A strange, loud sound bursts suddenly from a bush at your very ear, exclaiming, “chuck-will’s-widow!” It is repeated――slowly at first――and then more rapidly. Pretty soon another voice, exclaims, “whippoorwill.” “Confound us! confound us!” says a croaking throat in the mud. “Botheration! botheration!” says one at a distance. “Thief! thief!” cries another. Then fifty voices break out, and run into each other like the notes of a watchman’s rattle. The din rises higher and higher. More voices are added to the chorus, while every one speaks louder and quicker――and ever and anon, the deep voice of the alligator is distinctly heard, betwixt a grunt and guffau――seeming like the notes of the kettledrum, or double bass, to this wonderful concert of birds and reptiles, when _all by themselves_! * * * * * PROFANE SWEARING.――I believe there never was a man who made a fortune by common swearing. It often appears that men pay for swearing, but it seldom happens that they are paid for it. It is not easy to perceive what honor or credit is connected with it. Does any man receive promotion because he is a notable blusterer? Or is any man advanced to dignity because he is expert at profane swearing? Never. Low must be the character which such impertinence will exalt; high must be the character which such impertinence will not degrade. Inexcusable, therefore, is the vice which has neither reason nor passion to support it. The drunkard has his cups; the satirist his revenge; the ambitious man his preferments; the miser his gold: but the common swearer has nothing; he is a fool at large, sells his soul for nought, and drudges in the service of the devil, gratis. Swearing is void of all plea; it is not the native offspring of the soul, nor interwoven with the texture of the body, nor, anyhow, allied to our frame. For, as Tillotson expresses it, “though some men pour out oaths as if they were natural, yet no man was ever born of a swearing constitution.” But it is a custom, a low and paltry custom, picked up by low and paltry spirits who have no sense of honor, no regard to decency, but are forced to substitute some rhapsody of nonsense to supply the vacancy of good sense. Hence the silliness of the practice can only be equalled by the silliness of those who adopt it.――_Lamont._ [Illustration: _Ruins of Ancient Rome._] A Roman Story.