quently repeated; and such scenes are not very un

common.

It was some little time before we could learn the rules of etiquette which are observed among these itinerant or voluntary preachers. We supposed that if a meeting was given out for Sunday morning at the school-house by a Baptist, any other room might be obtained and occupied at the same hour by a Presbyterian or Methodist, leaving it to the people to chose which they would hear. But this is considered a most ungenerous usurpation, and such things are indignantly frowned upon by all the meeting-goers in the community. If a minister of any denomination has appointed a meeting, no other must preach at the same hour in the neighbourhood; and this singular notion gives rise to much of the petty squabbling and ill-will which torments Montacute as well as other small places.

This is one of the many cases wherein it is easier to waive one's rights than to quarrel for them. I hope, as our numbers increase rapidly, the evil will soon cure itself, since one room will not long be elastic enough to contain all the church-goers.

Of the state of religion, a light work like this affords no fitting opportunity to speak; but I may say that the really devoted Christian can find no fairer or ampler field. None but the truly devoted will endure the difficulties and discouragements of the way. "Pride, sloth, and silken ease," find no favour in the eyes of the fierce, reckless, hard-handed Wolverine. He needs

A preacher such as Paul,

Were he on earth, would hear, approve and own.

Ministers who cannot or will not conform themselves to the manners of the country, do more harm than good. PRIDE is, as I have elsewhere observed, the bug. bear of the western country; and the appearance of it, or a suspicion of it, in a clergyman, not only destroys his personal influence, but depreciates his office.

It takes one a long while to become accustomed to the unceremonious manner in which the meetings of all sorts are conducted. Many people go in and out whenever they feel disposed; and the young men, who soon tire, give unequivocal symptoms of their weari ness, and generally walk off with a nonchalant air, at any time during the exercises. Women usually carry their babies, and sometimes two or three who can scarcely walk; and the restlessness of these youthful members, together with an occasional display of their musical talents, sometimes interrupts in no small measure the progress of the speaker. The stove is always in the centre of the room, with benches arranged in a hollow square around it; and the area thus formed is the scene of infantile operations. I have seen a dozen people kept on a stretch during a whole long sermon, by a little, tottering, rosy-cheeked urchin, who chose to approach within a few inches of the stove every minute or two, and to fall at every third step, at the imminent danger of lodging against the hot iron. And tae mamma sat looking on with an air of entire complacency, picking up the chubby rogue occasionally, and varying the scene by the performance of the maternal office.

I fancy it would somewhat disconcert a city clergyman, on ascending his sumptuous pulpit, to find it

already occupied by a deaf old man, with his tin eartrumpet ready to catch every word. This I have seen again and again; and however embarrassing to the preacher, an objection or remonstrance on the subject would be very ill-received. And after all, I must confess, I have heard sermons preached in such circumstances, which would have reflected no disgrace on certain gorgeous draperies of velvet and gold.

The meliorating influence of the Sunday school is felt here as everywhere else, and perhaps here more evidently than in places where society is farther advanced. When books are provided, the children flock to obtain them, with a zest proportioned to the scarcity of those sweeteners of solitude. Our little Montacute library has been well-thumbed already, by old and young; and there is nothing I long for so much as a public library of works better suited to "children of a larger growth." But le bon temps viendra."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

There is a cunning which we in England call “the turning of the cat in the pan ;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.-BACON.

My near neighbour, Mrs. Nippers, whose garden joins ours, and whose "keepin' room," I regret to say it, looks into my kitchen, was most cruelly mortified that she was not elected President of the Montacute Female Beneficent Society. It would have been an office so congenial to her character, condition, and habits! 'T was cruel to give it to Mrs. Skinner, " merely," as Mrs. Nippers declares, "because the society wanted to get remnants from the store!"

Mrs. Campaspe Nippers is a widow lady of some thirty-five, or thereabouts, who lives with her niece alone in a small house, in the midst of a small garden, in the heart of the village. I have never noticed any thing peculiar in the construction of the house. There are not, that I can discover, any contrivances resembling ears; or those ingenious funnels of sail-cloth which are employed on board-ship to coax fresh air down between-decks. Nor are there large mirrors, nor a telescope, within doors, nor yet a camera obscura. I have never detected any telegraphic signals from without. Yet no man sneezes at opening his front door in the morning; no woman sweeps her steps

after breakfast; no child goes late to school; no damsel slips into the store; no bottle out of it; no family has fried onions for dinner; no hen lays an egg in the afternoon; no horse slips his bridle; no cow is missing at milking-time; and no young couple after tea; but Mrs. Nippers, and herniece, Miss Artemisia Clinch, know all about it, and tell it to everybody who will listen to them.

A sad rumour was raised last winter, by some spiteful gossip, against a poor woman who had taken lodg. ers to gain bread for her family; and when Mrs. Nippers found it rather difficult to gain credence for her view of the story, she nailed the matter, as she supposed, by whispering with mysterious meaning, while her large light eyes dilated with energy and enjoyment— "I have myself seen a light there after eleven o'clock at night!"

In vain did the poor woman's poor husband, a man who worked hard, but would make a beast of himself at times, protest that malice itself might let his wife escape; and dare any man to come forward and say aught against her. Mrs. Nippers only smiled, and stretched her eye-lids so far apart, that the sky-blue whites of her light-grey eyes were visible both above and below the scarce distinguishable iris, and then looked at Miss Artemisia Clinch with such triumphant certainty; observing, that a drunkard's word was not worth much. It is impossible ever to convince her, in any body's favour.

But this is mere wandering. Association led me from my intent, which was only to speak of Mrs. Nippers as connected with the Montacute Female Benefi