e mirth of the Americans; for certainly nothing in
their manner struck and pleased me more. One of the rarest characters
among them, and a great treasure to all his sportive neighbors, is a man
who cannot take a joke.

The prettiest playthings of summer are the humming-birds. I call them
playthings because they are easily tamed, and are not very difficult to
take care of for a time. It is impossible to attend to book, work, or
conversation while there is a humming-bird in sight, its exercises and
vagaries are so rapid and beautiful. Its prettiest attitude is vibrating
before a blossom which is tossed in the wind. Its long beak is inserted
in the flower, and the bird rises and falls with it, quivering its
burnished wings with dazzling rapidity. My friend E---- told me how
she had succeeded in taming a pair. One flew into the parlor where
she was sitting, and perched. E----'s sister stepped out for a branch
of honeysuckle, which she stuck up over the mirror. The other bird
followed, and the pair alighted on the branch, flew off, and returned to
it. E---- procured another branch, and held it on the top of her head;
and thither also the little creatures came without fear. She next held
it in her hand, and still they hovered and settled. They bore being
shut in for the night, a nest of cotton-wool being provided. Of course,
it was impossible to furnish them with honeysuckles enough for food; and
sugar-and-water was tried, which they seemed to relish very well.

One day, however, when E---- was out of the room, one of the little
creatures was too greedy in the saucer; and, when E---- returned, she
found it lying on its side, with its wings stuck to its body and its
whole little person clammy with sugar. E---- tried a sponge and warm
water: it was too harsh; she tried old linen, but it was not soft
enough; it then occurred to her that the softest of all substances is
the human tongue. In her love for her little companion she thus cleansed
it, and succeeded perfectly, so far as the outward bird was concerned.
But though it attempted to fly a little, it never recovered, but soon
died of its surfeit. Its mate was, of course, allowed to fly away.

NIAGARA FALLS AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS.

CHARLES MORRIS.

[Among travellers' descriptions of the natural marvels of this
continent, much has been written of perhaps the greatest of
them all, the celebrated cataract of the Niagara River. The
Thousand Islands