present for each member of the family, and with more than eighty florins in my pocket.

13. Thus my hopes were stimulated anew; and visions of wealth from jewel-hunting again filled my mind. I was soon equipped for another expedition to the mountains, for which I set out on my nineteenth birthday, bearing with me the blessings of a mother, and the good wishes of three sisters. I had promised to portion my sisters handsomely as soon as I found an opal worth but twenty thousand flor'ins; and all three looked upon their portions as already secured.

14. On the first day of my entering the mountains I overtook two men, well advanced in years, whose tattered garments and squalid faces denoted the greatest poverty and wretchedness. I was surprised to find that they were gold-hunters, and that they had followed that business for almost a lifetime; and although they had not yet met with success, they still hoped to attain the object of their wishes. Why," said I, "do you not rather follow the trade of jewel-hunting?”

15. They only smiled at me, and shook their heads. when I told them my business; and I, in my turn, pitied the delusion that had kept thein poor all their lives, instead of finding an opal, buying a castle, and keeping a carriage and servants, as Schmidt had done.

16. Almost every week, during a year, I spent more or less time among the mountains, seldom finding anything worth more than a few groschen;" yet never did my hopes diminish, or my toil become in the smallest degree irksome. At length one day, on striking a rock, there dropped into my hand a stone that had all the marks of a valuable opal; and when I proceeded to polish one side of it, the peculiarly rich and varied hues of the opal flashed upon my delighted eye.

a Grosch'en, or grosh'en, a German silver coin worth about two

cents.

17. "Now then," said I to myself, "the day of my reward has arrived." The stone I had found was little inferior in size to that which I had held in my hand in the merchant's back shop at Cracow; and I felt assured it could not be worth less than fifty thousand florins.

18. Hastily I bent my steps homeward; and when I met my mother and sisters, my countenance soon told the extent and importance of my secret. The opal was withdrawn from its hiding-place with exulting looks, and presented to the wondering eyes of the family circle.

19. It was soon settled what was to be done with the fifty thousand florins, which I was to get for my opal the next week, at the great fair of Cracow. Each of my sisters should have two thousand florins, which would make them the richest heiresses in Meklin; I would give four thousand to my mother; and, "as to the remaining forty thousand," said I, "my little cousin Ronza, at Dunavitz, will make me a good wife, and I will purchase a castle somewhere in Galicia."

4. MY SECOND VISIT TO CRACOW.

1. These things being all determined upon, the carly morning of the day of the great fair found me mounted on a good horse, and on the road to Cracow, with my opal in a leathern bag, which was suspended round my neck by a copper chain. As I passed a great many persons on the road, "Who besides me," said I to myself, "carries to the fair an opal worth fifty thousand florins?"

2. On arriving at the city, I put up my horse at an inn in the outskirts; but, before disposing of my opal, I wished to enjoy the triumph of possessing it. In walking through the great square, my attention was arrested by the exceeding richness and variety of the wares which were exhibited upon a long row of tables placed under an awning, behind which sat an Eastern merchant, smoking.

3. But, rich as were the wares displayed,-in silks, gold tissues, spices, perfumes, cameos, mosaics, etc., the con

tents of one small table eclipsed all the rest. It was covered with all kinds of precious stones, ranged in rows, circles, and pyramids; diamonds, emeralds, rubies, topazes, sapphires, of all sizes and of the finest colors, glittered in the sunlight, and dazzled and delighted the eyes. among them I saw no opal.

But

4. "Friend," said I to the merchant, "you reign here the emperor of the fair; every country in the world has laid its tribute before you, and yet," added I, “there seems one thing wanting." "What," said he, without taking his pipe out of his mouth, "would you desire to see added ?”

5. "I see," replied I, "this beautiful pyramid, composed of precious stones,-two rows of topaz, two of ruby, two of sapphire, two of emerald, and one of diamond, with this fine pearl surmounting the whole; but, instead of the pearl, I would have an opal." "I could soon make that change," said the merchant, taking the pipe out of his mouth; "for there is not a kind of jewel, young man, that ever came out of the earth that I have not in my possession; and I will venture the worth of this pyramid that I can show a better stone, of every kind, than any other merchant in Cracow, ay, in Poland, or in all Europe!"

6. I said to myself, "He has no opal, but he is too proud to own it;" and I at once replied, "I have not the value of the pyramid to stake; but I will venture the value of a jewel which I shall produce to you, that you will not match it."

7. "Name its value," said the merchant, "and I will take your word for it; select its worth among these jewels, and lay them on one side, and then place your own opposite to them, and whoever gains shall take up both stakes; you yourself shall decide whether or not I produce a jewel more valuable of its kind than yours."

8. This, I thought, was extremely fair-or rather more than fair. So I selected a diamond which I judged to be worth about fifty thousand florins, and laid it on one side.

By this time a large number of persons had collected around the tables; and I had thus obtained precisely what I desired, an opportunity of displaying my riches, and enjoying the vanity of possessing so rare a gem,-to say

nothing of the diamond that glittered on the table, and that I already considered my own.

9. I now pulled the chain over my head, and, opening the leather purse, drew forth my opal, and laid it upon the

table, opposite the diamond. "A fine opal indeed," said the merchant, laying down his pipe, and examining it, "and worth more than the diamond you selected, and precisely the thing for the top of my pyramid. My own, you see, is too large," added he, opening the lid of an ebony box, and laying upon the table the very opal Schmidt had sold to the king, the appearance of which I remembered so well.

10. Gracious heavens! what were my feelings at that moment!—the object of my toil, and hopes, and promises, gone from me in an instant, and by my own accursed folly and vanity. The merchant deliberately placed his pipe in his mouth, took up my opal, and crowned the pyramid. with it. "Now," said he, "you will own the pyramid is faultless." He then returned his own opal to the box, and calmly began to arrange some of his wares.

11. I turned away in the deepest dejection; but the expression of sympathy from the bystanders wounded. me even more than the loss of my wealth. I repaired to the shop of the merchant whom I knew, but without telling him of my loss. It soon came to his cars, however, for it was buzzed about every where that an ignorant youth had allowed himself to be juggled out of a valuable jewel by the great Bassora merchant, Haran'zabad; and I had the mortification of being pointed at as that ignorant youth.

12. "How could you be so mad," said the merchant, my friend, "as to stake an opal against Haranzabad's ?-Had you come to me first, you would have learned, what everybody knows, that the king pledged this opal to that merchant for a loan, upon condition that he should not exhibit it, openly, at the fair."

13. I had now neither business nor inclination to detain me at the fair. I sold my horse, and in place of returning homeward with fifty thousand florins in my pocket, I had but two hundred, partly the price of my horse, and partly