“April,” says the author of the “Mirror of the Months,” “is Spring――the only spring month that we possess――at once the most juvenile of all the months and the most feminine, never knowing her own mind for a day together. Fickle as a fond maiden with her first lover, toying it with the young sun, till he withdraws his beams from her, and then weeping till she gets them back again. April is doubtless the sweetest month of all the year; partly because it ushers in the May, and partly for its own sake. It is to the confirmed summer, what the previous hope of joy is to the full fruition; what the boyish dream of love is to love itself. It is indeed the month of promises; and what are twenty performances compared with one promise? April, then, is worth two Mays, because it tells of May in every sigh that it breathes, and every tear that it lets fall. It is the harbinger, the herald, the promise, the foretaste of all the beauties that are to follow it.” Dick Boldhero. CHAPTER III. _Adventures in South America, continued._ [Illustration: A]s evening approached, I found myself quite fatigued, and my feet almost blistered from the heat of the ground. I was therefore very glad to see a coffee plantation lying to the right, and about a mile distant. Thither I went, and applied to some of the negroes for a night’s lodging, but found, however, that not one of them could speak a word of English,――Dutch being the only language with which they were acquainted. Several of them got round me, chattering like so many magpies. Finding it impossible to make them understand by words, I resorted to signs. I suppose I must have been a pretty good mimic, for they seemed to understand me at once, and burst into the most uproarious fits of laughter. They finally concluded to take me to their master, whom I found to be a great stout man, with a swarthy complexion, and a farmer-like appearance; but he, being a Dutchman, could speak no English. The negroes, however, interpreted my wishes, and the planter gave immediate directions to have me taken good care of. I was accordingly carried off in triumph by my sable friends, who treated me as well as if I had been an emperor.