vice, enabling us to subdue the fiercest, to catch the wildest, to render the gentler sort more tractable and useful to us. It taught us, from the wool of the sheep, from the hair of the goat, from the labors of the silk-worm, to weave us clothes, to keep us warm, and make us fine and gay. It helpeth us from the inmost bowels of the earth to fetch divers needful tools and utensils.

3. It collected mankind into cities, and compacted them into orderly societies, and devised wholesome laws, under shelter whereof we enjoy safety and peace, wealth and plenty, mutual succor and defence, sweet conversation and beneficial commerce. It, by meditation did invent all those sciences whereby our minds are enriched and ennobled, our manners are refined and polished, our curiosity is satisfied, our life is benefited.

Stanmitz. WELL, mother, I must n't be skulking about here in Moscow any longer. I must leave you, and go back to Holland to my trade. At the risk of my life I came here, and at the risk of my life I must go back.

Mrs. Stanmitz. Ah! Michael, Michael, if it hadn't been for your turning deserter, you might have been a corporal by this

time!

Sta. Look you, mother, -I was made a soldier against my will, and the more I saw of a soldier's life the more I hated it. As a poor journeyman carpenter, I am at least free and independent; and if you will come with me to Holland, you shall take care of my wages and keep house for me.

Mrs. S. I should be a drag upon you, Michael. You will be wanting to get married, by and by; moreover, it will be hard for me to leave the old home at my time of life.

Sta. Son e one is knocking at the door. Wait, mother, till I have concealed myself. [Enter Peter the Great, disguised.

Peter. What, ho! comrade! No skulking! Come out from behind that screen! Didn't I see you through the window, as I passed?

Sta. Is it possible?

Peter! My old fellow-workman! Give us your hand, my hearty! How came you to be here in Moscow? There is no ship-building going on so far inland. Pet. No; but there is at St. Petersburg, the new city that the Czar is building up.

did

Sta They say the Czar is in Moscow just now.

Pet. Yes, he passed through your street this morning.

Sta. So I heard. But I did n't see him. I say, Peter, how you find me out?

Pet. Why, happening to see your mother's sign over the door, it occurred to me, after I returned to the palace —

Sta. The palace?

Pet. Yes; I always call the place where I put up a palace. It is a way I have.

Sta. You always were a funny fellow, Peter!

Pet. As I was saying, it occurred to me that Mrs. Stanmitz might be the mother or aunt of my old messmate; and so I put on this disguise

Sta. Ha, ha! Sure enough, it is a disguise—the disguise of a gentleman. Peter, where did you get such fine clothes? Pet. Don't interrupt me, sir!

Sta. Don't joke in that way again, Peter! Do you know you half frightened me by the stern tone in which you said Don't interrupt me, sir! But I see how it is, Peter, and I thank you. You thought you could learn something of your old friend, and so stopped to inquire, and saw me through the window.

Pet. Ah! Stanmitz, many 's the big log we have chopped at together through the long summer day in Von Block's ship-yard. Sta. That we have, Peter! Why not go back with me to Saardam?

Pet. I can get better wages at St. Petersburg.

Sta. If it weren't that I'm afraid of being overhauled for taking that long walk away from my post, I would go to St. Petersburg with you.

Pet. How happened you to venture back here?

Sta. Why, you must know that this old mother of mine wanted to see me badly; and then I had left behind here a sweetheart. Don't laugh, Peter! She has waited all this while for me; and the misery of it is that I am too poor to take her along with me yet. But next year, if my luck continues, I mean to return and marry her.

Pet. What if I should inform against you? I could make a pretty little sum by exposing a deserter.

woman.

Sta. Don't joke on that subject! You'll frighten the old Peter, old boy, I'm so glad to see you- Halloo ! Soldiers at the door! What does this mean? An officer? Peter, excuse me, but I must leave you.

Pet. Stay! I give you my word it is not you they want. They are friends of mine.

Sta. O if that's the case, I'll stay. But do you know one of those fellows looks wonderfully like my old commanding officer? [Enter Officer.]

