OIE DOLLAR PER ANNUM, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. TOWAND.A. : Anisbap 1111arninn. ftap 11, 1857. seltritlr V getry. SEEL LAIINCELOT AND QUEEN GVINEVERE BY ♦I.FIIED TENNYSON Like souls that balance Joy and pain, With tears and smiles from Heaven again, The maiden Spring upon the plain Came in a sunlit fall of rain. - In crystal vapor evtirywhere flue eyes of Heaven laughed between, And, far in the forest depths unseen, The topmost linden gathered green From draughts of balmy air. Sometimes the linnet piped hi 9 song ; Sometimes the throstle whistled strong ; Sometimes the spar-hawk wheeled along, By grass i r• capes, with fuller sound ; In curves the yellowing river ran, And drooping chestnut buds began To spread into a perfect fan, Above the teeming ground. Then, in the boyhood of the year, Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere, Rode through the coverts of the deer, With blissful treble ringing clear, She a part of joyous spring : A gown of grass green silk she wore, Buckled with golden clasps before ; J light green tuft of plumes she bore, Closeil in a golden ring. Now on some twisted ivy net, Now by some tinkling rivulet, On mosses thick with violet, Her cream white mule her paatcrn set ; And now more fleet she skiplimed the plains Than she whose chin prancer sidings By night to her airy warblinp, When all the glimmering moorland rings -- With jingling bridle reins. As she tied fast through the sun and shade, The happy winds tiPou her played, Blowing the ringlet from the braid She looked so lovely as she swayed The rein with dainty finger tips, A nianfiad given all other bliss, . And all his worldly worth fur thiS, To waste his whole heart in.one kiss Upon her perfect lips. SYMPATHY A knight and a lady wake met in a grove, 1% tuie each wa, in quest of a fugitive love ; A ricer ran mournfully murmuring by, And they wept In its waters for sympathy. 0. never was knight such a sorrow that bore!" 0, never was maid so deserted before !" From life and its woes let us instantly fly, And jump in together for company :" Tlicy gazed on each other, the maid and the kniGht ; flow fair wio. Ler form, and how goodly Ilk height ; "4hie mournful embrace !" sobb'd the youth, - cm we die!' ki, - mg and cxyiug they kept company. ~ I), had I but loved such an angel iti4 you !" had but my swain been a.quarter Irue !" •T miss inch perfection how blinded was 1!" now they were excellent company! 1! ncth -poke thr lass, 'twist a .rnile and a tear— Thr wvailier c , for a watery bier: n,•u stammer returns we may Till then let us sorrow In company:' ctltitti) 01;alt. [Fr. , m ilousehold W0r(14.) KESTER'S EVIL EYE. In the cottage to the left hand of the forge at Harwood there lived, about five and twenty years ago, a man of the name of Christopher —or, as the country fdllcq abbreviated it, Kes- tc•r—Pateman Ae .had formerly held the the post of village blacksmith and farrier, but had long since retired from' the exercise of his craft. He was said to have the gift of the eye ; not that he was a malicious man, but that involuntarily his blighted whatever it fixed upn. Friend or enemy, his own children or aliens, it wa.s all one-; liester's eye settled on thew, and they withered away. No single thing prospered with him. The crops on his tittle farm were always either frosted, blighted, or miserably thin ; or, if they_w_ere good and pod and abundant, rain came after the corn Bas cut, and it lay out until it sprouted and rutted away ; once he got it all stacked and the took fire ; another time the grain was thrished out and stored up in safety, but the rats devoured a third of it. His cattle were toe leanest in the country ; his sheep died of disease his children perished one by one .as " 1 didn't stop at the Blue Cow, Katie."