off secondary lightning, twisted, his brother Jove's last newyear's present, and drove, impetuous, up to earth, to see what in the d-l's name could be to pay.

Up to the regions of sunshine and day his coursers soon galloped, running, with reckless leaps, their rude, rough way. And now they stamp Trinacrian ground, and climb old Ætna's dizzy steep, and snuff the tainted air, and paw the yet warm sulphur, wandering at will; while Pluto, far aloft, from peak to peak springs anxious, thoughtful, surveying cracks, chasms, and craters.

Within a bower, on Ida's side, the Cytherean goddess slept -her cherished trysting place of old, when good Anchises was a juvenal. The dusky form of Pluto, leaping over the hills, threw its long shadow on the peaceful grove. The shadow, and the form, dismal, and cold, and grim, awoke the jealous queen, awoke to call her archer boy, with summons quick and shrill. "Eros! my son! Cupid fly quick!

Hither! come hither!"

Cupid was frolicking, down in a vale, busy, as usual, sticking a pin in the breast of a captive beetle. He ran to his mother, and buried his head in her bosom.

"If ever thou did'st love me, boy; if in thy gentle mother's breast thou hast delight, and dreamy joy, pillowed, in deep and balmy rest; be now my grateful Eros, my darling avenger; our long insulted shrines are thirsting for vengeance on Pluto's chill philosophy,—his haughty heart,—his stubborn knee, that bends not-owns not woman, nor me ;—thine is the grace, to bring yon reprobate to know, redeemed, a Benedict's condition; to bid him at my footstool kneel, the pangs of torturing love to feel, fearing, hoping, wishing. But now, he treads the withering earth, secure in pride of regal birth, and spurns the joys of woman's arms, rejects her love,

derides her charms; the murky craven! By Styx! the old cold-hearted rip deserts for whiskey, rum, and flip, the eye, the brow, the cheek, the lip, replete with happy heaven! And shall we then confess, conquered, despised, our power is less than haughty Pluto's? What! has high heaven confessed a rape, and shall low Erebus escape, and we excuse the duty which the brute owes ! No! bring your_bow and

arrows!

It was a goodly sight to see the queen of beauty, with flushed and anxious face, hurry and help the god of love. It was a goodly sound to hear, with voice subdued, but accents clear, queen Venus cheer her son. "Shoot! till he feels the glowing flame; shoot! for your mother's glorious fame; shoot! for the honor of your name, love, and love's archery." "Your word is law, good mother," said fun-loving Cupid, unbuckling his quiver. "Your breath upon this arrow. do the business for the old bachelor in a twinkling. softly, on this barb, her name whom he shall love."

I'll

Speak

The goddess kissed its point-the pain-and-pleasure-bearing weapon and smoothed its plume upon her billowy bosom. The dart was keen, and strait, and truly balanced, and Paphia approved it, and whispered, on its edge, the name of "Proserpine," and laid it in the rest.

There was a fixing, a bending, a tension, a pulling of a bowstring, a twang, a slip, and a whiz through the air, and it straight was all over with Pluto.

"Ha! ha! look! look! mamma, ha! ha!" Cupid laughed heartily, seeing the arrow quivering in Pluto's heart, and hearing him swear," By Orcus! what a sudden stitch I've got in my left side!" "The gentleman from Styx is stuck," pursued my lord of love, merry as a cricket; "the judge of

Tartarus has caught a Tartar. Charon's old master has a new care on his royal hands to manage."

"Stop your nonsense, you monkey!" said Venus, hitting the boy with her fan, "and bend your saucy knees, in lovesuits ever suppliant and successful, and wrestle with Olympus, and move all gods to send the daughter of the wheat-andindian lady before his lovesick eyes? for if she be not seen, our vengeance half is lost, and your great-uncle, there, will soon go down to Erebus, not knowing whence or what the pains that rack his frame.

"This cursed climate," Pluto cried, deep sighing, to himself, "delights not our condition; so rough, so raw, so cold, and soon, again, so hot. I must be off, and seek in regions more congenial, a steadier sky and heat more equable. This long old giant here lies quietly enough, and I hope he'll not raise such a rumpus again.-Alas! my side! my side!"

