94 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



"Why, what would you do," said I, "if you did know?" 



"Lick him, by George 1 Lick him, in the first place, 

 till he was as nigh dead as I daared lick him — and then 

 I'd make him eat up every darned line of it I But come, 

 come — breakfast's ready; and while we're getting through 

 with it, Timothy and Jem Lyn will fix the pig-box, and 

 make the deer all right and tight for travelling!" 



No sooner said than done — an ample meal was speedily 

 despatched — and when that worthy came in to announce 

 all ready, for the saving of time, master Timothy was 

 accommodated with a seat at a side-table, which he occu- 

 pied with becoming dignity, abstaining, as it were, in con- 

 sciousness of his honorable promotion, from any of the 

 quaint and curious witticisms, in which he was wont to 

 indulge; but manducating, with vast energy, the various 

 good things which were set before him. 



It was a clear, bright Sabbath morning, as ever shone 

 down on a sinful world, on which we started homeward — 

 and, though I fear there was not quite so much solemnity 

 in our demeanor as might have best accorded with the no- 

 tions of over strict professors, I can still answer that, with 

 much mirth, much merriment, and much "good feeling in 

 our hearts, there was no touch of irreverence, or any taint 

 of what could be called sinful thought. The sun had risen 

 fairly, but the hour was still too early for the sweet peace- 

 f\il miisic of the church-going bells to have made their 

 echoes tunable through the rich valley. A merry caval- 

 cade, indeed, we started — Harry leading the way at his 

 usual slap-dash pace, so that one, less a workman than 

 himself, would have said he went up hill and down at the 

 same break-neck pace, and would take all the grit out 

 of his team before he had gone ten miles — while a more 

 accurate observer would have seen, at a glance, that he 

 varied his rate at almost every inequality of road, that he 

 quartered every rut, avoided every jog or mud-hole, hus- 

 banded for the very best his horses' strength, never making 

 them either pull or hold a moment longer than was abso- 

 lutely necessary from the bruptness of the ground. 



At his left hand sat I, while Tom, in honor of his 

 superior bulk and weight, occupied with his magnificent 

 and portly person the whole of the back seat, keeping his 

 countenance as sanctified as possible, and nodding, with 

 some quaint and characteristic obser\'ation, to each one 