— they grew up to manhood and womanhood ; She turned shortly around with such a shrewish ,wery,horse he shod, tell lame before it had face that Johnny added, iu haste to deprecate .rotie a mile. Kester was a miserable man ; her wrath, "I left my basket, Katie ; let me all the country avoided him as if he had got get it—it's in the corner." the the plague. " At your peril set foot over the doorstone, Kester had one child left ; a daughter, born Johnny !" Johnny's plump countenance instant after the rest ; she being the offspring of, ly disappeared. She snatched up the basket, a young Irish girl whom he had.chosen to threw it after him, and then took a hearty fit iii4rry in his old age. The Irish girl ran away of laughter to herself. , :uon after the child's birth, on the plead' hay- , ur. ail; a husband in her own country whom she It was the beginning of harvest i and, on better. the evening of the day after Johnq Martin's Kesler made no attempt to bring her back, inauspicious Courting visit, Kester Pateman 'bat contented himself with spoiling Katie.— and Katie were sitting on the wooden: bench Katie was not a bit like what his other child- before-the door, she knitting, and he bemoan rep had been ; she was her mother over again. log, when a party of Irish reapers, with their Tuo wide opened dark blue eyes, a white skin sickles in their hands came up the lane. They ~ n siderably freckled, black elf locks always stopped at the gate, and one of the men asked I:.tt tangle, a wide red month, and little teeth if Kester wanted hands for his corn ? t•t! pearls ; a figure smart and lissome, and a "No, I see nae the use o' bands,"replied the 1) that lilted along as if it kept time to au old man ; "it'll all be 'spoilt." award tune, made of Katie a village beauty It had been a splendid season, and Kester's lad a coquette. little fields showed as rich and ripe a crop as The strangest thing of all was (so the peo- any in the country ; it• Was quite ready for cut .. tlt thought at least) that Kester's evil eye had sing, and the weathr was settled and facOni to effect on Katie. She grew as strongly and. ble. Otiomed as hardily, as the wild briar in the " But, father, you must have bands," said tedge-row. Everybody remembered the five Katie,who had a most irreverent. disbelief in the ! 11 ildrea who were born to' him by his. first evil eye' - ; "two reapers and tv binder,' with you ." how they pined from their cradle. They and ime,. will get the crops in this week, tied -wd a sickly hectic in their faces like their i'll overlook 'em for luck." Kester stopped two i f-'•'2 1 .17; while Katie's checks were red as a men and a lad, and bade the others go higher THE .- - _-.....'BRADFORD ' ~... REPORTER. damask rose ; they crept about home weary and ailing alwnyg , while Knee was away in tie woods, the wonder of the village, healthier More wilful, and bonnier than any giiNn the district. The blacksmith who had succeeded Rester Pateman at the village forge was a young man of herculean strength, and a wild character.— He was more than suspected of a tenderness for the Squire's pheasants, but the gamekeep er had not yet been found bold enough to give him a night encounter - in the woods ; his name was Rob McLean ; he had been a soldier, and was discharged with a good conduct, after ten years' 'service and two wounds. He was Ka tie's first sweetheart. She was very proud to be seen walking with him in the green lane on Sunday nights ; but it was more child's pride than anything else, for, When . he began to talk about marrying, she laughed and said no, she was not for him, he was too old. Jasper Linfoot, the miller's _eldest son, next cast his eye upon her, and followed her like her shadow for a mouth ; but' no—Katie did not fancy him, be was too ugly ; he squinted, he had red hair, and his legs were not both of the same length. Then there was Peter As kew, the squire's huntsman, but he was a wid ower ; and phi' Cressy, the gardener, but he was a goose ; and Tom Carter—but Katie could not abide a tailor. While Katie, very • hard to please, was co quetting with her would-be lovers, perfectly safe and perfectly heart-free, Kester Pateman had settled all the time who she should marry —Johnny Martin, and nobody else. Johnny was the only sou of Martin, the squire's coach man, who had saved money. He was a sim ple young man, with lank hair; a meek express ion of countenance, and some gift for expound ing, which he practised to small select congre gations in Paternan's barn, every Sunday evening.. When Kester announced his intention to-,his daughter, Katie pouted her red lips and tossed - tmr head, saving, with an accent of su perlative contempt, "That Johnny I" But she answered neither yea nor nay- to her fath ers's word ; and the next,Sunday "that John ny" came courting with a little basket of cabbages on his arm, as an offering to his belle. Katie looked as if it would have done her heart good to fling them, one after the other, in his fat foolish face, but she restrained the impulse, and only - said : " I'll plant 'em out to-morrow. Johnny." "Plant them out Katie ! Why they're to CEPA " Pigs ?" asked Katie, in innocent bewilder ment. "We don't keep any." "so, they're for you, Katie ; they're the finest white-hearts." " Hearts ! Oh, Johnny, take 'em away di rectly ; hearts !