if all the Irishmen
in New York could be shut up in an hospital or elsewhere; and he could not
deny it. So he had to take his plan back again. And next year it was the
turn of the Chinese, and then of the Red Indians, and then of the dogs and
cats. And then Cornelius thought that he ought to provide room for all the
people who had been ruined by his speculations, and the Devil thought so
too, but doubted whether Cornelius would be able to afford it. And at last
Cornelius said:

"Methinks I have been very foolish in wishing to build an hospital at all
while I am living. Surely it would be better that I should enjoy my money
myself during my life, and leave the residue for the lawyers to divide
after my death."

"You are quite right," said the Devil; "that is exactly what I should do if
I were you."

So Cornelius put the plans behind a shelf in his counting-house, and the
mice ate them. And he went on prospering and growing rich, until the Devil
became envious of him, and insisted on changing places with him. So
Cornelius went below, and the Devil came and dwelt in New York, where he
still is.

THE POISON MAID

O not for him
Blooms my dark nightshade, nor doth hemlock brew
Murder for cups within her cavernous root.

I

Grievous is the lot of the child, more especially of the female child, who
is doomed from the tenderest infancy to lack the blessing of a mother's
care.

Was it from this absence of maternal vigilance that the education of the
lovely Mithridata was conducted from her babyhood in such an extraordinary
manner? That enormous serpents infested her cradle, licking her face and
twining around her limbs? That her tiny fingers patted scorpions? and tied
knots in the tails of vipers? That her father, the magician Locuste, ever
sedulous and affectionate, fed her with spoonsful of the honeyed froth that
gathers under the tongues of asps? That as she grew older and craved a more
nutritious diet, she partook, at first in infinitesimal doses, but in ever
increasing quantities, of arsenic, strychnine, opium, and prussic acid?
That at last having attained the flower of youth, she drank habitually from
vessels of gold, for her favourite beverages were so corrosive that no
other substance could resist their solvent properties?

Gradually accustomed to this strange regimen, she had thriven on it
marvellously, and was without a peer for beauty, sense, and goodness. Her
father had watched ov