had seen it, fifty miles off; and, without a request even, from us, he travelled that distance to procure it.'

"Yes, this is true"-returned the captain, thoughtfully"though I question if the cure was owing to the gold-thread, as you call it, Wilhelmina. Every man has some good quality or other; and, I much fear, some bad ones also. But, here is the fellow coming back, and I do not like to let him think himself of sufficient consequence to be the subject of our remarks."

"Very true, sir; it adds excessively to the trouble of such fellows, to let them fancy themselves of importance.'

Nick now came slowly back, after having examined the recent changes to his satisfaction. He stood a moment in silence, near the table, and then, assuming an air of more dignity than common, he addressed the captain.

"Nick ole chief," he said. "Been at Council Fire, often as cap'in. Can't tell, all he know; want to hear about new war." 'Why, Nick, it is a family quarrel this time. The French have nothing to do with it."

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"Yengeese fight Yengeese-um ?".

66 'I am afraid it will so turn out. Do not the Tuscaroras sometimes dig up the hatchet against the Tuscaroras?"

"Tuscarora man kill Tuscarora man-good-he quarrel, and kill he enemy. But Tuscarora warrior nebber take scalp of Tuscarora squaw and pappoose! What you t'ink he do dat for? Red man no hog, to eat pork."

"It must be admitted, Nick, you are a very literal logiciandog wont eat dog,' is our English_saying. Still the Yankee will fight the Yengeese, it would seem. In a word, the Great Father, in England, has raised the hatchet against his American children.' "How you like him, cap'in-um? Which go on straight path, which go on crooked? How you like him?"

"I like it little, Nick, and wish with all my heart the quarrel had not taken place."

“Mean to put on regimentals-hah! Mean to be cap’in, ag’in? Follow drum and fife, like ole time?"

"I rather think not, old comrade.. After sixty, one likes peace better than war; and I intend to stay at home."

"What for, den, build fort? Why you put fence round a house, like pound for sheep?"

"Because I intend to stay there. The stockade will be good to keep off any, or every enemy who may take it into their heads to come against us. You have known me defend a worse position than this.'

"He got no gate," muttered Nick. "What he good for widout gate? Yengeese, Yankees, red man, French man, walk in just as he please. No good to leave such squaw wid a door wide open." "Thank you, Nick," cried Mrs. Willoughby. I knew you

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were my friend, and have not forgotten the gold-thread."

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'He very good," answered the Indian, with an important look. "Pappoose get well like not'ing. He a'most die, to-day; tomorrow he run about and play. Nick do him, too; cure him wid gold-thread."

"Oh! you are, or were, quite a physician at one time, Nick I remember when you had the smallpox yourself."

The Indian turned, with the quickness of lightning to Mrs. Willoughby, whom he startled with his energy, as he demanded"You remember dat, Mrs. Cap'in! Who gib him-who cure him -um?"

"Upon my word, Nick, you almost frighten me. I gave you the disease, but it was for your own good it was done. You were inoculated by myself, when the soldiers were dying around us, because they had never had that care taken of them. All I inoculated lived; yourself among the number."

The startling expression passed away from the fierce countenance of the savage, leaving in its place another so kind and amicable as to prove he not only was aware of the benefit he had received, but that he was deeply grateful for it. He drew near to Mrs. Willoughby, took her still white and soft hand in his own sinewy and dark fingers, then dropped the blanket that he had thrown carelessly across his body, from a shoulder, and laid it on a mark left by the disease, by way of pointing to her good work. He smiled, as this was done.

"Ole mark," he said, nodding his head-" sign we good friend— he nebber go away while Nick live."

This touched the captain's heart, and he tossed a dollar towards the Indian, who suffered it, however, to lie at his feet unnoticed. Turning to the stockade, he pointed significantly at the open gateways.

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Great danger go t'rough little 'ole," he said sententiously, walking away as he concluded. Why you leave big 'ole open ?" "We must get those gates hung next week," said the captain positively; and yet it is almost absurd to apprehend anything serious in this remote settlement, and that at so early a period in the war."

