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the lustre of her personal possessions, her pearly teeth and diamond eyes.'

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"Een drink, then, as ye brewed. Since you can do without my advice, you can do without my money." "Are you not getting rather unreasonable, slightingly of serious matters. These qualMrs. Thomson?" ities I hold not the value of a pin's point

"It is too much your habit, John, to speak

"Are you not getting excessively imper- unless they are accompanied by the three tinent, Master John Brown?"

"Nay, nay! let us not quarrel about a trifle. You surely would allow me some degree of suffrage in a matter so personally interesting as the choice of a wife?"

"I wish to meddle with no man's affairs, but for the sake of him-poor William, your father-I cannot but take an interest in your welfare; and if you had made a reasonable match with a young lady of whom I could approve, I will not promise but I might have helped you a little until your business were established, with the understanding that I would receive a legal percentage for what I might advance."

"Then, my dear aunt, I feel assured you have but to see my choice to be pleased with her. Such beauty, wit,

virtue "

"Pooh! I doubt she is some low person, or you would not insist on these things. Is she of a good family? Has she any money, or the prospect of any? That is what I wish to know."

"Her family is irreproachable, for her father can trace his genealogy as far back as the days of George III., and none of them ever suffered under the hands of the hangman. As to her wealth, she is possessed, I am happy to say, of a great many properties she has a well-furnished memory, an excellently-cultivated understanding, a superb imagination, a brilliant wit and an unbounded store of affection, not to mention

indispensable p's to the character of a good wife-prudence, piety and property."

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'And is your favorite up stairs possessed of these qualifications? Tell me, aunt, who is she?"

"The lady up stairs is a comparative stranger to me, but I am mightily pleased by what I have seen of her. Your old acquaintance Mrs. Smith of Berwick brought her. She is a Miss Farquhar, and belongs herself, I believe, to that quarter, although Mrs. Smith tells me she has some prospects of finally settling in your own town of Glasgow."

"A glass of water, if you please. Tush! I am quite well, aunt. A mere momentary qualm. And now I have to reproach you as well as myself for leaving the ladies so long to themselves by our idle chat on a subject which can be talked over again. We must, for very decency, go up stairs. Please introduce me: it is cruel to delay another moment.'

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As my aunt ushered me into the room with. the formal explanation of "Mr. Brown, my nephew, from Glasgow," Arabella, who was sitting at a work-table with Mrs. Smith, suddenly started, and a deep blush suffused her neck and forehead. While bowing I contrived to place my finger on my mouth, to indicate I wished no recognition. Mrs. Smith seemed to understand this intuitively, for, although it was through her I had originally become acquainted with Arabella, she spoke of us as entire strangers. Arabella herself

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bound propensities ever look for exaltation. Deeply as I pity my aunt's illiberalities, henceforth shall I revere her for descrying so speedily your worth. It were in my power at present to deceive her by affecting to follow her counsel in paying my addresses to you. Nay, start not! I cannot do it for my own sake, and dare not do it for yours. If my own soul could condescend to such meanness, it were unworthy of worshipping thine."

So saying, I sought my aunt with all haste and told her explicitly that her favorite, Miss Farquhar, was no other than my betrothed. Whether charmed by my candor or by the reciprocity of our tastes, I know not; but my aunt behaved on this occasion in a manner worthy of the sister of my father. Her assistance not only exceeded my expectation, but exceeded my original demand. She even came so far as Glasgow to patronize with her personal presence our wedding. Nor had she ever reason to regret her generosity, for in her declining years Arabella administered to her infirmities like a daughter, and our first-born little boy, William, renewed once more her long-smothered affection; so that the latter days of her life were benignant and blessed as those of its commencement. While living she would scarcely allow the little rascal out of her sight,' and on her death she proved the extent of her love by leaving him all her

"A small dose of prussic acid would per- immense property, at my disposal till he came haps be more advisable."

"No trifling, John; I am serious. Go to your aunt immediately and tell her the circumstances under which we stand. I can bear this state of duplicity no longer."

"Dearest and ever noble-minded, to you as to an angel of light must my poor earth

of age, with the exception of only five thousand pounds, which went to the South Sea missions, and a handsome annuity of thirty shillings, which, with some trifling assistance of our own, went to the support of an old housekeeper who had got blind and deaf in her service.

