and climbed the fence, leaving me as much astonished as he appeared to be himself. fusing a little more of the ideal into the practical mind of our nation; but I must continue a history of my worries, andyou are not done with that plough yet! Before the sun had set Jerry again report Now, I should like to know what there is in my appearance to frighten a man so, and lead others to form such an erroneous opinion of my capacity. If I were a great raw-ed it broken, and you were in perfect despair. boned woman, or a square-faced one, who looked as if she could knock down and drag out, no one would doubt but that I was very sensible; but as I have the misfortune to be petite, they scorn the idea. How very provoking it is! But you won't worry about it, they will find out better after awhile. As I said, this occurred some time since, and I mentioned the fact to an eminent jurist of a neighboring State, a very particular friend of mine, but instead of sympathizing with me, he only shrugged his shoulders and laughed; and when I asked, "What possessed the man to make him act so?" he said: "It is very evident the old fellow thought if he paid the money over to you, you would spend it for candy, and he would have to hand the sum over a second time to some crusty old guardian, who would tell him he was a simpleton for paying money due an estate to a minor." "But, Judge, I am not a minor." How is the land ever to be broken up ?— and that is but a commencement of the work. There is all the planting and the ploughing through summer, and the har vesting. If the trouble increases with the work, how can you ever live through it? But while you are sitting hopelessly pondering what to do about it, one of your useful neighbors calls, and you give him a history of your difficulties and perplexities. He examines the plough; one look is sufficient to show his practiced eye that it is all wrong, but he says the village blacksmith can arrange it, and gives Jerry directions, puts the whole concern in the wagon, and starts him off with it Then he tells you Carpenter is doing no good, that the other two men can manage the farm without him, and advises you to discharge him at once. It is a disagreeable duty, and you shrink from it, but you feel it necessary, and know that he had better leave now than later, and in the evening tell him, as kindly as possi "You can't prove it by your figure and ble, that you will settle with him, and he face, Fairy," laughing all the while. But I am not a fairy either, and cannot command fairy gifts. If I could, what beautiful things I would have. But, alas! their day is passed, or rather they have never crossed the ocean to this new country. Doubtless they still revel under the oaks of merrie England, and play pranks in the Black Forest and the old witch-haunted castles of Germany. When I make a fortune at farming, I intend to go over there and import a few cages full, and turn them loose in the woods here, for the benefit of the rising generation. What a fine time they will have, those imported fairies. The bits of park, and the little clusters of ancestral oaks, so carefully guarded, are not to be compared to the miles and miles of woodland through which they can rove and weave interminable chains and rings-and here my invisible friend of the parsonage would, perhaps, like me to moralize a little upon the beneficial effects which might result from my philanthropy, by in must find another situation. "Oh!" he says, "there will be no trouble in finding a situation. There's plenty around who know him, and will be glad to get his services. Lord knows, he's worked hard enough here--but there's no pleasing a woman!" You had a written contract, properly drawn up and witnessed, in which you were not to pay him anything until the end of the year, and if he failed in his duty, and left the place he forfeited his wages, but some weeks before he had demanded forty bushels of corn, and meat for his family, both of which are scarce and high. The corn you will not give, but furnish him meat. "Then," said the neighbor, "you did wrong. You ought to have told him to abide by his contract, or leave the place at once; and now you are going to do another wrong. You are going to pay him when he ought to forfeit his wages. It is a bad precedent to establish." Well, perhaps it is inculcating a bad prin ciple, and is morally wrong, but he is a poor man, and has to live, and you pay him for three months' work (?), and he leaves the place muttering as usual. Fatigued in body and mind, you lay your weary head upon the pillow that night, and think over the troubles in life in general, and ploughs in particular. Oh, Mr. Parson, if you had had any idea of what a plough it was, would you, could you ever have put your hand to it? Oh no! Some one else might have made it, and run it, and have broken it, while you did plain sewing, and stitched away at a plain shirt; "With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red." But the subject is too overpowering for a man to comprehend, and I will not address it to you any longer. golden straw; or their wonderment when they hear the chick, pipping in its shell, and you silently breathe a prayer that their fond hearts may