very gentle and pleasant speech,ployments, these are her favor always kind, and generally lively; ites. Oh, the shallings, the cloakthe sweetest temper; the easiest ings, the cloggings! the cautions manners; a single rectitude and against cold, or heat or rain, or singleness of mind; a perfect open- sun! the remedies for iseases not heartedness; and a total uncon-arrived! colds uncaught! incipisciousness of all these charms; and ent tooth-aches! rheumatisms to you will wonder a little that she come! She loves nursing so well, is aunt Martha still. I have heard that we used to accuse her of inhints of an early engagement bro- venting maladies for other people, ken by the fickleness of man;- that she might have the pleasure and there is about her an aversion of curing them; and when they to love in one particular direc- really come-as come they will tion-the love matrimonial-and sometimes in spite of aunt Maran overflowing of affection in all tha-what a nurse she is! It is other channels, that seems as if worth while to be a little sick to the natural course of the stream be so attended. All the cousins, had been violently dammed up. cousins' cousins of her connexion, She has many lovers-admirers I as regularly send for her on the should say for there is, amidst occasion of a lying-in, as for the her good-humored gaiety, a coy-midwife. I suppose she has unness that forbids their going far- dergone the ceremony of dandling ther; a modesty almost amount- the baby, sitting up with the new ing to shyness, that checks even the laughing girls, who sometimes accuse her of stealing away their beaux. I do not think any man on earth would tempt her into wedlock;—it would be a most unpardonable monopoly if any one should; an intolerable engrossing of a general blessing; a theft from the whole community. mamma, and dispensing the caudle, twenty times at least. She is equally important at weddings or funerals. Her humanity is inexhaustible. She has an intense feeling of fellowship with her kind, and grieves or rejoices in the sufferings or happiness of others with a reality as genuine as it is rare. Her accomplishments are exHer usual home is the white actly of this sympathetic order; house covered with roses; and her all calculated to administer much station in the family is rather to the pleasure of her companions doubtful. She is not the mistress, and nothing to her own impor for her charming nieces are old tance or vanity. She leaves to enough to take and adorn the head the syrens, her neices, the higher of the table; nor the housekeep- enchantments of the piano, the er, though, as she is the only lady harp, and the guitar, and that noof the establishment who wears blest of instruments, the human pockets, those ensigns of author-voice; ambitious of no other muity, the keys will sometimes be sical fame than such as belongs to found, with other strays in that the playing of quadrilles and goodly recepticle; nor a guest, her waltzes for their little dances, in spirit is too active for that lazy which she is indefatigable: she post; her real vocation there, and neither caricatures the face of every where, seems to be comfort-man nor of nature under pretence ing, cheering, welcoming and spoil- of drawing figures or landscapes; ing every thing that comes in her but she ornaments the recticules, way; and, above all, nursing and bell-ropes, ottomans, and chairtaking care. Of all kind em- covers of all her acquaintance, with flowers as rich and luxurious fallen to decay. The moon was as her own beauty. She draws shining in unclouded brightness, patterns for the ignorant, and and all was calm, serene, and siworks flounces, frills, and baby-lent as the graves by which I was linen, for the idle; she reads aloud surrounded, not an emotion of to the sick, plays at cards with fear or apprehension crossed my the old, and loses at chess to the mind until from a distant tomb I unhappy. Her gift in gossiping, saw a female figure in white, slowtoo, is extraordinary; she is a gen-ly rising; she stood for a moment tle newsmonger, and turns her gazing on the sod beneath her scandal on the sunny side. But feet, her face exhibited the most she is an old maid still; and cer- ghastly paleness, and the bandage tain small peculiarities hang about that passed under her jaws beher. She is a thorough hoarder: spoke her to be an inmate of the whatever fashion comes up, she is tomb over which she was bending. sure to have something of the sort Clasping her hands together, she by her or, at least, something uttered a low and indistinct moan thereunto convertible. She is a and walking slowly around the little superstitious; sees strangers tomb, she stooped to gather some in her tea-cup, gifts in her finger shrubs or leaves which she carenails, letters and winding sheets fully examined by the light of the in the candles, and purses and cof-moon. I was petrified to the fins in the fire; would not spill the spot!