Kenilworth Castle.

OME four miles from Warwick, is the market town of Kenilworth. The most interesting object in the place is the Castle, the ruins of which are extensive. The most ancient part is an old tower, called Cæsar's Tower, of which three sides remain, with walls, in some parts, sixteen feet thick. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, made large and massive additions to it, which are now in different stages of decay. At a more recent period, the Earl of Leicester made further additions, which are called the Leicester Buildings. These contain the ruins of the noble banqueting hall, eighty-six feet long by forty-five wide. The magnificent entertainment given here by Leicester to Elizabeth has been made familiar to the general reader by Sir Walter Scott's tale of "Kenilworth." The strength of castles decays, and all the glory of this world vanishes away, but there is a city whose foundations shall never fail, whose glory shall be lasting as eternity. In our Father's house are eternal mansions. Jesus our Saviour has gone to prepare a place for us, and we hope and 'pray that our young friends may become inhabitants of that high and holy place, to go out no more for ever. T.B.

Accuse not Bashly; or, Aunt Josephina's Diamond Ring.

HE baker ought to have known better than to have sent such a cake as that! I believe he knew it was a poor cake when he sent it, and that he wanted to cheat us! That baker's a bad man anyhow, and I knew it long ago!"

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Why, my dear Malvina, you ought not to talk so. Our baker has been serv

ing us with bread and cake for seven

years, , and I have never known him to try and take advantage of us. You have made a very harsh remark about him, and I hope you already feel sorry for it!"

Thus spoke a lady, Aunt Josephina, to her little niece Malvina, as they were sitting beside each other in the front piazza sewing, just after the baker had brought a large cake which he had been ordered the day before to prepare for them. Malvina felt sharply reproved by the words which her aunt had spoken, and, if her aunt had continued much longer to talk to her, the little girl's eyes would soon have filled with tears. Malvina went up to her, put her arms around her neck, kissed her, and thanked her for the reproof which she had given. A few minutes after that, Malvina, who seemed to have no disposition to sew any more at that time, began to look at her aunt's beautiful diamond ring, and asked her to let her look at it more closely.

"How long have you had that ring, Aunt Josephina?" asked Malvina.

"Oh! I have had it these twenty years, and I think a great deal of it."

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Please tell me how you came by it, aunt. I am sure I should be very much interested to know all about it, for it is

a curious ring, and one of the most beautiful I ever saw. How it glistens in the sunlight!"

"Do you really want to hear about this ring? " asked her aunt; for, if you do, I will tell you its story, though it may be a little long."

Now these words excited Malvina's curiosity more than ever, and she insisted on her aunt's telling her all about the ring.

"Well, then, this is the story: When I was only nine years old, and arrangements were making for my birthdayparty, I began to think who should be invited to it. I wrote down on a piece of paper the names of all my friends —at least, with but one exception-whom I wished at the party. Now, there was a very nice girl who was in the habit of coming to see us sometimes, and bringing strawberries and raspberries and other fruit for sale. Her name was Marie, and she was always very neatly dressed, and I was sure that she was a good-hearted, nice girl. She had been furnishing us with different fruits for a number of years, and I had become very much attached to her. But she was a poor girl, did not go into the best society, and, therefore, could hardly be expected to come to my birthday. party. But still I was very anxious to have her, for she was a nice girl, and I thought it might do her a great deal of good to become acquainted with those who belonged to a better class. But then, again, I knew that she would not be very cordially welcomed by some of my other friends, who would turn up their noses at her, and make fun of her, a little strawberry-girl, and, perhaps, make fun of me for having invited her. So I hit upon this plan: I determined that I would invite Marie to my party to hand around the coffee and cake, and in this way she would have a part of all the nice things, and see how the girls dressed, and hear their conversation, and, perhaps, would be just as well satisfied as if she came as an equal with the rest.

"The birthday came, and was passing off splendidly.

An event occurred, however, to cast a damper on the pleasant occasion. My mother had been dead five years, and she had owned a magnificent diamond ring. I had begged my father for permission to show that ring to my friends at my birthday-party, and when our party was passing along pleasantly, and there seemed to be a little break in the conversation, I took from my pocket the beautiful ring that had belonged to my mother, and showed it to the girl who sat next to me. She admired it very much, then passed it on to another, and then to another, and, finally, it went around the whole circle. Now Marie, the strawberry-girl, who was waiting on the table, was standing beside me, and was going to take a cup of coffee to the other end of the table. I showed the ring to Marie, and, not thinking anything more about it, commenced to converse with the girl sitting next to me. [In a few minutes, however, I thought of the ring again, and asked Marie where it was. Marie said she had laid it down on the table. However, I had not seen her do it, nor had any of the rest of the girls, and the fact was, it looked as if Marie had taken the ring, and put it into her pocket. I did not feel very pleasant after that, as you can well imagine, and, after the party was over and the girls had gone, I said to Marie, who stayed to help me clear up a little after all the company had left, these words:

"I believe you took my ring. A'n't you ashamed of it?'

"Now Marie knew that I had suspected her before, and I saw that she looked very sad. But when I said these words, it was very plain they pierced her very soul, and she began to weep as if her heart would break. I did not. know whether to be glad or sorry that I had said what I did. When I thought of the valuable ring, I was glad of it; and when I saw poor Marie weeping, I felt sorry for it. Marie declared that she had not seen the ring after she had laid it on the table; and yet it did seem to me as if she

must have hidden it somewhere about her, and that I had altogether paid her too much attention in inviting her to my party, though rather as a servant than as a guest.

"Several months passed by after this, and yet no news had been heard of the beautiful diamond ring that I loved so much, because, as I have said, it had belonged to my mother. One morning I received this letter,

"MY DEAR MISS JOSEPHINA,-I have been very sick abed for the last four weeks, and the doctor has said this morning that I shall never get well again. I hope you do not suspect me still of having stolen your beautiful diamond ring. If I ever have done you any wrong, I hope you will forgive me. The ring, you may be sure was never stolen by me. Do come and see me before I die, for it is not likely that I can live over three or four days longer.

MARIE.'

"When I had read this letter, I felt very badly, as you may suppose. I determined that I would go and see Marie the next day, and ask her to pardon me for having suspected her of stealing the ring. I was very much afflicted to think that the poor girl, to whom I had spoken such hasty words, was about to die; and I lost no time in getting ready to pay her a parting visit. That day, as I was arranging my clothes in the wardrobe, I heard something fall, and make a sharp sound against the bottom of the wardrobe. I looked to see what it was, and there was the beautiful ring which I had told Marie that I believed she had stolen !

"How the ring should be in the wardrobe was very difficult for me to tell, and even now I cannot fully explain it. This, however, seems to me the best explanation that can be made the ring was on the table, where Marie had put it, and it may have caught in a button, or some of the trimming of my dress, and may have hung there during the rest of the day. The dress that I had worn on my