never wail thus in future years, under the cold hand and encrustations of the world. And it is pleasant to contemplate their tumblings, and gambols, and summersaults upon the hay, crushing out the fragrance and a considerable amount of dust, and recalling the merry days when you sported in the old barn with your brothers, when you were children at the dear old home. And sometimes you furtively brush away a tear as some look or gesture in them recalls those brothers, or some little incident comes back painfully distinct from the far away time. Thus the monotony of our lonely lives-I cannot say quiet, if quiet means repose-is dotted with rays of sunlight-little pleasures which stand along as mile-stones through each day; nothing in themselves, and seem worse than nothing when repeated to anoth happiness of children composed-yes, and of grown up children, too. At last you fall asleep, but to go from one wild dream to another, until they all converge into one horrible idea of ploughs. They are coming through the window in a perfect shower, right on the bed! Bull colt-er, but of such insignificant things is the ers, false-tongues, shovels, twisters, scrapers, and every other kind you have seen or heard of, are there represented, and you know you will be crushed like Tarpia under the shield, and try to cry out, but cannot utter a word, while Carpenter stands at the window muttering incantations, and, with the wonderful power of a magician, increasing, doubling, threbling them with every word, until, with a last effort of self-preservation, you convulsively grasp the bedding and jerk it over your head, and awake to find the daylight streaming into the room, and the young chickens in the yard loudly calling for their breakfast. It is a cold, dark, snowy evening. The children have come home from school rosy with their long walk, and in fine spirits, and have many things to relate which occurred during the day--all of which are interesting to you because they are to them. The cold reigns without, but within all is bright and cheerful. The house does not leak now. There is a carpet on the floor, and pictures on the wall-not gems of art, but some pretty landscapes, and a few portraits of friends, which look down kindly upon you. The fire blazes brightly, and the lamp sheds a soft light on the little heads bent over their books. The little one is unraveling the mys Our chickens are great pets with all the household-particularly with the children. There are two fine, pompous-looking roos-tery of the multiplication table, and the eldters, a score of dignified, matronly hens, and some modest pullets and fryers, which will jump up and take the bread from our hands when not fed as fast as they wish to be. And you spend some pleasant hours every holiday in climbing over the fragrant hay and straw in the barn, looking for eggs, though hoopskirts and trailing dresses are not adapted to such sport; but the boys enjoy it, and you love to share their delight when they find a nest, so neatly rounded out, with the pure, marble-like eggs lying in the er is reading Latin, and you are pleased to see he is getting beyond your depths in it— you have to study the hard sentences before you can read them for him. And you brush the hair from his fair, smooth brow, and tell him he will soon leave your half-forgotten Latin behind, and that you wish him to dive into depths of science where you have never looked, and climb to heights where you have never soared, and go beyond you in everytning save love and obedience. And when he again bends over his book you contem 1 plate the comfortable apartment with no small satisfaction, for after all the trouble and worry attending it, it is pleasant to be in your own house, where you can devote so much time to their comfort and happiness, without inconveniencing any one else. There is another thing which adds to the feeling to-night. This afternoon as you sat reading in the room a face suddenly appeared at the window and looked in-a wan, emaciated face. At first you were startled, and thought of Miss Betsy Trotwood's visit to poor Clara, and of Jane Eyre looking in at the window of Moorhouse cottage; but you remembered that you had no aunt-inlaw who would be likely to visit you in that mysterious manner, and that Jane Eyre's visit was productive of much happiness at the cottage, and by the time she reached the door you were perfectly reassured. She was an emaciated creature in rags and tatters, such as you had never seen except in a city beggar-such an object as was hitherto seldom met with in this country, but now, alas! too common-and asked leave to stay all night. At first you hesitated-you were afraid to take her in. She might steal the spoons or burn the house; but Hood's beautiful lines pass through your mind "Touch her not scornfully; And the words of a Higher Authority, which promised that a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple should not lose its reward, and you told her kindly she could stay, "Owning her weakness, Her evil behavior, And leaving with meekness Her sins with her Saviour!" tures, you ask her name and history. She gives an assured one-you know by the way she utters it-and tells many things which