Nearer and nearer came the shadow, and it now was a long, black hull, a funnel pouring forth a dense volume of smoke, spotted with fire-sparks, and tapering masts and fragile rigging, with the stars running through them.

"Ease her!"

The sound of the throbbing grew more measured. We could hear the water as it was churned up by the screw.

"Stop her!"

The sounds ceased, and the vessel came looming up slowly, more slowly, until she stopped.

"What is that? -- a boat?" exclaimed a strong bass voice. "Yes!" answered the boatswain. "We've been shipwrecked; we're adrift in a quarter-boat."

"Can you bring her alongside?"

"Ay, ay, sir!"

I threw out an oar, but trembled so violently that it was as much as I could do to work it. We headed the boat for the steamer and rowed toward her. As we approached, I perceived that she was very long, barked-rigged, and raking, manifestly a powerful, iron-built ocean steamer. They hung a red light on the forestay and a white light over her port quarter, and lights flitted about her gangway.

?"

A voice sung out: "How many are there of you?
The boatswain answered: "Three men and a lady."

On this the same voice called, "If you want help to bring that boat alongside, we'll send to you."

"We'll be alongside in a few minutes," returned the boatswain.

But the fact was, the vessel had stopped her engines when further off from us than we had imagined; being deceived by the magnitude of her looming hull, which seemed to stand not a hundred fathoms away from us, and by the wonderful distinctness of the voice that had spoken us.

I did not know how feeble I had become until I took the oar; and the violent emotions excited in me by our rescue, now to be effected after our long and heavy trials, diminished still the little strength that was left in me; so that the boat moved very slowly through the water, and it was full twenty minutes, starting from the time when we had shipped oars, before we came up with her.

it."

"We'll fling you a rope's end," said a voice; "look out for

A line fell into the boat. The boatswain caught it, and sung out, "All fast!"

I looked up the high side of the steamer: there was a crowd of men assembled round the gangway, their faces visible in the light shed not only by our own mast-head lantern (which was on a level with the steamer's bulwarks), but by other lanterns which some of them held. In all this light we, the occupants of the boat, were to be clearly viewed from the deck; and the voice that had first addressed us said: —

"Are you strong enough to get up the ladder? If not, we'll sling you on board."

I answered that if a couple of hands would come down into the boat so as to help the lady and a man (who had fallen imbecile) over the ship's side, the other two would manage to get on board without assistance.

On this a short gangway-ladder was lowered, and two men. descended and got into the boat.

"Take that lady first," I said, pointing to Mary, but holding on, as I spoke, to the boat's mast, for I felt horribly sick and faint, and knew not, indeed, what was going to happen to me; and I had to exert all my power to steady my voice.

They took her by the arms, and watching the moment when the wash of the swell brought the boat against the ship's side, landed her cleverly on the ladder and helped her on to the deck.

"Boson," I cried, huskily, "she she is saved! I am dying, I think. God bless her! and-and-your hand,

mate"

I remember uttering these incoherent words, and seeing the boatswain spring forward to catch me. Then my senses left me with a flash.

I remained, as I was afterward informed, insensible for four days, during which time I told and retold, in my delirium, the story of the mutiny and our own sufferings, so that, as the ship's surgeon assured me, he became very exactly acquainted with all the particulars of the "Grosvenor's" voyage, from the time of her leaving the English Channel to the moment of our rescue from the boat; though I, from whom he learned the story, was insensible as I related it. My delirium even embraced so remote an incident as the running down of the smack.

When I opened my eyes I found myself in a small, very

comfortable cabin, lying in a bunk; and, being alone, I had no knowledge of where I was, nor would my memory give me the slightest assistance. Every object my eye rested upon was unfamiliar, and that I was on board a ship was all that I knew for certain. What puzzled me most was the jarring sound caused by the engines. I could not conceive what this meant nor what produced it; and the vessel being perfectly steady, it was not in my power to realize that I was being borne over the water.

