directions, so that I was greatly puzzled which of the two was my road. When I had walked a few yards down one, my mind misgave me that I was wrong, and I retraced my steps without being at all satisfied that the other was the right one. At last I decided upon the wrong, as it afterwards turned out, and I now hurried on, hoping to in her adverse fortune, but she had been kind and considerate to her when many mistresses would have turned her out of their house, and now she staid with her and hel, ed her in her time of need. One day I came to visit her, fearing from her unusual absence, that something was amiss with the child or herself. I found her lying on a rude sort of sofa, which she had very ingeniously make up, by renewed speed, for the time I had made, by nailing some boards together, and co-lost by my indecision. The increasing gloom of vered with chintz, after having stuffed it with the road thickly shaded with hemlocks and cedars, hay, for she was full of contrivances; "they amused her, and kept her from thinking of her troubles," she sail. She looked very pale, her fair hair being neglected, and there was an air of great languor and fatigue visible in her frame. But when I expressed my apprehension that she, too, had fallen a prey to ague or fever, she eagerly replied,—“Oh, no, I am only dreadfully tired. Do you know, I was wandering in the woods a great part of the night!" "On what errand ?" I inquired, in some surprise, on which she related her adventures, in these words:: now convinced me I was drawing near swampy ground, which I did not remember to have traversed in my morning walk. My heart thrilled with terror, for I heard the long-drawn yell of wolves, as I imagined in the distance. My first impulse was to turn and flee for my life, but my strength suddenly failed, and I was compelled to sit down upon a pine log by the side of the path to recover myself. 'Alas! alas!' said I, halfaloud, 'alone, lost in these lonely woods, perhaps to perish miserably, to be torn by wild beasts, or starved with hunger and cold, as many have been in this savage country! Oh my God! forsake me not, but look upon the poor wanderer with the eyes of mercy!' Such was my prayer when I heard the rapid gallop of some animal fast ap “I had reason to suppose that English letters of some consequence had arrived by post, and as I had no one to send for them, to whom I dared trust them, I made up my mind, yesterday morn-proaching-the sudden crashing of dry boughs, ing, to walk down for them myself. I left my little boy to the care of Jane and his father, for, carrying him a distance of so many miles, and through such roads, was quite beyond my strength. Well, I got my letters and a few necessary articles that I wanted, at the store; but what with my long walk, and the delay one always meets with in town, it was nearly sunset before I began to turn my steps homeward. I then found, to my great distress, that I had lost my faithful Nelson,'-[a great Newfoundland dog that accompanied her wherever she went.] I lingered a good while in the hope that my brave dog would find me out, but concluding, at last, that he had been shut up in one of the stores, I hurried on, afraid of the moon setting before I should be out of the dark wood. I thought, too, of my boy, and wondered if his father would waken and attend to him if he cried or wanted feeding. My mind was full of busy and anxious thoughts, as I pursued my solitary way through these lonely woods, where everything was so death-like in its solemn silence, that I could hear my own footsteps, or the fall of a withered leaf, as it parted from the little boughs above my head and dropped on the path before me. I was so deeply absorbed with my own perplexing thoughts that I did not at first notice that I had reached where two paths branched off in nearly parallel as the creature forced his way through them, convinced me it was too near for escape to be possible. All I could do was to start to my feet, and I stood straining my eyes in the direction of the sound, while my heart beat so audibly that I seemed to hear nothing else. You may judge of the heartfelt relief I experienced when I beheld my dear old dog, my faithful Nelson, rush bounding to my side, almost as breathless as his poor terror-stricken mistress. "You know that I don't often indulge in tears, even when overwhelmed with trouble, but this time I actually cried for joy, and lifted up my heart in fervent thankfulness to Him who had guided my dumb protector through the tangled bush to my side that night. Come, Nelson, I said, aloud, you have made a man of me.' Richard is himself again,' dear fellow, I shall fear neither wolf nor bear while you are with me. I then fastened my bundle about his neck for my arm ached with carrying it, and on we trudged. At first I thought it would be best to retrace my steps, but I fancied I saw light like a clearing breaking through the trees, and conjectured that this bye-road led in all likelihood to some of the bush farms or lumberer's shanties. I resolved to pursue my way straight onwards; nor was I