fumed nice, too; it can't have been long here, I bet.'

An oath and the declaration in loud tones that 'no man or woman in that house would be allowed to go out of it alive, to tell what their game in it had been,' showed me what peril I was in, and how desperate was the character of the men. Rushing up the steps, they entered the room, and almost immediately afterwards the closet, exclaiming, as they did so, I guess we've got her now.'

The lamp they carried threw a faint streak of light into my hiding-place, although the door was too close to admit of my seeing out. They stood for a moment, and in the stillness, the ticking of my watch seemed to my excited fancy loud enough to betray me.

'Let's look here,' exclaimed Gardner, making for a corner of the closet which happened to be concealed from view by a number of dresses, hung from a rafter in the sloping roof.

'It's no go,' he continued,' she's got off, however she did it, and carried away all that was worth coming for along with her.'

'It was all your fault, Fred,' rejoined his companion, 'you know you would have me leave the front door, and go with you to the back, and that was how she managed to slip out.'

What more might have been said I did not hear, as I fainted away for the first and only time in my life, and was, when discovered by Edward, at about half-past twelve, in a state of happy unconsciousness, if such a term can properly be applied to a person in a dead faint.

When I came to myself I was on the couch in the little sitting-room, my husband bending over me, and his brother Cyril, who had arrived unexpectedly from Montreal, and accompanied Edward home, preparing to go off for a doctor. This, however, proved unnecessary, although I was weak and ill for many days.

Judging from the time I must have gone upstairs, and the time at which

Edward found me, I could not have been more than a very few moments in a state of unconsciousness. As Edward and Cyril drew near the house they saw two men emerge from the front door, who rapidly made the best of their way off in the opposite direction, and when they reached the house it was to find both hall and back door open, with every indication that the place had been ransacked by robbers. My husband's anxiety may better be imagined than described, but after the first moment of excitement was over, his thoughts at once flew to the very hiding-place I had chosen, probably from the fact of our having only a day or two before spoken of the singular construction of the passage, and remarked what an excellent hiding-place it would make. We learned that poor Catherine, true to her word, had arranged with farmer Smith that his man, Fred Gardner, should go half-a mile further and bring Barbara Croker in to us at once.

The man had learned enough of the circumstances to know that the chances were greatly against my husband's getting home until far into the night or rather morning.

He had also gathered from what fell quite innocently from Catherine that our house contained a quantity of plate, the value of which was no doubt greatly exaggerated in his opinion by her description, and so, instead of Barbara Croker, had brought back to town with him a companion in crime with whose aid he hoped to effect a successful robbery.

The two must have prowled about the neighbourhood for several hours waiting to see that everything favoured their designs, as the servant at Mrs. Lee's had seen two men who answered their description exactly, pass at a comparatively early hour in the evening, and again at a quarter to twelve when she looked out after extinguishing the lights, going on each occasion in the direction of our house.

Both men turned out to be convicts

M'

Y wife and I made up our minds to give the children an outing. With so many steamboats and railroads offering excursion fares for those who, like ourselves, wanted to take the balsam of fresh pure air, it was no easy matter to decide upon the route and destination. I wanted to go by boat, but Mrs. Slater, the mother of my numerous olive-branches, was against travelling by water, reminding me (just as if I could ever forget) how that the last time we went to Niagara she and all the children were victims to sea sickness. I tried to persuade my better-half that, as on that occasion the lake was not rough, the illness of the family had probably arisen from the fact of their imprudently lunching on a mixture of sardines, custards, cherries, rich cakes, pies, gingerpop, &c., and that nature had merely rebelled at such an unaccustomed jumble. I reasoned, however, with Mrs. S. in vain; she would not consent to let her darlings risk the danger of going on over-crowded and unsafe excursion boats. Still I urged the matter at intervals for several days, but, finding her of the same opinion, I, likea wise man, gave up the struggle, and it was finally decided that we were to go by train to a place some miles away from the city, and picnic on a pretty spot by the lake-side, and thus have all the advantages of lake air without encountering the disagreeables attending travel by water. Of course, the children were in a wild state of excitement when they heard of the proposed excursion, and kept the house in a perpetual racket with their high spirits and healthy lungs. When the event

