censuring a man who had just saved his life"Who is the lad, Aggy—I don't remember to have seen him before?"

The black recollected the hint about Santaclaus; and while he briefly explained how they had taken him on the top of the mountain, he forbore to add any thing concerning the accident of the wound, only saying, that he believed the youth was a stranger. It was so usual for men of the first rank to take into their sleighs any one whom they found toiling through the snow, that Richard was perfeetly satisfied with this explanation. He heard Aggy, with great attention, and then remarked, "Well, if the lad has not been spoiled by the people in Templeton, he may be a modest young man, and as he certainly meant well, I shall take some notice of him-perhaps he is land-hunting-I say, Aggy-may be he is out hunting ?"

"Eh! yes, massa Richard," said the black, a little confused; for as Richard did all the flogging, he stood in great terror of his master, in the main "yes, sir, I b'lieve he be."

"Had he a pack and an axe ?" "No, sir, only he rifle."

ror.

"Rifle!" exclaimed Richard, observing the confusion of the negro, which now amounted to ter"By Jove! he killed the deer. I knew that Marmaduke couldn't kill a buck on the jumpHow was it, Aggy? tell me all about it, and I'll roast 'duke quicker than he can roast his saddle— How was it, Aggy? the lad shot the buck, and the Judge bought it, ha! and is taking him down to get the pay?"

The pleasure of this discovery had put Richard in such a good humour, that the negro's fears in some measure vanished, and he remembered the

stocking. After a gulp or two, he made out to re ply

"You forgit a two shot, sir?"

"Don't lie, you black rascal!" cried Richard, stepping on the snow-bank to measure the distance from his long lash to the negro's back; "speak the truth, or I'll trounce you." While speaking, the stock was slowly rising in Richard's right hand, and the lash drawing through his left, in the scientific manner with which drummers apply the cat, and Agamemnon, after turning each side of himself towards his master, and finding all equally unwilling to remain there, forgetful of his great name, fairly gave in. In a very few words he made his master acquainted with the truth, at the same time. earnestly conjuring Richard to protect him from the displeasure of the Judge.

"I'll do it, boy, I'll do it," cried the other, rubbing his hands with delight;" say nothing, but leave me to manage 'duke-I have a damn'd great mind to leave the deer on the hill, and to make the fellow send for his own carcass: but no, I will let Marmaduke tell a few bouncers about it before I come out upon him. Come, hurry in, Aggy, I must help to dress the lad's wound; this Yankee doctor knows nothing of surgery-I had to hold old Milligan's leg for him, while he cut it off."Richard was now seated on the stool again, and the black taking the hind seat, the steeds were put in motion towards home. As they dashed down the hill, on a fast trot, the driver occasionally turned his face to Aggy, and continued speaking; for notwithstanding their recent rupture, the most perfect cordiality was again existing between them.

This goes to prove that I turned the horses with the reins, for no man who is shot in the right shoulder, can have strength enough to bring round

such obstinate devils. I knew I did it from the first; but I did not want to multiply words with Marmaduke about it-Will you bite, you villain?hip, boys, hip! Old Natty too, that is the best of it-Well, well-'duke will say no more about my deer and the Judge fired both barrels, and hit nothing but a poor lad, who was behind a pinetree. I must help that quack to take out the buck shot for the poor fellow." In this manner Richard descended the mountain; the bells ringing, and his tongue going, until they entered the village, when the whole attention of the driver was devoted to a display of his horsemanship, to the admiration of all the gaping women and children who thronged the windows to witness the arrival of their landlord and his daughter.

CHAPTER V.

Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made,

And Gabriel's pumps were all unfinish'd i' th' heel;
There was no link to colour Peter's hat,

And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing:
There were none fine, but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory.

Shakspeare.

AFTER Winding along the side of the mountain, the road, on reaching the gentle declivity which lay at the base of the hill, turned at a right angle to its former course, and shot down an inclined plane, directly into the village of Templeton. The rapid little stream, that we have already mentioned, was crossed by a bridge of hewn timber, which manifested, by its rude construction, and the unnecessary size of its frame-work, both the value of labour and the abundance of materials. This little torrent, whose dark waters gushed in mimic turbulence over the limestones that lined its bottom, was nothing less than one of the many sources of the Susquehanna; a river, to which the Atlantic herself has extended her right arm, to welcome into her bosom. It was at this point, that the powerful team of Mr. Jones brought him up to the more sober steeds of our travellers. A small hill was risen, and the astonished Elizabeth found herself at once amid the incongruous dwellings of the village. The street was laid out of the width of an ordinary avenue to a city, notwith

standing that the eye might embrace, in one vie, thousands, and tens of thousands of acres, that were yet tenanted only by the beasts of the forest. But such had been the will of her father, and such had also met the wishes of his followers. To them, the road, that made the most rapid approaches to the condition of the old, or, as they expressed it, the down countries, was the most pleasant; and surely nothing could look more like civilization than a city, even if it lay in a wilderness! The width of the street, for so it was called, might have been one hundred feet; but the track for the sleighs was much more limited. On either side

of the highway were piled before the houses huge heaps of logs, that were daily increasing rather than diminishing in size, notwithstanding the enormous fires that might be seen lighting every window through the dusk of the evening.

The last object at which Elizabeth had gazed when they renewed their journey, after the rencontre with Richard, was the sun, as it expanded in the refraction of the horizon, and over whose disk the dark umbrage of a pine was stealing, while it slowly sunk behind the western hills. But his setting rays darted along the openings of the mountain she was on, and lighted the shining covering of the birches, until their smooth and glossy coats nearly rivalled the mountain-sides in colour. The outline of each dark pine was delineated far in the depths of the forest; and the rocks, too smooth and too perpendicular to retain the snow that had fallen, brightened, as if smiling in scorn at the changes in the season. But at each step, as they descended, Elizabeth observed that they were leaving the day behind them. Even the heartless, but bright rays of a December sun were missed, as they glided into the cold gloom of the valley