bronze, safely weather frost and snow. Our friend, the potato worm, is one of the largest and finest of these, and one of the most singular with its handle-like attachment. So far we have not visited the wild flowers to note what they have to show; on them we shall find many a wanderer. In the royal purple with which September decks herself, we find many flowers most attractive to insect life. Do you know that humble herb rejoicing in the name heal-all, heart-of-the-earth, self-heal? Quite insignificant by the wayside, it lifts its dust-covered violet head to its friends, the bees. More freshly purple, more erect and attractive when growing in a field or spreading in a pasture, at all times this flower provides a feast for its insect friends. The bumblebees buzz about it, collecting nectar and pollen from its hooded corolla, and assisting the plant to pursue its mighty travels, by assisting in its fertilization. With September's joys must be mentioned the astersthe large lilac New England aster, the late purple aster, the heart-leaved, the broad-leaved, and the wavyleaved, all helping to make beautiful our autumn bou ing the range of shade to these deep autumnal flowers. The joe-pye weed, or purple boneset, as it is more familiarly called, also has about it swarms of butterflies, they being able to secure the nectar which lies in the bottom of the tubular flower. This plant is also called thoroughwort. During this month we find the last of the vervain, that visitor from across the seas so woven about with legend and folk-lore. This plant rejoicing in so many names-herb-of-the-cross, Juno's tears, enchanter's plant, holy-herb-has brought with it some of the ascribed virtue it bore in the old world. As a love-philter, as a general cure-all, it has been cherished SEPTEMBER BLOSSOMS. quet. Starwort is a pretty name for these lovely flowers, which belong strangely enough to that self-assertive family, the thistles. Iron-weed, another member of this same family, supplies the strongest note of color in the swamp, by the road, or in our bunch, and is well beloved by bees and butterflies alike. The joe-pye weed, close companion of the iron-weed, though more crimson in its purple than the latter, is another plant most attractive to insect lovers. A single visit to some plants wearing September's color will prove to you the truth of Sir John Lubbock's statement that blue was the favorite color of bees, by "blue" mean and sung from the days of the Druids down. Witches used it for occult purposes, yet a freshly gathered sprig was also used to "hinder witches from their will." There are few books which make more delightful reading for the lover of flowers than one called "Folklore of Plants" by Mr. Thiselton Dyer. It paints a little halo round the commonest weed, and I have known it to inspire a love of plants, where interest was before lacking. SEPTEMBER NOTES. On the 15th of June I was witness to the curious determination of swarming bees, and the utter powerlessness of man. In the very center of the city, about three o'clock on a warm lowed a man driving leisurely along in a runabout wagon, afternoon, I noticed the air filled with bees. They foland finally became so thick that you saw him as through a mist. The horse became restive, although the bees did not sting, and the crowd which began to gather advised of the hind wheels, and there the swarm hung, the horse the man to stop. The queen was discovered on the axle being removed from the wagon. There must have been full forty thousand bees. Traffic was suspended, and many hundred persons watched this strange sight in the city streets. A nearby hatter gave the owner of the wagon a long round pasteboard box, such as holds a dozen straw hats, the hanging swarm was neatly swept off into it, the cover put on, the horse hitched to mind a prosperous bee-keeper! the wagon, and the owner drove off, already in his Many bird stories are coming to me now of experi ences of various correspondents. Of all the number I select only one, because it is the prettiest of all. It illustrates admirably what Mr. F. H. Herrick calls habit," as he rather frowns on the word "instinct," and deprecates reading into bird ways, human points of view. Our bird was a female oriole, about to build a nest. The party of the second part an invalid, not a.very heavy sleeper, and her trained nurse. male bird stayed outside and helped in building the "There's a little band of singers And with dark they raise their voices, "Then the twinkling stars come out To enjoy a merry rout, And the squirrels range themselves upon a log; About four o'clock one May morning they were both awakened by what the nurse unsympathetically called 'Neath the window of my cottage in the trees; a"yelp," and there on the window-sill stood the oriole gathering up some threads which had been scattered there after the completion of some sewing, with And the leaves