ful day arrived, we got up at an unearthly hour, not to get the earlyworm, but to catch the 7 o'clock train, and had a rare scramble for anything approaching a breakfast. When we were ready to start I was dismayed to find that the baby' was to be of the party, for I hold with every sensible

man that babies are better at home than anywhere else (at least when their fathers are with them); but Mrs. Slater had her way in this, and as the youngest Miss Slater crowed and smiled in her nurse's arms, and looked the merriest little cherub in creation, I hadn't the heart to insist on her being left behind. I was appalled by the number of baskets and shawls that were to accompany us. Jane, having the baby, could not carry anything else, so I found that a good many more things than I bargained for fell to me to look after.

On arriving at the station, we found that there was a large number of other excursionists, and we had some difficulty in obtaining room in the car for our party, although we sat three in a seat. We had barely settled ourselves and arranged the baskets when Harry discovered he was awful hungry,' and Nellie and Tom declared themselves almost on the point of starvation and the twins begged piteously for a 'bisted.' It was useless trying to persuade them to wait until we arrived at our destination, so after a good deal of trouble I got the basket that my wife said had the biscuits, intending to distribute one to each of them. The basket, however, instead of containing biscuits, held a rich iced plum cake, and many were the exclamations of

delight made by the children when they beheld it. However, I promptly closed the lid over the cake, and the pleasant looks of the little folks were soon replaced by those of disappointment. I was persisting on their having merely biscuits at that early hour, when their mother perceiving that five pairs of little eyes were preparing for a down-pour persuaded me to relent, so, contrary to my better judgment, rather than have such a damper on the day's enjoyment, I gave them each a slice of the unwholesome stuff, declaring positively that that was all they should have. I had no sooner replaced the basket and settled down again, than Nellie having demolished every crumb of her slice of cake, found that she was very thirsty, as also did the other youngsters. Tom immediately went off to help himself from the water-can at the end of the car, when his mother (who is a very fastidious person), saw him drinking from the tin mug left for the convenience of the general public. Thereupon she was seized with the idea that he might contract some horrible disease, and called out for him to wait until she got him his silver cup. Of course the cup turned out to be at the bottom of another basket, the one containing the apples. This in her hurry she upset, the contents running pell mell along the car and creating quite a diversion among the other passengers, who were very ready to pick the apples up and help themselves to all they could lay their hands on, so that by the time we had collected as many as we could, more than half had been appropriated. Except that Nellie spilt a cup of water over her pretty frock, and Harry fell down and bruised his knee, we arrived without any further accident at the station we were to stop at. There were no carriages, and we found we should have to walk a mile in the blazing sun to the place we had selected. I suggested stopping at the hotel, but as the rest were against that plan, I concluded I would make an

amiable martyr of myself and we set off accordingly.

It was a rough walk, and the twins were soon tired, and asked to be 'tarried.' A kind father could not resist the appeal, so the young monkeys were hoisted upon my shoulder turn about, and seemed to enjoy their rides immensely; kicked their dear little heels against my back occasionally, spurring their horse to greater speed; making reins of my whiskers, so that when we reached the place decided on for our pic-nic I felt slightly tired and hot. It seemed a capital place; it was well shaded by trees and quite close to the lake. The children were in ecstasies and wanted lunch instantly, so we set about getting it ready. My wife, with my assistance, spread the repast on the clean tablecloth provided for the purpose, and though I refrained from saying so at the time, I confess I was surprised at the richness of the food prepared for the children. But it was too late to remedy the evil, and, certainly, if the wholesomeness of the viands might be questioned, there was no doubt as to their appetising qualities. Indeed, the amount consumed by the little Slaters was startling. The usual beetles, bugs and spiders walked carelessly over the table-cloth, pies, cakes, meat, plates and dishes, but in no way did this appear to affect the appetite of the children. This was rather an amusement than otherwise.

