bite; and thenceforth, Mathew Mizzle admitted the inference that dogs are apt to bite, under circumstances congenial to such dental performances. If you doubt it, there's the mark.

palate, than was obtained by Mathew Mizzle in the course of his earlier investigations into the relative qualities of solids and liquids. A spoonful of Cay. enne pepper probably afforded him as much of sur prise as any thing of the same portable compass. The varied expressions of his countenance would have been a study to a Lavater. The opera-house never witnessed a dance more remarkable for force and for expression; and if ever Mathew Mizzle was wide awake-wider than on any previous occasion, it was when he had seasoned himself highly with Cayenne. It made Mathew piquant to a degree; and something of the same kind might have been said of him when under the influence of mustard

"Burnee-burnee, baby," are the notes of warning often heard in the nursery, when heated stoves become an object of interest to little human specimens just learning to creep. But "burnee, burnee," conveyed no precise idea to the infantile Mizzle during his preliminary locomotive operations; and in consonance with the impulses of his nature, he soon tried the stove in its most intense displays of caloric, and in this way determined that "burnee, burnee," was unpleasant to the person, and injurious to the costume and raiment of that person, to say nothing❘ He was then the warmest boy anywhere about; and of its threatening dispositions toward the whole fully appreciated the cheering influence of "the establishment. Burnee, burnee," to the house, as castors"-he did not go upon castors for a long time well as "burnee, burnee," to the baby. And so also afterward, and never again to the same extent. as to lamps and candles-that they would "burnee" too, was placed, painfully, beyond the impertinent reach of a doubt in minds of the most sceptic order. Mathew Mizzle can show you the evidences to this day, scored, as it were, upon the living parchment, and engrossed in characters not to be misunderstood upon the cuticular binding of his physical identity.

It was useless, also, to place the little Mathew at the head of stairs, with information that any further advance on his part would prove matter of injury. How could he know until he had tried? Indeed, it required several clear tumbles down an entire flight to satisfy his judgment on this point, and to imprint it on his mind, through the medium of his bumpology, that the swiftest transition from one place to another, especially when effected by the downward movement, is not always the safest and the most agreeable. But afterward, none knew better than he what is meant by the word "landing," as applied to the staircase. "The Landing of Columbus" may be celebrated in pictures; but Mathew Mizzle accomplished landings that made very nearly as much noise as that effected by "the world-seeking Genoese," and the voyages of both were accompanied by squalls.

But it was not by the touch alone that Mathew Mizzle sought after information in his earlier career.. His taste was equally curious. Strange bottles were subjects of the most intense interest, so that like Mithridates, he almost became proof against injury by the frequent imbibings of poison. He knew that pleasant draughts came from bottles, but had to learn that because a bottle has contents, it does not necessarily follow that these contents are either safe or agreeable. Ink, for instance-a copious mouthful of ink-however literary one may be, ink thus administered is not a matter over which the recipient is inclined greatly to rejoice. It did not appear so, at least, when Mathew Mizzle, in frock and trowsers, astonished, after this fashion, his mouth, his clothing and the carpet-so astonished himself that he forgot to reverse the bottle, but permitted it to pour in a steady stream right into the aperture of his lovely countenance. No one probably in the wide world ever acquired a greater variety of knowledge, as to the effect of substances of all kinds upon the human

There was another source of trouble to Mathew Mizzle. His eyes proper were sharp enough; but the knowledge they acquired was not sufficient to satisfy his devouring thirst for information, and therefore much of his seeing was done with the tips of his fingers, or the grasp of his hands. He must touch every thing, and of course spoilt many things. Leave him alone in the room for a moment, and he would open all the letters, peep into every drawer, smell at every unknown substance, displace your china, spoil your musical-box, climb up the piano-forte, and pull over the vases of flowers. If you did not hear a crash this time, do not flatter yourself. Some secret, but equally important mischief has been accom plished, though it may not be apparent for days. The Mathew Mizzles always leave their mark; and when a gun went off in his hands, the shot that fraetured the mirror rendered it fortunate that the mark was only a mirror, as Mathew Mizzle roared with terror at "the sound himself had made."

Mathew Mizzle, grown as he is now to man's estate, has perchance changed the objects of his pursuit, but the activity both of his mind and of his body remains undiminished. Curious as ever to ascertain facts. He is one of those who have ever an eye upon their neighbors. He follows people to ascer tain whither they are going. It is a favorite amusement of his to peep through the blinds of an evening. to ascertain what you and your family are about. He listens at doors, and he peers through cracks and patronizes knot-holes. If he can learn nothing else, it is a satisfaction for him to ascertain what you are about to have for dinner, and who stopped in to tea Speak over loud in the street, and Mathew Mizzle saunters close at your elbow, but with such an unconscious look, that you would never dream that he had come merely for information.

No one knows better than he all about the domestic difficulties of families. His sources of intelligence are innumerable. Sometimes you may find him on the back fence, taking observatious of the domestic circle; and he has been seen of an evening up the linden-tree in front of domiciles, for similar purposes. The servants of the vicinage are all on confidential terms with Mathew Mizzle; and-have you not

noted the fact?-when you would have secret dis- | by night, after the painters had left their work, to see course with a friend, Mizzle comes upon you, as the what was going on in the chamber of a second story. birds of prey scent a battle-field. All secrets appear Suddenly, there was a dog at the bottom of the aforeto hold a species of telegraphic communication with said ladder, and a cudgel at the top, presenting the our friend Mathew Mizzle, as to the fact at least, that alternatives of a dilemma. Switches above and bark there is a secret in existence, as well as a regard to below, what could the unfortunate Mathew Mizzle its local habitation. do but surrender himself a prisoner of war? Poor Mizzle! They put him under the pump, and made him acquainted with the nature of ducks.