join in the chorus with the breeze. which she flew away. Both nurse and patient lay perfectly still, and in a few moments back came the oriole, and gathered the remaining shreds. When she returned for the third time and found her stock exhausted, she looked through the open window, and, as everything seemed quiet, ventured within. On a table quite three feet from the window stood a workbasket, and she flew to this and hurriedly began to seize at the loose threads from the spools of cotton and silk. In less time than it takes to write it, the whole fitting of the basket was in hopeless confusion. Some scraps of darning-cotton she did get off, but became discouraged after her sixth trip and came no more that day. The next morning at the same hour she came again, but quite silently. Things had been arranged for her, the basket holding bits of worsted and cotton cut in convenient lengths. Every night the basket was arranged, and every morning for ten days she came and took away the bits. She never came after eight o'clock in the morning, nor did she again shout in triumph, but did her work silently and speedily. The There are some other members of our band who join in only occasionally, the smaller owls, and whippoorwill. Sometimes at night it is possible to distinguish the voices of birds migrating, and late in the month the wild ducks sound their "honk." Among the warblers you may easily find the myrtle, distinguishable by his yellow rump and wing-spots, though his general coloring is less gay than in springtime. The Maryland yellow-throat, the Blackburnian, the hooded warbler, and the black-throated blue are all easy of identification, and less restless than in spring, but equally gaily colored. The fox sparrow which we missed this spring may be caught now, and once again the kinglets are whispering in the larches, but without the rill of song they poured out on their way north. THE RUIN AND LEGEND OF KYNAST. BY ANNA LOUISE VESTER. "Behold where grandeur frowned. Behold where pleasure smiled." -Shelley, "Queen Mab." OW very glad I am, Mrs. Marston, that you persuaded us to come here with you!" cried my Aunt Edith enthusiastically the morning after our arrival at Hirschberg. "Look at those mountains!" "Oh!" we all exclaimed in a breath. "How wild and grand!" We were a body of American tourists traveling through Europe, and were now looking out on the magnificent view of the RiesenGeberge, one of the outlying ranges of the Alps that stretch beyond the blue Danube and help to form the boundary line between Prussia and Austro-Hungary. Ah! those mountains piercing the wide, free air, o'erlooking the petty strife of the world, majestic in their disdain, awful in their grandeur! They imbue the heart of man with the love of liberty and the fire of patriotism. We had come hither to visit the hot springs of this vicinity and the old dismantled castle among the mountains. An hour of exhausting walking brought us to a gigantic perpendicular crag which loomed a thousand feet heavenward; and there, perched upon its very crest, huge, massive, towering amid the clouds, stood the ancient ruins of the castle. We gazed in almost incredulous silence. Could human hands have erected that structure so far removed from other earthly dwelling, where eagles alone could nest? Even so. It was built, we were told, by the hands of slaves nine hundred years before. Such a fortress! Breasting in former days the storms of feudal war, it now stood contending with the elements. Soon, however, we ascended the steps that led to the summit of this mighty crag of Kynast. Not far in the distance stood the Schneekoppe, a mountain pointing five thousand feet to the skies, crowned with eternal snow. In this mountain the Elbe rises, and winds wondrously clear and blue into the distance. The huge, frowning Schneekoppe, however, jealously hides from view its beautiful, smooth bosom, except from this aery height of the towers of Kynast. With conflicting sentiments we explored this ancient edifice, girt by its feudal ramparts and yawning abyss. It yet retained sweeping façades and the magnificence of the palace, while here and there among the crumbling decay rose fragments of a lordly tower, or a vast hall, to tell the tale of once pulsing life. A tender sadness tinged the atmosphere; a subtile, shadowy mystery hung over the entire scene. Below, the city gleamed in the distance. Detached portions of its ancient walls still breathed tales of cruel pillage. To the south yawned the broad, massive Sattlers Ravine. A thousand witcheries hovered over mountain and cleft. Glistening streams and lakes and tarns made the scene sublimely beautiful. Tradition, however, and the graceful credulity of the olden time lent a charm apart from the snow-pinnacled mounts; the steep acclivities and crags; the sublimity of the awful gloom; the tiny silver falls and crystal lakes. Over this wildly picturesque region hovered spirits of a mighty departed people. "Didn't you promise us a legend, colonel?" suddenly asked Aunt Edith. "I remember nothing of such a promise, but I did say that there is a legend connected with this ruin and its grim ramparts,' replied the colonel. 