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"Ah, Adolphe, is it you?' said his master."-Page 117.

THE SENATOR AND THE MAN.

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Mr. and Mrs. Bird had gone back to the parlour, where, strange as it may appear, no reference was made on either side to the preceding conversation; but Mrs. Bird busied herself with her knitting work, and Mr. Bird pretended to be reading the paper.

"I wonder who and what she is!" said Mr. Bird at last, as he laid it down.

"When she wakes up and feels a little rested, we will see," said Mrs. Bird.

"I say, wife!" said Mr. Bird, after musing in silence over his newspaper.

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"Well, dear?"

"She couldn't wear one of your gowns, could she, by any letting down, or such matter? She seems to be rather larger than you are." A quite perceptible smile glimmered on Mrs. Bird's face as she answered, "We'll see."

Another pause, and Mr. Bird again broke out"I say, wife!"

"Well!

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What now!"

Why, there's that old bombazin cloak that you keep on purpose to put over me when I take my afternoon's nap; you might as well give her that she needs clothes.'

At this instant Dinah looked in to say that the woman was awake, and wanted to see missis.

Mr. and Mrs. Bird went into the kitchen, followed by the two eldest boys, the smaller fry having by this time been safely disposed of in ved.

The woman was now sitting up on the settle by the fire. She was looking steadily into the blaze, with a calm, heart-broken expression, very different from her former agitated wildness.

"Did you want me?" said Mrs. Bird, in gentle tones. "I hope you feel better now, poor woman?"

A long-drawn, shivering sigh, was the only answer; but she lifted her dark eyes, and fixed them on her with such a forlorn and imploring expression that the tears came into the little woman's eyes.

"You needn't be afraid of anything; we are friends here, poor woman! Tell me where you came from, and what you want," said she. "I came from Kentucky," said the woman.

"When?" said Mr. Bird, taking up the interrogatory.

"To-night."

"How did you come?"

"I crossed on the ice."

"Crossed on the ice!

said every one present.

"Yes," said the woman slowly, "I did. God helping me, I crosse on the ice; for they were behind me-right behind-and there was no other way!

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"Law, missis," said Cudjoe," the ice is all in broken-up blocks, a swinging and a tettering up and down in the water!"

"I know it was-I know it!" said she wildly; "but I did it! I wouldn't have thought I could-I didn't think I should get over, but I didn't care! I could but die, if I didn't. The Lord helped me, nobody knows how much the Lord can help 'em, till they try," said the woman, with a flashing eye.

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ELIZA'S STORY AND ITS EFFECTS.

"Were you a slave?" said Mr. Bird.

"Yes, Sir; I belonged to a man in Kentucky." "Was he unkind to you?"

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No, Sir; he was a good master."

"And was your mistress unkind to you?"

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No, sir-no! my mistress was always good to me."

"What could induce you to leave a good home, then, and run away, and go through such dangers?"

The woman looked up at Mrs. Bird with a keen scrutinising glance, and it did not escape her that she was dressed in deep mourning.

"Ma'am," she said, suddenly, " have you ever lost a child?"

The question was unexpected, and it was a thrust on a new wound; for it was only a month since a darling child of the family had been aid in the grave.

Mr. Bird turned round and walked to the window, and Mrs. Bird burst into tears; but recovering her voice, she said—

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Why do you ask that? I have lost a little one.”

"Then you will feel for me. I have lost two, one after anotherleft 'em buried there when I came away; and I had only this one left. I never slept a night without him; he was all I had. He was my comfort and pride, day and night; and, ma'am, they were going to take him away from me-to sell him-sell him down south, ma'am, to go all alone-a baby that had never been away from his mother in his life! I couldn't stand it, ma'am. I knew I never should be good for anything if they did; and when I knew the papers were signed, and he was sold, I took him and came off in the night; and they chased methe man that bought him, and some of mas'r's folks-and they were coming down right behind me, and I heard 'em. I jumped right on to the ice, and how I got across I don't know; but, first I knew, a man was helping me up the bank."

