it captured fifty prisoners. At the famous battle of Cedar Creek, which came near being a most disastrous rout, it kept its organization and morale in good form, and was the last to be forced to retire from the Union works. When Sheridan dashed on to the field, leader and horse foaming, an aid called his attention to the fact that the Connecticut Irish was one of the very few regiments that was not demoralized by the reverses of the day. The great cavalry chief rode close up to them. They gave him a cheer that must have thrilled him. Sergt. Morrow shouted to him: "Go in, General, we'll follow you to!" "I'll lead to or back to your old camp!" was the hoarse rejoinder of the famous leader. The Ninth took the infantry lead, and the day became turned into one of glorious victory for the Union arms. It was thus that an Irish-American chief and men saved another day from most disastrous results to the Union cause. At this battle, when the color-sergeant fell, Col. Healy grasped the flag, and with a cheer at the head of the command, made a gallant rush and was the first to plant the Federal colors on the Confederate works. It remained in Virginia until January, 1865, and then went with its division to Baltimore, and subsequently served on provost duty until August 3, 1865. In its term of service, its casualties and discharges for disability incurred in its long and arduous duties numbered, according to official reports, 621, out of a total of 1,285, recruits and all. On the 17th of September, 1879, Hartford witnessed one of the grandest of displays on the occasion of the transfer of the battle flags from the State arsenal to the magnificent new capital, where were assembled the dignitaries of the State, and invited guests, including the Right Rev. Bishop McMahon, Gens. Burnside, Benham, Schofield, Warren, and Crawford. Tens of thousands of people crowded the city from its own and neighboring States, to participate in the patriotic ceremony. Everywhere throughout the city the greatest enthusiasm prevailed. "But," says an American report of the event at that time, "the most thrilling incident of the parade was when the Ninth Regiment, under the command of Col. Healy, and headed by its old war band, struck up St. Patrick's Day, and the veterans passed under a green flag, suspended across Weathersfield Avenue." The most thrilling cheers rent the air in welcome to these heroic sons of the Gael, survivors of the great war for the preservation of the Union. Among the spectators on this occasion was the Ex-Governor Miles, who a few years previously disarmed the men of the same race. Who can but pity his reflections on the occasion. The Ninth's glorious record will be among the proudest made by devoted adopted citizens to the great Republic. STUDENT. OUR sole pretension should be to be united to God, as our Lord was united to His Father when He died on the cross. St. Francis de Sales. South Walpole, Mass. A Year. ONLY a year ago — Since the gentle smile, the winning way, Only a year ago! To me how long,— ah, me! Tears that none may know, Hopes that are better dead,-ah, me! Only a year ago! To me how long,— ah, me! Calmly she sleeps, nor heeds the tread, Life's pangs she will no more know,— Only a year ago! But why repine? A few more years, To that fairer land,- to thee! J. FRANK CLARKIN. The Year and the Calendar. On the day after the 5th of October, 1562, the people of Italy, Spain, and Portugal wrote the date October 15. Ten days had been dropped altogether. This was because of the adoption of what is known as the Gregorian calendar, because it was decreed by a bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII. The early division of time was very irregular and inaccurate. The reckoning by months did not bring out even years, and it was only when astronomy became something like an exact science, that the actual length of the year was known. In the time of ancient Rome there were but ten months, and the Roman kings fixed the length of the year at 355 days. When this inexact division caused trouble, an extra month was inserted here and there to restore the system to a degree of order. We owe it to Julius Cæsar that the year was fixed at 365 days, with an additional day once in four years. The fourth year in which the day is added is bissextile, or, as we call it, leap year. The year of 365 1-4 days is known as the Julian year. But even this is not accurate. The true solar year is 365 1-4 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 49.62 seconds long. That is 11 minutes and 10.48 seconds shorter than the Julian year. The Julian calendar was adopted forty-six years before Christ, so that in A. D. 1582, more than sixteen centuries later, the error had amounted to about ten days. It was this error which the Gregorian calendar corrected. But in making the correction it was necessary to guard against a similar accumulation of error. That object was accomplished in this way. The error amounts to nearly eighteen hours in a century. Accordingly it was decreed that each year whose number was divisible by one hundred should not be a leap year unless it were divisible by four hundred. Consequently the year 1900 will not be a leap year, but the year 2000 will be one. Three leap years are admitted every four hundred years by this plan, and the result is that the average civil year differs from the true solar year by less than twenty-three seconds. This difference will amount to a whole day in something less than four thousand years. The new system was adopted gradually. By the Roman Catholic world it was adopted almost at once,- the last of the Catholic countries. making a change in 1587. But it was not until 1700 that Protestant Germany adopted it; and in England and America the Gregorian calendar was not used until 1752. The Greek Church has never sanctioned the change. In Russia to this day the old style is still in use, and the error, which was only ten days in 1582, is now more than twelve days. The Russian Christmas does not come until nearly a fortnight after all the rest of the Christian world has celebrated it. It is also a curious fact, of which few are probably aware, that, until one hundred and thirty years ago, the year began in England and this country, not with the 1st of January, but on the 24th of March. Before that time, however, the practice had become common of indicating that there was a doubt to which year the days in the first three months belonged. Thus, in the old Boston newspapers of the last century, we see such dates as this: "February 4, 1723-24," — from which anybody can discover that the