mistaken, for some minutes after brought me to the edge of a newly burnt fallow, and I heard the baying of dogs, which no doubt were the same sounds, I, in my fright, had taken for wolves. "The moon was now nearly set, and I judged it must be between one and two o'clock. I peeped into the curtainless window of the shanty, the glimmering light from a few burning brands and the red embers of the huge back-log in the wide elay-built chimney showed the inmates were all asleep, and as the barking and growling of the dogs, who, frightened by Nelson's great size, had retreated to a respectful distance, had failed to rouse them, I took bush-leave, opened the door, and stepped in without further ceremony. On a rude bed of cedar sticks slept two females, the elder of whom was not undressed but lay sleeping on the outside of the coverlet, and it was with great difficulty that I managed to rouse her to a consciousness of my presence and my request for a guide to the mills. “Och! och! och! my dear crayter" she said, raising herself at last upon her brawny arm and eyeing me from under her black and tangled locks with a cunning and curious look, "what should a young thing like yourself be doing up and abroad at sich a time of night as this ?" “Good mother," I said, “I have lost my way in the bush, and want a lad or some one to show me the way to the mills." "Sure," said the old woman, "this is not a time to be asking the boys to leave their beds, but sit down there, and I will speak with the master." She then pushed a rude seat in front of the fire, and roused up the logs with a huge handspike, which she wielded with strength of arm that proved she was no stranger to the work of closing in log-heaps, and even chopping, and then proceeded to wake her partner, who, with three or four big boys, occupied another bed at the farthest end of the shanty. “After some parleying with the man it was agreed that at day-break one of the elder boys should be sent to guide me home, but not sooner. 'There Mistress' said the man, you may just lie down on my old woman's bed, the girl has the ague, but she is as quiet as a lamb, and will not disturb you.' I preferred sitting on my rude seat before the now blazing fire, to sharing the girl's couch, and as to a refreshment of fried pork and potatoes which my hostess offered to get ready for me, I had no appetite for it, and was glad when my host of the shanty and his partner retired to bed, and left me to my own cogitations and mute companionship of Nelson. One feeling was uppermost in my mind-gratitude to God for my present shelter, rude as it was, the novelty of my situation almost amused me, and then graver thoughts came over me as I cast my eyes curiously around upon smoke-stained walls and unbarked rafters from whence moss and grey lichens waved in a sort of fanciful drapery above my head. I thought of my former life of pride and luxury. What a singular contrast did it present to my situation at that moment. The red flashing glare of the now fiercely burning logs illumined every corner of the shanty, and showed the faces of the sleepers in their humble beds. There lay close beside me on her rude pallet, the poor sick girl, whose pale visage and labouring breath excited my commiseration, for what comfort could she have, either mental or bodily. I asked myself, The chinking in many parts, had been displaced, and the spaces stuffed with rags, straw, moss, wool and a mass of heterogeneous matter, that would have plainly told from what part of the world the inmates had come, if their strong South of Ireland brogue had not declared it past all disputing. Few and scanty were the articles of furniture and convenience. Two or three unplaned pinewood shelves, on which were arranged some tinware and a little coarse delf, a block of wood sawn from the butt end of a large timber tree, and a rude ricketty table, with a pork and flour barrel, some implements of husbandry, among which gleamed brightly the Irish spade, an instrument peculiar so the Irish laborers' cabin, and a gun which was supported against the log walls by two carved wooden hooks, or rests, such was the interior of the shanty. I amused myself with making a sort of mental inventory of its internal economy, till by degrees weariness overcame me, and leaning my back against the frame of the poor sick girl's bed, I fell sound asleep, and might have slept on till broad day, had not my slumbers been suddenly broken by the rolling of one of the big logs on the hearth, and looking over, I almost started at the sight of the small, sinister-looking eyes of my host, which were bent upon me with so penetrating a glance, that I shrunk from before them. In good truth more stout-hearted persons might have been justified in the indulgence of a cowardly feeling, if they had been placed in a simllar situation, so utterly helpless and alone; but my courage quickly returned. I thought it wisest not to show distrust, and addressed the uncouth-looking personage before me with a cheerful air, laughing at his having caught me napping. Yet I remember the time, when I was a