“ Pardon me,” I said, “ for delaying an answer. 
First let me inquire how long your wife has 
been in such poor health, and how long it has 
been since her mind broke down?" 
I saw in him a brief struggle with angry 
impatience, which he overcame, and replied, 
‘•'Iler health broke down a year ago, and her 
mind bas been failing ever since." 
*• May 1 ask the causo?” 
This was pressing him too far. His eyes 
flashed. Almost fiercely he answered, “ No!” 
There followed a pause, in which we sat look¬ 
ing at each other. I watched his face, until I 
saw the angry wave subsiding. Then 1 said: 
« You ask who l am? Do you still desire an 
answer?” 
“That is the very thing I want Speak! Who 
are you?” 
“Once” —I lowered my voice to keep it 
steady —Once I was the husband of your 
wife." 
He started up as If atl adder stung him! His 
sallow face changed to a dull white, h n, l tlron 
grew darkly crimson with the returning fio»w 
A. little while he stood like one in a labyrinth of 
thought; blank surprise taking the place on his 
countenance of imperious demand. A few mo¬ 
ments more, and he left me without a word or a 
sign. 
An hour later, and I was on my way back to 
the city. A few days afterward, I read, in a 
gossipping letter from the sea-shorp, about the 
wife of a Southern gentleman, who had become 
go violently insane as to make her removal to an 
Asylum necessary. Certain particular state¬ 
ments in this letter left me in no doubt touching 
the person to whom reference had been made. 
It was Julia! _ 
»■ My uncle paused, and eat silent and sober for 
a considerable time. lle then resumed: 
I should not thus have uncovered the past, had 
not the motive been strong. Jcha had a daugh¬ 
ter, beautiful as herself; the one I saw as a child 
at the aea-shore. That daughter has grown to 
womanhood. She is still beautiful; beautiful as 
was her mother at her age—but, her beauty may 
not lie trusted. 1 have seen her. I have ob- 
[ Concluded from page 44, this number.] 
One incident more, and I will end this sad 
history. It was a little over ten years, later. My 
health had given way through too dose applica¬ 
tion to business, and I was spending a couple ot 
weeks at the sea shore. The season being at its 
height, there were arrivals and departures every 
day, and a constant succession of new visitors. 
One morning, on taking my scat at the table, I 
found myself opposite a little girl, whose face 
startled me with its faultless beauty and strange 
familiarity. She was Julia's miniature image! 
Her companion was a tall, sallow, dark-eyed, un¬ 
happy looking man. every line of whose counte¬ 
nance gave token of self-indulgence and unbri¬ 
dled passion. Toward the little girl I noticed 
that he bore himself with a kindness and gentle¬ 
ness of manner that only a fond father could 
manifest. 1 only toyed with my food on that 
morning. Appetite left me with the recognition 
of this child as Julia’s daughter. I had no 
question touching the fact. Her husband and 
child were before me; but whore was she—dead, 
TWAS THE NIGHT AFTEE CHRISTMAS 
not only strictly peculiar lo Australia, but, as far 
as is yet known, to the Colony of New South 
Wales. 
The bird is exceei 
If I had been insane, enough to marry my 
beauty after this, I would have deserved disap¬ 
pointment and misery. But my uncle’s expe¬ 
rience was a sufficient warning, and I scarcely 
deemed it prudent to venture on an experiment 
that threatened a life-long disaster. 
To watch its 
actions it is necessary to remain perfectly mo¬ 
tionless, not venturing to move even in the 
slightest degree, or it vanishes from sight as if by 
in agio.' 
These birds build in old hollow trunks of trees 
which are lying on the ground, or in the holes of 
rocks. The nest is merely formed of dried grass 
or dried leaves scraped together. The female 
lays from twelve to sixteen eggs, of a white 
color, with a few scattered light-blue spots. One 
uest was observed placed on a prominent point 
of a rock, in ft situation quite secure from obser¬ 
vation from behind, but affording the bird a com¬ 
manding view and easy retreat in front. It was 
of large size, formed outw ardly of sticks; it was 
deep and basin-shaped, and lined inwardly with 
the inner bark of trees and fibrous roots, and it 
had the appearance of having been roofed 
The Lyre Bird is of a wandering disposition, 
and though keeping probably to the same brush, 
i it constantly traverses from one end to the other, 
from the mountain top to the bottom of the gul¬ 
lies. 11 is said to be able at one leap to pass over 
as much as ten feet In a perpendicular direction 
from the ground. It, seldom takes wing, but is 
fond of traversing trunks of fallen trees, and fre¬ 
quently reaches a considerable height by leaping 
from branch to branch. 
