was

tion, while another sat reeling by his
side, looking as though he would fall
upon the floor the next minute. What
was to be done? The oaths from the
bar-room accompanying the loud and
clamorous talk, forbade their going
there. Mrs. Willard seemed para-
lysed by the scene before her. She
undetermined what course to
Odora and Alba stood weep-
pursue.
ing by her side; but Mrs. Willard
had no tears. Becoming almost des-
perate, she tore herself from the girls;
with a firm step, and a dignified air,
she entered the bar-room. The first
person she met was the bloated form
that frightened them from the kitchen;
he had just drawn back is arm to
strike a man that stood near him.
Mrs. Willard seized it, and commanded
him to desist. Making her way to
her husband on the other side of the
room, she asked him to accompany

her. She took his arm and led him to the sitting room. As she passed out she heard one exclaim, "There, Jack Windsor, you have been floored once."

Odora heard the name, and knew it to be the one that used to persecute poor David. As soon as the door was closed, Mrs. Willard pointed to the two drunken men-both then being asleep and asked her husband what was to be done?

แ "Why, you must do the best you can," he indifferently answered. "Isn't there another public house in the city we can go to ?"

"There are a hundred, I presume, no better than this, and some a great deal worse."

"My husband, I think that impossible. I wish you to speak for a carriage to take myself and daughters to a respectable hotel."

"I shall not do any such thing," he sharply replied. "It is as good for you and your daughters as it is for me."

The girls turned pale, and looked frightened. Odora approached him and laid her hand gently upon his shoulders, and looked kindly into his face, and said, "Do not think that we want to go without you."

The muscles of his face gave way a little, and he told them that it was eleven o'clock, and that it would be impossible for them to leave that night.

"You had better call the landlady, and have her show you to bed."

He turned and went into the barroom again. The landlady lighted them up a rickety flight of stairs, showing them into a small room containing two beds. They were soon left alone, each striving to hide her

own grief while they vainly tried to administer to the sorrows of the other. The question was not asked kow did father come to bring us here? that was unnecessary. He had lost his pride of character, and the finer feelings of his soul had become seared. Hope, they had ceased to cherish; and the heart grew sick at their present prospects, not daring for a moment to think of the future. Wearied with fatigue and excitement the travellers lay down on their miserable bed; exhausted nature was soon locked in the arms of sleep. About two o'clock in the morning they were suddenly aroused by the cry of "Murder! Murder!" terrified, they sprang from their beds and threw open a window, where they heard one man ask another, "Who stabbed him?" the answer was, "Jack Windsor."

"Have they got him?"

"No, nor they wont, for he will be in Canada in fifteen minutes ?" "Will Sheffield die ?"

"No, I think it is only a flesh wound," was the answer; but he did die in consequence of his wound, after lingering ten days.

Mrs. Willard and her daughters did not venture to get into bed again that night.

At length the long wished for morning came, but it brought with it no relief. Everything without and within wore the same aspect of desolation, and the dark pall of death seemed to spread itself over everything on which the eye rested. Few were the words they spoke, their looks were bordering on despair.

Alba looked first at her mother and then at her sister, then buried her face in her sister's lap and wept aloud. The fountain of tears that refused to

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