(with a kind of inward ecstacy) " he didn't do
much harm to the boat's crew—"

"Because," as I interposed, "they took him
off to their ship."

"No, not they; not a bit of it. Their blood
was up, poor fellows, so they just pulled
Parminter down in the boat, and chopped off his
head on the gunwale!"

The exclamation of horror with which I
received this recital, elicited no kind of sym-
pathy from Tristram. He went on quietly
with his work, merely moralizing thus—" Ay,
better Parminter and his dog had gone now
and then to the gauger's pocket at Tidnacombe
Cross, and held their peace, better far."

The term " The Gauger's Pocket," in old
Tristram's phraseology, had no kind of reference
to any place of deposit in the apparel of
the exciseman; but to a certain large gray
rock, which stands upon a neighbouring moorland,
not far from the cliffs which overhang
the sea. It bears to this day, among the
parish people, the name of the Witan-Stone,
that is to say, in the language of our
forefathers, the Rock of Wisdom; because it was
one of the places of usual assemblage for the
Gray Eldermen of British or of Saxon times—
a sort of speaker's chair or woolsack in the
local Parliaments. It was moreover, there is
no doubt, one of the natural altars of the old
religion; and, as such, it is greeted with a
fond and legendary reverence still. Hither
Trim guided me one day to show, as he told
me, " the great rock set up by the giants,
so they said; long, long ago, before there was
any bad laws such as they make now." It
was indeed a wild, strange, striking scene;
and one to lift and fill, and, moreover, to
subdue the thoughtful mind. Around me was
the wild half-cultured moor; yonder, within
reach of sight and ear, that boundless breathing
sea, with that shout of the waters, which
came up ever and anon to recal the strong
metre of the Greek,

"Hark! how old ocean laughs with all his waves!"

and there, before me, stood the tall, vast,
solemn stone: gray and awful with the
myriad memoirs of ancient ages, when the
white fathers bowed around the rocks and
worshipped!

"And now, sir," clashed in a shrill sharp
voice, " let me show you the wonderfullest
thing in all the place, and that is, the Gauger's
Pocket."

Accordingly, I followed my guide, for it
seems, " I had a dream which was not all a
dream," as he led the way to the back of
the Witan-Stone; and there, grown over
with moss and lichen, with a moveable slice
of rock to conceal its mouth, old Tristram
pointed out, triumphantly, a dry and secret
crevice about an arm's length deep. " There,
sir," said he with a joyous twinkle in his
eye, " there have I dropped a little bag of
gold, many and many a time, when our people
wanted to have the shore quiet, and to keep
the exciseman out of the way of trouble;
and there he would go, if so be he was a
reasonable officer; and the byeword used to
be, when 'twas all right, one of us would go
and meet him, and then say, ' Sir, your pocket
is unbuttoned;' and he would smile and
answer, ' Ay! ay! but never mind, my
man, my money's safe enough;' and thereby
we knew that he was a just man, and satisfied,
and that the boats could take the roller in
peace; and that was the very way, sir, it
came to pass that this crack in the stone was
called for evermore ' The Gauger's Pocket.'"

A PILL-BOX.

A BOX is often a lure, a bribe, a coaxing
machine. Its contents may be pretty or
valuable, or both. But the box frequently
entices to the purchase of that which would
not be purchased if the box were not. Herein
is the philosophy of box-making. It is a
psychological study. The box-maker not
only contrives to fashion a convenient receptacle
for the thing to be contained, fitting in
shape and size, and perchance elegant in form
and adornments; but he studies (although
he may know nothing of phrenology) the
bumps of form, colour, individuality, ideality,
in his friend the public.

Never was there so much money spent as
now for captivating boxes; and never were
the wits of the makers of these packages so
taxed for new designs and new combinations.
Take envelope-boxes. A new and " catching"
envelope-box is a little fortune to the envelope-
maker; he packs up his shilling's-worth
in the graceful new box, and the whole is
bought as much for the sake of the box as for
the contents. Those who enjoy peeping into
shop-windows—and it is a peep not without
profit, if the peeper can only keep his hands
out of his pockets—will remember the Crystal
Palace envelope-box, the almanack envelope-
box, the thermometer envelope-box, and hosts
of others; all equally good for the envelopes,
but each intended to catch the eye of the
buyer by some novelty or some beauty.

The French are very busy manufacturers of
paper boxes: not merely such small wares as
pill-boxes; but a whole class of boxes in
which cartonnage or pasteboard is the
material. No less than four thousand persons
are said to be thus employed in Paris; and
these are not employed indiscriminately on
all kinds. Jacques Bonhomme may make
very good pill-boxes; but it does not hence
follow that Jacques can equally well produce
the other varieties. The boxes are classified
almost with the care and discrimination with
which the naturalist classifies his plants
and animals. First in rank come the most
elaborately finished and ornamental boxes,
for the display of artificial flowers, rich
velvets, ribbons, satins, silk trimmings,
corbeilles for wedding-presents, and other costly
delicacies which appeal to the purses of the