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and information, more interesting to her, in the garden of the conservatory, with her mother and Lady Digby. Indefatigably kind Sir Rupert ended by finding Froissart' for Harry in the library, and unfold. ing for him those delightfully entertaining old prints, where the battles of Poictiers and Cressy are represented so happily, though in defiance of all the laws of perspective.

After speaking of the wonderful change which the introduction of fire-arms produced in the world, and of the astonishment which their first appearance created among civilized and uncivilized nations in Europe and America, Sir Rupert related to Harry an account which he had just read in a new book of travels, of a people by whom the power of fire-arms has been even recently defied.

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'Between the Nile and the desert,' said Sir Rupert, there is a narrow strip of cultivated land, which in some places is not more than half a mile in breadth, but which stretches hundreds of miles in length. This strip of land was inhabited by various independent tribes, till within the last three or four years, when a despotic Turkish Pacha, of the name of Mahommed Ali, resolved to send a large army, under the command of his son Ismael, to subdue them. Ismael's progress was unresisted, till he came to one warlike tribe, who, with equal courage and patriotism, defied the invader. He may drive us to the gates of the world, but

we will never submit," was the answer they sent to his threats.'

'Brave people!' cried Harry.

they drove him back again.'

'I hope

They were heard shouting from their encampment,' continued Sir Rupert, "You may come against us from the north, and from the east, and from the west, but we will never submit.' They knew that the Pacha had fire-arms they had none but they

put their trust in the weapons and shields to which they had been accustomed, and in their own courage. Their shields of hippopotamos, or of crocodile skin, covered the head and the breast. Their weapons were swords and lances: and their sorcerers assured them, that their shields and themselves should be rendered by magic invulnerable to musket-balls.

'Bravely they came out to give him battle, and advanced boldly at first; but, when the vollies of musketry began to play, and when they found, that, in spite of their promised invulnerability, many fell wounded and killed, a panic seized them and they fled. After this first defeat, however, they entrenched themselves in the mountains; their courage revived, and again they sent forth shouts of defiance, bidding the Pacha "to come if he dared."

:

'But Ismael had learned to respect their bravery he had once already been surprised, and almost defeated by the black horsemen of the desert, and he therefore pru

dently resolved to attack them with a heavy fire of shot and shells. One of these shells fell amongst them; and, as it was rolling and bounding along, these poor ignorant people gathered around it, admired and amused by its motions; but, when it burst, and spread destruction round it, they cried out, "The evil spirits are come against us, and are too mighty for us." The superstition that had at first given them confidence, now only increased their despair; and, abandoning their strong holds, they set off in full flight, their patriotism expiring with their liberties. Afterwards they bargained for their wretched lives; and were contented to join, as his soldier slaves, the army of their conqueror.'

As Sir Rupert concluded, Harry groaned. 'Was this,' said he, 'the end of their glorious "You may drive us to the gates of the world, but we will never submit?'

Even so, Harry; so little dependence can there be on mere animal ignorant courage, that braves the danger of which it does not know the nature or extent.'

THE glass doors at one end of the library, leading into the conservatory, were half open; and, now that Harry's attention was no longer engaged, he observed a gale of fragrance, like the smell of fresh hay, or of that grass which gives to fresh hay its plea

sant odour (anthoxanthum odoratum). A second waft, however, decided that it was from Lady Digby's favorite plant, the heliotrope, innumerable pots of which the skilful old gardener had contrived to force into premature flower and perfume, so as to have a constant succession for her ladyship's conservatory. He heard Lucy's voice too; and, though he was not, as he used to say of himself, a great green-house merchant, he now went in there, and found Lady Digby showing some plants, which had been sent to her from North Carolina by a kind American lady. There was one which is rather uncommon in these countries, as it is so delicate, that, without care, it seldom survives a winter in our climates. It is something of the nature of the sensitive plant; the inside of the plant is thickly set with bristly hairs, like thorns, or like many little sharp teeth. As soon as Lucy saw this plant, she took up a straw, and drew it along the division, or middle rib of one of its leaves, and immediately the two sides of the leaf folded up. and the prickly teeth closed together, so as to hold fast the straw.

'I see it is the plant I thought of,' said Lucy. 'Venus's fly-trap, is not it?'

Yes, dionaea muscipula,' said Lady Digby; 'have you seen one before?'

No: Lucy had never seen one, but she knew it, she said, from having read a description of it. The gardener by this time

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had caught a search on the flies were few

fly, of which he had been in window for some time — for and rare at this season-and, holding his struggling prisoner by the two wings, he was going to set him upon one of the leaves, that the young lady, as he said, might see what would happen; but Lucy stopped his hand-she knew what would happen-that, the moment the fly touched the leaf, the teeth would close upon it, as they had closed on the straw, and squeeze it to death. The old gardener immediately complied with Lucy's entreaties to release the poor fly; and Lucy observed to him, that there was the less occasion for this experiment, as the many dead flies showed how well some of the leaves had performed their cruel office. 'But I really think,' she said, ' that those fly-killing leaves are larger and greener than the rest.'

The gardener answered, that he had often remarked the same thing; and, though some folk said that they were fattened and nourished by the dead flies, for his part he thought it just as likely that it was because the healthy and vigorous leaves had a greater power of shutting close and crushing the flies. 'But,' added he, with due philosophic caution, 'I can't take upon me to decide.'

Harry admired the ingenious mechanical structure of this fly-trap, and began to say, that it reminded him of something which he had seen elsewhere; when Lucy smiled,