'Open the windows, and clear the room,' said the doctor, with an air of authority, and without observing that the windows were open and that the room was being cleared without the aid of orders. Let this gentleman stay,' said he again, pointing to Ephraim, but let the ladies all retire.' Kneeling down beside the old man, whose mouth emitted fumes of stale rum and brandy, Mr. Whiskin felt his pulse, and then asked Crook what had been done, but Mr. Crook's detail of experiences was arrested by a long hollow groan, followed by a convulsive twitching of the patient's body.

'He's gone,' said the doctor, handling the patient in a cool deliberate way.

'Gone! dead?' interrogated Ephraim in consternation.

He'll never breathe again-apoplexy-apoplexy, — he's saved from delirium tremens,' said the doctor, with a shake of the head and an expression of disquiet at the odour of spirits which prevailed.

Jemima had heard the last remark through the keyhole, and with a loud shriek she bounded into the room. Then followed Jane, and the aunts, and the bridesmaids, and Mrs. Chip, who was too muddled to understand what was the matter, and was driven back by Ephraim.

The screaming, the sobbing, the shaking of the old man's body, and the agonising cries of 'Papa, papa, do speak to us!' made the scene still more terrible. Hearing of such an event at a distance, Ephraim would have considered it the best thing that could possibly have happened, as hastening the administration of the will; but here, in the presence of death, a witness of the last moments of the dying, his heart was most truly touched, and he clasped the two brides round the neck with his arms, and kissed them both, and wept bitterly.

Mr. Chalk drew from his pocket a huge scarlet handkerchief, but having no tears to wipe from his eyes, he sat in a corner with a fixed stare, and uttered not a word.

The old man's body was carried to an upper room, and the house was closed on the evening of the weddings.

CHAPTER IV.

There was more joy amongst the inhabitants of Swansdown when the news of Mr. Pinkerton's death went abroad, than was either pleasant to the surviving members of his family, or flattering to the memory of Mr. Pinkerton himself. Ephraim and his wife had been lodging close at hand with a friend; Jareb and Jemima were at the dairy, and on the

sixth day after the mutual wedding, they were assembled again to perform the duties of the funeral. When the sable procession moved from the door on foot, numerous unpleasant epithets, touching the character of the deceased, were uttered by the people assembled round the house, and as they passed through the streets to the churchyard of Swansdown, and were the observed of all observers, no look of commiseration was offered to the members, no word of solace uttered. The churchyard was thronged with people, and those who silently witnessed the lowering of the coffin, spoke grim pleasure in their countenances more definitely than could have been expressed in words. Those less observant of decency, and less delicate to the feelings of the family, muttered, 'old wretch'-' serve him right'-good job he's gone.' But the prayers were said over the bloated body, and the handful of mould thrown over the coffin, and the family party returned home, and soon forgot all the suggestions of death with which the grave and the corpse of the old man had filled them, and were soon seated round the table in the four-roomed cottage, partaking of those animal enjoyments which usually form the epilogue to a funeral.

Spirits, wine, and tea, are proverbial for the happy abandonment they produce; the little party soon passed out of their gloom into a sort of social sunshine, and in a very short time out of that, into a dry region of business. The demon of selfishness took possession of them one and all; and the sisters commenced a valuation of the furniture, and then a quarrel as to how it was to be divided.

Mr. Fogg was sent for, as it was understood that Mr. Pinkerton's affairs were best known to him, and that he, in fact, was the administrator of his effects. Mr. Fogg arrived, and assuming an air of considerable importance, began to congratulate the ladies on their marriage, and then to deplore with them the affliction caused by the sudden death of their father.

'Ah!' said Mr. Fogg, with a sigh, he was an excellent man, a kind father, and a respectable neighbour,' knowing all the while, that at least half of his impromptu epitaph was a falsehood.

'There is a will, I believe, Mr. Fogg,' said Crook, looking hard at Mr. Chalk, and laughing within himself, to think how gloriously he had tricked the dairyman.

'Is that about Jemima,' said Chalk, with his eyes and mouth both wide open, and with his whole body thrust across the table into Mr. Fogg's face.

'I'm sorry to hear, brother Chalk,' said Crook, slily, 'that the property is Jane's, and not Jemima's.'

'What property?' asked both the girls and Mr. Fogg together.

Jane's, and not Jemima's! oh Lord, I'm done, I'm done!' roared the milkman, half blubbering in tears and half exploding with rage.

"There's no property that I'm aware of,' said Fogg, thoroughly perplexed by the question. There's the house, and a few square yards of garden ground, both freehold, but

'The will-there's a will, where is it?' impatiently asked Ephraim, while his face turned ashy pale.

"Oh! it's all a mistake,' said Fogg, 'I know what you mean. Bless my soul, didn't you understand Pinkerton's way; it was all sham, that hinting way of his :-bless you, he had nothing to will away-this bit of a freehold isn't worth a hundred and forty pounds, and he owes me fifteen or twenty pounds more than that; in fact, it's mine by virtue of a bill of sale, drawn up last July twelvemonth; there isn't a stick besides, and I lose fifteen or twenty pounds then.'

"You lying scoundrel,' roared Chalk, as he rose up with clenched fists to chastise his deceiver.

