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little fellow ever makes but half so true a patriot as his father, my notice of him will not have been unworthily given. I think you were the first man at my side to-day?"

"Ay," said the other, "and had been the first man to lave it last. The cowIard blackguards! I was a thrifle in their debt for a bit ov cowld led in the morning. Ye'll recollect they kept a tight eye on me shelalah the while! I was wanting but a few flourishes ov the same to sind a dozen of them home with a bit ov headache in the calabash."

"Now, Barney," interposed the wife, "how you do go on! Maybe it's not agreeable to the gentleman. Take Take the baby, and don't tire out a body's patience with such fightin' stuff; and I'll set to and git some supper ready, for no doubt the gentleman is hungry."

"Troth! yes," responded her lord; "ye're in the right ov the matther, Peggy, and be aboot it immadiately."

"No, no!" said Walter, "do not do so. I am much obliged, indeed; but I cannot suffer you the trouble."

"There's no throuble in the case," said the host.

"No!" remonstrated our young friend; "you will do me a favour not to think of it." "Well, now," persisted Barney, "we've nothing very tempting to offer yer honour, but if you'll say the word, Peggy'll get what we have in a jerk or two, I'll warrant it. And ye'll not stand in the nade ov a wilcome to ate all we have, and what's left beside, if it plases you."

The promised fare was, however, declined, and the conversation renewed by the visiter in some remark respecting Colonel Dinning.

"Yes," said Barney, "that was Colonel Dinning who prached so ilegantly to thim all; but," lowering his tone, "baring and excepting always that he's a fast friend ov Peggy's here, I'm afther thinking that all he said was not law or sound gospel, ather. Ye'll recollect how he slavered thim oover wid the blarney, like?"

King

"Yes, I remember," said Walter, "avery crafty speaker; no doubt a shrewd, cunning man."

"Ye may say that same," replied the Irishman; a cute chap, yer honour. He worms it intil ye like the point ov a gimlet. I'll warrant he knows the south side ov the heart from the north."

"He lives in some style, no doubt," said the guest.

"Be sure does he," Barney answered; "a thrifty gintleman; rides a good horse, shoots on the wing, and kapes iverything dacent and proper in his house. It becomes me to spake well ov the accomplishments ov his household, yer honour," said he, glancing at his wife; "I've known some ov thim passing well meself."

"Ah!" replied the visiter. "Ay, sir, I mane Peggy herself, that grew up under his patronage and protection, sir, till, as ye may say ov it, she took shelter under another vine and fig-tree."

"Indeed!" the young man answered to this piece of information: "I wish her both shelter of the tree and nourishment of the vine, then. But I presume, in taking her, you did not deprive the gentleman of his whole family."

"No," said the host; "fornent the wench ov a maid in the domestic apartments, that takes the place of Peggy, now that she's no more, and the stable boy, the chamber girl, and the farmer, and a few more, there's Miss Ruth."

"His daughter?" queried Walter.

"That's jist as yer honour plases," said

Barney.

"How!" rejoined the other.

"Ye'll understand," said Barney, "it's not meself is going to make any discussion on the point. I call no man's female child his own daughter unadvisedly, by no manes, sir. If Miss Ruth is the colonel's child, why, thin, agreed, says I; and if so be that she is not, agreed, says I again; and that's the sum total ov the matther as to meself." This was said by Barney with accompanying nods of signification at his spouse, whose meaning was beyond the comprehension of the guest.

"And the mother of the young lady ?" Walter suggested, with growing interest in the dialogue.

"Faith! yer honour, ye're putting the screws on tighter than iver," said Barney; "since it's a woman your fishing afther this time, maybe ye'd betther ask Peggy here. Ye'll not forget the saying ov 'set a thafe to catch a thafe, hoping no offence to ye, darlint."

" I dare say your good lady will gratify me so far as that," remarked Walter to the matron, at the same time taking up Patrick and trotting him on his knee. "And what's the age of this little fellow, my good woman? It strikes me I have seen many worse geared youths than Patrick."

"And yer honour has taken a sort ov fancy to the cut ov his jib, thin?" said the happy father.

