chair, that had been my father's, and sat there, thinking of nothing, but quite lost, until the morning. "The fresh air did me good when I went to my work, and I began to be angry at my own folly. It was hard enough, to be sure, to be parted from Amy, and to be left alone for the first time; but then it was for Amy's good, and I had promised to be a father to her; and all the while that pride was swelling at my heart, I kept telling myself that I had only done my duty, and that I must n't be thinking of my own pleasure and convenience. I never shed a tear, sir, through it all; perhaps I should have got over it better if I had, for the women seem to get rid of a deal of grief through their eyes! But I hoarded up all my sorrow, and even hid it from my neighbors when they inquired into the truth, and told me that Amy's fortune was made and that she would be a lady. And so Sunday came at last, and it rained hard and the family did n't come to church; but the rain was nothing to me, and, when the parson had gone home, Ihat to pull it off when she spoke to me, if she started for the hall.

there at least; and now I saw that I should be
obliged to sit alone, and only see her a long way
off, when I caught a sight of her bright young face
between the crimson curtains of the pew. But
there was no help for it, and so I promised Ma-
dam Darcourt that I would forbid her to come to
me. And I did it-I did it, sir; but I don't know
how I had the heart, for I began to see that they
wanted to shake me off, and that it was only Amy's
innocent love that prevented it. However, I never
saw that Sunday-school bonnet again, and we never
more sat side by side upon that narrow bench.
"Well, sir, they grew up, those two beautiful
young girls; but Amy was the handsomest of the
two and the cleverest, for Miss Emily was n't fond
of learning and was a spoiled child, while the poor
cottager's daughter gave all her mind to her
books, and, not content with learning what they
bid her, learned a power of other things that they
never meant her to know. And she had such an
air, sir! Many times I've put my hand to my
had n't hindered it with a smile and a kiss. And
so as I found she was getting beyond me, and
would never be fit for the cottage again, I began
to think that I got on badly enough with the old
woman that looked after me, and that I'd better
search about for a wife. There were plenty of
girls in the village, and good girls too; but Amy
had spoiled me, so I was in no hurry to make up
my mind, for I would n't give her a sister that she
might be ashamed of, and I was too poor to look
for anything grand. However, I kept my eyes
about me; and just then the young squire came

"I thought Amy would have ate me up; but that hardly satisfied me. I should n't have known her again, for she had got lace on her frock, and a sash like Miss Emily's; and although I was proud to see her so fine, yet somehow she did n't seem to belong to me as she used to do. And I wasn't a minute alone with her. I was asked into the schoolroom, where the governess never left us, and called me Mister Saunders, and told me that I ought to pray for madam every night of my life, and suchlike, as if she could feel what I did. And Amy smiled and cried at the same time, and in-home, after what he called the dissolution. I quired after her poultry and the donkey that she used to gallop over the hills upon, till she was reminded that she must leave off thinking of such things, and think of her learning; and then she hung her head and kissed me over and over again, but asked no more questions. This was bad enough, but when dinner came it was worse. had n't had time yet to forget that Amy was my sister; but she dined in the parlor with the squire and madam, and Miss Emily and the governess, as the rule was every Sunday, and I in the servants' hall. It wasn't for pride that I minded it, for the servants there were all ladies and gentlemen, and thought themselves very obliging to accept of my company; but I could n't bear to be parted from Amy, nor to have her taught to look down upon me; and I really believe that I should have carried her back again that night to the cottage if she had n't had on a parcel of fine clothes that did n't belong to her.

shall never forget him at church the next Sunday; how polite he was, looking out the places in her prayer-book, and putting on her shawl when they were going home. All the village was up in arms; but I did n't like it-it did n't seem to me to be natural. And when Amy wished me goodIby at the porch, and got into the coach with madam, and Miss Emily, and the governess, to go home, altogether it did n't seem to me to be right, and I began to be uneasy about her. But Master Richard was soon off again, and I forgot all about it, till the old squire was taken ill and had two physicians from the county town. But all would n't do, and at the end of four months he died.

