seems to have had a perfect passion for and bald, but it is frank, and without trap- There is no one whose life, regarded as a combination of literature and politics, exhibits more forcibly the simple mental freshness and overpowering thirst for knowledge which is the chief characteristic of the scholars of the age. With childlike eagerness and curiosity Eneas went forth to investigate the world; he took it just as he found it, and described it without a tinge of pedantry. He looked back with only slight remorse upon his early failures and mistakes, for he had always made the best of things as he found them, and he had always learned wisdom from every The Papacy at least might claim the praise of adapting itself to the time. When Francesco Sforza ruled at Milan, and Cosmo de Medici was moulding Florence; when Alfonso of Arragon had established his learned court at Naples, and France was preparing for the rule of Louis XI., where could the Papacy find a happier mixture of culture and policy, of the wiliness of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove, than in Æneas Sylvi M. CREIGHTON. FORESTS AND FRUIT-GROWING. - Fruit has es now seldom gladden the eye. In Ohio, bebecome a necessary of life—a great variety of tween the parallels of 40° and 41°, for examfruit indeed, and a great deal of it; and this ple, peach-buds were seldom injured by winter will become more and more the case with the or spring frosts, and the crop was abundant increase of intelligence and thrift. The great almost every year when the country was "new. abundance of most kinds of fruit for the last For the last twenty-five years peaches miss ofttwo or three years may cause us to feel a secu-ener than they hit, and in many parts this has rity, which is not well grounded, with regard to told so fearfully against the enterprise of prothe conditions of climate necessary to the un- duction that scarcely a peach-tree is now to be failing production of fruit. Only within a few seen. years past have there been seasons when the fruit-crop was very light, and not at all adequate to the demand. One of the causes of this is the capriciousness of the seasons, and this capriciousness, I believe, is becoming constantly greater as the country grows older. The clearing of the country has made this change. The continued clearing of the country will increase the mischief still more. The growing of peaches and of most other fruits will be driven, as indeed it already has been, to special localities and special soils. It is now for such localities to look out in time and preserve as far as possible the favourable conditions they now have, and if possible to increase them.” J. STAHL PATTERSON, in Popular Science An inquiry, then, of much scientific interest, and of great material importance, has reference to what may be the cause of this increasing uncertainty of the fruit-crop. In the early settlement of the country, it was easy to grow Monthly. peaches, even in localities where growing peach old parents whom he must take care of as or long as they live; and all they want me for is because I am a good housekeeper and know how to work; but as for love? No, nobody will come to me for that, and I am not so stupid as to expect it; for though I am healthy and strong, I have no beauty to boast of." How Durten Holzen sat in the Herr Conrector's back French woman. What foolish things the devil whispered in her ear, and how her sister Stining came to see her. How Stining would gladly have his Serene Highness' runner, and Durten would like to get hold of his Highness himself; though the wish appeared like contempt of royalty. A hymn book and a book of family sermons.The Herr Conrector makes a Christmas present, and Durten Holzen sends him out, just to prove whether he or room, and what she had to do with the yellow she is master of the house. It was Christmas Eve, and Dürten Holzen was sitting alone, in the back room of a house in Nigen-Bramborg, watching, through the twilight, the melting snow, as it dropped from the church roof into the garden. The house belonged to the Herr Conrector and Cantor Aepinus, and Dürten Holzen was his housekeeper. Her hands lay folded in her lap, and she said to herself: "Well, we shall have peace and rest if it is meant for us; but who knows how it will be? There is no harm in what I have thought to myself; if I should live with him all my life, it would be a good thing for both of us. He is a widower, he has no children, he is getting into years, and for the most part I have my own way. But that old, yellow French woman in the yellow pelisse, who moved into the rooms directly opposite, last Michaelmas, I have a misgiving that she will make me trouble yet. Thank God! he doesn't like her. But these men! One never knows what they will take it into their heads to do! And if Should I go back to my old father? No, there is trouble and misery enough in the house already; nothing coming in, but what Stining earns with her needle; and what could I do? There is nothing to keep house with. But if that old yellow creature in her yellow pelisse, should get the upper hand of him, he is always scolding about her, to be sure, but if she should-what then? Where could I go?" Here Dürten Holzen did herself injustice. She was not beautiful, strictly speaking, but she had a fine stately figure, and a fresh, pink and white complexion, with frank blue eyes, which revealed much intelligence and determination. She was not in her first youth; but at the mature age of one and thirty she still looked so fresh and tempting, that a kiss upon her red lips could not be reckoned other than a great pleasure. She sat thinking for a little while, then brought down her fist on her knee, with emphasis, saying: “Well, at any rate, I am as good as that old yellow thing opposite. if he is positively bent on getting married again, why not I would take care of him, and work for him, and give him good advice, God forgive me!" she cried, springing up, "what thoughts are these for this blessed Christmas eve! Am I such a lightminded creature as to think of the Herr Conrector himself? - I never should, but for that old yellow woman!