About the middle of the repast, a large, inquisitive frog hopped unexpectedly into the middle of the tablecloth and caused great excitement. Mrs. Slater jumped up as I had not seen her do for years, Jane screamed, and the children were delighted, somebody upset all our milk and a bottle of raspberry vinegar, both fluids running promiscously among chickens, cakes, pies, etc., and leaving the baby with the prospect of being starved. None of the Slater family having shown any tendency to emulate the chivalric Dr. Tanner, the latter cir

cumstance seemed a serious accident. When she had had her lunch, Jane offered to go and see if she could get some milk at any of the houses we had passed. After telling her to be sure and hurry back, which she promised readily enough to do, we assented to her going. She presently departed, leaving Mrs. Slater and myselves sole guardians of the remnants of the repast and the children.

For some time the little people played contentedly on the lake-shore in front of us, and then Tom came and asked if they could go just beyond the tree we saw, and 'paddle.'

To this, on their promising not to wet their clothes, we gave our consent, and away they went, to take off shoes and stockings, in high glee. In truth, my wife and myself were glad of a few minutes' quiet, but, as luck would have it, baby, missing her dinner, began to get cross, and it was all her mother could do to partially soothe her-trying, ineffectually, to make that young lady partake of biscuits and water, as a substitute for her usual diet of milk. I do not remember the exact length of time that had elapsed since the children had gone off, but we presently heard a loud, piercing shriek from one of them, which made our hearts jump into our mouths, and sent me running towards the direction from whence the sound came, expecting to find some dire accident had befallen one or other of them. It took only a few moments to reach them, and I was infinitely relieved to find that they were all there, though in the greatest excitement, for all the boys were in a state of nudity, they having evidently enlarged my permission to 'paddle' into taking a full bath. One of the twins was howling dismally, and Harry, the eldest boy, was up to his neck in water, vainly endeavouring to catch with a stick a bundle of something that was floating slowly but surely beyond his reach. After various questions, and a chorus of answers from all at once, I learned

the cause of all the hullabaloo. It seemed that the twin' who was crying had hung his linen blouse, pants, and other garments on the projecting branch of a tree, and while enjoying the delights of bathing, had suddenly perceived that a cruel wind had blown his garments far out into the water, further than any of us could reach with the aid of the longest stick to be found. I gave the children a good scolding all round, and if it hadn't been a holiday, would have added a sound thrashing as well. I ordered them all to dress immediately, and as it dawned on the unlucky twin that in lieu of his lost clothes, he would have to sit wrapped up in a shawl for the remainder of the day, he cried more lustily than ever. The toilet of the fry did not occupy many minutes; it was but just completed when their mother, remembering that they had had no towels to dry themselves with, was afraid that they would take cold, and get inflammatory rheumatism. Nothing would satisfy the maternal heart but that all their clothes must come off, and each of them undergo a rubbing process with the table cloth, while their under-garments were laid in the sun to dry.

As Jane had not yet returned, Mrs. S. had to look after this matter herself. While she did so, she gave me the baby to look after. That young lady was sucking, discontentedly, a biscuit, and let me have a good deal more of the disgusting mess than I wanted, putting her sticky fingers into my hair, and, with undesirable generosity, thrusting the wet stuff into my eyes and against my nose, in a vain attempt to put it into my mouth. These pleasantries soon ceased to amuse her, and she next tried pulling my whiskers, and messing my white shirt and collar, by patting and pulling them with her dirty little hands. My four boys, seated in a row, wrapped up in shawls and waterproofs, looked pretty dismally comical, but I was too cross to enjoy the situation, and vowed it