"Next thing, sir, I was asked up once a fortnight, and then once a month; but, for a time, Amy persisted in sitting by me at church on a Sunday, and reading out of the same book, and she used to wear her old bonnet and shawl that she had on when she left home, though I soon saw myself that they did n't look rational over muslin and silk frocks, for she had soon outgrown her own. At last, one Sunday, when I was dining at the hall, madam sent for me to the big room, and told me that she was quite satisfied with my behavior, and was sorry to say anything that might hurt me, but that if Amy was to be Miss Emily's friend, it wasn't becoming that she should leave the squire's pew, or wear the Sunday-school dress that likened her to the rest of the village girls. I think I felt that saying more than all the rest, sir, for I had been glad to believe that we were equal

"That was the first time the vault had been opened since I took up my father's trade, and 1 need n't tell you, sir, how heavy my heart was when I set about it. It seemed to me to be only the beginning of evil, and so it was; for madam began to pine when he was gone, and the young squire, who had come down for the funeral with the lawyers and such like, would n't leave her, but stayed on for a whole year at the hall; and at the end of it he buried her. Then Miss Emily refused to leave the place; and so he came and went between London and the hall, that was now his own, and a few months afterwards the house was full. The governess stayed on as housekeeper, and Miss Emily and Amy loved one another more than ever.

"Before very long news came to the village that Miss Emily was about to be married; and then my heart was full, for I didn't know what would become of my sister. Madam had left her five hundred pounds in her will, and she was a match for the best farmer in the country. But I began to be afraid that she 'd never settle to work

after the life she'd led and the learning she 'd got; | whitewashed cottage came back upon me as if and so I took upon myself one day when, for a they mocked my folly. And as she still knelt wonder, we were left alone, to talk to her about there-for I had n't stretched out a finger to lift these matters. I could make nothing of it, how- her up, though she seemed to be sinking into the ever; she only blushed and smiled, and told me to dust-as she knelt there, I thought of the young keep myself easy, for she 'd been luckier than she wife who was to come to my home as soon as I deserved, and she'd tell me all, only that she knew that she was happy and settled, as she had must n't until after Miss Emily's marriage. I told me she should soon be the virtuous girl that thought this hard; I felt as though she ought n't had heard me boast so often of my sister Amy that to have a secret from her only brother, and one she almost trembled when she thought of seeing who had brought her up from a baby. But she her. And when I remembered that I should n't had a way with her that always upset me; and so dare to look her in the face again, with such a I kissed her and told her that she knew best, as, shame as this come upon me, as she knelt there, of course, she must, and tried to think that all sir, I could have driven her from me with a blow. would come right in time. She had thought so little of me, when I had been thinking of little else but her! I only waited till I had got my legs again, and that I knew 1 should n't stagger and fall before I got clear of that accursed roof; and then giving her one ong look that reproached her more than all I could have said, I wrenched my knees from her grasp and turned to leave her.

"I shall never forget Miss Emily's marriage, sir. The squire was like one beside himself. Gold flew about on all sides, as had never been seen before in Thornhollow; and we were all glad of it for the parson's sake, for he wanted it bad enough. There was a fair on the common, and a dinner for all the village in the park. But the grandest sight was the wedding. Two of the bridegroom's sisters had come over, and there were they and Amy all dressed alike, like princesses, and Miss Emily, like a queen as she was, and a great lady as she was going to be. But I thought that Amy looked very pale, and sad, and ill; and once or twice I caught her eye turned upon me, as if to see whether I was watching her; and when our eyes met she smiled, but it was n't a smile of joy, and it made my heart ache.

"I went up to dine at the Hall, but I did n't see Amy. Miss Emily was to start at six o'clock in the evening, in a carriage-and-four, with her new husband, and Amy had promised not to leave until the governess was ready to follow; but, for all that, I was startled to hear from the lady's-maid that she had n't made any preparation for a move. I couldn't understand it; and I laid awake all night, tired as I was, thinking over what she was going to do. I heard it soon enough.

"A fortnight afterwards I had a message from the Hall, and in five minutes I was on the road there. Instead of taking me to the housekeeper's room, as they 'd done since the young squire had been master there, I was walked up to the breakfast parlor, and there I found Amy."

The old man paused and gasped for breath, then glanced towards the little northern grave, shook his head mournfully and continued,

"She was n't dressed out in her silks, sir, but in a sort of white wrapping-gown; and I saw the minute I looked at her what I ought to have discovered long before. My head failed, I reeled, and hung on to a chair for support.

"Oh, sir, a death-groan is very horrible; but it 's music to the wild shriek that she gave as she started from the floor, and with white and shaking lips, and eyes that seemed as if they were burning in their sockets, thrust her hand into her bosom and pulled out a paper that she held before my eyes. But my time was n't come; and telling her that I had n't learning like her to mend a sin and to wipe away a shame with a bit of writing, I flung from the room."

