A slender tree her fingers caught--
It bent beneath her weight;
'Twas false as love and Mary's fate!
Deceiving as the night!
She fell--and villagers relate
No more of Mary's hour,
But how she rose with deadly might,
And, with a maniac's power,
Fought with her murd'rers till they broke
Her slender arm in twain:
That none could e'er discover where
The maiden's corse was lain.
When wand'ring by that noiseless wood,
Forsaken by the bee,
Each rev'rend chronicler displays
The bent and treach'rous tree.
Pointing the barkless spot to view,
Which Mary's hand embrac'd,
They shake their hoary locks, and say,
"It ne'er can be effac'd!"
* * H.
* * * * *
SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.
_Tanning_.
The tanner steeps the skin at first in a weak infusion of bark, until it
has acquired a nutmeg brown colour, and then he gradually increases the
strength of the steeping liquors, and after a time he draws the skin
out, and finds that it is converted into leather. A thick piece of hide
requires ten, twelve, or fourteen months, to be converted into good
leather; and when you consider the length of time consumed in the
process, and the great capital necessarily employed, you cannot feel
surprised that various plans should have been proposed to lessen both.
It was proposed to tan with warm instead of cold liquors; and although
the tan appeared to promote the skins in a shorter time, the quality of
the leather was so much injured, that it was soon given up.
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