XLI.

They glide, like phantoms, into the wide hall;
Like phantoms to the iron porch they glide,
Where lay the porter in uneasy sprawl,

With a huge empty flagon by his side;

The wakeful bloodhound rose and shook his hide,

But his sagacious eye an inmate owns:

By one, and one, the bolts full easy slide:

The chains lie silent on the footworn stones;

The key turns, and the door upon its hinges groans.

XLII.

And they are gone: ay, ages long ago

These lovers fled away into the storm.
That night the baron dreamt of many a woe,
And all his warrior-guests, with shade and form
Of witch, and demon, and large coffin-worm,
Were long be-nightmared. Angela the old

Died palsy-twitched, with meager face deform:
The beadsman, after thousand aves told,

For aye unsought-for, slept among his ashes cold.

Here endeth the young and divine poet, but not the delight and gratitude of his readers; for, as he sings elsewhere

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

THE NOVEL-READER.

BY N. P. WILLIS.

QUARTER past twelve, and the "breakfast-things" still on the table! The cat is in the cream-jar; the dog stealing the day's dinner, through the open window; the child crying in the cradle; the maid pouting to the boy at the door waiting to know what to do; the husband coming in from his work, and the mistress still reading her novel which she took up as he went out in the morning. Ah, unhappy man! He has married a woman of illregulated mind, who has no appreciation of the value of a wellordered household, or for the sacred duties of a wife and mother, and who delights only in the false excitements of an over-fed and pampered imagination! The lesson of the picture before us is not for such as she, however. It is for mothers who are preparing others to be such as she. The young, who are just entering life, are the ones to profit by the painter's skill in setting before us such a warning example. For those who are to be wives and mothers, the accomplishments most necessary are the domestic capabilities, and such principles in the character as will make these dear and sacred in daily exercise. A proper acquaintance with books and with the world of fancy, breeds no

neglect of these every-day duties. On the contrary, the moral and tendency of such books as should be familiar to the young, teach a higher valuation of what is, in real life, most useful, and that which contributes most to the happiness of others.