"You shall see your son to-morrow, Mrs. Gaston. I will myself go to Lexington and bring him home. I had no idea that the man had not kept his promise with you. And, as I got Henry the place, I must see that his master is as good as his word in regard to him." With this assurance, Mrs. Gaston returned home, and with a lighter heart. (To be concluded next month.) FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 9: Entered according to Act of Congress, by T. B. PETERSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.] HISTORY OF PEARLS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL. PEARLS are a shelly secretion of a spherical shape formed in a species of oyster, or pearl mussel, and said to be produced by a malady in the animal, which requires nearly seven years for its full development, after which the oyster dies. Small pearls which have been immersed in acetous acids, and thus reduced to their membranous constituents, have the appearance of being formed of concentric coats of membrane and carbonate of lime, thus resembling in composition the mother-of-pearl with which oyster-shells are lined. The precise origin of pearls is unknown, but it appears probable that some minute substance, such as a grain of sand, may have found its way into the shell and produced irritation, and that the animal, unable to expel it, renders it less injurious by covering it with calcareous matter. It is sometimes affirmed that, to produce pearls, the oyster must have received some external injury; and this is corroborated by the fact that nearly all the shells in which pearls are found are outwardly contorted, and that a smooth regular shell is a pretty sure sign of the absence of the pearl. It was therefore suggested to the Swedish government, by the celebrated Linnæus, to pierce small holes in the shell of the freshly-caught pearl oyster, and then restore it to its original bed. The experiment was tried, but without success. A somewhat similar plan is said to be adopted by the Chinese, and with favorable results. These ingenious people thread upon fine silk small beads of mother-of-pearl, and fasten them within the shells of pearl oysters, when they rise to the surface of the water at the beginning of summer. The animals are then restored to their bed, where they soon cover the beads with calcareous matter, and thus convert them into pearls. In whatever way produced, pearls of considerable size, on account of their beauty and rarity, have been valued at enormous prices in past ages, and are still among the choicest objects of the jeweller's art. Their delicate and silvery lustre has been as widely celebrated as the brilliancy of the diamond. The Hindoos poetically describe them as drops of dew falling into the shells when the fish rise to the surface of the sea in the month of May, and becoming, by some unexplained action of the sun's rays, transformed into pearls.