came about the cottage after nightfall, and crept close to its walls with stealthy footsteps. And they told how, looking cautiously into the chamber of death, wherein a light was burning, they saw a sight which so strangely and powerfully affected them, that (rough peasants as they were) they could not afterwards speak of it with unfaltering voices. The coffin, from which the lid had been removed, rested, as they had helped to place it, at the old man's desire, on one half of his own bedstead; and beside it, he had since arranged his mattress and pillow, and then his head pressing against the coffin, and one arm flung across over its side) he lay at length in sweet and tranquil slumber. He had told them he should now take rest ;" and, doubtless, that rest so taken, strange and awful as it was to look upon, was sweet and blessed, in comparison with all he had lately tasted. For him the bitterness of death was past; and the nearness of his own change, made of slight account the little intervening space of earthly darkness. Once more his son lay beside him on that same bed they had so often shared together; and perhaps the moment of reunion with his forgiven child was already anticipated in the dreams of that placid sleep, which composed his venerable features in such unearthly peace.

Four days afterwards, the remains of Josiah Cleaves were quietly and decently interred beside those of his mother, in Redburn churchyard. Six labourers, formerly in the employ of Andrew, volunteered to bear the body to its last resting-place; and two or three respectable persons, in decent mourning, walked behind the aged solitary mourner. And beside him none other was a-kin to the dead, of those who stood that day about that untimely grave in Redburn churchyard; yet was his the only face, which, as the affecting service proceeded, maintained uumoved composure, and his the only dry eyes that followed the descent of the coffin, as it

was lowered into "the pit where all things are forgotten."

Andrew Cleaves had unavoidably incurred a few trifling debts during the time of Josiah's imprisonment, and the consequent relaxation of his own laborious industry. To discharge those, and the burial expenses, he parted with his cow, and with his last freehold,-that small old pew in the parish church, which had descended to him from his father, the heir-loom of many generations, where he himself (a small urchin!) had stood aloft upon the seat between his father and his mother; and when the old couple were laid side by side in the churchyardwhere he had sat alone, upright against the high dark oak back, a thriving bachelor, "the cynosure of neighbouring eyes," and afterwards, a staid and serious bridegroom, with his matronly bride; and then again, alone in impregnable widowhood; and, last of all, a proud and happy father, with his little son lifted up beside him into the very place where he had stood between his own parents. Andrew Cleaves had said to himself, as he gazed upon the dead body of his son, that no after circumstance of human life could affect him with the slightest emotion of joy or sorrow; but when he finally made over to another the possession of his old pew, one pang of commingled feeling thrilled through his heart, and moistened the aged eyes that had looked tearlessly into his son's grave.

The next Sunday after the funeral, Andrew Cleaves was at church as usual, but not in his accustomed place. Many pew-doors opened to him, as he walked slowly and feebly up the aisle, and many a hand was put forth to the old man's arm, essaying to draw him in with kindly violence; but gently disengaging himself, and silently declining the proffered accommodation, he passed onward, and took his seat near the communion-table, on the end of one of the benches appropriated to the

long deliberate.

He felt that he could usefully and faithfully acquit himself of the proffered charge, and accepted it with unhesitating gratitude. But when there was farther talk of purchasing for him a younger and more efficient steed than honest Greybeard, Andrew shook his head, in positive rejection, and said, smil ing, "No, no, we must rub on together the old fellow will do good service yet; and who knows but he may take me to my last home?" And then, for a moment, his brow dark ened with a passing shadow, for the thought of the last burden of mortality drawn by the old horse came vividly into his mind.

The new cart was provided, the venerable carrier installed into his office, and for five whole years, (his remaining span of life,) he fulfilled its duties with characteristic faithfulness and exactitude, and almost with the physical energies of his youthful prime. Winter and summer-through frost and snow-and in the dog-day heat-through fair ways and foulby daylight and twilight-Andrew Cleaves's cart was to be seen nearly about the same place on Redburn Common, at, or near, five o'clock, on the afternoon of Tuesdays and Saturdays, on its return from C. And it was still drawn lustily along by the same old horse, looking sleek and glossy, and round-quartered like one of Wouverman's Flemings; and when some one, willing to please the master, would now and then pat the sides of the faithful creature, and comment on his handsome appearance, the old man would smile with evident grat:fication, and say-" Ay, ay, I knew what stuff he was made of-we shall last out one another's time-never fear."