"As to his age, sir," put in the wife, "he's four years old next Ascension Day. I remember it well; for, you see, Mrs. Henderson looked right away at the almanac when he was born, and writ it all down in the Bible. And, furthermore, I mind, sir, eeny on as though it was but yesterday, Mrs. Henderson said she had jist got a letter from her son Walter, that's away to college now; and she said he'd be glad to hear of it, and she'd write to him afore long, and let him know all the particulars; and I've no doubt she did so, bekase she's a woman of her word in every

way and shape; and, to this very hour, I never look at the dear child without thinkin of her very words, for Walter was always a proper nice boy, and I know, a'most, he'll take to little Patrick."

"I've no doubt of it, madam," said the guest, in spite of himself a little moved by this trifle, "especially if he be of my sentiments."

"You are very good, sir, I must say," replied the heart-touched mother; "but you were sayin', a minute ago, you'd like to hear a word about Miss Ruth?"

"Ay; true," said he, with assumed indifference; "I think I did; you know her well, I suppose ?"

red as brick-dust. The squaw squatted down afore the fire, and the little gal, too. and sat there for some time warmin' their selves. At last I up and spoke to her, and axed her if she and the little gal wanted to stay all night; but the dogs a bit could she understand a single word I said to her; bu run on in the most outrageousist sort of gibberish you ever heerd on. As the colonel was abed, I couldn't think o' callin' him up, so I give 'em a little somethin' to eat, and put 'em to sleep on a blanket or two on the kitchen floor; as you know. you can't get a squaw into a bed no way on airth. "Well, about daybreak I heerd the dreadfullest yellin' down below, so up !

"It's queer if I hadn't ought to," she answered, with an air of gratified conse-gits and peeps down into the kitchen, and

quence, and, smoothing down her apron, braced backward in her chair for a colloquial display, meanwhile prefacing her communication with a momentary silence and look of mysterious import.

"It's several year gone," began the wife, "that the colonel came to live in these here parts; and a fine-lookin' and fine-spoken man he was, too, as he is now, for that matter; and I myself kept his house fur him, and the like. It was a rather guess place then than it is now; sich awful swarms of bears, and painters, and Ingins, and other dreadful critters, that 'twas a'most as much as the vally of your precious life to step out o' door. Well, the colonel lived then where he does now (in the old house that's tore down at this time), purty much always buisey lookin' over deeds and bundles of papers with all manner of crooked marks and lines on 'em, and agoin' out into the woods with his compass, and chains, and Jacob's ladder, as I think he called it-"

"Jacob's staff, ye mane," interposed the husband; "it's not the Scripture instrument, ye'll bear in mind, Peggy."

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Well, well," said she, having no time to waste on matters so unimportant, "it was some sort of a surveyin' tool, at any rate. And so you see, sir, by runnin' a line here, and a line there, and a walk out this way, and that way, with his gun on his shoulder, the colonel got acquainted with all the Ingins hereaway, and with everybody else a'most. He was very purlite to the Ingins, you see, and many a glass of rum I give 'em with my own hand; so they made the colonel's house a sort of stoppin'-place when they travelled.

there was the little Ingin gal all stark alone, and sich another ado and fuss she was makin' you never saw the like of. Then I went into the room to try to passify the little critter; but do you think I could do it no more than I could fly to the moon! And when I went up near to take her on my lap, you mout as well try to git hold of a Jack-o'-Lantern, for she tore round the room jist like mad."

"Jasus! Peggy (begging yer honour's pardon)," said Barney; "it niver occurred to ye to surround her, did it! That's the way a betther man nor yerself took a doz en red-skins on a time."

"A pretty manœuvre in the military art. too, friend Barney, and the bold fellow well deserved a commission for it. But what farther, my dear madam?" inquired Walter, whose interest in the denouement of the wife's story was becoming somewhat absorbing.

"Well, I tried all I could to git hold of her arm, but she flopped out o' my hand like an eel. By-and-by the colonel, hearin' the racket, came down stairs to see what was up, so he spoke to the little thing in the Ingin tongue, and, would you think it! if she didn't come right up to him like a cossit lamb! You never seed any mortal thing take to another as it did to the colonel. So she soon come of her ravin' wildness, and settled down. Whether she took him to be an Ingin too, bekase he spoke the language, I can't say; but she was quiet when he was by. But the squaw had gone, and neither hide nor hair have we heerd of her from that day to this." The narrator paused.

"And that's all, my good woman, is it?" demanded Walter.

