cause us.

And beside, it offended our pride not a little, that any one, and especially a young and dependent girl, should be so careless of our countenance and friendship. Our vanity prompted us to take some step that would bring her to us, and show her our power and splendor. The difficulty was how to do this without compromising our dignity. That must be maintained at all hazards.

These several conclusions were arrived at in solemn council one evening, after we had casually learned that the minister and his wife and Dr. Jones' lady had been drinking tea at Mr. Sackett's; an occurrence for which the records of the place furnished no precedent. It was obvious what had drawn them thither. Something must be done; we must get ourselves on less embarrassing terms with Miss Morris; and aside from the necessities of the case, we all felt no little curiosity to make the acquaintance of a person so bewitching. The matter was tacitly left to my mother's ingenuity, and we all went to bed. Whether my mother dreamed it out, as mathematicians are said to dream out difficult problems, I do not know; but the next morning it was announced that the embarrassment was got over. We were to make a party, and to ask among others the Sacketts and Miss Morris. This was pronounced on all sides a perfect chefd'œuvre in generalship. Miss Morris would of course come; and coming in such company, could not fail of seeing her true position in the social scale; and other people would see it too; and would admire our condescension in going so low as to ask the Sacketts' for our poor relation's sake.

Well, the evening at length came, and with it, at an early hour, came the worthy blacksmith and his wife, and his niece. It was a great day for the Sacketts'. That honest couple would have stopped immediately on passing the door of the drawing-room, if not in the hall itself; and would have taken the remotest corner in respectful silence, satisfied with being just within the magic circle of aristocracy, fashion and refinement, and awed into silent admiration by the splendor that shone around, and the majesty that sat enthroned at the farther end of the room. But Miss Morris, who had permitted them to come at their own hour, and in every thing had till now left their awe-struck fancy to itself, here interposed, and telling them that it was proper for them to pay their respects to the lady of the house, succeeded in bringing them to where my mother was seated. That lady on seeing them enter, had turned her attention and her eyes to another part of the room, rightly judging that Mrs. Sackett's sense of propriety, if left to itself, would keep her at a respectful distance, till a proper period having elapsed, she might direct some one to call the trembling trio to her. But she had reckoned without her host, as the squeaking of the blacksmith's boots and the rustling of his wife's silk dress speedily informed her. But my mother was fertile in resources; she turned her head, and after such an effort as those alone who wear spectacles know how to make, recognised Mrs. Sackett. She extended her hand, said she was very glad Mrs. Sackett had come, and asked her why she did not bring Mr. Sackett, and when Mrs. Sackett smiled a terror-struck and doubtful smile,

and when Mr. Sackett laughed a convulsive laugh, and they both said in a breath that she had brought him, my mother smiled too, and wondered she had not seen him before. When she had accounted for this oversight - not the less remarkable because the object of it had been within arm's-length of his wife all the while in several distinct and entirely contradictory ways, she inquired very cordially after the children,' and without attending to their reply that they had none, proceeded to say: 'You have brought your niece? Well I am very much obliged to you,' she added, turning with a condescending look to Miss Morris, 'You must not be afraid to come and see us alone after this.'

But a change came over the patronizing expression of her face, as she met, not the pale face of a terrified and trembling girl, but a countenance beaming with mirth, which was kept from breaking into a smile by the least bit of a sneer. She advanced and gave her hand to my mother, and without attending to the observation that had been addressed particularly to herself, said: 'You are rather under obligations to me for bringing my uncle and his wife, than to them for bringing me; and as a return for this favor, I beg you to introduce me to your daughters. I had half resolved to punish their neglect in not calling on me by refusing their acquaintance altogether; but when I recollect how nearly related we are, I have not the heart to do it.' Such a request my mother could not of course refuse, though it was by no means a part of her plan to pay Miss Morris so marked an attention.

Calling to me, who was doing the heir' to the various guests as they came in, and introducing me to Miss Morris, who received me with well-bred frankness, she sent me across the room to desire my sisters to come to her. This proceeding drew the attention of the whole company to the reception that our cousin received, and my mother for once was obliged to confess to herself that she had been out-generalled.

