saddler and the idiot. This latter at the conclusion of the ceremony again vociferated for Jeff Davis, and was again obliged to change his tune. The orderly who led the newly-recruited horse helped himself to a halter that hung at the saddler's door, pleasantly suggesting to the proprietor that in recognition of the loyalty which he had just proved by taking the oath he would be permitted to contribute something to the great cause. rocks, ruins and camps, appeared all glittering with the golden light. It was a scene of surpassing grandeur, and one calculated to bring into impressive contrast Infinity with the littleness of men. We returned to Harper's Ferry, having successfully accomplished the serious object of the reconnoissance. If the farcical by-play which I have narrated had added nothing to the military prestige or moral force of the Government, it at least indicated what was to be the fate of the Border people during the coming wars. July 23, Tuesday.-Clear and pleasant. Mr. Luce, the new draughtsman, who has been lost since Sunday, reported again to-day. I was pleased to find him a clever artist with his pencil. While he, Lieutenant Smith, and myself were amusing ourselves caricaturing each other, Captain Simpson appeared at the door of the tent looking very much flushed and excited. "Gentlemen," said he, "look at my countenance, and read the news." A guard was sent to arrest a county magistrate named Price, charged with being a zealous administrator of Confederate laws and oaths of fealty to the so-called Government. When arraigned the magistrate firmly asserted his opinions, and was detained under guard. His son, who stood by, then voluntarily proclaimed himself a rebel, and was also taken into custody. I was touched with this exhibition of filial piety, and rode beside the young man for the purpose of relieving any apprehensions he might have in regard to the safety or civil treatment of his father. He recognized me and called me by name, asking why his father had been arrested. I replied, he had been guilty of high "We have been beaten at Manassas-beattreason against the United States in undertak- en disgracefully. The troops ran, and were ing to administer the laws of a rebellious gov-cut to pieces like sheep, abandoning artillery, ernment. The young man looked as if in a baggage, and every thing else in their panic.". maze. "The State of Virginia has ordered him to do it, and being a magistrate of the State, how can he refuse?" I endeavored to explain to him the theory of National Supremacy as it had been taught to me; but he suggested a practical difficulty which the theory did not meet. "Our State authorities," said he, "threaten us with confiscation and death if we do not obey them, and the United States menaces us with worse if we do. Now what in the name of God are we to do?" 66 My young friend," I replied, "your question is a pertinent one, and difficult to answer. It is even now in process of solution, by the last argument of kings and governments. When that thundering debate shall have been closed we may be able to speak advisedly on this subject. Meanwhile, permit me to say that I have been touched by your manly bearing, and will interest myself to procure the speedy release of your father and yourself." The expedition continued its movement by the Hillsborough pike toward Harper's Ferry. On a tree by the road-side was discovered a written placard ordering the assembly of the militia, and signed by a Captain Tevis. A military ruse was planned by one of the officers, which resulted in the capture of Captain Tevis (whose house was near at hand) and the confiscation of his military dress and equip ments. This exploit concluded the adventures of the day. The rain had ceased, and as we wheeled around the base of Loudon Heights a glorious sunset burst suddenly upon us. The whole western horizon was ablaze, while rivers and "What is it? What of the battle ?" exclaimed one and all. The pencils were laid aside. Going up to head-quarters with our chief, we heard on all sides the fiery curses of rage, mortification, and 'disappointment. A proposition to march rapidly on Winchester with a column of five or six thousand men was under discussion. But the decisive battle had been fought, and this tardy effort to retrieve error and disaster could have accomplished nothing to justify the risk. It was very properly dismissed. I did not forget my promise to the Loudon prisoners, who received some judicious counsel, and were discharged-all except the horse. July 24, Wednesday.-Clear and warm. Our discharged troops are still streaming across the Potomac by regiments, homeward bound. I met some Union refugees from Martinsburg this morning, who told me that Allan's regiment had been dreadfully cut up at Manassas. They named among the killed several young men of my acquaintance and kindred. The bodies had already been brought home and buried. The whole county was in mourning. The National cause was, for the present, entirely lost in Virginia. I foresaw the effect this victory would have upon public opinion, and trembled for the safety of my friends and family at Berkeley. Having obtained leave of absence, I started the same afternoon to visit them. At Sharpsburg I took supper, and, to shorten the next day's ride, pushed on seven miles further, to Jones's tavern, on the Hagerstown road. I was informed that I could be comfortably lodged there if I could succeed in arousing the landlord, who was notoriously sleepy-headed. I got to the house about ten P.M., and spent the next hour shouting and pounding at the door. My perseverance was at length rewarded, and I got fairly to bed at hazard a battle, or to defend Winchester at eleven. that time, is best known to himself; but he well knew, as every one else now knows, that the most stunning defeat inflicted on Patterson's army could not have rendered it more useless than it would have been at Winchester, or at any other point in the Valley of the Shenandoah, on the day