"Oh! I was on the pint of forgettin' another matter or two," said the woman; "how a body gits stupid sometimes. As

"Well, it happened, one night, jist as we was goin' to bed, and I was pinnin' up my curls in papers (bein' a little partic'lar in sich matters afore I was married), rap! rap! rap! went somebody at the door. So I was sayin', jist afore breakfast time the down I goes and opened it, and in comes colonel thought it best to have the little a squaw that I had never laid eyes on afore creetur rigged up a bit. So I got a basin in all my life, and little Ingin gal about of water to give her a cleanin' as you three or four year old only, and with a face know the Ingins don't trouble themselves differently.

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much in that way-and the colonel stood | by to keep her passified. But, sir, as I put the water on her face and hands, I hope to die the very next minnit if the red didn't come a-streakin' and a-peelin' off till the water in the basin was jist like blood! The colonel's eyes fairly jumped out of his head with clean wonderment. And at last, sir, there stood one of the sweetest little things afore us with a face white as a lily, and eyes sparklin' as a coal. The colonel snatched her right up in his arms, and, from that very hour, I do believe, if he had fifty children of his own, he couldn't a-loved them half as much as her."

"A singular incident, indeed," remarked Walter; "and was there nothing about her person by which she could be known ?"

"She was of a grand family, you may rely on that," said Mrs. Pike; "for, when I came to undress her for bed in the evening, I found she came from where gold growed, at any rate. There was a sort of little Ingin wallet under her clothes, hanging by a string from her neck. As I thought there could be no harm in jist lookin' in it, I did so, and there was a gold chain, with a locket, a brooch, and the splendidest pair

of bracelets."

"Truly!" ejaculated Walter; "and what name was there on them?"

"The colonel looked and looked, but he couldn't find a sign of a name on 'em," said the wife.

"And how did he obtain her name, then?" "The colonel gave the poor little critter a name," said the dame, "after a sister or a cousin of his, I believe."

"And what became of the ornaments?" asked the youth.

"They was carefully put away by the colonel," said the wife, "till Miss Ruth was old enough to wear 'em, and take care of 'em herself. And that she has done for some time past. I only wish you could see her, sir; a sweet, kind, good-tempered lady she is. So, then, you have the whole story now, and rather a queer one it is, too; for who on airth she is, or where she come frum, goodness ony knows."

In candour to the reader, and justice to the narrator of this tale, we are obliged to say that her story was, in a trifling matter or two, something defective. She omitted to make mention of a small item of jewelry found in the little maiden's wallet, and that was a gold ring. By some mischance on the part of Peggy, it was mislaid before Colonel Dinning came to an inspection of the trinkets, and was not, therefore, embraced in the inventory taken by him at the time. The last that Mrs. Pike saw of it was amid the stores of her own paraphernalia, and, omitting to make known this circumstance, it somehow happened that no one, save herself, arrived at any knowledge of its existence.

Professing himself highly delighted with the interesting reminiscence, an avowal impeached by his anxious and disconcerted air, Walter returned thanks to the housewife for her story, promised to see his friend Barney again in a few days, and departed; not, however, before the husband was electrified with joy, and the wife overwhelmed with confusion at the remembrance of free use of names in her narrative, on discovering their guest to be son to Barnev's patron, and the admired of them all.

CHAPTER VIII.

"What! gone without a word?"

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

We are obliged to retrograde. About the same hour that Walter was engaged in the interview with Ruth, one of a very different character was occurring elsewhere. His father, under weight of painful emotions, had returned a stricken man to his house. He sat in his parlour in company with but one other, his son Charles. It will not be essential to give the conversation in full that passed between them; we therefore take it up at such point as the exigency of our tale demands.

"I was under the impression you had taken your rifle away already," said the father.

" I did so," replied the son; "it was but some clothing I alluded to."

"You do not go to-night?" demanded the parent, with a tone of affectionate regard.

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Yes, sir," was the reply. "And you return-when?"

"I don't exactly know," answered the son.

"You don't? Then I do not, of course," the other slowly responded. "My son, it is proper we should understand each other. I hope my relation to you may be some warrant for my speaking in plainness; it certainly compels me to the exercise of eandour. I think you are now of age?" "Yes, sir."

"You, perhaps, consider your education finished?" continued he.

"Yes, sir," replied the son.

"That far, you will probably allow, your parents have done well by you?"