Nothing further passed on the lawn worthy to be recorded. The sun set, and the family withdrew into the house, as usual, to trust to the overseeing care of Divine Providence, throughout a night passed in a wilderness. By common consent, the discourse turned upon things no way connected with the civil war, or its expected results, until the party was about to separate for the night, when the major found himself alone with his sisters, in his own little parlour, dressing-room, or study, whatever the room adjoining his chamber could properly be called.

"You will not leave us soon, Robert," said Beulah, taking her brother's hand with confiding affection. "I hardly think my father young and active enough, or rather alarmed enough to live in times like these!"

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He is a soldier, Beulah, and a good one; so good that his son can teach him nothing. I wish I could say that he is as good a subject; I fear he leans to the side of the colonies."

Heaven be praised!" exclaimed Beulah. "Oh! that his son would incline in the same direction."

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Nay, Beulah," rejoined Maud, reproachfully; "you speak with

out reflection. Mamma bitterly regrets that papa sees things in the light he does. She thinks the parliament right, and the coldnies wrong.

"What a thing is a civil war!" ejaculated the major. “Here is husband divided against wife-son against father

brother against sister. I could almost wish I were dead, ere I had lived to see this !"

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Nay, Robert, it is not so bad as that either," added Maud. "My mother will never oppose my father's will or judgment. Good wives, you know, never do that. She will only pray that he may decide right, and in a way that his children will never have cause to regret. As for me, I count for nothing of course.

"And Beulah, Maud, is she nothing, too? Here will Beulah be praying for her brother's defeat, throughout this war. It has been some presentiment of this difference of opinion that has probably induced you to forget me, while Beulah and my mother were passing so many hours to fill that basket."

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'Perhaps you do Maud injustice, Robert," said Beulah, smiling, "I think I can say none loves you better than our dear sister or no one has thought of you more, in your absence."

Why, then, does the basket contain no proof of this remembrance-not even a chain of hair-a purse, or a ring-nothing, in short, to show that I have not been forgotten when away." "Even if this be so," said Maud with spirit, "in what am I worse than yourself. What proof is there that you have remem bered us?"

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This," answered the major, laying before his sisters two small packages, each marked with the name of its proper owner. "My mother has hers, too, and my father has not been forgotten."

Beulah's exclamations proved how much she was gratified with her presents; principally trinkets and jewellery, suited to her years and station. First kissing the major, she declared her mother must see what she had received, before she retired for the night, and hurried from the room. That Maud was not less pleased, was apparent by her glowing cheeks and tearful eyes; though, for a wonder, she was far more restrained in the expression of her feelings. After examining the different articles with pleasure, for a minute or two, she went, with a quick impetuous movement, to the basket, tumbled all its contents on the table, until she reached the scarf, which she tossed towards the major, saying, with a faint laugh

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There, unbeliever-heathen-is that nothing? Was that made in a minute, think you?"

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"This!" cried the major, opening the beautiful, glossy fabric in surprise. "Is not this one of my father's old sashes, to which I have fallen heir, in the order of nature?"

Maud dropped her trinkets, and seizing two corners of the sash, she opened it, in a way to exhibit its freshness and beauty.

"Is this old, or worn?" she asked reproachfully. Your father never even saw it, Bob. It has not yet been around the waist of

man.'

"It is not possible! This would be the work of months-is so beautiful-you cannot have purchased it."

Maud appeared distressed at his doubts. Opening the folds still wider, she raised the centre of the silk to the light, and pointed to certain letters that had been wrought into the fabric so ingeniously as to escape ordinary observation, and yet so plainly as to be distinctly legible when the attention was once drawn to them. The major took the sash into his own hands altogether, held it opened before the candles, and read the words "Maud Meredith" aloud. Dropping the sash, he turned to seek the face of the donor, but she had fled the room. He followed her footsteps and entered the library, just as she was about to escape from it by a different door.

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“I am offended at your incredulity," said Maud, making an effort to laugh away the scene, and will not remain to hear lame excuses. Your new regiment can have no nature in it, or brothers would not treat sisters thus."

"Maud Meredith is not my sister," he said earnestly, "though Maud Willoughby may be. Why is the name Meredith?"

