alas! if one man could deprive her of liberty, another might impose upon her credulity; young and so distrustful! Rosa had received her first lesson in distrust.

The child cried and prayed, and prayed and cried by turns; and she thought of her home at the farmhouse and of her grandmother, and she slept; she did not usually dream, but now she dreamed, and woke, and slept, and dreamed again.

Thus several days elapsed, the captain was often on shore, and Eldrido took many opportunities of comforting the hapless child, who was convulsed with weeping.

Sabe me! sabe me!" was ever her cry, and before the baron had spoken to Eldrido he had already seriously contemplated her deliverance; for Eldrido thought of his own and only sister, and of his widowed mother, and the memory of those we love very frequently steers us to the haven of good resolutions.

One evening Rosa had sobbed herself to sleep, when Eldrido gently entered her cabin; he stood for some time with a lantern in his hand, contemplating the child, who certainly looked not Hebe-like in her slumbers.

But she was a child-helpless-injured -and Eldrido was much touched when even in her sleep the same words, "Sabe me! sabe me!" fell upon his ears.

"Wake up, and listen to me," said Eldrido; "nay, start not, I am your friend.” "God bless you! God bless you!" and the child passionately pressed his arm.

Compose yourself, Rosa, and listen to me. I am sent on shore, and the captain is fast asleep, the night is dark, and there are other slaves on board; dress yourself quickly, and follow me: don't thank me, I hate thanks-make haste."

The child was very soon equipped, and

stood upon the deck with Eldrido, who

whispered,―

"Do not cry if I am rough; I shall be compelled to appear so."

Rosa turned upon him her dark, thank

ful eyes.

"This way," cried Eldrido, aloud, as he found himself surrounded by seamen; "now, blacky, step into the boat.

That child has symptoms of the fever," whispered Eldrido to a messmate; "what a confounded nuisance it is!"

Why, you will catch it," cried his com

panion.

Perhaps not, but don't talk about it."

This was quite enough; in another moment the part of the deck on which Eldrido stood was quite clear; the whisper had been heard, and Rosa was in the boat by the side of her deliverer. Her natural impulse would have been to throw herself on her knees,

but the sailors who rowed the boat were a check upon her movements. But at length she was on shore, alone with her young benefactor, and her grateful tears fell fast upon the hand she pressed to her lips. The delight of the child was unbounded, and her heart swelled with pleasure and astonishment, until, really not knowing how to express her words, she burst into tears.

Eldrido took the child on his knees, and he parted her harsh hair with the same kindness a mother plays with her infant's silken locks; he looked at her dark eyes, he felt the throbbing of that poor little heart, and he loathed slavery. He remembered that he had seen slave markets, he recalled the despairing gaze of the unhappy wretches, he recollected how keenly they looked at the various persons who so roughly handled them, how tears filled their eyes if they heard a kind word, how doggedly they followed the

footsteps of a harsh master, how the unfortunate beings were torn asunder, father from son, mother from daughter.

I will never more return to that odious ship, thought the youth, how wrong I have been to mix with wickedness and vice!

Then came the recollection of his mother. He fancied he felt the warm moisture of her farewell tears; he fancied she parted once more his Andalusian locks, and he hoped to see her under happier auspices.

*

The shades of evening are gently falling and overshadowing the beauty of the day; the groves and vales are silent and forsaken; the voice of birds is hushed, scarce a breath of rude air disturbs the foliage of the trees. How hallowed seemed the grace of evening, how tranquil appeared the slumbering scene! With no guide, save the little