youthful romance reader, I should have fancied myself into a heroine, and my old Irishman into a brigand; but in my intercourse with the lower class of Irish emigrants, I have learnt that there is little cause for fear in reality. Their wild passions are often roused to a fearful degree of violence by insult, either against their religion or their nation, to acts of vengeance; but such a thing as murdering or robbing a helpless, unoffending stranger, seeking the hospitable shelter of their roofs, I never yet heard of, nor do I believe taem capable of an act of covetousness or cruelty so unprovoked. While I thought on these things my confidence returned, so that I would not have hesitated to take the man for my guide through the lone woods I had to pass, trusting to this impression of the Irish character, which, with many defects, has many virtues, while that of hospitality is certainly one of the most prominent. "The first streak of daylight saw the old woman stirring, to prepare their morning meal of pork and potatoes, of which I was glad to partake. "One by one came stealing sleepily from their nests four ragged urchins, whose garments I verily believe were never removed for weeks, either by day or night. They all had the same peculiar smoke-dried complexion, a sort of dusky greyish tint, grey eyes, with thick black lashes, and broad black eyebrows, with a squareness of head and a length of chin which I have not unfrequently noticed as a characteristic feature in the less comely inhabitants of the Irish cabins. The boys stole looks of wonder and curiosity at me, but no one spoke or ventured to ask a question; however, they bestowed great marks of attention on Nelson, and many were the bits of meat and potatoes with which they strove to seduce him from my feet. "When our meal was ended, I gave the old woman a small piece of silver, and, accompanied by Master Michael, the biggest boy, I left the shanty, and was glad enough to seek my own home, and find all as well as when I had left them, though some anxiety had been felt for my unusual ab with the trials that may await them. It is not many who have the mental courage that was displayed by her whose adventures I have just narrated. SCRAPS. Perhaps no work ever exhibited such general attractions as the celebrated "Travels of Lemuel Gulliver." The air of simple veracity and minuteness of invention maintained throughout by the writer, causes Gulliver" to be wonderfully amusing; whilst the rich satire with which it Gulliver's Travels" were given to the world abounds is able to gratify the most cynical mind. under the mystery that usually shadowed Swift's productions. It offered personal and political satire to readers in high life, incident to the vulgar, marvels to the romantic, wit to the young and lively, lessons of morality and policy to the grave, and maxims of deep and better philan thropy to neglected age and disappointed ambition. Young readers do not view Gulliver as a satirist, but simply as an adventurer. It is right that future youthful readers should know that the voyage to Lilliput refers chiefly to the court of Anne and George I., and to the politics that preVailed during Walpole's administration. Sir Robt. Walpole is plainly intimated, under the character of Flimnap. The factions of high-heels and lowheels express the factions of Tories and Whigs; the small-endians and big-endians, the religious division of Papist and Protestant; and, when the heir-apparent was described as wearing one heel higher than the other, the Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.), who at that time divided his favors between the two leading political parties, it is recorded, laughed heartily at the comparison. Blefusco is France. Some passages of the court of Brobdignag were supposed to be intended as an affront upon Queen Anne's maids of honor. The voyage to Laputa ridiculed the Royal Society, Newton, on account of an accidental error of calthen just formed. Swift here satirizes Sir Isaac culation which crept into the philosopher's great work. The office of flapper was suggested by Newton's habitual absence of mind. The idea of the satire of Laputa itself is taken from Rabelais. It was no motive of regard for mankind that originated this work. "The whole building of my Gulliver's Travels (says Swift) is erected upon foundation of misanthropy. The chief aim I propose, in all my labors, is to vex the world Such were the midnight adventures of my poor friend. It was only one of many trials that she afterwards underwent before she once more re-a gained her native land. She used ofter. to say to me, "I think, if you ever write another book on the backwoods, some of my adventures might furnish you with matter for its pages." I would not have it inferred from these pages that, because some young men have erred in bringing out wives, unsuited by their former state of life, to endure the hardships of a bush-settling life, there are no exceptions. I would warn all who go home for British wives, to act openly, and use no deception, and to choose wisely such as are by habits and