down at the head of the tea table, the seat she delighted in, and began placing the things or rather misplacing them--and pouring out the tea. Oh, if you could but have seen her! At first she and her friend Miss Cressy stormed, and when they did, the men laughed so loudly, as to drown the storming; then she flew at

she should not forget me, and I told her the remembrance would be mutual. Roman blood, indeed! 1 saw her out of the house, and going down the street, with a gang of boys after her, calling out, 'There's an old Bloomer—there's an old Bloomer!'

"While I was busy with her the poor landlady got her baby, and humbled herself—as was right—and in another hour the house was quiet enough, and the inspector gone to his duty. The next morning my dear good mistress scnt for the landlady.

"I suppose,' she said to me, going up stairs, 'I shall lose my lodgers as well as my character.'

her husband like a mad cat, and tore his cap, and a I did then, since I've been in the country, She said cup and saucer were broken; upon which she sat down and went into determined hysterics,-the men declaring it was the first time their Inspector had ever occasion to use vinegar and burnt feathers; then a basin of water was thrown over her to bring her to, and in the midst of it the babby cried; just as a fierce cat will run to its kitten-the screaming took another turn, and she called out, My child, my child!' but the men would not let her move,-and the Inspector rushed out and returned bringing in the baby, hushowing it in his arms, and talking all kinds of nursery nonsense to it, and dancing it as a woman would, but far more roughly: then he placed it on his knee, and stuffed cake into its mouth; and then a knock came to the door, with a message that the Inspector of the P Division was wanted immediately, as there was a fire in Holborn; and Peter insisted that the new superintendant of the P Division should act up to her words and go; he had done all according to her wishes, and to please her, had resolved to dress as a woman, and perform all a woman's duties; and she must therefore take his place, and act his part; that she had declared publicly and privately that she was the better man of the two, and he therefore insisted she should now prove it, and that his friends would see that she did so. I could hardly tell whether to laugh or cry, I was so frightened for fear the poor innocent babby should get hurt; and because it continued screaming, the father went to the cupboard and emptied a whole bottle full of that wicked Daffy's Elixir, which the women here of that class, half in ignorance, half in laziness, give their infants to keep them quiet; and seemed as though he was going to pour it all at once down the dear babby's throat. Och hone! it was then I pitied the poor mother.

"Now my mistress says, that of all laws the law of kindness is the strongest; and, though the landlady entered the drawing room with every nerve in her body set for a battle, the tears came into her eyes by the time my mistress bade her good morning and told her to sit down-of course, I came away. When Peter came home that evening, I heard his wife gorather slowly, but she did go-to the door; and I heard him say, 'Thank you, my love-this is very good of you.' And when I told my dear lady this, she smiled the old smile, and went on talking so sweetly to me, that I judged it was just the way she talked to her.

"Ah!' she said, 'it is very wrong to go on laughing at follies that are likely to lead to evil. Not but what ridicule will sometimes gain a quicker victory than reason; but it leaves an ugly scar, which marks to the death.' (I always put down her exact words.) Whether the young or the ignorant listen patiently or not, to reproof or advice, it is no less the duty of the old to give it; but to be done usefully, Ellen, it must be done kindly. I should have talked to this young creature before, and not have suffered her to go "Oh, Peter, Peter!' she called out, even a on in her folly without remonstrance. It is a vain creaspoonful is too much. Don't-don't. Oh, just give ture, as I might have known by the cards—that was my baby to myself again, and I'll never be a Bloomer;' one turn of the vanity, this is another. All love of and then the dreadful instigator of the mischief shook notoriety is vanity; it's wonderful the forms it takes. her head at her, and cried, For shame, for shame,' One man wants to write a book before he can spell; and harangued about consistency, and called upon her another talks of joining the legislature because he 'to be worthy of herself, and go to the fire and com- has been listened to at a vestry; another's desire mand the force, not like a man, but-a woman!' leads to heading charity lists-very useful, if he pays And all the time the poor mother was struggling to the money. One woman piques herself on small hands, get at her baby; and, for fear of mischief, I turned and lays them on the top of a muff intended to keep over the cup-though to be sure it did for the apple-them warm; another gets up an ancestry; another, green silk. Poor woman! she could see nothing but her child, and hear nothing but its cries. Give me my baby, and go to your duty, and I'll never go near a Rights of Woman woman as long as I live,' she repeated.

