water. I hope you'll do me the favour of tasting it one of these days." "I wonder you suffer so disagreeable and dangerous a fellow to visit you," observed the mer chant. "That is a recommendation,” replied the party addressed," for I have a great horror of water on the brain." spects of my own patrimonial seat. Ah, Mr. Crab! you were never at my fine place-Clognakilty House, in the county Down." "Curious old mansion this," pursued the Captain, pretending not to hear the last innuendo; "Why, Sir, I am good-tempered to a fault-"on a small scale it reminds me in some realways was; and if the leading person of the place was to turn his back upon old Crab, he might as well turn hermit at once, and become the monk of Monkwell. Ha, ha, ha! Besides, No, Captain; were you?" And then, as if be is as bilious as a Nabob, his wife is a con- talking to himself, the old gentleman ejaculated, firmed invalid, neither of them likely to live as he counted his fingers, "There are estates in long-their money must go somewhere: and then Ayrshire, and in the Isle of Skye, and in the he has purchased the right of shooting over an Scilly Islands; and there are Châteaux en Esextensive manor; he often invites me to accompagne; and Ariosto tells us that all lost things pany him; and as he is too sickly to eat all the game he shoots, he is compelled to give it to his acquaintance." Why, then, it would appear that he does possess some good qualities.' "Not he; not any, at least, that he can help -an old cynical curmudgeon!" "Nay, dear papa," urged Ellen, "you forget that he makes a most affectionate husband to a sick wife, and that he is very kind and generous the poor, though he does scold them pretty sharply when he thinks they deserve it. Everybody says that his bark is worse than his bite; and besides, he is so absent, that I do think he hardly knows at times what ill-natured things he is saying." "Ay, Nell, and that's the reason why I never notice his impertinence. If I thought he meant to be insolent-By the powers!" In delivering his favorite adjuration the Captain was accustomed to accumulate the emphasis on the first word with a vehemence proportioned to the gravity of the occasion; his present stress upon the by evidently implying that, if there were sufficient ground for the process, he would makes no bones of the offender, but swallow him up whole, or cut him up into mincemeat, according to the state of his digestive functions. "Egad, Nell!" he continued, “both his bark and his bite are bad enough." "I have heard Ellen maintain," cried Matilda, "that there was sweetness at his heart, even when there was sourness in his mouth. If it is so, I can only say that his barley-sugar drops are very highly acidulated. Ha, ha, ha!" "D'ye hear that? d'ye hear that?" exclaimed the father. "Didn't I tell you 'Tilda was a wit? As to old Crab, with his venomous jibes and jeers, and his malignant-" The conclusion of this speech was arrested by the opening of the door, and the appearance of John Trotman, ashering in the very party thus bitterly vituperated. "Ha, my good friend Crab!" cried the unabashed Captain, "I was just singing your praises to Mr. Brown. Allow me to introduce you to him." And he went through the form of presentation with as much pomposity as if he were in his own house, and were conferring a favour upon both parties. Brown, after gazing for a minute on the face of his new visitant, a little shrivelled man of an atrabilarious hue and sufficiently acid expression, turned towards Matilda, exclaiming, with a significant smile, "It is fortunate, Miss Molloy, that I have not yet brewed my beer." "Oh-ay-true!" cried the Captain, whose self-possession was almost the only one that he retained. "We were talking, Mr. Crab, of my famous table ale-capital stuff, and yet never gets up into the head." are collected together in the moon; but where is there a depôt for the things that are very cir cumstantially described, but which never existed? It ought to be capacious. Yours is a large estate, I believe ?" "Immense, Sir! immense! I forget the exact number of acres-Irish acres, you know, are larger than yours-but it is certainly one of the finest places in Ireland, though I say it that shouldn't say it." "Nay, there we differ; for if you didn't say it, nobody would. If you assert the fact, I believe it; if I had seen the place with my own eyes, I might perhaps have doubted: but it's all the same, it's all the same. How say the logicians? De non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio." "And