-never before had I seen salt for all the worlds that one ever has to give;' and looks with dismay on a crossed knife and fork. Moreover she is orderly to fidgetiness; that is her greatest calamity!-for young ladies now-ing all my fortitude, I asked or a-days are not quite so tidy as they should be-and ladies' maids are much worse; and drawers are tumbled, and drawing-rooms in a litter. Happy she to whom a dis-vance and calling in a louder voice arranged drawer can be a misery! dear and happy aunt Martha! FOR THE BOWER OF TASTE. A GHOST. Ha! who comes here? is it the weakness of mine eyes that form this monstrous apparition. Speak to me, what art thou? an object for which I could not account,-I felt the blood curdle coldly through my veins, and each separate hair seemed to stand erect on my head, till summon rather shrieked forth, in the name heaven who are you? the Ghost started and seemed about to depart-this encouraged me to ad I enquired who are you, and why are you here; finding herself pursued, the Ghost paused and stood still before me, the fresh leaves which she had plucked from the grave still waving in her hands; retreating a few steps from this terrifying form I said why have you left the tomb-what do you here? Lord! Sir, exclaimed she BEING on a visit to my native with a most unghostly voice—you town, I was returning one morn- dont think I come out of a tomb ing about 2 o'clock from a party do you? Why I live in that are perhaps a mile distant from my house long side of the gate, and I father's house, wishing to shorten was half dead with the tooth the distance, I did as I had often ache and so up I got and come done before in the day time, cross-here to get some plantain leaves ed through an old church yard to bind on my face,-but were whose walls in many places had you not afraid of Ghosts my good threw a gloom on the company, and all efforts to turn the conversation from the sad subject before them were ineffectual. About midnight the door opened; and the form, in white, of the dying or the dead man, walked into the room, and took his seat in his accustomed chair. There he remained in silence, and in silence was he gazed at. The apparition continued a sufficient time in the chair to assure all who were present of the reality of the vision. At In all ages, persons of weak intel-length he arose, and stalked tolects have believed in apparitions: yet we may confidently affirm, that stories of ghosts are mistakes or impositions, and that they may always be detected by a proper exercise of the mental faculty. In all situations of this kind, there is manifestly an endeavor to make the events as supernatural, wonderful, and as well attested as possible, to prevent the suspicion of trick, and to silence all objections which might be made to their credibility. In compliance with this custom, we will recount a story of a ghost, which seems to possess all the desired requisites. wards the door, which he opened, as if living-went out and shut the door after him. After a long pause, some one, at last, had the resolution to say, 'If only one of us had seen this, he would not have been believed; but it is impossible that so many can have been deceived.' The company, by degrees, recovered their speech, and the whole conversation, as may be imagined, was upon the dreadful object which had engaged their attention. They broke up, and went home. In the morning, inquiry was made after their sick friend. It was answered by an At a town in the west of Eng-account of his death, which hapland, twenty-four persons were pened nearly about the time of accustomed to assemble once a his appearance in the club-room. week, to drink, smoke tobacco, and talk politics. Like the academy of Rubens, at Antwerp, each member had his peculiar chair, and the president's was more elevated than the rest. As one of the members had been in a dying state for some time, his chair, whilst he was absent remained vacant. When the club met on the usual night, inquiries were naturally made after their associate. As he lived in the adjoining house, a particular friend was to inquire after him, and returned with the melancholly intelligence, that he could not survive the night. This It is There could be little doubt before; but now, nothing could be more certain than the apparition, which had been simultaneously seen by so many persons. unnecessary to say, that such a story spread over the country, and found credit even from infidels; for in this case, all reasoning became superfluous, when