'My dear fellow,' cried Ephraim, 'it's a sheer mistake; are you worse off than I am; ain't I as completely deceived as you are? It's a desperate affair, a wholesale swindle, Mrs. Crook, I'm-'

'Now Ephraim, it's not my fault,' cried Jane, clinging round his neck, and trying to look youthful and romantic; 'Ephraim, don't forsake me; you've enough for both; you expect your property in a year, you told me so

I property! I haven't a shilling-I'm in debt with everybody here, bandied about and hunted down; not a shilling, nor the means of getting one.'

The screams and frantic gestures of the women exceeded the anger of the men, and when Jemima, in a flood of tears, extorted from Chalk the terrible truth of his deception, the tumult became positively frightful, and Mr. Fogg was compelled to raise his voice above it all, and command attention, while he told them the real position in which they were placed. After much useless bawling, confusion, and fault-finding, the representative of the Lion and Lamb' unfolded a history of Mr. Pinkerton's affairs, and assured them, that while his income had always been much less than it was reported to be, he had spent what little he had, chiefly

at the Lion and Lamb;' and that a debt long contracted, on the part of the deceased to him, gave him a claim on everything which deceased had left; and that Mr. Grabble, the principle solicitor of Swansdown, would, the next morning, transfer the property into his hands, and in consideration of the misfortunes of the family, forego the balance which would be left unpaid.

'You are mighty kind,' said Crook, 'to make us a present of what does not exist, and which if it did exist, you would seize upon without a scruple, tender hearted Lion that you are.'

'Oh! if there had been but a few pounds for me,' bewailed Chalk, in a most heart-rending tone, 'how well I could have done with it, but as it is, I've ruined my business in courtship; I've neglected my affairs, and spent my money, and am utterly done for. Oh!" The exclamation at the end of Mr. Chalk's speech was lengthened out into a long o-o-u-u, and finished off with a bit of pantomime, implying that he would commit suicide with his pocket-knife.

'Don't be a fool now, man,' cried Ephraim, in an indignant tone, 'you have made a mistake, and so have I: it's a sixfold mistake, and were all the victims of each other. As far as love goes, I may as well confess, that I should have chosen Jemima, and I'm quite sure that you, Chalk, would have married Jane, there are two mistakes, and no remedy now. Respecting this imaginary will, I thought it was in Jane's favour, and you, Chalk, you thought it was in favour of Jemima. The will doesn't exist, so there are two more mistakes, and no remedy now.' Here Mr. Chalk interposed, with the ejaculation, 'Oh !' which he repeated several times, evidently to the relief of his mind.

;

'As to our two-here Ephraim paused, and looked vacantly at the two weeping brides-'as for our two dear wives,' he continued, they have fallen into our snares; Jane thought I had money, and Jemima thought you had money, Chalk or at least she did not suppose you in debt and penniless; so here are two more mistakes, and our misery is complete.' 'Not misery, I hope, dear Ephraim,' said Jane, affectionately, putting her hand on his shoulder, and looking earnestly into his face.

'No, not misery,' responded Jemima, 'not while we have youth, and hope, and industry to help us.'

At the word 'youth,' everybody looked hard at Jane, and Jane looked harder still at everybody, whereat, Ephraim coloured for a moment, and then said in a hearty tone, as if

he had comfortably swallowed a pill which previously threatened to choke him

'Ah! that's it, that's it, my dear Mr. Chalk, industry will soon drive from the door the famine that threatens us; and as for the disgrace, why that is temporary and local, and the moment we leave this place it is at an end, and we begin life afresh. You, Chalk, can begin again as you began before, with a comfortable dairy, or a chandler's shop, but don't waste your capital in sweetstuff. For myself, I never made a beginning yet, at least, if I did, I began at the wrong end, by making drafts on the future-spending an imaginary income that loomed in the distance, like a splendid bank of unlimited credit, and which now proves to have been a mirage—a mirage in a desert of Swansdown. But I suppose I'm still fit for something useful, eh, Jane? I shan't aim at anything grand this time, but endeavour to make sure of a living, so as not to stand in dread of the sudden appearance of half a dozen little Crooks, without baby-linen or aniseed.' 'Oh, you good fellow,' said Jane, in a subdued voice, at the same time shedding a tear and kissing him.

'Well, let's be jolly if we can,' blubbered the milkman, wiping his eyes with the wristband of his coat.

Of course we can, Jareb,' said Jemima; 'and happy too.' 'Ah,' roared Crook, bursting into uproarious laughter, as he beheld the tearful but resigned countenance of his friend. 'Happy, ah! happy as turtle doves, provided we keep mutual faith, and give up the ruinous practices of exaggeration and deceit.'

POETRY.

THE CEASELESS WEAVER.

There is a stern and ancient man'
Who worked at a loom,
Weaving the mantle for the bride,
And raiment for the tomb.
From summer-time to summer-
time,

His shuttle flieth ever,
And if you bid him rest awhile,
"Never! never!"

He answers, Yet watch him, that his mystic work

Be done as it should be,

For he is weaving every day.
A robe for thee and me,
He throws the shuttle to and fro,
The pattern we must give—
Co-workers with the stern old man,
Until we cease to live!

Not till eternity begins,

Will rest his shuttle's chime,Our actions are the woop and warf, The weaver old is Time !