anecdote startled me a little, as may be easily imagined, I cut or divided into bitts of the denomination of dollars, related to me as it was on the very spot, and under cir- reals, &c. &c. cumstances precisely similar to those under which it occurred. However, vanity came to my aid, and prompt-Islands in the neighborhood: the principal one I visited

ed me to endeavor to perform what the governor had so fatally failed in accomplishing, and my attempt was

successful.

IV.

Panama-A Scotsman-Architecture-A Gold Story-Tobago-
A Beauty-The Sketcher in Love-The way to live on Pine
Apples-Snakes-A Perilous Bath.

While at Panama I made a trip to some of the Pacific

was Tobago, one of the most curious and striking spots I have ever seen. The island is about eight miles in length, and four or five in breadth, rising into a high hill in the centre, thickly wooded, and yet there is not a tree upon the island, that does not bear a fruit. I was there during a church festival, and there was uninterrupted dancing the whole week. Some of the I arrived at Panama in eight hours, an astonishingly women are very beautiful, and among them there was short time considering the roads, and as there are no one to whom I had nearly lost my heart during the boarding or lodging houses in the town, I made my way short time I was at Tobago, so transcendant was her at once to the grand square, where I had a letter of in- beauty. I do not call it loveliness-it was passion, troduction to a braw Scot, Mr. McK, who received (and so my fit was soon over.) She had no face-do me like a brother Briton. His hospitality displayed you know what I mean? it was all feature. Excuse a itself in some novel ways. As my luggage was still on dauber's smacking of "the shop." And then what a the road, I was stripped and bathed in brandy, to coun-model was she for the sculptor! A fine though not a teract the effects of a severe wetting I had received on high forehead, upon which the jetty hair was most my journey, and equipped cap à pie from the wardrobe of mine host. He was very tall, and his linen trowsers hung around me "as a purser's shirt upon a handspike," to use a nautical simile of more expressiveness than elegance. I was indebted to my new friend even for the loan of a hat, mine having been substituted at Cruzes for a negro hat to ride in. This last article of my travelling equipments seemed to scandalize the good Panamians not a little.

simply yet tastefully parted; eyes large and dark as the hair; but with such a fire in them! Her nose was beautifully chiselled, and her disparted lips disclosed teeth more white than pearl. Her form, so youthful was she, was not developed, and figure, as such, she had none. But what passion was in that soul! She crossed my path in the dance, at church, on the island's beach, and every where it was the same-she was all soul. I saw her angry, and I thought I would not rouse her for the world; and then, reveried I, what must she be, if in love! The thought threw me into a brown study, out of which I awoke, and I soon began to feel completely in love-but it was with the pine apples of Tobago! Never ate I such delicious fruit before as this, the abundant product of the island I have described. For my own part I quite forgot my Katinka, and gave myself up to the fascinations of a cheaper and more easily accessible luxury. I used to consume, upon an average, eight pine apples per diem, without fear of cholera, dispepsia, or any of the train of "ills that flesh is heir to." There was a place they called "The Bishop's Bath," formed in a rock by the constant running of a stream of pure water, and sufficiently deep for a bath. Here several of us were wont to meet every day and refresh ourselves with the delicious coolness of the

It was a treat to me, living as I had been for six years in a new country, to find myself once more among such stately ruins and antique edifices, as the churches, monasteries, colleges and nunneries, which, erected upon the first introduction of christianity into Southern America, are still standing either in part, or entire. My portfolio will show you with what warmth and enthusiasm I greeted them. The ruins of the monastery of St. Francesco, and the college of the Jesuits, are as beautiful specimens of architecture as can be imagined. They were built with all that taste of design and gorgeousness of finish, which the founders of them derived from the Moors of Grenada. I spent much time in wandering among their massive columns and fallen entablatures, their heavy lofty walls and sculptured ruins. The wealth of the town is not great at present, although I heard many Panamians speak of the abun-water-our host always despatching a servant with a dance which existed ten or fifteen years ago, when sacks of gold were wont to lie like any other heavy merchandize, all night in the principal street, with no one near to watch them. No one thought of stealing, for no one wanted aught. It was, in truth, "the golden age." I, of course, as you will do, probably, received this legend with some few reserved doubts of its authenticity. As a pendant to it, I was also informed of a curious custom that at the same time prevailed in the Isthmus. In the dance, if a gentleman wished to make himself acceptable to a lady, he would take his hand full of small golden coin, and throw it among the circle of spectators, (every one is admitted to the dances,) so that it became a matter of fashionable boast among the fair ones, "I have had so many pieces thrown for me," etc. etc. But things are not now as they used to was," and a Panamian is now apt to consider the possession of a real regular immutilated doubloon a god-send: the currency being in what they call cut money—that is, the large coin

hamper of pines, as an accompaniment of our bath. Upon our return a profusion of fruits awaited us: melons, pines, cocoas, mangoes, &c. &c. These we would eat from the table, or as we lay upon our beds. All this was too luxurious for me, and I began to feel sure that if I were to give myself up unyieldingly to the fascinations around me, while at this island of Pomona, I should never be fit for any thing else again as long as I lived.

