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"Nothing is a bargain," said the purchaser, with a chuckle, "until papers are delivered and the money paid in hand." "You have the paper."

"Ay, and will keep it, if you will excuse the money. Come! say one hundred and fifty, and I won't be hard. Here! here is just the money."

The peddler looked from the window and saw with dismay that the evening was fast advancing, and knew well that he endangered his life by remaining in the dwelling after dark; yet he could not tolerate the idea of being defrauded in this manner in a bargain that had already been fairly made. He hesitated.

"Well," said the purchaser, rising, “mayhap you can find another man to trade with between this and morning; but if you don't, your title won't be worth much afterward."

"Take it, Harvey," said Katy, who felt it impossible to resist a tender like the one before her; for the purchase-money was in English guineas. Her voice roused the peddler, and a new idea seemed to strike him. "I agree to the price," he said; and, turning to the spinster, he placed part of the money in her hand as he continued: "Had I other means to pay you, I would have lost all rather than have suffered myself to be defrauded of part."

"You may lose all yet," muttered the stranger, with a sneer, as he rose and left the building.

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'Yes," said Katy, following him with her eyes; "he knows your failing, Harvey: he thinks with me, now the old gentleman is gone, you will want a careful body to take care of your concerns."

ments for his departure, and he took no no-
tice of this insinuation, while the spinster
returned again to the attack. She had lived
so many years in expectation of a termina-
tion to her hopes so different from that which
now seemed likely to occur that the idea of
separation began to give her more uneasiness
than she had thought herself capable of feel-
ing about a man so destitute and friendless.
'Have you another house to go to?" in-
quired Katy.

"Providence will provide me with a home."

"Yes," said the housekeeper; "but maybe 'twill not be to your liking."

"The poor must not be difficult."

"I'm sure I'm anything but a difficult body," cried the spinster, very hastily, "but I love to see things becoming and in their places; yet I wouldn't be hard to persuade to leave this place myself. I can't say I altogether like the ways of the people hereabouts."

"The valley is lovely," said the peddler, with fervor, "and the people like all the race of man. But to me it matters nothing: all places are now alike, and all faces equally strange." As he spoke he dropped the article he was packing from his hand, and seated himself on a chest with a look of vacant misery.

"Not so, not so!" said Katy, shoving her chair nearer to the place where the peddier sat-"not so, Harvey. You must know me, at least; my face cannot be strange to you, certainly."

Birch turned his eyes slowly on her countenance, which exhibited more of feeling and less of self than he had ever seen there be

The peddler was busied in making arrange- fore. He took her hand kindly, and his own

features lost some of their painful expression, and pushing the wood in the fire to obtain a as he said, light from the blaze.

'Yes, good woman, you, at least, are not a stranger to me. You may do me partial justice; when others revile me, possibly your feelings may lead you to say something in my sufferings. say something in my defence."

The ebullition of feeling in the peddler was over; it had been excited by the events of the past day and a vivid perception of his sufferings. It was not long, however, that passion maintained an ascendency over the reason of this singular man, and, perceiving that the night had already thrown an obscu

"That I will-that I would," said Katy, eagerly; "I will defend you, Harvey, to the last drop. Let me hear them that dare re-rity around objects without-doors, he hastily vile you! You say true, Harvey: I am partial and just to you. What if you do like the king? I have often heard it said he was at the bottom a good man; but there's no religion in the old country, for everybody allows the ministers are desperate bad."

The peddler paced the floor in evident distress of mind; his eye had a look of wildness that Katy had never witnessed before, and his step was measured with a dignity that appalled the housekeeper.

"While my father lived," murmured Harvey, unable to smother his feelings, "there was one who read my heart; and oh what a consolation to return from my secret marches of danger, and the insults and wrongs that I suffered, to receive his blessing and his praise! But he is gone," he continued, stopping and gazing wildly toward the corner that used to hold the figure of his parent, "and who is there to do me justice?"