The old man paused; the sweat was trickling down his forehead, and his chest heaved with emotion. It was terrible to see such vividness of feeling outlive the wasted frame within which it labored; but he soon rallied.

"Well, sir," he pursued, after a time, "the poor thing wrote to me a number of times; but the very look of her letters, that seemed as if they were only fit for gentle folks to read, angered me, and I would n't open one of 'em. She hoped on for all that, poor lamb! And so she came to live in the village; not upon the money that madam had left her-no, no! if she had done that I should n't have forgiven her to my last day, long as I might have lived-but upon what she earned with her needle, working birds and flowers upon bits of satin, that they sent to London for her to be sold. And she was at it late and early, as they told me, till her hour was near; and then she had n't strength, but used to sit all day at her window, where she could see my wicket, and watch me as I went in and out to my work. I don't know which was worst off in those days, for I had broke with my sweetheart, for all she promised that my sister's shame should never alter her love for me, and I well knew that she'd keep her word; but though her mother said the same, she did n't say it in the same tone, and I saw she was pleased to have it over; and, disgraced as I was. I had my pride still, and stood firm. So I was glad when Mary took service in the market-town,

66

"I'm an old man, sir; but if I was to live for another century I should never forget that day, nor the night that followed it. Amy sprang across the floor and threw herself on her knees before me but I had no mercy. It was more than I could bear. She had been my first thought in the morning and my last at night; my heart was bound up in her. I'd watched over her and went away. when she was an infant in the cradle, cherished Well, sir, the time came, and Amy had a her when she'd no other parent, given up every-son; but she never looked up again, and in three thing for her when I needed her sorely in my own months she died. They came to tell me just at poor home, and all because I loved her better than dusk, when I had come home from work, worn myself, and wanted to make her happy, come what out body and soul, and I had n't even strength to might of all else. And now my heart was wrung be thankful. The next day the baby was gone asunder, and my pride flew into my face and too, and then I felt happier than I had been for a hissed in my ears; and the months and years of long while. It had been a poor sickly infant from loneliness that I'd passed in my thatched and its birth, for the mother had fretted, and they 'd

pined away together. I put on my hat and turned into the churchyard. I walked first to those two graves yonder, and pulled out a weed or two that had come with the last rains; and then I looked carefully about me. I did n't search long for what I wanted; and when I got to that corner where she lies, I paced the ground carefully, as close to the wall as I could with safety, till I found in how little space I could bury her; and then, when the day of her funeral came, I got up at daybreak and began my task. Nobody came near me; they knew that I could n't bear it then. And so I worked on alone, with the drizzling rain mixing with the cold sweat upon my forehead and chest, till I had dug a grave of ten foot deep. I wanted to bury her shame in the very bowels of the earth. Hers is the deepest grave in the whole churchyard except his. And, squire as he was," pursued the old man, with another of those savage smiles which formed so frightful a contrast with his usually placid expression, "I had my way there, too, when he came here in his turn.

"The people she had lived with followed her funeral, and I stood a good way off and looked on, (for I had got a friend to do my duty for me,) till the crowd left the churchyard; and then he followed 'em as I'd asked him, and I was left alone beside her grave. I could see the coffin plainly, for they'd only thrown a couple of spits of soil upon it. It was a pauper's coffin, sir, without a name or a date, but with the pauper brand instead, for she would have it so, and I had n't cared to interfere. But now, when I looked down at it, I thought my very heart would break. There was only that coarse plank between me and the thin, pale girl that lay there with her baby in her arms, and I could n't bear to lose sight of it; so I sat beside her till near sunset, thinking of all that was past, and how things had come to this after all my hopes and prayers. But at last I took up my spade, and an hour before nightfall I had filled in the grave, and buried my own heart with her.

