other such bravery, he was a perfect marvel to behold. The miller was a well-made, handsome fellow, and a great favourite; there had been a good many reports as to his matrimonial intentions; sometimes the gossips of the village averred that he was paying court to the blacksmith's pretty daughter; then that he had cast a loving look on the niece of mine host of the Golden Lion; then he was formally engaged to a young widow in a neighbouring town. But the blacksmith's daughter married a young farmer, the Hebe of the Golden Lion gave her hand to the tapster, and the young widow wedded a nabob with an excellent fortune and a broken constitution. Now the report was that the miller was courting Janet, widow Holmby's daughter; and this seemed not at all unlikely; if there had been any doubt about it, the young miller's marked attention on the occasion of the village fête would have settled the point. Janet was a beautiful girl; her long black tresses coquettishly arranged beneath the shady brim of a broad hat; her sparkling eyes, demurely peeping out from beneath long silken lashes; her cheeks all glowing with deeply ripened blushes; her short full petticoat displaying the tiniest of feet; and her whole appearance so attractive, that it is no matter of surprise the miller should fall in love with her, as he did, and no mistake about it.

But some of the girls said-ah me, what will they not say that Janet was a coquette; that she sported with the passion she excited; was now all kindness and gentleness till the poor lover felt she was his own, then suddenly plunging him into the depths of misery by a cold word, a little frown, or a small attention to another. The girls said she was haughty, and promised herself to be somebody grand, but much of this may be attributed to some other cause than mere candid criticism. Of course everybody agreed that the miller was an eligible match; he was in a good thriving business, with an excellent character, and that sure letter of recommendation, a handsome face. The miller himself felt tolerably sure of success, for although Janet had avoided any explanation there are certain signs-a glance of the eye, a pressure of the hand-which you understand perfectly if you have ever been in love; and this language she had spoken.

The next morning after the dance the miller in his Sunday coat presented himself before Widow Holmby, as she sat spinning in her sanded parlour, and to that prudent matron disclosed the state of his affections. She had suspected it, and was glad of the avowal; it would gratify her much to have her daughter married to so praiseworthy a young man. She would be delighted to have him for a son-inlaw. Was Janet aware of his passion? He thought so, he felt certain that she understood him, but he had not received a positive assurance from her own

successful, but did not state that he had been refused with derision and contempt. Yet such was the fact; and when he had left the house and Janet came in, her cheeks a-glowing and her bright eyes flashing, it was from herself her mother heard that she had dismissed him with angry scorn.

"Marry a miller-a brainless clod!" she said; "better be single all my life: let him mate with a bird of meaner sort, there's something better in store for me."

"He is an honest, worthy man," the widow said, "and I had hoped you would have favoured his suit."

"What! match me with a grinder of corn, or set me up for life in a mill-house, to knit his stockings, and cook his food, and rear a brood of dolts, wretched as their mother and senseless as their father-a fine fortune, truly, for a girl like me!"

"Depend upon it," said the widow, "if you find a wealthier you cannot find a worthier

man.

Janet beat her little foot upon the ground impatiently, and as the widow talked on sang to herself in a heedless way :

The maiden went for water

To the well o'er the meadow away;
But there could draw no water,
So thick the frost it lay.

"And the time may come, child," the widow said, "when you may look in vain for water or for bread."

"Pray go on," Janet answered, and went on herself singing:

The mother she grew angry,

But had it to bemoan,

O daughter mine, O daughter mine,

I would thou wert a stone!

A few words more and the subject dropped. The day passed, night came, and Janet retired to rest. As she lay asleep on her snow-white bed, the light of the moon falling through the casement on her face, her mother came in and gazed upon her with anxious, tearful glance. As she gazed she noticed a strange expression steal over the girl's face, lighting it up for a moment with a radiant smile.

"May Heaven guide and guard her!" the widow softly said. "Sure she is dreaming some happy dream."

Next morning she questioned her what did she dream last night?

