the doorway; and no one then living there, knew when that letter had been cut. The present owner of the cottage was Adam Ayliffe, once a substantial, but now a reduced yeoman, well stricken in years, being at the time now spoken of not far from his sixty-eighth year. The crown of his head was bald, and finely formed; and the little hair that he had left, was of a silvery colour, verging on white. His countenance and figure were very striking to an observant beholder; who would have said at once, "That man is of a firm and upright character, and has seen trouble,”—all which was indeed distinctly written in his open Saxon features. His eye was of a clear blue, and steadfast in its gaze; and when he spoke, it was with a certain quaintness, which seemed in keeping with his simple and stern character. All who had ever known Ayliffe entertained for him a deep respect. He was of a very independent spirit, somewhat taciturn, and of a retiring, contemplative humour. His life was utterly blameless, regulated throughout by the purifying and elevating influence of Christianity. The excellent vicar of the parish in which he lived, reverenced him, holding him up as a pattern, and pointing him out as one of whom it might be humbly said, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Yet the last few years of his life had been passed in great trouble.

Ten years before had occurred, in the loss of his wife, who had been every way worthy of him, the first great sorrow of his life. After twenty years spent together in happiness greater than tongue could tell, it had pleased God, who had given her to him, to take her away-suddenly, indeed, but very gently. He woke one morning, when she woke not, but lay sweetly sleeping the sleep of death. His Sarah was gone, and thenceforth his great hope was to follow her, and be with her again. His spirit was stunned for a while, but murmured not; saying, with resignation, "The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away : blessed be the name of the Lord." A year or two afterwards occurred to him a second trouble, great, but of a different kind. He was suddenly reduced almost to beggary. To enable the son of an old deceased friend to become a collector of public rates in an adjoining county, Ayliffe had unsuspiciously become his surety. The man, however, for whom he had done this service, fell soon afterwards into intemperate and dissolute habits; dishonesty, as usual, soon followed; and poor Ayliffe was horrified one evening by being called upon, his principal having absconded, a great defaulter, to contribute to repair the deficiency, to the full extent of his bond. At the time of this sad event, Ayliffe was the freehold owner

:

of some forty or fifty acres of ground adjoining his cottage, besides some small sums of money advanced upon mortgage to a neighbour, the interest of which he was setting apart for a purpose which will be presently mentioned. But all was suddenly sacrificed :— not only the little accumulation of interest, but the principal from which it had grown,—and not only that, but more than half of his land had to be sold, to make good the loss for which he had so unhappily become responsible. This stroke seemed to prostrate poor Ayliffe, not only on account of his severe pecuniary loss, but his cruelly betrayed confidence. Nor was this all: his favourite purpose had been suddenly defeated, that purpose having been, to make a provision for the marriage of his only child, a son, called after himself, Adam,—being the fifth Adam Ayliffe, father and son, during as many generations. That fondlydesired object was now unattainable; and father and son shortly afterwards experienced a bitter proof of the too frequent fickleness of earthly friendships. The girl whose hand had been pledged to young Adam, readily broke off the match at her parents' desire ; and she being very pretty, and they so well to do in the world as would have enabled them with ease to set Adam Ayliffe and their daughter comfortably going in life, little difficulty was found in obtaining

a successor to poor Adam, in a thriving young farmer, whom, if the truth must be told, she had originally jilted in his favour: for Adam was not only of an old family, and would have succeeded to no inconsiderable hereditary property, but was at once one of the finest young fellows in the county; with a handsome countenance, of a most engaging frankness; a figure tall and well formed; possessed of surpassing activity and strength, and of a daring and reckless courage. In all manly exercises he excelled every competitor; and as to his feats at singlestick, they were famous in several adjoining counties. Every one, in short, liked Adam Ayliffe: he had a laugh and a good word for all whom he met; would do anything to oblige anybody; and seemed not to know that there was such a thing in the world to be looked after asself.

It was everywhere said that a handsomer couple than Adam and Phoebe would make, was not to be seen. But, poor soul! all his prospects were, as has been seen, in one moment blighted; and Phoebe's heartless desertion hurt him far more than he cared for the poverty, with its humiliating incidents, into which he and his father had so unexpectedly been plunged. His buoyancy of spirits had fled for ever; but the manly strength and simplicity of character which he

had inherited from his father, remained. Much, how

ever, of that father's pious the ruffled spirit of his son.

teaching it took, to soothe Long was it before any

one could exchange a smile with Adam Ayliffe the younger. Alas! what a contrast now, between father and son going heretofore together arm in arm to church, the one with his great walking-stick, broad hat, and long rough blue coat, and face of grave, but not austere, composure; the other gaily clad, and his hat somewhat jauntily set upon his curly nut-brown hair, nodding to this one, and smiling to the other, and taking off his hat to the elder folk! As the two would stand suddenly uncovered while the parson passed or met them, on his way into the church, his heart yearned towards them both. He thoroughly loved and respected them, and was in a certain way proud of two such specimens of the English yeoman: and, above all, was he charmed with the good example which they uniformly set to all his other parishioners. He had from Adam's boyhood entertained a liking for him, and had personally bestowed no inconsiderable pains upon his education, which, though plain, as suited his position, was yet sound and substantial. Greatly concerned had been the Vicar, at the disasters befalling the Ayliffes; nay, he went so far as secretly to make