I keep no man-servant, and after my daughter retiresgenerally at the witching hour of two in the morning,I am obliged to hobble down stairs, extinguish the lights, cover the fire, lock up the house, and ascertain whether it is perfectly fire and burglar-proof for the time being.

I'll tell of how she, full of witching, wanton wiles, love-alluring, furtive fled fleet-footed from the day andthere amid the soft and slumberous silence of the tender trees did yield her love to one beyond all beings blest.

It runs (text of 1797): As when a child on some long winter's night Affrighted clinging to its Grandam's knees With eager wond'ring and perturb'd delight Listens strange tales of fearful dark decrees Mutter'd to wretch by necromantic spell; Or of those hags, who at the witching time Of murky midnight ride the air sublime, And mingle foul embrace with fiends of Hell: Cold Horror drinks its blood!

"It is good," said he, looking up into the witching face, above him, "yes, it is very good to see you idlejust for once.

Maud's beauty was striking, as proved by Patsy's admiration at first sight; Florence was smaller and darker, yet very dainty and witching, like a Dresden shepherdess.

It beams on me From where the choir makes melody, Behind the parson; maid demure, Her witching eyes my thoughts allure, Although, in church, this should not be.

Leaue me Friends: 'Tis now the verie witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and Hell it selfe breaths out [Sidenote: brakes] Contagion to this world.

This witching child is very small; Her feeble, tiny hands, Can scarcely tend the mammoth doll, Which so much care demands.

Mr. Kipling, in agreement with an earlier prophet, once identified rebellion with the sin of witchcraft, and about Tolstoy there was certainly a witching power, a magic or demonic attraction, that gave the hearer no peace.

His lofty step, His bearing high, The smile of his lip, The power of his eye, His witching words, Their tones of bliss, His hand's fond pressure, And ahhis kiss!

A degree of jauntiness appears in the worse specimens of these imitations, and Lord Morley's criticism that Emerson himself was too oblivious of the dark side of human suffering and guilt would doubtless apply to much of the Unitarian eloquence at one time inspired by his witching voice.

The witching little Rose laughed and danced and sang and flirted and wept and loved her way through it and in the end threw herself in the right lover's arms, presumably there to dwell happy forever after.

I was apprehensive some visitors might be hovering near the grave of my sister at that witching hour, and I approached the cedars cautiously, intending to retire unseen should such prove to be the case.

My design was to reach the abbey of Conques before evening, but instead of going directly towards it over the hills, I preferred to keep as long as possible in the valley of the Lot, which is here of such witching loveliness.

He was gazing, too, with a witching smile into her face, waiting till it should be the little maiden's pleasure to notice him.

He began to long intensely to behold the author of this music-magic, to behold her just once, for imagination graced her with a thousand witching forms.

As when a child on some long winter's night Affrighted clinging to its Grandam's knees With eager wond'ring and perturb'd delight Listens strange tales of fearful dark decrees Mutter'd to wretch by necromantic spell; Or of those hags, who at the witching time Of murky midnight ride the air sublime, And mingle foul embrace with fiends of Hell: Cold Horror drinks its blood!

Many, very many, were the waking dreams that filled the imagination as the map of life lay spread out before fancy's witching gaze, and hope illuminated it with her brilliant rainbow dyes.

And it was he who bore her off under the witching moon to the side entrance of the Mansion.

Still scantier summers had her brow illumed Than that on which she threw a witching smile, Unconscious of the spell that could beguile His being of the burthen it was doomed

In the choice of Mr. Augustus Thomas's "In Mizzoura""The Witching Hour" having so often been used in dramatic collectionsthe Editor believes he has represented this playwright at a time when his dramas were most racy and native.

"The Witching Hour.

It is surprising how quickly graciousness possesses some people when there is a witching girl around.

How doubly potent falls thy witching influence on him whose spirit passion has attuned to all the harmonies of earth, and made but too susceptible!

'Tis now the very witching hour of night, when churchyards yawn" "I beg your pardon," she interrupted.