Miss Littleday's room was a perfect model of neatness; and had all her various belongings been so many living creatures, they could scarcely have received more tender care. Wrappings and counterwrappings innumerable enveloped all her garments to protect them from the least speck of dust, and a change of toilet could be no trifling undertaking for her. She was getting ready by degrees for the orthodox walk after a bath; and first, a funny little Shaker bonnet, that had an expression of its own and suited her exactly, was taken from a shelf, which it had all to itself, and unrolled from its covering of linen. This covering was carefully folded, and laid away until the Shaker should be restored to its place.

"I'll show you my best bonnet," said Miss Littleday, as she disappeared in the depths of her closet; "for grand occasions, my dear, which I do not suppose ever take place in Arragon. I don't believe in band-boxes," she continued, " never did; but I do believe in plenty of linen. There! you don't often see a bonnet like that now."

It was of the finest Leghorn, and must have cost a small fortune in its day; but that day had long been over, and it was chiefly valuable now as a genuine antique. It was trimmed with purple satin and very costly lace; but in spite of its richness, it was a structure that I should not care to walk beside in a city street.

The owner reverently restored it to its wrappings without further comment, and having drawn forth a small, old-fashioned cape from another chrysalis, and a sun-umbrella from its oil-skin case, she inquired if I were ashamed to walk with an old woman? For reply,

I picked up my sundown, that was by no means cherished like Miss Littleday's Shaker, and we started off together.

Here comes some water-cure wimmin!" shouted a white-headed boy, as we passed the gate where he was playing; "come and see 'em, mammy! Ain't they funny-lookin'?"

The mother hastened to the door with a frying-pan in her hand, to stare at us as though we had been stray animals from some travelling menagerie.

Miss Littleday of course did not hear these remarks, and she smiled benevolently on the boy, and nodded pleasantly at his mother. "I guess that one's crazy," said the latter, as she gazed with especial interest at my venerable companion.

"I hope, my dear," said the old lady, seeing that I made no advances to the engaging infant," that you do not agree with the writer who said that the best place for children was wherever she was not'? That was a nice little boy."

Truly it is sometimes an advantage to be deaf.

With the exception of this pleasing episode, scarcely a human being was visible. It seemed to be a law in Arragon that no one should be seen at the front windows; and for all the signs of life about the dwellings, it might be supposed that the Lady Godiva rode through the place daily.

"Now," said Miss Littleday, as we approached a turning, "suppose we try Nature, honey, in preference to art. This road leads to the

I certainly had no fancy for art as represented in Arragon: the

houses being built close upon the street, and looking like the edifices that children draw upon their slates. And the turning soon brought us to a pleasant lane, full of clover and yellow butterflies, and sweet summer sights and sounds. A Virginia fence separated us from a pretty piece of woodland; but we effected an ignominious sort of entrance between the bars, and sat down on a log to enjoy our surroundings.

"This is not walking, I suppose," said my companion, "but it is breathing, and that will answer the purpose quite as well. What a dreadful way they have at the Cure of inhaling the air, as they call it, filling the lungs with such an effort, and then throwing it out again. I tried it one day until I got black in the face, and Miss Wood had to pound me within an inch of my life to bring me to again. I have learned, sweetheart, just to skim off the cream of the establishment, and let the rest of it go."

A very sensible idea, I thought-only I had not yet discovered any cream, except that furnished by the cows.

"Dr. Johnson says that we should keep our friendships in repair," pursued the old lady, "and I cannot tell you, my dear, how glad I am to have met you, and especially in this wilderness. I like natural people, and people who don't overwhelm me with talking."

I certainly was free from this vice; and had I been inclined to long discourses, the ear-trumpet would have effectually quenched my eloquence.

Miss Littleday was soon hopping about like some active bird in quest of wood-treasures; and she brought me so many specimens of leaves and roots, with such learned botanical discussions on their natures and habits, that it seemed a pity to waste it all on one listener; she should have had a platform and an audience.

The sweet, piney odor was very pleasant and dreamy; but dinnertime approached, and I was getting hungry. It seemed a piece of refined cruelty in Miss Wood to give me an appetite without the means of satisfying it; for Arragon was a cold, backward region, where summer vegetables and fruits scarcely made their appearance before autumn; and even when they did come, there was no one with sufficient enterprise to have them for sale. Everything of the kind had to be imported from the nearest city, fifty miles away; and the generous little woman spent sums on her table that would have kept two of the same size, in civilised regions, supplied with any luxury.

