practical farmer, and so was my grandfather before him. I was myself reared on a farm, and was, so to speak, born between two stalks of corn."

Here the speaker was rudely interrupted by some one in the audience, who exclaimed, "A pumpkin, by Jingo!”

APROPOS of mining in the Black Hills, a young man of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, who went there to seek his fortune, and wrote back to his father that he had done well, added this P.S.: "I will be home on Wednesday evening. Meet me at dark, just out of town, and bring a blanket or a whole pair of trousers with you. I have a hat."

THE THIRSTY STRANGER.

Ir was a weary traveller

Who came unto an inn; From west to east his journey led The man through thick and thin. Sore spent with toilsome wintry ways, He pined for drink and food; Certes for such a fainting sonl

The best was none too good. "Ho! damsel!" quoth the thirsty lips To one who seemed the maid, "Go brew me hot, from boiling pot, A mug of lemonade.

"And let the merry peel float there,
For that's the eftest way
To make the liquid comforting,
I've heard old people say."

The awe-struck maid looked up afraid,
As one who hears a sound
That rends the whole astonished air
From caves of guilt profound,
Then low replied, with eyeballs wide,
To him who would carouse:
"The lemon is forbidden here;

We keeps a temp'rance house!"

THE publication by Harper and Brothers of a new and superbly illustrated edition of The Land and the Book, by Dr. William M. Thomson, who for forty-five years was a missionary in Syria and Palestine, serves to turn attention afresh to that most interesting portion of the earth. The time is almost at hand when Jerusalem will be as easily accessible to the tourist as any city on the Continent. All the Oriental modes of conveyance are to be superseded, and instead of the mule and the camel, we shall have the railway. The route will be from Cairo to the Tigris, with a branch from Ramleh to Jerusalem. Strange indeed will be the sound of the steam-whistle among the hills and valleys of the Holy Land. And how freely will travellers begin to chat of places and scenes that for centuries have been spoken of with a certain awe! How utterly matter-offact it will soon become! An old railroad man who was recently interviewed 'as to the proposed ronte, and how it could be made to pay, said, in his dry, humorous way, that he didn't know much about the Holy Land, but he should

think that Gaza would probably be a lunch station. "Say you start a limited express," said he, "from Port Said at 8 A.M.; she'd fetch Gaza, I should think, from what you say, about noon. Fifteen minutes for refreshments at Gaza I'm sure would pay well, and if there are sixteen thousand people there, and you run a night express, it might be a good scheme to put up a hotel and billiard-room near the dépôt. Ramleh will do first-rate for a supper stop for through passengers. I expect those who change cars would rather wait till they strike Jerusalem. I suppose they'll have to put on a sleeper before they strike the-Carmel Mountain. That's a pity: seems as if all railroads had to do this mountain scenery in the night-time."

THE following statement of singular facts, recalled by a recent article in this Magazine, is contributed by Mr. George A. Hanscom, of Lowell, Massachusetts:

The reading of the "Puzzle for Metaphysicians," in the June number of your Monthly, recalls to the writer the most remarkable occurrence of like nature which a nautical experience of twenty years afforded. This is another of those experiences which go to prove the occasional thinness of the curtain which limits the natural vision of mortals.

In 1869 I was in Suez, in command of the British steam-ship Neera, belonging to the Bombay and Bengal Steam-ship Company-a company owning a line of steamers born of the necessities of the manufacturing world when the supply of American cotton was so largely cut off by the war of the rebellion. The line was under the management of William F. Stearns, now deceased, son of the late Professor Stearns, of Amherst College-a man who, going to India penniless, developed qualities which enabled him to rise on the flood tide of prosperity to a colossal fortune and high social position, but, as it proved, only to see his riches float out on the receding tide, and leave his family but poorly provided for at his untimely death.

The Neera was lying in Suez roads, the canal being not yet open, awaiting passengers, etc., before sailing on her return voyage to Bombay. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship Carnatic was also about ready to sail for the same port, and only waiting mails and passengers. It happened that the passengers for the two steamers came across the isthmus together, and that two old friends and school-mates met, the one to join the Neera, the other the Carnatic. A day was spent by the friends, who unexpectedly met on the Egyptian desert, in recounting their experiences since they last parted, and, naturally enough, there was a good deal of badinage between them as to the comparative merits of the two steamers, and as to which should first land on the "coral strand," upon which these "griffins" were to be initiated into their

duties in the "civil service," to which they had been newly appointed.

The Carnatic was the first to be ready, and sailed from Suez in the morning; the Neera left early in the evening, some ten or twelve hours after the mail steamer. The night was fine, and at breakfast-time we had passed Shaduan Island, were out of the Gulf of Suez, and into the Red Sea proper. Breakfast was served on deck, under double awnings of heavy canvas. The young gentleman who had left his friend the day before seemed somewhat depressed in spirits, and during breakfast said, rather anxiously, "Captain, at what time did we stop last night?"

distinctly, than when he said, 'The Carnatic has struck a rock, and gone down; the passengers and crew are on an island close by, all safe, and we want your ship to take them on board.' I dreamed that our ship stopped until other boats came off with the remainder of the people, and that we then proceeded."

The narration of the dream made a profound impression upon the passengers, but the captain, as in duty bound, laughed it off. The young man proved a jolly sort of fellow, but was called "the dreamer" during the rest of the voyage.

On arrival at Aden, five days later, before our anchor was down, we were hailed by a boat

which had been dispatched from the Peninsular and Oriental office, and asked if we had any news of the Carnatic, that ship being a day overdue. We had no news to give; but our dreamer quietly remarked to me, "You may find that there is more to my dream than you supposed."

A few hours completed our coaling, and we were off again for Bombay. On arrival at that port we heard the news of the loss of the Carnatic, and the circumstances were just as narrated to us two weeks before. The ship struck on a rock near Shaduan Island, some twelve hours after leaving Suez. The passengers and crew were landed on the island; the steamer subsequently slid off the rock, and went down in deep water. During the night a steamer's lights were seen by the shipwrecked crew, and a boat was sent out to inter

"Not even to take soundings?" "No; the engines have not been eased since leaving port."

The young man seemed much surprised, and finally said that he had a most vivid and remarkable dream during the night, and this he proceeded to relate in substance as follows:

I

"In my dream it appeared to me that the steamer was stopped during the night, and that I went on deck to ascertain the cause. saw a boat pulling off from an island to intercept us, and a lantern was waved to arrest our attention. As the boat came nearer I saw my friend Morton standing in the stern. As he came up the gangway ladder I said, 'For God's sake, Morton, what brings you here? I never saw him plaiuer, nor heard his voice more

the first boat; the remainder of the people were subsequently taken on board, and the rescuing steamer proceeded on her voyage to Suez. Except that another steamer, not the Neera, rescued the party, the dreamer told the story as well as it could be told to-day.

It seems probable that our dreamer's vision was shown him at the very moment the shipwrecked people were embarking upon the steamer which came to their aid, and that the Neera was not ten miles from the scene at the time.

It may be stated, in conclusion, to show the perfection to which the postal system of the world has arrived, that the only letter addressed to the writer which ever failed to reach him in all his twenty years' wanderings, went down in the Carnatic.