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"Broken mirror, which the glass

In every fragment multiplies-and makes

A thousand images of one that was,

The same, and still the more, the more it breaks."

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The cane-brakes South, and the young and tender cane that is kept down by the grazing of the cattle and deer, is also deserving some attention. The largest grows here to some inch or two in diameter, and some over twenty feet high. It grows five or six years, then dies and commences anew again. Its only use is, pasturage for cattle, and the planters make "pipe stales" and fishing rods of it. Go into the interior of Germany and you will find a small species of cane, the size of a man's finger, and ten or twelve feet high. In the north of Italy, and on the banks of Lago Maggoire, the reed cane is an inch in diameter, and long enough for fishing rods. At Rome and on the coast of Calabra, this cane is two inches thick, and thirty-five feet high, and is substantial enough to be used for fence poles and rafters for the roofs of houses. Go to the East Indies, to Java and Summatra, and there you will find magnificent groves of bambo canes, the joints ten feet apart, the trunks six in diameter. and sixty feet high. The canes are nothing but arborescent grasses-cereals grown up into trees-and belong to the same class of vegetation as wheat, rye, oats and barley, the hay of our fields and the bog-grass used by the inhabitants of Iceland and Shetland to make roads over swamps. It is often stated that grass is rarely seen in warm climates, particularly in the tropics. The green meadows, the grassy lawns and velvet turf, so common, so useful and so healthful in the North, are rarely or never seen within thirty or thirty-five degrees of the equator. But the Creator, adapting means to ends, has turned the grasses into trees. When young, they grow from two feet

to two and a-half in twenty-four hours, and in that state are cut like asparagus and used as green vegetables. When full grown the tree and leaves are used for more purposes than hemp, flax, and any six trees of the temperate zones, all put together; making clothing, houses, fuel, furniture, and almost every description of article needed in domestic life."

A FASHIONABLE CALL SOUTH.

"Hear the pretty ladies talk."

DR. DARWIN.

A servant came to my room and told me that Mrs. P. requested me to come down into the drawing-room. On arriving at the door I was ushered into a drawing-room of ladies with a gentleman in it.

They were all a tete-a-tete on some subject; what it was I could not tell; and the longer I listened and tried to catch the theme, the more I got tangled up in their conversation. It appeared to be a Rev. Mr. SOMEBODY, but who he could be, was as mystical as the vagaries of a sleeping girl. I got all of his qualities-his complete portrait was drawn he was a very clever gentleman, had a mild and pleasant eye, preached good and instructive sermons, had a pretty wife who dressed with good taste, one of the ladies was a schoolmate of hers; and so on, about this Rev. SOMEBODY, his pretty wife, and the sweet little rosette in a love-of-a-bonnet that she wore, till I gave up the idea of ever finding out who he was, and hesitating in the meanwhile to interrupt them by asking, till I grew perplexed and resolved that I never would ask, and really wished not to find out; and to this day I never have, and hope I never shall. I wish to see this Rev. gentleman go down to his grave my "JUNIUS."

After having failed for some time to catch the subject of their conversation, one of the party dropped the theme and began to talk about playing chess; in which I joined, and shortly after some of the rest. Then for a while there was a doubt which theme would claim the attention, the Reverend one, or chess, as the other party still held on to theirs and would now and then essay to bring one of us over on their side. But we check-mated them, and gained the subject, and in a little while it was chess, chess, chess with us all.

This call was a fashionable one in the South. The ladies were dressed in "rings and things and fine array ;” sat and chatted with their bonnets on, each with a rich parasol in her hands, occasionally raising its ivory top to her pearly teeth, or pressing it against her lips, or she would lightly tap it against her dress, on the sofa or carpet.

They managed the conversation with vivacity, throwing in now and then a bon-mot, uttering no inelegant word, but lisped them with a polite accent, never saying bunnet for bonnet, nor purty for pretty. They were accompanied by a very pleasant gentleman, brother to two of the ladies.

At our gate stood a beautiful span of bays in silvered trappings, before a splendid carriage, with two negro servants in livery, one to hold the horses, and the other to wait on the ladies. When they had conversed the usual time for such a call, they stepped into their carriage and rode some two miles to their homes. This was young Mrs. L., Mrs. M. and her sister's call on Mrs. P. at Willow Dale.

FOURTEENTH DAY OF WINTER.

This is the fourteenth day of winter, yet our Northern October has a more shriveled forest and colder weather.

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The sun is not shining clear this morning. Light, soft clouds are scattered all over the sky; and he now and then peeps out between them, showing his shining, morning face, and gladdening everything with his smile.

I rambled out in the woods to enjoy the soft, balmy air of winter. The hollies and magnolias were in their pure and deep green. These evergreens are of a deeper and lovelier green in the winter. Here in these woods winter merely lets

"Hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old HIEMS' chill and icy crown,

An odorous chaplet of green leaves and flowers
Is set."

There are many trees in this land that pass through winter in their beautiful summer robes.

This evening at the Ridge House was given to a chat about BEETHOVEN, MOZART, HAYDEN, and HANDEL, and last of all, about SHAKSPEARE. He had written all the poetry we needed for a century or two. He was indeed,

"Fancy's child,

"Warbling his native wood-notes wild."

CARLYLE says, "SHAKSPEARE is the greatest thing we English ever did." But England, ere she produces another, must gather new material—must acquire new deeds -historic and romantic life; it must grow old-become the past; and then a new SHAKSPEARE can sing. Major W. intends his daughters shall have a complete education. It will then of course embrace the old masters-sublime old bards-all that the ancients said and sung. But a young lady's education, in our schools now-a-days, is complete with what BULWER said and Toм MOORE sung. I do not know why they should not read old HOMER and

SHAKSPEARE. I think they wrote admirably for girls and

boys.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SOUTHERN LADY.

"Of noble race the Ladye came."

SCOTT.

In treating the subject of this sketch one needs to con over his vocabulary as the painter would select his colors, to do with the brush what we would do with the pen, giving a portraiture of the Southern lady. Tom Carlyle says, "Show me a man whose words paint a picture, and you have somewhat of a man." We fear that, with all the mimic skill of our pen in word-painting, we shall fall somewhat short of CARLYLE'S man. Doing a picture in words, and one in oils, are two different things. Words and colors differ.

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'Tis as likely for paint to be true, As grass to be green or violets blue."

But the same word may have different hues. Green is always green in painting. The color tells for itself. But the word written is more like a chameleon. You may find it light, pale or deep green. It takes its hue from the object to which it is applied.

And we apprehend we shall not be able to give the true meaning to the term, lady-the one at least we wish to give. The origin of the word is lost in the obscurity of the past. WEBSTER, hunting on the trail of its etymology gives it up. But let us take the literary antiquarian's trail and go far away back to the olden time-to the

"Days of belted knight and lady fair,"

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