distributing food to the ostriches and large animals, and admit, if there is a paradise on earth, it was this spot. Compare this scene with that presented by any of our large cities at the same hour in the morning. In London or Paris, our dominion rarely extends over two or three dreary-looking rooms--a geranium, perhaps, at one of the windows to represent the fields and green lanes of the country; above, a forest of smoking chimneys vary the monotony of the zig-zag roofs; below, a thousand confused noises of waggons, cabs, and the hoarse voices of the street criers; probably the lamps are just being extinguished, and the dust heaps carted away, filling our rooms, and perhaps our eyes, with ashes; the chalk-milk, the air, and the odors are scarcely required to fill up the picture. Breakfast was spread a few paces from Mr. Wolston's bed, whom the two young girls were tending with anxious solicitude, and whose sickness was almost enviable, so many were the cares lavished upon him. "You are wrong, Mrs. Becker," said Mrs. Wolston, "to make yourself uneasy, the sea has become as smooth as a mirror since their departure." "Ah, yes, I know that, my dear Mrs. Wolston, but when one has already undergone the perils of shipwreck, the impression always remains, and makes us see storms in a glass of water." "I am certain," remarked Mr. Wolston, "the cause of their delay is a concession made to Willis." "Very likely he would not consent to return, unless they went as far as possible." "By the way, madam," said Mary, "now that you have got two great girls added to your establishment, I hope you are going to make them useful in some way--we can sew, knit, and spin." "And know how to make preserves," added Sophia. "Yes, and to eat them too," said her mother. "If you can spin, my dears, we shall find plenty of work for you; we have here the Nankin cotton plant, and I intend to dress the whole colony with it." "Delightful!" exclaimed Sophia, clapping her hands; "Nankin dresses just as at the boarding-school, with a straw hat and a green veil." "To be sure, it must be woven first," reflected Mrs. Becker; "but I dare say we shall be able to manage that." "By the way, girls," said Mrs. Wolston, "have you forgotten your lessons in tapestry?" "Not at all, mamma; and now that we think of it, we shall handsomely furnish a drawing-room for you." "But where are the tables and chairs to come from?" inquired Mrs. Becker. "Oh, the gentlemen will see to them." "And the room, where is that to be?" "There is the gallery, is there not?" "And the wool for the carpet?" "Have you not sheep?" "That is true, children; you speak as if we had only to go and sit down in it." "The piano, however, I fear will be wanting, unless we can pick up an Erard in the neighboring forest." "True, mamma, all the overtures that we have had so much trouble in learning will have to go for nothing."