you believe are untrue, and you go back to your room knowing she has tried to deceive you, but your pillow is softer, and your rest sweeter for having performed an act of charity. Next morning the sun rose clear and bright, and the light snow soon disappeared under his beams, but early in the day dark clouds floated up from the south, and Simpkins said we would have falling weather again before many days. The poor woman seemed better after partaking of a cup of warm coffee and a good breakfast, and as she stood before the fire she caught sight of her face in the mantle glass, and gave a start which was too natural to be effected. "Dear me," said she, "my cold has racked me mightily. I look more like I ought to be at home in bed than traveling about." "Indeed you do; and if you have a home I advise you to go to it, and stay there while the weather is so bad." "Yes, I have a home and better clothes than these, and I believe I'll try to get back there"-still too proud to acknowledge her destitution. But the one look at her face was not sufficient, and she walked up to the dressing bureau, leaned her arms on the marble top, and gazed long and earnestly at herself; and as she gazed you tried to read her thoughts. Was she thinking of a time when those wasted features were rounder and fairer, and those hollow eyes bright and sparkling?— when vows as precious as heart-drops were breathed but to deceive, and love, so fondly trusted, had betrayed and left her the curse of a blasted name, and an outcast from home and friends? But your sentiment was cut short, nipped in the bud, by her putting on her rag of a calico bonnet and contemplating its effect with as much earnestness as the greatest devotee to fashion could bestow on the last arrival from Paris. After all the wasted sentiment, it was only vanity which prompted the scrutiny of her face! Oh! vanity of vanities! does it never die out of a woman's heart? The hollow cough which rings out from the other room where she is sitting by a warm fire, reminds you of her presence, and you are thankful that you have a shelter large enough to divide with the homeless for a night, and a heart not too hard to sympathize with the outcast, even though she is a fallen sister. And you take her a cup of warm tea, and stir the fire and see that she is comfortable; and as you look at After arranging the rag on her head satisthe wasted, though regular and chiseled fea-factorily, she thanked me for my kindness, and went away, and we may not meet again until we stand before the Tribunal of the Most High, when, perhaps, purified from all stains of earth, she may say to the Christians of this community, I was a stranger and you took me not in, naked and you clothed me not. God forgive us if we are not gentle enough with the sufferings of others. was properly sheltered before the storm came on; and you have to acknowledge that it is the old childish feeling-fear. The country is in a very unsettled condition. Hundreds and thousands of soldiers have just been discharged, and are returning home, and bitter feelings still exist, even between neighbors on the miserable questions and conduct of the war. Murder and robbery on the public roads is of common occurrence, and many houses in the immediate neighborhood have been entered and pillag The clouds continued to increase until the sky was one dull, leaden mass, and as night approached the storm came on. The wind blew almost a hurricane, limbs of trees were torn off and hurled to the ground in its fu-ed while their owners were asleep, or were ry. The rain fell in torrents, and dashed made to sit still while part of the gang kept against the doors and windows as if the them quiet with a loaded pistol at their head, rain spirit was determined to enter and abide and the others secured such things as they with us. The children looked hastily over wanted; and a favorite pastime with them their lessons, and crept off to bed, and soon is to go by the house of a person who is of forgot all storms in sleep; but sleep would fensive, from principle, or position, and fire not tarry with older eyes when such a storm into the windows. Nineteen shots were firwas raging. To read or write was impossi-ed into one room of a house not a great disble. You could not even knit, and there was tance from here, and eight members of the nothing to be done but sit still and look in family were in it at the time, yet no one was the fire. Even the shifting figures which are injured. traced in the coals-a favorite amusement of quiet evenings-failed to interest. Not for years before had you experienced a feeling so near akin to fear-not of the storm, for fortunately you are not one those persons who suffer from nervousness when the elements are at war, but the fear, the dread of some approaching evil-some danger near. Could it be a presentiment? Is it really true that we can feel the evil in the atmosphere-the danger when it lurks near us, unseen by mortal eye, yet visible to the spirit, which quakes and shivers at its approach? You try to banish the idea, but time and again go to the window and look out with a vague fear that something is coming, but see only the dense wall of darkness, or your own features