here is the contract which she has this morning subscribed, in presence of this reverend gentleman, with Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw." 17. Ravenswood gazed upon the deed as if petrified. "And it was without fraud or compulsion," said he, looking toward the clergyman, "that Miss Ashton subscribed this parchment?" "I vouch it upon my sacred character." "This is indeed, madam, an undeniable piece of evidence," said Ravenswood, sternly, "and it will be equally unnecessary and dishonorable to waste another word in useless remonstrance or reproach. There, madam," he said, laying down before Lucy the signed paper and the broken piece of gold-" there are the evidences of your first engagement; may you be more faithful to that which you have just formed! I will trouble you to return the corresponding tokens of my ill-placed confidence-I ought rather to say of my egregious folly." 18. Lucy returned the scornful glance of her lover with a gaze from which perception seemed to have been banished, yet she seemed partly to have understood his meaning, for she raised her hands as if to undo a blue ribbon which she wore around her neck. She was unable to accomplish her purpose, but Lady Ashton cut the ribbon asunder, and detached the broken piece of gold which Miss Ashton had till then worn concealed in her bosom. The written counterpart of the lovers' engagement the mother had for some time had in her own possession. With a haughty curtsey, she delivered both to Rayenswood, who was much softened when he took the piece of gold. 19. "And she could wear it thus," he said, speaking to him self, "could wear it in her very bosom-could wear it next to her heart-even when But complaint avails not!" And he dashed from his eye the tear which had gathered in it and resumed the stern composure of his manner. He strode to the chimney and threw into the fire the paper and piece of gold, stamping upon the coals with the heel of his boot as if to insure their destruction. "I will be no longer," he then said, an intruder here. Your evil wishes and your worse offices, Lady Ashton, I will only return, by hoping these will be your last machinations against your daughter's honor and happiness. And to you, madam," he said, addressing Lucy, "I have nothing further to say, except to pray that you may not become a world's wonder for this act of willful and deliberate perjury." Having uttered these words, he turned on his heel and left the apartment. SCOTT. ... ... SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Allow: fr. L. ad and loc'o, I place; fr. loc'us, place.... Ample: L. am'plus, large; h., ampli-fy, amplitude.. Annul: L. nullus, none, no, no one; h., null, nulli-fy, nullity. . . . Argument: fr. L. ar'guo, argu'tum, to accuse, to argue. Beseech: A. S. be and secan, to seek. Blaspheme: L. blasphe'mo; Gr. blasphē'měō, I revile, I blaspheme; h., blame. . . . Chimney: fr. L. cami'nus, a furnace.... Colonel, lit., chief of the column; fr. F. colonne; L. colum'na, a column. Consider: L. consid'ero, considera'tum, to look at closely. . . . Cumber: fr. L. cum'ulus, a heap. Disheveled: fr. L. dis, and F. cheveu; L. capillus, the hair; h., to spread the hair in disorder. Engage: F. engager, to enlist; fr. en, in, and gage, a pledge. . . Enter: L. in'tro, I walk into; fr. in'ter, between. . . . Escape: F. eschapper, to slip out of... Machine: L. ma'china; h., machination. . . . Madam : fr. F. ma, my, and dame, lady. ... ... ... Manner: F. maniere, the handling of a thing; fr. L. manua'rius, of or belonging to the hand; fr. man'us, the hand; h., amanuensis (a person who writes what another dictates), e-mancipate (to take out by the hand -i. e., to set free), main-tain (man'us and ten'eo, I hold), manacle (handfetters), man-age, manip-ulation (manip'ulus, a handful; fr. ple'o, I fill), man-œuvre (man'us and F. œuvre; L. op'era, work), manual, manu-facture, manu-mit (mit'to, I send), manure (to cultivate by manual labor), manuscript, etc.. Overture: F. ouverture, an opening; fr. L, aper'tus, uncovered.... Paper: fr. L. papyrus, the paper-reed of Egypt. . . . Parallel: Gr. parallē'lõs; fr. par'a, beside, and allē'lōn, of one another. Parchment: L. perga-me'na; fr. Pergamos in Asia Minor, where first made. . . . Pistol: It. pistola, said to be from Pistola in Italy, where it was invented. Reiterate fr. L. it'erum, again, a second time; h., iterate, iteration. Scandal: Gr. skan'dalon, a snare, a cause of offense. Sophistry: fr. the Gr. sophis'tēs, a captious or fallacious reasoner; fr. soph's, wise, soph'ia, wisdom; h., phil-osophy (a lover of wisdom), theosophy (divine wisdom). Title: L. tit'ulus; h., en-title, titular. . . Trepan: fr. the A. S. treppe, a trap, treppan, to ensnare. . . . Trouble: V. DISTURB. Vehemence: L, vehemen'tia, eagerness, fervency. ... ... ... In such words as humor we find that theories which were long since renounced have yet left their traces behind them. Thus the words "good humor," bad humor," "humors," and, strangest contradiction of all, “dry humor," rest altogether on a now exploded but a very old and widely-extended theory of medicine, according to which there were four principal moistures or humors in the natural body, on the due proportion and combination of which the disposition alike of body and of mind depended. And temper, as used by us now, has its origin in the same theory.