JUNI

UNE was scattering its gay flowers over hill and dale; a balmy morning had succeeded a serene and starry night; a breeze was fluttering the foliage, and the sun was breaking through his vapory veil.

Master Sebaltus Spurdzer awoke fresh and sprightly. He nimbly donned his garments, his waistcoat remarkable for its ample pockets; he covered his head with a wide brimmed straw hat; slipped under his arm a large volume, and directed his steps towards the borders of the Elbe. A little green pathway shaded by trees leads to this river and through it Master Sebaltus chose his way. While he is in sight and walking from his own little house to the Elbe, let us sketch the man.

Master Sebaltus Spurdzer was on the shady side of forty-five. He was so simple and so careless that one might say that his life was a prolonged infancy. A stranger to worldly ambition, he had no knowledge of the advantages of rank and fortune; the only ambition he ever had, was that of being master of a village school. True was it, that nowhere else, children could have received a more solid, rational and varied elementary education.

who could recite the Georgiks as well as our peasants in France can recite the great Mathew Laensberg, their ever and eternal authority. Sebaltus was not inspired with the desire of gain, but with the pure love of science. How he cherished belles-lettres! How happy he felt when he was explaining a page of his classic authors! His world ended then in the circle of children who listened to him open-mouthed.

No sooner were his classes over than the learned man was absorbed in the deepest study; you could have seen him for hours scanning and perusing large and heavy volnmes. His joy was indescribable when perchance he met with some historical or scientific problem that no one had yet solved. How he relished his pursuits! how he multiplied his dissertations-his notes! Then his eye flashed fire, his pen was tightly clenched between his teeth-he was admirable in his exultation, and the strangeness of his disordered dress was not without a certain poetry. However, it will hardly be believed, that no sooner had Master Sebaltus completed his notes than he stowed them away in some drawer where he abandoned them. It sufficed for this humble and careless scholar to have discussed a topic which had pleased him: he little heeded the

But if Master Sebaltus was heedless on the question of fortune and glory, his wife was not so, she had his interest at heart. The worthy housewife dearly loved the thalers, and often did she complain of the disinterestedness of her husband. Though her observations had little effect on the impassible pedagogue, she tired not reproving and scolding him.

"That's it," cried Thecla, " you don't blush to live like a lazy fellow, with your nose thrust down forever into books, instead of making money for the benefit, at least, of your wife, and your two sons whom you have named, I know not why, Ovid and Cicero: and you languish here in this miserable village, whereas you might have been long since a distinguished professor; but you are, and you'll ever be, but a paltry schoolmaster. You are not even worthy of the title of scholar that people give you, for you reap no advantage from the gifts heaven has bestowed upon you.'

"Wife," Sebaltus would say, with a phlegm that still more excited her ire, "mind your own business; see to your household affairs; mend Ovid's stockings and Cicero's shirts; exercise all your authority as a housewife, but for God's sake, give me peace! I tease no one, nor do I wish to be teased. You cannot understand the happiness that my books afford me; they are my friends."

"Those musty old volumes ?" muttered Thecla, scornfully.

"Yes, my dear friends, whom I leave with regret, and whom I seek with delight."

Thecla felt that it was useless to combat furthermore the literary and scientific mania of her husband; but as this woman had a will of her own, she henceforth acted on her own responsibility, and made up for what she termed * German money, which is about the value

of a dollar.

"the oddities of Mr. Spur She noted well the manu that Sebaltus had finished an gotten. She carried them to den and gave them into the of a publisher, who cast up good woman a patronizing and said:

"Come in a week's time, have examined this."

A week hence, the sam remitted to Thecla a nice sum, exclaiming

"Bring me all your hus works; he is a fountain of s an unknown genius."

It will be supposed that from this moment, Thecla oppose the learned lucubrati Master Sebaltus; she rep visited the drawer, with the of discovering new manuscr

Since Madame Spurdzer h the forethought of turning her husband's talents, ever in the house wore a brighter all kinds of saucepans shine kitchen, and Cicero and O played, on Sundays, their ve breeches, and their fine clot ets. The incidents of the ried life had gone thus fa our tale begins.

Master Sebaltus had walk good distance whilst we hav giving these details, and arrived at his favorite spot, little hillock, covered with and sheltered by a hedge bloom. What was his when he perceived sitting very place which he had c stranger, who appeared pro absorbed in thought. The habit was such in our scho he did not dream of goi where, so he stood conten with a disappointed coun the interloper, who raised and smiled significantly.

"Good morning, Mr. Sp said he kindly.

The schoolmaster shudder could he be known by a ma he had never seen? Cou