my footing. But I must go back, and see the end of it -now don't gripe me so hard, Susan-I must go. I dare say all's lost-but I must go.

He struggled to release himself from Susan, when a smuggler rushed into the house, pale and exhausted; he flung himself into a chair, and, throwing a brace of pistols on the ground, exclaimed

"The boat's taken-the tubs we had worked to the foot of the cliffs are seized too: we fought hard for it, but it was of no use!" and then he breathed a bitter curse in that low, withering tone, which seems to recoil upon the head of the curser, and clings only to him that utters it.

"Well it can't be helped," said James, calmly seating himself;" it's no use repining now-words and sighs won't better it; though it is somewhat hard, after cruising about for three months, to lose our cargo at

sea,

and when we thought ourselves lucky that we escaped Cork jail, and got back to Holland with an empty hold, and tried to do a little business at home, to make such a finish to all as we have done to-night. Poor Peter's drowned too, Tom-d'ye know that?"

"Ah!" said the other, "I thought it was all over with him when I saw him go;-but how did you manage with him?”

66

Now it's all over," said James, "I'll tell you the whole affair. When I plunged in after him, I popped a tub under my arm, thinking we were opposite a point where there was no watch; for, thinks I, if I can work a tub and save a man's life at the same time I shall do a clever thing; but I was some seconds before I could find Peter, it being so pitch dark. At last I saw something bob up to the top of the water, close to me- it was him, sure enough; I made a grasp, and caught him by the hair-kept his head above the surface, and got ashore with him. At that moment, a blockade-man 'spied me, and fired a pistol: I heard some of them coming towards me, so I dragged Peter under the cliff, and made for town; but the men-o'-war'-men followed me up so closely, that I was obliged to drop my tub, and crowd all sail. I got near home, and thought I could manage to drop in without being seen: but they had so gained upon me that I was obliged to run again right through the town, where I dodged them, till I found myself back again at the place where I left Peter. I felt him, but he was stiff and dead, poor fellow. I then thought I'd try if I could hail you; but the only answer I got was a report of fire-arms on the beach; then I knew that you must be working the boat slap in the teeth of the blockade. I listened a minute or two, and all was silent; so thinks I, they have either put out to sea again or have succeeded in working the cargo." "Yes," interrupted Tom, 66 we had worked part of it, and had hid the tubs under the cliff; when we were discovered and attacked: and three or four suddenly put off the boat, while we who were left had to fight it out, and get away as we could."

66

Well," continued James, "I thought I'd mount the cliff and look out, and had got near the top-but what with wondering how you had managed, and thinking of Poor Peter and our unlucky cruise, I felt very melancholy, and was pulling-up to take fresh wind, when what should I hear but my Susan's voice! so astonished me, that I lost my footing, and was capsized plump again on the shingle. There was no bones broke, however; and I was just about to hail Susan on

That

the cliff, when I thought I saw some of the blockade coming; and, says I to myself, you mus'n't see me, my masters!'-so I crept close under the cliff, and passed them safe enough. Then, thinks I, 'I may as well find out where the lads are;' and thinking Susan would be up to the rig, and wait where she was, or go home again, I contrived to run along the bottom of the cliff, till I found myself tumbling among a lot of tubs. Oho!' thinks I, all's right yet;' and, while looking about, I perceived all of you creeping down the cliffs. You recognized me, if you recollect; and we were just preparing to clear the tubs snugly away, when the enemy's lanterns issued from a projecting part of the cliff. Douse they went in one moment, and, in the other, there we were with the blockade, yard-arm and yard-arm; but, when I first saw the light from their torches, what should I see but my Susan stowed in the arms of Infant Joe. In the surprise, I opened a fire upon him, but took a good aim notwithstanding; I saw him fall, and, laying about me right manfully, I seized upon my little brig, carried her away from the grappling-irons of the huge pirate, and towed her right into harbour-and here she is safe and sound-there's some comfort in that, arʼn't there, my girl?"—and a hearty kiss, with a murmured blessing, escaped from the lips of the rough young smuggler, as he again pressed the now happy Susan in his arms.

Two of his companions now entered the house: they were cordially received by their acquaintances and assembled but the hanging of their heads, the ill-stifled sighs, and the languid manner of taking the hands outstretched to welcome them, proved how severely their bold hearts felt their chilling disappointments and unrewarded toil. A dead silence followed their entrance for what could be said? The journal of their cruise and misfortunes was recorded in every line of their brows. It was a sad meeting; and sadness and silence love to be together. At length one of them looking at James, said—

"We heard that you had brought down Infant Joe; but, just as we came into the town, we were told that he was only wounded, and had been carried to the tower, with a pistol-bullet in his right shoulder."

"In his right shoulder, eh?" said James, as he gave a loud whistle, and looked at Susan; "it was close chance for you, my girl. Well, I've no wish for his death; but if we ever should meet again. I am just as likely to snap my trigger, and perhaps with better success. But, Susan, my lass, I've been waiting all along to know how yon came on the cliff at such a time; and I'm somewhat jealous, too, at that same Infant Joe, and the manner he was convoying you so snugly."

Susan smiled, and related her share in the events of the night, and concluded by entreating James to relinquish his desperate and unprofitable pursuit-to forego all thoughts of again embarking in a Winter Cruiseand, when the employment of the coast failed to procure them a quiet subsistence, to remove to some happier land, where industry may reap its reward, and the strong arm and sweating brow know their hours of comfort and repose.-Monthly Mag.