I enjoyed my rambles about the island very much at first, but soon began to learn the old lesson of the thorn under the rose, the bitter mingled with the sweet, the drop of poison in the cooling cup, &c. Throughout New Grenada, there are thousands of snakes, the bite of almost all of which is fatal. That of the black snake, the species so common and so innocent in the United States, is as poisonous here as the rattlesnake is there. So I soon began to confine myself to the coast, and gave up rambling. I remember one occasion, upon which I

years, who might have served as a model to the sculptor, as a study to the painter. A rich profusion of black hair, in the tasteful adjustment of which, Art had so nicely seconded the gift of Nature, that it was scarcely possible to say to which its elegance was owing, set off the snowy whiteness of the neck and face; and I would add, (if I may once more be permitted to avail myself of the superannuated comparison,) that the freshest rose could alone compare its beauty with the carnation of

got a deuse of a fright. I had been bathing, and had left the water but about five minutes, when a gentleman, who was undressing to go into the same bath, perceived and pointed out to me a small snake swimming about in it, very much at his ease. We took the reptile out and killed it on the margin of the basin. It was a small red snake, marked with black rings, and its bite is instant death. It is a common opinion that island snakes are harmless. It may be so-but I had rather take the theory for granted without a practical | her cheek and lip; to these charms were added, a form illustration of it in my own person.

of the most graceful proportions; and, all that the youthful may borrow, with discernment, from the art of the toilette, had been employed to increase, still farther, beauty already so attractive.

We returned to Panama in time to witness the bull fights, which last three or four days, in August, the anniversary of the revolution which resulted in the independence of New Grenada. I must sharpen my pencil, and nib my pen afresh to tell you of my amuse-near which she had placed herself to obtain a more fament during those three or four days.

SACRED SONG.

"Where are now the blooming bowers."
Where are now the blooming bowers
That I saw in early May?
Where are all those fairest flowers
That were soon to pass away?
And the Loves my bosom nourished,
And the Joys that still came on?
Like those flowers, once they flourished,
Like those flowers, they are gone.

Fancy now no more shall borrow

Beams of beauty from the skies;
Hope no more, to soothe my sorrow,
Whisper, "brighter suns shall rise."
Yet one thought my soul shall cherish,
For the word of God is sure,
And the heavens and earth shall perish,
But his mercy shall endure.

THE TWO SISTERS.

BY MADAME JULIE DELAFAYE-BRÉHIER.
[Translated from the French.]

.... On a peu de temps à l'être (belle,)
Et de temps à ne l'être plus!

Madame Deshoulières.

Half concealed beneath the draperies of the window,

vorable light, the other female pursued her occupation with undistracted attention; a certain gravity appeared in her dress, in her countenance, and in her physiognomy altogether. Her eyes were beautiful, but calmness was their chief expression; her smile was obliging, but momentary; the brilliant hues of youth, now evidently fading on her cheeks, less rounded than once they were, appeared but as the lightest shadings of a picture; sometimes, indeed, deepened by sudden and as transient emotion, like the colors which meteors throw on the clouds of the heavens in the evening storms of summer. The gauzes, the rubies, the jewels, with which the young adorn themselves, were not by her employed merely as ornaments; she availed herself of them, to conceal with taste, the outrages of years; for the weight of more than thirty years was already upon her; and the ingenious head dress with which she had surmounted her hair, served to hide, at the same time, some silvery tell-tales, which had dared thus prematurely, to mingle with her long tresses of blond.

"There's broken again! look at that detestable silk!" said the younger female, throwing her work on to a sofa; "I will not do another stitch to day."

She rose, and approaching the mirror before her, amused herself by putting up afresh the curls of her hair.

"You want patience, Leopoldine," answered her sister, looking on her affectionately, "and without that will accomplish nothing. You will require patience as well to conduct you through the world, as to enable you to finish a purse."

but for him to avow the fact to my aunt Dorothée."

