LIFE.

By Lilly Waters.

"The anchor is seldom cast in the current of life."Greek Proverb.

We sail the restless stream of life;
We dare its storms, its surging strife,
Its sinuous currents blindly trace,
Its lights and shadows wondering chase.
With eager toil we plan and strain
With might some distant port to gain;
Our hopes are high; the wind is fair;
Ere long we'll drop our anchor there.

But lo! some unseen higher power
Hath crossed our plans and ruled the hour;
We pass the sweet enchanted isle
That lured us with its tropic smile.

We stretch our hands toward the shore;
But wildly, vainly we implore;
We drift again upon the sea,
To some far distant Yet-to-be.

And Fancy fashions wondrous fair;
And iris-hued seems all the air;
Till, in the moiling, trackless tide,
Slips some loved voyager from our side.

Then all the way grows dark and strange;
And frighted with the awful change,
We plead for succor in the blast,
For some safe port to anchor fast.

O fearful heart! thy throbbings calm;
Thy port is by no groves of palm,
Nor yet near any lotus land,
By spicy breezes ever fanned;

But off that fair celestial shore,

Where shadows darken never more,
Where all life's storms are over,― past,
There, soul, may'st thou thine anchor cast!
Hartford, Conn.

TO MARY.

SONNET.

By Helen M. Rich.

On, if you should float, like a vision of love,
Away where such beings find rest;
Dear Hope would our grief, like an angel, re-
prove,

And point to the home of the blest.

And if the soft lip it were rapture to press
Should fade as a light from afar;

Poor earth would exult in one flower the less;
Heaven boast of another sweet star!

THE SPY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

By Mrs. C. M. Sawyer.
CHAPTER IV.

OUR lines had been gradually approaching nearer and nearer to the beleaguered city, and our forces growing more and more impenetrable. Ten miles deep our brave and efficient commander had posted our pickets. Not a gap nor a leak where the smallest force could make its way through our lines could be found in all its land surroundings; and the river-front was bristling with the heavy batteries of our gunboats whose almost constant bombardment sent into the doomed city a terrific storm of crashing shot and bursting shells, which tore up the streets and set fire to the buildings whose conflagration lit up the darkness of night, revealing strange shapes and wonderful outlines against the inky sky. From every hilltop in front of the intrenchments the same deadly storm had at intervals burst, falling with dire and deadly precision on the enemy's works, dismounting guns, destroying parapets, tearing up embrasures, and laying many a poor fellow low.

Like a conquered lion in the folds of a giant serpent, writhed the circumvallated town, perishing without hope, but bravely struggling to the last.

It was evident from the reports of deserters, who, haggard and worn, continued to occasionally make their way into our lines, that suffering in many a fearful form, and to an almost incredible extent, was wasting the rebellious inhabitants. Famine and terror had taken hold of them. Driven from their houses by the frightful shells which continually burst among them, they had sought refuge in caves hollowed out of the earth, where they lived like prisoners in subterranean dungeons, scarcely daring, even to satisfy the extremity of hunger, to set foot in the streets, lest the fiery missiles screaming through the air should find them, and they die.

Yet amidst all this distress and terror, the insurgents still fought on. Availing themselves of every lull in the storm, they remanned their batteries and sent their missiles hurtling and crashing into.

our lines. At whatever point a Federal *soldier exposed the smallest portion of his person, thither their sharpshooters sent the unerring bullet, and he died. They were brave and bold and venomous, and their steadily pressing need infuriated them to unheard-of efforts to preserve the doomed city.

The weather had for some time been fine. The lovely breath of May had called out every glorious hue of leaf and flower, and the prairies beyond the hills were beautiful alike to sight and scent. But wherever the army lay they were trampled out, and nature was shorn of all her charms.

A storm had now for many days been brewing. Great heavy clouds, gray as the smoke of the bombardment, rolled down from the northeast and united in one dark pall, and a drizzly rain began to descend. The guns on the land-side grew silent, and the soldiers of both armies gradually crept into earthwork and shelter-tent for protection.

