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of the Continental army; and soon after, if we remember right, and we think we do, he left the young couple to themselves.

The exciting events of the night proved fatal to the poor invalid. He grew rapidly worse, and expired the next morning as letters patent from King George the Third were put in his hand creating him a baro

net.

So, reader, with your permission, we will here close this story. What! no! well, then, if you require all that, we will make another chapter of it.

CHAPTER XXXV.

"Will it please you to see the epilogue?" Midsummer Night's Dream.

SUCH of our heroes as are not already dead, either according to plot, or from the tilting spirit of criticism, truly it behooves

us to give some account of, as you say. Therefore your hand, reader, and cross with me this noble stream. We pass now this narrow but beautiful plain; level as the surface of a lake, and fertile as a garden. Here-here is the sight of Forty Fort. Not a palisade left of it visible; nothing but a few ridges of earth, making its outward lines appear. And farther on we come to the battle field. Here, too, the fort is gone. No relic of its former tenants, but an occasional scalping-knife, or pipe, or tomahawk, thrown up by the plough. The forest is no more; cultivation has succeeded, and changed the field of conflict to the field of husbandry.

And here is "bloody rock." You mind when Doctor Jaws mused here? So, well, this is the spot; but what, with accumu lations of earth at its base, and the knocking of pieces from its top, it has much diminished in size since the time that brutal torture crimsoned it.

finger now; do you see? no! why, there, in the midst of the garden; an angel in clay, an immortal, playing in the game of time. That's a lady on whom c lumny never threw its poisonous breath-whom none knew but to admire; a lady without enemies. In age, her face is not unworthy of remark. A noble wreck, you perceive. In her youth it was moderately handsome; but at seventy it surpasses in excellence. Surrounded by an atmosphere of blessings, she is gliding delightfully onward to the close of her days. She is the wife of Judge Henderson, the sergeant of other times. She brought to her husband a rich dowry, in many senses of the word. Her uncle, Colonel Dinning, dying intestate, she be came his heir; likewise inheriting the fortunes of her mother and father (Jupiter of times past).

A pleasant breeze of fortune blew on the sergeant's path from another quarter. His parents at ripe old age passed to the tomb, bequeathing unto Walter their entire estate. As his brother Charles became the victim of accident, and was drowned in the St. Lawrence the very night on which Colonel Dinning died, he could prefer no claim to it.

The sergeant had yet another windfall, as these tides of fortune are sometimes called: Daddy Hokelander willed him his fiddle. Yea, another, let me add; Doctor Jaws capped the pillar by a bequest of immense wealth: he gave the sergeant, in a codicil covering two pages, his great recipe book, the most wonderful volume of any age or country. Now an hour's chat with Ruth, and we leave her, her husband, children, and grandchildren, to pass on.

Ay, true, I am glad you mention it; I will certainly find a word respecting Father Janaway. I can say what I have to inform you of as we walk along this very broad, level, beautiful road. Over the same route marched Colonel Zebulon Butler to the at

And can you guess who resides yonder? I thought not. Nor do you know the man-tack of the invader. Father Janaway was

a jewel of a man, despite the errors of his short Olympian dynasty-and what crowned head is free of them?-but he had a warm

sion either, I presume. Then, that is the quondam residence of Colonel Dinning. Let us pass through this gate: here come a troop of youngsters! We tread in fairy heart, a free hand; was fixed in his friendland, do we not? How the little black ship, and lasting in gratitude. On the marheads, with wild flying ringlets, come riage of his daughter (a a year after the scampering on us! Was ever so merry, colonel's death), he removed with her to so wild, so cherub-like a crew! Halloo! Wyoming. And here, in the midst of here, Tom! you little mugen; where's plenty, encompassed by friends, and by a your mother? In the house, eh? and rather fast-thriving but exceedingly interfather, too? so, so, all in good time, my esting family group, he lived out his allotted friend. Now I'll show you as fine a family time. A sad day it was, too, when grandas ever bore the name: there's the old daddy was buried. All the country turngentleman on the steps, smoking. Isn't ed out, and a general gloom pervaded the there a countenance, a face of meaning multitude. Every poor person-every begfor you. An erectness, a boldness, a physi-gar and object of charity in the district, cal tone, which seventy odd years have in no way marred.

