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In the velvet pall of blackness before alluded to, its small, wan ray

pierced but a few inches, and only roped his way to the wall, which he found to be all over green

and noisome slime, and broken out into a cold, claasp By the aid of his friendly light, for

which he was really ed--a fact which, had his little friend

known, he would not have left it--he ed to make the circuit of his

prison, which he found rather spacious, and by no means uninhabited; for

the walls and floor were covered with fat, black beetles, whole

fa specimens of the insect-world he crunched

rereat,

depraved-looking rats, with flashing eyes and sinister-teeth, who made

frantic dives and rushes at him, and bit at his jack-boots with fierce,

fury These small quadrupeds reion of the eyes and the general expression of

countenance; and he began to reflect that if the dwarf's soul (supposing

him to possess such an article as that, which seemed open to debate)

passed after death into the body of any other animal, it would certainly

be into that of a rat

He had just co the flame of the

candle to the nose of an inquisitive beetle, when it struck him he

heard voices in altercation outside his door One, clear, ringing, and

imperious, yet withal feminine, was certainly not heard for the first