necessity in the world.

Och! by St. Patrick, I thought

I'd have dropped when I see you!"

"How came you to know that I did so ?"

"I was peeping through the keyhole," answered Deborah.

"Indeed!" said Clinton, smiling; "and how long

were you so engaged pray?"

As soon as I heard

you

"Oh not long, I'd be bound. spake I was off fast enough to his honour the Pastor.".

Clinton would have ill endured to have heard that Deborah, or any other person, had been a witness of his forcible expulsion from the chamber by Arthur, and he was sensibly relieved by the evident certainty that she knew nothing of that humiliating incident.

"But what was your intention in going to the Pastor?” he asked; "to engage him as your friend in the trouble your kindness had brought upon you, was that it?”

66

"Oh, then, you have just hit it.

Sure enough I had no other intintion. But little luck had I when I went, at any rate. I might as well have saved my breath to say my prayers with."

"But what passed between you and the old gentle

man ?"

66

and heard him get off his Come in, says he, and in

Why," said Deborah, "this was what passed :I rapped softly at the door, knees, and shut up his book. I went, making a curtsy. He was wiping his eyes, and seemed in great distress of mind, which was to be sure no wonder at all. I beg your pardon, your honour, says I, for intruding on you in this way. Never mind, Deborah, says he, is any thing the matter? Then I said my say, and tould him how I had seen you, and how you

had persuaded me just to let you have a peep at the bonny corpse of my young missthress, and how Mr. Arthur had seen you in the burial-room, and how I was afraid I should be very much found fault with; but he catches me up sharp, and, says he, Deborah, did you say my grandson has seen Mr. Clinton there? O, sir, says I, they are both there together this blessed minute. Then, Deborah, he says, says he, you have most likely done a mischief which you can never repair; and so he goes away without a word more to Mr. Lee's room, and laves me standing in the middle of the floor without the laast relief for my mind."

“Well, you must make up your mind to the worst, Debby," said Clinton; "I am heartily sorry that I have led you into such an affair, but it is not to be helped now."

"And that's thrue at any rate," said Deborah; " and so I shall keep myself as asy as I can, and the timpist may make as big a noise as it likes; the wind may blow high, or blow low.-By St. Patrick, it shall be all the same to me! At the worst, I can only be bade to quit; and though I can't deny it would be a heart-sore to me, yet I would make no word about the same, but quit, and quickly too. The world's wide enough-I should not starve-I should find a bit of bacon and a pratee some where, no fear of that."

Clinton and the mariner refused to avail themselves of the kind offers of the miller and Jacob, and it was accordingly understood that they were to remain up together. Before the latter left them, with the intention of retiring, the sailor was asked many questions, such as to what vessel he belonged--when and where he had left

it-whither it was bound-what countries he had visited in it-and what articles it traded in. Clinton at the time. was standing with his back toward the person interrogated, but immediately he turned round, and fastened him a look, which the mariner seemed to avoid a little uneasily; however, he spoke with freedom enough, and did not seem at all at a loss for a reply.

upon

66

Why," said he, "my little schooner, that is, my captain's, is a tight vessel enough, draws a good deal of water, and can bear a gale as well as any ship; she runs fast when there is occasion, and her crew are a bold and a jolly set; as for her trade, she carries peltries (furs), tobacco, wood-ashes, and all sorts of things. She never stops long in one place, but goes passing about the great lakes. I will show you with this bit of chalk her way on the waters."

Seeing many interested faces about, he drew, with rough accuracy, on the surface of the table, a kind of map within a square, on which Clinton looked with the most curious attention.

66

Now," said the mariner, pointing with his finger to a slanting chalk line within the left side of the square," you may suppose that to be the St. Lawrence, (one of the largest rivers in the world, you know,) with the gulf at this end next me, opening out to the Atlantic ocean. But at that end of the river, farthest from me, fancy my ship takes her start. There," his finger was placed at the end of the slanting line, and moved along a stroke diverging horizontally, "where the St. Lawrence ends, twelve miles wide, starts my little schooner on the Lake of the Thousand Isles, Ontario, which is one hundred and eighty-five miles long. Here the States are

on one side, British Upper Canada on the other.

Now

as we go along, we may dip into Navy Bay (and a noble bay it is), on the English side, or into Quinté, or Burlington Bays, or into the bays on the American shore, and change our cargo as often as we can make good bargains."

"There are, plenty of steam boats on Lake Ontario,” said the miller, and canoes in hundreds, I have heard."

"Yes, there are," said the mariner, "and canoes are plentiful on all the lakes; some of them carry heavy burdens too; but, indeed, they are of all sizes."

"Well now," said Jacob, resting his elbows on the table, and leaning his head between his hands, while his eyes were settled on the chalk mark on which the seaman's finger rested, "when this little schooner has got to the end of this Lake of a Thousand Isles—”

“Then it takes a turn past Niagara Falls," resumed the mariner," and is in Lake Erie, which is two hundred and fifty miles long. We may chance to have rough treatment here; navigation is no easy work among Erie's rocks, and high surf; and then you know, I suppose, the waters run shallower in this lake than the others, and that circumstance, with the constant current setting downwards, and the heavy north-west and southwest gales, make it dangerous for sailors who are not expert at their craft. Mind, all the way we go, the States are on one side, and English-Canada on the other." Now with his finger he turned a corner of the square he had drawn, and moved downwards on a third line, which curved a little inwards." The corner you see is Lake St. Clair, which is just a sort of passage for us to the great Lake Huron. This water is two hundred and fifty

miles long, one hundred and ninety miles broad, and eight hundred and sixty feet deep-it covers five million acres."

"And all fresh water-not salt!" exclaimed Deborah, who, with a pan of milk upon her arm, was leaning like the rest over the centre of attraction.

"Not in the least salt," said the mariner; " as fresh as that milk you carry."

"I have heard that it has a great many large bays and islands," said the miller.

"A countless number indeed," said the mariner; "and by looking in upon some of the Indians, and the half-breed hunters, and fishers, to be found upon them, we may pick up peltries of value, and other articles worth seeking. The coasts are so set with islands and bays, that they are grand and singular, I can promise you; and how many fine rivers flow into it, I suspect is not known. However, suppose the little vessel to the end of Huron, here she reaches the bottom of my square, at this right hand corner, and gets through River St. Mary into Lake Superior."

There was now a movement of increased interest around the table, for this majestic inland sea, and the most remote of all the lakes, had not been visited by any one whom the listeners had met with before.

"If you are not rocked in your hammocks here," said the mariner, "it is not for want of waves; and there is a ground-swell rolling you about so lustily, that if you had been at sea a hundred years I would defy you not to feel qualmish about the stomach. There are from two hundred to two hundred and fifty rivers running into this lake. The coast, on the Canada side, is twelve