"I know the rest, my sister," replied the younger, smiling. "Do you forget that a certain person has charged himself with the duty of teaching me the les son? Ten purses, like that which I am embroidering, would not put me out of patience so much as this silence In a parlor furnished with much taste, and from the of M. de Berville. Can you conceive what detains him half-opened windows of which were seen the winding thus ?" added she, seating herself near her sister, “for, walks, and "alleys green," of a park, filled with mag-in fact, he loves me, that is certain, and nothing remains nificent and shady trees, two young ladies were employing themselves in those delicate works, which have become the portion of our sex, and which, whilst they appear to occupy the fingers only, serve also to divert the mind in a pleasant manner, and even to give a greater facility to the current of thought. One of the females, either by chance or design, had placed herself opposite a mirror, where she could not lift her eyes from her work, without seeing herself reflected therein, adorned in all the brightness of a beauty of seventeen

"This looks very like presumption," my dear Leopoldine, pursued the elder sister, "and that is not good; what can it signify to you what he thinks! I hope your happiness does not depend on him.”

"My happiness? oh! doubtless not, but, in a word, Stephanie, he is a suitable person, and if he will explain himself

"It will then be time to think of him; until then, my sister, I beg of you to see in M. de Berville but an esti

mable friend of our family, an amiable man whose so- | this moment, holding in her hand a closed parasol, ciety we honor. A young person should never hasten which she used as a support. She seated herself in an to give up her heart-above all, to one who has not arm chair, resting her feet on a footstool, which Leoasked it." poldine placed for her. After regarding for a while both her nieces, with a look of complacency, she thus addressed them.

"Be easy on that subject, sister; I mean to keep a good watch over mine; the venture of your heroine of romance will never tempt me; but this is the fact, sister, I do not wish to remain an old maid."

At these words, which Leopoldine spoke inconsiderately, the countenance of Stephanie was flushed with a sudden crimson, and for a moment shone with as beautiful a brightness as that of her young sister.

"There is a condition worse than that," answered the former, with lively emotion; "it is, to have formed an ill-assorted union."

"They tell me that M. de Berville is at the entrance of the avenue. For which of your sakes is it he honors us with so frequent visits? For my own part, I am quite at a loss to say. The more I observe him, the less I can divine his intentions."

"You would be jocular with us, aunt," answered Stephanie, "there can be no doubt as to his choice; it is as if any one could hesitate between a mother and her daughter."

"But he has not explained his views," rejoined the aunt," and it is very fine for you to make out you are old, my niece; I find you still very young, compared with me."

"Indeed, my sister, I did not dream I should give you offence," replied the young female, much embarrassed, "but the world is so strange! you know this yourself. Thus I cannot conceive how it is that you have remained single." "You forget too, aunt," added Leopoldine, in a lively "If no one has wished to espouse me," added Ste- tone, "that M. de Berville is, to the full, as old as my phanie, smiling. sister. If merit alone was sufficient, I should have reason to fear in her a dangerous rival; but my amiable sister is without pretensions; she knows that youth is an all-powerful advantage, although in reality a very frivolous one, perhaps

"What! In reality? Can such a thing be posssible?" "Assuredly, although I believe it is a case which rarely happens, and I grant did not happen to me, for I found many opportunities of entering the married state, but not one which was suitable."

"You were, perhaps, difficult to please?"

"Do you not sometimes feel regret ?"

"Good heavens!" exclaimed the aunt, "take heed, my child; reckon not too much upon that youth, nor even on the beauty which accompanies it; I have seen strange things in my time; and a man capable of holding himself neutral so long, is not one of those who may be subjugated with a ruby, or caught by a well-disposed bouquet of flowers."