such hunting!" resumed the Captain, addressing himself to Brown: "I must give you an account some day of my celebrated hunter Paddy whack, and my famous racehorse Skyscraper. Faith and troth! I played first fiddle at the meetings in Ireland." "The Irish, I believe, have their lyres, as well as their fiddles," muttered Crab, again counting his fingers with a vacant look of absence. "Some say that the lyre of Mercury had three strings, some say four, some say seven. Amphion built up the walls of Thebes by means of a lyre-Quære: Was Amphion an Irishman? The lyre of Orpheus was thrown into the seaQuære: Did you live near the coast in Ireland ?" "The great steeple-chase that I rode at Clognakilty," resumed Molloy, "is admitted to be the most wonderful thing of the sort ever performed. Skyscraper would climb up a stone wall of twelve feet high like a cat: well, Sir, he took ten of these walls; and after I had rode him at speed for seven hours without drawing bit, he cleared at a leap a river twenty-four feet wide. But the ground was low on the opposite side; the shock deranged my digestive functions; and for upward of five months-ay, just five months and four days-I could never eat more than an ounce at a time, so that I was known among my friends by the nickname of Ounce Molloy." "Are you quite sure it was not Bounce Molloy?" asked Crab, in a tone and with a look of innocent curiosity. "Bounce, Jupiter, bounce, are the words of Midas in O'Hara's burletta of The Golden Pippin. High nonsense, says Addison, is like beer in a bottle, which has in reality no strengh or spirit, but frets, and flies, and bounces, and imitates the passions of a much nobler liquor." It might have been thought that the Captain would have taken offence at these splenetic and pointed sallies, but he was not a man to quarrel with a neighbour from whom he occasionally "Very much descended," muttered Crab. "Oh, Hamlet, what a falling off was there! There are men who are an honour to their titles, and there are men whose titles are their sole honour. What can ennoble-but I have quoted Pope already." "After you have bestowed your time and money in restoring the Manor-House," pursued the Captain, "you would not like the notion of its being brought to the hammer for division among your successors." borrowed money, besides deriving various other from whom I have the honour of being de advantages from his propinquity. Crab, more-scended." over, had a sort of charter, as a humorist subject to strange fits of absence, for thinking aloud, and uttering whatever vagaries suggested themselves to his wandering thoughts; nor was it easy to believe that there was any raillery, badinage, or intentional offence in his effusions, however caustic; for his countenance never lost the grim seriousness of its expression, if we may except an occasional twinkle of his small sharp eye, and his manner was invariably respectful. Rude and inopportune as his escapades appeared, they might, indeed, have been What, Sir, after I have toiled from London taken for the unconscious babblings of one who to Smyrna, and from Smyrna to Constantinople imagined that he was talking to himself and by and Alexandria, to make a fortune, do you think himself, were it not manifest to a keen observer I would set it up to be bowled down again like that he never gave them utterance unless when ninepins, by a whole family of spendthrift he was provoked by some display of arrogance, youngsters? Not I. Into whatever family it folly, or pretension. The blushing Ellen, who may go, I shall leave it to the eldest son, and had been sitting upon thorns while her father tie it up as tight as the law can make it." rode his boastful hobby and received these awk-Molloy looked at his Matilda, whose counteward side-thrusts from his persevering assailant, succeeded at last in turning the conversation upon the proposed improvements and restorations of the Manor-House, observing that the various styles of the building might occasion a little embarrassment to the architect. "What care I for architects and styles?" demanded the merchant. "If I am to pay for it, the style shall be my own, and that shall be the convenient and the comfortable style. I hate accommodation | bills, but I do like accommodation houses. What stuff and nonsense to import a style of building from Italy, unless you can also import the Italian climate!" nance became lighted up with a sudden animation, while Ellen heaved a half-suppressed sigh, and fixed