; 376 FOllGIVKNESS AM) FO11E BODING. 



on the same anniversary; and while, my little cousin cried her- 

 self to sleep, either for the cricket's disaster, or the sight of 

 Dolly's distressful face, which, for all her kindly artifice, she 

 could not veil from the penetrating eye of childhood, I listened 

 long to the moaning of the snow- wind, and dreamt, when I 

 closed my eyes, of Dolly's black ' beadles/ her first master, the 

 London undertaker, and a tolling bell. 



After Lucy was in bed, Mrs. Dove redescended to the 

 kitchen, and joined Caleb, to await the return home of the 

 other servants, and the always tardy break-up of my uncle's 

 social sederunt. She, poor soul ! had lost her appetite, but 

 she laid on supper for the old man, and even took down his 

 pipe and placed it by his side. Softened, perhaps, for once, 

 by these unmerited attentions, the offending butler, now thai 

 \ve were no longer present to witness his humiliation, actually 

 made up his mind to express something like contrition for the 

 deed he had committed. After sundry uneasy contortions of 

 limb and feature, the hard lines of his face assumed something 

 of a deprecating turn. He drew his chair towards that of his 

 >/.?-<>- m, and then, in a voice not unlike the scraze of its legs 

 upon the brick floor, gave utterance, as if with infinite effort, 

 to the undeniable assertion that " Forgiveness is gracious." 



Dolly, with a sorrowful but most forgiving smile, shook her 

 head ; " Ah, Caleb !" said she, " you were in a pet, and I 

 suppose couldn't help it; but sure as we are sitting here, 

 something amiss will come over this old house before another 



