tire for the night. Luckily it was I did so, for the hand of Providence was soon made manifest in assisting me.

The chamber into which I was shown for the night, was a large room in the upper part of the house, a mason-lodge, adorned with the emblems and ensigns of the craft. It contained twelve beds, six along each side, with but small spaces between, and was altogether an uncomfortable-looking dormitory, especially to a man who had been used to the privacy of his own house.

As there was apparently no other guest that night in the tavern, I had my choice of the beds, and I selected one in a snug corner behind the door, across the foot of which I made a screen with my clothes, on a winter dykes, so that I was in a sense almost as much apart from the general commonage of the chamber, as if I had been in a separate room.

I had not been long under the blankets, when I fell asleep; how long I remained in that state were hard to tell; it must, however, have been some considerable time, for when I awoke two persons were conversing near me. They occu

pied two of the beds opposite to the foot of mine, and were earnestly discussing a matter of business, which I soon discovered was near akin to that which had brought myself there.

As I was placed in a position to hear them without any seeking or curiosity of mine, I would not but harken to what they were saying, and I gathered from it, that Mr. Nackets was straitened, as they had some reason to believe, for ready money, and would be likely to sell his store-goods cheap, rather than swap or trade them. This news, though interesting, was yet not very pleasant, for it was part of my business to negociate a swap of Mr. Hoskins omnipotent horses for some of the goods, and he valued them at one hundred and eighty dollars.

Having heard in this providential manner how Mr. Nackets was situated, as well as of divers other matters useful to my purposes, I resolved to rise early in the morning, and to try what hand I could make of him before the two strangers were stirring. This I accordingly did, and found him dejectedly swinging on his chair at the door-cheek, just as the sun was peeping through the top boughs of the woods. I did

not, however, go sheer at him-no, catch me at that I had been too long in Yankee-land not to keep to windward-steering a moderate and methodical middle course.

I told him honestly, that having heard he was about to quit Olympus, and was willing to dispose of his goods on easy terms, I was half-minded to deal with him, but was not overly abundant in cash. He thereupon began to complain of Olympus, wishing he had never seen it; and with the disheartened spirit of an invalid as he was, the thought of carrying his goods back to Utica, was a load above the burden on his mind. I then gently hinted at the fine horses which Mr. Hoskins had consigned to me for sale, and how convenient they would be with the light waggon to carry him and his family to Utica, where, it could not be doubted, he might sell them to great advantage-and so we proceeded gradually, nearer and nearer at every turn of our talk, until we were fairly at close quarters. For I saw the poor man was dismayed with apprehensions, and I made it my endeavour to cheer him, in which I so happily succeeded, that in the

end, he was convinced he could not do better than take the span of horses at two hundred and ten dollars valuation, and the waggon at seventy-five, as part payment for five hundred dollars' worth of dry goods, axes, and agricultural implements. And to make a clean job, we settled that he should come with me to Babelmandel, with a waggon-load of the articles, and there receive the balance of the money.

This operation, when I explained to Mr. Hoskins the particulars, was in all points so satisfactory to the old gentleman, that he commended my dexterity in the management, as something extraordinary and beyond his expec

tations.

CHAPTER XI.

"Life hath its changes like the weather too, Cares match cold days as storms do controversies."

MR. HOSKINS, after the purchase I had made from Mr. Nackets, became less anxious to return home. He saw, as he often said, "the settlement was a-going to do,” and his intention of moving to it from Vermont when he could get his farm there sold, was every time we conversed on the subject more and more strengthened. We agreed, however, not to open store regularly before the Spring, when we should have a proper place constructed, and a right assortment of goods laid in; at the same time we thought it would be as well, not absolutely to abstain from supplying the settlers who could pay ready money for such ar