her eyes upon the ground. "Yes, Sir," continued the merchant, "and I am by no means sure that I shall not paint the house brown, and make him take the name of Brown, and have a brown complexion, and wear brown clothes, and eat brown bread, and drink brown stout, on pain of forfeiting the Brown estate. Ha, ha!" And, not having the cane in his hand, the merchant confirmed this resolution by two sharp stamps of his heel upon the floor, as if he thereunto set his foot and seal. Some farther gasconades of the incorrigible Captain having drawn down upon him a renew "But the Manor-House," urged Ellen, "is of a totally opposite order. It is conventual-quite | al of oblique sarcasms from Crab, Ellen, in orEnglish." "But old English, Miss Ellen; and we may as well talk Saxon as build Saxon in these days. To borrow the style of our houses from the middle ages is as foolish as to import one from Italy. We want them to live in, not to look at; and if the inside pleases my fancy, I don't care a button how much the outside may offend the fancies of other people. I'll have my own way, I repeat, for my own money, or I'll know the reason why." "All our dwellings," said Crab, "are in the same style the perishable. We give the toil of a life to build up a fortune with which to build up a house, in order that our heirs may kick down the fortune and pull down the house. What says Pope? 'Another age shall see the golden ear Embrown the slope and nod on the parterre; "Not if it's entailed, Sir; not if it's tied up," exclaimed Brown. "Thank God, Sir, we live in England, not in France, where the rascally testamentary law will not allow a fellow to dispose of his own property, however hardly earned. This may be termed freedom-it is certainly making free with one's property-but I call it robbery." "Faith and troth! and I agree with you quite entirely," exclaimed the Captain, who saw himself in a fair way of attaining the great object of his visit. "Nothing like primogeniture and entail. I am myself an eldest son, and so have been all the proprietors of Clognakilty House since the days of the old Earls of Clognakilty, der to protect her father, engaged the attention of his assailant by detailing a case of distress: a subject which never failed to elicit from her auditor an angry diatribe against the improvi dence of the poor, and to secure some eventual relief to the sufferers, if, on a strict inquiry, they proved to be real objects of charity. Availing himself of this temporary diversion, the father whispered to Brown, as he pointed towards the delinquent, "I hope you don't mind his saucy sallies; I don't, for he really doesn't know what he is saying. Flighty, Sir, flighty-we call him Crazy Crab. Even when he means to be splenetic, and caustic, and waspish, we only laugh at his impertinence. You're not offended with his wanderings, I trust ?" "Certainly not, if you are not," replied Brown, chuckling till he grew red in the face. "On the contrary, I think his wanderings, as you call them, are very like home-thrusts, or shots in the bull's eye. Depend upon it, he's a good bowler, for he seems to know that, if you would hit the Jack at last, you must seem at first not to be taking aim at it." At this moment Matilda alluded to some private theatricals about to be performed at Gloucester, when the Captain, utterly unable to lose any opportunity of bragging, exclaimed, "Ah, Sir! nothing like Kilkenny for private theatricals-never was and never will be. Egad, I starred it there famously-took all the first characters. Tilda, dear, what was that celebrated Spanish character that all the world declared I acted to the very life ?" "Ferdinand Mendez Pinto," ejaculated Crab, breaking off from his colloquy with Ellen, " was a celebrated Spaniard, and a surprising econo mist-of truth; being ever the first to visit non existent cities, and to receive the most circumstantial intelligence of things that had never happened. His travels are extant, and written in choice Castilian." "We were a jolly party of us," resumed the Captain, not heeding this interruption; "and, faith! we kept it up famously. There was the Marquis of Mayo, Lord Ormonde, Walter Butler, and I: we agreed to dine with one another La turn-that is to say, when I was not engaged dine with the Duke of-Psha! I shall forget my own name next. Tilda, dear! what is the name of that duke I dined with so often at Kilkenny 1" 66 Duke Humphrey-Duke Humphrey! Eureka! it is found!" exclaimed Crab. