upon her cheeks. Her mouth was delicately formed, and her whole countenance lighted up with large mild eyes, beaming like twin orbs of living blue. The austere manners of the day, which imposed restraints upon the natural vivacity of the sex, had imparted a tinge to the expression of her features, not exactly of severity, nor of melancholy, though perhaps a little of both; but Mercy could smile as sweetly as any maiden in the colony; nor could any one disclose prettier dimples, or a more regular and beautiful set of teeth between her lips of coral. Her hair was dark brown, bordering upon the auburn; but in obedience to the rigid custom of the times, no curls or ringlets were allowed to stray over her well-arched temples; although the thick glossy tresses which fell in profusion upon her neck and shoulders would sometimes wickedly rebel, as they played lightly in the wanton breeze. Her spirits were naturally buoyant, while the disposition of Naomi was not more sweetly submissive, nor that of Ruth more confiding. It is true, her fingers had never kissed the keys of a piano, nor swept the strings of the harp ;-but she could pour forth "Old Hundred" in tones of exquisite sweetness and melody-repeat passages in the Bible, in every chapter, from Genesis to the Revelations, and was deeply read in the Christian Fathers, Baxter's Call, and the Saint's Rest, and other kindred works of the like enduring excellence.

Such, at the period of the commencement of our tale, was the happy couple, seated by the window

of a moderately-sized house, the walls of which were composed of the unhewn trunks of trees, let into each other by notches at the corners-the interstices being filled with moss to protect the inmates from the air, in cold and inclement seasons. The house itself stood upon the eastern margin of the Quanipoag-a small clear sheet of water lying in a valley, to this day wild and secluded, about four miles distant from Menunkatuck,-or Guilford, as the "pale-faces" chose to rechristen the place on coming into possession. Excepting the clearing of Mr. Disborough, the dark forests yet adorned its shores in their primitive strength and grandeur; while on the west, the high and rocky cliff called Toquet Mountain, rose perpendicularly from the water, and in some places the giddy summit of the precipice hung beetling over it. The route of David to his own domicil, in the little scattered village of Menunkatuck, lay much of the way over a rough road, broken by rocks and small ravines, and rendered still more uninviting by the overshadowing branches of the trees. The soil presented no encouragement to the husbandman, and consequently remains uncultivated to this day. But David had a stout heart, and would have been the last to flee from an ordinary arm of flesh, or even from a whole band of savages. Still his conversation with Mercy had awakened a train of thought, and caused certain images to float among his thick-coming fancies, which led him insensibly to protract his visit to a very late hour-even

until Aurora with her rosy fingers had commenced unbarring the gates of morning. On entering the northern skirts of the village, moreover, it would have been necessary for David to pass an unoccupied store-house, having a walled cellar, belonging to the governor of the colony, concerning which there were a variety of strange stories in circulation. Low and mysterious sounds had been heard by passers-by at late hours, and sharp glances of light, sometimes burning red, and at others fearfully blue, had suddenly shot out of the crevices of the rude structure, and straightway disappeared: and it was well known to all, that the building was, by mortals, unoccupied. Under these circumstances, the lengthened visit of David on this occasion was doubtless justifiable, although the historian regrets the necessity of recording the fact, that the example has been followed by young swains and spinsters in New-England ever since -to the great annoyance of prudent mothers, who have conveniently forgotten the way they themselves took to get married.

CHAPTER II.

Look how the world's poor people are amaz'd
At apparitions, signs, and prodigies!-SHAKSPEARE.

THE belief in witchcraft and sorcery, at the period of which we are writing (being soon after the second Charles had been called to the throne of his father), was co-extensive with the colonies. Indeed, it might have been deemed one of the articles of their religous creed. The best informed of the people believed, with Paracelsus, that there were malignant demons busy among the haunts of men, having power to cause diseases, storms, tempests, shipwrecks, and inundations, and to gratify their malice or revenge in a thousand other ways. For the severe temperaments of these people had no conception of supernatural beings, hovering around unseen and unheard, merely for purposes of merriment and mischief, like the fauns, satyrs, wood-nymphs and Robin-good-fellows of the earlier superstitions, dancing on the heaths and greens for their own diversion;-bewildering the senses of pretty disconsolate young maidens in love, or amusing themselves by sitting on the way-side, making men to fall harmlessly over invisible obstructions, and causing horses to rear and plunge and stumble with their riders as they passed. On

the contrary, the demons of their belief were equally vengeful towards men and beasts, whenever their power was invoked by others. or exerted by those in league with them on their own account. Often were they supposed to be hovering about sick men's chambers, in the forms of owls and ravens, or sitting in the windows, in the likenesses of black cats, or in other wicked shapes. They would even spring upon the beds of those in burning fevers, and cruelly dance upon their feet, or with unseen hands jerk the pillows from beneath the heads of the dying. Pious and sedate people were thrown into trances, and made to prophesy, and speak in strange and no doubt demoniacal language. In some instances they would worm themselves like incomprehensible spirits into the bodies of their victims, terrifying their souls, and shaking their frames like furies, or drive them into paroxysms of weeping and laughing ecstasies. The murrain of Egypt was not more distressing to the cattle, than were the diseases inflicted on the cows and oxen of the pilgrims, if a tithe of the testimony was true; and the chattels, too, were often subjected to their fury. Whole stacks of hay were twirled up in an instant, and suspended like gourds upon the branches of trees, while others were twisted into wisps, and whisked about until scattered to the four winds of heaven.

Nor were the pilgrims of New-England alone in their belief of these supernatural agencies. The strongest minds in Europe were subject to the like