I closed my eyes and lay perfectly still, striving to master the past and inform myself of what had become of me; but so hopelessly muddled was my brain that had some unseen person, by way of a joke, told me in a sepulchral voice that I was dead, and apprehending the things about me only by means of my spirit, which had not yet had time to get out of my body, I should have believed him; though I don't say that I should not have been puzzled to reconcile my very keen appetite and thirst with my non-existent condition.

In a few minutes the door of the cabin was opened, and a jolly, red-faced man, wearing a Scotch cap, looked in. Seeing me with my eyes open, he came forward and exclaimed, in a cheerful voice: :

"All alive O! Staring about you full of wonderment! Nothing so good as curiosity in a sick man. Shows that the

blood is flowing."

He felt my pulse, and asked me if I knew who he was.

I replied that I had never seen him before.

"Well, that's not my fault," said he; "for I've been looking at you a pretty tidy while, on and off, since we hoisted you out of the brine.

Hungry?"

"Guid speed an' furder to you, Johnny:

Guid health, hale han's an' weather bonnie;
May ye ne'er want a stoup o' brany,

"Very," said I.

"Thirsty?"

"Yes."

To clear your head!'

"How do you feel in yourself?"

"I have been trying to find out. I don't know. I forget

who I am."

"Raise your arm and try your muscles."

“I can raise my arm," I said, doing so. "How's your memory?"

"If you'll give me a hint or two, I'll see."

He looked at me very earnestly and with much kindness in the expression of his jovial face, and debated some matter in his own mind.

"I'll send you in some beef-tea," he said, "by a person who 'll be able to do you more good than I can. But don't excite yourself. Converse calmly, and don't talk too much."

So saying, he went away.

I lay quite still, and my memory remained as helpless as though I had just been born.

After an interval of about ten minutes the door was again opened, and Mary came in. She closed the door and approached me, holding a cup of beef-tea in her hand: but, however she had schooled herself to behave, her resolution forsook her; she put the cup down, threw her arms round my neck, and sobbed with her cheek against mine.

With my recognition of her, my memory returned to me.

"My darling," I cried, in a weak voice, "is it you indeed? Oh, God is very merciful to have spared us! I remembered nothing just now; but all has come back to me with your dear face."

She was too overcome to speak for some moments; but, raising herself presently, she said, in broken tones :

"I thought I should never see you again, never be able to speak to you more. But I am wicked to give way to my feelings, when I have been told that any excitement must be dangerous to my darling. Drink this, now no, I will hold the cup to your lips. Strength has been given me to bear the sufferings we have gone through, that I may nurse you and bring you back to health."

HANS SACHS.

SACHS, HANS, a German master-shoemaker and master-singer; born at Nuremberg, November 5, 1494; died there, January 19, 1576. He was well educated at the Latin School in his native town, and when he reached the proper age he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. After having duly served out his apprenticeship he set out on the "travel-years" prescribed by the regulations of the guilds as a preliminary to becoming a "naster-work man." He visited the principal towns of Southern Germany, pegging and singing as he went, and was for a time employed in the Imperial service. At about twenty-four he returned to Nuremberg, married, and established himself in the twofold capacity of authorized maker of shoes and maker of verses, both of which pursuits he carried on prosperously for nearly threescore years. The active literary career of Hans Sachs lasted from about 1514 to 1567 - that is, from his twentieth to his seventy-first year. During this long period he produced, according to his own computation, 6048 separate pieces, longer or shorter. Of these, as classified by himself, there were 4275 Master-songs; 208 Dramas; 1558 Stories, Fables, Histories, and "Figures," or Miscellanies, which include several controversial pamphlets in prose.

UNDER THE PRESSURE OF CARE OR POVERTY.

WHY art thou cast down, my heart?

Why troubled, why dost mourn apart,

O'er naught but earthly wealth?
Trust in thy God; be not afraid :

He is thy Friend, who all things made.

Dost think thy prayers he doth not heed?
He knows full well what thou dost need,
And heaven and earth are his;
My Father and my God, who still
Is with my soul in every ill.

Since thou my God and Father art,
I know thy faithful loving heart
Will ne'er forget thy child;