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, explains the first phrase; the second was uttered by Archimedes, when, on entering a full bath, he discovered that the quantity of water displaced depended upon the weight and volume of the body immersed in it." Being gifted with an effrontery not easily dashed by any rebuffs, the Captain, who liked to hear the sound of his own voice, however deaf he might be to that of Crab, flourished away in the same vapouring vein, until, having said enough, as he thought, to establish the antiquity of his race, his high connexions, the grandeur of his Irish estate, and the consequent advantages and honours of being connected with his family, he proceeded to eulogize the Latimers, in order to feel the pulse of the merchant, and to propitiate him towards an alliance between the eldest son of that lady and one of his own daughters, should the former be likely to succeed to the Manor-House estate. As Matilda saw his manœuvre, and was not in the habit of being restrained in the promotion f her views by any over-scrupulous delicacy, she not only declared that nobody could help being partial to such a good, such a charming young man as Allan Latimer, but endeavoured, by her significant looks and affected confusion, to confirm her father's averment that she had always had a sneaking kindness for him, and that he had detected young Allan more than once casting sheep's eyes at 'Tilda. This broad innuendo, meant for the special ear of the merchant, was followed up by a fresh encomium on the Latimer family in general, whom the Captain was plastering with praise in his usual coarse style, when Crab broke the thread of his eulogy by muttering, in one of his audible musings, "If praise undeserved be censure in disguise, what shall we term merited praise when it comes from the undeserving? The boa constrictor slavers what it means to devour. A moot point-a moot point." "Hark at poor Crab," cried the Captain: "soliloquizing again-knows no more where he is-wits all wool-gathering. Hollo, neighbour!" and he slapped him familiarly on the shoulder; "are you aware that you are the man in the moon ?" "No; but I imagined myself to be in ClognaFilty House, which is the same thing," said Crab, dryly. ly nod, with an accompanying "Good-by, old boy," to Crab, and taking the arms of his daughters, strutted smilingly out of the room. "By the powers!" he exclaimed, as soon as they were clear of the premises, "wasn't I right, girls? When, indeed, was Charles Sullivan Molloy ever known to be mistaken? Didn't I tell you that the mushroom, the upstart, the parvenu, would be an advocate for primogeniture, and would have all the pride of ancestry to come, if that isn't a bull? And did you mak how cleverly I drew the secret out of his soul, like a cork out of a bottle? And didn't I foresee it all as to the Latimers? Ah! you may thank Heaven for giving you such a knowing father. I have shown you the game, girls; it is for you to play the cards; and if you play them well, I may live to see one of you mistress of the Manor-House estate. Old Brown's asthmatic-his lease will soon be up." "La, pa! how soon you can run up a castle in the air!" exclaimed Matilda. "Let us walk over the fields to the Latimers', and go in at the garden-gate. It will be good sport, for Mrs. Latimer is such an oldfashioned tidy body, that she can't bear to be taken by surprise, and I do like to worry these finical folks, who must have everything in apple-pie order." "You are not very likely to succeed," said the sister, "if you expect to find her house at sixes and sevens, for neatness and method have become a habit with her, and her sons seem to have inherited the same disposition." "We'll try, at all events," replied Matilda, who imagined herself to be sportive and jocular when her malicious pleasantries exposed others to vexation and annoyance. On their reaching the gate, the two brothers were seen working in the garden without their coats, Allan being employed in digging, and Walter in repairing a barrow. "Wait a moment," cried the former, kissing his hand to the visitants as soon as he had recognised them, "and I will run for the key; the gate is locked." "Pooh! pooh! never mind the key," said Matilda: “lend me your hand, and I will climb over in a minute." As she had already begun to scale it, Allan ran to her assistance, when she took his proffered hand with a gentle pressure, contrived to make a very tolerable display of her leg—whether to exhibit the pink silk half of her stocking or her well-turned