the kindness he had shewn to Jemmie, and at the same time a cordial invitation to dine with them next Saturday, on a shoulder of mutton and potatoes,' with this addition, "Ye'll put on your clean sark, as I have company.' The student was strongly tempted to accept this hospitable proposal, as many in his place would probably have done; but, as the motive might have been capable of misrepresentation, he thought it most prudent, considering the character and circumstances of the old man, to decline the invitation. Such are a few traits of Scotish mendicity, designed to throw light on a novel in which a character of that description plays a prominent part. We conclude that we have vindicated Edie Ochiltree's right to the importance assigned him; and have shewn, that we have known one beggar take a hand at cards with a person of distinction, and another give dinner-parties."

THE BORDERERS,

a Tale.

ALTHOUGH the people of Great-Britain, and the citizens of the United States of America, seem to have no great affection for each other, and are mutually censorious and satirical, the interchange of literature is constant and friendly. We receive with pleasure the productions of the American press, and we send over, in addition to the standard works of our earlier writers, copies of all the valuable publications of modern times. We readily acknowlege the talents of an Irving, respect the intellectual powers of a Channing, and are amused and interested by the novels of Cooper. The last-named writer evidently improves in his progress, and every new work from his pen is therefore read with avidity.

The present tale refers to the primary settlement of British emigrants in North America. Captain Mark Heathcote, an old Puritan, clears a part of the forest-country, fortifies a select spot, and devotes his time to domestic and agricultural pursuits, which, however, are occasionally suspended in consequence of the necessity of resisting the hostilities of the wild and exasperated natives. His son Content, and his daughter-inlaw Ruth, and many friends and attendants, compose his household.

The following adventure is related with due spirit.—“ Histories of combats with beasts of prey, and of massacres by roving and lawless Indians, were the moving legends of the border. Thrones might be subverted, and kingdoms lost and won in distant Europe; and less would be said of the events, by those who dwelt in these woods, than of one scene of peculiar and striking forest incident, that called for the exercise of the stout courage and the keen intelligence of the settler. Such a tale passed from mouth to mouth, with the eagerness of powerful personal interest; and many were already transmitted from parent to child, in the form of tradition, until exaggeration became too closely blended with truth, ever again to be separated. Under the influence of these feelings, and perhaps prompted by his never-failing discretion, Content had thrown a well-tried piece over his shoulder; and, when he rose up a hill, Ruth caught a glimpse of his form, bending on the neck of his horse, and gliding through the misty light of the hour, resembling one of those fancied images of wayward and hard-riding sprites, of which the tales of the eastern continent are so fond of speaking. Then followed anxious moments, during which neither sight nor hearing could in the least aid the conjectures of the attentive wife. She listened without breathing, and once or twice she thought the blows of hoofs, falling on the earth harder and quicker than common, might be distinguished; but it was only as Content mounted the

sudden ascent of the hill-side that he was again seen, for a brief instant, while dashing swiftly into the cover of the woods.

"Though Ruth had been familiar with the cares of the frontier, perhaps she had never known a moment more intensely painful than that when the form of her husband became blended with the dark trunks of the trees. The time was to her impatience longer than usual; and, under the excitement of a feverish inquietude, that had no definite object, she removed the single bolt that held the postern closed, and passed entirely without the stockade. To her oppressed senses, the palisades appeared to place limits to her vision. Still, weary minute passed after minute, without bringing relief. During these anxious moments she became more

than usually conscious of the insulated situation in which he and all who were dearest to her heart were placed. The feelings of a wife prevailed. Quitting the side of the acclivity, she began to walk slowly along the path her husband had taken, until apprehension insensibly urged her into a quicker movement. She had paused only when she stood nearly in the centre of the clearing, on the eminence where her father had halted that evening to contemplate the growing improvement of his estate. Here her steps were suddenly arrested, for she thought a form was issuing from the forest. It proved to be no more than the passing shadow of a cloud, denser than common, which threw the body of its darkness on the trees, and a portion of its outline on the ground near the margin of the wood. At this instant, the recollection that she had incautiously left the postern open flashed upon her mind; and, with feelings divided between her husband and children, she commenced her return, in order to repair a neglect, to which habit, no less than prudence, imparted a high degree of culpability. The eyes of the mother, for the feelings of that sacred character were now powerfully uppermost, were fastened on the ground, as she eagerly picked her way along the uneven surface: and so engrossed was her mind by the omission of duty with which she was severely reproaching herself, that they drank in objects without conveying distinct or intelligible images to her brain.

