Mrs. Learmont damned her soul in that hour for her son's sake. She may have had an inkling before that of what Kate had to tell; she did not require it. Without that great love in her, her cunning and nimbleness of wits would have taken in at a flash what steadier people needed long looking for. Was there no great hate for the girl battened down under her hatches? Yet she sat there playing on Kate as on a harp with the most delicate touch possible; making believe that it was the woman in her that was drawn to the woman in the other; disparaging her color that she might exalt the sacrifice demanded from a girl of her husband's race; fanning the mad flame of Kate's resolve; never disturbing the girl's assurance of Robert's love, yet gently broaching it so that it leaked away. It was the sight of these black fingers on the honest brown, called up by Christian's words, that sent a suspicion through me that has been verified since then to my satisfaction at least, although, to be sure, some folks think otherwise. III. MEANWHILE the neighbors whom Kate had left behind, ceasing from their slumberous worship and tumbling out of church as from their beds, had never a thought of the life and honor hanging in the balance at Hawfield. Already Nell Sturrock was back in her own house; Dave and Tam, as was their wont, lingered at the end of the road. "I canna' think what they twa get to crack about," Nell said to herself. 64 They would stand a moon." But I dare say she could think very well; women are clever. The lawyer trade is a royal road to knowing them, and I tell you that most of them that I have met have the heels of a man in the conduct of affairs, any day. Depend upon it, a woman knows what happens to her when she marries. She may twirl a husband round her little finger. Nell did. I suppose if I denied ability to cite an instance nearer home, it would not be believed. No doubt she does it the more viciously because she knows quite well it does not entail any hold on his inclinations. When you see men very happy hobnobbing together, be it in clubs or at street corners, and yet going home to their wives, find what consolation you can in the thought that the grey mare is the better horse al ways. Nell opened her door, mixing the fragrance of the tea and bacon, prepared against her husband's return, with similar fragrances that issued from every couthy fireside in the village. "Dave." The voice was not so musical as when she was Nell Coulter. "Comin'," he replied, continuing his talk with Tam. "Man, Dave," Tam was saying, “I've felt lonesome sin' ye went and got merrit." "I believe't," replied Dave. "And that cannot be helpit." "No. It cannot be helpit," acquiesced Dave, with the gusto of conviction. "And I'se warrant Kate's the same without Nell?” "Maybe." There was a pause; then Tam again, "What's to hinder me makin' up to Kate?" "Ha'e ye considered her worldly standing, Tam? 66 Huts!" said Tam with a great deal of spirit. "Nell was ready enough to tak' you." "Tam," replied Dave, stung with the truth, and finding it rather pleasant, "if I hadna' behaved myself at Row'tilly you wouldna' daur to show face there." All the world-all the world of Denbrae, that is knew how humbly Dave had mounted the Row'tilly road to woo Nell; and Tam acknowledged the fact, as Nell's voice sounded through the night once more. "Could she put in a word for me?" he said doubtfully, nodding in Nell's direc tion. Dave shook his head. "That would be asking a vote o' confidence," he said at length; and evidently he could not risk it. "Na, na, Tam, laad," he said; "we'll let sleepin' dowgs lie." "But tak' your will o't, Tam," he said at parting. "I'm no saying a word against naebody; but mind, it's the verra deevil when your wife casts her former estate in your teeth." That night Tam went up the Row'tilly road, whistling, Sabbath though it was, to keep his courage hot. When he reached the steading he saw a light in the byre, and, going inside, found Kate, as he had hoped, alone, milking her cows. She started to her feet when she saw him. "What brings you here, Tam Sturrock ? Have you any ill word from Dave's folk?" she cried, with a frightened look. He had expected a mischievous glance, a saucy word; but when he shook his head, the scared, white face - Kate's face - turned wearily away from him. "It's not with an ill word from Nell, but for a good word from you, I cam," he blurted out boldly. But Kate said not a word as, with her back to him, she continued with her milking. "Kate - Katie," he said, in desperation, fumbling with a paper in his hand, "I brought a bit o' poetry to you, Katie. I made it up in the kirk." When any Denbrae body tells the story of Kate Coulter he finishes here; as if it were "Puir lassie; and there's an end of't." But I recall the story because in course of time Robert Learmont came back to Hawfield. Tam Sturrock and John Coulter waited for a word with him. It would have been a hot one even if, as I I dare say he made it up quickly enough. contend, Robert Learmont could have It had no merit, and trash comes as read-pled an honest intention in the end; for ily as the words of genius. It is mediocrity that takes time. "I'll read it to you," he went on. "Ye'll not laugh at me, Kate?" Poor Tam ! As Kate said nothing he drew nearer, and bending beside her at the lamp delivered himself of his doggerel: : Denbrae lasses are plump and fair, And ilka ane has her billie, O But when he looked up, sheepishly, from "For your ain sake, for my sake, go away home," she cried; but, awed as he was, he would have put his arms around her. She started to her feet and threw him off, and would not have him near her. "Don't touch me; don't come near me," she sobbed out piteously, shrinking from him. Then, I believe, she felt that he guessed the shame that all too clearly that day had revealed to her. I know Tam better than you who know him only in love, which, whatever we may say, is not a condition to be proud of. I believe it of him that he was no tenderer, no sterner than the rest of us would have been. there is plenty room to be selfish in this world without reaching to the bounds of selfishness. But they never had that word. Mixed blood, like Learmont's, has no stamina; and after that wound Robert had to pass the short remainder of his days in warm countries. And this is what I know. He had not long returned when Mrs. Learmont had a tale to tell him, exultantly, cunningly; and when she finished he spoke a word, and the light faded from her eyes. It is true that at the end she was by his bedside. Nature knows her own