And here, here. here! look right over my

was there, for Father Janaway had spent the latter days of his life in ministering to the necessities of the poor. And now at his death had they come to pay the ac- day, old as he is, and is free to chide, withknowledgments of their rude hearts. Doc-out the least ceremony, any fault of officer, tor Jaws was deeply moved, and made pub- private, or musician. But Peggy has de

lic proclamation, with tears in his eyes, that it was all to no eend; the healin' art couldn't save him; that Death seemed to take a fancy to him, and when that was the case, the patient mout as well give in fust as last. But let us on; quite a hill is this we are passing over.

We are over it: stop here. Do you not think this a charming spot, reader? Here, on one hand, comes down the Susquehannah, and on the other this bubbling creek.

parted; she died a few years since, and died game. Several of the children married, and have presented the old patriot a squad of little playfellows, since the two extremes of life are harmonizing chords.

There's a red house; it stands on the spot where was burned that of Henderson, the night following the battle. Our former friend the corporal lives there now. Knock at his door, and you shall hear him bid you, in sharp, prompt articulation, to enter.

that little, sprightly old woman-you see Mrs. Deb; she is the mother of sixteen children.

Here's a high point of land between them, There sits the old soldier in an arm-chair, opening a glorious prospect to the west. a staff in each hand, for he cannot move Through green meadows the stream is flow-without them; and in the chimney cornering on; and behold that little island, but a few rods in length, and shaped like the hull of a vessel. A well-known wag recently expressed his design of putting an oar at each end of the little island, after the fashion of a raft, and running it down to market. This point of land from which we look is charnel-ground. The soul might be presumed to mount with cheer from this sunny spot. In those two graves sleep Henderson and his wife; and, as I name them, let me add my testimony to their worth: a fine pair they were; so will tradition speak of them. To the gloom of the Revolution succeeded cloudless peace, and to an advanced age did they enjoy it.

You see yonder hillock? that covers a son of misfortune. It is his second grave; the first did not answer his purpose. The same star of fatality that blinked on his cradle, held sway at the tomb. He was buried near the river, and was, in a month's time, disinterred by the caving down of the bank. The freshet which dislodged him carried him adrift many miles down the river. There is little likelihood the captor of the box would have gone to the trouble of hauling it ashore, had he been aware that Jeremiah was in it. The stray box was reshipped in a cart; the horse ran away on the return, and, tearing down a stony hill, had nigh shivered the worthless freight to atoms.

We will pass on. Behold the tenement of Barnabas Pike, late captain of the local scout; a hearty, hale old man, enjoying

Let me close with an incident illustrative of the character of Colonel (for he has advanced in rank) Summers: a few years since, a son-in-law of the colonel was either not disposed to obey some order he had issued, or had in some way become obstreperous, so that it was necessary for the old man to fall on him with his two canes, and give him a flogging. The sonin-law sought legal redress: the trial was had before Judge Henderson. On a plain and undisputed state of facts, the jury convicted the colonel, and he was ordered to stand up before the court to receive his sentence. "Let me see, let me see," began his old associate, now on the bench; "you are an old man, colonel-almost too old to indulge in these spasms of rage." "I learned to fight in the Revolution," said the colonel. "True,” replied the judge; "and how old were you, colonel, when you entered the service?" "Eighteen years, almost," said the prisoner. "And fought to the end of the war?" "Till there was nobody left to fight with," replied the colonel. "And how much was paid for your services?" "Not a copper," the old soldier replied. "Then, as you have drawn nothing from the public coffers," responded the judicial functionary, "we see no fairness in your being called upon to fill them by payment of fines; therefore the court think you have battered this young man to the amount

good health. The little farm he resides of one penny sterling, and while they senon was left him by his patron, Henderson. tence you to pay it, they at the same time Many friends has old Barney; he is hint to the prosecutor that obedience to always first on the ground of a battalion | superiors is a very commendable virtue."

THE END.

से

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