Those who suppose that the schoolmaster
was a blockhead like ihe rest, are mistaken.
He was very ill  paid, and his scheme was
contrived to supply the deficiencies of his salary.
At nightfall he proceeded to the church, and,
under the shelter of darkness, removed the
topmost row of sausages, leaving a portion of the
masonry uncovered. The peasants, who
assembled in the morning to ascertain the result
of their liberality, were in ecstasies.

"Look!" cried one, " the steeple has
already begun to eat, and it has grown a good
span above the sausages already!"

The bare part of the masonry was again co-
vered by the peasants with a fresh supply of
sausages, and was again uncovered by the
schoolmaster; and the two operations were repeated
for several days and nights in succession, sides
of bacon being contributed when the sausages
were exhausted. Having sufficiently stocked
his cellar with savoury provisions, the schoolmaster
at last addressed the villagers thus:

Men of Cogolo. You perceive that the
steeple increases in height, but not in breadth.
Now, if it grows any taller, it will perhaps prove
to be too high for its foundation, or may even
be blown down by the wind."

So tlie steeple was fed no more, and the
villagers remarked with pride their brilliant
success in supplying bacon and sausages as a
substitute for bricks and mortar.

We would call particular attention to the
second story; for though nothing can be more
common than the incident of the three gifts,
there is something extraordinary in the manner
in which ordinary materials are strung together
here. Generally the lucky man acquires his
gifts in consequence of his humanity to some
poor old woman, or his kindness to some
imperilled member of the brute creation; and
rises to the summit of courtly eminence by
a dexterous use of his strangely acquired
powers. Be charitable to man and tender
with dumb animals, and even in this world
you will probably attain your reward. Such
is the simple moral of scores of fairy tales,
whether told in the primitive form proper to the
German peasant, or dressed in courtly fashion
by some Countess d'Aulnois; and it is a curious
fact that, in ages when even a bare suspicion
that there is any wrong in " cruelty to animals"
appears scarcely to have entered the minds of
serious thinkers, tales that seem expressly
directed against this particular species of cruelty
were current among the least cultivated portion
of the community. Extreme democrats may
perhaps deduce from this fact the hypothesis that the
lower orders are more humane than their betters;
but our researches, such as they are, by no
means lead us to the conviction that, in the days
when bear-baiting was patronised by royalty
and aristocracy, bull-baiting and sports of a
similar nature were viewed with repugnance by
the mob of either town or country. We would
rather infer that the moral in favour of kindness
towards brutes, points to an Eastern origin for
most of these stories, and that they reflect a
sentiment which finds its strongest expression
in some of the eccentricities of Brahmanism and
Buddhism, and culminates in the religious
adoration of living monkeys.

Now, in the second of the three Venetian
stories no moral of this simple kind is to be
found. The principal person becomes the devil's
porter, merely in consequence of a hasty word
dropped by his father; but he no sooner
discovers the nature of his situation than he
abandons it in disgust, and the most liberal
offer on the part of his infernal master cannot
induce him to retain it. He is, therefore, not
originally bad; but, on the contrary, his first
act is to divide his scanty earnings among a
number of mendicants: an act which, in stories
of an ordinary stamp, would have ensured his
perfect felicity. But here the gifts which reward
his benevolence, instead of being instruments of
good, are productive of evil. No sooner does he
possess them, than his whole nature is changed,
and he enters upon a course of cruelty and
oppression. Though the story does not say so,
it seems to us that the beggars are themselves
successive incarnations of the Evil One, who
thus lures his former servant to eternal perdition.
The fiddle, the gun, and the sack, lead to
the commission of one crime after another, and
the moral is directed against the danger of
possessing supernatural powers. Herein it is the
same as that of the Faust and Der Freischütz
legends, though the machinery is that of the
common fairy tale. Nay, the incident of the
bird shot when scarcely visible, exactly
corresponds with the exploit of the huntsman in the
plot of Weber's opera.

This day is published in Three Volumes,
BLACK SHEEP
A NOVEL BE EDMUND YATES.
Tinsley Brothers, 18 Catherine-street.

MR. CHARTLES DICKENS'S READINGS
Mr Charles Dickens will read at Gloucester on the
3rd of April; at Swansea on the 4th; at Cheltenham on
the 5th and 6th; at St. James's Hall, London, on Monday
the 8th, Monday 29th of April, and on Monday the
13th of May.

Very Shortly,
A NEW SERIAL STORY,
BY THE AUTHOR OF
AUNT MARGARET'S TROUBLE,
Will be commenced in these pages, and continued
from week to week until completed.