As reflux was a disorder the spinster was not acquainted with, she thought it prudent to be silent for a time; yet burning with curiosity to know the meaning of certain portentous lights that the other so often alluded to, she ventured to ask

"If them lights he spoke of were what was called northern lights in these parts?"

In charity to her ignorance, the surgeon would have entered into an elaborate explanation of his meaning, bad he not been nterrupted by the mirth of Lawton. The rooper had listened so far with great comosure; but now he laughed until his ching bones reminded him of his fall, and he tears rolled over his cheeks in larger rops than had ever been seen there beore. At length, the offended physician eized an opportunity to say

"To you, Captain Lawton, it may be a source of triumph, that an educated woman should make a mistake in a subject on which men of science have long been at variance; but yet you find this respectable matron does not reject the lightsthe lights-does not reject the use of pro

per instruments in repairing injuries sustained by the human frame. You may possibly remember, sir, her allusion to the use of the needle."

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Aye," cried the delighted trooper, "to mend the pedlar's breeches.”

Katy drew up in evident displeasure at this allusion to such familiarity between herself and the nether garments of the trader; but, prompt to vindicate her character for more lofty acquirements, said—

"'Twas not a common use that I put that needle to, but one of much greater virtue."

Explain yourself, madam," said the surgeon, impatiently, "that this gentleman may see how little reason he has for exultation."

Thus solicited, Katy paused to collect sufficient eloquence with which to garnish her narrative; the substance of which was, that a child who had been placed by the guardians of the poor in the keeping of Harvey, had, in the absence of its master, injured itself badly in the foot by a large needle. The offending instrument had

been carefully greased, wrapped in woollen, and placed in a certain charmed nook of the chimney; while the foot, from a fear of weakening the incantation, was left in a state of nature. The arrival of the pedlar had altered the whole of this admirable arrangement; and the consequences were expressed by Katy, as she concluded her narrative, by saying

"'Twas no wonder the boy died of a lock-jaw."

Dr. Sitgreaves looked out of the window in admiration of the brilliant morningstrove all he could to avoid the basilisk eyes of his comrade, but in vain. He was impelled by a feeling that he could not conquer, to look Captain Lawton in the face. The trooper had arranged every muscle of his countenance in perfect accordance with due sympathy for the fate of the poor child; but the exultation of his eyes cut the astounded man of science to the quick he muttered something concerning the condition of his patients, and retreated with precipitation.

Miss Peyton entered into the situation

of things at the house of the pedlar with all the interest of her excellent feelings: she listened patiently while Katy recounted more particularly the circumstances of the past nights as they occurred. The spinster did not forget to dwell on the magnitude of the pecuniary loss sustained by Harvey, and in no manner spared her invectives at his betraying a secret which might so easily have been kept.

"For, Miss Peyton," continued the housekeeper, after a pause of a moment to take breath, "I would have given up life before I would have given up that secret. At the most, they could only have killed him; and now a body may say that they have slain for this world both soul and body, or, what's the same thing, they have made him a despisable vagabond. I wonder who he thinks would be his wife, or who would keep his house. For my part, my good name is too precious to be living with a lone man; though, for the matter of that, he is never there. I am resolved to tell him this day, that stay there a single woman I will not an hour after the funeral,

and marry him I don't think I will-unless he becomes steadier, and more of a homebody."

The mild mistress of the Locusts suf-, fered the exuberance of the housekeeper's animation to expend itself, and then, by one or two judicious questions, that denoted a more intimate knowledge of the windings of the human heart in matters of Cupid than might fairly be supposed to belong to a spinster, she extracted enough from Katy to discover the improbability of Harvey's ever presuming to offer himself, with his broken fortunes, to the acceptance of Miss Katharine Haynes. She, therefore, mentioned her own want of assistance in the present state of her household, and expressed a wish that Katy would change her residence to the Locusts, in case the pedlar had not farther use for her services. After a few preliminary conditions on the part of the wary housekeeper, she concluded the arrangement; and making a few more piteous lamentations on the weight of her own losses, the stupidity of Harvey, and united with some curiosity to