—I never saw a heart before," and she peeped into the basket with a face of horrified curiosity Now Johnny had -proclaimed .that his affec tions had fallen:on Katie because she was such a clever girl, and could do everything ; but this exhibition of her talents by no means equalled her former impressions. lie tried her again " Can't yon cook, Katie? Did yon nev er stuff and roast a heart for your father's din ner ?" " Oh, Johnny, and you putting up for the schoolmaster's place ; what wicked nonsense you are talking I Surely you've called at the Blue Cow by the way?" Johnny-at this monstrous insinuation broke out into a cold perspiration ; he was the most abstemious of young men, and had a name in the vill tge for every variety of excellence ; ant Katie was quite capable of telling her suspicions everywhere. lie endeavored to take her hand and to put his arm around her waist ; but Katie brought her palm against his cheek with such hearty good-will that-he• was fain to subside upon his chair in meek dis may. " If you do that again, Johnny Martin, I'll tell my father," she cried ; and with an affee tation of great anger, she bowled his cabbage out into the garden, and.ordered him to march after them in double quick time. lie took up his hat and obeyed her, casting on her, as he went, the most pitiful and expostulatory glan ces. " Don't stop at the Blue Cow, Johnny ; go straight home," she cried as he went out at the gate, and the defeated swain crept away quite dejected. Katie returned into the house, and began to sleek her hair before the little glass by the kitchen fire, humming a tune all the time and thinking how well she was rid of Johnny, when that worthy's voice sounded through the open window : PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH Although he bad arrived at Tfarwood a scarecrow of tags,: Ivho 'so trim and slime now as Alick ? Katiatad a. secret 'pride: in his appearance, as, with his gun ou his arm. and up the lane to Marshall's farm. "But where's the good of it, Katie ?" he added. "You'd have had a tidy fortune but for me. Go into the barn, lads, you'll get your supper 'enow." The old man was very despondent ; for he had just lost a fine calf, which he thought to sell at a good price. Kate bade him cheer up, and went indoors to set out the supper for the rea pers. When it was ready, she called to: them to come ; three as Ragged Robbins as . ever might have served for scarecrows appeared at her bidding. One of them was a tall fine young man, with a head well set on his shoulders, a roguish eye, and a very decided nationjl tongue. He look- ' ed at Katie, and she at him ; and fcr the first time in her life, the-girl's eyes fell, and her col or rose. Alick seemed slightly bashful too— 'very slightly—for, after dropping his glance 'on his plate fcir a second, it followed Katie to intid fro in the kitchen without intermission, until she went out into the little garden again. Alick could see her through the branches of briar across the window, standing at the gate with her father, talking with Rob - McLean, and he immediately conceived an intense dislike for that well-built son of Vul can, with the sear across his forehead. A lick jumped to conclusions very quickly ; he had fallen in love at first sight, and was ready to Village gossip soon proclaimed the fact of quarrel with any man ,who so much as looked Alick's visits to Kester Pateman's cottage ; at Katie. and amongst the first to hear of them was Having made an end to his supper, he went Johnny. He went and remonstrated with out into the lane to his comrades, who were sit- Katie, and threatened to tell her father. Kit ting under the hedge, resting and munching tie's