Oh, mother! it was a vision of delight. I dreamt I saw a chariot of copper, drawn by two bronze-coloured horses, and containing a prince, at least, clothed in rich garments, and attended by a great many servants. He stopped opposite our cottage, alighted from his carriage, came in here, proposed marriage to me, gave me a copper ring beautifully set with precious stones, and then-" "And then ?→→→"

"I woke."

Next night the mother stood beside her daughter's couch. She saw her smile this time more brightly than she had smiled before, heard her murmur some few words, and then two tears rolled down her cheeks. Next morning she asked her of her dream, and Janet answered:

"Oh, it was delightful! I dreamt I saw

a chariot of silver, drawn by four milk-white steeds, and containing a king, at least, clothed in splendid habiliments, and attended by a host of slaves. He stopped at our cottage, alighted, came in here, proposed marriage to me, gave me a silver girdle studded with pearls, then remounted his chariot and said he would call again to-morrow."

On the third night the mother, who was much troubled in spirit, and who exhausted all her arguments to induce Janet to forget her dreams and think seriously of the miller, came again into her room and watched her as she slept. The smile was upon her parted lips, and she murmured to herself as she had done before, and stretched her hand out, as if to seize some precious thing, and then wrung them as if in despair, and the smile faded.

"What was your dream?" her mother asked, "you were troubled in your sleep."

"Oh, no," she said; "not troubled, but delighted. It was a glorious dream, wanting only perpetuity to make it perfect. I saw another chariot, made of gold, and drawn by six splendid horses, with golden trappings sparkling with gems, and within it sat an emperor, at least, radiant with jewels; and he alighted as the rest had done, and he proposed for me, and I accepted him. He gave me a robe of cloth of gold, he put the ring upon my finger, and I sat beside himself within his chariot, and then he drove away, and then-"

"Yes, and then ?"

"It was all darkness!"

66

And such idle fancies can end in nothing else. Better, far better, you should listen to the miller's suit, he is an honest, worthy fellow."

And in those respects, of course"-Janet said it sharply-"I am quite unworthy of him. Mother, I tell you, old eyes and young ones look at these things differently; and I will never consent to marry the miller, and eat bread under his thatched roof."

While she was speaking, there was a shout heard outside, then the sound of music, the clatter of hoofs, and the clank of martial accoutrements. Janet threw back the casement and looked out.

"Oh, mother, mother, the chariots are coming from Dreamland!"

And through the village street came horsemen with faces yellow as guineas, white turbans, and robes of divers colours. These were followed by a company of musicians, all playing on brazen instruments, except a few, whose trumpets were of silver. Then came a chariot of copper, drawn by bronze-coloured horses; then a chariot of silver, drawn by milkwhite steeds; then a chariot of burnished gold, drawn by six iron-black chargers, and containing a gentleman very richly dressed, but with the same yellow complexion which characterized all who preceded or followed him. Of course the arrival of this cavalcade occasioned great commotion in the village; the progress of a travelling circus would have created a furor, but a procession, such as that which now made its way through the town, was such as never had been seen before, and

completely confounded even the oldest inhabitant. The procession stopped before the widow's cottage. The widow trembling with fear tried to go on with her spinning. Janet hastily retreated to her little room to make herself presentable, and arrange her hair before her dead father's burnished shield, which served her for a mirror; when she returned, she found three gentlemen in the room, and made her best of courtseys.

66

Madam," said he of the golden chariot, there was a fine metallic ring in every word he uttered, "I have come hither on business of a very important, but very delicate, nature; I am noble by birth; illustrious in name; powerful in influence; my fortune is enormous; my fame is world-wide; but I have one want, one object which it is my earnest desire to possess I want, in short-"

The gentleman of the silver, observing his chief to hesitate, supplied the words"A wife."

"Precisely my meaning. My dear madam, I have heard of your charms, your virtues, your excellent qualities of mind and heart; and I have therefore ventured to present myself before you for the purpose of inquiring,—in short, of proposing-"

The gentleman of the copper chariot supplied the word"Marriage."

