"We're afraid, we're afraid!

We're sadly dismayed!

We'd much rather not be here!

If he dare show his face

Sad will be our disgrace :

We shall race to our kingdom of Fear!"

But Jan did not hear this, and, scarcely knowing how he did it, he rushed wildly out of the house, and down the street, with the soldiers after him. The race was soon over, however : Jan was caught, and this was his sentence

Shivery-shaky, quivery-quaky!
Sad is his fate for a day and a night!

Heart pit-a-pattering,

Teeth chit-a-chattering,

Won't he be in a terrible fright!"

Then Jan was blindfolded and led away by two of the men, who held him tightly by the collar. After going some distance, as it seemed, Jan heard a great noise, that sounded like a mixture of groans, and shrieks, and yells, and then he felt that the men who held him were trembling violently. "Here we are in Trembledom at last," said one of them, and he began to sing in a frightened tone

Enchanted plain,
In grief and pain,

A prisoner here we bring.
Keep him in fright

Till morning light,

Though he's brave as any thing."

Then the soldiers released Jan, and by the time he had torn the bandage off his eyes they had disappeared.

When Jan opened his eyes it was night, and he could not see a yard before him. Feeling the ground cautiously with his hand, he came to the conclusion that he was on a grassy plain; moving a foot or two farther on, however, he plunged his hand into a deep hole, and in doing so, knocked one or two stones off the edge. He heard them go bump, bump, against the sides, but they never seemed to reach the bottom. As Jan thought of the narrow escape he had had he trembled so that he almost fell into the hole. He daren't stay so close to it, that was certain; so he groped along

on his hands and knees, and moved some yards in the other direction. But suddenly, before he knew it, he fell into a black muddy bog, and every minute he seemed to sink deeper and deeper until only his head was above the ground. Then just as he thought he must disappear from sight, and had uttered a despairing cry for help, a hand clutched him by the hair, and he was on dry ground once more. And as he stood shivering, he heard a squeaky voice in the air, saying--

"Shivery-shaky,
Quivery-quaky,

How do you like it here?

What is the matter?

How your teeth chatter!

Surely you've nothing to fear.”

Jan was in a sad plight indeed, as covered with black mud, he rested against a tree. Just then the moon rose up above a bank of cloud, and Jan saw, to his horror, that the tree was a kind of giant, and that its two long arms were stretched out to grasp him. This was where the voice came from then. He didn't wait to think, but started off, with his hair on end, and ran madly over the plain, while the mocking voice followed him—

saw were a boy and a girl, most oddly dressed, and with spiral wires in place of legs. They were both crying bitterly, but Jan was unfeeling, as all cowards are, and he only laughed. More than that, he was bigger, so he determined to bully them.

He noticed that at the feet of each was a large slice of cake, but as the spiral wires acted as springs the children could not bend to reach the tempting pieces. (The children were gluttons, and this was their punishment, but the story of their troubles and how they got out of them is too long to tell here.) Jan, seeing the state of affairs, put himself in an imposing attitude, and ordered them to pick up their cake. Of course they couldn't do it. Then Jan put his hands on their heads and bobbed them up and down.

Very clever, wasn't it, Master Jan, but it was your turn next. Without knowing it, Jan's legs had already become springs; and suddenly a very heavy hand was put on his head, and up and down he went, as it seemed for hours. Oh, how dizzy he was, and how frightened! And all this time the two little children jeered at him, singing

hair had come away from the top of it-just where the pressure of the man's hand had been. Ha! ha ha!" laughed the children

Ha! ha! ha! he has lost his hair!
He has been in such fright

For a day and a night

That his hair is gone and his head is bare!"

Jan made a rush at the children, but they suddenly disappeared, and the scene changed in a wonderful way. On looking round him, Jan found he was on the sea-shore, and seeing a small boy in nautical attire in front of him he called to him.

"Hi! hi!” said he, "can you tell me the way to Hembledom?" Hembledom was where Jan lived. Without deigning to turn round, the boy answered in a quaint tone

"Twixt Trembledom and Hembledom

Lie miles and miles of sea!

Pray take a trip in this 'ere ship,
And sail along o'me.'

Jan saw nothing for it but to do so. So he followed his companion to the water's edge, when a boat from the ship took them on board.

Soon after they had sailed another vessel came up, and then commenced one of those naval combats of which Jan had read in history, and paintings of which he had seen in the picturegallery. Cannon-balls seemed to cleave the air in every direction; the sails and the rigging were cut to pieces; but Jan was safe, at any rate for the present. For at the first sign of the impending fight he had hidden himself in a dark corner.

