the throne were the most extravagant in their imitation.

I was by this time thoroughly disgusted with the character of a sovereign at once so light and so cruel, so fickle and so arbitrary, when one who stood next me bade me attend to still greater contradictions in her character, and such as might serve to soften the indignation I had conceived. He took me to the back of the throne, and made me take notice of a number of industrious poor, to whom the queen was secretly distributing bread. I saw the Genius of Commerce doing her homage, and discovered the British cross woven into the insignia of her dignity.

While I was musing on these things, a murmur arose among the crowd, and I was told that a young votary was approaching. I turned my head, and saw a light figure, the folds of whose garments showed the elegant turn of the limbs they covered, tripping along with the step of a nymph. I soon knew it to be yourself:-I saw you led up to the altar,-I saw your beautiful hair tied up in artificial tresses, and its bright gloss stained with coloured dust, I even fancied I beheld produced the dreadful instruments of torture ;-my emotions increased:-I cried out, "O spare her! spare my Flora!" with so much vehemence that I awaked. MRS. BARBAULD.

THE CUCULLOS.

LAST evening, amidst the usual sports of the twilight hour, on the batey of the plantation, which is the square on which the buildings stand, I could not help wishing that you were present to enjoy

the scene, the natural fire-works of the country, as I may call the appearance and flight of the cucullos. I had scarcely arrived in the island (Cuba) before this splendid insect was mentioned by all my young acquaintances, in terms, as I thought, of enthusiasm and extravagance natural to their age. But I observed that the elder and more sedate were almost as unmeasured in the terms of their description.

The season for them has come. One or two made their appearance the first evening, and were hailed like the first notes of birds in the spring. A few more cheered the second evening; and after a lapse of a week, and the fall of a heavy shower, they are innumerable. Their sportive hour commences with twilight. Out sallies the family, old and young, from the mansion, to gaze. The cucullos dart in all directions, like so many brilliant stars or comets, over the tops of plantations and trees, now soaring, and again descending. Suddenly they wheel from one direction to another, pursuing and pursued, and playing their circles round each other with a sort of magical enchant

ment.

Our glow-worm and fire-fly are not to be mentioned with the cucullos. The light which these give is not a flash, but steady, emitted through two large eyes, always visible, except when they are flying from you; and it is a light of uncommon whiteness and purity, not like the red glare of a lamp, not like the fiery radiance of Mars, but the soft beams of Venus, the morning and evening star. The swiftness and irregularity of their flight, the distance at which they can see and be seen, the diameter of the circle in which they are seen to attract each other, and the ardour with which they

concentrate to a meeting, and whirl round a com. mon centre, delight the spectator; and old and young are alive with pretty equal glee.

The children often use a lamp as a decoy, and the distant cucullo is attracted and taken. One cucullo is exhibited to attract others; and hundreds fall into the snare, and become prisoners, and are kept in cages prepared for them, or in baskets covered with a cloth. They are apt to pine in confinement, and without great skill and care, they die. It is usual to feed them with cane and plantain; and it is necessary carefully to bathe them in water, and dry them in the sun. They love the dews of evening, and showers of rain, and to bask in the sun; and that management which best combines the elements of their comfort, is most likely to preserve them alive.

While the family is amused on the batey, the negroes are playing an active game in the avenues, and taking as many of these splendid captives as possible. The negro mothers use them as their nursing lamps. The creoles are seen running about with them in their hands, and sometimes with a half-dozen of them cruelly strung on a spire of grass. This inhumanity to so beautiful an insect ought to be rebuked by their masters; but, in many cases, it would be done with an ill grace, as young ladies, I am told, adorn their persons, for evening assemblies, with a string of cucullo brilliants, disposed on their necks or frocks, wherever they may appear to the best advantage; willing, it seems, to lose some of their moral charms, to display their persons in the greater lustre, and to the better advantage.

In apology for this feminine custom, it is said that there is a part of the cucullo which can be

pierced without suffering to the insect. The precise amount of its sufferings with this kind of usage, the insect has no tongue to explain. With the tenderest treatment they expire by hundreds when in confinement. Out of three hundred attempted to be carried to the United States, by an acquaintance of mine, half-a-dozen only survived the voyage. A distinguished Spaniard, whom I know, was more successful, and reached NewYork with fifty; and, being something of a humourist, he gave them their liberty in Broadway, in a fine evening for the purpose, and was suffi ciently diverted by the astonishment of the citizens, and the eagerness of a thousand boys in pursuit of the sparkling fugitives. Your curiosity to see the cucullo is, I doubt not, sufficiently roused; yet I know you too well to believe that you would desire that pleasure at the expense of the pining and death of nineteen in twenty, in leaving their own balmy climate.

The cucullo is about an inch and a half long, and one-fourth of an inch broad. It resembles the snapping-bug of our country, though a little longer. In the day-time it is sleepy; but it gives a light of a considerable brilliancy when shaken. In the night, they give light enough for the purposes of the nursery; and young eyes can see to read by them.

DR. ABBOT.

THE THISTLE FIELD.

THERE was a man, a day-labourer he had been; but, having saved a little money from his earnings, he had now a small cottage of his own. Ambition,

like many other things, enlarges in the feeding; and, for ten years past, his enjoyment of the cottage had been disturbed by desire for a field that lay beside it. The time came-the savings amounted to exactly the right sum, and the good man bought the field. It was a small stony field: it had produced nothing yet, and did not look as if it intended to.

One day, as I passed, I asked the good man what he meant to plant. He said, "it was to grow wheat by and by; but being fallow ground, it would want a good deal of cultivating; it would be some time first;" and so indeed I thought; more particularly, as he had expended all his substance in purchasing the field, and had not money left to buy a load of manure, or scarcely a spade to dig it. He did dig it, however, for I saw him often at the work: whether he sowed it, I cannot saymost likely not, for nothing came up. Possession, still, is great enjoyment, as many a one knows, who has property that makes no returns; and, for the first year, he was quite happy in the consciousness of having a field.

At the beginning of the second year, seeing him stand thoughtful on the path, "Friend," I said, "do you sow your field this year?" "Why, likely I might," he answered, "otherwise than that I have nothing to sow it with; and it would be lost grain, besides; the ground is not rich enough for corn. In a few years, I shall be able to buy manure for it; then you shall see a crop!" and the good man's eye lightened at the thought of garnersfull to come. It was during the same summer, that, passing through the ground, a scene of unusual activity presented itself; man, wife, and child, were all in the field, and all were busy.