The dull twilight faded into a murky and rainy night. A strange stillness had succeeded the uproar and confusion of battle. The soldiers had eaten their supper and were striving to banish the disagreeable sensation produced by the damp, chilly atmosphere succeeding the heat and exertion of the day,- some by rolling themselves like a chrysalis closely in their blankets, and some by the excitement of card-playing, or the hilarious amusement of merry tales and songs, before they should lie down to slumber. The quiet rain falls patter, patter, on their little tent-roofs, sometimes finding its way through a before-unnoticed rent, and trickling down on shivering backs and guttering candles. With the exception of the picket-guards, all were housed for the night.

It was just at this time that a dark figure silently emerged from a little sallyport of the enemy's intrenchments, and took its way along under the shadow of the parapet towards a quarter where the Federal lines were less closely massed than at others. He, for it was a man, was closely enveloped in a dark, loose coat and slouch hat. His step was light and cau

tious as that of a cat, and he glided over the ground with a rapid, noiseless movement, taking care to avoid every gleam of light that might betray him, whether from the camp-fires of our soldiers, or the bursting shells which Admiral Porter still occasionally sent on their mission into the city. He had every chance of escaping observation, both on account of the darkness of the night, and the rain which kept all in who were not obliged to be out and dulled the faculties of our pickets, as they paced their dark and lonely beat, or stood drearily facing the steady rain.

He soon emerged from the shelter of the parapet and walked steadily on in the darkness as if familiar with the way, still shaping his course so as to avoid the pickets, as well as to avail himself of the protection of the forests and ravines which lay in every direction for miles around Vicksburg. His general course, though considerably devious, tended always toward the east, and would lead through many miles of pickets. But he walked steadily on, eye and ear constantly on the alert.

He had gone nearly two miles, and was just emerging from a wooded ravine so tangled with cane and wild-grape as to seem impassable, even in daylight, by any one not altogether familiar with its intricacies, but which he had crossed to avoid a picket, when he suddenly stopped, thinking he heard footsteps on the crackling branches that strewed the ground. But he perceived nothing but the dripping of the rain on the thick oak-leaves and the broad pawpaws which every now and then swept his face with their wet branches, as the dreary wind, which now began to rise, swayed them to and fro. It was a lonesome sound, and though convinced that his first idea was a mere fancy, he grew anxious and walked on more rapidly. Suddenly a hand was laid upon his shoulder, and with a start he drew his pistol and cocked it.

Halloo! you needn't shoot me; I aint a-goin' to hurt you!" said a broad, nasal voice at his elbow. "Can't a fellow touch you without getting a bullet in him, I want to know?"

"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" was the rejoinder, as the man still drew back.

"Oh, I don't want nothing except your company. Its mighty dull travelling alone this dark, rainy night, especially if you've got kind o' lost. Do you know where 'bouts we be? Darned ef I do!" "We're pretty near the Yankee camp, as you can see if you look at the campfires all along the hills."

"Them are the Yankee camp-fires? You don't say so!"

"Yes; and if you've any reason for not wishing to be any nearer to them, I advise you to make haste off. They have a plenty of pickets around here, I can tell you, and you may be gobbled up by some of them."

"Do you think so? Well, I do'no' as I want that; but say, stranger, don't them are camp-fires look nice, though? How the Vicksburg folks must like to set round and look at 'em!"

"You will take yourself off, if you please! I have no notion of running the risk of falling into the hands of some of these mudsills, by your loud talking; so good-evening to you!"

"Oh, I wont talk loud! I kinder feel afeared to walk alone. I'll whisper." "But I don't want your company, or the company of any stranger to-night. I've business and must hurry."

"A stranger? Ef that's all that troubles you, I can tell you who I am. I'm Abednego Sharp, at your sarvice."

"Oh! ay! well, Mr. Abednego Sharp, I bid you a very good-evening. As I told you, I don't wish to prolong a conversation that may disturb the slumbers of some Yankee picket-guard. So we'll part company here."

"Now how can you be so inhospitable? My mother always taught me that I should be keerful to entertain strangers, because I might entertain angels una

wares."

"I have no doubt your mother was very correct in her teachings; but they don't apply here, for I'm no angel."

"Oh, aint you, though? Well, maybe ef I whisper, you'll let me walk beside you. I wish it was only light so't I

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'Well, then, s'pose we both on us go to the Yankee camp. I want to peddle off some o' my notions to-morrow, and I guess I could get a lodging 'long one of Uncle Sam's soldiers. Come, now; let's go!"

No, I thank you. I should be very happy, but I'm in a hurry. I've business elsewhere."

