"you know that I couldn't invent a story, to
save my life. I've no fancy at all; and have made up my mind, as I can't
be agreeable, that I'll at least be useful. Everybody ought to be one or
the other."

"We should aim to be both," said Mr. Wyndham.

"But, indeed, uncle, 'tis hard work for a fellow, when he's plain-spoken
and rather dull, like me. I'd prefer sawing wood, any day, to
entertaining a parcel of girls!"

"That being the case," answered Mrs. Wyndham, smiling, "we couldn't be
hard-hearted enough to impose such an arduous duty upon you. I appoint
Cornelia to the honorable office of story-teller this evening."

"Then I bargain that I make my tale as short as I like, and that I am
not compelled to lug in a moral by the hair of its head, as the Germans
express it," said Cornelia. "I approve of every one following the bent
of his genius, and mine is not of the didactic order."

"We certainly should not expect a moral essay or an instructive treatise
from our wild little girl," replied Mr. Wyndham. "I suppose there is no
danger of its being immoral."

"I don't know, indeed," answered she, tossing her black curls, and
looking archly at her uncle, whom she dearly loved to tease. "I'll leave
you to judge of that: I don't answer for the injurious effect it may
have upon these unformed minds around me. I call my story

The Astrologers.

William Forsythe and Edward Barrington were lively young fellows of
twenty, who had left their homes in the South to complete their
education at one of our northern colleges. I don't think my strict uncle
would call them "immoral" young men, but they certainly did not carry
gray heads upon their green shoulders: they loved fun and mischief about
as well as I do. They did not neglect study, and were up to the mark in
their recitations; and they never perpetrated any thing really bad. They
would not have intentionally hurt any one's feelings for the world; but
yet, were any frolic to be carried into execution, these two were "the
head and front of the offending." The grave professors, while they
entertained their families at home with some of their exploits, were
obliged to put on a very sober face in public, and even to hint at
expulsion from the "Alma Mater," if the merry and thoughtless youngsters
persevered in their course.

I must relate one or two instances which caused considerable laughter at
the time, and have added to the stock of traditionary stories that may
be fou