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threw his pack over his shoulders, and, tak-
ing Katy kindly by the hand in leavetaking,
"It is painful to part with even you, good
woman," he said, "but the hour has come,
and I must go. What is left in the house is
yours: to me it could be of no use, and it may
serve to make you more comfortable.
well! We shall meet hereafter."

Fare

"In the regions of darkness," cried a voice that caused the peddler to sink on the chest, from which he had risen, in despair. "What! another pack, Mr. Birch, and so well stuffed so soon?"

"Have you not done evil enough?" cried the peddler, regaining his firmness and springing on his feet with energy. "Is it not enough to harass the last moments of a dying man, to impoverish me? What more would you have?"

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but one hour's start from the door, they shall long as my bayonet: you had, therefore, best not set them at loggerheads, or you might be the loser."

be yours."

"One hour?" said the Skinner, showing his teeth and looking with a longing eye at

the money.

A figure stood in the shadow of the door, as if afraid to be seen in the group of SkinBut a single hour. Here! take the ners, but a blaze of light, raised by some money." articles thrown in the fire by his persecutors, Hold!" cried Harvey; "put not faith showed the peddler the face of the purchaser in the miscreant."

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"She may do what she pleases with her faith," said the Skinner, with malignant pleasure, but I have the money in good keeping. As for you, Mr. Birch, we will bear your insolence for the fifty guineas that are to pay for your gallows."

"Go on," said the peddler, proudly; "take me to Major Dunwoodie: he, at least, may be kind, although he may be just.”

"I can do better than by marching so far in such disgraceful company. This Mr. Dunwoodie has let one or two Tories go at large, but the troop of Captain Lawton is quartered some half mile nearer, and his receipt will get me the reward as soon as his major's. How relish you the idea of supping with Captain Lawton this evening, Mr. Birch?" "Give me my money or set Harvey free," cried the spinster, in alarm.

"Your bribe was not enough, good woman, unless there is money in this bed." Thrusting his bayonet through the ticking and ripping it for some distance, he took a malicious satisfaction in scattering its contents about the room.

"If," cried the housekeeper, losing sight of her personal danger in care of her newlyacquired property, "there is law in the land, I will be righted."

"The law of the neutral ground is the law of the strongest. But your tongue is not as

of his little domain. Occasionally there was some whispering between this man and the Skinner nearest him that induced Harvey to suspect he had been the dupe of a contrivance in which that wretch had participated. It was, however, too late to repine, and he followed the party from the house with a firm and collected tread, as if marching to a triumph and not to the gallows.

In passing through the yard the leader of the band fell over a billet of wood and received a momentary hurt from the fall; exasperated at the incident, the fellow sprang on his feet, filling the air with execrations.

"The curse of Heaven light on the log!" he exclaimed. he exclaimed. "The night is too dark for us to move in; throw that brand of fire in yon pile of tow, to light up the scene."

"Hold!" roared the speculator; "you'll fire the house."

"And see the farther," said the other, hurling the brand in the midst of the combustibles. In an instant the building was in flames. "Come on; let us move toward the heights while we have light to pick our road." Villain!" cried the exasperated purchaser; "is this your friendship-this my reward for kidnapping the peddler?"

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"Twould be wise to move more from the light if you mean to entertain us with abuse, or we may see too well to miss our mark, cried the leader of the gang. The next.

instant he was as good as his threat, but happily missed the terrified speculator and equally appalled spinster, who saw herself again reduced from comparative wealth to poverty by the blow. Prudence dictated to the pair a speedy retreat, and the next morning the only remains of the dwelling of the peddler was the huge chimney.

HARVEY BIRCH SURRENDERED TO THE AMERICANS. REWARD OF THE SKINNERS.

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Which is Captain Lawton?" said the leader of the gang, gazing around him in some little astonishment.

"He waits your pleasure," said the trooper, dryly.