"I'm a coward," said he to his sister that evening; "I've spoilt your knitting, merely because I knew I was stronger than you. But I am very sorry now, and I'll give you my bright shilling, if you'll only forgive me."

"I'm a coward after all,” said Jan to his schoolfellows next morning. "I know now that if the chance offered I should never act like a hero."

But although Jan didn't know it, when he made those two speeches he had commenced to be a hero, and he had done braver things than ever before in his life.

And Jan's sister and companions lived to see Jan a real hero, and I am sure that that dream after the visit to the picture-gallery had no small share in making him so. GEORGE WEATHERLY.

66

H

AS any one ever heard or read of a single amiable or pleasant feature in the character of the jaguar? One has occasionally known of a "good point" in most of the ferocious animals; but nobody has ever dared to raise a voice on behalf of the crafty and treacher. ous Leopard of America." It might indeed be proper to praise his beauty, his lovely coat of soft fur of a deep golden colour, spotted with black rings arranged in regular order, and his easy carriage, so characteristic of all the cat tribe; but his disposition is utterly bad. Like the rest of his kind he sleeps all day, but is very active at night. His padded feet help him to steal upon his victim with complete surprise, and his agility among trees, which he climbs with an activity that pussy might envy, has worked dismay, if not death, to countless monkeys. So strong is he, he can fell an ox to the earth with one blow of his paw. Fortunately, he is not given to hunting in troops; as soon as he is able to provide for himself, he quits the paternal roof, and sets up housekeeping on his own account. Leading thus a solitary existence, his temper not unnaturally is savage, and his manners stealthy and cunning.

The jaguar of the Amazons is the subject of a good deal of superstitious regard on the part of the natives, who look upon it as a species of demon, for this among other reasons, that it is a clever fisher. Choosing a tree which projects from a river-bank, he stretches himself at full length upon the outstanding branch, and from time to time slightly agitates the water with a gentle twitch of his tail. An unsuspecting fish soon rises to the surface with a view to securing a toothsome morsel; but no sooner does it come within reach of the carnivorous angler overhead, than with a well-directed stroke of the paw, the unfortunate denizen of lake or river is hurled to the bank to be consumed at leisure. Even tortoises have been landed in a similar way.

Residence for any length of time in the tracts of forest patronised by this creature does not, one would imagine, offer a pleasant prospect to those whose duties render such sojourn necessary. Α civil engineer, professionally engaged in Nicaragua, sleeping peacefully in his hammock, slung between a couple of trees, had his slumbers rudely disturbed one night. He was awakened by a heavy body striking the edge of his hammock, and

LEOPARD."

at the same time a tremendous blow on his side sent him sprawling to the ground. He speedily discovered that he had been the object of a jaguar's attentions, which, in its over-anxiety to secure an easily-won meal, miscalculated its leap, and instead of alighting upon its would-be victim, jumped too low, striking him with its head. The engineer was not sorry when daylight appeared.

This animal has a tolerably wide range, being found from the south-western boundary of the United States, throughout Central America, and as far south as Paraguay. Humboldt, the great naturalist, accounts for its scarcity in certain regions as compared with others by the following interesting fact.

In the republics of South America, where rearing of cattle and horses-on the pampas of Buenos Ayres for example- has been carried out on a very extensive scale, and in a spirit of great enterprise, the jaguars and other beasts of prey finding plenty, if not peace, provided for them at their doors, as it were, flourish apace. Farther north, on the other hand, in the regions of the Orinoco, where the dense forest not only affords less readilygot food, but also harbours boa constrictors and other serpents, which are amongst the jaguar's deadliest enemies, his lines can scarcely be said to have fallen in pleasant places. The black jaguar is the largest and most cruel variety. The Indians declare that when, in search of prey, it loses itself in the forest it makes itself quite at home among the trees-an arboreal existence that causes intense terror, and doubtless disgust, to the monkeys and other animals, whose leafy quarters have been thus wantonly intruded upon.

The illustrious Humboldt and his party were kept in a perpetual state of alarm every night, as they travelled through the jaguar country, by the yells of these brutes, which followed the camp in the hope of seizing some of the horses. Humboldt himself had a narrow escape. He was one day walking towards a river, when he noticed a jaguar lying about eighty paces distant, under the shade of a 1 tree. Happily the animal's gaze seemed to be directed upon a herd of capybaras (which form ! most commonly the jaguar's food in that part of South America where they are found) crossing the stream. Making as wide a circuit as he could, and walking as noiselessly and with as little movement as possible, Humboldt at last safely reached his encampment. On the Indians turning out in search of the jaguar, it was found to have disappeared in the meanwhile. Too probably the herd of capybaras had been diminished by one.