purpose; the old house clock struck one; two; and their lay my cousin, like a rose-bud under a plantai n leaf, courting sleep harder and harder, but in vain. What she was thinking of all this time, I never heard, -perhaps the young stranger,-perhaps the ghost story he had told her, perhaps the kiss,-no matter what,—and it's no use taking up our time conjecturing.

6

"By this time my cousin was getting nervous. She covered her head with the blankets, and keeping very still, said her prayers again, and tried to go to sleep. She was just beginning to drowse, when a rustling near the door startled her. She drew the blankets closer over her head and listened. Nothing stirred. Pretty soon, however, she felt something moving on her pillow, and her poor heart went pit-a-pat with terror. Then she was sure somebody whispered her name,— she listened, and Alice, Alice,' came distinctly on her ear. Poor girl, she was almost dead! Human nature could stand it no longer. She leaped from her bed, overturned the light stand, knocked down the lamp, and rushed towards the door. But here a new cause of terror appeared, for no sooner was her hand upon the latch, than a light from the entry streamed into the room from the crevices of the door. What could it be? Was the house on fire? Was the collegian in the entry with his light? or, worse than all, had some supernatural influence come with the stranger, to take possession of the house?-She ventured to peep through

the keyhole; the entry was light as noonday; and the old furniture, that had cumbered it ever since she could remember, was animate with life.

"Upon a three-legged table was spread a glorious supper of turkeys and ducks, chickens and goslings, rounds of beef and flitches of bacon, and around it was a dozen crippled chairs, some lame in the knee, some crooked in the back, but all in fine spirits, and partaking of the smoking viands with great gusto. At the head stood a round bellied, pussy old revolutionary veteran, whose long arms flourished the carver, and distributed the choice bits with all the skill of a Parisian gourmand. By his side, on one hand, sat a fair widow of thirtysix or thereabouts, dressed in the gayest colors, and apparently greatly pleased with the attentions of the veteran, to whom she talked with unintermitting volubility. On the other, was a slim damsel, scarcely out of her teens, whose melancholy air, and stiff manners, my cousin Alice attributed to some painful disease of the spine. An old lady of great dignity sat at the principal seat on the side, whose dress of scarlet damask would have shown to great advantage, but for the frequent patched and unpatched holes, perceptible in it; while opposite, was a sweet, smiling girl, with a sprained ancle, whom a roystering young blade kept courting, with his fingers and feet, under the table. Three or four old wooden chairs served as waiters, and limped about on their duties with great dexterity.

"But this was not all. There were other articles of furniture whose conduct shocked the modesty of my cousin Alice to an unpardonable degree. A tall lusty cheese-press, in the corner, fondled a prinking, coquetting light stand in most outrageous ways, for whom a weak mirror, standing near by, was perfectly cracked; and an amorous old sun-dial, crusted with eighty winters, gave great occasion for scandal, by setting on the lap, and laying on the bosom of a fat young time-piece from Connecticut.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, my cousin Alice stood it as long as she could, and was just considering how to escape, when at a noise on the stairs, the lights went out, the student's door on the other side of the hall, which, till this moment, she had never noticed was open, slammed to, and she flew back to bed. It was her mother's step she had heard, and no sooner had the good lady entered the room, than Alice was fast asleep.

"Alice! Alice said the good lady; but Alice did not stir.

"Alice! wake up! wake up! Alice turned over, and rubbing her eyes, as one will do, when suddenly wakened, saw her mother.

"Oh, mother, mother!' exclaimed the affrighted girl' how glad I am you have come! I have had a horrible dream!'"

"And so it was nothing but a dream, after all!" exclaimed the parson.

"Pshaw, all a bubble !" whispered the cashier. "But what became of Frank Langley ?" inquired the spinster.

66 Oh, he and Alice made a match of it, and before spring were on a voyage to Europe, for a wedding tour."

COUNTRY DOCTORS.

If any man sin, let him fall into the hands of a Physician.-ECCLESIASTICUS.

Of all classes of men I know of, who live in this world, and hope for another, that of Country Doctors is the only nondescript. Other classes have been and can be described; each and all have some distinctive characteristic by which they may be recognized, some prevailing mark, like the scowl on a pettifogger's brow, or the gout on an alderman's toe, which shows itself, and will show itself everywhere, as long as the one argues petty causes, and the other eats good dinners. But the country doctor has none; his genus and species, and order, are yet to be determined; in his own language, he is a hard case. He may be fat or lean, tall or short, flaccid or muscular, taciturn or talkative, swift or slow, married or single, any thing, in fact, except rich; that he can never be; for everywhere, all over the world, the country Doctor is a poor devil.

Such latitude, of course, ruins all classification. There is nothing you can fix upon which is peculiarly his own, which he does not in fact enjoy in common with