blood was up, and she dared him to tell lumps of bread and cheese—Marshall's kitchen at once. So Johnny did tell and Kester bade not being big enough to hold them all. Alick Aliek.keep away. "Katie's for no Irsh her"- kept Katie at the gate in sight ; and, though gar, but for-a decent Harwood lad,''said he, she seemed never to look this way, she knew rily. "And you'll come about my place no perfectly well how he watched her ; arid mov- more, Sir Gamekeeper—,d'ye hear ?". ed, perhaps by the natural spirit of coquetry, Alick feigned obedience ; but he and Katie she marched with her knitting into the housii, met in the green lane on Sundays. There was and shut herself up iu her bed-room. It had a little gate from the pasture where Kester's a window looking out the lime, and Katie sat I cows were, into the wood ; and often at milk near it with her pins and stocking, peeping out ' ing time, you might have seen Alick leaning sometimes to see how the evening went on, over the gate, talking to Katie at her task ; and whether there was promise of tine weather but, as the evening grew cold and the cattle nest day to cut the corn. Alick wandered off ; were brought up to the house, these meetings by-and-by. How should he know that tiny were less frequent ; for Kester began to watch lattice in the bushy pear-tree was Katie's ? f his daughter as a cat watches a mouse. lie suspected her. The neighbors noticed Katie become graver and - paler, and shook their heads portenticusly. "She's fading, like the rest of them," they said ; "she'll not see the Spring. Kester's smitten her, poor man !" And, by-and-by, Kester saw the change him self. When he did see it, Lis heart stopped beating. "Why, Katie, my bairn !" cried be, with fully awakend love and fear ; "Katie, my bairn ? Thou'Ssit not going off in a waste, like thy brothers and sisters ?" Katie was knitting by the firelight ; and as her needles went, her- tears fell. " I don't know, father, but the neighbors say I look like it. I'm sick and And her tears flowed faster. Alick, Fester, Katie, and the rest, were all in the fields next morning, as soon as the sun was up. The reaping began. Katie would bind for Alick ; and, during the day, the two exchanged a good many sharp words. Rob , McLean came to lend a hand in the afternoon and the wen soon found each other out ; but Rob had a decided advantage over the other. "Was there ever such a wild Irishman, all tat ters and rags, ever seen in the country-side before f" whispered Rob to Katie, as they sat under a tree, at four o'clock, eating the 'low ance that had been brought from the house ; Katie gave Alick a sly glance, and said "No." And, as Alick overheard both question and answer, he vowed vengeance against Rob. The night in the lane there was Jasper Lin foot and Phil Cressy ; and Katie talked and laughed with both of them ; and the next day she was gossiping with Peter Askew over the field style ; and iu the evening Tum Carter brought her shreds of scarlet cloth that she wanted to weave into a mat, and Katie chat tered with him ; and the next day Johnny Martin came with au offering of summer ap• ples, which (Alick being there to see) were gTacionsly acceptt'd. So Johnny was hearten ed into staying half-an-hour, sighing and smil ing spasmodically. Alink went out very wrath ful. "So matey rivals aro too many for one man," thought Le. And, nil the following morning, lie took no more notice of Katie than he did of Kester—l mean, he seemed not to take mneh notice of her. Katie was as cross as sticks, and pretended to be ill, and must go home. Home, according ly, she went, and tangled her knitting horribly. She had not been there tong, when _flick came in at the gate with a long face, holding his hand in a handkerchief, all stained with blood. Up sprang Katie, the color going-oat of her face with fright. " You're hurt, Alick 1 0 how have you done it ? Let me see and bind it up." "The least bit in creation, Miss Katie ; but you're the best binder in tthe world, and it'll heal under your eyes," replied the wily Alick, uncovering the injured hand. Katie got a sponge and water, and bathed it, and her pity fled. "It's not much more than a scratch," said she ; so Alick groaned miserably. " Surely, Miss Katie, it's the hard heart you've