"Notwithstanding the engrossing thought of the moment, something met her eye that caused even the vacant organ to recoil, and every fibre in her frame to tremble with terror. There was a moment in which delirium nearly heightened terror to madness. Reflection came only when Ruth had reached the distance of many feet from the spot where this startling object had half unconsciously crossed her vision. Then for a single and a fearful instant she paused, like one who debated on the course she ought to follow. Maternal love prevailed, and the deer of her own woods scarcely bounds with greater agility than the mother of the sleeping and defenceless family now fled toward the dwellings. Panting and breathless she gained the postern, which was closed with hands that performed their office more by instinct than in obedience to thought,

VOL. X.

and doubly and trebly barred. Ruth now breathed distinctly and without pain. She strove to rally her thoughts, in order to deliberate on the course that prudence and her duty to Content, who was still exposed to the danger she had herself escaped, prescribed. Her first impulse was to give the established signal that was to recall the laborers from the field, or to awake the sleepers in the event of an alarm: but better reflection told her that such a step might prove fatal to him who balanced in her affections against the rest of the world. struggle in her mind only ended, as she clearly caught a view of her husband, issuing from the forest, at the very point where he had entered. The return pathr led directly past the spot where such sudden terror had seised her mind. Scarcely knowing what she did, and yet preserving, by a sort of instinctive prudence, the caution which constant exposure weaves into all our habits, the trembling woman made the effort.

The

Husband! husband!' she cried, commencing plaintively, but her voice rising with the energy of excitement; "husband, ride swiftly; our little Ruth lieth in agony. For her life and thine, ride at thy horse's speed. Seek not the stables, but come with all haste to the postern; it shall be open to thee.'—This was certainly a fearful summons for a father's ear, and there is little doubt that, had the feeble powers of Ruth succeeded in conveying the words as far as she had wished, they would have produced the desired effect. But in vain did she call; her weak tones, though raised on the notes of the keenest apprehension, could not force their way across so wide a space. And yet had she reason to think they were not entirely lost, for once her husband paused and seemed to listen, and once he quickened the pace of his horse, though neither proof of intelli gence was followed by any farther signs of his having understood the alarm.

"Content was now upon the hillock itself. If Ruth breathed at all during his passage, it was more imperceptibly than the gentlest respiration of the sleeping infant. But when she saw him trotting with unconscious security along the path on the side next to the dwellings, her impatience broke through all restraint, and, throwing open the postern, she renewed her cries, in a voice that was no longer useless. The clattering of

3 U

the unshodden hoof was again rapid, and in another minute her husband galloped unharmed to her side.

Enter!' said the nearly dizzy wife, seising the bridle, and leading the horse within the palisades; 'enter, husband, for the love of all that is thine, and be thankful.'

The cause of Ruth's alarm was a young savage, who is soon secured, and detained in captivity. The kind treatment which he receives induces him to become the friend of his captors, and he evinces his gratitude and attachment when a bold attack is made on the settlers. "Whoops and yells were incessantly ringing around the place, while the loud and often-repeated tones of a conch betrayed the artifice by which the savages had endeavoured, in the earlier part of the night, to lure the garrison out of the palisades.

A few scattering

The

shot, discharged with deliberation, and from every exposed point within the works, proclaimed both the coolness and the vigilance of the defendants. little gun in the block-house was silent, being reserved for moments of more pressing danger. On this spectacle Ruth gazed in fearful sadness. The longsustained and sylvan security of her abode was violently destroyed, and in the place of a quiet, which had approached, as near as may be on earth, to that holy peace for which her spirit strove, she and all she most loved were suddenly confronted to the most frightful exhibition of human horrors. In such a moment, the feelings of a mother were likely to revive; and ere time was given for reflection, aided by the light of the conflagration, the matron was moving swiftly through the intricate passages of the dwelling, in quest of those whom she had placed in the security of the chambers. Thou hast remembered to avoid looking on the fields, my children,' said the nearly breathless woman, as she entered the room. 'Be thankful, babes; hitherto the efforts of the savages have been vain, and we still remain masters of our habitations.'-'Why is the night so red? Come hither, mother; thou mayest look into the wood as if the sun were shining!'-The heathens have fired our granaries, and what thou seest is the light of the flames; but happily they cannot put brand into the dwellings while thy father and the young men stand to their weapons. We must be grateful for this security, frail as it seemeth.