ALEXANDER WHITELAW.

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NOAH.

HE sun had sunk behind the | He gazed around, and o'er his head was seen
The smiling olive, with its leaf of green.

watery waste,

When night's pale regent,

beautiful and chaste,

With silent footsteps stole

upon the sight,

dreams of night.

"Father, come forth!" he cries, with heart

elate;

"For now the waters do indeed abate."

As fearful to awake the Strange to relate, in these unthinking times,
The traveller, while exploring distant climes,
Calmly she mounted up the Leaves thee, O Ararat! and feels no shame,
And scarcely do his lips inquire thy name.
Had not thy towering summit long before
Redeemed the burden that the Deluge bore,
Thou hadst not worn memorials so unjust-
The prints of thoughtless footsteps in thy
dust-

azure plain
With all her twinkling vas-
sals in her train;
Cloud after cloud, in long fantastic chase,
Sweep in succession o'er her pallid face,
But she, still travelling up the blue serene,
Holds her calm course and lifts her light
between,

Till, by no intervening shade o'ercast,
She gives a steady settled ray at last :
The treacherous deep, so late by tempests

worn,

And storms, as if by human passions torn,
Now like a blessed spirit once forgiven
Reflects the pure and sacred light of heaven.

The ark, now gliding under easy sail,
Urged by the pressure of a gentle gale,
While no rude breath of wind the prospect

mars,

Moves o'er a liquid firmament of stars.
At length she rests, but with a shock so light
That not a single slumberer of the night
Wakes from his dream. At morn's return-

ing ray

Shem oped the window to behold the day;

And earth until this very hour had run,
A silent planet, round the golden sun:
'Twas Ararat alone preserved from death
The little portion of almighty breath.

When the fierce warfare of the heaven is o'er

And thunders answering thunders cease to

roar,

How beautiful to see the sun's bright helm
Shining serene in his recovered realm!
The victor, in his robes of triumph drest,
Looks gay and smiling from the rosy west,
The dewdrops catch the triumphs of the
sky

And flash a little sun on every eye:
Such joy did in the patriarch's bosom reign
When first the ark reposed on earth again.
He cries, "In reverence to this holy place,
Put off your sandals, all of Noah's race!

It is the hour of mercy, and invites
The bleeding sacrifice and solemn rites."

The few survivors of the Flood draw near; An altar formed with pious haste they rear, And fain would female pity intercede :

The traces now were fugitive and faint,
Smoothed to the resignation of a saint.
He saw an eye that when it cast a look
Down on the Deluge instantly partook
Of deep anxiety; when on the face
Of Noah it had found a resting-place,

The favorite lamb is now condemned to Sorrow was banished from its orbit quite :

bleed;

He, unsuspecting injury, draws nigh,
Nor thinking he is ever doomed to die
Bounds by the altar with his merry feet.
The mountain-echoes still return his bleat

When Japheth grasps him by his snowy fleece;

Upward he looks: his eyes betoken peace; So pure is innocence, so undismayed, He sees no terror in the lifted blade: Then, faint and dying at the altar's base, One look he casts upon the female face, And while the ruddy drops his vesture stain He wonders why he feels the sudden pain. The flame ascends, and while the suppliants kneel

And offer up their prayers with pious zeal, They start, they listen, for a sudden sound Disturbs the sacred quiet reigning round.

It calls thee, Noah, and the accent flows Soft as a zephyr's whisper to a rose.

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He turned, and saw a face that seemed to Thy infant eye had caught in summer hour

wear

A mingled character of joy and care:
It was not joy, for, though upon the cheek
A smile appeared, it was a smile so meek,

So
coy, so placid, every eye might know
'Twas touched with memory of former woe,
And, though the forehead's yielding ivory

wore

The insect plunderer of the fragrant flower Loading his little thighs with waxen spoil And humming like a laborer o'er his toil; Beheld thy hand that could not then for

bear

To seize the poor mechanic seated there:
The little captive looked, and saw with dread
The infant blossom closing o'er his head;

The marks that Care's rude hand had sculp- Disconsolate he roamed his narrow cell,

tured o'er,

The petty prisoner of a floweret bell.

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