(the vulgarest,) talks of her rich friends and her accounts at her bankers, or stuffs your ears with titles, committed to memory from the peerage. But these, Ellen, if you understand them, are innocent vanities, doing no harm. The ill-spelt book will never be published; if the would-be orator gets into parliament, he continues a single-speech Jack" to the end of his days; the small hands become chilblained; the rich friends get into the list of uncertified bankrupts, the titles are soon drilled off; but the vanity which takes a woman from the sacred duties of home to display her weakness abroad-and unsexes herstrikes at the root of our domestic happiness, and should be treated accordingly. I should have talked

blushing orchards, slept peacefully in the valley of the winding Wharfe. One wide golden tinge of glory fell across the woods of Farnley-the rocky Chevin, with its cavernous front, darkly frowning in the picture, stood majestically looking down upon the river at its foot, and in the shadowy distance gloomed the ivy-covered towers of Harewood's ancient castle. The mist had already left the valley, and in cloud-like

to her before, Ellen-I should indeed!--kindly, you | Poole, with its scattered cottages half hidden among know, and nothing daunted even if repulsed. And I am not sure but that kindness can turn even vanity to good account. There are plenty of mischievous people always ready to start new wrongs and new sorrows as causes for discontent; and, between you and me, Ellen, if more extensive employment could he given to women, they would not get into such imaginary troubles; they would have more to do. In gentle, profitable employment the legislature-law-form swept across the neighbouring uplands, like the makers, Ellen, have neglected our interests now and then; but short tunics and long trowsers won't alter laws, you know. That young woman confesses she never knew she had anything to complain of until it was put into her head. And-it makes me smile-oaks, ripples over its shallow bed. but she says, the folly of the thing never struck her until the saw that six-foot-two Peter of hers, with his black whiskers and broad shoulders, in her dress, spoonfeeding the baby! She bitterly resents his exposing her to the ridicule of his companions; but I reminded her she had exposed herself by her attempts at establishing so unblushing a notoriety. Certainly the landlady is a changed woman, poor thing! poor thing!'

"It will be some time, dear Aunt, before I will be able to write to you again, for we are going to a fine watering place-over the seas-to seck that health for my mistress that is so plenty on our hill side. Oh, dear! if everything in ould Ireland was as plenty as health what a people we should be! "Ever, with a heart and a half, your own "NELLY NOWLAN."

TIME'S CHANGES.

BY FLORES DEVIA.

"We miss'd the merry ring of her sweet laughter, In the changed home with sudden moanings fill'd; And thence for evermore through Time's hereafter, The deep warm current of our hope was chill'd.” Ir was well known to every one acquainted with the locality, that old Mellon of Wharfdale, though commonly called "the miser," was immensely rich, and that Minna, his daughter, was the fairest flower of the valley; and without entering upon the forbidden precincts of private life, gentle reader, we claim your attention for a brief sketch, where truth figures in the foreground, and needs but little colouring or fanciful adorning.

Having but one day left of a pleasant sojourn in the valley of the Wharfe, the grey dawn had no sooner opened its waking eye, and smiled through the diamond panes of the lattice, than we arose

"To meet the sun upon the upland lawn." The orient smile of a sweet autumn morning threw its fascinating beauty over wood and stream, and the soft balmy air whispered of delicious dreams. The serenity of the time had a soothing influence that is only to be felt when we have hasted away from the turmoil of the life-thick city to renew our acquaintance with nature, and to cultivate reflection by the side of a clear stream, in the field paths, or beneath the shade of hanging wood. And now, the village of

departing spirit of night, flying the footsteps of the blushing morn. The speckled deer of Farnley bounded to the park side, and the lowing herds came with them to where the Wharfe, shaded by monarchi

Long might the eye have feasted on natural beauty, where peaceful serenity and wild romantic grandeur dwell together; but, although beneath the shade of umbrageous woods, far from the crowded market street, or the ledger desk of anxious commerce, an object caught the eye which awakened thoughts in the beholder, not at all in unison with morning | worship at the shrine of nature.

Emerging from a straw thatched, but roomy, antiquated dwelling, an aged man was looking out upon the green pastures of the Wharfe. His grey locks fell in melancholy disorder over his broad shoulders, and his silver beard glistened in the morning sunlight. His outward appearance, which bespoke care and anxiety, was a faithful index to the inner man. Without knowing anything of his history, it was easy to read of past turmoil and present internal strife, in that pale and almost repulsive countenance. From his dress, and the general outline of his figure, you might instantly perceive that he had not always been a dweller in the rural and secluded haunts of peace. The ghastly paleness of that hollow cheek, the gleaming expression of his large though sunken eye, darting scrutiny upon you with a glance almost amounting to ferocity, the compression of his lip, adding determination to his otherwise moody appearance, as he stood tottering and holding together a flowing robe of foreign fabric, much too large for his wasted frame,-all denied that he had experienced for any long period the calm retirement of village life. No! old Mellon was but a new comer among the peaceful denizens of Wharfdale; his life-toil had been among crowded cities at home and abroad, in the forests thick of human lights and shadows,-the exchange of money had been his sole occupation. The old dilapidated fabric in Wharfdale, where we' now saw him, he had obtained from a sinking family, over the intimate matters of which we must draw the veil of silence; and as his health was fast failing, he had been advised to settle here, to maintain as long as possible the fast wasting oil of life. His only child, the beautiful and accomplished Minna, was here his sole company; he had no friends, and looked upon every passing stranger with suspicion. He had, it is true, in a distant part of the country, a sister worn down with age, and suffering in extreme poverty; bu

his heart was closed to her complaints, he owned no the beauty of England's fairest daughters gliding by relatives.

