felt that they were right in not suffering the old man to travel alone along the journey of life.

His was the second childhood; simple, pure, and holy as the first, and yet, in his case, no less than the first, requiring a protector's care. He spoke and thought as a child, and children could understand him; but the calm mirror of his mind quickly grew troubled in his intercourse with men, and he then lost the power of explaining his thoughts, or perhaps of himself distinguishing between the shadow and the substance, the things of sight and the things of faith. Reason had resigned her sway during the mental conflict which had been caused by his calamities; and though peace and quietness had been restored, she never had attained sufficient vigor to resume it again. Nay, more; it may be that her lamp was the more dim and uncertain, on account of the brighter and clearer light which from that time burned unceasingly in his soul. It is possible that he was slow in observing the different shades of color that passed across

| earthly objects, because to his eye one unfading color was resting upon them all; and that his mere intellectual faculties remained weak and palsied, because out of this very weakness he had been made strong, and he was at all times conscious of the presence of a surer support and safer guide.

And what matters it, if it were so? Why may we not revere poor Robin, and love him, and learn from him, and yet not shrink from acknowledging that his reason had gone astray? Surely, there is no one who would not gladly leave the hard, dull road of life, if only they could wander with him along the same bright and happy paths!

I wandered from the old man's late home to the village of B- where I made many inquiries after him, but all who knew him had passed away. At length I was directed to the cabin of an aged woman, who had lived to see four generations, but whose memory had become impaired; she, however, had sufficient reason left to direct me to the churchyard, where, she said, I

would find all the information I required, to which place I at once repaired.

The evening was drawing on as I entered it. I was alone; and as I trod, with a cautious reverence, upon the green sod, there was no sound to break the tranquillity of the scene, save the ripple of the waters at the edge of the cliff on which the churchyard stood. Their restless motion only made me feel the more deeply the stillness of the hallowed ground itself; and I thought that if the old man had been with me, he

weeds, but my own eye grew dim with tears, as one by one the few sad words revealed to me the secret of the old man's history. His restlessness during the spring, the object of his last solitary journey, and parts of his conversation with myself, which before had seemed obscure, were now fully explained. The inscription was as follows:

Sacred to the memory of
SUSAN, WIFE OF ROBERT WAKELING,

quiet resting-place of the dead, lying on the very borders of the sea of life, and yet untroubled by its murmuring, and sheltered from its storms.

I was not long in discovering the object which I sought. The rays of the setting sun at once directed me to a stone at the eastern extremity of the churchyard. It was distinguished from those around by a simple cross; but in spite of the soft light that was now shed upon it, it was with difficulty that I deciphered the inscription which it bore. For not only was the tomb itself thickly covered with moss and

Also of their children, ALICE, HENRY, AND EDWARD, Who survived her only a few days. There was room on the stone for one name more, and it was there that I added the words:

Also of

ROBERT WAKELING,

Who died April 18, 1843, aged 93 years.

They remain as a simple record that the old man was indeed united at last, in body as well as spirit, to those whom he had so dearly loved, and mourned so long.

and streams have always been, and ever will continue to be, dear; while poets regard them as positive elysiums. Here is a graceful compliment to "Little Streams," from the pen of William Howitt.

LITTLE streams are light and shadow,
Flowing through the pasture meadow-
Flowing by the green wayside,
Through the forest dim and wild,
Through the hamlet still and small,
By the cottage, by the hall,
By the ruin'd abbey still,

Turning here and there a mill,
Bearing tribute to the river-
Little streams, I love you ever.
Summer music is there flowing-
Flowering plants in them are growing;
Happy life is in them all,
Creatures innocent and small;

Little birds come down to drink,
Fearless of their leafy brink;
Noble trees beside them grow,
Glooming them with branches low,
And between the sunshine glancing
In their little waves is dancing.

Little streams have flowers many,
Beautiful and fair as any:
Typha strong, and green bur-reed,
Willow-herb, with cotton-seed;
Arrow-head, with eye of jet,
And the water-violet.

There the flowering rush you meet,
And the plumy meadow-sweet;
And in places deep and stilly,
Marble-like, the water-lily.

Little streams, their voices cheery,
Sound forth welcomes to the weary;
Flowing on from day to day,
Without stint and without stay.

Here, upon their flowery bank,
In the old time pilgrims drank;
Here have seen, as now, pass by,
King-fisher and dragon-fly-

Those bright things that have their dwelling
Where the little streams are welling.

Down in the valleys green and lowly,
Murmuring not and gliding slowly,
Up in mountain-hollows wild,
Fretting like a peevish child;
Through the hamlet, where all day
In their waves the children play;
Running west, or running east,
Doing good to man and beast-
Always giving, weary never,
Little streams, I love you ever.

Our second engraving represents the last month of autumn, and, accompanying it, we give a very pretty poem from an anonymous writer, which makes it no less interesting:

THE year is now declining; and the air,
When morning blushes on the orient hills,
Embued with icy chillness. Ocean's wave
Has lost the tepid glow, and slumbering fogs,
On clouded days, brood o'er its level plain;
Yet, when the day is at meridian height,
The sun athwart the fading landscape smiles
With most paternal kindness, softly sweet,
And delicately beautiful; a prince
Blessing the realms whose glory comes from
him.

The foliage of the forest, brown and sere,
Drops on the margin of the stubble field,
In which the partridge lingers insecure,
And raises oft, at somber eventide,
With plaintive throat, her dull and tremulous
cry!

