leaves above them played on the impassioned countenance of the youth, and deepened the dark hue of the eyes gently resting upon it. He seemed to be eagerly combating some lurking distrust in the bosom of his fair companion.

"It is all bigotry, Mary, disgusting bigotry!" cried he; "I had thought your mind unwarped by prejudice, but I fear that even you are tinctured by the narrow views of your associates. After all my devotion, am I to be coldly thrust aside because I will not, because I can not desert my friends? Oh, Mary! this from you? Can you so rashly judge, without understanding us? Then am I disappointed in you altogether! No, I will not believe it. You are too pure yourself to suspect the purity of others. You are now under the influence of other minds. I will wait patiently until the spell is over. A few years hence, perhaps, I will return to Mand find that this unfortunate prejudice has worn off; then, at last, I trust to claim the hand once promised to me, but now unjustly withheld.”

At these words, spoken in a firm tone, and with a look of conscious innocence, the young girl turned deathly pale. Bowing her head on her hands, she wept bitterly.

"Mary," he continued, in a softened voice, "remember that they who oppose our union are not your parents : if they were, I could not urge you to shake off your allegiance to them, and unite yourself to one who will shield you from their unjust persecution. Assert your independence; ally yourself to me, and you shall have no cause

to regret it. Trust, Mary! Have faith in me!-try

"Dear Edwin," interrupted the girl, "say no more. I do trust you; I have promised before Heaven to be yours, I here repeat my vow. Forgive my doubts! I will endeavor to believe that the Odd-Fellows' society, to which you belong, and which is now the barrier to our wishes, is all you have portrayed it."

On

Edwin Forrester was a talented, high-spirited young man, without a tinge of duplicity in his disposition. the contrary, he was somewhat unguarded in his expressions, and sometimes involved himself in trouble by his impetuosity and frankness. This fault was linked to so much nobility of spirit and sweetness of disposition, as to be overlooked by the good and generous; but it often exposed him to the malice of the evil-minded, who delight to find a flaw in what seems to be perfection of character. In his choice of a wife, Edwin had been most wise, although it was rather the result of accident than of prudence. His taste was too pure to be pleased with a mere showy character, but his artlessness might easily have fallen a prey to hollowness of soul, if linked to refinement of manners and a cultivated intellect; these choice graces were united in Mary to a truthfulness of spirit and an amiability of temper, that had been tried in the furnace of affliction, and passed unscathed through temptation.

Educated by pious but somewhat bigoted people, she had imbibed some prejudices exceedingly repugnant to her lib

eral-minded lover. Love, however, triumphed over her scruples; and, amid the warnings of friends, the sneers of the malicious, and the persecutions of her own family, she gave her hand to Edwin Forrester at the altar, and openly became the wife of an Odd-Fellow. If she had married a notorious criminal, she would have created no greater. sensation among her own particular associates.

The first year of their marriage passed happily away— so happily, that the coolness of former friends was disregarded, and Mary wondered as much at their intolerance as her husband had at her own. Frequent intercourse with the members of the Order had eradicated her prejudices, and she now believed that the principles they professed were not a specious covering for all that is bad in practice.

The

It is too frequently the case that ignorance fulfils its own prophecies. It seldom stops short of persecution; and, as if fearful that its auguries may be thwarted, bends every energy to promote the ruin it has foretold. young couple had been watched with jealous eyes. No flaw, however, had been discovered in their domestic arrangements. To be sure, it had been reported that their boy, a fine infant, had been subjected to a mysterious rite at its birth but what this rite was, no one seemed to know. That the child thrived in spite of it, there was too good evidence to doubt. For fear the happy trio should be too happy, it was deemed expedient to put in force a little wholesome persecution, to make them miserable,

and thus at once expose the pernicious tendency of OddFellowship..

Edwin held his farm on a rather uncertain tenure. It had been leased to his father for a long term of years by the mother of its present proprietor, who had always refused to sell it. Since his mother's death, not contented with the spacious homestead, the landlord was anxious to erect a more elegant dwelling on a fine eminence commanding a view of the sea, but covered with Mr. Forrester's profitable orchard. Even if the lessee had been willing to part with it, its proximity to his neat little cottage rendered it inconvenient to his landlord as a buildinglot. The 'squire frequently dropped in to talk over the matter with Mr. Fox the attorney, who was Mary's halfbrother, and a most violent opponent of her marriage. One fine evening, the two cronies had met as usual, and Fox told the 'squire that it was easy enough to eject his tenant, for, on looking over the papers, he found that his brother-in-law had no legal right to his land; and as to the house, no doubt he would gladly sell it, if he knew his claim to the farm was not valid. "Of course," he added, "the 'squire would not molest his tenants; but if some men, less honorable, had his right, they would do so." The 'squire replied with equal duplicity, but the hint he had received was not lost. As he left the house, Fox squeezed his hand, whispering that he knew his sister's interests were perfectly safe in such hands.

Six months from that evening the apple-orchard was

razed, the noise of the hammer was heard in Forrester's pretty dwelling, and the clustering vines clung in vain to the familiar crevices in its walls. Trampled and bleeding, they strewed the once smooth but now broken sward. The 'squire had gone further than Fox intended. After ejecting his tenant, he refused to pay for the house, claiming that in payment of the back rent—declaring, as he did so, that his mother did not understand the administering of property, and had leased the land much too low. As the lease was not valid, he had a right to set his own value on the land, and claim it for the time Edwin had held it. After consulting a lawyer, Mr. Forrester found that resistance was unavailing. He quietly withdrew, and in a few weeks, almost penniless, came to the city to seek employment. He had been obliged to give up his trade because it injured his health; but, driven by the iron hand of necessity, he gladly accepted the pittance offered him, and was once more toiling in the unwholesome atmosphere of a printing-office.

Mary soon joined him ; and by her patient cheerfulness, active benevolence, and ready sympathy, soothed his chafed spirit, and threw a halo of happiness around the dark brow of Poverty. Her natural elegance of taste no circumstances could destroy; and her apartments, though small, bespoke the presence of cultivated intellect and refinement of feeling. Edwin, whose tenacious memory recoiled at the concomitants of a city life spent amid toil and stinted means, was astonished and delighted at the comfort and