he was not sorry to see me, nor yet particularly glad—that I might do well enough to talk to the ladies, to whom he had no time to talk himself, and that I might suit my convenience either in coming or staying away. I was not to mind him, because he should not mind me, which would make things pleasant for all parties, and, perhaps, prevent his hearing any more complaints as to want of society.

The Lock House then was to be my home for a longer period than I had expected. When I returned to it, I found my good genius of the coal-boat preparing for another cruise through the bogs, and I took advantage of the opportunity to supply myself with the various conveniences of which I stood in need.

My visits to the Mansion of the Moss were constant, and our acquaintance became more and more familiar, till the omission of a day was a subject of playful remonstrance. Even Carrol, though he kept his word, and took little more notice of me than he would have done of a lap-dog, appeared to grow more friendly, now and then sported a rough joke, and once or twice, when the weather was fine, and the

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sinking of his pond had caused a corresponding rise in his spirits, invited me to dine with him, and discuss the progress of his improvements. On these occasions I saw more of the man's character than I should perhaps have discovered under other circumstances. drank freely, and would then lose sight of his habitual caution, and shake off his taciturnity. This, however, by no means improved my opinion of him, for the more his mind opened, the more dark and repulsive it appeared. His choice themes of conversation, next to his dykes, and the lawsuit which he had commenced against the waste water, were the abuse of his two innocent victims, the one of whom he affected to despise for imbecility, while he hated the other for repaying that contempt upon himself. He did not wish to conceal that he had married for money to carry on his speculations, and detailed, with a brutal exultation, the means by which he had won his unsuspecting wife, and how she had begun to repent her bargain too late. He would then work himself up into anger, and demand whether it was not a hard case that some of her money

was still beyond his power, and intended for her termagant daughter; and finally wish that the ague or the typhus fever would fly away with them both together. Many a time did I burn to dash the bottle down the ruffian's throat, but my admission to the house depended upon my keeping terms with him, and I used to listen patiently till he was well sotted and had dropped off to sleep.

Contrary to all our expectations, the waste water cause was decided in his favour, and he really showed, for a day or two, something like a happy face. His exultation, when he marshalled his workmen to dam up the sluice, was beyond all bounds, and he was confident that, by that day-month, there would not be a drop of water in his park. In less than a week, a bank was raised as impenetrable as the walls of Tyre, and there was not a person present who surveyed it without perfect admiration-except, indeed, my old friends of the Lock House, who assured me, with much lamentation, that their fishing was entirely spoiled.

After the embankment was finished, I returned with Carrol to dinner. He did the

honours of his house so well, that I could almost fancy how his wife came to be deceived into marrying him, and his victims gazed upon him, as much as to say, "Why can you not always be thus?" The only drawback upon our pleasure was a heavy shower of rain, which continued all the evening to patter against the window, as though it threatened to avenge the cause of the river.

"Ay, ay!" exclaimed Carrol, every five minutes, “I hear you! How that cursed sluice would be pouring now if its mouth were not stopped!"

When I left them for the night, the rain was coming down in a deluge, and the wind beat me about fearfully. I could scarcely accomplish the voyage to my cabin, and when I arrived there I was half drowned. It was as wild a storm as I had ever witnessed; and, when I lay down in my bed, I had serious doubts whether our little building was not going to take flight. Nevertheless, I dropped off asleep.

I believe my slumbers continued to bid defiance to the elements till two or three o'clock.

About this time, I was awakened by the most tremendous uproar I ever heard. At first, I could not make out what it was. I started up, and shouted to my old landlord, but both he and his partner had already hopped out upon their crutches to see whether the world was over, and I threw on my clothes as hastily as I could to follow their example.

The storm had ceased, and the bright moonshine settled our doubts, as to what was the matter, at the first glance. The happy result of Carrol's lawsuit, and his excellent dam, had

been the accumulation of more water than the river could hold. About a hundred yards of the old rotten bank had given way at a crash ; and now, as my host of the Lock very sensibly observed, instead of having a pretty little fall of waste water, which would have purled beautifully through his park, whenever it might have merited such a title, he had got the whole river, all at once, and, for the future, was about as likely to drain it off as he was to drink it. The sight and the sound were really awful. The old river bellowed like a wounded giant, and the tide of life leaped from his side in a foaming