66 Tell us!" all chimed in, forming a circle around him. Colonel Travers, our guide, was a great traveler, having circled the globe several times. 66 "Aye," he said, looking thoughtfully at the moldering rampart, thereby hangs a tale." And then proceeded: "In the day of dim tradition, when the gallant Conrad and his bold knights made their pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and "To reverence the King, as if he were Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, the castle of Kynast was in the full enjoyment of its palmiest days. Here was then held many a feast and banquet; wit and revelry held command; and many an armored knight and his lady fair swore vows of eternal love under the star-bathed atmosphere, or, in the brilliantly lighted halls, looked love perhaps they dare not speak. This now moldering picturesque monument then had a mistress, a rare and exceedingly beautiful daughter of the baron, its master. "A certain bold, handsome, and noblymannered knight, Ladislaus, Duke of Montferrat, had won the heart and promise of the hand of this pearl of beauty. "Medaled with honors of the lists, and riding a spirited black charger with which he had done many a deed of daring and bravery that had excited the admiration and applause of all his courage-loving comrade knights, he was foremost in rank and title as well as in the chase, ever victor at tilt and tournament the flower of bravery. 66 It was his custom when he came to visit the occupants of the castle after having passed under the raised portcullis, to scale the crag seated upon his fiery stallion, to mount the dizzy rampart, and thus make a circuit to show his exceeding daring, that his lady-love might the more admire. "The Crusaders returned, having been routed and defeated by the heathen Saracen. The Duke of Montferrat had, nevertheless, distinguished himself in battle, and he came home with personal honors and triumphs amid the tramp of steeds, waving banners and nodding plumes, the reverberating din of martial music, the glitter of steel armor and shield, golden spurs, flashing swords and lances. "When this valiant knight reached the castle where dwelt the fair maiden of his choice and announced his arrival to its occupants, the earth was bathed in a radiant sheen of the moon. The fairies of the Elbe all arose to its surface in their array of silver, and were seen here and there in groups holding consultation. They were gliding, dancing, whispering all in a shimmer. Now they vanished, now reappeared, anon they would pause-ever, ever whispering. "The castle of Kynast loomed into space, a kingly, magnificent pile. The tips of its pinnacles and turrets and towers were silvered with light. The shadows hung in mystic corners. There was a sad presence in the air that echoed woe, which the breeze stole and bore to the tops of the tall trees to echo and reëcho. The fairy sprites came gliding down the moonbeams in shimmering aerial groups, breathing of some foreboding. "Who is that fair, graceful, snowy-robed "Gleefully she ran to greet and welcome him; and, coming as she did like a white phantom from out the dark shadow, the horse was seen for a moment reared on its haunches. Then a terrible leap to the other side, a man's fearful cry, and all was still. "They found the fair Margaret in a dead swoon, and kind hands bore her gently to her chamber in a tower to the west. "Next day, down on the cruel rocks below, was seen an unrecognizable mass. Nothing was left to distinguish the once bold and handsome warrior from the noble black steed. Once so proud and grand, now a shapeless heap of clay. "Margaret recovered after a long illness, but it was many a month before the roses again bloomed on her cheeks. Youth is strong, however, and nature is kind. "The knight that would now aspire to the hand of the lovely mistress of the Castle of Kynast must mount that selfsame fatal wall and thus ride thrice around. "For so much beauty and winsome grace almost anything would be dared by impetuous youth familiar with the ringing of steel, the blood of battle, and the terrible fray. Scorning danger, knight, prince, Templar, seated upon their prancing steeds, in turn mounted the perilous rampart, and all of them met a fate like that of the first unfortunate lover. "Presently, there arose in the field a hero very similar in lineaments and form to the Duke Ladislaus of the strife, who rode a similar black courser that he had carefully trained, first by requiring it to walk the length of a wall scarcely more than a foot high, artfully increasing the height until the animal felt as free and natural to walk on the