The conversation was prolonged for some minutes. The poor widow urged her daughter not to listen to their words; the gentleman of the golden chariot was eloquent, though of few words; he chinked his money; he of the copper chariot presented the ring; he of the silver offered the girdle; two attendants displayed a robe of cloth of gold; and Janet consented. The widow implored her to reflect, but she refused to listen to advice; the ring was placed on her finger, the girdle round her waist, the golden robe thrown around her, and, forgetful of all past affection and tenderness and filial love, she ascended the golden chariot, and sat beside its master.

O Mammon, O Plutus! how the people shouted. Straight through the village, the procession took its way, down beside the river, past the old mill-house, whence the poor disappointed miller looked out, and met the scornful glance of her whom he had hoped to call his own. So the procession advanced and the people followed it, first with their legs and then with their eyes, till the wheels of the golden chariot and the turban of the last slave had fairly turned the corner and were gone.

Thus far the circumstances of this singular case were known to the villagers. The peasant girl had wedded a prince. Janet had married for money. But this is not the end of the story.

Away, farther away, on and on and on, away and still farther away, faster and faster and faster, drove the chariots; through the forest, where the trees seemed to shrink from them, and a magic pathway to appear at their approach; over the plain girded by a mountain whose hoary forehead was almost lost in the sky; right up to the foot of the mountain, where giant boulders were scattered, and

colossal mounds were covered with creeping plants of enormous size-there the procession stopped.

Shall we have to go over the mountain or round it, my lord, your Highness ?" Janet asked.

see!"

"Neither," he answered graciously, As he spoke, two brazen gates flew open in the mountain side, and a long passage appeared, into which the procession hastily defiled; then the gates closed, and Janet found herself in thickest darkness. Her hand was in the cold grasp of her affianced lord; he felt it tremble, and asked, would she prefer travelling in the light? She would.

"Lights there! lights!" he cried, and at his word a thousand, two thousand, three thousand figures, Janet could not tell their number, leaped up, each with a blazing torch. She saw the faces of these torchbearers were like coins, coins of all countries and all times, Jewish shekels, Roman pennies, Egyptian talents, Grecian drachms, ducats, sequins, marks, rupees, kopangs, pistoles, eagles, dollars, florins, gilders, stivers, reals, thalers, piastres, francs, sovereigns, shillings, pence, and one or two Queen Anne's farthings. They leaped about in a wild delirious fashion, but the light displayed to Janet the enormous wealth which surrounded her. What she saw in that passage, however, was nothing to what she beheld when the procession emerged from the darkness into a land such as mortal eyes never beheld.

Gold everywhere; a palace of gold, wrought in the most elaborate and beautiful fashion; golden steps, golden doors, golden tables, carpets of golden threads, cushions stuffed with gold dust, golden pipes, golden divans, and not only gold, but gold studded, all precious stones were there in rich abundance. Diamonds, such as an Indian Mogul never saw, nor yet were yielded by Golconda; rubies, such as yet were never found in the rich sands of Ceylon; emeralds, larger than that which old Peruvians worshipped as a goddess; sapphires and amethysts, carbuncles, topazes of all colours, garnets and beryls, sardonyx and opal, turquoise and pearl. The trees were of gold, and their fruits were jewels; the grass was of gold, and the dewdrops of pearl; the rivers were of molten silver, and the lakes of molten gold. But as she looked in wild surprise around her, she saw other things beside gold and jewels. Silver and platina, copper and iron, bronze and tin and lead, and brass and pinchbeck and quicksilver; but everything mineral or metallic.

"My lord, your Highness," she asked in trembling fear, as her eye wandered from one precious object to another in search of some familiar thing, a bird, a flower, an insect, a wisp of gossamer floating in the air,-"my lord, your Highness, by what name shall I call you?" "I am the Monarch of Metals," he answered, "and you shall be Queen of Gems."

She felt faint, weary, giddy; he saw her changing colour, and said, "You need refreshment, let me lead you to the banquet."

He led her on through stately gardens, where everything was wonderful and strange. All the forms of earthly things were there, but all

of metal,-gold and platinum, and columbium, silver and copper, iron and antimony, arsenic and cobalt, and lead and zinc, and tungsten and uranium, and I don't know what beside. Potosi never yielded such silver, Australia never gave such gold, and England never held such iron. The unhappy woman (for she felt unhappy amid all this wealth), gazed with a feeling akin to terror at all she saw. Gold, gold, gold-silver, silver, silver. Oh! for a tuft of grass or a clod!-oh! for a flower or a bee!

