prise; and then correcting his manner, by assuming a more guarded air, he continued -Could you pass the picquets at so late an hour?"

"I did," was the laconic reply.

"You must be well known by this time, Harvey, to the officers of the British army,' cried Sarah, smiling archly on the pedlar.

"I know some of them by sight," said Birch, glancing his eyes round the apartment, taking in their course Captain Wharton, and resting for an instant on the countenance of Harper.

Mr. Wharton had listened intently to each speaker in succession, and had so far lost the affectation of indifference, as to be crushing in his hand the pieces of china he had expended so much labour on in endeavouring to mend; when, observing the pedlar tying the last knot in his pack, he asked abrubtly

"Are we about to be disturbed again with the enemy ?",

"Who do you call the enemy ?" said the pedlar, raising himself erect, and giv

ing the other a look, before which the eyes of Mr. Wharton sunk in instant confusion.

"All are enemies who disturb our peace," said Miss Peyton, observing her brother unable to speak. "But are the royal troops out from below?”

"'Tis quite likely they soon may be," returned Birch, raising his pack from the floor, and preparing to leave the room.

"And the continentals," continued Miss Peyton, mildly," are the continentals in the county?"

Harvey was about to utter something in reply, when the door opened, and Cæsar made his appearance, attended by his delighted spouse.

The race of blacks of which Cæsar was a favourable specimen, is becoming very rare. The old family servant, who, born and reared in the dwelling of his master, identified himself with the welfare of those whom it was his lot to serve, is giving place in every direction to that vagrant class which has sprung up within the last thirty years, and whose members roam

through the country, unfettered by principles, or uninfluenced by attachments. For it is one of the curses of slavery, that its victims become incompetent to the attributes of a freeman. The short curly hair of Cæsar had acquired from age a colouring of gray, that added greatly to the venerable cast of his appearance. Long and uninterrupted applications of the comb had straightened the close curls of his forehead, until they stood erect in a stiff and formal precision, that gave at least two inches to his stature. The shining black of his youth had lost its glistening hue, and had been succeeded by a dingy brown. His eyes, which stood at a most formidable distance from each other, were small, and characterized by an expression of good feeling, occasionally interrupted by the petulance of an indulged servant :-they however now danced with inward delight. His nose possessed, in an eminent manner, all the requisites for smelling, but with the most modest unobtrusiveness-his nostrils being abundantly capacious, without

thrusting themselves in the way of their neighbours. His mouth capacious to a fault, that was only tolerated on account of the double row of pearls it contained. In person Cæsar was short, and we would say square, had not all the angles and curves of his figure bid defiance to any thing like mathematical symmetry. His arms were long and muscular, and terminated by two bony hands, that exhibited, on one side, a colouring of blackish gray, and on the other a faded pink. It was in his legs that nature had indulged in her most capricious humours. There was an abundance of the material, but it had been injudiciously used. The calves were neither before nor behind, but rather on the outer side of the limb, inclining forward, and so close to the knee as to render the free use of that joint a subject of doubt. In the foot, considering it as a base on which the body was to rest, Cæsar had no cause of complaint, unless, indeed, it might be that the leg was placed so near the centre, as to make it sometimes a matter of dispute,

whether he was not walking backwards. But whatever might be the faults a statuary could discover in his person, the heart of Cæsar Thompson was in the right place, and, we doubt not, of very just dimen

sions.

Accompanied by his ancient companion, Cæsar now advanced, and paid his tribute of gratitude in words. Sarah received them with great complacency, and made a few compliments to the taste of the husband, and the probable appearance of the wife. Frances took the hard and wrinkled hand of her nurse into her own; and, with a face beaming with a look of pleasure that corresponded to the smiling countenances of the blacks, offered the service of her needle in fitting the admired calico to its future uses. The offer was humbly and gratefully accepted.

As Cæsar followed the pedlar and his wife from the apartment, and was in the act of closing the door, he indulged himself in a grateful soliloquy, by saying aloud