SHAWANGUNK MOUNTAIN.

BY ALFRED B. STREET.

INNOCENCE.

is

of a retired banker. And this heiress, Lady-
the one whose story I would have told through a veil
of fiction.

The Countess of — was an unsurpassed horsewoman, and rode constantly. Her blood-horses had been sent round by ship from England; and she was always mounted on an animal whose every fibre seemed obedient to her thought, and with whose motion every line of her own tall and slenderly-rounded person, and every ringlet of her flowing, golden curls seemed in a correspondence governed by the very spirit of beauty. She rode with her rein loose, and her mind apparently absorbed with any thing but her horse. A turn of her head, or the pressure of her foot upon his shoulder, was probably the animal's guidance. But, of an excessively impassioned nature, she conversed in the saddle with the expression and gesture of the most earnest untrammeling of mind, and, in full speed, as in the repose upon a lounge in a saloon, she carried away the listener with her uncalculating and passionate absorption-no self-possession, however on its guard it might be, able, apparently, to withstand the enveloping and resistless influence which she herself was a slave to. Unconsciousness of every thing in the world, except the feeling she was pouring from her soul, seemed the only and every-day condition and law of her nature; and supreme as she was in fashion of dress, and style of manner, these seemed matters learned and lost thought of-she having returned to nature, leaving her triumphs as a belle to be cared for by infallible habit. A separate spirit of light, speaking from the lips of the most accomplished and best perfected of women--the spirit, and the form possessed, being each in full exercise of their best faculties-could scarcely have conveyed more complete impressions of wondrous mind, in perfect body, or have blended more ravishingly, the entireness of heavenly with the most winning earthly development. She was an earnest angel, in the person of a self-possessed and unerringly graceful woman.

assume for me the interest of a drama-a scene of it
played every night, with interludes every day, in
public drives and excursions-would not be won-
derful to you, could I have drawn the portrait of the
principal performer in it, so that you would under-
stand its novelty. I had never seen such a woman,
and I was intensely interested to know how she
would bear temptation. The peculiar character of
the prince I easily understood; and I felt at once,
that of all stages of an accomplished man's progress,
he was at the one most dangerous to her, while,
perhaps, no other kind of woman in the world would
have called upon any but very practiced feelings of
his own. He was of middle age, and had intellect
enough to have long anticipated the ebb of pleasure.
With his faculties and perceptions in full force, he
was most fastidious in permitting himself to enjoy an
enthusiasm, to admire, to yield to, or to embark upon
with risk. The admiration of mere beauty, mere
style, mere wit, mere superiority of intellect in wo-
man, or of any of these combined, was but a recurrent
phase of artificial life. He had been to the terminus,
the farthest human capability of enjoyment of this,
and was now back again to nature, with his keenest
relish in reserve, looking for such outdoings of art as
nature sometimes shows in her caprices. In the
Countess he recognized at once a rare miracle
of this-a woman whose beauty, whose style, whose
intellect, whose pride, were all abundant, but, abun-
dant as they were, still all subservient to electric
and tumultuous sensation. Her life, her impulse-
the consciousness with which she breathed-was the
one gift given her by Heaven in tenfold measure,
and her impression on those she expanded to, was
like the magnetizing presence of ten full existences
poured into one. The heart acknowledged it before
her-though the reason knew not always why.
Lord

would scarce have been human had he not loved such a woman, and she his wife. He did love her-and doubtless loves her at this hour with all the tenderness of which he could ever be capable. If they had lived only on their estates in England, where seclusion would have put up no wall of concealment to his feelings, she might have drawn from the open well of his heart, the water for which her ardent being was athirst. But with the usage of fashionable life, he followed his own amusements during the day, leaving the countess to hers; and in scenes of gayety they were, of course, still separated by custom; and all she enjoyed of nature in her rides, or of excitement in society, was, of course, with others than her husband. Naples is in the midst of palace-gardens, and of wonders of scenery-in seeing which love is engendered in the bosom and brain with tropical fruitfulness-and Lady could no more have lived that year in Italy without passionate loving, than she could have stayed from breathing the fragrance of the orange blossoms, when galloping between the terraced gardens of Sorrento.

I chanced to be looking on, when Prince, one of the brothers of a royal family of central Europe, was presented to the Countess It was at a crowded ball; and I observed that, after a few minutes of conversation with her, he suddenly assumed a ceremonious indifference of manner, and went into another room. I saw at once that the slightness of the attention was an "anchor to windward," and that, in even those few minutes the prince had recognized a rare gem, and foreseen that, in the pursuit of it, he might need to be without any remembered particularity of attention. Lady conversed with him with her usual earnest openness, but started a little, once or twice, at words which were certainly unaccompanied by their correspending expression of countenance; and this, too, I put down for an assumption of disguise on the part of the prince. It was natural enough; with his conspicuous rank, he could only venture to be unguarded in his attentions to those for whom he had no presentiment of future When abroad, a little more than a year ago, I intimacy. made a visit to a friend, whose estate is in the same That the progress of this acquaintance should county with that of the father of Lady and be