got, for ull your bonnie face," said he reproach fully. Kate blushed. Nobody else's compliments had ever had that pleasing effect before ; and Alick snddeuly took heart of grace, and said one or two more pretty things that did not seem to vex Katie very much. The dressing of the wound being done, Alick was obliged to go back to the field ; carrying the 'lowance was an excuse for Katie. to return too ; so, leaving her ball to the mercy of the cat on the floor, she got the basket and stone bottle of beer ready, and followed A lick. The reapers I said 'lowance was was early that day, and her father found fault about it. Alick's reflections were of a more cheerful turn now. ,"Too many rivals may be good as none," he thought. Indeed, be had found out —who knows by what freemasonry ?—that 'Katie liked nobody so well as him ; and he turned his discovery to good account. Did she encourage Rob, or Jasper, or Peter, or Johnny, or any one of her numerous admirers, by word or smile, he devoted himself Jennie, the pretty Irish girl, who was binding at Marshall's farm ; and Katie's pillow could have testified that he bad ample revenge. Thus they went oa till the last shock was in stack, and the Irish reapers begarf to travel north in search of fresh pastures All went but Aliek ' • and-he,' from his quick wit and sharp eye, bad won "favor with the Squire's head keeper, who retalued him as one of his watchers. „ • • " REGARDLESS OP DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUAETED." Kester Lissed her, and went out in a black mood. " Oh, what'll I do? What'll Ido for thee, Katie, my bairn ?" said he, aloud. I'm fit to tear my eyes out o'niy head ! What have I done, that all goes ill with me ?" It happened that Alick was loitering about in the hope of a chance word with Katie, and he overheard tester's lamentation. " What's the matter, Master Pat6man ? Katie's hot ill, is she !" he ventured to ask. Glad to unfold his misery to anybody, Kester told A lick of his daughter's changed looks, and what every body attributed thenyto. " Go to 'the wise man, Barm Rex, at Swia tord, to-morrow : he's got a charm ages the Evil Eye," suggested Alick iu haste. " He'll tell you what to do : you may trust him." Somewhat comforted, Kester re-entered the house. Alick went off to Swinford to prepare the sage for his visitor the next day. " Where are you going, father ?" Katie ask ed, the following morning, as her father came to breakfast dressed as if' for church or market. ."I,lti going to 'Bram Rex, Kutie, to hear what he says about something. Re's a won - derfel wise man." "Is it the stacks, fatlifq? I'd fear none: all's right so far. Them Irish reapers brought you luck, Pm thinking." " It's not about the corn, Katie, but thee. I maun't lose thee, my bairn. ,Alick says 'Brum has got a charm, and I'm going to get it fur thee. I don't like thy white looks and thy crying." Katie dropped her spoon, and smiled to her self as she stooped to pick it up again, with a face like a rose, which she was fain to hide by looking away through the window for ever so long. After breakfast, Kester mounted his old gray mare, and went slowly to Swinford, very mournful, andininch troubled iu his mind: The village of Swiuford was, by the river, seven miles fronsdiarwood, and the high road ran along the bank, with a steep fall to the water which was covered with hazel, and low shrubs " Wherefore shouldn't I. fling myself in there, and save the poor bairn ?" he said to himself, as he saw the river shining and glancing through the bushes. " But after all" he add ed, "it will be as well to see old 'Bram flex first, and hear what he's got to say to her. My poor bairn ! Poor Katie !" So he went forward to a sninll slatted cot tage at he ,entrance of the village, and knoCk ed at the door. " Come in," said. a rough voice. Kester fastened his bridle to the paling of the gardeu, and entered. The wise man was sitting in a large chair by the fireside, stirring a composition in a pan which had far more of the perfume of a poach hare than hell-broth, which the gossips said he was in the habit of making. 