palms of her own; "and although I cannot make an adequate return for your disinterested friendship, yet be assured I shall ever think of it with the deepest gratitude.”

Mrs. Sykes-good soul!-felt her eyes suddenly become moist at this address, and her under lip and double chin quivered at an alarming rate.

After a strong cup of tea, with a few drops of comfort, as Mrs. Sykes called brandy when taken medicinally, she expressed herself as feeling considerably better.

"And so you must go, ma'am?" said the good woman, looming through the steam of her eighth cup as she raised it to her lips.

"I am obliged to say yes," responded her companion, "with the very greatest reluctance."

"Well!" exclaimed Mrs. Sykes, with a sigh, "I've heard say this world's made up of meetings and separations, and it appears to be too true."

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Ay," replied Mrs. Weston, "it is so indeed. We meet and part, perhaps, never to

meet again; and yet the hope, faint and improbable as it may be, always points to the time when parting friends may meet again."

CHAPTER IX.

"And do you tell me of a woman's tongue;
That gives not half so great a blow to the ear
As will a chesnut in a farmer's fire ?"

WITHIN a month from the day of the revel, James Sykes led the pretty Nancy Dixon, blushing like the peach-blossom, to the altar, and there, in the presence of their respective friends and neighbours, plighted heart to heart, and exchanged each other's troth to love and honour, as becomes those sworn to be all in each other, before God and man.

The young couple were now living in a house beautifully situated in a valley in the Hall-park, called the Home Farm; and although a very secluded spot, it seemed to produce no dullness

of spirits in the youthful wife; for her laugh and song were to be heard ringing from morn till night, as merry as any bird trilling on twig

or spray.

Whether it was the check James formerly held upon his mother's tendency to-in familiar parlance-hen-peck her husband was now removed, or whether Job's habits became daily more offensive to Mrs. Sykes, is a matter of doubt and uncertainty; but it is quite clear, and an authenticated fact, that that loquacious dame now gave vent to such a torrent of homilies, at all seasons and upon all occasions, that poor Job had little opportunity of quiet enjoyment at any time of the day or night. It would appear that she became even watchful in her sleep; for let Job but give the slightest symptom that he was not in the land of dreams, and-to use his own graphic smilie-she was down upon him like a hawk upon a chicken. His pipe had become a thing to which he was

estranged from want of association, and Job's countenance began to assume so doleful an expression, that any undertaker might have hired him at a high premium for the black yard business.

"I can't stand this any longer," soliloquized he, as he lifted his pipe from the mantel-shelf and blew out a cobweb which some weaving spider had spun in the bowl. "I can't stand this any longer," repeated he, charging it hard and fast with tobacco.

At this moment Mrs. Sykes, who, it is needless to say was absent during this proclamation of revolt, was heard returning; as her footfall became more distinct as it approached, Job's valorous determination oozed gradually out, and by the time she made her appearance the huntsman had replaced the pipe in its wonted place, and looked as tame and meek as any snubbed child.

"An' well, Job!" exclaimed Mrs. Sykes,