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It was a pleasant morning in the early spring, such as makes one feel an irresistible longing to be out in the open air and enjoy the warming genial influences which seem to open our hearts to nature's kindly teachings as much as to penetrate and dissolve the icy shroud of winter.

Amelia Crawford, who had been busily engaged all the week in assisting at preparations for a grand fete that was to come bff that evening, being at leisure, resolved to avail herself of the privileges of the day and take a walk, which she always enjoyed for the opportunity it afforded her to come in contact with the busy crowd that thronged the streets, in whom she took a lively interest, though apparently so inaccessible to human susceptibility. She stepped into a store where she was acquainted, in one of the principal thoroughfares of the city, and stood for some time at the window watching the passers by, an interesting amusement, and one which furnishes many