top of the highest wall as on terra firma. The night came when he essayed to make the fearful circuit thrice for the hand of the lily maid. She, seeing the resemblance of this hero to the other gone before, deigned to show him more favor than the rest, and bade him not to mount the wall. But, disdaining fear, thrice he made the circuit. "Now the deed was done through which she had waited with breathless fear -- - she sought to show her admiration and approval, and approached with outstretched hands. Without a word of warning, he lifted her aloft and tossed her into the abyss among the graves that she had made. "O, golden-haired, peerlessly molded beauty! thy wicked caprice is ended. Be avenged, O noble, fearless knights, lured to your deaths by a woman's wanton whim!' "Thus spake the mysterious warrior who had won the feat to which all aspirants to the hand of the beauteous mistress of the Castle of Kynast had been challenged. Then horse and rider faded into space. The moon shone calmly, and naught disturbed the serene tranquillity of the night. "They say it was her lover returned to earth. "Now every night when the moon is high there is seen on the rampart a rider and horse, and the white-robed figure of a woman wringing her hands and looking into the abyss, weeping." THE BEATIFICATION OF A SAINT. BY CHARLES BURR TODD. the many ecclesiastical ceremonies which make Rome so interesting to the stranger, few are more splendid and imposing than those which celebrate the beatification or canonization of a saint. There is a difference between the two, although in the popular mind both mean the same thing. When a holy person has been nominated to the Roman authorities as worthy of saintly honors, the case is inquired into very closely by competent judges, and if in their opinion the facts warrant the decision of "extraordinary holiness," the pope is petitioned to allow a formal trial to be opened. Should he consent, the person is by that act declared venerable," that is, worthy of veneration, but is not allowed any public honors. 66 the magnificent festive ceremony called "canonization" which confers the title of saint, and allows public homage and devotion to be rendered all over the world. If there are candidates-which is not always the case the ceremony of beatification is celebrated by the pope in the months of January and February of each year, and is much sought after by the citizens and strangers in Rome, not only from its rarity and splendor but because Leo from his advanced age is now rarely seen in public. Formerly the ceremony was celebrated in the Vatican Basilica, but since the Piedmontese spoliation of Rome it does not take place in the body of the Basilica but in one of its many chapels. That in honor of the venerable servant of God, Brother Gerard Majella, I had the rare pleasure of attendAfter a certain lapse of time the trial is ing. From the "decree" of beatification begun before the Sacred Congregation of I learn that he was born at Muri in LucaRites, at which expert testimony and special nia, in the year 1726, and was attached pleading for and against is admitted. If, wholly to Christ from early childhood. The before this court, the person's sanctity is decree continues: proven, the holy father is asked to declare the candidate "blessed," or to "beatify or to "beatify" him, the declaration being accompanied with much formal ceremony and pomp. This declaration allows the person to be honored by some special religious body, or by the city or nation of his birth, but does not confer the title saint," nor allow a general public devotion all over the Catholic world. Months and even years pass; then if the public devotion and additional miracles confirm the sanctity of the blessed person the process of canonization is opened and more severely carried on than in the preceding trials. If the issue is successful, the holy father is asked to give his solemn sanction and to declare the person a saint. This is 66 "That bond of faith was strengthened during his youth, while working at the tailor's trade, and as an ordinary servant, and after his entrance to the Congregation of St. Liguori he advanced rapidly toward perfection, so that before the age of thirty he had reaped the abundant and consoling fruits of every virtue. "The light of these virtues, especially humility and of Christ Jesus spreading beyond the convent walls, patient submission to injuries of all kinds in imitation called forth universal admiration, so that he was looked upon as a chosen instrument of God to reflect His goodness and procure His glory. life, was greatly increased after death, especially "His reputation for sanctity, widely spread during through heavenly favors, and on June 10, 1877, Pope Pius IX., of sacred memory, solemnly proclaimed him illustrious for heroic virtues.'"' Four miracles were said to have been wrought through the intercession of Brother |