"A lady-especially one placed in your situation— travelling alone, at night, over these dark mountainsshould receive every attention it may be in the power of a gentleman to give. I would look upon the man who should refuse such attention as an unfeeling brute, my dear madam: I would not own him for my countryman, I assure you. Mr. Dickens, in his 'American Notes,' observes, I am proud to say, that the Americans are universally gentle and courteous to women !"

"True true," the lady interrupted, hastily; "but here is a mistake which I ought to correct. I am not what

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"You believe me to be, then, a base wretch, who would grossly insult an unprotected female!" interposed the Pennsylvanian, eagerly. Madam, I deplore your too hasty judgment; but I forgive you, while I declare that you have strangely misapprehended my motives. I am no perverter of female innocence. I trust I have a correct appreciation of what belongs to the conduct and character of a man of honor. I beseech you, say not another word! I am hurt, my dear lady, by your unjust suspicion-and I beg that no more be said on the subject."

At this moment the horses stopped, and the passengers were roused from their sleep by the coarse voice of the driver, who shouted to the innkeeper for a lantern. A short pause ensued, and Boniface appeared, half asleep,

and, holding high the light, threw its rays into the coach. At the same moment, the person who had so cruelly lacerated the feelings of the honest Pennsylvanian, bawled out, with an exceedingly effeminate voice, but in a most blustering manner

"Ho, landlord! bring me some hot brandy and a cigar. Gentlemen, what'll ye have?"

"The devil! are you not a woman?" exclaimed the Pennsylvanian, looking into the stranger's face, and hastily rising, as though he would have rushed out of the coach-window.

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My good friend, I have been trying for the last five minutes to apprize you of your error, but you would not allow me to proceed with my explanation. I am in fact a creature of the rougher sex, with a singularly effeminate voice. It is a real affliction, which I bitterly deplore; but what can I do? You are not the only person who has mistaken me for a woman; but I must say, to your credit. that you are the first man who ever offered me a covering to protect me from the cold. I tender you my sincere thanks for your good wishes and I have undeceived you at the earliest possible moment."

The chagrined Pennsylvanian received his cloak without a word of reply, though I could perceive, by the light which the innkeeper had brought, that his face was scarlet. Feeling heartily sorry for the poor young man, whose embarrassment, I knew, must be greatly heightened by the unrepressed laughter of our rude fellow-passengers, 1

ventured to remark that the mistake he had made was a perfectly natural one, and to express a hope that it would give him no uneasiness.

"Curse your sympathy, sir!" cried he, roughly; "I wish none of it! I am no bigger fool than my neighbors. The best man among you would have taken this softtoned stranger for an innocent girl. I, believing him to be such, would have treated him as such. Who among you would have done likewise ?"

Reader my story has a moral as all stories should. It is this: Inexperienced men are not always the most heartless and unfeeling. Their generous and unsuspicious natures often prompt them to perform acts which, to the more selfish and experienced, seem ridiculous. The young man who offered his cloak to the stranger, did so from the noblest motive; and the fools who rudely laughed at his mistake, either did not appreciate that motive, or were incapable of performing a similar generous deed.

NEW YORK, June, 1846.

MORAL INFLUENCES OF ODD-FELLOWSHIP.

BY REV. I. D. WILLIAMSON.

THE claims of Odd-Fellowship, as an institution of a purely healthful and salutary moral influence, have been often asserted and sustained by the most clear and convincing arguments. The pledge of brotherly love, which is of itself the source of all true morality—the chaste and hallowed sentiments, that speak in all our lectures and charges, and breathe from all our emblems and ceremonies are evidence that the institution can exert no other than a beneficial moral influence upon its members. There is, however, one view of this subject which I do not remember to have seen presented by any writer or speaker of the Order. I allude to the close and intimate relation that exists between the physical and moral condition of man, and the improvement of the one by meliorating the other. It may be doubted if moral teachers have been in the habit of properly estimating the powerful influence of outward circumstances in giving a direction to human conduct, and tone to the moral character. How

ever much it may have escaped the observation of the world, there is a deep significance and a true philosophy in the prayer of Agur: "Give me neither poverty nor riches. . . . lest I be full and deny thee .... or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." There are few who do not regard poverty as a great evil. Yet, it is presumed that the general dread of it arises rather from a view of its physical sufferings and privations than from a proper appreciation of its effects upon the moral character. It is granted that the pains of hungerthe fears of famine and absolute want-the cold and nakedness-the sickness and suffering attendant upon a state of abject poverty-are sore and dreadful evils. But great as they are, and much as they are to be dreaded, still, the effects upon the moral nature are far more detrimental to human happiness. The rich roll in affluence, and those in more moderate circumstances sit at ease in their houses and when a poor fellow-mortal is brought before "his honor" for the crime of "petit larceny," they wonder that a man should be so lost to all sense of justice as to steal, or so wanting in self-respect as to degrade himself to the character of a thief for a trifle so small! In like manner, the teacher of religion reads the records of crime, and as its vast amount rises in all its aggravation before his vision, he often curses with bitterness, and denounces with strong invective, the depravity that leads to all this guilt. Could the one and the other know that there is a mighty power at work in outward circumstances