We are mad gamesters in this world below, All hopes on one uncertain die to throw; How vain is man's pursuit, with passion blind, To follow that which leaves us still behind! Go! clasp the shadow, make it all thine own, Place on the flying breeze thine airy throne; Weave the thin sunbeams of the morning sky; Catch the light April clouds before they fly; Chase the bright sun unto the fading west, And wake him early from his golden rest; Seeking th' impossible, let life be past, But never dream of pleasure that shall last. _The Ruined City._ * * * * * GERMAN LIFE. One day (says a late adventurer,) that I was quartered in a farm-house, along with some of our German dragoons, the owner came to complain to me that the soldiers had been killing his fowls, and pointed out one man in particular as the principal offender. The fact being brought home to the dragoon, he excused himself by saying, "One shiken come frighten my horse, and I give him one kick, and he die." "Oh, but," said I, "the _patron_ contends that you killed more than one fowl." "Oh yes; that shiken moder see me kick that shiken, so she come fly in my face, and I give her one kick, and she die." Of course I reported the culprit to his officer, by whom he was punished as a notorious offender. _Twelve Years' Military Adventures._ * * * * * THE HEIR. Persons who are very rich, and have no legal heirs, may entertain themselves very much at the expense of hungry expectants and lean legacy-hunters. Who has not seen a poor dog standing on his hind legs, and bobbing up and down after a bone scarcely worth picking, with which some mischief-loving varlet has tantalized the poor animal till all its limbs have ached? That poor dog shadows out the legacy-hunter or possible heir. _Rank and Talent._ * * * * *