said, "in a drunken fit, should stab you with that great knife, which lies upon your table, would you be content with such a preparation as Mrs. Brockbourn's, or with no preparation at all? How many foolish persons, vainly expecting length of years, have been cut down in a moment, without time to say, 'God have mercy on our souls!' Was Mrs. Hodges old? She reckoned, no doubt, upon many a day to prepare herself to meet God; and perhaps she was the more bold and confident from remembering, as you do, that her mother or father lived to a great age. But God will not permit such reckonings to prosper. Snap goes the thread of life, and you are at once in eternity; in the next world that will never end. And, I am sure, let your mother have lived to what age she may, your own life hangs upon a very slender thread. You are tottering under your years; you are afflicted with sickness, which God has graciously sent to awaken you; you are a drunkard yourself, and you are under the same roof with this drunken woman. Beware, I tell you, whilst God grants you the power to do so!"

The tone of this speech appeared to succeed so far as to make him serious at least; and I hoped to inspire them both with a horror of drinking, by suggesting the terrible possibility of some fatal blow in the midst of their cups. He adverted to this alone of all that I had said, and asserted confidently, that there was no danger of either of them doing any harm to the other under any circumstances. "Why?" I asked. "Was not Jacob Brockbourn a quiet, peaceable, sober man? Would any one have guessed beforehand, that there was the least likelihood of his

killing his wife? Yet, drunk or sober, peaceable or quarrelsome, quiet or raging, he killed her, you see. But what is this wretched woman, who seems to be so ignorant and so unconcerned about another world; about hell and heaven? Do you think that I have never heard of her riotous proceedings? of the brawlings to which she is so accustomed, the cursings, the fightings, the breakings of windows, the black eyes, the bruises, the wounds? Oh! shame, shame, shame! Two old people, ready to step into eternity, and yet to lead such a life as this! Ah! you ought to be ever on your knees, lifting up your aged hands towards heaven, and praying for mercy and pardon to come down from thence! But how? You know not in whose name to ask it; you never heard of the blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Well; I can stay no longer with you now. Remember the Brockbourns! Be sober; or your life may not be worth a day's purchase, and you may go to your Judge with all your sins upon your heads."

As I pronounced this I was hastening away; but the old man stopped me for a moment, and said, "I am sure, Sir, I shall never do her any mischief, and I know she will not dare to do me any. But we are both of us sober people now, Sir; and you shall hear no more of such doings."" It is high time to leave them off, certainly," I replied, "and to begin to attend your church. When I see that, I shall be your friend."

Thus we left them; and, when we had visited two or three more of the scattered cottages, where our chief conversation respected the children, as in the former cases, we returned to the cluster; but not

being able to find Mrs. Hodges, or anybody else belonging to the family, we retraced our steps homewards; discussing, as we went along, the various occurrences of the day, and conjecturing the probable results, which were, however, in the hands of God.

On the following Monday I went earlier than usual to the schools; and there, to my great delight, I saw little Mary Hudson. And, "Well, my good little girl," I said, “how many children have you brought with you?" "Eleven, Sir," she answered, smiling and curtsying, with much apparent self-satisfaction, and pleased also with the idea of pleasing me. "Why, you are an excellent girl," I said, "for bringing so many the very first Monday, and I hope you will bring more yet."-" Oh! yes, Sir," she replied, "there are more to come, when they have got shoes and stockings."—" But whom have you brought this morning?" I asked. Upon which she told me their names, and I ordered them out from their classes before me. They were the children of the persons to whom I had spoken, and of some others whom the rumour of my visit had reached. I commended them, advised them to be regular, on Sundays as well as on week-days, promised them rewards if they were good, and then dismissed them to their several places. As the distance was great, and the roads often bad, their parents had wisely determined to send their dinners with them; so you might have seen them continually, with many others under similar circumstances, at half-past twelve in the churchyard, let it hail, rain, or shine, sitting on the graves and tombstones, eating their simple fare, and as merry as grigs. It is true, when dinner was done, they fell to jumping over the graves and climbing the tomb-stones, and

scaling the iron-rails which fenced round the monuments; for they were naturally wild as the roe-buck, and had ranged in pastures almost as wide. And sometimes they broke a tomb-stone, and sometimes one of their own legs; but this encouraged surgeons and stone-masons, and perhaps brought a fee to the parson; so it would have been a pity to deprive them of so fine a play-ground. However, in one case, I recollect very well, the rector was a loser by this game; for a lady, whose husband's head-stone had been broken in this manner, came to me in great wrath, and threatened I know not what vengeance, It happened that the stone had fallen upon one of my best little girls; one as eager at her play as she was at her book and needle, and had fractured her leg; so I ventured to intercede for her, and said, "I hope, my good madam, you will consider a broken leg a sufficient punishment." "I wish she had broken her neck!" exclaimed the lady, in a fury.-"That is not a very Christian sentiment," I retorted; " and I am sorry to see you so much irritated upon an occasion, as it appears to me, of no great magnitude. But you must allow me, madam, to cut the matter short. Neither I myself, nor the parish, are answerable for the care of the monuments.-We take fees for them it is true; but that is only for permission to erect them; and those who erect them must watch over them afterwards, if they wish to preserve them. I will gladly permit you to erect another without demanding a fresh fee, because the broken one was put up during my incumbency; and all I can do besides is to tell you the name of the unfortunate sufferer, if you are resolved to prosecute her for damages."

Having done this I rung the bell, and she was let

out in a violent huff; and it seems that she did not soon recover her serenity. The stone she never restored; and when the collector of my Easter-offerings called upon her according to custom, she refused to give a single doit, and told him, moreover, that she would not herself be buried in my parish, lest I should get any fee by it.

§. 2. Mrs. Martin, John Harwich,
Mrs. Costar, &c.

THIS little anecdote may be useful to others as well as to the clergy; but now I return to graver matters.

-As early as I conveniently could, I determined to follow up the impression which had been made in the immediate neighbourhood of the scene of the murder. Approaching the spot on the side of old South's cottage I went there first; but neither of the two inhabitants were at home. Mrs. Forbes, however, who occupied the adjoining one, upon hearing me knock in vain, came out and gave me a sad account of these wretched people. "It was but yesterday, Sir," she said, "that Mrs. South was drunk to madness, and threw us all into a ferment. I heard, Sir, a good deal of what you told them both but a week ago, and I put her in mind of it; and it stung her to the quick. But, I believe, I had nearly lost my life by the interference; for she rushed out of the house with a large caseknife, and pursued me into my own; and if she had not fallen down upon the sill, luckily for me, Sir, my days had been numbered. I tremble now when I think of it.”—“Ah! Mrs. Forbes,” I said, in sor

VOL. III.

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