'Brum was an old man with a long beard; and the subtilist and most wily of smiles. Ile looked tip at his cis iter from Ander his brows cunningly and shrewdly, then motionelhim to be seated, by a wave-of his hand. Xester, was not here. for the first time many a halfrgrown had lie paid 'Brain for prognostics touching the weather, Information about tort articlek and 'Charms for his cattle against disease, and his crops against his game-bag slung over his 'shoulder, he fol lowed the Squire in the woods, looking, as she thought, far the finer the handsomer gentleman. That Johnny's face had now become perfectly sickening to her, and none the less so because Kester would talk of their marriage ; school master, with a salary of thirty pounds, a cot tage and garden rent free, and coals ad libitum; so that he had a home to take her to. . Katie was having-a good cry one afternoon in the house by herself, over the thoughts of Johnny, when there came a knock to the door. She got up and opened it, expecting to see a neighbor come in fur a gossip ; but, instead, there stood Alick. Directly he saw what she had been about he cried, "Who has been vexing the, Katie ? Only tell me, tell me, Katie I" A a smile broke through her tears as she said, "0 A lick it's that Johnny 1" And they looked iu each - other's faces and laughed. What Alick said more, this tradition betray eth not ; but, whatever it was, Johnny's pros pects of a wife were not increased thereby ; and when A lick went home to his cottage at the park gate, it was with a triumphant step and his curly bead inn the air ; and Katie cried no more over her knitting that afternoon. blight ; 'bat he never before felt such a perfect submission to the awful sage in the chair coy ered with cat skins " I know your errand, Kester .Pateman," said 'Bram, solemnly. " I have been working out the hori scope all night. It Is a case of difficult v." Kester was profoundly impressed by this prescience, and his podi old hands shook as he, drew oat his leathern purse, and said : "'Bram, it's not money nor corn this time ; it's my bairn Katie." The sage nodded and echoed, " Katie I I knew it." " What must I girt ? This ?" And Kester took out a gold piece, and laid it on the seemingly unconscious palm of 'Bram. " Enough, Kester Pateman, ' [replied he ; " enough. Tell me what you want—your daughter is smitten 11 " Yes 'Bram ; but there was !one told me you had a charm agen the Evil Eye. Would it save her ? Will you sell it ?" asked Kester, trembling all over with anxietyland stretching out his feeble hands with the purse to 'Bram. 'Brant took the purse, but said severely " I do not sell, Kester Puteman—talk not of selling. Describe to me the child's symp toms, and be at peace." The wise man had a voice of such pretur natural depth that it really seemed as if. his words were also of superior sagacity ; Kester listened to him with the profoundest faith, and then gave a description of Katie's state—her pale cheeks, her stillness, and her crying.— 'Bram shook his bead. " I don't say she'll die, Kester, and I can't say she'll live ; but there's one chance, if you'll try it." " do anything, 'Bram--why I'd die for that bairn ! You don't know how I love my Katie. What's the chance, 'Bram !'' " The stars will not be hurried, Kester Pate man ; they have not spoken yet. Come and see " The sage led the way into a second room, in the middle of which was a table whereon lay a sheet of paper with sundry figures and scrawls thereon. " Look here," and 'Dram began to trace a line with his forefinger. "This is a girl's line of life. Mark it well, Kester Pateman." Kester, dizzy , with anxiety, fixed his eves on it intently. " Here is a man of battles it passes him. This part show; them that seek her hi matri mony ; them that she must not marry, Kester —you mark me ?" Kester nodded his head. "She must not marry any one of these with the cross agen 'etn. Not this with the spade, the figure with. the sack, nor him with the tai lor's goose, nor yet this man leading of a horse, nor yet that one with the peaked cap and fe rule—the stars have spoken agen 'em all." Kester wiped his forehead, and said he saw that clearly enough. " Mark me agen, Rester," pursued the sage, sinking his voice until it sounded as if it came up out of the toes of his Loots ; " mark well, for I can't show you it a second time. This is the sign of a powerful man who has come over the sea—he's got a gickle and a gun.