uncommon in him. His manners deceived me. His attainments deceived me. Since he came here, except in this sad circumstance, he has conducted himself well. He has made himself agreeable and useful. I observed his attention to my Lucy, as I did yours to Jane, and I pleased myself with anticipating many years to come happier than any that had gone before. I thought to have married the two children of my never-forgotten daughters, to the objects of their choice, and to have spent my old age with them in tranquillity, under the favour, and enjoying the bounty, of gracious heaven. But be the will of God done!" Here he uplifted his hands, and tears flowed from his eyes. Arthur raised him to a seat.

"Forgive me, my honoured grandfather," said he, "if, when I said would to God Clinton had never come hither, I seemed to reproach you who introduced him. My heart, I assure you, was clear of any thought of blame to you; and what I suffer now would be greatly aggravated if you, in the least, were to blame yourself. You are as blameless as our beloved Lucy was."

"No-I now see otherwise," said the Pastor. was very wrong to suffer my grey hairs to be so imposed upon. Discrimination, caution, and a calm judgment, should attend old age-but I have shown neither: I have been partial to this young man with the heat and impulse of youth-I have my punishment! Ah, my son, I have my punishment!"

"Grandfather, I beseech you, add not to the sorrow of this dreadful morning by casting reflections on yourself," said Arthur. The Pastor put him aside, and turned his face to the body.

room.

His anguish became so overpowering that Doctor Bathurst, with friendly violence, forced him from the Deborah and her fellow-servants, with many a piteous expression, and many a sincere tear, decently prepared the body for the grave: The house-carpenter constructed a beautiful and durable coffin of black walnut wood, and Jane lined it throughout with white satin. A melancholy task! but she went through it with serious serenity. She had endured many trying scenes before this, and she felt that many more were before her.

No vandyked shroud, that thing of "shreds and patches," that most unseemly of modern inventions, disfigured the lovely corpse; but in its stead was put on a simple white dress, drawn to the feet in graceful folds. When the remains of Lucy were thus ready for burial, Jane, as she looked at her, could not refrain from saying

"O lovely appearance of death!

No sight in the world is so fair;
Not all the gay pageants of earth,
Can with a dead body compare.'"

CHAPTER VIII.

"But now thy youngest, dearest one has perish'd,
The nurseling of thy widowhood, who grew
Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherish'd,
And fed with true-love tears instead of dew;
Most musical of mourners weep anew!

Thy extreme hope, the loveliest and the last,

The bloom, whose petals nipt before they blew
Died on the promise of the fruit, is waste,

The broken lily lies-the storm is overpast."-Shelley.

On the second day after Lucy's death, Arthur went out to the spot he had selected for a burial place. It was a little elevated above the level of the valley, and formed a square, backed by a mountain; it was well shaded, especially at the boundaries, with high and slender trees; and was as solemn and retired a spot as any that was to be found throughout the valley. The grass was very high, of different sorts and colours, and matted. In some parts American reeds rose to the full height of a man. A labourer was employed in enclosing this spot with oak palisades; another was digging in the soil. Seeing Arthur, the latter cried out―

"It's of the right sort, master! I thought nothing but fine deep clay could bear such a burden of grass as we see here."

Arthur walked to him, sighing, as he waded through the weeds and clover.

"Clear off the decayed vegetation," said he, in a voice low and unmodulated; "make the ground in trim condition. Carry a path through the middle, and cut a few steps to the ground below."

"It shall be done, master, as cleverly, I guess, as by any yankee, or old England man, be he who he may,' said the States field-labourer, commencing operations with lusty readiness, that, to do him justice, sprang as much from honest sympathy, as from the love of gain.

Arthur passed over the enclosure, sometimes stopping with folded arms, his eyes fixed on the earth, and then viewing the place with a careful and sorrowful eye. At length he came near the centre, where four of those most melancholy looking trees called the cypress, grew in pairs, leaving sufficient room between their twin-roots for two roomy graves.

"Here," said he, "the ground looks as if no mortal foot had ever trodden on it since the world began. Here shall my sister lie

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring.'"

He went back to the busy labourer, and after a pause, during which his emotion was great, said, pointing"You see, Jacob, that middle space between those four trees

"Yes," said the man, "I was noticing it this morning; and, thinks I, it will just do, I guess, for-"

The agony visible upon Arthur's face checked the speaker. The former laid his hand upon the labourer's arm, and said, in scarcely audible tones

"Make it with the head to the hill; let the depth be not spared, and smooth it well at the sides."

"That I will, master; it shall be as neat a grave as ever was made in the Upper Canada country. You may depend on me. And when am I to have it ready?"

66

By Saturday," Arthur replied.

Saturday be it then," said the man.

"You need

not trouble yourself any more about it. The stakes will be driven in round the 'closure, and all done as you have ordered, take my word for it, master."

"I may depend on you, Jacob?"

"Unless I fall mortal sick, or die, all shall be made ready here by Saturday, as I hope in the Lord. Yes, to a sartainty, you may depend on my word."

66

Very well; on Saturday evening, Jacob, I shall come hither, as Sunday is the day fixed for the interment, and if you have kept your word, and all is prepared as I wish, it may prove to your interest."

"I am not thinking of my interest, master," said Jacob, wiping his eyes, and then pressing down the spade in the soil with his foot.

and

On the Saturday Jacob had finished his task. The grave, the path, and the few steps leading up to the path, were made. All but the freshest grass and reeds had been carefully removed; the palisades were completed, evergreen shrubs were planted close to it on the inside; besides all this he had placed a wooden seat around each pair of the cypress trees, by the grave, and had planted the borders of the path, which conducted. thither, with simple and hardy flowering plants.

"Will it do sir?" said Jacob to Arthur, as they walked along to the grave.