your failing, Harvey; he thinks with me, now the old gentleman is gone, you will want a careful body to take care of your concerns."

The pedler was busied in making arrangements for his departure, and he took no notice of this insinuation, while the spinster returned again to the attack. She had lived so many years in expectation of a termination to her hopes, so different from that which now seemed likely to occur, that the idea of separation began to give her more uneasiness than she had thought herself capable of feeling, about a man so destitute and friendless.

"Have you another house to go to?" enquired Katy. "Providence will provide me with a home."

"Yes," said the housekeeper; "but may be 'twill not be to your liking."

"The poor must not be difficult."

"I'm sure I'm anything but a difficult body," cried the spinster, very hastily; "but I love to see things becoming, and in their places; yet I wouldn't be hard to persuade to leave this place myself. I can't say I altogether like the ways of the people hereabouts."

"The valley is lovely," said the pedler, with fervour, "and the people like all the race of man. But to me it matters nothing; all places are now alike, and all faces equally strange;' spoke he dropped the article he was packing from his hand, seated himself on a chest, with a look of vacant misery.

as he and

Not so, not so," said Katy, shoving her chair nearer to the place where the pedler sat; "not so, Harvey, you must know me at least; my face cannot be strange to you certainly."

Birch turned his eyes slowly on her countenance, which exhibited more of feeling, and less of self, than he had ever seen there before; he took her hand kindly, and his own features lost some of their painful expressions, as he said

"Yes, good woman, you, at least, are not a stranger to me; you may do me partial justice; when others revile me, possibly your feelings may lead you to say something in my defence."

"That I will; that I would!” said Katy, eagerly: "I will defend you, Harvey, to the last drop; let me hear them that dare

revile you! you say true, Harvey, I am partial and just to you: what if you do like the king: I have often heard it said he was at the bottom a good man; but there's no religion in the old country, for every body allows the ministers are desperate bad!"

The pedler paced the floor in evident distress of mind; his eye had a look of wildness, that Katy had never witnessed before, and his step was measured with a dignity that appalled the housekeeper.

"While my father lived," murmured Harvey, unable to smother his feelings, "there was one who read my heart; and oh! what a consolation to return from my secret marches of danger, and the insults and wrongs that I suffered, to receive his blessing and his praise; but he is gone," he continued, stopping and gazing wildly towards the corner that used to hold the figure of his parent, "and who is there to do me justice!"

"Why, Harvey! Harvey!"

"Yes, there is one who will, who must know me before I die. Oh! it is dreadful to die, and leave such a name behind me."

"Don't talk of dying, Harvey," said the spinster, glancing her eye around the room, and pushing the wood in the fire to obtain a light from the blaze.

The ebullition of feeling in the pedler was over. It had been excited by the events of the past day, and a vivid perception of his sufferings. It was not long, however, that passion maintained an ascendency over the reason of this singular man; and perceiving that the night had already thrown an obscurity around objects without doors, he hastily threw his pack over his shoulders, and taking Katy kindly by the hand, in Icave-taking —

"It is painful to part with even you, "but the hour has come, and I must go.

good woman," he said; What is left in the house

is yours; to me it could be of no use, and it may serve to make you more comfortable. Farewell. we shall meet hereafter."

"In the regions of darkness," cried a voice that caused the pedler to sink on the chest from which he had risen in despair.

"What! another pack, Mr. Birch, and so well stuffed so soon!"

"Have you not yet done evil enough?" cried the pedler, regaining his firmness, and springing on his feet with energy; "is it not enough to harass the last moments of a dying man; to impoverish me; what more would you have?"

"Your blood," said the skinner, with cool malignity.

"And for money," cried Harvey; "like the ancient Judas, you would grow rich with the price of blood."

“Ay! and a fair price it is, my gentleman; fifty guineas; nearly the weight of that scare-crow carcass of yours in gold."

"Here," said Katy, promptly; "here are fifteen guineas, and these drawers, and this bed are all mine; if you will give Harvey but one hour's start from the door, they shall be yours."

"One hour?" said the skinner, showing his teeth, and looking with a longing eye at the money.

"But a single hour; here, take the money."

"Hold!" cried Harvey; "put no faith in the miscreant."