"I think not. Whilst yet young, about your age, my hand was sought by one who lacked nothing but a fortune, or at least, an estate, capable of supporting him in respectable society. Our parents, at that time, deprived of the rich heritage which they have recovered since your birth, refused him my hand, for a motive, A smile of incredulity passed upon the lips of Leowhich I have since, though by slow degrees, learnt to poldine, who was about to make an answer in accordappreciate, but which then rent my heart. My thwart-ance with that smile, when M. de Berville was aned inclination left me with an indifference as to marriage; nounced. Although of an age somewhat too mature it was the way in which my youth resented its injury. for a very young man, his dignified and elegant manners, I would have none but a husband after my own heart; his fine figure, his distinguished intellect, his reputation not finding such a one, I resigned myself to be no more as a man of honor, together with his fortune, made him than an old maid, finding it more easy to bear the unjust "a match" which no young lady could deem unworthy; scorn and ridicule of frivolous people, than to drag on and I have made the reader already acquainted with to my tomb under a yoke, troublesome and oppressively the favorable sentiments entertained towards him by heavy." the beautiful Leopoldine. Stephanie entertained, full as high an opinion of his merits as her younger sister; it may be even, that being best able to appreciate the estimable character of M. de Berville, she rendered to it the most justice; but she received him simply as a mother who believes she has met the future protector of her daughter, and endeavored, by innocent means, to bring to a successful issue the plan of happiness which she had secretly conceived. The aunt, piquing herself on her skill in finesse, sat observant of the actors in that scene, hoping to penetrate from their behavior, into their most secret thoughts. As to Leopoldine, the veil of modesty, beneath which she sought to conceal her real feeling, was not sufficient entirely to conceal the joy of the coquette, rejoicing in the triumph of her charmis. Yet that joy and that triumph received some checks; for she did not appear, even during that visit, to occupy exclusively the attention of M. de Berville, as though she alone was the object he came to visit. The conversation took a serious and instructive turnone little suited to the taste of the young and frivolous.

"No, Leopoldine; that condition, which appears to you so frightful, has its happinesses, as well as the other states of life. I have shaped my resolution with a regard to the wounds of self-love, which I have had to endure; I have called into my aid the arts and letters, which it is so difficult for married females to cultivate with constancy, without prejudice to their domestic duties; and lastly, when by the death of our dear parents, I found myself in charge of your childhood, in concert with our worthy aunt, my liberty became doubly dear to me. Had I been a wife and mother, I should not have been able to devote myself to you as I have done. Have I not had reason, then, to remain unmarried ?"

"Well, if I should tell the truth, Stephanie, after all you have said, I should better like to be ill matched, than not matched at all."

"This perverseness gives me pain, my child," replied the elder sister, "but I will believe that it is for want of reflecting on the matter that you talk thus."

An aged lady, the aunt of the two sisters, came in at ❘ They discoursed of the sciences, the arts, and of litera

withered plants bent beneath the solar ray; the birds were silent in the depth of the wood; the locust alone, interrupted by his shrill cry, the silence of creation. Bathed in sweat, the reaper slept extended on the sheaf, whilst the traveller, in a like repose by the side of some shaded fountain, awaited the hour when the sun, drawing nearer to the horizon, should permit him to continue his journey.

In an apartment, from which the light and heat were half excluded, surrounding a table covered with plants, Stephanie and Leopoldine were listening to M. de Ber

of Linnæus, or the more easy system, the “great families" of Tournefort, when a letter was brought in for Madame Dorothée, who was engaged in reading.

"Sad news! sad news!" she exclaimed, addressing her nieces. "Our excellent neighbor, Madame Rével, has met with a horrible accident; it is feared that her leg is broken."

ture: I have said that Stephanie had made these things a source of comfort and recreation-that she had occupied her mind in such pursuits, not for the purpose of display, but as a charm to her leisure hours; such a companion as M. de Berville was well adapted to value rightly the mind and the knowledge of Stephanie. She suffered herself to be drawn into the current of the various topics of conversation with a pleasure very natural; and Madame Dorothée plainly perceived that de Berville was even more pleased than her amiable niece. Proud of her youth and beauty, Leopoldine had dis-ville, whilst he explained to them the ingenious system dained instruction-neglecting, for childish gaiety, the lessons of her masters and the recommendations of her sister; music and dancing were the only arts that she would consent to cultivate; those, because they might serve to make her shine in the world. Incapable of taking part in the interesting conversation which was going on before her, ennui began to show its effects on her charming figure-moodiness took possession of her spirits, and fits of yawning, ill suppressed, threatened each moment to betray her. M. de Berville, altogether occupied in the pleasure he was enjoying, perceived it not, but Stephanie, guessing the misery of her sister, contrived adroitly to introduce the subject of music; and, thereupon, begged of her sister to sit down to the piano. She knew that her sister's voice was considered remarkably fine by M. de Berville, and hoped by this means to recall his attention to her, but the old aunt thought she could perceive that M. de Berville found need to task all his politeness to hide the disagreement he felt to the proposition; and Stephanie herself discerned much of coldness in the compliments which he addressed to the pretty songstress.