"Then here I deliver to your hands a condemned traitor: this is Harvey Birch, the peddler-spy."

Lawton started as he looked his old acquaintance in the face, and, turning to the Skinner with a lowering look, he asked,

"And who are you, sir, that speak so freely of your neighbors ?-But," bowing to Dunwoodie, your pardon, sir. Here is the commanding officer; to him you will please address yourself."

"No," said the man; "it is to you I deliver the peddler, and from you I claim my reward."

"Are you Harvey Birch?" said Dunwoodie, advancing with an air of authority that instantly drove the Skinner to a corner of the room.

"I am," said Birch, proudly.

"And a traitor to your country," continued the major, with sternness. "Do you know that I should be justified in ordering your execution this night?"

"Tis not the will of God to call a soul so hastily to his presence," said the peddler, with solemnity.

"You speak the truth," said Dunwoodie; "and a few brief hours shall be added to your life. life. But as your offence is most odious to a soldier, so it will be sure to meet a soldier's vengeance: you die to-morrow."

"'Tis as God wills."

"I have spent many a good hour to entrap the villain," said the Skinner, advancing a little from his corner, "and I hope you will give me a certificate that will entitle us to the reward."

"Major Dunwoodie," said the officer of the day, entering the room, "the patrols report a house to be burnt near yesterday's battle-ground."

""Twas the hut of the peddler," muttered the leader of the gang; "we have not left. him a shingle for shelter. I should have burnt it months ago, but I wanted his shed for a trap to catch the sly fox in."

You seem a most ingenious patriot," said Lawton." Major Dunwoodie, I second the request of this worthy gentleman, and crave the office of bestowing the reward on him and his fellows."

"Take it. And you, miserable man, prepare for the fate which will surely befall you before the setting of to-morrow's sun."

"Life offers but little to tempt me with," said Harvey, slowly raising his eyes and gazing wildly at the strange faces in the apart

ment.

"Come, worthy children of America!" said Lawton; "follow and receive your reward."

The Skinners followed Captain Lawton with alacrity toward the quarters occupied

by the troop of that gentleman. The captain of dragoons had on all occasions manifested so much zeal for the cause in which he was engaged, was so regardless of personal danger when opposed to the enemy, and his stature and stern countenance contributed so much to render him terrific, that these qualities had in some measure procured him a reputation distinct from the corps in which he served. His intrepidity was mistaken for ferocity, and his hasty zeal for the natural love of cruelty. On the other hand, a few acts of clemency-or, more properly speaking, of discriminating justice—had with one portion of the community acquired for Dunwoodie the character of undue forbearance. It is seldom that either popular condemnation or popular applause falls exactly in the quantities earned where it is merited. While in the presence of the major the leader of the gang had felt himself under that restraint which vice must ever experience in the company of acknowledged virtue, but, having left the house, he at once conceived that he was under the protection of a congenial spirit. There was a gravity in the manner of Lawton that deceived most of those who did not know him intimately, and it was a common saying in his troop "that when the captain laughed he was sure to punish." Drawing near his conductor, therefore, the leader commenced a confidential dialogue.

""Tis always well for a man to know his friends from his enemies," said the half-licensed freebooter.

To this prefatory observation the captain made no other reply than a sound which the other interpreted into assent.

good opinion of Washington," continued the Skinner, in a tone that rather expressed a doubt than asked a question. "There are some who think so."

"Many of the friends of Congress in this county," the man proceeded, " wish the horse was led by some other officer. For my part, if I could only be covered by a troop now and then, I could do many an important piece of service to the cause to which this capture of the peddler would be a trifle." "Indeed! Such as what?"

"For the matter of that, it could be made as profitable to the officer as it would be to us who did it," said the Skinner, with a look of the most significant meaning.

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"It is necessary to have an understanding with some of them or we might be "I suppose Major Dunwoodie has the taken; but a man without honor is worse.

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