ankle it becomes us not to decide-and, having safely reached the top, leaped to the ground with a girlish giggle. "Bravo, "Tilda!" exclaimed the father; "jumped like a greyhound. What a madcap you are! But young folks will be young folks." "I hope you won't attempt it, Ellen," said Walter, hurrying towards them: "I will bring the key in a minute." "I had no intention of the sort," was the blushing reply: "I am not so active as 'Tilda. Papa and I will wait your return." Her sister, meanwhile, placing her uninvited arm in Allan's, walked towards the house, where they were speedily joined by the rest of the party, and welcomed with her usual lady-like cordiali"Ha, ha, ha! capital! capital!" roared the ty by Mrs. Latimer, whose ménage and personal Captain, apparently enjoying the joke at his appearance, so far from exhibiting any trait of own expense; and then, with a profusion of the confusion which had been anticipated, and pompous and patronising declarations as to his even wished, by Matilda, presented that uniform readiness to serve, and introduce, and counte-"apple-pie order" which she loved to ridicul nance the proprietor of the Manor-House, he as quizzical and old-maidish. shook him cordially by the hand, gave a friend C CHAPTER IV. know you dislike her because she jabbers s much French." A nod of ready acquiescence signified John's assent to this declaration. "JOHN TROTMAN," said his master to him, on the morning after the visit we have been descri- Having by this time reached the churchyard, bing, "I have been climbing up to the belfry atop Brown strolled to the spot where the sexton was o' the house, which is sadly decayed, but we'll at work-a process which seldom fails to arrest have it all set rights, and the rails round the the foot and the attention of every chance wanplatform restored; it will make a capital place | derer-and stood for two or three minutes silentfor smoking. Where did you put my long cher-ly contemplating the scene. Though baldheadry-tree chibouque, with the amber bowl and ed, toothless, and age-bent, the gravedigger had mouthpiece?" a merry smirk in his countenance singularly at "Packed-London, was the laconic answer. variance with his mournful occupation, and he "Famous view, John, from the belfry; been coughed and chuckled till he showed his bare Scouring the country all round with my tele-gums, when, in answer to the inquiry whose scope-and a capital one it is. Do you remem-grave he was digging, he replied, in a cracked ber my being the first to discover the felucca pri- voice, and with a vacant gape of astonishment, vateer, stealing out from Civita Vecchia, when "What! be you the Squoire fro' th' Manoryou were junior mate of the Arethusa? Egad! I began to think my supercargo's commissions were not worth a brass farthing." "Ran for the Straits of St. Boniface. Wrong!" was the reply. "But I say I was right." "And I say you was wrong," persisted the servant. "Is that the way, sirrah! that you speak to your master?" John gave an affirmative nod. "Was there ever such a provoking-Now I suppose you mean to insinuate, by that impertinent nod, that I'm an obstinate, wrongheaded old fellow?" John gave an equivocal and yet respectful bow, as much as to say, if you think so, I have no wish to differ from you; when the merchant, who had been too long accustomed to his odd ways to be easily offended, continued, "Well, John, I have made another discovery with my telescope -I have seen a fellow digging a grave in the churchyard; and so I'll just walk up and-The last time I was there I was playing marbles with-never mind-you can't expect me to remember their names: why, it's eight, ay, nineand-forty years ago next Shrovetide.' "Don't expect-don't want." "Put on your hat, John, put on your hat, and we'll go and overhaul the churchyard, and look about us a little, and see whose grave they are digging." Why, John Trotman," said the merchant, as they were wending their way to the church, "you look more glumpy than ever; what's the matter with you." "Hate churchyards." "What, then, have you buried a dear friend some time or other?" A nod and the word "wife" were the reply. "Wife! why, I never knew you were married. What has a sailor to do with any one wife in particular? I thought they always considered themselves wedded to the Charming Kitty' or the Lovely Sally' in which they sailed. Can there be any comfort in a spouse from whom you are always running away?" Another nod, accompanied by a look of grim grief. "Ah, John! I have been a