'em had been written with her heart's blood! And
how she loved me, and how she prayed that she
might die in my arms, that she might feel sure of
pardon in the next world! But all this was
nothing yet. I had read through all but one, for I
spent the whole night over 'em, and read some of
'em two or three times over-them especially that
made me feel what a wicked, unnatural wretch I'd
been to her, and how I'd sinned against my
mother's solemn bidding; and then, when all the
rest laid open before me, I began upon the last.
That was the real blow, sir! Out fell a marriage-
certificate that would have cheated me, though
I'd seen so many of 'em, all signed and dated, and
the names of Richard Darcourt and Amy Saunders
fairly written out. I thought my heart would
have burst for joy, and I was obliged to lay it
down to take a drink of water; but I was n't long
before I took it up again, and after I'd satisfied
myself that I was n't out of my senses, I picked
up another letter that had dropped out along with
it. I had n't seen the writing before; and no
wonder, for it was a letter from Mr. Darcourt to
tell her that their wedding had been a sham, and
that parson and clerk were both friends of his that
had joined him in the frolic-yes, sir, that was the
word-the frolic that was to break a poor girl's
heart, and to turn her only relation into a savage.
But even this was n't all: no, no-there was more
to come yet. He went on to tell her that when he
warned her to keep the secret till his sister's grand
husband was out of the country, as he would
surely take offence and she would bring trouble
into the family, and not even to tell me for fear I
should make it known, and to let the governess go
before a word was said; she might have been sure
that he meant her no good, and so she 'd only her-
self and her silly pride to blame, and not him, who
could n't be expected to marry a girl whose father
and brother had made their living by digging
graves, but that he'd advise her to make the best
of it and turn her learning to account; and he
hoped she 'd leave the village, which could n't be
pleasant to neither of them, for he was going to
London to be married in earnest, and should soon

The old man's voice had sunk almost into a whisper before it ceased; but, after the silence of a moment, he clasped his hands convulsively together, and looking up eagerly in my face, gasped out,

66

Amy was innocent, wasn't she, sir?"

"As innocent as an angel!" I replied solemnly, as I lifted my hat, in order to give force to my words.

66

"Don't fancy that I fretted though it was so. I loved her dearly, even when I would n't see her in her agony nor on her deathbed; but she 'd de-bring his wife down to the hall." ceived and disgraced me, and I felt as if I'd buried the little Amy who 'd grown up beside me till she found a prouder home; and that the Miss Saunders-for they called her so, sir, through the whole country side to the very day of her deaththat the Miss Saunders, who'd gone wrong, and been the shame of the village where she was born, and where her parents lay buried, was living yet to blight an honest name, and cheat a true heart that had trusted to her. So, sir, when, on going home, I found that she 'd left another thick letter for me, I put it away with the rest in a box where I had locked up my poor mother's wedding-ring, meaning to give it to Amy when she should marry in her turn; and I tried to forget that I had ever had a sister. But it would n't do; and though I got over the first two years, and used to feel glad when I looked towards her grave and saw that it could n't be seen for the nettles that had grown up about it, I gave way at last. And so, one Sabbath evening, when I was sitting in my desolate cot-purpose to bless you!" tage, I could contain myself no longer, but going to the little box, I brought it to the table, and pulling the candle closer, I read all the letters, leaving the thick one to the last. I never knew what torture was after that night, sir; all that I'd gone through before was nothing. Every one of

One long sob of happiness gushed from the lips of the old man as he buried his face in his spread hands for an instant. She was! she was!" he murmured beneath his breath. "The parson said so when he read the letters; and all the village said so, when he went round to their cottages and told 'em how happy they must be that had never insulted her in her sorrow. And now you, siryou, a stranger, and, belike, as great a man as Squire Darcourt himself you say so too; and I feel as if my old heart had grown young again on

"But tell me, my good friend," I said, anxious to check this exultation, so dangerous to a man of his age, "what said Amy herself in that last letter?"`

"Not a word, sir," replied the sexton, hoarsely, as his head again drooped under the weight of his

THE BACHELOR'S FAREWELL TO HIS SNUFF- With thee, forever, must I now have done;

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MISS ROBINSON | might have made shirts at five pence apiece, and

CRUSOE.

CHAPTER I.

I WAS born in the year-(but no-I claim the privilege of an unmarried woman, and will not set down the date)-in the city of Westminster. My father was a foreigner of Heligoland, who settled first at Sheerness. He made a good estate by dealing in slops, which he profitably sold to the sailors; and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards in Westminster. Here it was he married my mother, whose name was Robinson, whose ancestor was the famous Jack Robinson, of whom is still retained a popular proverb, relating to rapidity of expression.

bound shoes at a farthing a pair. Whereas, you hold the happy middle state of life; a state that peeresses would jump out of their ermine tippets to fall into."

After this he pressed me not to think of leaving home and further, promised that he would look about him for a husband for me-a steady, respectable young man of my own condition. But I had my head too full of rajahs and elephants to put up with steadiness and respectability. My mother, too, often scolded me, and rated my father for sending me to that finishing-school. "I always said what would come of it," she cried, " when I heard that the girls, before they went to balls and concerts, always swallowed eau-de-cologne upon lump sugar to make their eyes twinkle-I always prophesied how she 'd turn out, and so it's come to pass."