The sickle of the husbandman hath ceased,
And left the lap of Nature shorn and bare;
The odorous clover flowers have disappear'd;
The yellow pendulous grain is seen no more;
The perfume of the bean-field has decay'd;
And roams the wandering bee o'er many a path,
For blossoms which have perish'd.

blades,

Grassy

Transparent, taper, and of sickly growth,
Shoot, soon to wither, in the sterile fields.
The garden fruits have mellow'd with the
year,

And, save the lingering apricot, remains
No trace nor token of the summer's wealth!
Yet, on the wild-brier stands the yellow hip;
And, from the branches of the mountain-ash,
The clustering berries drop their crimson beads
Descending. On the dark laburnum's sides,
Mix pods of lighter green among the leaves,
Taper, and springless, hasting to decay;
And on the wintry honeysuckle's stalk
The succulent berries hang. The robin sits
Upon the mossy gateway, singing clear
A requiem to the glory of the woods.

And, when the breeze awakes, a frequent shower

Of wither'd leaves bestrews the weedy paths, Or from the branches of the willow whirl, With rustling sound, upon the turbid stream.

THE UNITED STATES MINT.

MELTING, ASSAYING, REFINING, AND COINAGE OF
BULLION.
A

a

delphia, we condense a few facts relative to the United Stated Mint, which, we doubt not, will be read with interest:

It is not generally known that to Jefferson we are principally indebted for the simple and convenient coinage of the country. The currency of the different colonies, anterior to the revolution, was of a very varied and incongruous character. Several of the different colonies had established Mints, and there were various coinages by individuals, without any reference to the harmony of the different issues, or the intrinsic value of the coins issued. Foreign coins, particularly of British and Spanish origin, formed a principal portion of the currency. After the conclusion of peace, Congress directed the Financier of the Confederation, Robert Morris, to lay before them his views upon the establishment of a national system of currency. He proposed a table of this sort:

Ten units to be equal to one penny.

Ten pence one bill.

removed to the deposit melting room in locked pans, (a duplicate key of which is in the possession of the foreman of the department,) where it undergoes the necessary melting, preparatory to the assay process. The object of melting is two-fold: first, to separate from the metal all the earthly matter; and second, to obtain a homogeneous mass from any part of which a small chip can be cut for an assay piece. To accomplish this end the bullion is mixed with borax, which at a high heat forms a chemical combination with the earthy impurities, and this, in the form of a vitreous compound, is readily separated, being lighter than the fused metal. The latter is now cast into convenient molds and carefully numbered, and reserved until the report of the assayer enables the Treasurer to determine its exact value.

The gold assay slips, properly marked and numbered to prevent any possibility of interchange, pass to the assayer's department, and are each separately assayed. This process is one of the most carefully conducted of chemical analysis. The first part of it is the weighing

Ten dollars one crown.

This system, however, was not received with much favor, and in 1784 Mr. Jefferson made a report upon the subject, in which he proposed making the Spanish dollar, which was already familiar to the American people, the basis of the new currency, and to strike four coins, namely:

A golden piece of the value of ten dollars.
A dollar in silver.

A tenth of a dollar, also in silver.

A hundredth of a dollar, in copper. In 1785, Mr. Jefferson's report was adopted by Congress, and in 1786 legal provision was made for a coinage upon that basis. These proceedings, however, occurred during the Confederation, and the respective States still preserved the right of coinage, though subject to the direction of Congress. The Constitution, adopted in 1787, vested the right of coinage solely in the General Government. In 1790, Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, submitted a report on moneys, weights, and measures, and carnestly urged the commencement of coinage by the General Government. In 1792, a code of laws was adopted for the establishment and regulation of the Mint, providing for a Gold Eagle of ten dollars, and a half and quarter eagle; a silver dollar, and a half, quarter, tenth or dime, and twentieth or half dime; and the copper cent and half cent. The weight and fineness fixed for these respective coins remained unchanged, except by slight amendments, for a period of forty years, or until 1834, when an act was passed changing the weight and fineness of the gold coins and the relative value of gold and silver. The coinage of gold dollars was commenced in 1849; of double eagles in 1850; of three dollar pieces in 1854; of three cent pieces in 1851; and the first issues of the new cent, composed of nickel and copper, were made in May last.

the weights used being a demi-gram; and its decimal divisions to one ten-thousandth part of the unit. After the slip is weighed, it is inclosed, with the proper proportion of pure silver, in a small piece of lead pressed in bullet form, and is then ready for the laboratory process. This consists first, in the cupellation or separation of the oxydable metals, which is conducted in a small furnace brought to a proper heat, and in small cups, called cupels, prepared from calcined bones, in which the leaden ball with its contents is placed, and by which the base metals, in a state of oxydation and fluidity, are absorbed. Lead possesses the property of oxydizing and vitrifying under the action of heat, and at the same time promoting the oxydation of all other base metals.

When the cupellation is finished, the disc or button, being pure gold and silver, is detached from the cupel, and by a series of manipulations, is rolled into a thin slip in order to give surface for the action of nitric acid, to which it is next subjected to separate the gold from the silver. The slip thus rolled out is placed in a glass matrass or bottle, containing the necessary quantity of acid, to which heat is applied by a gas apparatus. The acid dissolves all the silver, leaving the gold pure in the form of a spongy brittle mass, which is returned to the balance, where the loss is ascertained, and the precise proportion of pure gold accurately determined. The result is then reported to the treasurer, and constitutes the basis for calculating the value of the deposit represented by the assay slip.

The assay of silver may be conducted by the cupellation process, but is more delicately determined by the humid assay, which is based on the well-known property of a solution of common salt precipitating the silver from its solution in the form of the chloride, the ultimate particles being thrown down by a prepared decimal solution, and the fineness determined