many of the lunatics who babbled in the
court- yard must be by this time cold and
silent!

FOR EVER.

FOR ever and ever the reddening leaves
   Float to the sodden grasses.
For ever and ever the shivering trees
Cower and shrink to the chilling breeze,
That sweeps from the far off sullen seas,
   To wither them as it passes.

For ever and ever the low grey sky
   Stoops o'er the sorrowful earth.
For ever and ever the steady rain
Falls on bare bleak hill, and barren plain,
And flashes on roof and window pane,
   And hisses upon the hearth.
For ever and ever the weary thoughts
   Are tracing the selfsame track.
For ever and ever, to and fro,
On the old unchanging road they go,
Through dreaming and waking, through joy and woe,
   Calling the dead hours back.

For ever and ever the tired heart
   Ponders o'er evil done.
For ever and ever through cloud and gleam,
Tracing the course of the strong life stream,
And dreary and dull as the broken dream,
   For ever the rain rains on.

SIX MONTHS IN THE EAST.

ALEXANDRIA TO JERUSALEM.

"I'VE never been to Jerusalem, and I
never mean to go, thank ye!" said the
English engineer of the Russian steamer,
"though I've been up and down these
waters for these fifteen years, touching at
Jaffa, and bein' within a day's ride of
Jerusalem, as you may say, these twenty years.
We see a precious deal too many o' them
nasty pilgrims on board this boat for me to
want to visit a place I know to be chock
full o' them, for I hate pilgrims, mind you,
as I hate pizon, and I'd give a good deal to
keep altogether out o' their way."

There was something so wonderfully
characteristic in the speaker's manner and
appearance as he delivered himself of these
sentiments, that I brought up the leader of
our little party, whom, we had dubbed our
sheik, and introduced him formally. This
engineer reminded me of an English landlord
I once knew in Paris, who, though a
modest and sensible man on most points,
became boastfully rabid when proclaiming
that he had " lived among mounseers these
five-and-twenty year, and, thank Heaven,
I don't know a single word of their blessed
lingo!" In obstinate doggedness and per-
verted pride, in contempt for the observances
they did not practise, and for be-
liefs and customs they could not
understand, both were intensely British; and
when we smoked our final cigar on the
poop before turning in for the night, we
agreed unanimously that the ship's engineer
was a character. The good steamer,
the Emperor Alexander, is "in the
pilgrim trade." We had come on board her
at Alexandria, doubtful as to our treatment
an.d accommodation, and prepared to rough
it. There are three sets of steamers
belonging to different companies which go
from port to port in Palestine, but time was
of importance to us, and we decided not to
wait for either the English or the Austrian
Lloyd's boat. Never were men better
rewarded for meditated self-sacrifice. We
were more comfortable than we had ever
been at sea in our lives; and we were, look
you, travellers of experience. The sheik
has played the Arab, the Moor, and the
Bedouin by the month together, living in
the desert on camel's milk, and forming a
devoted but, happily for his friends, a
temporary attachment to his steed. Edward
has been all over the globe, and is the
author of stirring volumes of foreign
travel and personal adventure; while
George, who is a sybarite and an epicure,
can tick you off the chief cities in Europe
and America, giving in every instance the
best hotel, and tho particular dishes for
which each is celebrated. The sheik is
a man of fashion and a legislator worlds
would not draw from me whether hereditary
or elected and is an authority on art,
antiquarianism, and archaeology, as well as
a ready and popular speaker on a score of
other subjects. It has been for many years
the privilege of your servant, the writer, to
carry a musket in the army of letters, and
all four of us are credited by partial friends
with some knowledge of gastronomy and
wine. This is our party. We plume
ourselves upon the selection we made of travelling
companions, as well as upon the stern
determination with which we rejected all
overtures from mere hotel acquaintances to
join us; and we hold that when we unite
in praising the cooking and service of an
hotel or steamer, we furnish a testimonial
which is not without value. All honour
then to the Emperor Alexander, which
left Alexandria on the 28th of November,
1869, and which landed us at Jaffa two
days later. Her cabins were models of
elegant comfort. At the end of the saloon
was a handsome assortment of plants and
flowers, so that the captain, when he took
his chair at dinner, seemed to nestle in a
bower of foliage and colour, which was very