Thou hast knelt, my Ruth, and hast remembered to think of thy father and brother in thy prayers?' 'I will do so again, mother," whispered the child, bending to her knees, and wrapping her young features in the garments of the matron. 'Why hide thy countenance? One, young and innocent as thou art, may lift thine eyes to Heaven with confidence.'-'N 'Mother, I see the Indian, unless my face be hid. He looketh at me, I fear, with wish to do us harm.''Thou art not just to Mianfonimoh, child,' answered Ruth, as she glanced her eye rapidly round to seek the boy, who had modestly withdrawn into a remote and shaded corner of the room. I left him with thee for a guardian, and not as one who would wish to injure. Now think of thy God, child,' imprinting a kiss on the cold marble-like forehead of her daughter, and have reliance on his goodness. Miantonimoh, I again leave you with a charge to be their protector,' she added, quitting her daughter and advancing toward the youth. Mother!' shrieked the child, come to me, or I die!' Ruth turned from the listening captive with the quickness of instinct. A glance shewed her the jeopardy of her offspring. A naked savage, dark, powerful of frame, and fierce in the frightful masquerade of his war-paint, stood winding the silken hair of the girl in one hand, while he already held the glittering axe above a head that seemed inevitably devoted to destruction.'Mercy! mercy!' exclaimed Ruth, hoarse with horror, and dropping to her knees, as much from inability to stand as with intent to petition. 'Monster, strike me, but spare the child!'-The eyes of the Indian rolled over the person of the speaker, but it was with an expression that seemed rather to enumerate the number of his victims, than to announce any change of purpose. With a fiendlike coolness, that bespoke much knowlege of the ruthless practice, he again swung the quivering but speechless child in the air, and prepared to direct the weapon with a fell certainty of aim. The tomahawk had made its last circuit, and an instant would have decided the fate of the victim, when the captive boy stood in front of the frightful actor in this revolting scene. By a quick forward movement of his arm, the blow was arrested. The deep guttural ejaculation, which betrays the surprise of an Indian,

broke from the chest of the savage, while his hand fell to his side, and the form of the suspended girl was suffered again to touch the floor. The look and gesture with which the boy had interfered, expressed authority rather than resentment or horror. His air was calm, collected, and, as it appeared by the effect, imposing, 'Go,' he said, in the language of the fierce people from whom he had sprung; the warriors of the pale men are calling thee by name.'-'The snow is red with the blood of our young men,' the other fiercely answered; and not a scalp is at the belt of my people.'"These are mine,' returned the boy with dignity, sweeping his arm while speaking, in a manner to shew that he extended protection to all present. The warrior gazed about him grimly, and like one but half convinced. He had incurred a danger too fearful, in entering the stockade, to be easily diverted from his purpose. Listen!' he continued, after a short pause, during which the artillery of the Puritan had bellowed in the uproar without. < The thunder is with the Yenghese! Our young women will look another way, and call us Pequots, should there be no scalps on our pole.' For a single moment the countenance of the boy changed, and his resolution seemed to waver. The other, who watched his eyes with longing eagerness, again seised his victim by the hair, when Ruth shrieked in the accents of despairBoy! boy! if thou art not with us, God hath deserted us !'-'She is mine,' burst fiercely from the lips of the lad. 'Hear my words, Wompahwisset; the blood of my father is very warm within me.' The other paused, and the blow was once more suspended. The glaring eye-balls of the savage rested intently on the swelling form and stern countenance of the young hero, whose uplifted hand appeared to menace instant punishment, should he dare to disregard the mediation. The lips of the warrior severed, and the word Miantonimoh was uttered, as softly as if it recalled a feeling of sorrow. Then, as a sudden burst of yells rose above the roar of the conflagration, the fierce Indian, abandoning the trembling and nearly insensible child, bounded away like a hound loosened on a fresh scent of blood. Boy! boy!' murmured the mother: heathen or Christian, there is one that will bless thee!'"

Another scene of horror calls forth the intense feelings of the mother. The block-house is forced by the enemy, while the surrounding buildings are involved in flames.-"A stranger says to the friendly captive, Boy, thou, who hast done much, mayest yet do more. Ask mercy for these children in some manner that may touch the hearts of thy people.' Miantonimoh shook his head, and pointing to a corpse that lay in the court, answered, The red man has tasted blood.'-Then,' said the stranger, must the desperate trial be made. Think not of thy children, devoted and daring mother, but look only to thine own safety. This youth and I will charge ourselves with the care of the innocents.' Ruth waved him away with her hand, pressing her mute and trembling daughter to her bosom, in a manner to shew that her resolution was taken. The stranger yielded; and, turning to Whittal, bade him look to the safety of the remaining child. Moving in front himself, he was about to offer Ruth such protection as the case afforded, when a window in the rear of the house was dashed inward, announcing the entrance of the enemy, and the imminent danger that their flight would be intercepted. There was no time to lose-for it was now certain that only a single room separated them from their foes. The generous nature of Ruth was roused; and, catching Martha from the arms of Whittal, she endeavoured, by a desperate effort, to envelope both the children in her robe. 'I am with ye!' whispered the agitated woman; hush ye, hush ye, babes! thy mother is nigh! The stranger was very differently employed. The instant the crash of glass was heard, he rushed to the rear; and he had already grappled with a savage, who acted as guide to a dozen fierce and yelling followers. the block-house!' shouted the steady soldier, while with a powerful arm he held his enemy in the throat of the narrow passage, stopping the approach of those in the rear by the body of his foe. "For the love of life and children, woman, to the block-house!'-The summons rang frightfully in the ears of Ruth; and, in that moment of extreme jeopardy, her presence of mind was lost. The cry was repeated; and not till then did the bewildered mother catch her daughter from the floor. With eyes still bent on the fierce struggle in her rear, she clasped