They entered a splendid palace, built of gold and studded with gems, and yellow-faced servants in cloth of gold bowed low as the monarch of metals passed by and led his queen to the banquet.

It was a glorious banquet, everything that could gratify the eye, every description of apparent luxury spread upon the board; but when Janet, sitting beside her lord upon his golden throne, attempted to eat, she found that the dainty morsel upon her plate was gold. Everybody ate with appetite, and pledged each other in draughts of liquid silver, but Janet, with her brain on fire, and her heart sinking, looked round in vain for food to satisfy her hunger, or drink to quench her thirst. The Monarch of Metals observed her anxiety, and asked what did she require "Bread!" she said, " bread!"

He handed her a little slice of lead, and a piece of golden chicken.

"Bread!" she cried, "bread!" "What sort of bread would your Highness prefer ?" asked the chamberlain.

"Wheaten bread she cried,-bread made from flour."

"Flour," said the chamberlain, "I don't exactly understand; flour is-?"

"Ground wheat," she cried;" wheat ground by a miller!" and then she fell to weeping bitterly, and her tears turned to jewels as they fell. She rushed distractedly from the table, fled over the golden lawn, crying as she went-"Bread! bread!"

She sped through the extensive grounds, and caught in her frenzy at the jewel fruit that hung from golden branches; she stopped beside a silver fount, and put the liquid to her lips, and then fled on again, still crying""Bread! bread!"

She thought of her old home, and heard the hum of the old spinning-wheel, she saw the old mill, and the honest face of the miller, she heard the bubbling water of a brook, and ate again of humble fare-in imagination only, and waking from her reverie, fled on again with the old terrible cry

"Bread! bread!"

And so she perished, and so the legend ends. The miller was a bachelor all his days, the mill-house stood for many years after he had gone to rest, but the mill has been pulled down long since; so has the old cottage where Janet lived; everything of those old days has passed away, except the legend, which still forms one of the most popular stories of the district, and is always cited as a warning to those aspiring and heartless young people who would sacrifice themselves at the shrine of Mammon.

J. T.

Answers to the following should reach us not later than the 10th of May.

ARITHMETICAL PUZZLE.

A sells to B and C 8 gallons of wine-4 gallons to each of them. He has only a 3 and 5-gallon measure. How is he to divide it into equal portions with these two measures ? H. V. D.

A PUZZLING EPITAPH.

N, iag-a-e-by A m-poh! S-rehn, i-e-h-s
N, ap-da-or-bro-re-h-c-tip! L lat-em-osni-
S-ra-e-y-f-on! us-an-it; ubs-won, k, oh-w-
S-ra-et-fo-do-olf-as-lia-vat-ah! w-r-of,
S-eye; ru-o-y-yr-d-D-na-feir. gr-u-oy-et-a-b-a-
E. siv-da-em-tel-S-d-neir-f-g'nipe; ewe-y,-
F. les-r-eh! H-T-ra-e-ot-d'nruts, eh! S-won; D-na;
F-lep-r-eh-to-ge-h-sy-al-C-D-N-ah! trae yb-
Y-al-c-s-Sel-ef-il-O-tef-il-y-sub-A, mor f, d, gn, ah-c
Y-er-Gen. Ir. ah! tacse, il-e-nots-si-h-th-ta, en, eb.
R. VASEY.

CHARADES. I.

My whole, a word of six letters, is a European capital; my 3, 4, 5, 6, is a troublesome companion; my 1, 6, 3, 2, and 4, 2, 3, 1, 6, both very sweet fruits; 1, 3, 4, 6, a servant; 2, 3, 4, 6, is what we never should be in; 6, 3, 2, a useful organ; 2, 5, 6, a well-known garden plant; 1, 6, 3, a kind of pulse; 6, 2, 3, and 3, 4, 6, both periods of time.

EUGENE DORNEY, Ballyrusheen.

