As

covered, drawn by four or six mules, and driven by negroes. night approached, I saw the camp-fires of these drivers, they sitting about the fire, on the ground, cooking 'hog and hominy,' cracking rude jokes, singing corn songs,' and laughing their loud Yah! yah!' as the whiskey-bottle passed among them.

Being anxious to see how the poorest class of people lived in the interior, at night I stopped at the door-way of a very small and rudely-constructed hut, and inquired if I could 'get stay' for the night. At first I was refused; but upon representing myself a stranger in the country, and fearing to go farther, as there were 'forks in the road' and 'creeks to cross before reaching another house, they finally consented to my staying.

The cabin contained but one room, with no windows; the chimney, built of mud and stones, was, as is usual in the South, outside the house. The furniture of the house was scanty in the extreme; a roughly-constructed frame, on which was laid a corn-shuck mattress, a pine table, and a few shuck-bottomed 'cha'rs.'

I had not been long in this place, before preparations for supper commenced. An iron vessel. " a spider,' so called- was brought and set over the fire; in this dish was roasted some coffee; afterward, in the same dish, a 'corn cake' was baked, and still again some rank old ham was fried, and the corn-cake laid in the ashes to have it 'piping hot.' This constituted our supper, which, being placed on the table, three of us sat down to partake of, while Cynthia, the youngest daughter, held a blazing light-wood knot for us to see by, and the 'gude woman' sat in the corner rubbing snuff, or dipping,' with her infant in her arms. A pet deer stalked in through the open door-way, and helped himself from the table without molestation.

Bed-time coming, one by one the family retired to the corner, and all lay together on the corn-shucks, sleeping as soundly as on 'downy couch.' Taking my saddle-bags for a pillow, and wrapping my blanket around me, I laid down before the fast dying embers, and was soon in the embrace of 'tired nature's sweet restorer.' Morning came, and as I was to leave early, all were up by sun.' I asked the hostess for a wash, and the vessel which had served for roasting, baking and frying the evening previous was now brought; and, 't is true, 't is pity, and pity 't is 't is true,' I washed myself in the dish out of which twelve hours before I had eaten a hearty supper. I paid them well, and thanked them kindly, for they had given me the best they had. Destitute as they were, they seemed contented and happy: Where ignorance is bliss, 't is folly to be wise.' I breakfasted at 'Nacoochee.' This sweet vale must be a charming spot in summer, when every thing is green; but now, when the grass is withered and the trees are bare and leafless, it has no beauty save its romantic situation, hemmed in completely by high mountains. On one side lofty Youah' stands like the 'lone sentinel,' his giant head, white with the snows of winter, lifted high into the clouds, while on the opposite is seen Old Tray,' the highest peak of the Blue Ridge. A brooklet winds its way through the valley, like a silver thread, so bright and sparkling.

Leaving Nacoochee, I rode thirty miles through a driving snowstorm, from which my leggings and poncho protected me. I saw several deer on the route, now standing with head erect, antlers thrown back, and nostrils distended with fear, now bounding swiftly away through the forest. A rabbit, too, crossed my path. Some superstitious hunter might have turned back at this ill-omen; but cold, wet, and anxious to reach a settlement as I was, it did not deter me.

While in Dahlonega I was interested by visiting the 'gold mines.' Here I saw the various processes by which gold is collected, both in the 'dry' and 'deposit' mines, the digging, pounding, quicking, panning, also the various kinds of rock and soil from which gold is obtained.

The people of Dahlonega, like the inhabitants of any town entirely dependant on mining for support, are generally poor, ignorant and licentious; drinking and gambling, like thieving in ancient Sparta, are here considered virtues.

The night after leaving Dahlonega I stayed at the house of a very old and very wicked wretch, who, although worth forty negroes, (at the South a man's wealth is reckoned by the negroes he owns,) lived in a log-house, and could neither read nor write. His family consisted of an idiot son and two daughters, who at supper-time sat down to eat with hat and bonnets on, their faces and hands betokening confirmed cases of hydrophobia, from evident dread of water. Rather than eat the food such hands had touched, I took from my saddle-bags some provisions which I was preserving for to-morrow's dinner, and, with a gourd of water, made a palatable meal. Frequent potations from a whiskey-bottle served to keep the old man in good humor during the evening, and his conversation was amusing if not instructive.