Solitary in its habits, it sometimes shows a dif¬ 
ferent disposition. On one occasion Mr. Gould 
saw two males at play; they were chasing each 
other round and rouud with extraordinary ra¬ 
pidity, pausing every now and then to utter their 
loud, shrill calls. While thus occupied they car¬ 
ried their tails horizontally, as they always do 
when moving quickly through the brush, that 
being the only position in which this large organ 
could be conveniently borne at such times. 
a lyre; hence its name,—the Lyre Bird,— while, 
as the type of a new genus, it has received the 
appellation of menura wptrba. 
This ornamented tail is restricted to the male 
bird. It consist# of six f ,n leathers; of these the 
outer one on each side is broadly but loosely 
webbed within, its outer web being narrow; us it 
proceeds it curves outwards, bends in, and again 
turns boldly outwards and downwards, both to¬ 
gether resembling the framework of an ancient 
lyre, of which the intermediate leathers are the 
strings; these feathers, except, the two central, 
which are truly but narrowly webbed on the 
outer side, consist each of a slender shaft, with 
long filaments, at a distance from each other, and 
springing out alternately. The appearance of 
these feathers, the length of which is about two 
feet, is peculiarly graceful; their color is amber 
brown, but the two outer tail feathers are gray 
tippl'd with black, edged with rufous, and trans¬ 
versely marked on the inner web with transpa¬ 
rent triangular bars. In the female the tail is 
long and graduated, and the feathers are per¬ 
fectly webbed on both sides of the shaft, although 
their texture is soft and flowing. The general 
plumage of the menura is amber brown above, 
tinged with olive, and merging into rufous on the 
wings and also on the throat. The under parts 
Mr. Gould says that, were he 
A CURIOUS STUDY. 
FUN NOT CONFINED TO MAN 
a question that would require a good deal of 
figuring. Whence come many varieties is another 
question to which no one can pretend to give an 
answer. Scarce a species of plants exists without 
a distinct variety of insects that grow upon it. 
The idea appears an absurdity, yet it, seems as if 
animal life was imparted by light alone, where 
its germ had no existence. A curious illustra¬ 
tion of this was recently shown to us. 
Mr. Hubbell, the well-known apothecary, was 
experimenting upon different colored glass, with 
a view to finding the tint that would best prevent 
chemical change in .substances contained in the 
jars and bottles made from it. This was four 
years ago. He applied the test to African peppers. 
These peppers are bright Vermillion in color, with 
a surface as beautiful as coral. They are as hot 
as a dozen American grown peppers concentrated 
into one. He filled with them two jars—one of 
white glass, Lite other of bluish-green -made to 
his order. The peppers in the white jar under¬ 
went a change; and after two years, though the 
vessel was hermetically sealed, wero tilled with 
minute worms. No ordinary vermin could exist 
among African peppers. Opening the jar a 
Hhort time since, there was nothing left but odor¬ 
less powder, utterly void of pungency, composed 
of the dead and dried worms, and the worthless 
The contents of the other 
are ashy gray, 
requested to suggest un emblem for Australia 
among its birds, he. would select the menura , or 
Lyre Bird, as being the most appropriate, luring 
was obliged to drop his prey and defend himself. 
While one of the buffaloes successfully drove 
away the tiger, the other kept guard over the 
boy. Later in tho evening, when the anxious 
and alarmed father canm out in company with 
others to seek his child, he found that the whole 
herd, with tho exception of the two old buffaloes, 
had dispersed themselves to feed, but that they 
were still there—one standing over the bleeding 
body of their little friend, while the other kept 
watch od the edge of the jungle for the return of 
the tiger.— Keppd. 
CURIOSITIES OF NATURE. 
debris of the peppers 
jar were as sound and as bright as on the day 
when first deposited. We were also shown a 
tin can of sambow—a medicinal root, in thick 
slices, brought from Siberia. It hail arrived 
sound, hut, not being immediately used, had be¬ 
come full of little purple insects, unlike to any¬ 
thing hereabouts to be seen. Tho germ of these 
insects must have existed when it was dug up by 
the Russian exiles in the high latitude from 
which it came. If not, why not? Bo this as it 
may, the fact is worth knowing, that greenish- 
blue glass neutralizes the chemical agency of 
light, and entirely prevents the efflorescences of 
chemical salts, and the deterioration of quality in 
articles kept in bottles of that color. 