business, and she would see to that. But from the time that word was spoken until the very end, there was little that was lovely passed between them. DAVID S. MELDRUM. From The Liverpool Journal of Commerce. THE DRAINING OF THE ZUIDER ZEE. THE draining of the Zuider Zee is progressing with even better success than was expected that is, the preliminary work of erecting a dam, for the actual draining comes after. It is strictly a war of revenge, for it is not very many centuries since the Zuider Zee was an inland "They all come with fine words. lake with a small outlet. The Dutch are, There's no poetry in the end of it," was therefore, recovering a province lost to the last thing he heard Kate say; and as their ancestors by the invasion of the sea. he listened to it, it seemed to him it was A good, solid, broad foundation has ala charge no son of Adam could plead ready been laid, extending from the north guiltless to. Standing there, his love upon point of north Holland across to the a broken wing, there stole into his un-island of Wieringen, and thence straight tutored, boyish mind as he has told me himself, some insight into the mystery of one bearing the sins of many. Then he stumbled down the Row'tilly road, his hope on the wane as Jupiter was in the sky before him. That night Dave and Tam were summoned from their beds to Row'tilly. From down in the valley dim figures with torches could be seen in the steading and among the uplands. By the grey light of the morning the brothers found the girl's body in the pond among the hills. across the Zee to the nearest point of the opposite coast of Friesland - a distance of eighteen miles only. It has been found that as the work proceeds the sea itself assists by depositing enormous quantities of sand and silt every tide on both the outside and inside of the dam, which is being gradually raised in its whole length simultaneously. When the project of draining the sea — not a new one at alltook shape some forty years ago, the first idea was to join by dams the great islands of the Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, and Ameland to each other and to the main- | steady, and to avoid putting on the market land at each end; the total length of dams all at once such an enormous quantity of required for this would have been only land as nearly a million acres the size the same as that from Wieringen to the of a large English county. Subsidiary Friesland coast, and it would of course dams will be erected, and the water have reclaimed from the sea about half as pumped out into the sea. It is said that much again as the present plan; but the in a few years all traces of salt will have tide going in and out through these open- vanished. The land, it is said, will not be ings four times daily, with tremendous worth less than two thousand guldens per strength, and in enormous volume, could hectare (2:47 acres). The cost of the not be coped with. It had hollowed out whole affair is estimated (not by ship canal deep channels between the islands, from officials, but by calculating, though not which it was considered vain to attempt flying, Dutchmen) at one hundred and to dislodge it. Even the innate and ac- ninety million gulden, so that, if only quired facility of Mynheer van Dunck for two hundred and fifty thousand hectares dealing with the watery (as well as the (it may be three hundred and fifty thouspirituous) element, was not good enough sand) are recovered, it will cost seven to war with nature on these terms, and he hundred and sixty gulden per hectare. had to fall back and he had a broad back Profit £185 per acre, or more than fortyto fall on upon the plan we have indi- five millions of pounds sterling. This is cated, which held a medium between the making allowance for outlets of the Yssel island proposed and another for beginning and other rivers, and of the Amsterdam at the south of the sea, and gradually Canal, and for deep places which cannot damming and pumping northwards. The be drained, but will remain as lakes. PosBatavian instinct would appear to have led Mynheer on the right track. The quantity of tidal water is diminishing in an increasing ratio, while the sand and silt are raising the land inside and the environs of the dam itself. As soon as it is considered that the proper time has come the dam will be raised more rapidly, so as to exclude the tides altogether, and then the work will enter upon its second stage. When it does so it is intended to go easy. There will be no hurry, both because slow means sibly when the plan is thus completed it may be possible eventually to extend it in the way contemplated by the island scheme. Even if not, it will add more than a tenth to the present area of the little kingdom, and contribute doubtlessly to its general wealth and progress in other manners than by the mere creation of so much land, valuable as it is in this respect. We believe it is the intention of the government, which is, of course, doing the work, to invite public subscription of capital in some form. SOUNDS FOCUSED BY SHIPS' SAILS. -The widespread sails of a ship, when rendered concave by a gentle breeze, are most excellent conductors of sound. The celebrated Dr. Arnott relates the following circumstance as a practical proof of this assertion: A ship was once sailing along the coast of Brazil, far out of sight of land. Suddenly several of the crew, while walking along the deck, noticed that when passing and repassing a particular spot they always heard with great distinctness the sound of bells chiming sweet music, as though being rung but a short distance away. Dumfounded by this phenomenon, they quickly communicated the discovery to their mates, but none of them was able to solve the enigma as to the origin of these seemingly mysterious sounds. Several months afterward, upon returning to Brazil, some of the listeners determined to satisfy their curiosity. Accordingly they mentioned the cir cumstance to their friends and were informed that at the time when the sounds were heard, the bells in the cathedral of San Salvador, on the coast, had been ringing to celebrate a feast held in honor of one of the saints. Their sound, wonderful to relate, favored by a gentle, steady breeze, had travelled a distance of upward of one hundred miles over the smooth water, and had been brought to a focus by the sails at the particular locality in which the sweet sounds were first heard. This is but one of several instances of a similar kind, trustworthy authorities claiming that it has often happened under somewhat similar circumstances. |