distorted in the glass, and you try to convince yourself that you are anxious about the poor creature who shared your hospitality last night. She may be out in the storm, may perish to-night. But no, it would not do; the people in this country are humane, and there are very few who would deny her or any other being a lodging on such a night. Then you try to palm it off on the stock-perhaps the horses, or the cows, or the calves were out. But no; you had gone out and seen that everything You knew these things were transpiring around you, for scarcely a day passes without your hearing of some outrageous act being perpetrated near; but you have never before felt afraid. Jerry and his family live just across the yard, and Simpkins also occupies a room not far distant, and hitherto you have sat reading, or writing, or dreaming over the fire without fearing anything, for you could not believe any one would wish to harm you, and the terror and anxiety which possesses you to-night is perfectly incomprehensible, and it was long after the storm had subsided, and its last expiring sobs died away on the breeze before you could rest-could induce sleep to visit your eyes; and even then it was broken and unrefreshing. But morning came without your being disturbed by anything but your own thoughts, and in the light of day how foolish seemed the fears of the night. Breakfast was scarcely over, when Simpkins came in saying he had just seen Mr. Jones, and that they had had a terrible time up above last night. A party of ruffians came down the road in the midst of the storm, saying they intended to whip out the neighborhood. The first house they entered they beat a young man over the head with their pistol pletely overawe even the most daring robber or burglar as to make him lose his presence of mind. These houses are all in sight of my cottage, and, if not arrested by that brave boy, they might also have made me a visit, and 1 tremble to think what might have occurred at the dead hour of night, before I could have called assistance. But the Eye which notes the sparrow's fall was watching, and protected the innocent and helpless. who was sick in bed, then fired up through the ceiling, right in the room where the ladies were, and left, forcing the gentleman of the house to go with them. At the next house they only stopped and fired into the windows, and while they were engaged in this little pastime the gentleman they had forced to go with them made his escape. The third house was that of a widow, a very nice lady. They went in and began to abuse the family, and the lady and her daughter left the sitting-room, and went into the chamber. The leader of the gang attempted to follow, swearing he intended to kill them all, when her son, a mere youth, placed himself before the door, and was instantly knocked down with a pistol. By this time another son, almost a mere stripling, who had been up stairs, appeared with a revolver in his hand, and seeing his mother insensible in one room, and his brother in another, commanded the ruffian not to enter his mother's room, but to leave the house immediately; but he went on, reiterating his threat. The young man again told him to stop, or he would shoot him, and just as he was entering the door, with pistol in his own hand he fired. The first ball wounded but did not stop him, and at the second he fell dead on the floor, while the others precipitately fled. If they had not been the vilest of cowards they could have overpowered the young man before the first shot was fired, but it is an astonishing fact that the least show of resistance will often so com-sible. Although I have every confidence in an over-ruling Providence, I think it is right to be prepared, and do all we can for ourselves, while invoking His aid; and I immediately went to the village, past the house where the dead man was lying, and who had come to his death through his own act, as much as if he had hanged himself, and bought a can of powder and some bullets, borrowed a revolver, had it loaded and capped, and we sleep every night with it on the table; for, although I am a pretty good shot, I am too much afraid of fire arms to sleep with a pistol under my pillow. But we have never had occasion to use it, for the ruffians had become so daring the respectable part of the community determined to take the law in their own hands, and organized a vigilance committee, and since then they have been comparatively quiet, though sometimes yet we hear of a murder or robbery, but it has been committed in some unfrequented spot, and such places are avoided as much as pos From the Scotsman. SIR ROBERT NAPIER. THE late Lord Cockburn-Harry Cock-point in the remark; for it would be diffiburn, as he was familiarly and affectionately called-used to say, with some wit and a dash of profaneness, that there were limits to omnipotence, for God could not create a sensible Napier. Had he said a commonplace Napier there would have been more cult to fix upon any name in our history that has been borne by a greater number of eminent men than that which first derived its origin from the official who had charge of the napery of the Stewart kings. Their springing valor, enduring hardihood, and |