took his handkerchief out of his pocket, he pulled out with it the cockade which he had just received from the recruiting serjeant.

Mary eagerly seized it; and in an instant the truth burst on her mind." Oh! what does this mean?" cried she in a tone of agony :-"How comes this here?Surely, surely, Lewellyn, you have not been so rash as to enlist for a soldier!"

"Is the girl mad!" exclaimed the old man, "to suppose Lewellyn would do what he knew would break my heart ?” Lewellyn hid his face, and again sobbed aloud.

"Would to God I may be wrong!" said Mary, "but I fear-"

"Mary is always full of her fears," said his weeping mother pettishly; and the old man was beginning anew to chide poor Mary, when his son, summoning up all his resolution, faltered out-" Mary is right!—I have enlisted!”

The wretched father tottered into a chair; and, clasping his hands, moved backwards and forwards as he sat, in speechless agony; while the mother threw her apron over her face, and groaned aloud; and Mary in silent grief leaned her head on her hands.

"Oh! that girl! that cursed girl!" at length exclaimed the father-"This is her doing!"

"She knows nothing of it," replied Lewellyn; " and you have no one to blame but me."

"I had rather have to blame any one' else," cried his father:-" It is a hard thing to have to reproach one's own child, an only child, too.-Oh, Lewellyn! we have not deserved this of you; indeed we have not!"

"We will buy him off again!" exclaimed his mother, starting from her chair."We will spend all our little savings with pleasure to do it!"

"You shall have all mine too," cried

દ

Mary" and Lewellyn will thank us in a short time, whatever he may do now." "Now, and ever, I shall reject your proposal," he replied.

"My child!" said his father, grasping his hand, and bursting into tears," do you think I have lived long enough?Do you wish to kill me?"

Lewellyn could not answer; but he threw himself on his neck, and sobbed aloud.

"Have we found our child again?" said his mother, taking his hand tenderly between both hers: and Mary, timidly approaching him, cried-" Dear cousin! why should you be a soldier? If you should be sent abroad, Lewellyn;-if you should be killed, what would become of?" Here her voice faltered; and, as both his parents at this moment folded their arms round him, Lewellyn's resolution was shaken; and he was listening with complacence to their renewed proposal

of purchasing his discharge, when, as he raised his head, he saw Fanny at her window, talking with smiles of complacency and glowing cheeks to a recruiting ser jeant: and as she spoke she played with the tassel of his epaulette, and seemed to be admiring the beauty of the uniform.

This sight hurried the unhappy Lewellyn into all his wonted jealousy, and counteracted entirely the pleadings of filial piety in his heart.

"My lot is cast!" he exclaimed, rushing to the door:-"For your sakes, I wish it were a different one: but I am resolved, and nothing can shake my resolution." So saying, he left the house: but he did not go in search of Fanny, who had, he observed, left the window; for he felt dissatisfied both with her and himself, and was at that moment ashamed to prove to her the extent of her influence over him, by telling her that he had be

come a soldier for her sake. He there fore hastened into the fields, and took a long and solitary ramble, in hopes to compose his feelings, and enable him on his return to meet the just reproaches of his parents with more resolution.

As soon as he thought that his firmness was sufficiently restored, he returned to the town; when, as he approached it, he saw Fanny leaving it in a market-cart driven by a young man. She did not see him; and, overcome by a variety of emotions, he felt unable to call to her loud enough for her to hear him: and, wretched and disappointed, he reached his own house.

His first inquiry was, whether Fanny had called during his absence; and he heard, with anguish, that she had not: and his pride being completely conquered by affection, he went to her aunt's house immediately to know whither she was