cats are so very nearly alike in size, colour,
and general appearance, that no person,
unless Very intimately acquainted with them,
would be able to distinguish one from the
other. This little bird, however, had been so
nicely observant as to know at once, without
hesitation, which was the offender."

Our informant had no opportunity, perhaps,
of distinguishing the sex of the assailants;
but if M. Toussenel's theory hold good in all
cases, they must have been male martins.

HIDDEN LIGHT.

I MUCH mistrust the voice
That says all hearts are cold:
That mere self-interest reigns,
And all is bought and bold.

I much mistrust the man
Who will not strive to find
Some latent virtue in
The soul of all mankind.

Yes! If you say the fount
Is seal'd and dry, I know
It needs a wiser hand
To make the waters flow.

If you will still appeal
To Evil rife in all,
I know a demon band
Will answer to your call.

But when the Lord was gone,
The Lord who came to save,
Two Angels fair and bright
Sat watching by the grave.

And from that blessed hour,
With an immortal mien,
In every tomb of Good
Some Angel sits unseen.

The spell to bring it forth?
With lowly gentle mind,
With patient love and trust,
Go seek—and ye shall find!

MUSIC IN PAVING STONES.

IN the Stones of Venice — their Sea Stories
and Foundations—Mr. Ruskin could find
elaborate theories; could weave from them
fantastic tissues of Art-thought; could raise
upon them cunning superstructures of
argument, illustration, dogmatism, and beautiful
description. Let me try, if, striking the
paving stones with my iron heel, I cannot
elicit some music from them. Let the
stones of Regent Street, London, be my Rock
Harmonicon, and let me essay to play upon
them some few bars more of the musical
tune.

Regent Street is the only boulevard of
which London can boast; and though the
eight-storied houses, the shady trees, the gay
cafés, the peripatetic journal-mongers, the
bustling stalls, the glittering passages, the
broad asphalt pavement, which give so
pleasant and lively an aspect to that magnificent
promenade which extends from the
Madeleine, in Paris, to theTemple—though these are
wanting, there is sufficient crowd, and bustle,
ami gaiety, in our Regent Street, sufficient
wealth and architectural beauty, to enable it, if
not to vie with, at least to compensate a
foreigner for his temporary exile from, his
beloved Boulevard des Italiens.

Between three and six o'clock every afternoon,
celebrities jostle you at every step you take
in Regent Street. The celebrities of wealth,
nobility, and the mode, do not disdain to
descend from their carriages and tread the
flags like ordinary mortals. Science, Literature,
and Law, walk arm-in-arm three abreast.
Dethroned kings, expatriated generals,
proscribed republicans, meet on a neutral ground
of politics, and paving-stones. It is pre-
eminently in a crowded street that you see that
equality which will assert itself at times—
etiquette, William the Conqueror, and Burke's
Peerage and Baronetage, notwithstanding.
The Queen of Spain has legs in Regent Street,
and uses them. The Duke of Pampotter
cannot usurp a larger share of the pavement
than the plebeian in a velveteen shooting
jacket who sells lap-dogs. Every gent in a
Joinville tie, irreproachable boots, and a
successful moustache, can be for the nonce
the shepherd Paris, and adjudge the golden
apple to the most beautiful bonnet, and the
most beautiful face, whether their possessor
be a fashionable marchioness or a fashionable
milliner.

Those good friends of ours, the foreigners,
who need only to know and visit England to
take kindly to its streets, people, viands,
liquors, and import of bullion, have taken at
least nine points of the law in Regent Street,
these twenty years agone. It is refreshing
to see these worthy fellows in the most eccentric
hats, the wildest pantaloons, the craziest
extravagancies of braiding, the most luxuriant
beards; glistening with pomatum, electro-
plated jewellery, and boot-varnish; swelling
down Regent Street, making the air
redolent with foreign perfumes and the smoke
of foreign cigars; their wives and daughters
giving viva voce lessons in the art of
wearing a bonnet, holding up a dress,
and scragging the hair off the temples-
à l'Impératrice, and all gazing approvingly
at the numerous indications which Regent
Street presents, of England being the place for
foreigners after all, and Regent Street the
locality, par excellence, for foreigners to open,
brilliant shops for the sale of perfumes, gloves,
cambric pocket-handkerchiefs, Vanille chocolate,
ormolu clocks, Strasburg pies, St. Julien
claret, and patent leather boots.

Music, above all, hath charms in Regent
Street; and its paving-stones unceasingly
echo beneath the feet of the denizens of the
musical world. Music masters and
mistresses hurry to and fro from their lessons;
singers to concerts or into Messrs. Octave
and Piccolo's music warehouse: and a