a dress abounding in bright and brilliant coloring. She examined every feature in his face to catch the first sign denoting a movement on his part for their production. But all in vain: no such movement was made, nor did any seem likely to be. Moses had but little heart for his sister, and how could he be expected to have one for any body else?

After sitting quietly for an hour, and perceiving Moses still continued ruminating upon his tobacco, and something else that no one but himself knew any thing about, old Dolebear deliberately took from his head a red fox-skin cap, having lost all patience with the dogged sulkiness of his son, and deliberately but violently threw it into a corner of the fire-place.

This was a signal that he was out of humor, and demanded an explanation of Moses' singular conduct. It was some time before the latter woke up to the demands his father had thus made upon him; but feeling the time had come when something must be done either to fight or explain, and that the former could be done easier than the latter he left his seat, and after following the deliberation of old Dolebear, took from his own head a porcupine cap, and also dashed it upon the hearth, in the same corner where the other lay.

Matters were resolving themselves to a climax, and each party put himself in attitude, to act in a manner worthy of himself. In the mean time, a small and very insignificant member of the family crawled from the ashes, where he had been toasting himself since the storm commenced, and as soon as he had surveyed the respective parties, declared for Moses, by flapping his wings and crowing vociferously. Dolebear looked at the young fledgeling, as if he would eat him up; but a little reflection turned the current of his feelings in his favor. Courage was the old man's passion, and he had rather been whipped twice over than that either of his sons should show the white feather. After hesitating a moment between pride and his better feelings, he began a parley, by complimenting them for the spirit they had shown.

'Why, Mosey, you dog,' said he, 'was you goin' to lick your dad? and you, Mikey, was you goin' to help him? Do you know, young uns, I an't been licked but once in twenty year, and then only by a bear a she-bear, what had cubs ? A he-one is n't to be feard of, but them t' other sort, it's best to run when thar a cummin'.

'Wan't it a fair fight?' inquired Moses, entering into the story with as much interest as if he and the old man had never fallen out in their lives. 'Did you giv up, 'cause you could n't help it?'

'Did you ever know me, Mose, to giv up, when I could help it?' he replied indignantly. 'Did n't I flog Captain Murky, at the last trainin', 'cause he said ev'ry soger should be 'quipt accordin' to law; and when the sargeant came to help 'im, did n't I flog him too? Is that givin' up when I could help it, you young sunflower?'

Dolebear senior uttered this with considerable emphasis, and Moses gave his assent to the truth of what had been said, as he was himself on the spot when it happened, assisting in seeing fair play.

A pause ensued here, after which Moses requested of his father to relate how it was the bear got advantage of him. Why, do you see, I did n't dream

the critter had cubs, and so give chase; but jist as I was jumpin' on her back, a little fellow about half-grown, as black as thunder, jumped up, and ran into the bushes. 'T was too late then to beat up a retreat, and so at it we went, and the upshot of the whole was, without givin' particulars, your dad was licked.'

The winds had now increased to a hurricane, and tree after tree came crashing down, some over ledges of rocks, others into the cataract below; while the tumult among the branches of those which could ride the gale, was upon a piece with the tumult that might have occurred between Moses and his father. A snow-drift occasionally was raised bodily by the winds, and hurled from the roof of the house, scattering hither and thither its flakes, which sifted down the great yawning chimney in such quantities, that the fire was in danger more than once of becoming extinguished.

A general amnesty within doors became necessary, for the combating elements without threatened a calamity to the occupants of the cabin greater than any that could occur if left to themselves. It threatened at one time to overturn the cabin, but at length it was so packed with snow-drifts, edging in on all sides, that although there might be danger of smothering the inmates, there was none of its being blown away.

Nothing was now heard below-stairs of the storm; but from the commotion about the roof and gables, it was evident Miss Maria Hardpan, who had her quarters in that neighborhood, was in some danger. She was the sister of dame Dolebear, but her junior by many years. All the other members of the family had their lodgings in a kind of bunk, distributed about on the first floor; but as she was still a spinster, and not without hope, it became her to seek more retirement than that floor afforded.

Moses was saved the trouble of ascending to his aunt's apartments, where he was upon the eve of going, to look after her safety, by her presenting herself below-stairs. With the exception of his sister, there was no other member of the family he would have troubled himself about, and probably would not about her had they been situated differently.

Sue, despite her brother's selfishness, took pride in presenting him with a clean shirt every week, and darning his stockings, as long as there was any thing left to darn; and although he never thanked her for her pains, yet, as her pleasure was to administer to his comfort, he would have been worse than a beast not to let her share somewhat in his affections. Beside, she had pretty eyes, and might have appeared otherwise handsome in any thing else than that worn-out old calico frock.