constitution able to struggle rather than divert it." We perpetually fancy ourselves intellectually transparent when we are opaque, and morally opaque when we are transparent. The firm foot is that which finds firm footing; the weak falters, although it be standing on a rock. Every man's follies are the caricature resem. blances of his wisdom. Lies are the ghosts of truth-the masks of faces. People who do a wrong, seldom bave any difficulty in finding out excuses and justification for it. SEDERUNT X. [SCENE:-The Shanty. Present-The Major, Laird, and Doctor.] LAIRD-What are ye glowerin' at sae lang and intently, Doctor? Ye're cen are as bright as twa bawbee dips. DOCTOR-I was thinking over the contents of a rather unpleasant epistle from my friend Cuticle, who does not seem over well pleased that our last sederunt should have embraced his opinions touching the hospital. MAJOR-Is the epistle intended to be made public? DOCTOR-I think so. You can judge, ever, for yourself. [Doctor reads.] and your guests, I must ask you to give me a corner in your Shanty. To begin, then, with your medicine Chief, the gallant old English gentleman, who, at some eighty odd years, goes about as light of foot as the youngest student-I thought, "well, if all the officers are a ditto of this old man, Toronto has in truth an admirable staff of medicos. However, as Mrs. Malaprop observes, comparisons are odorous, so I will make no further remarks touching your chirurgical Nestor, except that I was struck with the earnest anxious zeal, so characteristic of the true surgeon, displayed in the lively, cheerful, though sometimes unorthodox queries put by hlm. It is with the directors of the Institution, whohowever they may be, that I have to deal, not with the mere officers. I presume, for instance, that, as is the case with similar institutions elsewhere, your corporation has somewhat to say and do with the Hospital, or that there is a Board for its regulation. It is to such bodies that we look for the removal of any evil that may have crept into any association directly or indirectly within their jurisdiction; and it is to them we look, should they not have the power to remove the evil, to take some measures to counteract it, and to ensure the desired good in some other way to the public. Chesnut Street, Philadelphia, March 21st, 1853. DEAR SIR,-Had I for a moment supposed that you were so miserably poor in editorial furniture, as I now find you to be, certes my note-book should never have been opened in your presence, nor my rough jottings respecting the Toronto Hospital displayed to your subscribers' gaze. Do not fancy, however, that I am about, in the common vernacular, to eat my words, or that I said anything which I wish to retract. No. I am too sincere for that, too devoted an admirer of science going hand in hand with humanity to hide the truth; but I fear lest my remarks might not have been taken in the spirit in which they were made. Faults sometimes exist independent of crime, so in dealing with those faults we should be careful to separate the vices or defects of construction and arrangement, from those which may very properly be laid at the door of the authorities of an establishment. I am very unwilling to say or do anything that could possibly induce the learned Toronto Esculapii to give the "rheumatic shoulder" to their travelling Yankee brethren; but that I may more fully explain myself to you Kindness and zeal are not alone sufficient for the cure of disease or alleviation of misery. If the poor victim of a mechanical injury be laid in the pestilent atmosphere of an offensive chamber, what art can prevent the poison from entering and contaminating the stream of life as it flows through its meandering course? Is it just towards the surgeon or physician to compel him to house his patient in a kennel where, in a city by no means overburdened with charitable establishments, you may easily find both room and means to ensure to the poor and sick destitute all that art and science can afford to make his suffering lighter, and, it may be, to render the pillow of death less hard to him? If it was the custom now, as it was once, for the wealthier and more polite classes to seek out, in these abodes of "charity," as they are called, their suffering brothers and sisters, both you of Toronto and we of Philadelphia, should have fewer grievances and less real mischief uncorrected; but where a community leaves the pauper patient to be rended by a hired menial, where true charity gives not the "cup of cold water in the name of a disciple," when the offensive sore is suffered to exhale its noxious odors day and night into the nostrils of the poor, wasted, haggard being, who lies not even two feet from his equally unfortunate fellow-sufferer, the charity of the nineteenth century may not be vaunted. If you and others would but visit the dying couch of the victim of neglect, and stay beside their now deserted pallets, I trow scenes would be witnessed which would make you blush at the desecration heaped on the name when you hear men talk of their "Christian institutions;" nay, how much has the lapse of Christian charity tended to turn what ought to have been an imitation of the abode of happiness into a fac-simile of the regions of torment. Contrast the fate of an inmate of such an institution as yours, with what you see daily taking place in the private home. Is a brother--not a Christian brother-but a brother in station and rank, thrown on the bed of sickness, instantly busy and willing hands are ready to minister to wayward wants, and with soft and tempered tones to sooth and quiet peevish moanings; perfumed waters scent the air, light elastic tip-toe steps steal through the room, lest perchance the light sleep be broken, and what expressions of sympathy greet the ear, as the bare possibility of danger falls from the lips of some one. How eagerly is the physicians foot-fall watched for, and how anxiously does each one listen to and scan his every look as he notes the workings of disease on the frame of his suffering patient. To this scene your Hospital offers a contrast which proves "that though we give all our goods to feed the poor, we have not charity." But before you can persuade men to undertake even what they may admit to be a duty, you must remove all those serious impediments which interfere with the performance of those duties. Build a proper asylum in which the sick man may be in reasonable comfort; give space that he may at least breathe a little of the pure air of Heaven, and so arrange, by the help of an improved architecture, for the cleansing of the atmosphere of his room, that pestilent and disgusting vapour hang not over his couch. Next to cleanliness, ventilation and Christian sympathy, I would rank order and punctuality on the part of attendants, and the utmost candour and publicity of the condition of the affairs of the Institution. Of course, I am not fully informed of the internal management of your Institation, but judging from what passed before my eyes, I was not inclined to admit that your system was anything like what it is in the Old Country, as you call it, or as it is with ourselves. If I was correctly informed, the attendants have most of them been in office for some ten years or more, and yet up to this time they have made no Hospital Report of their successes or failures, nor did I see, save with one exception, a single Case Book which contained a regular well-kept record of the diseases and their treatment; this struck me with more force when I noticed the throng of students which blocked up the room in the "screened off" portion of which I noticed the bottles protected from the light by "the spider's silken web." Indeed, I was sarcastically informed by a Hibernian candidate for Esculapius' mantle :-"The only Reports that ever left the Institution were evil reports,' and some successful operations on the eyes of patients, who never after could see the difference between an altar candle and the bright beams of the mid-day sun when gone twelve by the town-clock." Such, sir, are the remarks which, tho' I did not wish, I have been forced to make on your Toronto Tabernacle of erysypelas and death; but under the hope that you will strive to perfect its imperfections, I hope that your misjudged publication of Shanty chat has still not been unproductive of good. Yours, &c., DAVID CUTICLE. DOCTOR.-There is one part of the letter relative to the disposal of bodies, after the manner of the London Fever Hospital, but I do not think it particularly interesting. LAIRD.-Ye're just richt, decent folk are no extraordinar fond o' having their own or their freen's bodies cuttet and carvit as if they were sae mony howtowdies. MAJOR-Doctor, did you or any other rational being ever take up a scull without having a train of thought awakened, that though sad, was yet not unpleasing? DOCTOR.-I cannot say what feelings are generally evoked by handling a scull, but this I know, that the last one I handled, produced no such train of thought in my mind, I assure you, but just the contrary. MAJOR-Cause, sir, cause. DOCTOR.-A friend was shewing me some sculls, pointing out their comparative thickness; one was, at least, three-quarters of an inch thick, another was something similar to ordinary pasteboard. He then (but I must premise, that he is no very firm believer in phrenology) put into my hands the remainder of his sculls, and two charts of a head taken by the same person at an interval of four days, pointing out at the same time, the difference of the sculls and the difference in the charts. He then asked me to explain how it was that fixed rules could apply to heads, where, in some cases, there was an internal depression WITHOUT a corresponding external elevation, and then fairly posed me by enquiring how one head, in four days, could so change, that, in that short space of time, the two charts would materially disagree. LAIRD.-Eh man! that's surely no' possible. DOCTOR.-I have the charts in my pocket, the sculls are at home. MAJOR.-Produce the charts, but remember that Phrenology, as a science, should not be hastily condemned, because a few incompe |