On our way back we encountered Uncle Jared, burdened with a huge can of oil, who informed us that "he had laid out to light us up at the Cure, if it was possible, but it took a power of kerosene to do it."

"That is a very good man, my dear," said Miss Littleday confidentially, "but not very sharp, poor fellow!"

I glanced around in some alarm, for the " poor fellow" had halted just behind us to adjust his can for carrying it to better advantage; and as I caught his eye, he tapped his forehead significantly, and winked hard toward my companion. The thought suddenly flashed upon me that he was not quite right himself; and I be

gan to wonder if I had got into a lunatic-asylum as well as a

water-cure.

A little excitement began to stir in the establishment; one of the bath-girls having declared that she encountered a ghost on the stairs at early dawn, that pointed its finger at her and glared with terrible eyes; and all the other damsels gathered around her and declared what they would severally do under the circumstances. I thought it probable that if anything had been seen, it was only the prime-minister indulging in his favorite air-bath out of his proper quarters. But any sort of event was not to be despised in this very uneventful place; and groups of sheeted figures whispered. mysteriously at bath-hours, while the handmaidens were ready to take alarm at the slightest

causes.

Miss Flint, the serious-looking woman, who was half-patient and half-" help," caught the fever; and one morning while busy in my room, she approached me mysteriously, and said: "I don't want that she should know, but I saw it last night !"

"What was it?" I asked skeptically. "Was it the old white cat?" Miss Flint shook her head solemnly. "Twan't a mite like the white cat, Miss Bolton; should think it was nigh ten feet high, and it had an awful glare into its eyes. After all the folks was in bed I went down to the store-closet, and there, right on the dinin'-room table, stood the sperrit, all wrapped in white, and holdin' out its arm this way." The attitude struck by the speaker reminded me forcibly of a wooden machine.

"I was most scar't to death," she continued ; " but I shot up-stairs, and left the critter (whatever it was) standin' there like a stature. Seems queer what's the good of ghosts pokin' round in that way and frightenin' folks out of their senses."

It was a little puzzling certainly, but nevertheless I laughed at Miss Flint, until the worthy woman devoutly hoped that I would see "it" for myself. I did not feel altogether easy, after such repeated testimonies that something queer was going on in the house; but as pride prevented me from closing my door at night, which had hitherto been left open that I might have the benefit of the light in the hall, I was punished accordingly.

The moon was at the full, and the nights were too exquisite for sleeping; but sleeping I was, and soundly, when, through the mysterious influence of a fixed stare, I became conscious that I was not alone in the room. I opened my eyes suddenly, and beheld an ungainly apparition perched on my trunk, as on a pedestal, with great unearthly eyes glaring directly at me. A sheet partly enveloped this object, and the figure was bent forward with outstretched arms, and one foot poised in air-the attitude of the Flying Mercury. A cold horror crept over me, and that inability to move or scream which makes nightmare so terrible. I closed my eyes again, hoping it might be an illusion that would soon disappear; but after what seemed like a long period of suspense, I ventured on another investigation, and met the same stony gaze.

I could bear it no longer; but regaining my voice with a desperate

effort, I sent forth shriek upon shriek. I had hitherto entertained but a faint idea of my powers of screaming; but the figure seemed in nowise disturbed by my proceedings, and suggested the horrible idea that it was destined to be a fixture on my trunk. I did not dare to stir from my position, and I was fast losing all consciousness, when Miss Wood came to the rescue, and most of the inmates appeared in the background to afford all the aid that could be given by hard staring.

The little doctress was very pale as she glanced at the sheeted Mercury, but quite calm and collected; and unceremoniously dismissing the white-draped crowd to their beds, she walked directly up to the intruder, saying, in a matter-of-fact voice, as she laid her hand upon him: "Come with me, Uncle Jared; I will show you a better

place than this.”

Uncle Jared! If I had not been so terrified I might have recognised those strongly-marked features; but dress certainly does change a person, or rather it was the want of it in this instance. My adventure was immediately divested of all approach to the supernatural; but I was now quite as much puzzled as I had hitherto been frightened. What could have brought the man to his present predicament?