the side of athletic strength; the one, called to throw the wings of gentle affection over the domestic circle; and the other, formed for laborious exercise of manly toil, or the arduous and noble application of mental power,-cach property dignified and manly. Minna, the old usurer's accomplished daughter, had a pensive air of thoughtfulness about her that morning, which only heightened the charm of her pleasing features, and the old and the young, as she approached the church, threw bouquets across her path, and vied with cach other in their bridal blessings. And then it was the feast day, and rosy maidens tripped past, or sauntered by the side of sunburnt swains, all breath

He ever seemed to idolise his Minna, as a perfection of loveliness that sooner or later would link his hoarded wealth to a still heavier dower; and was delighted to know that she had offers that met his views. But his period of declining life was one continued scene of misery, that the gentleness and angel attention of the matchless Minna often failed in alleviating. Feeling the sure and gradually advancing touch of age and disease upon a frame and mind once amazingly vigorous, he sighed, not only for lost physical energy, but for the golden moments of those departed years, when the alchymy of his worldly cunning filled his daily gatherings,he mourned over time's changes-ing the same joyous atmosphere, and throwing about strange would it have been had he known peace, he them a colouring to the rural scene, so peculiarly had been too long a slave to mammon-the heyday of English. In such moments how we drink of social his hot eagerness after gain had long ago denied his bliss, and are sure that we feel the presence of the bones a fair covering of flesh,-the aquafortis of his innocent and the beautiful. The marriage ceremony burning thirst for gold had left his frail tenement like in the plain village church, the gathered company a forest tree-lightning scathed. However, an affair there, of the wealthy country squire and his ruddy of no small importance to Mr. Mellon, was this day to daughters, the witless, unsophisticated farm-labourer, be accomplished: his fair daughter was to be married "brown with meridian toil,". holding, for the time, to the scion of a wealthy family, and the father subordination sacred over certain young rustics who had risen from his night couch eager to gloat upon clustered round the altar table with anxious gaze at the sacred hymenial bond that brought in so close the "rich folk," with here and there about the veneconnexion with himself, a fortune that princes might rable pile, a pale-faced citizen, who, like ourselves, have been proud of; that his daughter would be allied had come to woo the health-laden breeze of the valley; to a kind and loving husband, was foreign to his-all this, the tremulous bashful bride, and the gay thoughts. The money-the money! every other consideration fell below the old miser's rate of interest. As the lovely morning advanced in beauty, we caught the occasional features of the approaching nuptials. The village gossips were hanging about to catch every passing glimpse of the "weddeners,"-to tell the tale, and to hear the tale, with voracious wonderment and as the sun approached the meridian, we observed a train of young rosy girls approach the church walk, each laden with flowers, and when a few grey-haired men had made a clear course for them, they formed on each side of the path, for some distance, up to the church porch.

If there is anything that can add a grace to the hilarity and beauty of a wedding scene, surely it must be to look upon such a party threading their way through groves and orchards, to the ivy-covered village church.

"Each in its plot of holy ground
How beautiful they stand,

Those old grey churches of our land."

And truly there was a glance at earth's nearest approach to gentleness and greatness in that happy

scene.

It was a beauty that fastened itself upon the sunniest spot in memory's waste; to see that village wedding as the party emerged from the tall elm-trees that shaded the church walk. As the sylph-like figures moved gracefully along, hanging upon the arms of stalwart yeomen, true sons of the soil, the hues of the panorama had loveliness too bright for our descriptive crayon. We saw in that one glance

creature of sunny smiles who attended her as maid,
together with the manly form of him who claimed
the lovely heiress as his own, and the emaciated figure
of old Mellon, who wandered down the aisle like the
ghost of other times; all this, gloriously picturesque,
and rife with truthful imagery, passed before us like
a fleeting vision. Other company and urgent duties
were even then whispering of our withdrawal from
the happy scene. We had already begun to fancy the
roll of the dizzy mill-wheel; for a time we must leave
the green banks of the clear Wharfe.
And now
the departing gleam of day warned us of the length
of our journey home. The roses that had been strewn
in the path of the blushing bride, lay withered by the
churchyard path, and seemed fain to create a slight
feeling of melancholy; but the occasional song of a
rustic reveller, or the notes of a clarionet by the
Wharfe side, broke upon our reverie; and taking a
parting look at the village, more especially at the
ancient house, where old Mellon lingered out his days,
and from whence the sweet flower had gone forth that
day in bridal beauty; with contending emotions, we
completed our glance at the Wharfdale wedding on
the day of the annual feast.

"Oh, that we ever should find a shade,
With life in its sunny robes array'd!"

Time had not twice gone his annual round, when one summer's morning saw us again in the valley. of the Wharfe. As we have said, the locality is favourable to lonely habits and pensive musings, but on revisiting the scene of Minna's bridal hour, many