a few short weeks to bow her to the grave; and the same hour which released her gentle spirit from suffering robbed her parent, in mercy, of the light of reason. The helpless child, who at one stroke was thus deprived of father and sister, found a pitying hand to protect and cherish her-but who can restore to the orphan the natural guides of her youth?

THE DISBANDING.

"If we do meet again, why we shall smile; If not, why then this parting was well made." SHAKSPEARE.

"Who no revenue have, but their good spirits, To feed and clothe them."

SHAKSPEARE.

THE DISBANDING.

I HAD not been quietly settled in my retreat above twelve months, when I one morning received the following letter from the regiment. Havresack had, secundum morem, laid the letters of the morning on my dressing-table, and the first thing which greeted me, on turning out, was the welcome sight of my friend O'Grady's hand. I opened the epistle with the same pleasurable feelings as are inspired by the sight of an esteemed and warm-hearted being, and read as follows:

"DEAR HUMPHREY,

"We are smashed at last. Almost

before this reaches you, the second battalion

will be no more. Orders have just arrived to disband us on the next 24th. With two months' pay in our pockets, and the world before us, we shall be turned adrift to discover a corner of the globe where half-pay will distance starvation. Here the race would be grievously against some of our unfortunate lads; and any where, I fear, 'twill be hardly contested. For myself, I have enough to jog on to the end of the journey; but it seems like parting life and soul, to break up the harmony of the best set of fellows that ever fate and good companionship drew together. -I wish I had followed your example six months ago, and had it over.

"Yours ever,

"PETER O'GRADY."

I had read and turned over my friend's epistle, in sorrow and vexation, half a dozen times, before I was conscious of what I was doing, when Havresack abruptly entered the room with my newspaper in his hand. "Bad