streets. Had my father known I was com- They may treat me badly though," said the ing back, he would have left me a wealthy old man; “Dorcas does not like me, and man."

she will set the American girl against me, “I don't fancy he would have done any- too, unless-Ha! would you?" he shrieked thing of the kind,” said Peter Scone; " but suddenly—“a poor old man like me, and this is not time for fancy, is it?"

eighty-six--help, help-here's murder doing !" “Where are you going ?”

It was a stronger, sharper cry than the “ To Miss Westbrook-and your daugh- younger man had bargained for, and his ter."

brute courage failed him. Life was not to “Do you know where to find them ?" be shaken so quickly from the body of Peter

“Yes. Miss Westbrook answered a let- Sconę, who had aroused the echoes of this ter of mine this afternoon."

ancient place with his wild cry for succour. “ You will drive no bargain with them. The hands relaxed their grasp of the throat, You have lost your chance.”

and William Halfday's voice said, quickly “Eh—how's that?" asked Peter Scone, and tremulouslyalarmed at this declaration.

“ A little joke of mine, Peter-that's all ! “ Brian is not a man to stand still—he Were you frightened? There, don't make will have sought them out by this time. I a noise. Lean on me. My fun, nothing saw it in his face."

else, I assure you. Only my fun, to show "He will not discover them very easily, you what might have happened from people and he can do no good if he does. He has more unprincipled than I am. Don't think only your word for all this.”

anything of it-don't-" “He may go to the Hospital and search But Peter had slid from his hold to the my father's rooms again, and yours, finding ground, in his fright, and brought his poor you are away from home."

old head against the iron railings of the caPeter Scone broke into a childish little thedral garden. He was not dead; but he laugh, and patted William Halfday affection- | looked so like a dead man—he lay so still ately upon the arm.

and quiet there — that William Halfday “If I cannot put my hand upon that will, thought he was. The man was scared alno one else is likely to do so, William. If most unto death himself at the sight of all I were to die to-night, no one in all the that had happened in the last few minutes world would ever find it, William,” croaked —at the consciousness of what might hapold Peter Scone. “I am not afraid of what pen to him next if he were not prompt of your son can do, clever as he thinks himself.” action. He leaned over Peter Scone, and

If he were to die to-night! It was a tried to feel for the beating of his heart, and strange thought to put into the head of a failed, in the confusion of his own distracted man as desperate as William Halfday was. mind, to discover any signs of life. He lis“If he were to die to-night, no one would tened as if for the hurrying footsteps of ever find the will,” that was what the old man people alarmed by the cry that had broken said, and meant ; and dying suddenly, as old upon the stillness of the Close ; but the men did die very often, he, William Half- leaves of the great elms were only rustling day, would have leisure to grow rich ! above him in the summer air.

What was this man's life worth, even to Under the hand that had sought for a himself, that he should stand a barrier in heart-throb, lay temptation again in the the way of another's preferment? Why was shape of a pocket-book and key, which had a man's whole future, a man's last chance, to been tied together by a string, and deposited be sacrificed to this old wretch's rapacity in the breast pocket of Peter Scone before and distrust?

he had left the Hospital that afternoon. “I hope you will not do anything in a William Halfday forgot part of his alarm at hurry," said William Halfday. "I may see this discovery. Here might be the clue to my way to money in the morning, yet. the will of his father; and it was this, per

"I can't wait, and I shan't wait, William,” haps, which Peter had wished to sell him replied Mr. Scone decisively. “I have for five hundred pounds. He stood erect acted fairly by you, and tried to help you ; with the key and pocket-book in his hand. and if you have failed to help me in my The owner was lying very quietly under the turn, why there's no blame to either of us. trees, and there was no one astir in Penton Close save he who had brought about the light in the lodge, and the porter was readdeed. Let him be gone before the world ing a newspaper by it, as he passed through moved in this miserable matter, and won- unperceived. There was a clock over the dered how Peter Scone had come to his mantelpiece of the room, William Halfday death, and expressed its regret that there noticed, and it marked five minutes to the had been no one to look after a man bowed time of locking-up for the night. By those by age and infirmities, and liable to run minutes he had saved his neck; Peter Scone down as suddenly as this at any moment. would lie in the open air till morning now,

He slunk away in the shadow of the wall, and the noisy rooks would be the first to and reached the Close gates, and the arch- find him. way in which they were set. There was a

(To be continued.)

TH

'HE chain of lakes which lies along the | ing of Leonidas and his Spartan martyrs ;

southern boundary of Canada, and the or the island of Salamis, and does not river which connects them, form an inex- remember the Persians' flight? When the haustible field of exploration for the tourist. poet Rogers stands upon the Appian From the mighty Superior, where the current Way, his thoughts are not of the beauties of the St. Lawrence takes its rise, to the which surround him, but that the road on gulf where it empties itself into the Atlantic, which his feet rest was the view is everywhere interesting, and to one who makes the trip between these

“Once an avenue two points, the characteristics of American

Of monuments most glorious, palaces, as distinguished from European scenery

The dwellings of the illustrious dead.” are most forcibly presented. In the And when visiting the far-famed grove of older country, the charm which invests the Tibur, his mind is occupied with the thought loveliest spots is owing as much to the asso that there, in olden time, he ciations they call up as to their own intrinsic beauty. In journeying through Europe, the