Hardly had we all retired to our beds, before the 'voices of the night' commenced. The geese and hogs in the yard kept up a continual cackling and grunting, which was promptly responded to by a cat and dog in the house; the latter under my bed. These sounds, mingled with the asthmatic snoring of the old whiskey-drinker, and the muttered curses of the idiot, who could sleep no better than myself, served to 'make night hideous.'

It was long past midnight, as I lay awake, that I saw the old man rise slowly and softly from his couch, and gradually approach my bed. My heart beat quicker, and I unconsciously grasped my pistol, which was by my side; for I could see no honest purpose to call him up at such an hour. My fears were soon allayed, however, by seeing him pass by me, and take from the shelf just above my head his whiskey-bottle.

EPIGRAM:

ON A

TAILOR-SOLDIER.

'Tis strange! 't would take whole cloth' to make him
Aught but the bravest wight of wights;

And yet a single ell could take him,
And turn his boasted fights to flights.

C.

THE Samhuin, literally 'The Fire of Peace,' was a festival celebrated annually among the ancient Britons. The time corresponds to our All-Hallowmas; and it is said that even now, in some parts of Scotland, it would be difficult to obtain a brand to re-light a fire accidentally extinguished on AllHallowe'en.

BE told amid the household band,
By the hearth-fire's cheering ray,

How the Druids ruled in our mother-land
In Britain's olden day.

On the Holy-eve at twilight's hour

The tapers gave no light,

And quenched were the fires in cot and tower
Through all the land that night.

For the Druid, when the morn should beam,
Would light the sacred brand,

To kindle again with ruddy beam
The hearth-stones of the land.
And when the morn in radiance broke
From gloom of night profound,
The Druid waited beneath the oak,
His brow with vervain crowned:

And up from the assembled throng
Rose many a tale of crime,

For the Druids ruled her people long

In Britain's olden time:

And fire was given again to all

Who blamelessly had striven,

But the darkened hearth and shadowy wall

Was the doom of the unforgiven.

Ah! wo for her, the true and tried,

Who in that lot had part!

With the fire of peace to her hearth denied,

And the ashes in her heart:

Wo for the mother doomed to weep

The pale child to her pressed,

As she felt the chill through its pulses creep,

And the hush of its guileless breast!

And for her who watched, though all forsook,
By the darkened couch of pain,

And tearful sought for the last fond look
From the closing eye in vain :

They dwelt where happy homes glowed bright,

Where the song at evening burst,

But no pitying hand might the fagot light
On the hearth of the accursed.

Thus, oft amid the gathered band,

Be told in this our clime,

How the Druids ruled in our mother-land,
In Britain's olden time:

And though their power has passed away
Yet still the hand we trust

Gives the Fire of Peace, in our Christian day,
To the hearth-stones of the just.

THE MORAVIANS OF BETHLEHEM.

THE following letter, describing with great clearness and simplicity the Society of Moravians at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was written just two years after the Declaration of Independence by the people of the United States. We derive it from O. E. HOSMER, Esquire, of this city, by whose immediate ancestor it was written. We are struck, in perusing it, with the strong resemblance in many respects between the Moravians and the United Brethren of the Shaker faith.

ED. KNICKERBOCKER.

BETHLEHEM is a pleasant little town, twelve miles west of Easton, situated on the declivity of a hill fronting the south and south-west. In the valley on the west of the town runs the creek or rivulet Monakisy, (commonly called Monacas,) and a little below falls into the Lehigh, a branch of the great river Delaware, which runs on the south side of the town. Here are about fifty houses, almost all built of stone, as are the country houses in general in this state, and covered with tiles, beside public buildings, of which I shall give you a more particular account presently.

The inhabitants are of the society of Christians called Bohemian or Moravian Brethren, from those countries in Germany where they had their rise, and Hussites, from John Huss, a celebrated reformer of their religion, who was burned by order of the Council of Constance, whither he came under a safe conduct of Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, which nevertheless he suffered shamefully to be violated, out of complaisance to the Pope. You will find a fuller account of this sect of Christians, their leader John Huss, his friend Jerome of Prague, and the wars which they waged against the Emperor in support of their religion and liberties, in Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, which you will do well to consult.

The Bohemian Brethren agree in substance in their doctrines and principles with the Lutherans, and other Protestants. Some of their descendants are said to have degenerated from the pure and simple manners of their ancestors, which has occasioned their division into two parts. The Bethlehem Moravians are of the reformed or stricter sect, which owns a German Count Zinzendorf, who was one of their bishops, for their leader, of whom you will find an account in Mosheim.

In their religious assemblies their deportment is strikingly solemn and grave. The men are ranged on a tier of seats on one side, and