AUTUMN FLOWERS. BY MRS. SOUTHEY. THOSE few pale autumn flowers! Than all that went before, Than all the summer store, How lovelier far! And why? — they are the last- How many thoughts are stirred! That sister of the past! Pale flowers! pale, perishing flowers! Types of those bitter moments On rapid, rapid wings. Last hours with parting dear ones (That time the fastest spends,) Last tears, in silence shed, Last words, half uttered, Last looks of dying friends. Oh precious, precious moments, For the Ladies' Casket. "NOT WEALTH, BUT WORTH." BY MISS KATHARINE C. GARDINER. "MOTHER," said Therese Boydon as she entered the parlor, her cheeks glowing with health and exercise, "Louisa Mason is coming home in a week, after her long and eventful absence! How dull we must seem to her here, when she has had such an intimacy with elegant society! I guess my good brother will find a sympathizer with his fretfulness at our stupid village, and somebody to talk with about Paris and old Parisian acquaintances. Lizzie Murray and I have been in solemn conclave for the last hour, considering what kind of entertainment will befit the reception of so illustrious and 'travelled' a visitor, that she may not set us all down as Hottentots. Lizzie says she will consult her aunt about an introductory 'soiree,' and she hopes mother will approve my making the next. Now some one else may speak," concluded the laughing girl, as she threw herself into a chair, feigning complete exhaustion. "If we all had as long speeches as yours to make, Therese," replied her brother, "we should hardly get through before the arrival of the visitor you announced in your exordium." Dr. Boyden laid down the "Medical and Surgical Journal' which had absorbed him a moment before, and turning to his sister, as a flush crossed his fine face, called up by suddenly awakened memory-"Who did you say was coming, Therese?" he said, and drew his sister to a seat close beside him. "Aha! I presume you have forgotten all about a certain little lady, with whom you used to have a speaking acquaintance, to make no indecorous allusions about 'flirtation,' to a man of your years and discretion. That was in your boyhood, before. you went abroad," mischievously replied Therese. "Miss Loui sa Mason is the expected acquisition to our society, brother. Some six or eight years ago, she turned the heads and broke the hearts of all our gentlemen- then she deserted the field of conquest, and went to New Orleans, leaving us to share the spoil and miserable gleaning we have had, I assure you. Next she went to 'parts unknown,' I suppose, where other dis - I answer ;. tinguished people go. I was a child then, so young ed a fine purpose to carry her beautiful notes for her; I remember at this moment how I longed to possess such exquisitely smooth glassy paper to scribble on. I have grown so tall, and so old now, I presume she will regard me, at least, as the representative of my mother's family among her visitors. Any greater preferment than that I do not even anticipate." "I am not ambitious you should have any closer intimacy, certainly," said Mrs. Boyden. "There used, to be some features of Louisa's character, fostered by the mistaken pride of her mother, which were any thing but desirable as models for younger girls. I must allow, now that you are so much grown up,' and my son is out of danger too, that I felt a load of anxiety fall from my heart, when Mrs. Mason sent her to New Orleans." "What was the matter with her, mother," inquired Dr. Boyden, evidently more interested in the discussion than he was willing to disclose-" what made her so much more dangerous than other young maidens? I suppose I went away before she had such a 'run' among the hearts of the village beaux. She never broke mine, or shrouded the star of my destiny at all that I have discovered." 66 "I am glad that you were not so desperately a 'Romeo,' as some of the young men, though if my memory is not very much at fault, you were not altogether unscathed," replied his mother, archly. "But without any trifling, my son, if you have the skill to balance the worth of character in Elizabeth Murray, against Louisa Mason, when, as a maturer critic, you renew your acquaintance with the latter lady, you will understand my objection, without my expressing it. Louisa has undoubtedly improved by contact with fine society, and, I hope, eradicated some of her prominent follies, which never would have been so marked if she had been rightly influenced at home." "Elizabeth is the 'ne plus ultra,' of course, mother," responded the young physician; "but it can do me no hurt to learn some of Miss Mason's peculiarities. I shall know better how to fortify my heart against any prospect of foreign inva |