Many years have passed since then, and many showers of rain have helped to lay the mound flat with the earth, so that the "hen and chickens" have run all over it, and made a fine plot. The curate and his mother have met at last; and I have transplanted many flowers that he gave me to his grave. I sometimes wonder if, in his perfect happiness, he knows, or cares to know, how often the remembrance of his story has stopped the current of conceited day-dreams, and brought me back to practical duty with the humble prayer, "Keep Thy servant also from presumptuous sins." FRIEDRICH'S BALLAD. A TALE OF THE FEAST OF ST. NICHOLAS. "Ne pinger ne scolpir fia piu che queti, L'anima volta a quell' Amor divino Ch'asserse a prender noi in Croce le braccia." "Painting and Sculpture's aid in vain I crave, My one sole refuge is that Love divine Which from the Cross stretched forth its arms to save." _Written by_ MICHAEL ANGELO _at the age of 83._ "So be it," said one of the council, as he rose and addressed the others. "It is now finally decided. The Story Woman is to be walled up." The council was not an ecclesiastical one, and the woman condemned to the barbarous and bygone punishment of being "walled up" was not an offending nun. In fact the Story Woman (or _Maerchen-Frau_ as she is called in Germany) may be taken to represent the imaginary personage who is known in England by the name of Mother Bunch, or Mother Goose; and it was in this instance the name given by a certain family of children to an old book of ballads and poems, which they were accustomed to read in turn with special solemnities, on one particular night in the year; the reader for the time being having a peculiar costume, and the title of "Maerchen-Frau," or Mother Bunch, a name which had in time been familiarly adopted for the ballad-book itself.