-God preserve me from such sinful thoughts!" And she brought out her little library, a Bible and a hymn-book, and a book of Family Sermons, and said to herself: "The first verse in the Bible that my eyes shall rest upon shall be a sign for me," and as she opened the Bible she read: "He that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.' There it is," said she, sinking back in her chair. "No, not even for love will I ever marry; I have an illustration of that, in my poor dear Stining." And now a train of gloomy thoughts passed through her mind, not at all suited to the merry Christmas tide, but suitable enough for a maiden who is renouncing all her youthful hopes; and though she did not stand in the Catholic fashion before And she stood up, and taking up her an altar, in a white veil, to be kissed and lamp in her restlessness, walked up and caressed by a dignified abbess and hosts of down the room, and then sat down again. nuns, her mood was no less solemn, as she "I could never get such a place again. tore up, with ruthless hand, all the flowers And as for getting married," Here from the borders in her garden, in order she sprang up again. "Yes, I could marry to raise henceforth only useful vegetables the shoemaker in the Fischer strasse, or the for other people, cabbages, turnips, and tinker in the Bädstuber strasse, but why potatoes. But the devil had a little power do they want me? The shoemaker has his over her yet, in spite of her determined three children who are running wild for resolution; he still whispered in her ear: want of a mother; and the tinker has his "That old yellow thing! Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Littell & Gay, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] While she sat thus the door-bell rang, and when she answered it, a gentleman in a cloak stood in the porch, stamping the snow from his boots, and he went directly into the Herr Conrector's room. After a little while, the bell rang again, and, before she could go, a light step came through the passage, and the head of her sister Stining was thrust in at the door. It was a wonderfully pretty head; the fresh air had painted the white cheeks rosecolor, and the golden hair clustered in little soft rings about the forehead, under a dark brown hood, which was tied on to protect it from the snow, and a pair of confiding blue eyes asked, with the red lips: So you are at home, then? Wait, I will shake off the snow, first." And, directly, a slender maiden of two and twenty years, entered the room, and, taking off a shabby old cloak, appeared before her sister in a dark house dress. 66 "Come up to the fire and warm yourself, Stining. You should have worn your good warm dress, such a cold evening." "Time enough for that, to-morrow, Dürten. Halsband has promised, that to-morrow afternoon, after church, if there is a path made, he will give me a ride on the lake. Ahl one rushes like the wind when he draws the sledge; he passes all the others." 66 "Yes," said Dürten, in rather a hard tone, "it is the only thing he can do." "Dürten," said her sister, with a beseeching look, "don't say anything against him! It isn't his fault that Serene Highness will not release him from his service. See, every minute that he has free he sits in our workshop, working for father and us; and father says he has learned the business so well, that he might be taken any day for a regular journeyman cooper." "Serene Highness ought to be struck by lightning if he will not let you two marry." You may well say so," said Stining, sadly; "but Halsband says Serene Highness is worse than ever, since he outran all the Saxon runners at Dresden, and is positively determined not to let him go." "I wish he were thunderstruck too! What possesses him to run so? Why can't he go moderately, like other people ?" "Eh, Dürten, it is his business." "A fine business! Nobody will thrive by it, neither he nor we. And you sit there, working your life away, and scarcely earn enough to keep from starving." 