opposed to a plain fact, attested by threeand-twenty witnesses. To assert the doctrine of the fixed laws of nature, was ridiculous, when there were so many people of credit to prove that they might be unfired. Years rolled on, and the story was almost forgotten. One of the club was an apothecary. In the course of his practice, he was called to an old woman, whose business it was to at tend sick persons. She told him Spir. Me! Trav. spirit? Art thou a mortal or a Spir. A spirit! Trav. Where my friends are, I would fain be-place me (whoever thou art) there. Spir. Thou art there! Say, are they happy? I Trav. Does our life end in this? that she could leave the world Trav. Relate their doom and Spir. Be satisfied! Trav. Nay, then farewell. Trav. Life is not unlike thee, a repetition of vain sounds and all is over. Spir. All is over. FOR THE BOWER OF TASTE. NATIVE SKETCHES, NO. IX. IN perusing the many periodicals with which the world abounds at the present day, it is truly amusing to observe the variety and uniqueness in many instances, of the signatures attached to the contained in them. If it were various original communications possible, that a person could read all of these, and still be unacquainted with the ways and condition of the world at this time, he would imagine that the ashes of all the great heroes,sages, and poets, that had long since ceased to exist, have become re- deformity-why couldst thou not animated, and were again fight- for once, have made thy appearing their battles, reforming the ance unattended by thy retinue world, or writing sonnets as he- of wrinkles, grey hairs, and frosty roic, grave, and pathetic as ever; beards; but alas, thou hast come all with the end of a quill. We in thy usual manner, and I cannot suppose, in general, that the char- but sigh deeply when I behold acter of a man corresponds in the lank, lean, spectral represensome measure with writing, and tation now exhibited to my eyes; so with his signature; but this with a drab colored phiz, bald conclusion, however probable, in head, and cheek bones projecting almost every case, differs widely like the angles of a fortified casfrom the truth; for instance, tle. Again, again, I cannot but how common is it for us to read sigh for the dolour that has come the essays and poems of mere upon me. As for love, I could beardless boys, to which are hardly define the term, so utterappended the grave names of Ca-ly ignorant am I of it, and when to, Socrates, or Homer. And how I hear of broken-hearted belles, frequently it is, that we are amus- and broken-hearted beauxs, all ed with the lucubrations of an for love, tis an excuse notwithIchabod, or some other pretended standing all my untiming researchold Bachelor, when if the truth es that puts even conjecture at were divulged, the writers, not-rest; and I am obliged to imagine it withstanding their vauntings of contagious mania. Not many of single blessedness, are quiver- my race I believe were ever afflicting at the very verge of the gulph of matrimony. ed with this malady; true, there is a tradition extant in our family, relating to one whose Christian name was Zadoc, called the one eyed; a grandfather of mine, Now for my own self, I have determined to follow the fashion in particular, and be as preposterous in a signature as others. in about the twentieth degree, The why I have done this, must remain a profound secret, otherwise it would lose its desired effect. on the mother's side, who when he had attained the age of thirty-two, was bereft of his reason for a certain space of time. Taking the common rule as The case of this Zadoc, was truly above stated, for a guide, all your deplorable, and the result unhapfair readers, would affirm that py and agravated in the extreme. a writer over the signature of Ed- In his youth he was a mild lad, win, must be a meek, blushing, and like most of his ancestors and melancholy, romantic, love-sigh-posterity, shunned all companing, and love-ogling young strip- ship with those troublers of ling; one whose whole taste and men's hearts, and brains, called merit consisted in conning love women. 'His sole female comditties, and writing sonnets to panion was a favorite one horned some cruel coquettish Dulcinea, cow, which he had milked and and bless their dear souls, I half driven to pasture, from his youth wish it were the case. But the upwards, as regularly as the sun sad reverse in all but one instance, had arisen and set. Towards the is too apparent in my truth tell- close of his thirty-first year, he ing mirror, to warrant even an at- had divers signs and presentiments tempt at deception or conceal-pertaining unto, and forewarning ment. Oh age, withered age, and him of approaching misfortunes, |