I of course did not return to witness the meeting between my sisters and Miss Morris, and of what passed then I only know that when she saw they took no notice of her friends, she introduced them in the most formal manner to Mr. and Mrs. Sackett; an infliction that they endured with not the best grace.

But this was only the least of their sufferings on that calamitous evening. The gallantry and devotion of all the gentlemen at the party were diverted from them, whose prescriptive right it was, and transferred to Miss Morris; and instead of flattering speeches about themselves, they heard only praises of their lovely cousin. We did all in our power to cause it be forgotten that there was such a person as Miss Morris in the room. But in spite of all our endeavors to the contrary, it was obvious that she was the sole object of interest and attention; and at length I gave up in despair my attempt to get up excitement in another part of the room, and joined the circle collected in a corner where Miss Morris was talking with Doctor Mills on the new style of hats.

As I observed her closely, for the first time, I could not withhold my

share of the tribute of admiration that was bestowed on all sides. Her form was not without grace, and her features were sufficiently handsome; but it was the expression of her eyes, of her whole face, earnest and sincere, in which lay the principal charm. Her dress was plain, but not to that mistaken degree of simplicity that is obviously designed to attract attention. Her conversation was animated, on trifling topics even gay, and marked every where by those fundamental qualities in every valuable character, good nature and good sense; I could not help admiring her, and yet while I stood gazing on this girl, an object so well calculated to excite the noblest emotions in every rightly-constituted breast, I remembered that she was poor, and low in society and occupation, and I thought for to this may the human heart by untoward circumstances be brought-I thought that Heaven had done injustice in giving her the power to please so well; while I envied, I almost hated her. Though she deserved the tenderest feelings and the warmest sympathy, she awakened in me only feelings of ill-will.

When there was a pause in the conversation, I proposed music, sure that there my sisters would outshine her. She said she did not play, and the room was silent while my sisters executed in their best style (and that style was to the acceptance of the first connoisseurs in the whole circle of our acquaintance,) some of the latest and most fashionable pieces, and finally they sung an Italian duett; Chinese to us, and, for that matter, to them also. All through they gained much applause. This turning to music was plainly a good hit. Then Dr. Mills asked Miss Morris if she did not sing. She said: Very little; nothing, indeed, but some old songs that every body had heard a great many times.' On being urged, she sang, accompanied by my sister on the piano, some of those old Scotch airs, that move the heart alike of the peasant and the prince, and which, though heard a thousand times already, are, when heard again, like the face of a child, or the sound of falling waters at night, dearer than ever before. Perfect stillness settled down on those around her while she sang; and as is always the effect of good music, we were made, each one of us, the wiser and the better by what we had heard. At length the company separated, and Miss Morris, I doubt not, haunted the sleep of every bachelor who had listened to her voice and gazed upon her features that evening. For one, I can positively answer, little as was the favor with which I was prepared to regard Miss Morris, I could not resist her attractions; and my evil and my good genius working together upon my brain, I dreamed of her as rich and high-born, and as my affianced bride. But when I awoke in the morning, my head was cooler and more rational I suppose, for I laughed at the absurdity of even dreaming of bestowing my high social position and great expectations on a village school-mistress. Nevertheless, even then, when I pictured to myself the woman I would choose, my imagination added to wealth and aristocratic position the countenance and conversation of Miss Morris.

Though we had evidently failed of impressing Miss Morris with

a proper sense of the distance between herself and us, we had succeeded in placing ourselves on less embarrassing terms with her.. At my mother's request she promised to make it her home with us for a few weeks. We expected to be annoyed by her impertinence and offended by her vulgarity; but we were compelled to admit, as we became better acquainted with her, that she was sufficiently respectful and polite, and by no means so rude and awkward as we supposed we should find her. It is true she seemed more fond than was proper of her patrons, Mr. Sackett and his wife, going to see them every day or two, and shaking hands with them at church with a vulgar familiarity that was quite shocking to our well-bred nerves. She was a little too much afraid of giving the servant trouble, and would talk with her familiarly for five minutes at a time. Then she had a hoydenish laugh, that was altogether inconsistent with true refinement. But though she violated my mother's notions of gentility in these and other particulars, yet that sagacious lady declared that it was all the fault of her education, and that even now she might be made, by living in good society, a very elegant lady.

