anxious for the growing minds of her boys, she sought to commit them for a short time to my care. They and their mother soon won an old man's heart, and I could say nothing in opposition to her request, but that I was upwards of three-score and ten years. But I am living still-and this is their Monument."

We sat down, at these words, on the sloping headstone of a grave just opposite to this little beautiful structure, and, without entreaty, and as if to bring back upon his heart the delight of old tender remembrances, the venerable Man continued fervently thus to speak:

"The Lady left them with me in the Mansesurely the two most beautiful and engaging creatures that ever died in youth. They were Twins. Like were they unto each other, as two bright. plumaged doves of one colour, or two flowers with the same blossom and the same leaves. They were dressed alike, and whatever they wore, in that did they seem more especially beautiful. Their hair was the same, a bright auburn-their voices were as one-so that the Twins were inseparable in my love, whether I beheld them, or my dim eyes were closed. From the first hour they were left alone with me, and without their mother, in the Manse, did I begin to love them, nor were they slow in returning an old man's affection. They stole up to my side, and submitted their smooth, glossy, leaning heads to my withered and trembling hand, nor for a while

could I tell, as the sweet beings came gliding gladsomely near me, which was Edward and which was Henry; and often did they, in loving playfulness, try to deceive my loving heart. But they could not defraud each other of my tenderness; for whatever the one received, that was ready to be bestowed upon the other. To love the one more than the other was impossible.

"Sweet creatures! it was not long before I learned to distinguish them. That which seemed to me, at first, so perfectly the same, soon unfolded itself out into many delightful varieties, and then I wondered how I ever could have mistaken them for one another. Different shadows played upon their hair; that of the one being silky and smooth, and of the other slightly curled at the edges, and clustering thickly when he flung his locks back in playfulness or joy. His eyes, though of a hazel hue like those of his brother's, were considerably lighter, and a smile seemed native there; while those of the other seemed almost dark, and fitter for the mist of tears. Dimples marked the cheeks , of the one, but those of the other were paler and smooth. Their voices too, when I listened to them and knew their character, had a faint fluctuating difference of inflection and tonelike the same instrument blew upon with a somewhat stronger or weaker breath. Their very laugh grew to be different unto my earthat of the one freer and more frequent, that of

the other mild n is most ree. And they had not been many lays in ne Hanse, leve I mewn i noment, tim is my eyes hot bong been, he wit, amid, stealing step it Etward, fom he tancing and earless notion of Henry Howard.

Here he oid nan paused, not as it seemed from any tatione in speaking song, but as if to innige more profoundly in the remembrance of the children whom he had so tenderiy loved. Ee ixed us tim eyes on their sculptural images with as fond an expression, as I they had been alive, and had lain down there w sleep-and when, without looking on me, whom he felt to have been listening with quiet attention, he again began to speak, it was partly to tell me the tale of these fair sleepers, and partly to give vent to his loving gret

“All strangers, even many who thought they knew them weil, were pleasantly perplexed with the faces and figures of the bright English Twins. The poor beggars, as they went their rounds, blessed them, without knowing whether it was Edward or Henry that had bestowed hi alms. The mother of the cottage children with whom they played, confused their images in her loving heart, as she named them in her prayers. When only one was present, it gave a start of strange delight to them who did not know the Twins, to see another creature so beautifully the same come gliding in upon them, and join his

brother in a share of their suddenly bestowed affection.

"They soon came to love, with all their hearts, the place wherein they had their new habitation. Not even in their own merry England had their young eyes ever seen brighter green fields,-trees more umbrageous, or, perhaps, rural gardens more flowery and blossoming, than those of this Scottish village. They lived, indeed, mostly in a town; and in the midst of the freshness and balminess of the country, they became happier and more gleesome-it was said by many, even more beautiful. The affectionate creatures did not forget their mother. Alternately did they write to her every week-and every week did one or other receive from her a letter, in which the sweetest maternal feelings were traced in small delicate lines, that bespoke the hand of an accomplished lady. Their education had not been neglected; and they learnt everything they were taught with a surprising quickness and docility-alike amiable and intelligent. Morning and evening, too, did they kneel down with clasped hands-these lovely Twinseven at my feet, and resting on my knees; and melodiously did they murmur together the hymns which their mother had taught them, and passages selected from the Scriptures. And always, the last thing they did, before going to sleep in each other's arms, was to look at their

mother's picture, and to kiss it with fond kisses, and many an endearing name."

"One evening in early Autumn, (they had been with me from the middle of May,) Edward, the elder, complained, on going to bed, of a sore throat, and I proposed that his brother should sleep in another bed, I saw them myself, accordingly, in separate places of repose. But on going, about an hour afterwards, into their room, there I found them locked, as usual, in each other's arms- -face to face-and their innocent breath mingling from lips that nearly touched. I could not find heart to separate them, nor could I have done so without waking Edward. His cheeks were red and flushed, and his sleep broken and full of starts. Early in the morning I was at their bed-side. Henry was lying apart from his brother, looking at him with a tearful face, and his little arm laid so as to touch his bosom. Edward was unable to rise-his throat was painful, his pulse high, and his heart sick. Before evening he became slightly delirious, and his illness was evidently a fever of a dangerous and malignant kind. He was, I told, you, a bold and gladsome child, when not at his tasks, dancing and singing almost every hour; but the fever quickly subdued his spirit, the shivering fits made him weep and wail, and rueful, indeed, was the change which a single night and day had brought forth.

"His brother seemed to be afraid more than