To

the child to her heart and fled, calling on Whittal to follow. The lad obeyed; and, ere she had half-crossed the court, the stranger was seen endeavouring to take the same direction. The whoops, the flight of arrows, and the discharges of musketry, that succeeded, proclaimed the whole extent of the danger. But fear had lent unnatural vigor to the limbs of Ruth; and the gliding arrows themselves scarce sailed more swiftly through the heated air than she darted into the open door of the block-house. Whittal was less successful. As he crossed the court, bear ing the child intrusted to his care, an arrow pierced his flesh. Stung by the pain, the witless lad turned, in anger, to chide the hand that had inflicted the injury. On, foolish boy!' cried the stranger, as he passed him, making a target of the body of the savage that was writhing in his grasp; on, for thy life, and that of the babe!' The mandate came too late. The hand of an Indian was already on the innocent victim, and in the next instant the child was sweeping the air, while with a short yell the keen axe flourished above his head. A shot from the loops laid the monster dead in his tracks. The girl was instantly seised by another hand, and, as the captor with his prize darted unharmed into the dwelling, there arose in the block a common exclamation of the name of Miantonimoh. Two more of the savages profited by the pause of horror that followed, to lay hands on the wounded Whittal, and to drag him within the blazing building. At the same moment, the stranger cast the unresisting savage back upon the weapons of his companions. The bleeding and half-strangled Indian met the blows which had been aimed at the life of the soldier, and, as he staggered and fell, the latter escaped to the block-house. The door of the little citadel was instantly closed, and the savages, who rushed headlong against the entrance, heard the fitting of the bars which secured it against their attacks. The yell of retreat was raised, and in the next instant the court was left to the possession of the dead. We will be thankful for this blessing,' said Content, as he aided the half-unconscious Ruth to mount the ladder, yielding himself to a feeling of nature that said little against his manhood. 'If we have lost one that we loved, God hath spared our own child.' His breathless wife threw herself into a

seat, and, folding the treasure to her bosom, whispered rather than said aloud, From my soul, Heathcote, I am gratefal-Thou shieldest the babe from my sight,' returned the father, stooping to conceal a tear that was stealing down his brown cheek, under a pretence of embracing the child; but, suddenly recoiling, he added, in alarm, Ruth Startled by the tone in which her husband uttered her name, the mother threw aside the folds of her dress, which still concealed the girl, and, stretching her out to the length of an arm, saw that, in the hurry of the appalling scene, the children had been exchanged, and that she had saved the life of Martha. Notwithstanding the generous disposition of Ruth, it was impossible to repress the feeling of disappointment which came over her with the consciousness of the mistake. Nature at first had sway, and to a degree that was fearfully powerful. 'It is not our babe!" shrieked the mother, still holding the child at the length of her arm, and gazing at its innecent and terrified countenance, with an expression that Martha had never yet seen gleaming from eyes that were, in common, so soft and so indulgent. " am thine! I am thine!' murmured the little trembler, struggling in vain to reach the bosom that had so long cherished her infancy. If not thine, whose am I? The gaze of Ruth was still wild, the workings of her features hysterical.— 'Madam Mrs. Heathcote - mother!' came timidly, and at intervals, from the lips of the orphan. Then the heart of Ruth relented. She clasped the daughter of her friend to her breast, and nature found a temporary relief in one of those frightful exhibitions of anguish which appear to threaten the dissolution of the link that connects the soul with the body."

After an interval of peace, the settlers are involved in new hostilities; but they at length establish themselves in their Trans-Atlantic possessions. Ruth's daughter is recovered by her friends, and the comforts and prosperity of the family and neighbourhood are secured by persevering industry, vigilant circumspection, and propriety of conduct.