her transparent skin, like borealian flashes beaming in a moonlit sky. Mr. Welson, whose quick perception had caught the source of the spell’s inspiration took the prætor’s arm, and then beckoning his companions, they joined the happy parents, who added to the fullness of their joy by introducing the members of the corps to their daughters. After enjoying the mutual flow of unbounded affection between parents and children, for a short time, as the centre of attraction, the prætor conducted them through the gate alcove of the garden screen, to an acacia hedge, through the interstices of which they could observe, undetected, the scenes of affectionate endearment, in animated, but silent flow, passing in the conscious enactment of thoughtful impression, between the clustering family groups. At the conclusion of a pæan song of thanksgiving, they engaged in various pastimes, improvised from the joyous promptings of the occasion, in which both old and young participated. All their movements were so replete with the affectionate expression of gleesome mirth, song, and frolic wit, the paucity of lingual accompaniments was scarcely noticed. The impression of our own feelings, in unison, the padre recognized, who declared, upon his conscience, that he felt a brighter glow of conscious affection than words could convey, imparted from their silent expression of joyous reciprocation. He soon became so wrought with the intensity of affectionate participation, that he could not resist the attraction, but darted from ambush, exclaiming, “Upon my soul, I know that I shall be like a bull in a china shop, but I must be with them,” and was soon in their midst, with face aglow from smiling excitement. The young Kyronese maidens, from toddling infancy to seven,—the first stage in the course of instinctive life,—soon took possession of the padre by the right of preëmption, holding him captive from its conferred privileges of priority in discovery; but permitted the Heraclean parents and children to participate in their joy, although holding him as a special bondsman to their arbitrary sway. Detaining Cleorita and Oviata as interpreters, they enlisted the padre as the representative champion of his race in their pastimes. But as an agile athlete his career was more successful for the enlistment of mirth, than for either grace or speed, for he fared worse than Dr. Baāhar in his trial with the family of the prætor, as he was unable to hold the shadows of an old man, of an hundred and sixty years, and his wife. Indeed, his movements and appearance indicated that he was their elder in age, for with graceful steps of equal pace, they kept their shadows from his feet, when in the eye of the sun they were lengthened in the rise of the hill. The merriment caused by his defeat cast no shadow over his happy face, but with buoyant smiles he challenged Dr. Baāhar’s badinage with the desire of testing his right to criticise. This accepted, he was again defeated,