"Good heavens! can such an accident have happened?" cried Leopoldine. "And yesterday she was so well! We will go to see her to-morrow morning. Shall we not, Stephanie?"

"To-day rather, Leopoldine, to-day. Let us not defer for an instant the consolation which it may depend on us to impart to her."

"Well, then, this evening, after the sun has set." "No, no, let us set out immediately, and we will pass, beside her, the rest of the day; M. de Berville will, I know, excuse us."

"Impossible!" answered Leopoldine, "go out, so hot as it is! it would be wilfully to seck a coup de soleil, which would make us perfect blacks for the rest of the summer."

"We can shield ourselves with a veil-with our parasols

"I should not feel myself safe in a sack; and for nothing in this world would I leave this house till the day is over."

"You forget, Leopoldine, with what courage Madame Rével came from her house alone, on foot, in the middle of a December night, in spite of the frost and the snow, to attend you when you had the measles, because they told her you had expressed a wish to see her instantly." "Well, sister, I would sooner confront a cold north wind than the sun."

"The heat can no more be stopped than the cold, Leopoldine."

Botany is a science peculiarly suitable to females who reside in the country; it is a source of ingenious discoveries, and of pleasures equally elevated and delightful. Under the shade of trees, or the fresh greensward, on the banks of the river and the brook, and on the sides of the rock, are its charming lessons inscribed. M. de Berville loved the science, and offered to teach it to the two sisters; they accepted the offer, the elder from taste, the young Leopoldine from coquetry, seeing no more in it than an opportunity of displaying her lightness and her gracefulness, in running here and there over the grass, to gather the flowers. She insisted upon one condition, however, which was, that they should only go out in the mornings and evenings, so as not to expose their complexions to the heat of the sun. Stephanie approved of these precautions. The care taken by a female to preserve her personal advan- | an African, I would not leave our friend without contages has in it nothing blameable, and Stephanie was the first in setting the example of this to her sister; but on more than one occasion, the desire to possess herself of some flower, rare or curious, carried her above the fear of darkening her skin a little; whilst Leopoldine, the miserable slave of her own beauty, could not enjoy "Really," answered Stephanie, "I do not know that any of the pleasure freely and without fear. One cir-I ought to consent to it; an hour's walk beneath a cumstance-and it is of a grave character-will show burning sunto what an extent she was capable of sacrificing every thing to her frivolous vanity.

A burning state of the atmosphere was scorching up all nature; the sun at its highest point of splendor, presented the image of that celestial glory, before which the angels themselves bow down and worship; the

"Nothing is so frightful as a black skin."

"Sister, though I knew I should become as black as

solation at such a time; I will go with our servant girl; believe me, you will hereafter be sorry you did not follow my example."

"Permit me to accompany you, Miss," said M. de Berville, taking his hat.

"I fear not the sun any more than yourself," interrupted de Berville, "and perhaps the support of my arm may not be altogether unserviceable to you."

Leopoldine permitted them to depart, in spite of the reproaches with which her conscience now addressed her. She remained at home, sad and humiliated, argu

"I don't see any thing that there is so very sad in all this," responded Leopoldine, dissimulating, (for she was choaking with rage) "if M. de Berville likes old maids, it is not me, certainly, that he should choose."

"This it is, which is to me a matter of sadness," continued Stephanie, "that rivalry, which was as little wished for as foreseen, will, I fear, alienate your affection from your sister, since you can already address me in words of such bitterness." And the tears suddenly inundated her face.

At sight of this, Leopoldine, more frivolous than insensible, convinced of her injustice, threw herself into "the arms of Stephanie.

Leopoldine opened her soul to her sister's persuasions; she foliowed her counsels with docility, and soon reaped the benefits. Stephanie became Madame de Berville, In spite, however, of the very flattering opinion which and continued to act as a mother to her sister till she she entertained of herself, a jealous inquietude had crept too was married. The sufferings and the fatigues of into her heart, and she examined more attentively her maternity were not slow, when they came, in effacing sister and M. de Berville when they returned together the remarkable beauty of Leopoldine; but there reThe accident which had befallen Madame Rével was mained to her so many precious qualities, so much of found to be less serious than it was at first thought to solid virtue of the graces of the mind, that the loss of be; the limb was not broken; but through the satis- | personal charms were scarcely perceived, and the young faction which she felt on this account, Stephanie ex-wife was neither less cherished by her family, nor less hibited in her countenance an expression of uneasiness courted by the world, than if her beauty had been an which was not usual with her. The two sisters were abiding charm.