and low to please him, I knew well enough where it was. When he found we must give it up he never gave me a word of blame, but charged me not to say anything about the loss, for, wherever the deed was, Wilkins was just the man to take advantage if he knew we had lost it.

"Well, things went on in this way for a while, and I had many a good cryin' spell, I tell ye! and one evening when George was away, in comes Wilkins, I was sittin' alone at my knittin', heavy hearted enough, and the schoolmaster was in the little room; for that was his week to board with us.

"Is your man at home?' says he; I said-No; but I expected him soon, so he sat down and began the old story about the place, and at last he says,

"I'd like to look at that deed if you 've no objection, Mrs. Danforth.' I was so mad, I forgot what George had told me, and spoke right out.

"I should think, says I, you'd had it long enough to know it all by heart.

"What does the woman mean?' says he.

"You know well enough what I mean, says I, you know you took it from off this table, and from under this blessed book, the very last time you was in this house.

"If I had not known it before, I should have been certain then, for his face was as white as the wall and he trembled when he spoke in spite of his impudence. But I could have bit off my own tongue when I tho't how imprudent I had been, and what my husband would say. He talked very angry as you may think.

"Only say that where anybody else can hear you,'

says he, and I'll make it cost your husband all he is worth in the world.'

"He spoke so loud that Mr. Peeler, the master, came out of the room to see what was the matter, and Wilkins bullied away and told Peeler what I had said, and dared me to say it over again. The master looked as if he knew something about it but did not speak. Just then the door opened, and in came George Danforth led between two men as pale as death, and dripping wet from head to foot. You may think how I felt! Well, they would n't give no answer about what was the matter till they got George into bed-only one of 'em said he had been in the canal. Wilkins pretended to be too angry to notice my husband, but kept talking away to himself—and was jist a beginning at me again, when one of the men said, 'Squire, I guess Henry 'll want some looking after; for Mr. Danforth has just got him out of the water.'

"If I live to be an hundred years old I shall never forget how Wilkins looked. There was every thing in his face at once. He seemed as if he would pitch head-foremost out of the door when he started to go home-for Henry was his only child.

"When he was gone, and my husband had got warm and recovered himself a little, he told us, that he had seen Henry fall into the lock, and soused right in after him, and they had come very near drowning together, and so stayed in so long that they were about senseless when they got into the air again. Then I told him all that had happened and then Peeler, he up, and told that he saw Wilkins take a paper off the stand the time

I opened the bed-room door, to get the bridle, for he was at our house then.

"I was very glad to hear it to be sure; but the very next morning came a new deed and the mortgage with a few lines from Mr. Wilkins, saying how thankful he was, and that he hoped George would oblige him by accepting some compensation. George sent back the mortgage, saying he would rather not take it, but thanked him kindly for the deed. So then I was glad Peeler had n't spoke, 'cause it would have set Wilkins against him. After that we thought it was best to sell out and come away, for such feelings, you know, a' n't pleasant among neighbours, and we had talked some of coming to Michigan afore.

"We had most awful hard times at first. Many 's the day I've worked from sunrise till dark in the fields gathering brush heaps and burning stumps. But that's all over now; and we 've got four times as much land as we ever should have owned in York-State."

I have since had occasion to observe that this forms a prominent and frequent theme of self-gratulation among the settlers in Michigan. The possession of a large number of acres is esteemed a great good, though it makes but little difference in the owner's mode of living. Comforts do not seem to abound in proportion to landed increase, but often on the contrary, are really diminished for the sake of it: and the habit of selling out so frequently makes that home-feeling, which is so large an ingredient in happiness elsewhere, almost a nonentity in Michigan. The man who holds himself ready to accept the first advantageous offer, will not be very solicitous to provide those minor accommodations,

which, though essential to domestic comfort, will not add to the moneyed value of his farm, which he considers merely an article of trade, and which he knows his successor will look upon in the same light. I have sometimes thought that our neighbours forget that "the days of man's life are three score years and ten," since they spend all their lives in getting ready to begin.

CHAPTER VII.

Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart.

Will you buy any tape

Or lace for your cape,
My dainty duck, my dear-a?
Any silk, any thread,

Any toys for your head,

Of the newest and finest wear-a?

SHAKSPEARE-Winter's Tale.

OUR return to Detroit was accomplished without any serious accident, although we were once overturned in consequence of my enthusiastic admiration of a tuft of splendid flowers in a marsh which we were crossing by the usual bridge of poles, or corduroy as it is here termed.

While our eyes were fixed upon it, and I was secretly determining not to go on without it, our sober steed, seeing a small stream at a little distance on one side, quietly walked towards it, and our attention was withdrawn from the contemplation of the object of my wishes by finding ourselves spilt into the marsh, and the buggy reposing on its side, while the innocent cause of the mischief was fairly planted, fetlock deep, in the tenacious black-mud: I say the innocent cause, for who ever expected any proofs of education from a livery-stable beast ?—and such was our brown friend. "T were vain to tell how I sat on the high bog, (the