luckier man than you-a bachelor, a jolly bachelor, all my life. Never had to mourn for the death of a wife. No, no; depend upon it, we single fellows have the best of it. Look at me: go where I like, do what I like; nobody to worry or to weary me." John shook his head and pronounced the word "Glossop." "Why, sometimes, I must confess, she does bother me with her foreign lingo, but he's a good creature nevertheless, though I House? Heart alive! what a queer-looking fish, to be sure!" And then, wiping the perspi ration from his forehead with his shirt-sleeve, he continued, "Ax pardon, Squoire, for staring, but I never seed you afore, you know, for I couldn't wait at the Green Man any longer when you comed in. Whose grave? why, Dame Spurling's, the grocer's wife; and there's Master Spurling a taking on for her loss fit to break his heart. Was there ever such a thing heard on? Hugh! Hugh!" 1 "Ah! that comes of not being a bachelor," said the merchant, looking at Trotman, who stood gazing down into the grave, his compressed lips and stern features attesting that his thoughts were with his departed wife. "And what may be your name, goodman delver?" inquired Brown. "My name be Bat Ruggles, and I've lived here or hereabout, man and boy, wellnigh—” "What! you're not the son of Dick Ruggles the mole-catcher, of Charlton Abbots ?" "Yes, but I be, though-how the dickens should you ha' know'd that?" "Look at me, Bat, and try whether you can recollect me." Holding himself as upright as he could, and shading his face with his hand, the old man peered at the interrogator for some time, and then replied, "You've got a look of old Hobson the cobbler, but he be dead. No; I never clapped eyes on ye afore, not as I knows on.' "Do you remember robbing Farmer Stubbs's orchard when you were a youngster, and the great dog seizing you by the arm?" "To be sure I do, and there be the scar," replied the graybeard, pulling the shirt-sleeve up his bronzed arm. "And who was your companion in that exploit ?" "Why, young Brown; he were a poticary's boy then, and ran away arter'ards, 'cause he was horsewhipped for riding the pony arter the hounds with a basketful of doctor's bottles. which was all broken." "There you're out, Bat Ruggles, for the pony ran away with me, and frightened me out of my wits." "You! why, heart alive! you don't mean to say that you be young Brown? No, no, I arn't to be tooked in o' that way, nether. Why young Brown were a pretty boy wi' curly locks." "And you, Bat, were then an active young fellow, famous for leaping over the brook with a pole." "So I were, so I were; but I be crookedbacked and stiff-jointed now. He, he! hugh! augh!" Seeming to think his decrepitude and infirmities a particularly good joke, the old man continued chuckling and coughing, and displaying his boneless gums, till the merchant had we asked him in what part of the churchyard Mrs. Brown was buried. · What, old M ́s. Brown, that once kept the sop, and a'terards lived like a lady in the Brook Cottage, acause her son sent her home money from foreign parts? Ay, ay, I'll soon show you where she do lie: I ought to know, for I ha' dug all the graves since Lady Mayhew's time." So syg, he held his spade upright, and, scraping od from his shoes the kneaded clay which had e, perhaps, constituted the throbbing heart of 4rastic lover, or the teeming brain of some vilkg poet or politician, he slowly clambered out st the grave, chuckling again at his own crippled state, and hobbled to the opposite side of the church, where he pointed out a flat gravestone, inscribed with the name of the deceased, and the lates of her birth and death. "There's a trile for your pains, and you may now go back to your work," said the merchant. Hallo, Squoire!" was the reply, "you don't Beep a very sharp look-out. You've guv me a Sovereign instead of a shilling." "Keep it, Bat Ruggles, it's no mistake; I gave it you as my old playfellow, and there's another for your honesty." "God bless you, Squoire! and may it be some fittle time afore ever I have the burying on you! but as to my doing any more work this blessed day, wi' a couple o' sovereigns in my pocketLori love you! I never heard tell o' such a Ang. Dame Spurling must bury herself if she's a day hurry." So saying, he thrust the two pieces of gold into his tight polished leathers, re exterior of which presented on one side a weil-mapped tobacco-box, on the other an outtise of the penny pieces which usually garnished ais pocket; and, after repeating his thanks, hobaway, his