— The sickle means that he shall reap abundance o' corn, and lire on the fat o' the land all his days, and the gun is a token that he's a brave man ; and his face being to Katie's line o' life is a sign that he loves her, and that she lias'a thought for him. Are you hearkening Res ter ?" " Yes, 'Bram, I hear. Oh ! but you arc a knowledgeable man. These," following, the first ivarks with his finger::, " are surely Rub Inean, and Jasper Linfoot, and here's Phil Cressy, and Peter AAew, and Tow Carter, and Johnny Martin " Them's their names ! None o' must your Katie marry, the stars has otherwise be spoke for 'cm. Do you know who this last is, Kester ?" " It niaun be Glick, the wild Irish reaper ; him that's at the Squire's now." LEM it is, and no other! The interpre tation therefore is just !" said 'Brain, emphati cally, and he rolled up the sheet of paper. Kester Pateinau was greatly iu awe of `Brain, bat he endeavored to protest against the conclusion. "'Bruin, couldn't you bring forward an other ?" said he, hesitatingly. " Can I alter the stars, nester ?" replied the sage in his sternest tone ; I do not make, or mend, or mar, I only read for the blind what is written. You must give your bairn Katie to Alitk, or she'll (lie." " 0 ! I will—surely I will, 'Brain !" in great haste cried poor Rester. " He's honest if he's poor, and Katie'll not have a penny. Tell toe, Kester, will I sell my corn well this time!" " You shall," responded 'Wean ; '• you shall sell it as others do." " Have you that charm wren the Evil Eye that one told me of 'Brain'."' Rester humbly inquired. " Yes, Rester ; but it is not to be bought with silver nor - gold. Send m' half a bushel of your best nits, and 2,0 u shall have it. I've parted with a many, but I've oily one on band now, and it's a good , one." " Let me have it, 'Brain. You'll get the nits to-morrow morn." 'Brain went to a drawer in Ole dresser, mid, after rummaging for sonic minutes amongst its contents, he brought forth a hare's foot with a string attached to it. He smoothed it carefully with his hand, muttering a formula of words to himself as he aid so. " You must put this in your pillow, nes ter, and every morning, the first thing when you get up, Oyec the window, and fix on some particular tree or bush, and look at it .steady while you spell your- own name backwards three times. You must look every day fast ing at-the same thing, and in time it will with er away and (lie. And so you'll be cured, and in smiting the tree the rest o' your thiugs'll be safe." Kester took the bare's foot as tenderly as If it bad been a sacred relic, and put it in his bosom. '• Thank you, 'Bram—and you're sure Ka (2'll be I , ell if I let her wed Alick ?'' VOL. XVII.-NO. 49 " Yes, man ! You'll find the late face shining when you get home, for she's feeling that your heart's changed towards her already. The stars have been whispering of it to her." Quite cheerfully Rester trotted the grey mare home, and, as if immediately to prove the sage's words true, Katie came to meet him at the gate us roy as a peony. Alick,- at that minute, was escaping by the cow house door into the pasture, after telling Katie of his vi sit to 'Bram Rex, and preparing her for its probable results. In the centre of the great meadow directly opposite Kester Patemau's chamber window there was a fine old oak tree, quite in the ma turity of its years and strength. Under its wide-spreading branches a herd of cattle could shelter from the Summer heat, and in its giant bole was timber enough to build a frigate al most.. When Kester rose the morning after his visit to 'Bram Rex, be opened his window, and his eyes fell on this tree the , first thing, as they had probably done for many a year. This time he gazed at it fixedly, half expect ing see the leaves and branches shrivel un der his gaze ; but he spelt his name backwards three times, and there were no visible effects. He went to market after breakfast and - sold his corn, and bought a new cow ; so implicit was his faith in 'Bram's charm ; and, meeting Johnny Martin, told him ruefully, that himust leave off thinking of Katie ; for she was not permitted to be his wife. •' Why not, Master Pateman deattinded Johnny, to whom this sudden change wait in comprehensible. " Because