4 SIMON FLAT S COURTSHIP. 



proceeded far, and he thought he heard a robber — no, a band of 

 robbers, and their instruments of destruction rattling one against 

 another ! They approached nearer ! more distinctly did the rattling 

 gi*ate upon his ear ! An escape, if possible, was now necessary ; and 

 in a moment Simon was crouching in the hedge bottom, and waiting 

 the exit of those blood-thirsty villains. Moments passed on, and 

 seemed to take their time as if they were hours. The noise sounded 

 nearer and nearer, and poor snip shut his eyes, thinking they could 

 not see him ! At length they came so near that he felt their touch, 

 and in that critical moment he grasped the supposed thief, when lo ! 

 the being he grasped was nothing more than a poor donkey, with a 

 chain and clog to his leg, straying from his own fold I On making 

 this discovery, Simon's heart throbbed with less violence, and he 

 went his way with thankfulness. 



The solemn hour of midnight had passed, and the birth of mom 

 had just been celebrated, when he arrived at the little village of 

 *****. He dreamed no more of fears, and thought of nothing but a 

 hearty welcome ; and with the importance of a ivhole man he, knocked 

 at the door of his fair one's dwelling, and anxiously looked through the 

 window (shutters were not used) ; when bye and bye he beheld the 

 glimmering of a light, and in another moment saw two tall figures 

 coming towards the door — one with an old rusty sword, the other 

 with a cai'bine, said to have been used in the civil wai's. Now these 

 men-at-arms were no others than his intended brothers-in-law ; but 

 he knew it not, and off he went and waited until he had gained suffi- 

 cient courage to make another attempt, which was done at the back 

 of the establishment ; for seeing a light in a small window, and the 

 form of his fair one pass to and fro, he determined to reach it by 

 mounting an old tub which served as the depository for pigs' meat, 

 and then to the top of a small building which served as a dairy, but 

 his mind was again roused by hearing his own footsteps, which he 

 mistook for those of his pursuers. He made up his mind for another 

 retreat. He leaped ; but alas ! that awful leap ! It was into the tub 

 of pigs' meat ; and when he came out he was like a drowned dog. 

 He ran down the garden, but his escape was procrastinated by several 

 falls over cabbage stumps ; however, he cleared the wall, and ran — 

 and for anything I know he is running yet. 



