of the separate vitality of the muscles, independent
of the general life of the individual: as
evinced by the convulsive motions of slaughtered
animals, and the twitching of the limbs in
persons fast asleep.

               ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

         FROM CAIRO TO MEMPHIS.

"Where's my dorg?" exclaimed Jeremiah,
in a voice which Rosa Matilda would have said
was tremulous with emotion, but which was
really just a little scared. "Where's my dorg?
Muster! Muster!"

The dog came bounding to his master, who
was very glad to see him safe, for a cannon-ball
had just gone tearing through the Jacob Swan,
clearing the heads of those seated in the saloon,
and carrying away a music-box that had been
perched on the top of a tall glass jar to increase
the sweetness of its tones.

The passengers had been warned that we
should probably be beset by vagabond artillery
on our passage down the Mississippi, and we
had voluntarily taken the risk rather than be
detained in the mud, malaria, and miserable
camp infection, of Cairo. We might as well go
to-day as to-morrow, or next month. The
guerillas would not be abated while the war
raged. All our passengers were urged by
motives sufficiently strong to make us dare this
desperate game of hazard, which might end in death.
One lady was returning to New Orleans to her
husband, and children, and a desolated home,
with three daughters whom she had just taken
from a Northern school. A delicate and beautiful
young wife, in that interesting condition
that Americans only speak of in the strictest
confidence, was going to her husband, who was in
New Orleans, a contractor for the Federal army,
a speculator, or something else as lucrative and
as infamous. The young wife only knew that all
the luxury and comfort that money could buy
awaited her if she got through safely. Some of
our passengers were going South to speculate as
a business, and to spoil still further a land and a
people already robbed and spoiled. Most of the
people huddled together like frightened sheep
on the advent of the cannon-ball. The lady
with the three daughters stood apart with her
charge. She was very pale, but she held her
frightened youngest, a girl of twelve years,
firmly, and soothed the eldest, who was
nervously weeping. The third was calm and pale,
like her mother.

"Let us go on the hurricane-deck," said
Jeremiah; "we have taken their range. For my
part, I want to be above such visitors." He
looked about as if seeking some one. There
was a little heap of black silk in a corner,
surmounted by a wet face, tangled curls, and a
white pocket-handkerchief in constant use.
"Mrs. Seaton," said Jeremiah, with a kind of
tender reverence in his voice and manner, "will
you try to go up with us? I will lend you my
arm, and Mr. Hartley, I think you will take a
cushion, sir."

This was a sort of respectful command, which
I appreciated in America, and I proceeded to
obey with cheerful alacrity. "Mrs. Livingston,
you and the girls had better come. I am sure
we shall be safer above." He raised his voice,
and said to the crowd of scared passengers, "I
am going to the hurricane-deck. I think it is
the safest place, but I don't advise anybody to
go. I would not take advice from king, or
president, or anybody else, unless I was mighty
sure he knew better than I." He tenderly
passed the small balloon of black silk up the
stairs, and I dutifully carried the cushion. This,
with the aid of a shawl like a railway rug, made
a sofa for the frightened little lady. Mrs. Livingston
and her daughters grouped near us. "Put
up your parasols," said Jeremiah. "There never
yet was a Southerner who could shoot at a petticoat
or a parasol. I think we are as safe as a
thief in a mill, up here."

"My bird!" gasped the little lady. "He
hangs over the centre table in the saloon."

"I'll bring your bird," said Jeremiah, cheerfully.
It was only risking his life; that was
all. As he rose to go, a puff of smoke was seen
upon the bank opposite, an ominous stillness
brooded over us for a moment, and then another
cannon-ball crashed through the boat below.
Very soon a black face appeared at the head of
the stairs, and the coloured cook came to us.

"Any harm done?" asked Jeremiah, collaring
his dog with energy.

"O, Massa Grierson! Massa Grierson!"

"What is it, Hannibal? Can't you get it
out? Have you swallowed your news?"

"O, Massa Grierson! Ole Pete done dead;
top his head done gone, right clean off wid de
ball."

"Anything else?"

"'nary bird done gone; cagenall done gone.
O, Massa Grierson!"

"Anything else, Hannibal?"

"Ain't that nuff, Massa Grierson?"

"What are you going to do about it,
Hannibal?"

"Cap'n Jones says I'm to stay up here. De
rest won't come. Dey say we all done dead
nex time if we stay in sight de guns."

"You'd better stay here, Hannibal, if you
don't want to be done dead. Here, you Muster,
don't you wander off."

The dog returned, and laid himself at his
master's feet. Our seats were filled with the
better class of passengers; the more ignorant
stayed below, thinking we were in greater
danger, because we could be seen from the
shore. But Jeremiah remarked, "We have
their range. Besides, they don't want to
shoot us; they only want to sink the Jacob
Swan. They don't locate on low banks, and on
the bluffs they have to point their pieces down,
or the elevation would send the shot clean over
us. They know their business, and so do I.
We have got their range, and we may go on our
way rejoicing. There's low banks now for a
good stretch; at any rate till we get near
enough to Memphis to make them skeery. I'll