intermingled chucklings and borghings remaining long audible as he trudged along towards the Green Man. For some minutes after his departure, Brown remained with his eyes fixed on the gravestone, in a deep revery, ruminating on the days that were gone, and the innumerable acts of materaal kindness he had experienced from the pareat who was mouldering beneath his feet; while John Trotman continued equally silent and transfixed, his visage assuming a still more reful expression as his thoughts reverted to his departed wife and the day of her burial. that we have done our duty by the dear departed." "Great-con--con-consolation," whimpered the servant, as he wiped first one eye and then the other with the sleeve of his coat; when the merchant, finding there was no better method of concealiug his own emotion than by abusing that of his companion, turned angrily towards him, exclaiming, "What the deuce are you blubber. ing about, you great stupid oaf?" "Not blubbering." "But I say you were, and I won't be contradicted; and it's very wrong, and very wicked, not to be resigned to these dispensations. It's like flying in the face of Providence." "You flew first." "And I hate whining and pining fellows about me; and so you had better go back, for there's plenty to do at home; and I can't think, for my part, why you accompanied me." "Ordered me." "Did I then I'm the greatest fool of the two." John gave a respectful bow, and then walked slowly and doggedly back to the Manor-House, pondering so deeply upon his deceased wife, that he passed the gate, and did not discover his mistake till he came to the end of the encircling wall. His master, in the mean while, having hovered for some time longer around his mother's grave, indulging in tender recollections of the past, wandered ainid the tombstones, recalling the history of those whom he had known in his youth, and wondering whence others could have come with whose names he was unfamiliar. His soliloquies during this suggestive ramble-the sudden awakening of thoughts that had slumber. ed for nearly half a century in his mind-his amazement at the parties all dying, when he had left them so young and so healthy-his still greater astonishment that he, who had run away from Woodcote as an apothecary's boy, was now settled there as the proprietor of the Manor-House, "with rather more than seven shillings and ninepence in his pocket"-and the solemn thought that ere many more years elapsed he himself would probably be laid low among the playmates and acquaintance of his youth-we shall not attempt to describe farther than by stating that these mingled reflections detained him more than an hour in the churchyard, occasioning various long reveries, broken by sudden exclamations of "Ha! ha!" and concurrent plantings of his cane upon the ground or upon the tombstones. CHAPTER V. It's a sad thing," at length exclaimed the merchant, as a tear trickled unconsciously down his cheek, "it's a sad thing, John Trotman, to lose a good mother; the being who has given QUITTING the churchyard by a stile, Brown you your life, and fed you from her own bosom, followed a footpath across the fields, still too and dandled you in her arms, and watched over much immersed in thought to pay any attention you when you were asleep. Mine was the kind- to the direction in which he might be wanderest-hearted creature in the world, and never in ing, until he found himself standing beside the her whole life-never-" His voice became homestead of an oldfashioned farmhouse, with husky, unbidden tears were coursing one an- ponderous chimneys of twisted brickwork, and tther down his cheek, and he blew his nose to a high sandstone roof, patched over with brightrenceal the sudden gush of emotion that had un-coloured moss and lichens. Beneath the boughs manned him. John remained silent and immovable, but not without sympathy, for, as he noticed his master's distress, a tear or two fell upon his folded hands. of one of the noble oaks that overshadowed each corner of the enclosure, a half-clad girl, seated on a three-legged stool, was so busily employed in milking a cow, that she did not notice his "It is a great consolation," resumed Brown, approach until he leaned over the low wall in a softened tone, "to think that we have done and inquired the name of the farm. "Four-oak -Ehem! These cold churchyards make a fel- Farm, Sir," replied the little maiden, starting ow confounded'y hoarse-that we have done-up, and then courtesying and colouring deeply. |