of the decisive battle at Manassas. Nor does it seem at all probable In reviewing the campaign of General Patterson by the light of experience and fuller information, I am led to the conclusion that its futility was insured in its conception. The movement of the National army by the line of Martinsburg and Bunker's Hill must, of course, leave it entirely optional with Johnston wheth-that an able and subtle enemy would have cared er to reinforce Manassas or to hazard a battle to waste his limited supply of ammunition on a in a position of his own selection. No mancu- force that was melting away of itself, and in a vre of the Federal commander from that direc- few days would have been reduced to a mere tion could interfere with the free-will of an act-handful. ive and well-informed enemy. Every march which General Patterson made toward Winchester withdrew him from the decisive field of action, while by every retrograde Johnston was thrown nearer his unbroken lines of communication and the vital point of the campaign. Whether General Johnston really intended to This expedition, to have been successful, should have moved from Harper's Ferry on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, or through Leesburg, as its commander suggested. But the bad policy of operating on exterior lines against an enemy on interior lines is too well understood at this day to require discussion. MIDSUMMER. PAST many a shady nook, "Twixt grass-grown banks with feathery fern Glides on its devious way Through all the livelong day, While fields and woods with summer song. are sounding. Far off across the vale, Where the light vapors sail, Veiled with thin mist the purple hills are sleeping; And in the ripened field, Amid the summer's yield, The farmers now the golden grain are reaping. The locust sings unseen Behind some leafy screen, While the hot sun looks down with fiery All Nature seems to swoon From heat to heat, the glowing day ad vances. The deep creek, winding, flows The silvery willow marked with sun and And in its glassy wave The cattle come to lave Their sweltering limbs from feeding in the Steeped in the blinding light, Across the vault with listless motion sailing, Along the bending grain, Their grateful shadows o'er the earth are trailing. From farm-yards far and near The laborers' work is stopped, The whetted scythes are dropped, And homeward now their eager feet are tending. Beside the cottage porch, The sunflower's shining torch, That marked with rings of flame the sum- Stands in proud splendor there Is drowsy with the sweet bees' idle hum- Within the garden blows The fragrant summer rose, Whose blushing leaves with sweet perfume are laden; And swaying gently there, The lily, passing fair, Hangs her meek head like some retiring maiden. Oh, glorious summer! stay, Nor hasten yet away From the sweet fields with thy warm beauty My life has reached its prime, And all my blood with added warmth is The day at last declines, The west with splendor shines As slantwise now the sun's last beams are falling, And all the dazzling air, Bright with the sunset's glare, Is filled with myriad voices blithely calling. HERE are very few animals among the | der tail aids it materially in sustaining itself. In greatly of insects, flies being especial favorites, The Common Mouse, also, is a notable little house-builder, making nests out of various materials, and placing them oftentimes in very odd places, as the following instances will show: At the end of autumn a number of flower-pots had been set aside in a shed, in waiting for the coming spring. Toward the middle of winter the shed was cleared out and the flower-pots removed. While carrying them out of the shed the owner was rather surprised to find a round upon aerial architecture. Consequently the Harvest Mouse, found in many parts of England, is regarded with special interest; and this not only because its home is suspended above the ground in such a manner as to entitle it to the name of a true pensile nest, but also on account of its intrinsic beauty and elegance. The nest is generally hung to several stout grass-stems; sometimes it is fastened to wheat straws; and occasionally it is found suspended to the head of a thistle. It is a very beautiful structure, being made of very narrow grasses, and woven so carefully as to form a hollow globe, rather larger than a cricket-ball, and very nearly as round. The Harvest Mouse is an elegant little creature, so tiny that, when full-grown, it weighs scarcely more than the sixth of an ounce, and we can not but wonder how it contrives to form so complicated an object as a hollow sphere with thin walls. The walls are so thin that an object inside the nest can be easily seen from any part of the exte-hole in the mould, and examined it closely. rior; there is no opening whatever, and when In the hole was seen, not a plant, but the tail the young are in the nest they are packed so of a mouse, which leaped from the pot as soon tightly that their bodies press against the wall as it was set down. Presently another mouse in every direction. As there is no defined followed from the same aperture, showing that opening, and as the walls are so loosely woven, a nest lay beneath the soil. On removing the it is probable that the mother is able to push earth a neat and comfortable nest was found, her way between the meshes, and so to arrange made chiefly of straw and paper, the entrance or feed her young. The position of the nest, to which was the hole through which the inwhich is always at some little height, presup-mates had fled. The most curious point in poses a climbing power in the architect. All connection with this nest was, that although the mice and rats are good climbers, but the Har-earth in the pot seemed to be intact except for vest Mouse is especially well fitted for climb-the round hole, which might have been made ing, inasmuch as its long and flexible toes can by a stick, none was found within it. The infirmly grasp the grass-stem, and