'Ah, Dürten, but we have done better lately. You see, you paid the rent for father up to Michaelmas with your wages; and I have earned a good deal during these last weeks before Christmas; and if Halsband can get more time in the spring, you shall see, there will be something earned in the workshop." "Don't be too sure of that! Your gay bird is a bird of passage, and if he finds there is dancing to be had he will forget the work-bench and the drawingknife." "Yes," said Stining, rather sadly, "the dancing! But then," she added, cheerfully, "he is such a beautiful dancer; and it belongs to his business, he may well be. And you may believe me, if I were willing, he would always take me with him, and he did take me once, you remember? at Whitsuntide, five years ago, and oh, how the people looked at us, Dürten! Not at me, I am no great dancer, no! at him, as he floated about, as if he had wings instead of legs; and he danced with me the whole evening." "Oh, yes," said Dürten, "I remember it very well; that was the beginning of your misery." "Don't say misery, Dürten; this misery is my happiness. See, he is true to me, you know that as well as I do, and I am true to him; and he has never asked me to do anything wrong. Is he to blame because Serene Highness cannot bear women, and will not allow his servants to marry?" "I should like to get hold of the old fellow!" exclaimed Dürten, walking up and down the room; but stopping suddenly, she said: "Listen! what is that noise in the Herr Conrector's room?" She seated herself again in order to hear better, and the two sisters listened in silence to the disturbance, and when it quieted down each took up a book in an absent way; Stining the hymn-book, and any one who had seen her sitting there, might have said: she is such a hymn-book herself; for the book had gilt edges, and two hearts were engraved on the cover, with the motto: "Thy heart and my heart are one," and inside were songs of joy and sorrow, and she sang them alternately, in her inmost soul. And Dürten had taken up the honest old sermons, and she turned the leaves with her firm, toil-hardened fingers, and if one had seen how her eyes rested on the "Meditation upon the loss of a lamb," and had known that she was looking upon her sister, at this moment, as this lost lamb, and had noticed the plated corners of the cover, and its Meissenisch clasps, which were not opened for every inquisitive idler, he might have said: "she is just such an old family sermon book herself. 66 Dürten," said Stining, after a while, "I want you to come over and spend the evening with us; Halsband is coming, and I bought a fish to-day, of my god-father the fisherman, for a shilling, and he gave me a fine one, and I will broil it for our supper." Eh, Stining," said Dürten, “how glad I should be to go! But he has company, and when he is at home, I cannot go out." "Listen! They are pushing back their chairs." And, sure enough, it was not long before the Herr Conrector accompanied his visitor, into the hall, and said good-night to him. The Herr Conrector, however, appeared to be in no hurry: for he soon came into Dürten's room with a pair of Manchester breeches in his hand. "Good evening, Dürten, I - ah, good evening, Stining! How goes it, my daughter?" and he stroked her bright, silken hair. "I got almost angry with that foolish fellow of a Kägebein; but, Dürten, I haven't forgotten you; I mean to give you something for a Christmas present. It is a little thing, Dürten, for your faithful service; but an honest man cannot give more than he has. See, here are my old Manchester breeches; I thought perhaps you could make yourself a spencer, or at least a new velvet hat out of them." "Eh, where should I go? Everybody sits at home with his family, this evening, and if an old widower like me should stick his head in, he would be as welcome as a swine in a Jew's house." "But why not go to the keller, to your brother-in-law's? All the unmarried men will be there, and Hofrath Altmann asked me this morning, if you would not come tonight." I always get vexed with Altmann, and I have had vexation enough this evening with that stupid Kägebein." "But why should you get vexed with Hofrath Altmann? He got his title only because he has so often assisted Serene Highness with money; and you? You are a man of worth and dignity, Conrector and Cantor; and the weather is as pleasant for going out in, as we can expect at this time of year." Schr-r-r-r-r! came a shower of snow rattling against the window. "Do you hear that?” Conrector. 66 said the Herr "Oh," said Dürten, as she opened the door of the clothes press, we often have such snow storms, this time of year;' and she threw the Herr Conrector's cloak over him, and quickly buttoned it in front, and then turned up the collar; and the Herr Conrector looked down out of the opening, as if he had crept into a hogshead for a joke, and was looking down out of the bunghole, to see what the world said to his jest. 66 "So!" said Dürten. taking up the lamp, now wait in the dark a moment; I shall be back directly." "Ah, Herr Conrector!" said Dürten, taking the breeches, "how kind you are!" "But there is one condition, Dürten; you must let me keep them till Whitsun-" tide." Yes, Herr, if there is no other way." No, Dürten, there is no other way. I have only this one pair, that I have on, and if anything should happen to them, what would become of me? I ought to get my salary at Easter; but it is always delayed until Whitsuntide; and of such an article of clothing as breeches, a man should always have an extra pair, or he may be subjected to great inconvenience." "I understand, Herr Conrector." And she ran into the front room, and returned with a three-cornered hat - an extinguisher," as we used to call them, and a Spanish cane, and a long pipe, and a bag of tobacco, and a snuff-box, and a clean handkerchief, and a couple of handkerchiefs to tie up his neck, and proceeded to equip her master, as if she were a squire arming his knight. And the