called together-boats with grappling irons were ordered to drag the bay :—but nothing was ever found of the body, and to this day it remains in doubt what was the fate of the land speculator." "And what became of his property," asked my uncle. "Oh, the town appointed trustees to settle that, but they did not find enough to pay a penny on a pound. His houses were mortgaged, his chests were empty, his horses and carriages had disappeared, and his bonds and mortgages were all blank paper, handsomely labeled and sealed; his" "But the old intervale in Campton? who owned that?" "That was cleared and settled, after a time, by some of the buyers, but the owners never flourished; and to this day there is not a thriving farm on the Bearcamp." "No wonder !" said my grandmother, "for the devil sold it." SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY. All was so still around, methought Upon mine ear that echoed hymn did steal, So tuneful peal'd. But tenderly thy voice Dissolved the illusion. Mrs. Sigourney. ONE of the liveliest descriptions in Göethe's Faust, is that of Sunday, as it is spent by the middling and lower classes in Germany. William Howitt alluded to this description in his Rural Life in England, a work, by the way, full of the most delicious pictures of country scenes, and well worth the perusal of every man of taste, and he sets off by way of contrast his own charming account of a summer's Sunday in England. Beautiful, and true to life undoubtedly, as both these pictures are, there is something wanting about them, by which they fail fully to realize our idea of a Sunday in the country towns of New England. Making due allowance for the difference of national manners, there is still something, even in the most remote corners of the old countries, something made up from the influence which the associations of former time, or of a national church, or of, The old heroic halls from ages grey,' possess over the minds of the population, which makes a wide disparity between their religious character and the fruits it produces, and our own. With all their world of beauty in the cultivated scenery around them; their luxuriant plants, and blossomed branches, and sunny walls of cottage and castle; their fair hills and flowery dales, and deep secluded vallies; give to me my own native New England, whose rugged mountains overshadow a people to whom the Sabbath is not only a day of rest, but of worship; and whose deep vallies in their stillness, on that holy morning, reflect back the pure tranquillity of heaven! During the hour alluded to in a former chapter, I spent a Sunday in my native town, on the north shore of the Winnepiseoga Lake. It is the country in its strictest sense, for its population is made up almost exclusively of farmers the true, hardy, home-loving farmers of New Hampshire. So far as I have ever learned, it is remarkable for nothing, saving that a stranger might notice a habit which has attained here, as in most of the northern towns in the State, of designating every small cluster of buildings as a Corner, and of adding to it some cognomen, sufficiently characteristic and amusing. The only three white painted houses in the town stand near together, and have thereby gained the appellation, par excellence, of The CorWithin two miles of this, are to be found Upper Corner, Lower Corner, Cram's Corner, Uncle Jake's ner. Corner, Mackerel Corner, Barville Corner, and ToughScrabble Corner; eight corners in one town! Enough, one would think, to satisfy the most fastidious lover of hard names, and popular gathering places. The calm, basking sunshine had lain on the green landscape with such richness and beauty on Saturday evening, that one could not distrust the pledge for a glorious morrow; and I had risen early, early even for the country, to enjoy the morning. It was indeed one of peculiar beauty. There was not a cloud to be seen in the heavens. The sun was not yet up, but his brightness came before him over the mountains, as if waking them from their slumbers. All was still, as one loves it to be on a Sabbath morning, save the sweet orisons of the red-breast and oriole, going up to him, "who feedeth the birds," and the sound of a distant waterfall breaking clear upon the ear. I stood upon a little eminence, which overlooked the country a few miles around. The sun had now risen, the earth looked beautiful and new as at the creation, and lo! sunward a hundred peaks were glowing in gold and amethyst, like giant spirits of a world. Over the whole landscape there is a stillness, showing that man rests from his labors, and every thing rests with him. The sturdy ox which had toiled at the plough or dragged along the weary load, through the successive week days, is grazing quietly on the sunny slopes; the cows are sluggishly moving towards the pastures; the milkmaid suppresses her song as she bears the plentiful store from the farm-yard; and the very herd boy looks cautiously far up and down the lane, before he ventures the stone, twice aimed, at the unoffending chip-muck. "All look as if they knew the day and hour, And felt with man the need and joy of thanks." The breakfast is partaken in quietness; the Sunday morning breakfast of rich brown mush; the tables are cleared and set away; and the household are assembled around the family altar, while from the "big ha' Bible,” the father" wales a portion with judicious care,” and leads in the devotions. After prayers, each betakes himself to preparations for church. The children are made ready in well-brushed Sunday clothes, with clean faces and smooth hair, and seated to their lessons for the Sunday school. So still is every duty performed, that the click of the hall clock is audible. through the house, and the sense of religious awe seems to live in the very atmosphere. As we took our way to the church, the same stillness covered the whole face of nature, broken only by the hum of the honey-bees gathering sweets from the way-side flowers, or the cawing of the crows from the distant fields. Neatly dressed people were moving in groups towards the sanctuary; the bright-eyed girl and her mother; young men, children, and the grayheaded, with a sobriety and decorum in unison with the solemnity of the day. The church was a neat white building, standing just out of the deep mountain forest, and overlooking a wide country of water and |