thou's bespoken, Johnny, foreman•• other woman ; and there'd be contradiction and the mischief and all if we tried to go agen what's ordained. I spoke to 'Bram Rex , yes terday—it was he tell't me." " 'Bram Rex ! the vagabond fortune teller!" exclaimed Johnny, puffing out his fat cheeks in token of contempt, for Johnny pretended to more light than his neighbors. "Is that Ka tie's best reason, Kester Pateman ?" " Maybe not, man ; she's no inkling that I've changed my mind yet. I 'ant spoken to, her, but I maun." " But it's not fair to jilt a poor fellow, be cause 'Bram Rex tells you a pack of lies," re monstrated Johnny. '• I'll speak to Katie myself, with your leave, Master Pateman, and ask her her reasons." " Her reasons, Johnny, are that she can't abide thee ; thuu's a good lad, but it goes even the grain with her to think o' thee. She's a saucy lassie, and her that,'s bespoken you by the stars has a mint of money This happy invention of Kester's was utter ed boldly as a cot:solution to the forsaken swain, and he, as such accepted it, for Johnny was as credulous as his neighbors. In about a month after Kester ,Pateman's visit to 'Bram Rex there was a wedding at Harwood, and such a dance in Kester's barn as had never been heard of in the country side before. All the defeated swains were there. Johnny Martin and Tom Carter,made the mus ic on two independent-minded violins, and lost, in this opportunity of distinguishing them selves, the sore sensation of disappointment.— Johnny behaved nobly ; he presented Katie with a half a peck of apples as a wedding pres ent, and looked glorious all night. When Ka tie came near him once he whispered : " Katie, did von tell anybody about the Blue Caw ?" No, man ; it wag only in fun," replied she mischievously ; acd Johnny drew a long breath of relief. What a dance that was to the tune of Mer rily danced the Quaker's wife, and merrily danced the Quaker ! It seemed as if it would never come to an end. So loud and hilarious was the mirth at the supper after it, that no body heard the thunder rattling overhead, or saw, %%hen all separated and went home, the lightning leaping about the hills. But there had been certainly a terrible storm that night, though few people at Harwood recollect it ; and the next morning when Kester opened his window, as his custom was, to give the charm ed gaze at the oak tree in the meadow, behold ! one side was reft entirely of its boughs, and ti black, scarred- trunk faced him instead of yes terday's majestic growth. Kester started hack affrighted. Could this be the effect of his Evil Eye ? If you go to Harwood, as you ride into the village, in the meadow opposite the black smith's forge you will see the blasted trunk of the giant- oak tree and, should curiosity prompt 3;on to ask how it came to be destroy ed, any gossip will tell you that one Kester Pateman withered it away by the power of Evil Eye—he having gazed at it every morn ing, fasting for that purpose: They will tell you also that, from having been one of the most unlucky of men, he became one of the most prosperous in the district, with grand children and great-grand-children, and flocks and herds innumerable. A lick and Katie still live in the _farm house down by the water pasture, which the Squire let them have when they were married. But dint of talking of it, they have come themselves to hclieve in the Evil Eye. 'Bram Rex's de- seendants live and flourish in various districts; though 'Bram himself, for some mistake respect ing; another person's property, was transported to a distant colony to exercise his craft there —with what success, this tradition suyeth not PuzzuNr;.--A lady being asked by a gen tleman to join in the bonds of matrimony with him, wrote the word "stripes," stating at the time that the letters making up the word stripes, could be changed so as to-make au an swer to his•question. W ho knows the answer. use. A Young Irishman, who had married when about 19 years of age, complained of Clio difficulties to which early marriage subjected him, said that he would " never- marry - so young again if he lived to be as ould as Melba 3aietia." ser• Thirty rafts and arks_pasiai Harris burr in Ices than one hoar, April tth.
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