MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 393 



" ' Eliot, how easy for you how impossible for me ! ' 



" ' Dear Bessie, do be firmer, for mother's sake. For ever ! oh no, my 

 dear sister, it will not be very long before 1 return to you ; and while I am 

 gone, you must be every thing to mother/ 



" ' I ! I never was good for any thing, Eliot and now ' 



" ' Bessie, my dear child, hush you have been you always will be a 

 blessing to me. Don't put any anxious thoughts into Eliot's mind we shall 

 do very well without him.' 



" * Noble, disinterested mother ! ' trembled on Eliot's lips ; but he suppressed 

 words that might imply reproach to Bessie. 



" The sacred scene was now broken in upon by some well-meaning but 

 untimely visitors. Eliot's approaching departure had created a sensation in 

 Westbrook ; the good people of that rustic place not having arrived at the 

 refined stage in the progress of society when emotion and fellow-feeling are 

 not expressed, or expressed only by certain conventional forms. First entered 

 Master Hale, with Miss Sally Ryal. Master Hale ' hoped it was no intru- 

 sion ; ' and Miss Sally answered, ' by no means ; she had come to lend a 

 helping hand, and not to intrude ' whereupon she bustled about, helped 

 herself and her companion to chairs, and unsettled every body else in the 

 room. Mrs. Lee assumed a more tranquil mien ; poor Bessie suppressed her 

 sobs, and withdrew to a window, and Eliot tried to look composed and manly. 

 The children, like springs relieved from a pressure, reverted to their natural 

 state, dashed off their tears, and began whispering among themselves. Miss 

 Sally produced from her workbag a comforter for Mr. Eliot, of her own 

 knitting, which she 'trusted would keep out the cold and rheumatism :' and 

 she was kindly showing him how to adjust it, when she spied a chain of 

 braided hair around his neck ' Ah, ha, Mr. Eliot, a love token ! ' she 

 exclaimed." 



" ' Yes, it is,' said little Fanny, who was watching her proceedings ; 

 ' Bessie and I cut locks of hair from all the children's heads and mother's, 

 and braided it for him ; and I guess it will warm his bosom more than your 

 comforter will, Miss Sally/ 



" It was evident, from the look of ineffable tenderness Eliot turned on 

 Fanny, that he ' guessed' so too ; but he nevertheless received the comforter 

 graciously, hinting, that a lady who had been able to protect her own bosom 

 from the most subtle enemy, must know how to defend another's from com- 

 mon assaults. Miss Sally hemmed, looked at Master Hale, muttered some- 

 thing of her not always having been invulnerable ; and finally succeeded in 

 recalling to Eliot's recollection a tradition of a love-passage between Miss 

 Sally and the pedagogue. 



" A little girl now came trotting in, with ' grandmother's love, and a phial 

 of her mixture for Mr. Eliot good against camp-distemper and the like.' 



" Eliot received the mixture as if he had all grandmother's faith in it, 

 slipped a bright shilling into the child's hand for a keepsake, kissed her rosy 

 cheek, and set her down with the children. 



" Visitors now began to throng. One man in a green old age, who had 

 lost a leg at Bunker's Hill, came hobbling in, and clapping Eliot on the 

 shoulder, said, ' This is you, my boy ! This is what I wanted to see your 

 father's son a-doing : I'd go too, if the rascals had left me both my legs. 

 Cheer up, widow, and thank the Lord you've got such a son to offer up to 

 your country the richer the gift, the better the giver, you know ; but I don't 

 wonder you feel kind o' qualmish at the thoughts of losing the lad. Come, 

 Master Hale, can't you say something ? A little bit of Greek, or Latin, or 

 'most any thing, to keep up their sperits at the last gasp, as it were.' 



" I was just going to observe, Major Avery, to Mrs. Lee, respecting our 

 esteemed young friend, Mr. Eliot, that I, who have known him from the 

 beginning, as it were, having taught him his alphabet, which may be said to 



