of
the doctor's death, might obtain each his share of the lands without
litigation. Should the doctor's decease occur soon, before this
alteration is made, his natural heirs could claim the whole property of
the colony, and the members would be left in the lurch. He does not
appear, however, to be in great haste to effect this change, though it
ought to have been done long ago. It is always said among the colonists,
naturally enough, that all the ground is the common property of the
community. Whether the doctor fully subscribes to this opinion in his
secret heart might be a question.

Doctor Keil is at the same time the religious head and the unlimited
secular ruler of the colony of Aurora, and can ordain, with the consent
of the elders (who very naturally uphold his authority), what he
pleases. A life free from care and responsibility, such as the members
of the community (who, for the most part, belong to the lower and
uncultivated class) lead--a life in regard to which no one but the
doctor has the trouble of thinking--is the main ground of the
undisturbed continuance of the colony. The pre-eminent talent for
organization, combined with the unlimited powers of command, which the
doctor--justly named "king of Aurora"--possesses, together with the
inborn industry peculiar to Germans, is the cause of the prosperity of
the settlement, which calls itself communistic, but is certainly nothing
more than a vast farm belonging to its talented founder. It has its
schools, its churches, newspapers and books--the selection and tendency
of which the doctor sees to--and no lack of social pleasures, music and
singing. Taken together with an easily-procured livelihood, all this
satisfies the desires of the colonists entirely, and the good doctor
takes care of everything else.

ELIZABETH SILL.

GRAY EYES.

I have always counted it among the larger blessings of Providence that
a woman can bear up year after year under a weight of dullness which
would drive a man of the same mental calibre to desperation in a month.

I had no idea what a heavy burden mine had been until one day my brother
asked me to go to sea with him on his next voyage. He and his wife were
at the farm on their wedding-tour, and only the happiness of a
bridegroom could have led him to hold out to me this way of escape.
Christian's heart when he dropped his pack was not lighter than mine.
Butter and cheese are good things in their way--the world would mi