"As a retort to one of your own allusions-did you not call me Miss Meredith, one day, when I last saw you in Albany!"

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Ay, but that was in jest, my dearest Maud. It was not a deliberate thing, like the name on that sash."

I "Oh! jokes may be premeditated as well as murder; and many a one is murdered, you know. Mine is a prolonged jest."

"Tell me, does my mother-does Beulah know who made this sash ?"

"How else could it have been made, Bob? Do you think I went into the woods, and worked by myself, like some romantic damsel who had an unmeaning secret to keep against the curious eyes of persecuting friends?"

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I know not what I thought-scarce know what I think now. But, my mother; does she know of this name?"

Maud blushed to the eyes; but the habit and the love of truth were so strong in her, that she shook her head in the negative.

"Nor Beulah-She, I am certain, would not have permitted 'Meredith' to appear where Willoughby' should have been.

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Nor Beulah, either, Major Willoughby," pronouncing the name with an affectation of reverence. "The honour of the Willoughbys is thus preserved from every taint, and all the blame must fall on poor Maud Meredith."

"You dislike the name of Willoughby, then, and intend to drop it in future. I have remarked that you sign yourself only 'Maud' in your last letters-never before, however, did I suspect

the reason.

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Who wishes to live for ever an impostor? It is not my legal name, and I shall soon be called on to perform legal acts. Remember, Mr. Robert Willoughby, I am twenty; when it comes to pounds, shillings, and pence, I must not forge. A little habit is necessary to teach me the use of my own bona fide signature."

"But ours--the name is not hateful to you-you do not throw it aside, seriously, for ever?"

"Yours! What, the honoured name of my dear, dearest father -of my mother-of Beulah-of yourself, Bob!" Maud did not remain to terminate her speech. tears, she vanished.

Bursting into

CHAPTER VIII.

"The village tower-'tis joy to me! I cry, the Lord is here!
The village bells! They fill the soul with ecstasy sincere.
And thus, I sing, the light hath shined to land in darkness hurled,
Their sound is now in all the earth, their words throughout the world."

Coxx.

ANOTHER night past in peace within the settlement of the Hutted Knoll. The following morning was the Sabbath, and it came forth, balmy, genial, and mild; worthy of the great festival of the Christian world. On the subject of religion, Captain Willoughby was a little of a martinet; understanding by liberty of conscience, the right of improving by the instruction of those ministers who belonged to the Church of England. Several of his labourers had left him because he refused to allow of any other ministrations on his estate; his doctrine being that every man had a right to do as he pleased in such matters; and as he did not choose to allow of schism, within the sphere of his own influence, if others desired to be schismatics they were at liberty to go elsewhere, in order to indulge their tastes. Joel Strides and Jamie Allen were both disaffected to this sort of orthodoxy, and they had frequent private discussions on its propriety; the former in his usual wily and jesuitical mode of sneering and insinuating, and the latter respectfully as related to his master, but earnestly as it concerned his conscience. Others, too, were dissentients, but with less repining; though occasionally they would stay away from Mr. Woods' services. Mike, alone, took an open and manly stand in the matter, and he a little out-Heroded Herod; or, in other words, he exceeded the captain himself in strictness of construction. On the very morning we have just described, he was present at a discussion between the Yankee overseer and the Scotch mason, in which these two dissenters, the first a Congregationalist, and the last a seceder, were complaining of the hardships of a ten years' abstinence, during which no spiritual provender had been fed out to them from a proper source. The Irishman broke out upon the complainants in a way that will at once let the reader into the secret of the county Leitrim-man's principles, if he has any desire to know them.

"Bad luck to all sorts of religion but the right one!" cried Mike, in a most tolerant spirit. "Who d'ye think will be wishful of hearing mass and pr'aching that comes from any of your heretick parsons? Ye're as deep in the mire yerselves as Mr. Woods is in the woods, and no one to lade ye out of either, but an evil spirit that would rather see all mankind br'iling in agony, than dancing at a fair."

"Go to your confessional, Mike," returned Joel, with a sneer. "It's a month, or more, sin' you seen it, and the priest will think you have forgotten him, and go away offended."