surgeon, very coolly, and sipping his tea with great indifference. "I should imagine it to be the troop of Captain Lawton returning, did I not know the Captain never uses the pistol, and that he dreadfully abuses the sabre."

"Merciful Providence!" exclaimed the agitated maiden; "he would not injure one - with it certainly."

"Injure!" repeated the other, quickly; "it is certain death, madam-the most random blows imaginable-all that I can say to him will have no effect."

"But Captain Lawton is the officer we saw this morning, and is surely your friend,” said Frances, hastily, observing her aunt to be dreadfully alarmed.

66 I find no fault with his want of friendship," returned the doctor; "the man is well enough, if he would learn to cut scientifically, and give me some chance with the wounded. All trades, madam, ought to be allowed to live; but what becomes of a surgeon, if his patients are dead before he sees them."

The doctor continued haranguing on the probability and improbability of its being the returning troop, until a loud knock at the front door gave new alarm to the ladies. Instinctively laying his hand on a small saw that had been his companion for the whole day, in the vain expectation of an amputation, the surgeon coolly assuring the ladies that he would avert any danger, proceeded in person to answer to the sum

mons.

"Captain Lawton!" exclaimed the surgeon, as he beheld the trooper leaning on the arm of his subaltern, and with difficulty crossing the threshold.

"Ah! my dear bone-setter, is it you?" returned the other, good-humouredly, "you are here very fortunately to inspect my carcass; but do lay aside that rascally

A few words from Mason explained to the surgeon the nature and manner of his Captain's hurts; and Miss Peyton cheerfully accorded the required accommoda

tions. While the room intended for the trooper was getting in a state of preparation, and the doctor was giving certain portentious orders, the Captain was invited to rest himself in the parlour. On the table was a dish of more substantial food than ordinarily adorned the afternoon's repast, and it soon caught the attention of the dragoons. Miss Peyton, recollecting that they had probably made their only meal that day at her own table, kindly invited them to close it with another. The offer required no pressing, and in a few minutes the two were comfortably seated, and engaged in an employment that was only interrupted by an occasional wry face from the Captain, as he moved his body in evident pain. These interruptions, however, interfered but little with the principal business in hand; and the Captain had got happily through with this important duty before the surgeon returned to announce all things ready for his accommodation in the room above stairs.

"What, eating!" cried the astonished physician, "Captain Lawton, do you wish to die."

"I have no particular wish that way?" said the trooper, rising, and bowing a polite good night to the ladies, "and therefore have been providing the materials necessary to preserve life within me."

The surgeon muttered his dissatisfaction as he followed Mason and his Captain from the apartment.

Every house in America had at that day what was emphatically called its best room, and this had been allotted by the unseen influence of Sarah to Colonel Wellmere. The down counterpane, which a clear frosty night would render extremely grateful over bruised limbs, decked the English officer's bed. A massive silver tankard, richly embossed with the Wharton arms, held the beverage he was to drink during the night; while beautiful vessels of china performed the same office for the two American Captains. Sarah was certainly

unconscious of the silent preference she had been giving to the English officer, and it is equally certain that, but for his hurts, bed, tankard, and every thing but the beverage, would have been matters of indifference to Captain Lawton, half of whose nights were spent in his clothes, and not a few of them in the saddle. After taking possession, however, of what was a small but very comfortable room, Dr. Sitgreaves proceeded to inquire into the state of his injuries. He had begun to pass his hand over the body of his patient, when the latter cried, impatiently

"Sitgreaves, do lay that rascally saw aside; the sight of it makes my blood cold."

Captain Lawton," rejoined the surgeon, "I think, for a man who has so often exposed life and limb, you are unaccountably afraid of what is a very useful instru

ment."

"Heaven keep me from its use!" said the trooper, with a shrug.