Amonu the papers published in costly style by 
the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, is one 
on the microscopic plants and animals which live 
on and in the human budy. It describes quite a 
number of insects. The animal which produces 
the disease called itch, is illustrated by an 
engraving half an Inch iu diameter, which 
shows not only tho little fellow’s body and legs, 
but his very toes, although the animal himself is 
entirely invisible to the naked eye. When Lieut. 
Berryman was soundiug the ocean, preparatory 
to laying the Atlantic telegraph, the quill at the 
end of the sounding line brought up mud, which, 
on being dried, became a powder so fine that on 
rubbing it between the thumb and linger, it dis¬ 
appeared in the crevices of the skin. On placing 
this dust under the microscope, itwas discovered 
to consist of millions of perfect shells, each of 
which had a living animal. , 
Suspicion, ^-Ono thing you will learn fast 
enough in the world, for it is potent, in such 
teachings—that is, to be suspicious. Oh least 
from you from ever the hateful lesson. Men do 
not think how much of true innocence they are 
laying down, when they assume a clothing whoso 
texture Is guile. Beware of this mock protec¬ 
tion; for you can hardly use it, without practicing 
deceit 1 do not ask you to trust always, but I 
would have you think well of men until you find 
them Otherwise. Whcu you are once deceived, 
either by an acted or a spoken talsehooil, trust 
that person no more. 1 had once laid down to 
mo as an axiom by a very dear friend (and I am 
so satisfied of the precept s truth as to make it a 
rule of mv life,) that persons rarely snspect 
others except of things which they are capable of 
duing themselves. Yes! these shadows of 
doubting are generally tiling from some bad re¬ 
alities within. You are looking at your own 
image when you see so much vileness in your 
neighbor’s face. How much better might not we. 
ourselves become, if wo used more largely to 
others that blessed charity which thinketli no 
Beetles.—T he Moscowbeetle i3as fine, lively 
and healthy a beetle as any of his race in Eu¬ 
rope. From the moment you set foot in “ Holy 
Moscow” you find in him an indissoluble friend. 
He is pulled out with your watch, he drops from 
your hat in bowing, he anticipates you in your 
morning cotFee, he takes his bath iu your wash- 
hand basin. He moreover evinces the liveliest 
interest in all your proceedings. You may be 
writing, reading, thinking or talking, but a beetle 
is sure to have bis eye on you. You muy detect 
him looking at yog out of the keyhole, a chink 
in the floor, a hole in the ceiling, or any other 
unaccountable retreat But you are forced to 
put up with his company, and it is only in time, 
when habit bas given you a second nature, that 
you become careless of his unwearied espionage. 
The Northern Circuit. 
THE WATER BUFFALO. 
The Water Buffalo is an animal much in use 
at Singapore, for purposes of draught. It is a 
dull, heavy-looking animal, very alow at work, 
and, I think, disgusting in appearance, but re¬ 
markable for attachment and sagacity to his 
native keepers. It has, however, a particular 
antipathy to an European, and will immediately 
detect him in a crowd. Its dislike to, and cour¬ 
age in attacking the tiger is well known all over 
India. 
Not long ago, as a Malayan hoy, who was em¬ 
ployed by his parents in herding buffaloes, was 
driving his charge by the borders of a jungle, a 
tigor made a sudden spring, seized the boy by 
the thigh, and was dragging him off, when the 
two old bull buffaloes, hearing the shriek of dis¬ 
tress from the well known voice of their little 
attendant, turned around and charged with their 
usual rapidity. The tiger, thus closely pressed, 
All rnK Gold in thk World. — Estimate 
the yard of gold at £2,000,000 sterling — which 
it is in round numbers and all the gold 
iu the world might, if melted into ingots, be con¬ 
tained in a cellar twenty-four feet square and 
sixteen foot high — so small is the cube of yellow 
metal that ha# set the population on the march, 
and roused tho whole world to wonder. The 
contributions of the people in the time of David, 
for the sanctuary, exceeded £7,000,000. The gold 
with which Solomon overlaid the “Most Holy 
Place”—ft room only thirty feet square—amount¬ 
ed to more than thirty-eight millions sterling. 
There is now exhibiting on the Boulevard 
Magenta, at Paris, the figure of a woman so con¬ 
structed as to sing various songs. A tube of India- 
rubber represents the larynx; the voice has a 
compass of two octaves. The inventor is Mr. 
Fabkr, -a’ professor oi mathematics in Germany. 
The three best medicines in the world are 
warmth, abstinence and repose. 