its long slen-genious little architects had been clever enough to scoop out the whole of the earth and to carry the finer sorts of grass are used, as well as it away, so as to form a cavity for the reception some stems of delicate climbing weeds, which of their nest. They did not completely empty are no larger than ordinary thread, and which the pot, as if knowing by instinct that their serve to bind the mass together. Interwoven habitation would be betrayed, but allowed a with the grass are leaves, which fill up the inslight covering of earth to remain upon their terstices. The entrance to the pest is so innest. A number of empty bottles had been geniously concealed t it to find it is not a very stowed away upon a shelf, and among them easy matter, even when its precise position is was found one which was tenanted by a mouse.known; and in order to show the manner in The little creature had considered that the bot- which it is constructed, one of the Dormice is tle would afford a suitable home for her young, represented in the act of drawing aside the and had therefore conveyed into it a quantity grass-blades that conceal it. The pendent of bedding which she made into a nest. The pieces of grass that are being held aside by the bottle was filled with the nest, and the eccen- little paw are so fixed, that when released from tric architect had taken the precaution to leave pressure they spring back over the aperture a round hole corresponding to the neck of the and conceal it in a very effectual manner. Such bottle. In this remarkable domicile the young a nest is usually about six inches in length and were placed; and it is a fact worthy of notice three in width. Although the Dormouse uses that no attempt had been made to shut out the this aerial house as a residence, it does not light. Nothing would have been easier than make use of it as a granary. Like many othto have formed the cavity at the under-side, so er hibernating animals, it collects a store of that the soft materials of the nest would ex-winter food, which generally consists of nuts, clude the light; but the mouse had simply grain, and similar substances. These treasformed a comfortable hollow for her young, ures are carefully hidden away in the vicinity and therein she had placed them. It is there- of the nest, and in the illustration the animal fore evident that the mouse has no fear of is shown as eating a nut which it has taken light, but that it only chooses darkness as a from one of its storehouses beneath the thick means of safety for its young. The rapidity branch. with which the mouse can make a nest is somewhat surprising. Some few years ago, in a farmer's house, a loaf of newly-baked bread was placed upon a shelf, according to custom. Next day a hole was observed in the loaf; and when it was cut open a mouse and her nest was discovered within, the latter having been made of paper. On examination, the material of the habitation was found to have been obtained from a copy-book, which had been torn into shreds and arranged into the form of a nest. Within this curious home were nine new-born mice. Thus in the space of thirty-six hours, at most, the loaf must have cooled, the interior been excavated, the book found and cut into suitable pieces, the nest made, and the young brought into the world. Surely it is no won-wonderful group represented in the accompanyder that mice are so plentiful, or that their many enemies fail to exterminate them. When in a state of liberty, and able to work in its own manner, the Dormouse is an admirable nest-maker. As it passes the day in sleep, it must needs have some retired domicile in which it can be hidden from the many enemies which might attack a sleeping animal. One The Stag Beetle and the Golden-crested Wren have been introduced into the illustration to show the comparative size of the animals. It is hardly possible to overrate the wonderful varieties of form that are assumed by the nests of insects-varieties so bold and so startling that few would believe in the possibility of their existence without ocular demonstration. No rule seems to be observed in them; at all events no rule has as yet been discovered by which their formation is guided; neither has any conjecture been formed as to the reason for the remarkable forms which they assume. In the British Museum there is a splendid collection of curious nests, but none perhaps which awakens more surprise and admiration than the ing illustration. Although the seven nests were not all found adhering to a single branch-being placed near each other only to allow of easy comparison-they were all made by an insect bearing the somewhat scientific name of Apoica. This insect, although by no means a handsome creature, well deserves its scientific title. By referring to the illustration it will be of these nests is depicted in the illustration, seen that the nests are by no means uniform in being situated in a hedge about four feet from size or shape. The larger one, which occuthe ground, and is placed in the forking of a pies the centre, rather exceeds ten inches in branch, the smaller twigs of which form a kind diameter, while the small nest at the end of of palisade round it. The substances of which the same branch is scarcely half as wide, and the it is composed are of two kinds; namely, grass- others are of all the intermediate sizes. In blades and leaves of trees. Two or three kinds shape, too, they differ, some being perfectly of grass are used, the greater part being the hexagonal, others partly so, while others again well-known sword-grass, whose sharp edges are nearly circular, though on a careful inspeccut the fingers of a careless handler. The tion they show faint traces of the hexagonal blades are twisted round the twigs and through form. The upper surfaces are more or less the interstices, until they form a hollow nest, convex, according to their size; this form berather oval in shape. Toward the bottoming evidently intended for the purpose of mak |