"She may do what she pleases with her faith," said the skinner, with malignant pleasure; "but I have the money in good keeping; as for you, Mr. Birch, we will bear your insolence, for the fifty guineas that are to pay for your gallows."

"Go on," said the pedler, proudly; "take me to Major Dunwoodie; he, at least, may be kind, although he may be just."

"I can do better than by marching so far in such disgraceful company; this Mr. Dunwoodie has let one or two Tories go at large; but the troop of Captain Lawton is quartered some half mile nearer, and his receipt will get me the reward as soon as his Major's; how relish you the idea of supping with Captain Lawton, this evening, Mr. Birch?"

"Give me my money, or set Harvey free," cried the spinster in alarm.

"Your bribe is not enough, good woman, unless there is money in this bed;" thrusting his bayonet through the ticking, and ripping it for some distance, he took a malicious satisfaction in scattering its contents about the room.

"If," cried the houskeeper, losing sight of her personal danger, in care for her newly acquired property, "there is law in the land, I will be righted!"

"The law of the neutral ground is the law of the strongest; but your tongue is not as long as my bayonet; you had, therefore, best not set them at loggerheads, or you might be the loser."

A figure stood in the shadow of the door, as if afraid to be seen in the group of skinners; but a blaze of light, raised by some articles thrown in the fire by his persecutors, showed the pedler the face of the purchaser of his little domain. Occasionally there was some whispering between this man and the skinner nearest him, that induced Harvey to suspect he had been the dupe of a contrivance in which that wretch had participated. It was, however, too late to repine; and he followed the party from the house with a firm and collected tread, as if marching to a triumph and not to a gallows. In passing through the yard, the leader of the band fell over a billet of wood, and received a momentary hurt from the fall: exasperated at the incident, the fellow sprang on his feet, filling the air with execrations.

"The curse of heaven light on the log!" he exclaimed: "the night is too dark for us to move in; throw that brand of fire in yon pile of tow, to light up the scene.

"Hold!" roared the speculator; "you'll fire the house."

"And see the farther," said the other, hurling the brand in the midst of the combustibles. In an instant the building was in flames. "Come on, let us move towards the heights while we have light, to pick our road."

"Villain!" cried the exasperated purchaser, "is this your friendship, this my reward for kidnapping the pedler?"

""Twould be wise to move more from the light, if you mean to entertain us with abuse, or we may see too well to miss our mark," cried the leader of the gang. The next instant he was as good as his threat, but happily missed the terrified speculator, and equally appalled spinster, who saw herself again reduced from comparative wealth to poverty, by the blow. Prudence dictated to the pair a speedy retreat, and the next morning, the only remains of the dwelling of the pedler was the huge chimney we have already mentioned.

THE weather, which had been mild and clear since the storm, now changed with the suddenness of the American climate. Towards evening the cold blasts poured down from the mountains, and flurries of snow plainly indicated that the month of November had arrived; a season whose temperature varies from the heats of summer to the cold of winter. Frances had stood at the window of her own apartment watching the slow progress of the funeral procession, with a melancholy that was too deep to be excited by the spectacle. There was something in the sad office that was in unison with her feelings. As she gazed around, she saw the trees bending to the force of the wind, that swept through the valley with an impetuosity that shook even the buildings; and the forest, that had so lately glittered in the sun with its variegated hues, was fast losing its loveliness, as the leaves were torn from the branches, and were driving, irregularly, before the eddies of the blast. A few of the southern dragoons, who were patrolling the passes which led to the encampment of the corps, could be distinguished at a distance on the heights, bending to their pommels as they faced the keen air which had so lately traversed the great fresh-water lakes, and drawing their watch-coats about them in tighter folds.

Frances witnessed the disappearance of the wooden tenement of the deceased, as it was slowly lowered from the light of day, and the sight added to the chilling dreariness of the view. Captain Singleton was sleeping under the care of his own man, while his sister had been persuaded to take possession of her room, for the purpose of obtaining the repose, of which her last night's journeying had robbed her. The apartment of Miss Singleton communicated with the room occupied by the sisters, through a private door, as well as through the ordinary passage of the house; this door was partly open, and Frances moved towards it with the benevolent intention of ascertaining the situation of her guest, when the