With all these defects, Miss Morris was undeniably a very interesting girl. She became in a few days the centre of our social circle. My father forsook his customary employment of haranguing the village politicians in the tavern bar-room on summer afternoons, and sat at the open window in his own parlor, watching for Miss Morris's return from her daily task in the school-room. My sisters suffered less from ennui than ever before, and forgot even the fashions while thinking and talking of the new subjects on which Miss Morris drew them to converse. Miss Morris showed so much interest in the weighty matters that sometimes agitated even the placidity of my mother's mind, and seemed by her silence to value her advice so highly, that it was a wonder, my mother said, where the girl had picked up so much knowledge of what those in her station in society generally knew nothing about. In short, we all soon learned to love Miss Morris. All? Yes; I loved her. The better principles of our nature may be smothered or buried beneath artificial notions and artificial feelings, but they cannot be altogether extinguished. They still live, though their life may be feeble, in the heart even of the worst of men.

The conviction came upon me slowly, but I at length yielded to it, that Miss Morris was dearer to me than all my pride of family or the high matrimonial aspirations that I had accustomed myself and been taught to indulge. I found that poetry, of which I was sentimentally fond, had new charms when she sat hearing it by my side. I found myself getting up an hour before my usual time for the purpose of culling a nosegay, dripping with dew, for Miss Morris; and instead of spending my afternoons in reading romances that others had contrived, I coined them from my own brain, and made her the heroine. A month before, I should have laughed at the idea of my falling in love with Miss Morris. I believed myself born to a higher destiny. But the wise and the frivolous, the sen

sible man and the vain, are equally incapable of resisting the charms of beauty and wit, of kindness and intelligence. At first I thought her conversation entertaining, and I liked to be amused. After a while I would swear, by myself, that the girl was really pretty. By and by I discovered that I was flattered by her smiles when I attempted to be witty or wise. But it was not till I found myself following her with my eyes when she was present, and with my thoughts when she was absent, that the conviction came upon me that I was in love. It was not difficult for me to construe the civility and amiable deference that Miss Morris showed in her intercourse with me into the respect and even adoration which it was natural for her to feel toward one in every particular so far above her. She was a modest girl, and the idea that she could excite my love, of course never entered her head. Her admiration was therefore spontaneous and disinterested. I was a little ashamed, at first, of the weakness of falling in love with a person so far beneath me in social position; but on recalling some historical cases where great men before me had descended from the elevations of fortune and estate, and offered themselves at the shrine of female purity and truth, I recovered my equanimity, and resolved to follow the impulses of my heart.

The romance of the thing was worth being taken into consideration. How benevolent, how noble and self-sacrificing in me to rescue from the vulgar lot one who had nothing to bestow on me in return but the virtue and simplicity of nature! And how firmly would she be bound to me by the double tie of gratitude and love! Moreover, the wealthy match that I might have made I should leave perhaps to some 'poor but deserving' youth, and thus bless a second person by this high-minded act. When my pride had completely given way to my inclination, I cast about for the manner most gratifying to her in which to make known my passion for Miss Morris. Should I seek the first opportunity to declare my love, and let the happiness that awaited her burst at once upon her enraptured vision? Or should I little by little reveal my attachment to her, that she might have the pleasure of a continued surprise? I had heard of people who had died from the shock of joy, and I determined to run no risk in a matter that concerned my happiness so nearly. There was an additional reason for delay. It was not to be expected that my parents were prepared for a step so contrary to the projects they had formed. I therefore set. myself to gain, by the thousand arts that an only son can employ with so much success, the approbation, or at least the consent, of those on whom I was dependent.

The task was less difficult than I had expected. My mother told me, when, after many intimations, I plainly signified my design to her, that she had long ago resolved not to allow family interest or ancestral dignity to have any weight in a matter on which depended, in some measure, the happiness of a life-time. 'Money,' she said, 'was nothing; and there was no telling what a change association with genteel people might effect in the tastes and manners of Miss