" I suppose so," the other answered, in

" I suppose it is so," rejoined the father; "if it be otherwise, it will afford me pleasure to have the variance pointed out. For any lack of parental care, or kindness, or anxious concern for your welfare, at home or abroad, I am ready to atone, now or hereafter. Will you name the instance ? You do not do so; I will hope it is beyond your power. If you leave me upon our present footing, justice and truth will bear

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me out in saying we at least part square. | cause, and the services of my arm. The It is true, for so many well-meant favours I might have preferred some claims to your gratitude. That, though, is not voluntary in the human heart, and, when not spontaneous, cultivation labours for its growth in vain. Have you anything more to ask at my hands ?"

"I am not yet a beggar," was the surly reply; "besides, I know where to obtain without."

"We beg," returned the parent, "what is not our own. Anything I have which you deem yours of right, I suppose you will count it no dishonour to ask for?"

"I don't know that you have anything of mine," said Charles.

"Well, then, my son, I have but this to say: whatever I have bestowed upon you, from a purse never closed against your reasonable requirements, has been given freely as a father's heart and a father's hope could dictate. All the return required is that it may be to your honour and your happiness. That you should leave me unprovided with the means of beginning the game of life is alike unfair to you, and averse to my own inclinations. I will lay up no reproach against myself that a due portion of what I possess has been withheld from your interests and advancement. Before the sunset of to-morrow I shall remit to your order the available proceeds of one fourth part of my estate. I request you will inform me to what place I shall forward it."

"I shall be at Colonel Dinning's," was the short response.

"It shall be sent there," said the father. "Do well with it, my son. He of whom the Saviour spoke did not with freer hand divide to his offspring the portion that fell to his lot. Like his, the tenderest vibrations of my heart will follow you. Do not fear that the parent's yearnings for his firstborn will ever forsake you in the hour of calamity. I would gladly say, in the words of Holy Writ, Son, thou art ever with me; all that I have is thine."

The anxious father covered his face with his hands, while the tears stole through his fingers and fell to the floor. Very different, however, was the effect on the impenetrable nature of the son. A donation so bounteous, attended, meanwhile, with emotions so fervent, awaked in his bosom no response of feeling, of gratitude, or of filial affection.

"There is but one matter more," resumed Henderson, regaining some portion of the composure whereof his remarks had bereft him; "I have done to you my duty; what can I do more? There is, then, a duty • owe the calls of my injured country She nas given me nie, fortune, and the enjoyment of civil rights. In return, I am indebted to her for a firm adherence to her

exercise of these, which, with Heaven's permission, I feel it my duty to afford, will make it inconsistent for me to hold conference, save at the bayonet's point, with such as are her enemies. Recent circumstances oblige me, therefore, to ask you if I may presume you enlisted in the service of the British crown?"

" I am, sir," the son abruptly replied. "Then our communications are at an end," said the father, rising from his seat. "Foes must we be, as such must we act. I would that God had spared me the pain of saying that my own roof can no longer shelter the issue of my own loins. Our business is closed."

Sullen and in silence the discarded youth arose and left the apartment. His father's face was turned from him as he went out. Thus terminated a conference exhibiting all that was fond, forgiving, liberal, and patriotic on the one side, and what was equally cold, morose, and unnatural on the other. But though it passed between the two alone, it had not escaped the vigilant ear of one who, in sickness and in health, in infancy and youth, joy and sorrow, had nurtured and watched over him. mother, in an adjoining room, had been the unwilling and agonized auditor of every word that had been spoken.

The

The young man repaired to his chamber for the purpose of obtaining some articles of his apparel, which he designed just then to take with him. Coming down again, he passed quietly out over the paternal threshold, and bent his steps away. But his departure was, as yet, attended by another and more powerful appeal; one that momentarily thrilled him to the heart, nay, almost overwhelmed the wayward tendency of his purpose. As he passed through the gateway to enter on the highroad, he he suddenly found himself encompassed by his mother's arms, who, hanging on his neck, wept in the overflowing fulness of her sorrow.

"My son! my dear son!" were the only broken expressions she could utter. Stunned for the instant by the suddenness and fervour of her embrace, the captive was on the point of answering the appeal, or falling a penitent at his mother's feet. A second thought, however, changed his purpose, and, taking hold of his mother's arms, he disencumbered himself of the restraint wherein they held him. Her hands fell to her side, and, for a moment, she bowed her face to the ground, as though the last cord of feeling had been severed by an act so severely repulsive. Looking up again, and placing her hands against his breast, she said, "Do not go! do not leave us thus!" The young inan stepped back, as though fearing again the subjugation of his resolve by the influences of her persuasion.