"Well, I guess ef you keep on this track you may meet some of the soldiers. I saw lots on 'em all around here jest before night."

"Did you?" The man stopped suddenly, as if doubtful which way to proceed.

"Ef you'll come along o' me, I can lead you a way where there isn't any. They skedaddled, kinder, when it grew so dark and rainy."

"You don't mean that they deserted?" Yes, I do, though; so ef you'll jest let me take hold o' your arm, I'll lead you."

After a moment's hesitation, the man yielded to the proposition of the pedler, and they turned toward the camp, which now lay at considerable distance to the southeast.

"Ye see, I take this ere track because the pickets are all out furder. They don't think of putting many so near by; and we can slip right through.

"Well, lead on, then, while I get out my pocket companion." The man quietly drew a pistol from his breast and cocked it. "Now, my man," he continued, "if I find that you are deceiving me, you'll get the contents of this revolver in your head."

"And right enough, too! I oughter get 'em. Is that are one o' Colt's revol

specimen found in his jacket-lining, and he at once decided to take him before the general.

The examination by the latter was equally unsatisfactory with that of the provost-marshal. The prisoner was evasive and cautious, and the cipher was as inexplicable as Egyptian hieroglyphics. He sought in vain to find a key to its meaning, while the prisoner stood with an ill-concealed triumph on his face. As the general turned from it in vexation and despair, he caught the eager and excited eye of the pedler, who had followed in to the general's presence more from his own choice than any compulsion, and was instantly arrested by it.

"What do you know about this paper?" inquired the general.

"Nothing; but maybe I could read it," replied the pedler, in his broadest, most nasal tones. "I know how to make almanacs, and I guess them pot-hooks aint any harder to manage."

"Pshaw!" exclaimed the general, in tones of almost derision. "I should as soon ask you to read Syriac!"

The pedler had been insensibly approaching the general, and now looked him intently in the eyes, when an expression of something nearer akin to surprise than the latter often allowed his features to display flashed over them.

But you may try," he added, after a moment, as if closing his former remark. "Meanwhile," said he, turning to the provost-marshal, "you may take the other prisoner away and guard him safely; and order the guard outside of my tent to be vigilant and careful."

The provost-marshal went out with his prisoner. As the tent closed behind them, the pedler, gravely raising his hand to his head, removed hat, hair, and whiskers, displaying the bright and handsome face of Jean Delong.

“Well, Jean," said the general, but without the slightest appearance of surprise, "this is unexpected. Your appearance in this new guise, and with the new risks of getting out of Vicksburg, betokens something important. What is it?" "I came to bring you intelligence, sir," said the boy in his natural sweet

tones. "The man you have just examined is a messenger from General Pemberton to General Johnston. I found means to inform myself of the fact of his being ordered on this service, but could not get at the message he was to convey. I hardly thought it would be sent verbally, and judged that for obvious reasons it would be written in cipher, and could only determine to intercept it. How, I did not exactly know; but setting my underground machinery in motion, I got out of the city in the afternoon and remained concealed until dark, when, as I expected, the messenger made his appearance. I followed him at a distance for a mile or two, when, as I begun almost to despair, for he avoided the pickets by a wonderful instinct, he turned in a direction by which I knew I could bring him into their neighborhood. Putting myself in his way, I drew him into a conversation,- —a very reluctant one on his part, which led to his foolishly trusting his pistol in my hands, when of course its accidental discharge immediately brought the pickets.upon us, and we were captured."

Very neatly done it was, my lad; but after all, I fear we shall be but little the wiser for his capture. At any rate, we can prevent his message from reaching Johnston. But the equally important object of learning what it is, we fail in; for of course the key to this cipher is intrusted to no one but the parties most immediately concerned."

I beg your pardon, sir," said the boy. "We should have indeed gained little, had there been no way of getting at the meaning of thiş cipher. I think I can read it, as I told you."

"If you can, I shall be convinced of what I have sometimes suspected," said the general, with a smile,-"that you are a dealer in the black art."

"Never fear, sir," said the boy, returning the smile by one so pleasant and sweet that his companion, in his admiration, for a moment half forgot the subject of their conversation. "I think I can do it by means wholly natural and not unchristian. Have you pen and paper? And are we secure from interruption?"

Perfectly; and you need not resume