knight submitted very peaceably, and, when his outfit was complete, he bade them a friendly good-night, and started in search of adventures, armed with stick and pipe, instead of sword and spear. "So," said Dürten Holzen, "now, come, Stining, he has gone, and he will not be back before eleven o'clock; now we can go to father." "Good gracious, Dürten! I never should have the courage to send him off like that." "One learns how to manage them, 'Stining," said Dürten, "and if you treat him gently, he will obey orders, and it is good for him to go out. For, you see, these old schoolmasters, when they have nothing to do with anybody but their school-boys, get to be foolish at last, and think other people must just mind them, like the school- To return to the Herr Conrector; there children, and that wouldn't suit me. No, was one very remarkable thing about him, if I am responsible for keeping everything which I never observed in any one else. in order here I must have the power. He Although he was of pure Saxon lineage, he would get his things into a fine mess if I took such a hearty liking to the Plattwere not here to look after him. And once deutsch, that he spoke it constantly, at in three months, the whole house must be home and in company, and even in school; cleaned with broom and scrubbing-brush. and what seems almost impossible in a See," she said, tying on a thick hood, "he Saxon, he had learned it so thoroughly, goes over there and disputes, with the that only at rare intervals could any one Hofrath and the rest of them; for they are detect him in a blunder. not afraid of him, like the school-children; and that accustoms him to opposition, and that is an advantage for me when I want one thing and he another. Now come, I will take the key with me; but I must stop at the keller, and tell him not to come home before eleven o'clock, for I have locked up the house and taken the key the prospect of being quite free from whims, in my old age; for my dear wife takes a great deal of pains with my training, and has cured me of the few that I had, before we were married. with me." With that they went out. CHAPTER III. Who the Herr Conrector and Cantor Aepinus was. How he conducted his school. His honest opinion of the French, of Bonaparte and Josephine. -She is yellow too!-Quiet satisfaction and sorrowful thoughts. - Holidays are still holidays. How the Herr Conrector had the old Roman jurist Cujacius in his head, and the Nigen-Strelitz jurist, Advocate Kagebein, came into his room. Concerning fine poetry, Gotz von Berlichingen, Homer and Lessing. How the Herr Advocate Kagebein thought the Herr Conrector an envious man; how he went to the Rathskeller, and how the Herr Conrector followed him. THE Herr Conrector and Cantor Aepinus was a Saxon. At this time he was upwards of fifty years of age, and was a finelooking man for his years, although his hair was turning gray. He was a good man, and a thorough scholar; he was pretty nearly the first master of the High school at Nigen-Bramborg, who had a good knowledge of the old Greeks and Romans, and his scholars had a high opinion of him, in consequence. Johann Heinrich Voss, who was at school in Nigen-Bramborg in 1766, used to say, with much gratitude, that he had learned more from the Herr Conrector than from any other teacher; and when he was very ill at one time, the Herr Conrector had visited him daily, and nursed him like a father. He was whimsical, to be sure, or silly, as Dürten Holzen would have said; but that was the fault of his wife, for she let him have too much of his own way, and that does not answer. If I may be allowed to speak of myself, I have He gave his attention to the second class in the school, and besides Latin and Greek, taught his scholars a little Natural History; and, as he was a skilful musician, he gave them instruction in church music, and sometimes allowed them to play on the violin, and, what afforded them great amusement, to beat the kettle-drum. French he did not understand, and did not wish to understand; for he had a great hatred of the French. There were some who said he had this hatred, only because he did not understand the language, and that he was ashamed to confess it; but I believe this opinion was a mistaken one. He could not bear the French character; and his hatred grew more intense, as the French power in Germany increased, and, - a later period than my story is concerned with, he got into considerable trouble in consequence. He was in the habit of calling Bonaparte a rascal and a robber, and he always spoke of Josephine as "that old yellow woman.' at He went one evening, into his brotherin-law, Kunst's wine-cellar, and there met a number of acquaintances, with a stranger, who had been brought there by the company, for a joke. When my good Herr Conrector alluded to Josephine as old yellow woman," this stranger sprang up and attacked him : 66 "that Monsieur, I am a Frenchman; you have insulted mon Imperatrice. I will have you put in prison!" "Oh, oh! Hold!" cried the Conrector; and, grasping his hat and cane, he beat a retreat out of the door. There was great merriment over his abrupt departure; but scarcely was he outside, when he repented, and was angry with himself for retreating, and thrusting his head in at the door, he cried out: "And she is yellow, too!" So he could not bear the French, and had as great a dislike to a brunette com |