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The very sympathy of her touch he deem- | price. What would such men as Colonel ed it wise to shun.

"I must go," said Charles. "And why must you go, my dear son?" she earnestly inquired.

"I have promised to do so," he said; "I must keep my word."

"And can any word you have given be binding on you which, in its fulfilment, will estrange you from your parents, nay, destroy their peace forever?"

"But I have confirmed my promise by an oath," said the son.

"Oh' do not talk of oaths, dear Charles," replied she; "they are but the shackles of vain form, urged on you by designing men. Do not, I pray you, bow to the sanction of such poor mockeries as these."

"And would you have me perjured?" demanded the youth; "a laughing stock, a disgrace in the eyes of the world?"

"The laws of neither God nor man," said the mother, " will visit penalty or reproach on the breach of such vows as yours. It is not an obligation voluntarily assumed when youth and inexperience are snared in the toils of craft. Oaths, my son, forged in crime, and fettered on you by the hand of treachery, have little sanction to uphold them anywhere; the spirit of justice rends them as were the green withes by the strong man of Israel. Be not fearful of scorn and reproaches from the corrupt and vicious; those that lure you onward to the brink of danger, with smiles and false plaudits, would, did it suit their purpose best, throw you headlong down its steeps. Oh! then return, my dearest son; come back with me to your father's side. The day shall not dawn that finds our hearts cold to you, and that whether it dawns in gladness or sorrow."

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"Why, look you now, mother," said Charles; suppose I do as you desire, what sort of reputation would it be building up for me? One thing yesterday-another to-day. It is the feather that the wind, in its changes, blows to every alternate point of the compass. And do you presume on your son's desire to have his name become the symbol of all that is fickle in undertaking and vacillating in execution? The honour of my family alone should forbid this."

"Do not make our honour," said the lady, "a stumbling-block to your feet. Our good or evil fame, my son, will little avail you in the path of error. It is to your own honour you will be most profited by looking; and the broadest charter for its acquirement is that sacred command that enjoins on us all obedience and honour to our parents."

Dinning say of me ?"

"What he may say of you," the lady replied, "I cannot answer for. The worst he may say of you, or any one, may be of little account. It is more the acts of men we are to stand in fear of than their words. And are you bound to respect the opinions of others more than the opinions of those who stand the nearest to you by the ties

of blood?"

"Colonel Dinning's opinions, if it come to that, are as much to be regarded as anybody's. It is not long since that we should have had little difference on this point, I think," the son retorted.

"It is of triffling consequence," said the lady, "to grant or deny the truth of what you say. Circumstances, of late, have placed a broad gulf between him and us, and that he should at one time have been a friend, perhaps reconciles us with more regret to the separation."

"And who was it that dug that gulf?" demanded Charles, with energy; "a gulf so wide that the sovereign's arm can scarcely reach over it, even to the chastisement of his rebel subjects!"

"My son!" said the lady, with offended dignity, "an offspring's reverence, if not an offspring's pride, might well have stepped between your mother and a remark so offensive. Trials, though, have too much benumbed my spirit, otherwise it might be my duty to counsel you in the selection of fitter terms when speaking in my presence. But let it pass, I cannot chide. My love heals every wound you cause. May the God of Heaven avert the evils of a time that arms neighbour against neighbour, kindred against kindred, son against father! and the same Divine power that compassionated the Judean mother, and returned to her again the beloved one she had lost, restore you, also, my child, to the bosom of your stricken parents!"

Saying this, she moved towards him with her arms extended: her object was, however, defeated by his stepping quickly aside. Catching, though, his hand, she drew it quickly to her lips and impressed it with a fervent kiss. The son then drew his hand away, and rushing past her, was soon amid the shadows of night, buried in the distance. The afflicted mother gazed after him in silence; and when he was no longer to be seen, dropped her eyes to the earth, and stupified, as it were, by the blow, stood as though transformed to stone. After many minutes she slowly retired to the mansion, and Charles pursued his way, as intimated in the last chapter, to that of their opulent neighbour.

"That may be: but there are other ways The unexpected arrival of Walter the also," said the youth "Men סרחם .ס- same evening in some degree compensaable minds would count me a nice weather|ted :ne bereaved car for the loss or nis

cock, to be turned by every breeze of ca- brother.

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