So said Andrew Cleaves, towards the close of a long, hard winter; when, though the snow-drifts that still lay in every shady place, were not whiter than the once darkly dappled coat of old Greybeard-he shewed little other sign of age, except, indeed, the rather more deliberate pace in which his kind master

indulged him. But though the tardy spring set in at last, mild, warm, and beautiful; and though its renovating spirit seemed to infuse itself, like a renewal of youthful vigour into the frame of the hale and hearty old man, it was observed that his peri odical returns from C became each time later and later; and that in spite of the young tender grass on which Greybeard fed at pleasureand the abundance of bruised corn, and heartening mashes with which he was tenderly pampered, the sides of the aged creature grew lank and hollow, his fine glossy coat rough and dull, and that his well-set ears, and once erect and sprightly head, drooped low and heavily as he toiled slowly homeward over the Common.

It was some evening in the first week of balmy June, that an inhabitant of Redburn, who expected a consignment by Andrew's cart, set out to meet the vehicle on its return from C

The man walked on and on, and no cart was seen approaching, and the gloaming was darkening apace, and still no Andrew.

But just as uncomfortable surmises respecting the delay of the venerable carrier began to crowd into his neighbour's mind, the old man came in sight, not in his accustomed driving-seat, but walking by the side of his aged steed, which still drew on the cart with its lightened load, but evidently with painful labour; and when Andrew stopt to deliver out the required parcel, his neighbour remarked to him, that though he himself looked stout and well as usual, his good horse seemed drawing near the last of his journeys.

"Maybe-maybe," gravely replied the old man, laying his arm tenderly across the neck of his aged servant, and looking in the creature's face, as it lifted and half turned round its head with seeming consciousness" Maybe, master! but who knows, after all, which may go first? Please God, we may yet last out one another's time."

But he himself looked well, and

strong as ever, and talked cheerfully all the rest of the way; and that same evening, as was customary with him, walked his rounds, to give account of his multifarious commissions. This was on the evening of Saturday, and the next morning Andrew Cleaves was missed at church from his accustomed seat; and no soul that looked towards the vacant place, but knew immediately, that the old man was either sick unto death, or that he had already "fallen asleep in Jesus."

When divine service was over, many persons bent their steps towards the lonely cottage; and soon the general expectation (fear on such an occasion would have been an irreligious feeling) was fully verified. The cottage door was closed and locked, and not a lattice open, but prompt admission was effected, and there the venerable inmate was found sitting in his old high-backed chair, before the little claw-table, on which was a small glass of untasted ale, and an unlit pipe beside the open Bible. It seemed at a first glance, as if the old man were reading, but it was not so. One hand, indeed, was still spread upon the chapter before him, but his head had dropt down upon his breast, his eyes were closed, and he slept the last sleep of the righteous.

Such were the village annals collected from different narrators, and at divers opportunities, during the better part of a long summer month, which time I employed, or as some would have it, idled away, in fishing the streams in the vicinity of Redburn, taking up my head-quarters at the sign of the Jolly Miller. The substance of the story, and all its main facts, were, however, related to me by the loquacious landlady, on the first night of my sojourn under her roof. And she wound up her narrative with farther particulars, including the ghost, which had excited such extraordinary tumult in the hitherto quiet village.

Andrew Cleaves had been laid at

rest beside the graves of his wife and son, the day before my arrival. The burial charges were defrayed by the sale of that poor remnant of his household goods which yet remained in the cottage, its once abundant plenishing having gone piece by piece during the time of his greatest necessity. The old cottage itself, and its small domain, fell in of course to its reversionary purchaser, the village butcher. And there was no man to say him nay, when he likewise appropriated to himself, as make weights no doubt in the scale of the dilapidated building-its few living appurtenances,-Andrew's favourite breed of milk-white poultry, and his only, his still surviving servant, honest Greybeard. Yes, the poor old creature, fast drooping as he was, did indeed last out his master's time, and render him the latest service. For the old man was taken to his grave in his own cart, by his own aged servant; and that was the last task of the poor worn-out brate; and when it was over, his new proprietor turned him loose at the churchyard gate into his own adjoining field, there to linger out the few intervening days, till that when he was destined to furnish a repast to the squire's hounds.