How old Dolebear came to be such a girl's father is no more miraculous than that the deformed cactus should bear so beautiful a flower, or that honey may be gathered from offensive substances.

'Why, is that you, Mosey?' Miss Hardpan exclaimed. 'Dear me! what would have become of you if you had lost your way?'

'Why, I'd do as I've done before,' he responsively growled; 'git on the warm side of a tree, and dream I was an alderman in York.'

'Dreamin' did you say? Why, I've been dreamin' too, dreamin' you was a great man, and had nothin' to do but smoke and chaw 'baccy, and so on. O me!

if 't was true, you could n't forget me; I know you could n't—would you, Mosey? But what did you say about bein' allofaman?'

Moses indignantly turned the whites of his eyes toward Miss Hardpan, and scornfully said: 'I should like to see the he-animal who would call me any thing else but all of a man. I dreamed,' he continued, 'I was an Alderman in York—that is, a feller, when he gets fat, he's slippy as an eel; and when he wants money, wotes, and it comes natʼrally as can be.'

They had gotten thus far, when things became so comfortable in-doors, that first one and then another went to sleep, with the storm shut quite out of doors by its own accumulation.

CHAPTER SECOND.

MISS HARDPAN and her nephew slumbered before the fire most of the night, and when they awoke, the other members of the family had retired to their sleeping-places, enjoying their rest, notwithstanding the utter desolation without-doors.

Winter storms in a valley are bad enough, but to dwell in the clouds, where they rage unrestrained by any protection, and where their force is discharged with unexpended violence upon the first object presenting itself, is only endurable by those who are very good, like the philanthropists of Saint Bernard; or those who are very bad, like old Dolebear and his sons of the Kaatskills.

Miss Hardpan, after awaking, rubbed her eyes, and yawned several times, with a view of ascertaining whether Moses was awake, and so soon as she was assured of that fact, she said, in a tone but little more than a whisper: 'Mosey, Mosey, be you woke up?'

'No, not exactly,' was the surly response. "'Spose I was, what do you want?'

'About them gimcracks you got in York-I'm dyin' to know all about 'em,' continued Miss Maria earnestly, and at the same time feeling her way into his sympathies, that long experience taught her was the surest mode of success. Wall, I ha' n't got um, no how,' he responded in a growl, mixed with a little pliancy, that Miss Hardpan had brought to the surface, by her own peculiar way of fishing in such waters.

She but illy concealed her mortification at this announcement, and after choking and unsuccessfully trying to swallow it, said in her sharpest note: 'I'd like to know what you did with the coon-skins? I'd like to know what you went to York for? I'd like to know what you cum back for? I'd like to know-yis, I'd like to know all about it.'

Moses raised his head, not a little astonished at this sudden turn in his aunt's temper, and would have replied by an exchange of similar coin, but he was slightly repressed by the suddenness of the attack, and therefore only said: 'You would, would n't you? then, only one thing at a time, and not mix 'em up so thick, Miss Lucy Long, as Governor Wise said in Congress, when they all larfed out loud.'

Presuming a little upon the advantage she had gained of Moses, by her sudden onset, she replied if possible in a tone more shrill than before: 'Larf, did

they? I somehow think they'd larf on t'other side their faces, if they was kivered up in snow, and had to live on mush and taters, and no tea to wash um down. I'd like to ketch um at it. They'd get a piece of my mind about meddlin' with other people's business, and larfin at a poor gal what could n't help it.'

Moses now saw that a retreat was poor policy in allaying the storm that his aunt had commenced, and he replied by saying: 'I kinder think you 're goin' off before your powder's dry! 'Spose you think I an't got nothin'! 'Spose you think I'm a fool! 'Spose I an't.'

This he said so much faster than he was in the habit of expressing himself, that Miss Maria gave up the point, and capitulated on the spot, and then replied mildly: 'Don't mix up things so, as you jist now told me; I can't make head or tail out any how. Mosey, you an't a fool, but the chaps about York has nothin' to do but cheat and lie, and then say they ha n't.' She then tapped him gently upon the head with the ends of her fingers, and made amends for what she had said by saying coaxingly: 'There, there, Moses, tell aunty all about it?'

'Wall, I will,' was the response, he being somewhat appeased by the promptness with which his aunt had struck her colors. His eyes, in the mean time, were directed to a long brass chain dangling at his pocket, and which he kept in motion by an occasional tap of his fore-finger.

