By the light of a candle, he was proceeding along the road, when a black cloud, resembling the pillar of a temple, descended between him and a candle. If he moved a candle to the east, the pillar also moved to the east; if he moved the candle westward, the pillar moved with it, as if trying to obstruct the way, and not to permit him to proceed. Yen, being very much frightened, entered the house of a friend, and having procured a servant and another candle, proceeded, and the black pillar gradually disappeared, while he hastened to his wife’s house. On entering, his father-in-law met him, and said, “You arrived a long time ago,――where have you come from now?” Yen replied, “Most certainly I have not been in before!” Yen and the whole family fled in astonishment to his wife’s room, where they found a man seated on her bed, holding her hand. As he proceeded to his wife’s side, the stranger disappeared, and his lady soon expired. _Fidelity of Cats._――In Heängning, there lived a lad, whose surname was Wang. His father had an old servant, upwards of seventy years old, who, being extremely fond of cats, kept thirteen in her house, and loved and cherished them like children. Each one had a nickname, and came immediately at her call. In the reign of Keënlung, this old woman died. The poor cats gathered round her coffin, crying bitterly, and refused fish, rice, and every kind of food; and after three days, they all died! So much for Chinese Romance. * * * * * LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS.――The acuteness of the sheep’s ear surpasses all things in nature that I know of. An ewe will distinguish her own lamb’s bleat among a thousand all bleating at the same time, and making a noise a thousand times louder than the singing of psalms at a Cameronian sacrament in the fields, where thousands are congregated――and that is no joke either. Besides, the distinguishment of voice is perfectly reciprocal between the ewe and lamb, who amid the deafening sound run to meet one another. There are few things have ever amused me more than a sheep-shearing, and then the sport continues the whole day. We put the flock into the fold, send out all the lambs to the hill, and then send the ewes to them as they are shorn. The moment that a lamb hears its dam’s voice, it rushes from the crowd to meet her; but instead of finding the rough, well-clad, comfortable mamma, which it left an hour or a few hours ago, it meets a poor, naked, shivering――a most deplorable-looking creature. It wheels about, and uttering a loud, tremulous bleat of despair, flies from the frightful vision. The mother’s voice arrests its flight――it returns――flies, and returns again, generally for ten or a dozen times, before the reconciliation is fairly made up.――_James Hogg._ * * * * *