Musidora, previous to leaving South Carolina for ever, where all her ancestors had resided on that same Palmetto Grove, from generation to generation, and had never, by tradition, or even the malice of enemies, been accused of a disgraceful, lawless, or criminal act,-Musidora went to the family grave-yard, all embosomed among the centennial monarchs of the forest, to fall down on her knees, and to say farewell And yet I whisper, 'as God will!' "He comes and lays my heart, all heated, Into His own fair shape to heat it With His great hammer, blow on blow, "He takes my soften'd heart and beats it; He turns it o'er and o'er, and heats it, And lets it cool and makes it glow; "He kindles for my profit purely, Affliction's glowing, fiery brand, So I say, praying, 'as God will!' to the beloved dust of her father, her mother, her sisters, her brothers, her nephews, her nieces, and the long line of grandmothers and grandfathers, all sleeping in this sacred spot. This venerable grave-yard had been Musidora's sanctum sanctorum from her earliest orphaned childhood. Here she had always repaired to refresh her spirits when loneliness, non-appreciation, and unkindness met her at every turn in her step-mother's house. Language cannot explain the intimate communion between her spirit and these noble dead. Often, very often, when despair placed in her hand that "bare bodkin" with which to make her quietus, the dead yet. speaking voice of her mother would restore strength to bear the ills and tomb-like isolation of her destiny on earth. But now Musidora was to go off to a foreign. land, and leave forever this mausoleum that contained the sacred remains of her angelic mother. 66 Mother, dear mother! the feelings nurst As I hung at thy bosom, clung round thee first! 'Tis the only one that will long remain; And as, year by year, and day by day, Mother, dear mother! oh, dost thou not see How the shorten'd chain brings me nearer to thee?" Though none of the household of Musidora's stepmother cared at all at all what was to be her destiny with an utter stranger for a husband, Musidora still commanded the warm sympathy of hundreds of as humble, sincere hearts as ever throbbed in human breast; for all the negroes on the plantations fr twenty miles around Palmetto Grove had from her childhood been perfectly devoted to her; and now eith one sent or came to bid her good-bye, as if she was their own loved child; to offer up prayers for her Lappiness as a wife, and to bring some tiny, uncostly thing as a present, that did not intrinsically exceed in value the two mites which the Bible tells us the poor widew cast into the treasury; but still, the said two mites were a splendid self-abnegation; for they were all the poor woman had even her very living. * Mr. Trollope, the Englishman, says sneeringly that "the negro loves his master as the dog does." Now, pray let us ask him if there is any faithfulness that surpasses that of your dog? If you are angry, he deprecatingly assumes humility of attitude. If you punish him, and lock him up, the moment you open his prison-door, he rushes to welcome you with every expression of blissful reconciliation. If you rave in hopeless grief, striding up and down your room all night, this faithful creature will keep awake, and finally wag his tail, and persuade you, by his mute but most expressive sympathy, that you need not blow your brains out in hopelessness while you have such an unchanging, consecrated friend as he is. In fine, there are, perhaps, few sensitive and sorrowful geniuses who have had to run the gauntlet of this selfish world, who will not, in the end, in perfect despair, turn to the pet dog, and feel in his inmost heart that his friendship and gratitude are more truly refreshing and pure than any he has ever experienced from those who are called rational creatures. The very worst men that have ever lived have had a sanctum sanctorum in their hearts still sacred to the love of their dog. The slave can never be treated with the hardness of heart that poor white operatives are, because the fact of his being dependent makes his master love to patronize him. What," says Webster, "more tender, more solemnly affecting, more profoundly pathetic, than this charity, this offering to God, of a farthing? We know nothing of her name, her family, or her tribe. We only know that she was a poor woman, and a widow, of whom there is nothing left upon record but this sublimely simple story, that when the rich men came to cast their proud offerings into the treasury, this poor woman came also, and cast in her two mites, which made a farthing! And that example, thus made the subject of Divine commendation, has been read, and told, and has gone abroad everywhere, and sunk deep into a hundred million of hearts, since the commencement of the Christian era, and has done more good than could be accomplished by a thousand marble palaces; because it was charity mingled with true benevolence, given in the fear, the love, the service, and the honor of God; because it was charity that had its origin in religious feeling; because it was a gift to the honor of God." The poor among the white people, whom Musidora had, from earliest girlhood, labored among as a missionary of progress in religion, civilized and useful arts, and education-yes, these people surrounded her now with heartfelt grief that nevermore would they be blessed with her experienced, wise ministrations of charity, in sickness, in health, in childhood, and old age; so that, although envy and detraction had pursued Musidora with their poisonous fangs in idle, gossiping, aristocratic society, the poor, the very poor and humble, had been her true friends; for she had improved their happiness by enlightening their minds and educating their hearts; therefore, with one voice they rose up and called her blessed. "Two principles govern the moral and intellectual world. One is, perpetual progress; the other, necessary limitations to that progress. If the former alone prevailed, there would be nothing steadfast and endurable on earth, and the whole of social life would be the sport of winds and waves. If the latter had exclusive sway, or even if it obtained a mischievous preponderancy, everything would petrify or rot. The best ages of the world are always those in which these two principles are the most equally balanced. In such ages, every enlighten -i man ought to adopt both principles into his whole mini and conduct, and with one hand develop what he can, with the other restrain and uphold what he ought." The moment had now arrived for Musidora to embark, and yet her step-mother would not allow her to leave her home forever without again wounding Ler feelings. Halcombe, seeing a few very fine nuts lying on the table, handed them to Musidora, to eat in the boat. But Mrs. Wyndham stepped up and said, "No; I wish them for my own daughter." Musidora burst into tears; for she could not comprehend how any woman in the world could have proved so heartless to an orphan who had been in her care almost from infancy. The black boatmen, gaily dressed, and very proud of the new member of the family, Mr. Walsingham, formed, as usual, a sedan-chair, by two strong men locking arms; and then kneeling, to allow the bride and groom to get seated, they passed over the mud with their burden, and deposited them safely in the boat; and, as the tide was beginning to ebb, an 1 the wind was perfectly fair, the sails were spread, and in twelve or fourteen hours the bridal party safely landed in the town of Savannah, Georgia, from whence they expected to to take passage to Liverpool. Finding that the ship would not leave Savannah for several days, Mr. Walsingham and his wife went to the |