-Trench. LXXXVII.-THE LOTUS PLANTER. I. A BRAHMIN on a lotus pod Once wrote the holy name of God. II. A slave near by who bore a load III. The deed scarce done, he looked aghast At touching one beneath his caste. "Behold!" he cried, "I stand unclean: My hands have clasped the vile and mean!" IV. God saw the shadow on his face, The buried seed arose from death, And bloomed and fruited at his breath. V. The stalk bore up a leaf of green, VI. The Brahmin, with bewildered brain, Beheld the will of God writ plain: Transfigured in a sudden light, The slave stood sacred in his sight. VII. Thenceforth within the Brahmin's mind Abode good will for all mankind. LXXXVIII.—THE SKATER AND THE WOLVES. 1. DURING the winter of 1844, I had much leisure to devote to the sports of a new country. To none of these was I more passionately addicted than to skating. The deep and sequestered lakes of North America, frozen by the intense cold, present a wide field to the lover of this pastime. Often would I bind on my skates and glide away up some glittering river, over the smooth untrodden ice. Sometimes I would follow the track of a fox or otter, and run my skates along the mark he had left with his dragging tail, until the trail would enter the woods. Not rarely these excursions were made by moonlight; and it was on one of these latter occasions that I had a rencounter which even now, with kind faces around me, I cannot recall without a nervous feeling. 2. I had left my friend's house one evening just before dusk, with the intention of skating a short distance up the noble river which glided directly before the door. The night was beautifully clear. A peerless moon rode through an occasional fleecy cloud, and stars twinkled from the sky and from every frost-covered tree in millions. Light also came glinting from ice and snow-wreaths and incrusted branches, as the eye followed for miles the broad gleam of the river that, like a jeweled zone, swept between the mighty forests on its banks. And yet all was still. The cold seemed to have frozen tree and air and water and every living thing. Even the ringing of my skates echoed back from the hill with a startling clearness, and the crackle of the ice, as I passed over it in my course, seemed to follow the tide of the river with lightning speed. 3. I had gone up the river nearly two miles when, coming to a little stream which empties into the larger, I turned into it to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met overhead and formed an archway radiant with frost-work. All was dark within; but I was young and fearless, and as I peered into the unbroken forest, I laughed with very joyousness. My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again until all was hushed. Suddenly a sound arose; it seemed to me to come from beneath the ice; it was low and tremulous at first, but ended in one long wild yell. I was appalled. Never before had I heard such a noise. Presently there was a crash amid the brushwood on shore, as though from the tread of some animal. The blood rushed to my forehead. My energies returned and I looked around me for means of escape. 4. The moon shone through the opening at the mouth of the creek by which I had entered the forest, and considering this the best way of escape, I darted toward it like an arrow. It was hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could scarcely have excelled me in fleetness; yet, as I turned my head to the shore, I could see two dark objects dashing through the brushwood at a pace nearly double as fast as my own. By their great speed and the short yells which they occasionally gave, I knew at once that these were the much dreaded gray wolves. 5. I had never met with these animals, but from the description of them I had little pleasure, I confess, in making their acquaintance. Their untamable fierceness and untiring strength render them objects of dread to every benighted traveler. With their long gallop they pursue their prey, never straying from the track; and though, perhaps, the wearied hunter may think he has at last outstripped them, he will often find that they have but waited till evening to seize their victim. The bushes that skirted the shore flew past with the velocity of lightning as I dashed on in my flight to pass the narrow opening. The outlet was nearly gained-a few seconds more and I would be comparatively safe; but in a moment my pursuers appeared on the bank above me, which here rose to the height of ten feet. There was no time for thought; I bent my head and dashed madly forward. The wolves sprang, but, miscalculating my speed, fell behind, while their intended prey glided out upon the river. 6. Instinct turned me toward home, and I was some distance from my pursuers when their fierce howl told me I was |