The woman did not sob nor weep. She had gone to a place where tears are dry; but every one around her was, in some way characteristic of themselves, showing signs of hearty sympathy.

The two little boys, after a desperate rummaging in their pockets, in search of those pocket-handkerchiefs which mothers know are never to be found there, had thrown themselves disconsolately into the skirts of their mother's gown, where they were sobbing, and wiping their eyes and noses, to their heart's content; Mrs. Bird had her face fairly hidden in her pocket-handkerchief; and old Dinah, with tears streaming down her black, honest face, was ejaculating, "Lord, have mercy on us!" with all the fervour of a camp-meeting; while old Cudjoe, rubbing his eyes very hard with his cuffs, and making a most uncommon variety of wry faces, occasionally responded in the same key, with great fervour. Our senator was a statesman, and of course could not be expected to cry, like other mortals; and so he turned his back to the company, and looked out of the window, and seemed particularly busy in clearing his throat and wiping his spectacle-glasses, occasionally blowing his nose in a manner that was calculated to excite suspicion, had any one been in a state to observe critically.

"How came you to tell me you had a kind master?" he suddenly exclaimed, gulping down very resolutely some kind of rising in his throat, and turning suddenly round upon the woman.

QUESTIONS AND REPLIES.

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"Because he was a kind master-I'll say that of him, any way; and my mistress was kind; but they couldn't help themselves. They were owing money; and there was some way, I can't tell how, that a man had a hold on them, and they were obliged to give him his will. I listened, and heard him telling mistress that, and she begging and pleading for me, and he told her he couldn't help himself, and that the papers were all drawn; and then it was I took him and left my home, and came away. I knew 'twas no use in my trying to live, if they did it; for 't 'pears like this child is all I have.'

"Have you no husband?"

"Yes, but he belongs to another man. His master is real hard to him, and won't let him come to see me, hardly ever; and he's grown harder and harder upon us, and he threatens to sell him down south. It's like I'll never see him again!"

The quiet tone in which the woman pronounced these words might have led a superficial observer to think that she was entirely apathetic; but there was a calm, settled depth of anguish in her large, dark eye, that spoke of something far otherwise.

"And where do you mean to go, my poor woman?" said Mrs. Bird. "To Canada, if I only knew where that was. Is it very far off, is Canada?" said she, looking up, with a simple, confiding air, to Mrs. Bird's face.

"Poor thing!" said Mrs. Bird, involuntarily.

"Is't a very great way off, think?" said the woman, earnestly.

"Much further than you think, poor child!" said Mrs. Bird: "but we will try to think what can be done for you. Here, Dinah, make her up a bed in your own room, close by the kitchen, and I'll think what to do for her in the morning. Meanwhile, never fear, poor woman. your trust in God; He will protect you."

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Mrs. Bird and her husband re-entered the parlour. She sat down in her little rocking-chair before the fire, swaying thoughtfully to and fro. Mr. Bird strode up and down the room, grumbling to himself. "Pish! pshaw! confounded awkward business!" At length, striding up to his wife, he said,

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I say, wife, she'll have to get away from here this very night. That fellow will be down on the scent bright and early to-morrow morning. If 'twas only the woman, she could lie quiet till it was over; but that little chap can't be kept still by a troop of horse and foot, I'll warrant me; he'll bring it all out, popping his head out of some window or door. A pretty kettle of fish it would be for me, too, to be caught with them both here just now! No; they'll have to be got off to-night."

"To-night! How is it possible? Where to?"

"Well, I know pretty well where to," said the senator, beginning to put on his boots, with a reflective air; and, stopping when his leg was half in, he embraced his knee with both hands, and seemed to go off in deep meditation.

"It's a confounded awkward, ugly business," said he at last, beginning to tug at his boot-straps again, "and that's a fact!" After one boot was fairly on, the senator sat with the other in his hand, profoundly studying the figure of the carpet. "It will have to be done, though, for aught I see-hang it all!" And he drew the other boot anxiously on and looked out of the window.

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