date, according to the Gregorian calendar, is February 15 (eleven days' correction), 1724. The year is a varying quantity according to the standard by which it is measured. Of course, it is the time within which the earth makes her passage around the sun. But if this time be measured by the period of the earth's return to the same apparent place in the heavens, as seen from the sun, it is a "sidereal year," 365 days, 6 hours, 6 minutes, 9.6 seconds. The time in which the earth makes the circuit from her perihelion— that is, the point of her orbit where she is nearest to the sun-around to the same point again, is the "anomalistic" year: 363 days, 6 hours, 23 minutes, 48.6 seconds. The "tropical" year, however, is that which astronomers have selected as the true polar year. It is the time included between two "vernal equinoxes." This vernal equinox is that instant in the spring of the year when the equator of the earth, if extended, would pass through the centre of the sun. It is also the time when the days and nights, all over the globe, are of equal length. The period between two vernal equinoxoes is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 48.6 seconds. Sister Louise: A Valiant Woman. SISTER LOUISE, the head and founder of the twenty-seven houses of the Order of Notre Dame in this country, with their seven hundred sisters and twenty-three thousand girl-pupils, mostly free scholars, died on the afternoon of the 3d of December at one o'clock, at the convent in Cincinnati, Ohio, of which she was the Superior. Six houses of Notre Dame on the Pacific Slope, although the sisters went direct from the mother-house in Namur, Belgium, also lose in her one of their principal founders. Sister Superior Louise was one of the most remarkable women of her time, and her dying hours were worthy of her laborious and Christian life. Some weeks before her death the physicians pronounced death but a question of a few days, but she said quietly that the time had not yet come, and rose again and took full charge of affairs. Early on the 24th of November it became apparent that the end was near. Sitting upright, as required by her heart trouble, and surrounded by her sorrowing children, she spent the days and nights as usual, attending with minuteness to every detail of duty, and preparing for the end, which she now knew was at hand, as calmly as if it was a mere question of routine. Describing the sad, impressive scene, an eye witness said she had a word of comfort, of sympathy for each. Forgetful of self, she speaks to all as they come and go. "Have you no message?" her assistant asks. "No; I have told you all, I think. Keep the world out. Let its spirit on no pretense creep in." So well in order are her affairs that the helm glides from her hand, leaving nothing to be told. Of a cheerful disposition, she keeps her spirits to the end. Although breathing with difficulty and very weak, she insists on performing all her religious exercises to the end, at the exact hour and without shortening the time. To one sister who asked for some word to remember, "It must be short," was the answer. "Submission to the will of God; make this your life; relish it above all things. Do not," she said again, "think of my death. Go on with your occupations. You gain nothing by grieving; on the contrary, you lose much." To another she said: "I have always done thus for such and such persons. I would like to do it now," speaking of her charities, which were numerous, wisely given, and unknown except to the recipient and those whose duty it was to know. Then she dictated what she wished, and, taking her glasses, looked at the sister's memorandum to see that she had been understood. Josephine Susanna Vander Schrieck was born Nov. 14, 1813, in Bergen op Zoom, in Holland. Her parents lived in the Rue Bosch, where her father carried on a large business in the transportation of freight and passengers, an important occupation before the time of railroads. In 1818 her parents moved to Antwerp, where her father became a prosperous merchant. He had been educated as a lawyer, and was a learned man. He spoke Latin fluently and was of a very philosophical turn of mind. From him Josephine seems to have derived many remarkable qualities. Josephine had naturally a very lively disposition. She first attended a day school in Antwerp, and then went to Namur, Belgium, the mother-house of the Sisters of Notre Dame, as a boarder. At an early age she exhibited traits of great charity. On her return to Antwerp at sixteen she associated herself with some companions, in order to instruct in the ordinary branches the poor children of the schools for the making of lace. She became the idol of these children, the love they bore her seeking every means to find expression to the honor of their protectress. Already at this early age the desire to become a religieuse had arisen in her. Her father and family were earnestly opposed to her so becoming, and it was nine years before she obtained consent. But her will, steadfastness, and determination conquered at last. She often laughingly said that she had to wait a year for each of her brothers. She was one of twelve children— nine boys and three girls. In 1837, at the age of twenty-four, she left Antwerp for Namur, accompanied by her father and two sisters. The parting from her home and friends was a sorrow to all, on account of her sweet and beautiful disposition. The girls of the lace school were desolate. The The journey was a sad one. While making the necessary arrangements at the convent, Mr. Vander Schrieck told the Superior that he hoped his daughter, with her high education and talents, would not be obliged to go to the washtub, or perform any other menial duty. The Superior answered that each sister received all necessary care. next day, October 15, her father left her at the convent, where she became Sister Louise." On May 16, 1839, she received the black veil, and in 1840 she came to America. She embarked with six other sisters at Antwerp. When it became known that she was to sail, her family and friends gave her an ovation, and tributes of respect and love were showered on her. She came over in the Elise Thornton, a sailing vessel, and reached New York in about fifty-one days; thence to Cincinnati, where they first opened a school on Sycamore street, opposite the old church where St. Xavier now stands. A year after they bought the house belonging to Mr. Spencer. The old mansion still stands, surrounded by large brick buildings covering half a square. Sister Louise was always in a manner the head of the sisters. She had to |