Being the third daughter, and, unlike my two sisters, single-and my father having impoverished himself by bestowing two large dowries, leaving Thus rebuked, I suffered a year to pass away in nothing for me excepting at his death--I had little silence. One day, however, being at Gravesend, hopes of marrying in England, or, in other words, eating shrimps upon the pier, six beautiful East of bettering my fortune. I therefore resolved | Indiamen, in full sail, passed down the river. The to cross the seas. I had read of several young tears came into my eyes, and my smothered resoluladies who, with no money, and very small trunks tion burst anew into a flame. I resolved, without indeed-and with hardly beauty enough to make loss of time, to take my passage for the East. I any man in England turn back to look at them-returned to London; but, instead of going straight had married general officers and rajahs in India. I had heard, and with the easy confidence of youth believed the story, that such was the demand for young-lady-wives in the East Indies, that the black men's boats that brought off cocoa-nuts and yams to the ship, on her dropping anchor, also brought off gentlemen covered with diamonds, and provided with wedding-rings. In many instances, the ship carrying a parson, the ceremony was immediately performed in the captain's cabin; and the happy couple on landing, immediately started five hundred miles up the country to spend the honeymoon. With these thoughts haunting me all day, I dreamt of nothing at nights but palanquins and elephants, and a husband continually giving me diamonds and pearls as big as swan's eggs.

home, I went to the Docks, where I accosted a Captain Biscuit, of the ship Ramo Samee, of I don't know how many tons. Observing that as he passed his tobacco over his tongue, he looked sus piciously at my youthful appearance, I assured him that I had been married at fifteen, in India, that the climate disagreeing with my only child, a lovely boy, I had brought him to England, to remain with his grandmother, and was now only too anxious to rejoin my beloved husband at Budherapore. When I spoke of my husband, the quick eye of the captain glanced at my left hand; happily, as I wore gloves, he could not observe that no ring was on my finger. Instructed, however, by this accident, on my way home I purchased a ring at a pawnbroker's in the Minories; purchased And when I recollected the education my parents it with a fervent hope that, sooner or later, the had given me with all the advantages of the Black-ring would be found to be of more than money's heath finishing-school-I had no canse for despair. value. I ought, however, to state that I took my I could play at least six tunes upon the grand piano: passage with the captain, the number of my cabin, I had worked a melon in Berlin wool so naturally, that my dear aunt fainted, as she declared, at the smell of it. I could dance, sing, and speak the very best Italian for-India. My father, seeing me constantly poring over the ship advertisements in the Times, guessed my intentions. One day he was confined to his room, having dined the day before at Blackwall. He sent for me, and expostulated with me on what he foresaw was my determination.

"My child," he said, "do you not perceive that you are born in the happiest state-that is, in the iniddle state of life? Consider how much grief, either way, you escape, by such a fortune. I will suppose you an earl's daughter-in time, to be married to a duke. Reflect upon the drudgery that would then await you. Compelled to be always playing a part; obliged, on all state occasions, to go and mob it at court; to stand behind stalls at fancy fairs; to be trundled about in a carriage, leaving bits of pasteboard from house to house; and, worse than all, if your husband should be a cabinet minister, to be obliged, every other month, to be nothing more than a court lady's maid, with this difference-that you're allowed to wear your own diamonds, and now and then permitted to see a follower. On the other hand, you

20. For this I was to pay seventy pounds. Í paid him-for I always managed to have money about me-twenty pounds in advance. "What name?" said he; "Mrs. Biggleswade," said 1; and I saw him write down, "Mrs. Biggleswade, cabin 20," on the list.

As for three years past I had determined upon this step, I had saved nearly all the money allowed me by my dear father for pocket money and clothes. And as, moreover, I made it always a point of being lucky at cards, I found myself mistress of a hundred and fifty sovereign pieces. "Now," thought I, "if my outfit even costs me fifty pounds, I shall have, passage and all paid, thirty pounds left; money, I thought, more than sufficient, even though a husband should not come off in the boat with the cocoa-nuts and yams, to marry me in the captain's cabin.

All my thoughts were now bent upon my outfit. With this purpose, I used to steal out morning after morning to make my purchases; having them all sent to the house of a good woman-she had been our cook, and had married a green-grocer-to keep for me for the appointed time. I laid in six dozen of double-scented lavender; a dozen of the finest milk of roses; twenty pounds of the best pearl powder; a gross of court-plaster; six ounces of