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uafactories; build churches; open stores; put up houses'

"What, all on paper?' inquired Bill Mink, who was quite out of breath, at the rapidity of the directions.

"To be sure!' answered the black man.

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Open a land office in Boston; employ a clerk; send circulars over the city; cover your table with plans and drafts; fill your desks with deeds; work hard; think much; talk largely; — in short, become a flourishing land speculator.'

"Ay, ay,' said Bill Mink.

"Encourage buyers, with fair promises and long credits; work up an excitement; identify it with religion; seduce the parson; coax the deacons ;' "Egad, I will,' said Bill Mink.

"In short, build up a great city where a tree is not cut, nor a swamp drained; stir up emigration; enlist capitalists; promise dividends; cheat the widows; rob the heirs; lure the merchants to overtrade;'

"I'll lure them to the devil,' said William.

"You are the very man for me,' exclaimed the black fellow; now sign the paper.'

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"By this time Bill was dismounted from his awkward steed; so sitting down on a half-decayed log, he signed the paper, and started for home.

"Before spring there was great excitement in the good city of Boston, about the wild lands in New

Hampshire. Governor Wentworth had recently been appointed to preside over the province, and was making preparations to build him a splendid mansion, far in from the sea-board. Sellers were about in every quarter. The land was said to be the most fertile of any in New England, and nothing was talked about save city lots and splendid sites, pine timber and intervales, mill privileges and new roads. Great fortunes were made in a day; and he who yesterday wrought laboriously for the mere sustenance of life, to-day stood foremost as the wealthiest man on 'change. To be sure, some of the grave old puritans, who had got rich by selling pins and needles, shook their heads, and doubted to what all this would grow; but this was to be expected — they were behind the age, and every body pronounced them to be obstinate unbelievers.

"Among the great men whom this ebullition of the times threw prominently upon the surface, was one Mr. Montgomery, who had a land office in Cornhill. Nobody knew who he was, or whence he came, and nobody cared. It was enough that he lived in princely style, owned houses on Beacon Hill, gave costly dinners, set up a superb livery, and was the most civil, complaisant, and urbane man in the whole city of Boston. His office was crowded from morning to night with eager buyers of new lands in New Hampshire, and his opinions were quoted as absolute in all matters relating to the value of real estate on

the frontiers. Such bargains as he had sold were never before known, and the city he had laid out on

believed, would rival BosWas any one desirous of

the Bearcamp river, it was ton in less than fifty years. growing suddenly rich, let him go to No. 17, Cornhill; was a merchant in want of investments, Mr. Montgomery would sell him such stocks as even London could not boast; were a family of rich heirs desirous of secure dividends, the land office was the neverfailing resort;-in short, to every one Mr. Montgom ery seemed the moving spirit of the time. The golden age had again come to visit the world, and William Montgomery, Esquire, was the Midas who had brought it.

"The summer passed away

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autumn came and went chill winter set in and still there was no abatement of the great bargains in New Hampshire lands. The coming of spring was looked forward to with great interest, for then the first colony was to move northward, to the far-famed Bearcamp. Houses were framed-bricks were imported-mechanics were hired-stores were provided-farming tools were bought up-furniture was packed, and every thing made in readiness to start by the earliest spring. The El Dorado of the western continent had in very deed at last appeared in sight.

"In the midst of all these expectations, when the whole city rang with the noise of busy preparation, one morning No. 17 was closed. A crowd was gathered about the door at the usual time of opening,

the

but no clerk appeared. An hour passed by crowd had increased far up and down the street, and great impatience began to be manifest, when it was whispered by somebody, that Mr. Montgomery had been absent from home all night. A messenger was despatched to ascertain the truth of the report; but before he could return, a person came running up the street, announcing that Mr. Montgomery was probably drowned, his hat and cane having been found floating on the water, near Long Wharf. The consternation was greata general meeting of the citizens was called together -boats with grappling irons were ordered to drag the bay: - but nothing was ever found of the body, and to this day it remains in doubt what was the fate of the land speculator."

"And what became of his property,' asked my uncle. "Oh, the town appointed trustees to settle that, but they did not find enough to pay a penny on a pound. His houses were mortgaged, his chests were empty, his horses and carriages had disappeared, and his bonds and mortgages were all blank paper, handsomely labeled and sealled; his "

"But the old intervale in Campton? who owned

that?"

"That was cleared and settled, after a time, by some of the buyers, but the owners never flourished ; and to this day there is not a thriving farm on the Bearcamp."

"No wonder!" said my grandmother, "for the devil sold it."

THE HEBREW'S PRAYER.

BY T. K. HERVEY.

A HEBREW knelt, in the dying light,—
His eye was dim and cold,

The hairs on his brow were silver-white,

And his blood was thin and old!

He lifted his look to his latest sun,—

For, he knew that his pilgrimage was done!—
And as he saw God's shadow there,*

His spirit poured itself in prayer!

"I come unto death's second-birth,
Beneath a stranger-air,

A pilgrim on a dull, cold earth,

As all my fathers were!

And men have stamped me with a curse,—

I feel it is not Thine,

Thy mercy — like yon sun

On me -as them- to shine;

was made

And, therefore, dare I lift mine eye,

Through that, to Thee,- before I die!

• Plato calls Truth the body of God, and Light his shadow! — perhaps the sublimest of all conceptions, having a merely mortal breast for their birth place.

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