Officer. A dispatch from St. Petersburg, your majesty, claiming your instant attention.

Mrs. S. Majesty !

Sta. Majesty! I say, Peter, what does he mean by majesty?

Officer. Knave! Know you not that this is the Czar?

Sta. What! - Eh?—This?-Nonsense! This is my old friend Peter.

Officer. Down on your knees, rascal, to Peter the Great, Czar of Russia! EI

Mrs. S. O your majesty, your majesty, don't hang the poor boy He knew no better! He knew no better! He is my only son! Let him be whipped, but don't hang him!

Sta. Nonsense, mother! This is only one of Peter's jokes. Ha, ha, ha! You keep it up well, though. And those are dispatches you are reading, Peter!

Officer. Rascal! Dare you interrupt his majesty?

Sta, Twice you've called me rascal. Don't you think that's being rather familiar? Peter, have you any objection to my pitching your friend out of the window?

Officer. Ha! Now I look closer, I remember you! Soldiers, arrest this fellow! He's a deserter

Sta. It's all up with me! And there stands Peter, as calm as if nothing had happened.

Mrs. S. I'm all in a maze! Good Mr. Officer, spare the poor boy!

Officer. He must go before a court-martial. He must be shot.

Mrs. S. O! woe is me! woe is me! That ever my poor boy

should be shot!

Pet. Officer, I have occasion for the services of your prisoner. Release him.

Officer. Your majesty's will is absolute.

Sta. (Aside.) Majesty again? What does it all mean? A light breaks in upon me. There were rumors in Holland, when I left, that the Czar had been working in one of the ship-yards. Can my Peter be the emperor?

Pet. Stanmitz, you have my secret now.

Pet. The emperor! Rise, old woman;- your son, Baron Stanmitz, is safe!

Mrs. S. Baron Stanmitz!

Pet. I want him to superintend my ship-yard at St. Petersburg. No words. Prepare, both of you, to leave for the new city to-morrow. Baron Stanmitz, make that sweetheart of yours a Baroness this very evening, and bring her with you. No words. I have business claiming my care, or I would stop and see the wedding. Here is a purse of duc ́ats.

One of my

secretaries will call with orders in the morning. Farewell.

Sta. O, Peter! Peter! I mean your majesty! your

Mrs. S. Down on your knees, Michael! I mean Baron Stanmitz! Down on your knees!

Sta. What! to my old friend, Peter -him that I used to wrestle with? - Excuse me, your majesty - I mean, friend Peter Czar Peter - I can't begin to realize it! 'Tis all so like things we dream of.

་

Pet. Ha, ha! Good-by, messmate! We shall meet again in the morning. Commend me to your sweetheart.

[Exit.

Sta. Mr. Officer, that court-martial you spoke of is n't likely tc come off.

I hope,

Officer. Baron, I am your very humble servant. Baron, you will speak a good word for me to his majesty when opportunity offers. I humbly take my leave of your excellency.

Anon

CXXXIX.

CHILDHOOD AND HIS VISITORS.

1.

2.

3.

ONCE on a time, when sunny May
Was kissing at the April showers,

I saw fair Childhood hard at play
Upon a bank of blushing flowers;

Happy, he knew not whence or how;
And smiling, who could choose but love him?
For not more glad than Childhood's brow
Was the blue heaven that breathed above him.

Old Time, in most appalling wrath,
That valley's green repose invaded;

The brooks grew dry upon his path,
The birds grew mute, the lilies faded;
But Time so swiftly winged his flight,
In haste a Grecian tomb to batter,

That Childhood watched his paper kite,
And knew just nothing of the matter.

Then stepped a gloomy phantom up,

Pale, cypress-crowned, Night's awful daughter
And proffered him a fearful cup,

Full to the brim of bitter water;

Poor Childhood bade her tell her name,

And when the beldame muttered "Sorrow,"
He said "Don't interrupt my game!

I'll taste it, if I must, to-morrow."