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and suppressed internal voice; a man with many indications on him of having

been much alone.

With a bitter recollection of his lonely childhood, of the enforced business, at once distasteful and oppressive, in which the best years of his life have been spent, of the double faithlessness of the only woman he ever loved and the only friend he ever trusted, his birthday, as it annually recurs, serves but to intensify his ever present sense of desolation; and he resolves to abandon all thought of a fixed home, and to pass the rest of his days in travelling, hoping to find relief in a constant change of scene. It is after three o'clock of a tempestuous morning, when, acting on a sudden impulse, he leaves the train at Mugby Junction. At that black hour, he cannot obtain any conveyance to the inn, and willingly accepts the invitation of "Lamps," an employé of the railway company, tc try the warmth of his little room for a while. He afterwards makes the acquaintance of "Lamps's" daughter Phoebe, a poor bedridden girl; and their happy disposition, strong mutual affection, peaceful lives, modest self-respect, and unaffected interest in those around them, teach him a lesson of cheerfulness, contentment, and moral responsibility, which the experience of years had failed to impart.

On a visit, one day, to a distant town, he is suddenly accosted by a very little girl, who tells him she is lost. He takes her to his hotel, and failing to discover who she is, or where she lives, he makes arrangements for her staying over night, and amuses himself with her childish prattle, and her enjoyment of her novel situation. The little one's mother at last appears, and proves to be the woman he had loved, and who had so heartlessly eloped with his most trusted friend years before. She tells him that she has had five other children, who are all in their graves; that her husband is very ill of a lingering disorder, and that he believes the curse of his old friend rests on the whole household. Will Mr. Jackson forgive them? The injured man — now so changed from what he once was responds by taking the child to her father, placing her in his arms, and invoking a blessing on her innocent head. "Live and thrive, my pretty baby!" he says, -"live and prosper, and become, in time, the mother of other little children, like the angel: who behold the Father's face."

Lamps." A railway servant employed at Mugby Junction father of Phoebe. He is a very hard-working man, being on duty

fourteen, fifteen, or eighteen hours a day, and sometimes even twenty-four hours at a time. But he is always on the bright side and the good side. He has a daughter who is bed-ridden, and to whom he is entirely devoted. Besides supplying her with books and newspapers, he takes to composing comic songs for her amusement, and what is still harder, and at first goes much against his grain to singing them also.

Phoebe. His daughter; crippled and helpless in consequence of a fall in infancy. She supports herself by making lace, and by teaching a few little children. Notwithstanding her great misfortune, she is always contented, always lively, always interested in others, of all sorts. She makes the acquaintance of Mr. Jackson (“Barbox Brothers"); and her pure and gentle life becomes the guiding star of his.

Polly. Daughter of Beatrice and Tresham; a little child found by "Barbox Brothers" in the streets of a large town. See JACKSON, MR.

Tresham. A former friend of " Barbox Brothers," who advances him in business, and takes him into his private confidence. In return, Tresham comes between him and Beatrice (whom "Barbox Brothers" loves), and takes her from him. This treachery after a time receives its fitting punishment in poverty, and loss of health and children; but "Barbox Brothers," whose awakened wrath had long seemed inappeasable, is made better at last by the discipline and experience of life, and generously forgives those who had forced him to undergo so sharp a trial.

The Boy at Mugby.

THIS tale, as originally published, formed the third portion of " Mugby Juno Mon," the extra Christmas number of "All the Year Round" for 1866. It is a satirical description, by a young waiter, of the ordinary English railway refresh. ment-room, with its sawdust sandwiches, its stale cake and pastry, its wretched tea and coffee, and its abominable butter-scotch, as compared with the excellent provision made in France for the entertainment and comfort of travellers. The proprietress of the Refreshment-Room at Mugby Junction crosses the Channel for the express purpose of looking into the French method of conducting such estab lishments.

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Putting every thing together," said our missis, "French refreshmenting comes to this; and, oh, it comes to a nice total! First, eatable things to eat, and drinkable things to drink."

A groan from the young ladies, kep' up by me.

"Second, convenience, and even elegance."

Another groan from the young ladies, kep' up by me.

"Third, moderate charges."

This time a groan from me, kep' up by the young ladies.

"Fourth, and here," says our missis, "I claim your angriest sympathy, -attention, common civility, nay, even politeness!"

Me and the young ladies regularly raging mad all together.

"And I cannot, in conclusion," says our missis, with her spitefullest sneer, “give you a completer pictur of that despicable nation (after what I have related), than assuring you that they would n't bear our constitutional ways and noble independence at Mugby Junction for a single month; and that they would turn us to the right-about, and put another system in our places as soon as look at us, perhaps sooner, for I do not :ellere they have the good taste to care to look at us twice."

Ezekiel.

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

"The boy at Mugby;' an attendant in the Refreshment. Room at Mugby Junction, whose proudest boast is, that "it never yet refreshed a mortal being."

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