“Might have met so oft traveller sees, in the many noble monuments Horace himself.” and tottering ruins which meet his eye, the silent history of a bygone people. In travel- In Africa, too, the traveller's longing is to ling the classic waters of the Rhine he passes behold the tomb of Cheops ; nor is the site many a grim fortress,—its keep broken down, of ancient Carthage passed by unnoticed. and its shattered, moss-covered walls gone

But in America the case is very different. long ago to decay,---which hangs beetling Here the tourist is such from a love of over the dark surface of the water below, a nature alone. The lofty bluffs and precipigloomy monument of ruthless might; and tous steeps of Upper Superior have no the scene calls up to his mind the remem- borrowed charms from having been the brance of those dark ages when some savage haunt in time past of some arbitrary outlaw; feudal lord-worthy descendant of Attila or nor is the broad sheet of Huron rendered Alaric-erected here his place of abode, and, more attractive as once the scene of some with his horde of servile retainers, made with critical and decisive naval engagement. impunity daily depredations on all who came These owe, to history, nothing; to nature, within his reach, contented to believe, if he all. Yet in the inhabited parts of this contiever gave the matter a thought, that the law nent there is a history which is traceable by of might was the only law of right.

the eye, but it is a history the landmarks of In the more ancient lands of Greece and which are not ruins, but edifices; the subject Italy, also, relics remain sufficient to enable of which is not decay, but steadily increasing the visitor to form some idea, though an in-progress. In the beauties which it owes to adequate one, of the gigantic steps made by nature, America will compare favourably, civilization under the enlightened guidance as far as any comparison can be instituted, of the Greeks and Romans, and of the height with the most lovely spots of the Old World. of culture ultimately attained by both. Who I say as far as any comparison can be instivisits the pass of Thermopylæ without think-tuted; for there are some traits of American

scenery which are so peculiar to this conti- which ought thereby accrue to the citynent, that it is impossible to draw any com- should suffice to render Kingston a stirring parison between them and the Old World place of business. Moreover, the advantages scenes. The Falls of Niagara and the enjoyed do not end here. There are two “ Thousand Islands” may serve to illustrate other sources, the water traffic from whence the truth of this remark.

passes immediately through it. One of The former have been described so often these is Ottawa, between which place and by writers of all nationalities, that their fame Kingston there is a direct connection by is world-wide. Not so the latter. Most the Rideau Canal, 170 miles in length; the people on this continent, it is true, are other, Belleville, Picton, and the towns familiar with the name “ Thousand Isles," lying on the Bay of Quinté, from which the but the number of those who have visited only entrance to Lake Ontario lies within them is small compared with those who six or seven miles to the west of the city. have seen the “Falls.” And out of the There is also another circumstance which number who have visited them, how many would naturally tend to give Kingston an have seen them in any but the most cursory advantage over her sister cities in Canada. manner? Yet the Isles are as well worthy I refer to the early date of her foundation. of being visited by the tourist as Niagara, More than a century before Toronto, now and the time spent in viewing them and the most enterprising and important city in their vicinity will be considered by the true Ontario, was thought of, Kingston was lover of nature as well spent.

founded by French troops, who, in 1672, Situated just at the head of the Thousand under the command of Governor De CourIslands, it would have been indeed an in- celles, penetrated as far west as Lake Ontajustice to the sleepy city of Kingston had rio, on an expedition against some rebellious nature denied to her all traces of that pictur- tribes of Seneca Indians. The favourable esque beauty with which she has so boun- position of the spot, then known by the teously endowed the region below. Of no name Cataracoui, for a military station, was such injustice, however, has Kingston to at once perceived by the French Governor, complain. Dead or moribund in commerce and in planting the settlement he had in and commercial relations, unless when view as well the extension of the scanty momentarily awakened from her lethargy by commerce which was then carried on in the the arrival, to unload or refit, of some pro- country, as the subjugation of unruly bands peller or schooner of her more energetic of natives. It was not till a hundred years western neighbours, and leading a life al- from its first foundation that the little settlemostas quiet as that of some secluded village, mentof Cataracoui, or Cataraqui, having been she has few attractions to offer to commercial known in the meantime successively as Fort men. But to tourists and others who are Cataraqui and Fort Frontenac, at length, in at leisure to break loose for a time from the 1762, fell into the hands of the British, and all-engrossing chains of business, and to de received its present name. vote a short space to the enjoyment of the It may prove interesting, before entering picturesque, Kingston is far from being de- upon a description of the Thousand Islands, void of interest. It is strange that the to which Kingston forms the key, to give commerce of the city should be characterized some idea of the city itself, and notice some by stagnation so profound. Possessed of of the salient points of interest connected so many natural advantages, one would ex- with it. Built upon a large bay, Kingston pect to find Kingston a flourishing and pros- has every facility for shipping and shipperous city. Having a central situation in building. The harbour, which is formed by Canada, and being built just at the east end Wolfe Island, some twenty miles in length, of Lake Ontario, at the junction of the Lake and Garden Island, lying across the mouth and the River St. Lawrence, it occupies the of the bay, is most commodious, and is position of a half-way house between the com- | adapted, in depth of water and other respects, merce of the western Canadian and American for affording safe moorings to vessels of the cities and that of the Lower Province. This largest class. Viewing it from its western alone, it would be thought-the constant pas entrance, which is nine miles from the city, sing and repassing of western and eastern and is formed by Amherst Island, at the trading vessels, and the amount of traffic mouth of the Bay of Quinté, and the north