"But, Semanthy," remonstrated the spectre, "I'm a marble statute Mercury on a fly; and marble statutes don't move, you know." This one did, however, for Miss Wood possessed a remarkable power over him; and she soon persuaded him to descend from the trunk, and take a line of march, under her escort, not to his usual sleeping apartment, but to a room up-stairs, where she could keep an eye upon him.

"I have suspected this for some time," said Miss Wood, in our after conversation upon the last edition of the Flying Mercury; "that is, I have suspected some derangement of the brain, although I did not dream of its taking this strange shape. Uncle Jared is quite harmless; but he has been very studious lately, devouring with great eagerness everything relating to works of art. He has even undertaken modelling on a small scale; and his performance, to-night, was an attempt at illustrating one of the masterpieces with which his mind. is filled."

"" or

"But I do not see," said I, with very little sympathy for Mr. Wardleham's aspirations, "why he should select my room to pose in. If he confined himself to the privacy of his own apartment, it would not matter, but this wandering in a sheet at midnight is no joke." "I do not believe he selected this room," replied Miss Wood, even realised that it was yours. He was undoubtedly attracted by the trunk, as affording so desirable a pedestal; and I have no idea that he was at all conscious of your presence. I do not consider him insane; he attends to his duties as thoroughly as possible; I think he is to be regarded more in the light of a sleep-walker."

I did not care, however, to have him walking into my room; and I resolved, for the future, to keep my door closed and fastened at night.

Miss Wood's theory respecting the "harmlessness" of Uncle

Jared was most unpleasantly refuted. I do not know what course of treatment she pursued with him; but he seemed for a while to suspend his illustrations of ancient art, and to spend his nights quietly in his own room. There came a night, however, when a vehement pounding on my door aroused me in the middle of a dream; and rather fearing another escapade on the part of the prime-minister, I opened it cautiously, to confront Miss Wood, whose face, pale and resolute, told me at once that something dreadful had happened. "Do not be alarmed," she said, in answer to my wild eyes, "but dress as quickly as possible. Fire has broken out up-stairs (thank Heaven! it is not below), but there will be abundance of time to get all out safely. I am going about quietly to the different rooms, and I hope there will be no unnecessary noise and confusion." She had glided off and left me standing in amaze. It seemed like a dreadful dream, as I had hitherto considered myself far more in danger from the element of water than that of fire; and I cast a bewildered glance around the room at my various belongings. But the dreadful cry of "Fire! Fire!" resounding through the house, and taken up and repeated to the farthest limits of the village; the tramp, tramp, of quick, heavy footsteps on the stairs; the sounds of an unusual crowd without and within; the cries for water, for Miss Wood, for everybody in the Cure; a sudden crash, of the roof, of a piece of furniture, or the stairway perhaps all this seemed to deepen and intensify every moment; and with a very faint consciousness of possessing any property whatever, I seized my purse and my sundown, and rushed to the veranda.

It was swarming both with outsiders and insiders; and I gazed wildly at the frightened faces around me, scarcely able to distinguish one from another. Miss Littleday hovered in the door of her apartment, and beckoned me to join her, as she darted inside to make a fresh addition to her luggage. "I won't leave," said she, firmly, "until the walls are hot; and it seems to me, honey, that you might have carried something more away with you."

I did not know what I had; and now that I had gotten into the very midst of the confusion and excitement, I was powerless to take any farther steps.

The figure which the old lady presented was a striking one; she retained her night-dress, and encased herself besides in three different layers of "gowns," as she called them, each one shorter than the other; on her head was perched the Shaker bonnet; a parasol was grasped in one hand, and a volume of Dr. Johnson in the other. These last articles shé dropped occasionally to arrange her sidecombs and make sure that they were all there. She was in continual motion, now taking up this, and now that; but, as events proved, with a very indefinite idea of what she was doing.

Having left my eccentric friend for a few moments, I returned, to find her engaged in a pitched battle with an able-bodied young man, who had pushed himself into her room with the most benevolent intentions, and begun a vigorous onslaught upon her goods and chattels, Things were being constantly flung from the upper windows, under the impression that breaking them to pieces would be better than the