received its designation from the variety of its commodities, ranging from brooms to ribbons, has become the 'shop,' filled, in some cases, by direct importations from England and France. No crusade could now be successfully pursued against dancing. Even the rustic phrases that characterized the position of our dramatis personæ have passed away and are forgotten. -Thus if the coin we offer be neither gold nor silver, if it have no intrinsic value, we hope its impress will be an apology for its new issue, with those who have a fond or foolish love for the past.

The additional tales in the volume will at least have the attraction of novelty to most of our readers, as they are now, for the first time, resuscitated, after a decent interment in the magazines.

Lenox, May 27, 1852.

A

NEW ENGLAND TALE.

CHAPTER I.

Oh, ye! who sunk in beds of down,
Feel not a want but what yourselves create,
Think for a moment on his wretched fate,
Whom friends and fortune quite disown.

BURNS.

MR. ELTON was formerly a flourishing trader, or, in rustic phrase, a merchant, in the village of In the early part of his life he had been successful in business; and having a due portion of that mean pride which is gratified by pecuniary superiority, he was careful to appear quite as rich as he was. When he was at the top of fortune's wheel, some of his prying neighbors shrewdly suspected, that the show of his wealth was quite out of proportion to the reality; and their side-glances and prophetic whispers betrayed their contempt of the offensive airs of the purse-proud man.

The people in the village of were simple in their habits, and economical in their modes of life; and Mr. Elton's occasional indulgence in a showy piece of furniture, or an expensive article of dress for himself or for his wife,

attracted notice, and, we fear, sometimes provoked envy, even from those who were wiser and much better than he was. So inconsistent are men-and women too-that they often envy a display of which they really despise, and loudly condemn the motive.

Mrs. Elton neither deserved nor shared the dislike her husband received in full measure. On the contrary, she had the good-will of her neighbors. She never seemed elated by prosperity; and though she occasionally appeared in an expensive Leghorn hat, a merino shawl, or a fine lace, the gentleness and humility of her manners, and the uniform benevolence of her conduct, averted the censure that would otherwise have fallen on her. She had married Mr. Elton when very young, without much consideration, and after a short acquaintance. She had to learn, in the bitter way of experience, that there was no sympathy between them; their hands were indissolubly joined, but their hearts were not related; he was "of the earth, earthy"-she "of the heavens, heavenly." She had that passiveness which, we believe, is exclusively a feminine virtue (if virtue it may be called), and she acquiesced silently and patiently in her unhappy fate, though there was a certain abstractedness in her manner, a secret feeling of indifference and separation from the world, of which she, perhaps, never investigated, certainly never exposed the cause.

Mr. Elton's success in business had been rather owing to accidental circumstances, than to his skill or prudence; but his vanity appropriated to himself all the merit of it. He adventured rashly in one speculation after another, and failing in them all, his losses were more rapid than his acquisitions had been. Few persons have virtue enough to retrench their expenses, as their income diminishes; and no virtue, of

difficult growth, could be expected from a character where no good seed had ever taken root.

The morale, like the physique, needs use and exercise to give it strength. Mrs. Elton's had never been thus invigora ted. She could not oppose a strong current. She had not energy to avert an evil, though she would have borne patiently any that could have been laid on her. She knew her husband's affairs were embarrassed; she saw him constantly incurring debts, which she knew they had no means of paying; she perceived he was gradually sinking into a vice, which, while it lulls the sense of misery, annihilates the capacity of escaping from it-and yet she silently, and without an effort, acquiesced in his faults. They lived on, as they had lived, keeping an expensive table, and three or four servants, and dressing as usual.

This conduct in Mrs. Elton, was the result of habitual passiveness; in Mr. Elton, it was prompted by a vain hope of concealing from his neighbors a truth, that, in spite of his bustling, ostentatious ways, they had known for many months. This is a common delusion. We all know that from the habits of our people in a country town, it is utterly impossi ble for the most watchful and skilful manoeuverer, to keep his pecuniary affairs secret from the keen and quick observation of his neighbors. The expedients practised for concealment are much like that of a little child, who shuts his own eyes, and fancies he has closed those of the spectators; or in their effect upon existing circumstances, may be compared to the action of a frightened woman, who turns her back in a carriage when the horses are leaping over a precipice.

It may seem strange, perhaps incredible, that Mrs. Elton, possessing the virtues we have attributed to her, and being a religious woman, should be accessory to such deception, and

X

(for we will call "things by their right names") dishonesty. But the wonder will cease if we look around upon the circle of our acquaintance, and observe how few there are among those whom we believe to be Christians, who govern their daily conduct by Christian principles, and regulate their temporal duties by the strict Christian rule. Truly, narrow is the way of perfect integrity, and few there are that walk

therein.

There are too many who forget that our religion is not like that of the ancients, something set apart from the ordinary concerns of life; the consecrated, not the "daily bread;" a service for the temple and the grove, having its separate class of duties and pleasures; but is "the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump," a spirit to be infused into the common affairs of life. We fear Mrs. Elton was not quite guiltless of this fault. She believed all the Bible teaches. She had long been a member of the church in the town where she lived. She daily read the Scriptures, and daily offered sincere prayers. Certainly the waters of the fountain from whence she drank, had a salutary influence, though they failed to heal all her diseases. She was kind, gentle, and uncomplaining; and sustained, with admirable patience, the growing infirmities and irritating faults of her husband.

her child, she performed her duties wisely, and with an anxious zeal; the result, in part, of uncommon maternal tenderness, and in part, of a painful consciousness of the faults of her own character, and perhaps, of a secret feeling she had left much undone that she ought to do.

Mr. Elton, after his pecuniary embarrassments were beyond the hope of extrication, maintained by stratagem the appearance of prosperity for some months, when a violent fever ended his struggle with the tide of fortune that had set