II.

I am a word of ten letters; my 9, 2, 10, 8, 5, is a planet; my 10, 2, 8, is a small animal; my 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, is a name for a box; my 1, 2, 7, 8, is a part of a ship; my 7, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, is the name of a dog; my 2, 3, 8, is an insect; my 5, 9, 10, is a pronoun; my 6, 7, 8, 5, 9, 10, is a woman's name, and my whole is a town in J. HISSEY. England.

Towns. Liverpool.

Oxford.

Rivers. T rent. Humber.

A von. Mersey. •E xe. Severn.

Northampton. Derby. O akham. Nottingham. (London on the Thames) :-J. J. Hissey, W. T. Haydon, W. J. Fleming, Unquam, T. Bone, H. M. T., J. J. Hartley, C'est moi, H. S. P., Fitzjames, Robert Froude, W. L., H. B., E. W. Fisher, J. R. Behanna, G. Bradley, B. Barnard, E. C. Dickinson, Carlos, E. T., Plato, A. H. Male, E. Tahourden, 2, R. W. Jones, Pythagorus, Robert J. Ellis, W. H. Booth, W. J. E., W. Finlayson, G. E. Mead, R. Aitken, Fun, Roderick Dhu, W. Jenkins, E. Stocks, Jules Gerard, W. C. Elborough, R. Doughton, A. Chapman, E. Poulton, A. Loveridge, F. B., Ledget Green, W. Couper, R. U. Philpott, D. Asman, H. Mills, T. Ockenden, R. Briden, F. Taylor, Y. E. Chase, E. Winter, W. Burghes, E. Dorney.

ANSWERS TO THE MEN OF OUR TIME IN No. IV.

1. Louis Napoleon :-Thomas Bone, J. J. Hartley, C'est moi, Bios, Fitz James, W. H. Pratt, Excelsior, Cicil, Peter Bruff, E. W. Fisher, A. Ward, W. Cop

pinger, Edwin Hickey, Chris. Olley, H. A. Watson, J. R. Behanna, George Medlicott, B. Barnard, E. C. Dickinson, Carlos, Thomas Phillips, T. Williamson, H. S. Evans, Sam. Littleales, E. P., J. F. Stuart, J. S. Liddle, S. C. Robinson, Yhtraccam," B. Aston, E. F. J., R. W. Jones, T. M. Ellis, Robert J. Ellis, F. H. George, W. Finlayson, R. Adamson, Lastia, A. J. Elliott, Roderick Dhu, J. Maples, R. Hosking, G. D. Dunsmore, E. Stockes, J. Nicholson, R. Lewis, W. J. B., W. C. Elborough, E. Buckland, S. Coupland, W. Beasley, W. R. Higham, J. Bond, E. Poulton, H. Perkins, C. Ash, R. Doughton, M. H., A. Calvert, A. Chapman, The Norton Boys' Quay, A. Loveridge, G. R. Davies, J. W. Fuller, H. Mills, W. Couper, J. Field, Nobbler, T. W. Moore, L. M. Dalton, R. U. Philpott, D. Asman, M. L. Marks, W. Wilson, T. Cattell, F. Taylor, Y. E. Chase, E. Winter, H. C. Woods, J. W. Collis, H. V. D., J. W. A. Leighton, Walter, Wilfrid, J. T. T., A. K. Cook, J. B. G. Biggs,

2. Caractacus:-Thomas Bone, J. J. Hartley, Fitz James, W. H. Pratt, Cicil, Peter Bruff, E. W. Fisher, W. Coppinger, Edwin Hickey, H. A. Watson, J. R. Behanna, George Medicott, Bios, B. Barnard, E. C. Dickinson, S. C. Robinson, Henry S. Evans, B. Aston, F. H. George, W. J. B., W. Finlayson, Roderick Dhu, Frank, R. Hosking, G. D. Dunsmore, E. Stockes, Coupland, J. Bond, H. Perkins, G. R. Davies, J. W. Fuller, E. Margetson, J. Field, Nobbler, L. M. Dalton, D. Asman, M. L. Marks, H. Mills,