in ruddy mounds, the apples they had borne that year, while others-hardy evergreens of this class-showed somewhat stern and gloomy in their vigor, as charged by nature with the admonition that it is not to her more sensitive and joyous favorites she grants the longest term of life. Still, athwart their darker boughs, the sunbeams struck out paths of deeper gold, and the red light, mantling in among their swarthy branches, used them as foils to set its brightness off and aid the luster of the dying day.

6. A moment, and its glory was no more. The sun went down beneath the long dark lines of hill and cloud which piled up in the west an airy city, wall heaped on wall and battlement on battlement; the light was all withdrawn ; the shining church turned cold and dark ; the stream forgot to smile; the birds were silent ; and the gloom of winter dwelt on everything.

7. An evening wind uprose too, and the slighter branches cracked and rattled as they moved in skeleton dances to its moaning music. The withering leaves, no longer quiet, hurried to and fro in search of shelter from its chill pursuit ; the laborer unyoked his horses, and, with his head bent down, trudged briskly home beside them; and from the cottage windows lights

began to glance and wink upon the darkening fields.

8. Then the village forge came out in all its bright importance. The lusty bellows roared "ha ha" to the clear fire, which roared in turn, and bade the shining sparks dance gayly to the merry clinking of the hammers on the anvil. The gleaming iron in its emulation sparkled too, and shed its red-hot gems around profusely. The strong smith and his men dealt such strokes upon his work as made the melancholy night rejoice, and brought a glow into its dark face as it hovered about the door and windows, peeping curiously in above the shoulders of a dozen loungers.

9. As to this idle company, there they stood spell-bound by the place, and, casting now and then a glance upon the darkness in their rear, settled their lazy elbows more at ease upon the sill, and leaned a little farther in, no more disposed to tear themselves away than if they had been born to cluster round the blazing hearth like so many crickets.

10. Out upon the angry wind-how from sighing, it began to bluster round the merry forge, banging at the wicket, and grumbling in

the chimney, as if it bullied the jolly bellows for doing anything to order. And what an impotent swaggerer it was too, for all its noise; for if it had any influence on that hoarse companion, it was but to make him roar his cheerful song the louder, and by consequence to make the fire burn the brighter, and the sparks to dance more gayly yet; at length, they whizzed so madly round and round, that it was too much for such a surly wind to bear; so off it flew with a howl, giving the old sign before the ale-house door such a cuff as it went, that the Blue Dragon was more rampant than usual ever afterwards, and indeed, before Christmas, reared clean out of its crazy frame.

11. It was small tyranny for a respectable wind to go wreaking its vengeance on such poor creatures as the fallen leaves, but this wind happening to come up with a great heap of them just after venting its humor on the insulted Dragon, did so disperse and scatter them that they fled away pell-mell, some here, some there, rolling over each other, whirling round and round upon their thin edges, taking frantic flights into the air, and playing all manner of extraordinary gambols in the extremity of their distress.

12. Nor was this enough for its malicious fury; for not content with driving them abroad, it charged small parties of them and hunted them into the wheelwright's saw-pit, and below the planks and timbers in the yard, and scattering the sawdust in the air, it looked for them underneath, and when it did meet with any, whew! how it drove them on and followed at their heels!

13. The scared leaves only flew the faster for all this, and a giddy chase it was; for they got into unfrequented places where there was no outlet and where their pursuer kept them eddying round and round at his pleasure; and they crept under the eaves of houses, and clung tightly to the sides of hay-ricks, like bats; and tore in at open chamber windows, and cowered close to hedges, and in short went anywhere for safety.

14. But the oddest feat they achieved was, to take advantage of the sudden opening of Mr. Pecksniff's front door, to dash wildly into his passage; whither the wind following close upon them, and finding the back-door open, incontinently blew out the lighted candle held by Miss Pecksniff, and slammed the front-door against Mr. Pecksniff, who was at that moment

entering, with such violence, that in the twinkling of an eye he lay on his back at the bottom of the steps. Being by this time weary of such trifling performances, the boisterous rover hurried away rejoicing, roaring over moor and meadow, hill and flat, until it got out to sea, where it met with other winds similarly disposed and made a night of it.

15. In the meantime, Mr. Pecksniff having received from a sharp angle in the bottom step but one that sort of knock on the head which lights up for the patient's entertainment an imaginary general illumination of very bright short-sixes, lay placidly staring at his own streetdoor. And it would seem to have been more suggestive in its aspect than street-doors generally are, for he continued to lie there rather a lengthy and unreasonable time, without so much as wondering whether he was hurt or not. Neither, when Miss Pecksniff inquired through the key-hole in a shrill voice, which might have belonged to a wind in its teens, "Who's there?” did he make any reply. Nor, when Miss Pecksniff opened the door again, and shading the candle with her hand, peered out, and looked provokingly round him, and about him, and over him, and everywhere but at him, did he offer