The

The graves of the Cleaves's lay side by side under the churchyard wall, at that end of the cemetery exactly fronting the entrance. old man had been committed to the earth on the fourth day from that of his decease; and, some hours after the funeral, a person came hurrying about nightfall into the tap-room of the Jolly Miller, affirming, that in his way past the churchyard, having looked accidentally towards the new made grave, at its farther extremity, he had seen distinctly a white spectral shape arise out of the earth, at the head of the dark fresh mound, which strange appearance gradually increased in size and stature, till he was afraid to continue gazing, and ran off to communicate the awful intelligence.

Some laughed at Hodge's story,

some bullied, some quaked; but all clamoured and questioned, and finished by running off en masse towards the churchyard, headed by the bearer of wonderful tidings, whose courage being of a gregarious nature, became absolute valour with such comfortable backing. Yet did his pace slacken perceptibly as he approached the burial-ground, and his followers pressed less impatiently upon his heels; and the whole phalanx, by that time wedged into close order, retrograded simultaneously, when Hodge stopped short with a theatrical start, and stretching forth his right arm, after the fashion of the Prince of Denmark, uttered not exactly the adjuration of the royal Dane, but an exclamation quite as electric to his excited followers.

"There he goes, by Gosh!" quoth Hodge, under his breath.

But all heard the awful words; and all were ready to make oath, that, just as they were spoken, they saw something tall, white, vapoury, spectral, sink down into the earth at the head of Andrew Cleaves's grave. Some went so far as to whisper of having caught a glimpse of horns and fiery eyes; and they might have got on to hoofs and a long tail, had not the less imaginative elders rebuked such idle fantasies, and condemned the uncharitable inferences therefrom deducible.

"For why should the Evil One, designated by their fears, be permitted to visit the last earthly restingplace of one, whose faith, while living, had baffled his subtlest wiles, and whose immortal part was now, it was humbly to be hoped, beyond the influence of his power?"

But they, too,-those sober witnesses, had seen something,-had caught a momentary glance of the white figure as it sank into the earth! and their long-drawn jaws, and solema doubts, and qualified admission, and pious ejaculations, struck more awe to the hearts of the cowering group than the bolder asseverations of the first speakers. Certain it is, not one of the party proposed to en

ter the consecrated precincts, and take closer cognizance of the spot, to which all eyes were directed with intense eagerness. But they kept their ground of observation for a considerable time after the vanishing of the phantom; and though mysterious sounds and indistinct glimmerings were still rife in the heated imaginings of many, no further appearance was unanimously pronounced to have been visible during that night's watch, and, by degrees, the gazers dispersed, to spread panic and conjecture through the village. No epidemic is more easily disseminated; and, by the next day's close, all Redburn mustered for the ghosthunt;-which formidable array it was my lot to encounter when I first entered the straggling street, in quest of lodging and entertainment at the village inn. More entertainment than I had reckoned on was, as I have shown, provided for me by my garrulous landlady; and her village gossip had so well eked out the more substantial refreshment of her savoury fare, that time had stolen on unheeded amidst the unwonted quiet of her well-frequented house, and darkness had long succeeded the gloaming, which lent me light to reach its hospitable shelter. And still the old lady had something more to tell, and I still listened with unwearied ear, when all at once the deep, unnatural quiet of " the deserted village" was broken by a confused uproar, like the rushing of an approaching torrent, and, in a moment, the trampling of many feet, and the clattering of many tongues, announced the nearness of the living torrent, which came pouring onward in “admired disorder," and pressing head over head, and shoulder against shoulder, into the kitchen of the Jolly Miller. And there were white faces, and staring eyes, and chattering teeth, and "horrific hair," but no paralysis of tongues; and, for a while, the confusion of Babel was nothing to that which mingled forty discordant voices, all trying to outpitch one another.