1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



i57 



PERiCLtb AN J >. 



Resistless words weru on In.s toitgae, 

 Then eloquence fir.,t. fl.'.Siied below; 



Full armed to life thr jortent .sprung- 

 Minerva from the Tliunderer's brow. 



And his the sole, the stiered hand 



That shook her ajgis o'er the land. 



And throned imniortal by his side 

 A woman sits with eye sublime— 



Aspasia, all his spirit's bride. 

 But if their sohniin love were crime 



Pity the beauty and tlie sage — 



Their crime was in their darkened age. 



He ijerished. but his wreath was won— 

 He perished in his height of fame. 



Then sunk the cloud on Athens' sun, 

 Yet still she conquered in his name. 



Filled with his soul, she could not die. 

 Her conquest was posterity. 



—George Croly. 



TAllANTELLA. 



The summer sun bore downward and 

 neared the horizon when the P. and O. 

 steamer Coroinaudel glided into the harbor 

 of Briudisi and the ancient building on 

 the breakwater, apparently a castle, was 

 gilt edged by the slanting rays. It was a 

 little while before the huge hull at last set- 

 tled alongside of the quay and the gang- 

 way slid out. Then began some business 

 with the shore, men with packing cases 

 and parcels and bags came upon the pave- 

 ment, and the slang of the north mingled 

 with the jargon of the south. But the 

 mail would not come in till next day. 



There were on board some young fellows, 

 also some old ones. Two or three of the 

 former and one or two of the latter were 

 tramping the deck and hanging over the 

 side rail in that aimless fashion of all pas- 

 sengers, listening to the sounds of the town 

 and watching the boxes being wafted in 

 by the steam crane. Every now and then 

 came an interval in the hissing, rattling 

 roll of the chain and the powwow of 

 voices, and in one of these intervals Slater 

 said to James: "Some sort of festival is 

 going on Ijehind the buildings in there. 

 Don't you hear it?" 



"No, I don't," said James. 



"Well, listen next time a pause comes," 

 said Slater, "and if ytnir ears are as sharp 

 as mine you will. You may not be able, 

 though." 



Another pause came and James put his 

 hand behind his ear. He also contracted 

 his brows together with the tense effort to 

 get hold of any such sound, however faint 

 it might be with distance, starting nerv- 

 ously as the steam r nine raised anew the 

 noi.se of its labor, and broke the clinch he 



was putting on the muscles of his forehead. 



"No," he said, striking a match and 

 relighting his pipe, I lieard nothing; did 

 you?" 



"I heard it the same as before, " said 

 Slater — "same as before. Your scale of 

 hearing evidently isn't tuned up to the 

 Ijitch that mine is. There are some other 

 things j'ou would not be able to hear, the 

 shrill little cry of an Egyptian tomb bat, 

 for instance. There are lots of people who 

 think that when they come whisking at 

 you they do it silently. But they give a 

 tiny creak also, the highest note I have 

 ever heard. Though, of course, that may 

 be a different thing altogether from the 

 faintness of distance, because those notes 

 of that piix> and that concertina were not 

 far past middle pitch. I wonder what they 

 are doing." 



Soiiie more of that little set of acquaint- 

 ance edged to them, and the knot com- 

 pared notes. No one had heard the pipe 

 and concertina but Slater, and, passenger- 

 like, they began to look at the matter in 

 the liglit of a bet as they obeyed the bell 

 summons and went in to dinner. As Slat- 

 er was one of those peculiar people, not sc 

 common, who seem to get on chaffing 

 ternis with every one in whatever place 

 he may stay, it followed that he was the 

 center for a good deal of banter. Even the 

 second ofiicer, a man usually of the silent- 

 ly smiling sort, made some humorous com- 

 ment on long hearing, all by the way ol 

 keeping up conversation on the subject ol 

 ears. Slater thus made several bets on the 

 understanding that if he heard the sound 

 again after dinner was over some of them 

 should go with him to try to find it out, 

 supposing that lie had heard aright. Then 

 they started other topics and forgot that 

 one 



But by and liy, as they emerged on deck 

 again in a fine summer night, still and 

 palpitating with heat, and were leaning 

 against the rail in a little group, snioking 

 placidly and gossiping leisurely, .Slatei 

 suddenly said, "Would you mind keeping 

 quiet for a minute, please?" 



It was just then that a largish case of 

 wine or something was pushed along a side 

 gangway and into the ship's lower deck. 

 The job done, there came the usnal pause, 

 and there being no voices around at that 

 moment a silence, deep and intense, of five 

 seconds only intervened. 



"Yes, I can hear it still, " said Slater, 

 "but as to the quarter I'm not quite certain 

 — a pipe and coneercinaand, I think, danc- 

 ing." 



Some of the others also thought they 

 had heard tlie pipe, and the discussioD 

 came up again Slater buttoned up hia 

 coat and went down with his watch in hia 

 hand I'litiin.L; if on his cabin table, he 