With such soliloquy, he nourished his deep wound, nor knew the secret cause of his distress; knew not the subtle venom that swelled his starting veins; knew not the glorious agony from ordinary pains. His coursers feel the lash, burning their trembling flanks. Now, onward, and away!—they spring, they rear, they rush, bearing their sorrowful master.

And soon, before his wonder-smitten eyes, deep, dimpling, pure, and cool, old Pergus lies, and lifts, upon his silver, crys

tal wave, the songs of snowy swans, that wanton, lave their spotless plumes, and swim, and swimming, sing, arch the the proud neck, and curve the sounding wing. A grove, impervious, crowns the lake, hanging above the cherished water, and, sacred, guards with veil opaque the virgin revelry of Ceres' daughter. There is she now, with her maidens, adjusting her long hair, gazing into the mirror of that lake, and humming to herself a sweet low tune. Her maidens, all

around, are gathering fragrant flowers; and flowers, and girls, and buds, and blossoms, are mingled all together, in a confused perplexing mass of beauty.

But the mistress of that troupe, how beautiful was she ! And that strange gazer on the group, how suddenly crazed was he! Young Proserpine was flattered by Pluto's wild confusion, and moved with more coquettish grace, and from her eyes shot rays more brilliant, when, with half averted head, she saw the royal stranger, bewildered by swans' songs, and maidens' voices, rein up his coursers with a sudden jerk, that brought them on their haunches. The dallying breeze blew back the light transparent folds of her thin stola, and played with her brown ringlets, and lifted up her neckerchief from off her full deep bosom; up and down, up and down, how heaved that beautiful bosom !

The kingly lover gazed, and drank the subtle poison; drank and gazed, gazed and drank, and gazed and drank on still. His parched tongue and lips refuse their usual function; staring he sat, and dumb. So, bloodless, sits and stares, torn from his ancient catacomb, the cold Egyptian mummy, uplifted in his coffin, at feminine admirers at Scudder's, all speechless, and dried up. His reins are on the grass, his hands hang at his side, his eyes are dimmed and dark, his mouth is stretched wide open, his head droops on his shoulder. Strange languor o'ercomes him, fierce weakness consumes him, he wishes he was in Hell.

THE ABDUCTION.

Proserpine! Proserpine! hold! beware! temptation may be too tempting! She little heeds the warning which Prudence, in her ears, whispers and urges; but cheek, and eye,

and tongue, and hand, are busy all coquetting. She gathers up her flowers, and presses them closely together, and binds them with the ends of her long flowing hair. And often, as she binds them, she looks, with half shut eye, through the meshes of her locks; and through her long, dark eyelashes, the beams of a mellow dreamy eye, fall, broken, upon Pluto. So, moonlight rays, through intertwining trees, sprinkle the leafy ground, in yellow autumn. And now she scatters them to the winds, and claps her empty hands, bending her bare white arms; and now she gathers the woodrose gay, and snatches the pale lily, and winds them with a willow wreath, and presses them, all trembling, against her leaping heart, and fawn-like, startled, flies, but archly she looks back and peals in Pluto's ear a merry laugh. Her maidens, delighted, encourage the flirtation, rejoicing in the grace and beauty of their mistress.

His majesty looked like a natural fool, while loud the echoed joy rang through the sacred grove. "I am seduced,” thought he, "from principle and promise; from all my vows of single blessedness; from my course of life, and love of business! alas! I am seduced! She must go down to Erebus with me, for certain."

"Will you accept a violet, sir?" said Proserpine, O, how meekly! and curtesying with well-put-on solemnity, as she stood by the chariot, and lifting up the flower, exposed her upturned throat, and deep, full, swelling bust, to Pluto's glowing gaze. "Will you accept a violet, good sir?"

"Violate?" gasped the king of night, not knowing what he said. "Yes, yes, my angel, yes, jump in ;" and Pluto's iron arm was on the maiden's cestus, and into the chariot lifted her.

Away-away!-What voice is that, shaking the trem