STANZAS.

I.

I ROAM Out in the twilight,

Heart-broken and alone,

Till the night-winds and the dropping dews Have chilled me to the bone.

For I feel that when unkindness

Lieth freezing on the heart,

It is happier to be cheerless too,
In every other part.

II.

The glow upon that cypress,

Where my sire's cold ashes sleep. Would melt me into tears, had I

Spirit enough to weep:

But the grief that gnaws within me

Will not be thus out-thrown;

For despair hath round it closed, and shut The reptile in the stone.

III.

My father! oh, my father!

Too early was I left,

Of thy care, and well remembered love,
And wisdom, all bereft.
Though thou blessed art in Heaven,

Couldst thon see the withered brow, And the dim eye of thy first-born son, Thou'd'st weep for him e'en now.

CHRISTMAS.

"Now Hospitality, to cheer the gloom Of winter, invitation sends abroad :

The rural housewife lays the annual block

Of Christmas on the hearth, and bids a blaze

Of tenfold brightness glad its sable spot;

Then sprucely decks the window with fresh sprigs
Of evergreens, triumphant o'er the storms
Of fading time, while ever social mirth
And rival kindness load the smoking board.

WINTER, considered abstractedly, stands immeasureably behind its precursors in engaging qualities. It has not the verdant mantle, so gaily, and richly, and tastefully adorned, in which they successfully appear, nor the bright and enlivening beams in which they trip along the plain, nor the fair blue canopy beneath which they perform their gambols and pour out their varied delights. No! it has not the golden riches of autumn, the voluptuous treasures of summer, nor the " breathing fragrance" and halcyon warblings of spring, Sometimes, indeed, it seems disposed to try its powers of imitation, as if envious of their fame, but its attempts are ordinarily feeble; still, like the occasional hilarity of age, they please-not so much, however, from striking resemblance, as from contrast with the deep desolation in which they originate. Winter commonly brings with it days so short and gloomy, that our labours are closed almost as soon as begun,-cold so intense as to drive us to undue effort or indulgence, to escape its temporary or permanent inconveniencies,winds which whistle through avery avenue, and seem equally intent on ravaging our frames and our dwellings, rain, hail, and snow, inducing the dolorous exclamations of Sterne's starling, "I can't get out! I can't get out!"-ice which makes many things, like much of the poetry and prose of the age, "want fire," -and thaws, which bespatter us at every step with dirt, reminding us of our kinship with what we presume most unpleasant and obnoxious,

Yet, notwithstanding all these deficiences and annoyances, association often makes the anticipation of winter highly pleasurable; while the thought of Christmas touches a chord in many hearts which never vibrates so gladly to the premonition of another period. The name is confessedly by no means appropriate or happy. but it is one which, embalmed by many predilections, is not likely soon to be relinquished.

Reader! thou wast once a schoolboy; Eton, Harrow, or Rugby, may have poured into thy mind the streams of classic lore from the twigs of the birch, and made thee profoundly mathematical, after inscribing on thy bare and shivering back some of the diagrams of Euclid. Hast thou never seen the tribes of little happy mortals filling post-chaises and coaches, and passing down the roads leading to the metropolis, shouting and laughing at the thought of their six weeks' emancipation, as if they were an age, and school were a dungeon, and the pedagogue an ogre?

Verily, I'd go several miles a-foot to partake their glee—to put out my arms, that they might spring at once to the ground, joyous to them as Britain's soil to the slave to see Pincher, against all laws, invading the parlour, mounted by the little urchin, wild with delight and the black cat patted and kissed-and to hear the exclamations, “O mamma, the silver peg of my top came out!"--" Papa, here's my last copy book!" -and" Harriet, I'm so glad I'm come, a'n't you now?"

Nor is it to be supposed that joy is exclusively confined to the utterers of such sounds. Undoubtedly it is participated, in no small degree, by those to whom they are addressed; and by him who, for a long half-year, has been familiar with others of a different character. To have done for a time with the drawling repetition of hic, hæc, hoc," and six times five are thirty;" with the reiterated explanation of the same arithmetical rules and grammatical principles; and with the propounding of the questions-What Roman Emperor invaded Britain? or What is an Isthmus?-is to reach a 66 consummation" more "devoutly to be wished" than any can appreciate, except those who, having borne the ponderous burden, exult at its removal. To such a man, the final shutting of his desk must be like the key-note of a delicious melody, and the last "Good bye, sir," grateful as friendship's warmest recognition. At this period, too, the social principle is ordinarily cherished with peculiar attention and fondness. Truly is it said

"Close and closer then we knit
Hearts and hands together,
Where our fire-side comforts sit
In the mildest weather;

Oh! they wander wide, who roam,
For the joys of life, from home."

Those who are in the very prime of existence, may be found surrounded by their children, often long and widely separated. In exchange for school stories, and accidents, and successes, they relate to the little blooming throng the circumstances of their own early days, and puzzle them with questions and riddles, at which: they once looked up to the ceiling with a finger on the lip, in vain; and to which they once replied, papa, I can't guess-do, do, tell me!" Who have the preponderance of happiness at such times-the affectionate parents thus employed, or those who, with shining faces, are seated in the lap, and climbing about the knees-I confess myself unable to determine.