'Sure enough,' said Miss Hardpan, much astonished at the glittering appendage; 'what's at t' other end?'

'I calculate,' said Moses doubtingly, 'it's a goold watch, inside and out; none of your white-livered watches, washed with moon-shine, and poor at that.'

At the urgent solicitation of his aunt, he took it from his pocket, and handed it to her. She turned it over and over again, and stroked and petted it, as if it were a kitten; and when her astonishment had a little subsided, exclaimed: 'Well, well, Moses, you have hit the nail on the head this time.'

His aunt's approval of his watch put him in one of his best moods, and he volunteered to relate to her his visit to 'York,' if she was not too sleepy to hear it.

'O dear! Mosey, you are the best sort of a feller any whar in the mountings. Do go on, it's so delightsome - I knows it is—now, Mosey, go on.'

Miss Hardpan became impatient; she hitched from one seat to another, looking Moses straight in the eyes, as if she would extract the forthcoming narrative from his brain.

'When I gets to York,' he at length began, 'I puts myself right in the middle of the road. I had n't got fur, when a chap on top of a thunderin' great two-hoss wagon, boarded all over, only a little hole behind to let folks in what wanted to git out, says he, 'Git out the way or I'll run over you;' so on I went like a shot out of a shovel, and he arter me. When I runs across the path, on cums he. When I runs t' other side, on cums he. When I runs straight ahead, on cums he, kicking up such a dust, till I was blind as a three-days' kitten.' 'Why, Mosey,' said his aunt interruptingly, 'did n't you lick him?' 'No; he's a cowardly dog. Jist afore I was out a breath, I turned round,

and shook my fist, and said, 'Come down from thar, and I'll skin ye, ye dirty varmint;' and to show him I was in arnest, took off my coat, and squared away. He was afeard, and instid of thrashin' me, he thrashed his hosses, and away he went, bobbin' about the path arter somebody else, I 'spose.'

'The orful feller!' exclaimed Miss Hardpan. 'Did he kill any body?'

'I didn't stop to see,' replied Moses, ‘for a chap with a brass platter on his coat cum up, and said: 'Cum along; we don't allow fightin' in the streets.' I was goin' to pummel him for his pains, but another of the same sort cum along, and findin' 't was no use, I giv' up.'

'Give up to ony two, Mosey!' said his aunt with an expression of doubt whether he ought to have done so; but added after a moment of reflection: 'I 'spose more of 'em was cummin.'

'Cummin! yes a hull squad was layin' about, ready for a row when nothin' was the matter. I was goin' on to say, they tuck me to a place, and kept me thar all day, and all night too, as tight as beeswax. In the mornin' they brought me afore a chap, sittin' all alone, lookin' big as Capting Murky on trainin' day.

"Wall, young man,' said he to me, 'what's yer name?'

'Says I: 'Moses Dolebear.'

Says he: 'What you kickin' up sich a row for?'

Says I-(just what I told you before, aunty.)

Says he, after larfin: 'You can go, Moses Dolebear.''

Seems to me,' replied Miss Hardpan, 'that was all foolin' for nothin'. Go on, Mosey,' she continued, 'I want to hear all about the watch.'

'I had n't been gone ten minutes when a slick-lookin' chap cum up to me, and said: 'I've just found a pocket-book full of bank-notes. I do n't want to take any of 'em out; so lend me five dollars and keep the book till I cum back.' So I out with every red cent I had, which was two dollars and sixpence. 'That'll due,' said the chap through his nose, and off he went, and did n't cum back.'

'Did you keep all the money?' inquired Miss Maria, half out of breath with expectation.

'No; 't was all bad, good for nothin'. I tried to pass a dollar-bill, when the landlord made a row, and two fellers, like them what had me up before, tuck me up agin, for passin' counterfeit money, and the chap sot on the bench what was thar before. Soon as he sighted me, says he: 'You 're thar agin, ar ye, Moses Dolebear?' Says I, 'I rather guess I am;' and he then asked me all about it, and I told him how I got all the bad money. Jist as sure as you're alive and kickin', aunty, thar was the chap himself, jist brought in for another prank he had been playin'.

เ

Says I to the Judge, Thar's the chap, the very feller himself. So they drew a long paper, and made me swear through thick and thin 't was him. The Judge then said, 'Tuck him up;' and off they all went one way, and I t' other. I had n't got fur when I seed a little red flag pokin' its nose out of a door, and I stopped to look in, and thar was a big, red-faced chap; that is, 't was red what I seed of it, for 't was most all kivered with hair; he had a