theories, I will only observe, that he whose stream of life runs smoothly and unruffled, with just enough of mental and bodily activity to prevent its becoming stagnant, must certainly be a happy man; and such a man was Carle.

It happened about this time that one of those wandering characters from the land of steady habits, (so frequently discovered in every part of the habitable globe,) bought a farm adjoining that occupied by Carle, and moved thither with all his family. To make a sure business of living amongst his Dutch neighbours, he brought with him a large supply of patent spinning wheels, patent churns, patent ploughs, &c.; and he had also taken lessons for their especial benefit in the arts of stone fencing and horizontal ploughing. Amongst other notions which he brought to the Valley, was a daughter about seventeen years of age; from whose accomplishments, he calculated certainly upon forming a profitable matrimonial connection. She was a very pretty damsel, with the deep blue eyes, brown hair and transparent complexion, which are so peculiar to the fair of the East and North; she was curiously skilled in all the mysterious preparations of short and long sauce; she could cut the most lovely valentines, and dye eggs of a more brilliant hue, than any other lady in the Valley. In the neighbourhood singing-school she bore away the palm in warbling treble; and having, in the land of her nativity been under the tuition of a little French master of the dance, she was perfect in the pigeon wing and boulonjai; she possessed, withal, a large stock of natural shrewdness, naivete and hu

mor. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at, possessing, as she did, all these accomplishments, and being a stranger besides, that the gallant Dutch swains of the country recognized her at once as the star of the neighbouring belles.

Amongst the many who were captivated by her charms was our friend Carle, who, after having seen her once or twice, found himself taken in a strange way. There was at once an entire revolution in his feelings; at his plough he would pause in the middle of his furrow, and think upon the lovely form and laughing face of the fair yankee: in his solitary hours when sitting in the large porch which fronted his house, the recollection of some inspiring song would strike upon his soul with rapture, and even in his dreams, no other face would present itself but the one which pleased him so much when awake. Carle was in love! he was at last caught in that snare, against which the stoicism of his nature had so long protected him. The fair author of this mischief was very soon apprised of the fact, and at once discovered the influence that she possessed over our hero. Well pleased was she at the conquest; for, he had long defied all the artillery of charms which her rival belles had caused to bear upon him. She did not feel that degree of attachment for him, which might have been necessary as his wife; but prudence suggested the course which would at least be sure, and she determined to give Carle every encouragement that might tend completely to secure him; when in event of no better opportunity to pro

vide herself with a better half, he would be the happy object to fill that important station.

It was upon a beautiful evening in the month of May, when the sap begins to run more freely in the trees, and the blood more briskly in the body, that our friend Carle determined, upon the lengthy consideration of three weeks, to pay a visit to the fair yankee. After a deal of preparation, he at length made his appearance, and never did a love-sick knight take more pains to decorate his person to the best advantage, or succeed better in his own opinion to look enchanting, than did the gallant Dutchman. He was arrayed in his father's Hessian uniform coat, with an immense epaulette upon each shoulder, as large as a brass knocker. His well-buffed buckskin breeches were fastened at the knees with enormous silver buckles; a pair of blue-striped clocked stockings ornamented his sturdy legs, and his coal black hair hung in a graceful pendulous queue down his back.

His presence at his intended father's-in-law, was welcomed with a gracious smile by the fair inamorata of the Eastern Clime. Carle found himself insensibly at ease; for, the maiden possessed the happy tact of conversation which invariably contrives to subdue that impenetrable, that most abstruse of all subjects, nothing. It is a happy talent, and many have been the persons besides our friend Carle, (amongst the rest the Author of this Tale,) whom it has assisted out of a dead lift. How often when

*Note. The addition of epaulettes might have been superfluous; but Carle was a captain of the Milish. Printer's Devil.

plunged into the mire of absurdity, by the obstinate halting of the tongue, has the perplexed spokesman been relieved by the smooth and ready assistance of glib-tongued woman.

Carle found himself more and more smitten with the charms of his fair neighbour; the tones of her voice, whether in speaking or singing, sounded sweet and enrapturing upon his ear. She caught his feelings and ravished his senses with the manifold legends and ditties which she had imported from the land of Cod fish and Molasses: she would sooth him into sadness with the "death of the brave General Wolfe," and inflame his warmer feelings with the ravishing strains of "Polly of Nantuck." Our hero in return, was pressed for a song or a tale; opposition was useless; the fair yankee had heard so often of Mr. Van Fraunk's powers for the comic, that she was certain that he could either sing a good song or tell a merry tale. To sing, Carle would not; and he knew no tale which he could venture to tell to so critical a judge as the fair Maiden of the East. However, being pressed, he summoned up his powers, planted himself bolt upright in his chair, screwed the muscles of his face into a comic kind of a focus, and with many interpolations and remarks explanatory, related the same old tale of

"DER SCHWARTZ KOBALT"

"You must know," exclaimed the Dutchman by way of preface, "that my poor father, who is now dead and gone, was from childhood very superstitious. He was born in the neighbourhood of the

Black Forest of Suabia, where numberless tales of the Spectre Huntsman, and the silver-balled rifle of Der Freyschutz, are related to this day. My father's mind during his boyhood, was well stored with such fancies, and upon his emigration to a new soil, it seemed as if the supernatural beings, whose ideal forms had so long filled his imagination, began now to assume the more terrific shapes of reality. Night after night was he infested by their attacks, until after the battle of Trenton. After that time, when he had changed his coat and become a Republican, he saw them but seldom. The reason was, he married and the presence of my poor dear mother served to dispel all other unwelcome intruders.

"My father died, and with him, I supposed that all fears of interruption from his German imps of darkness would vanish. But as I was sitting one night totally alone by my fire side, I chanced to think upon a favourite legend of my old father, which he had called, "The Black Elf, or Der Schwartz Kobalt." I had long mused upon the wild and terrific accounts connected with this being, when I was aroused by a loud yell of alarm from my favourite hound. Snatching up a light in one hand and an axe in the other, I advanced towards the corn crib, where the noise of the dogs, contending with some mid-night adversary, was very loud and fierce. 1 drew near to the place and behold! I saw the form of some dark, unsightly figure firmly placed against a post. I at once concluded that it was "Der Schwartz Kobalt," again returned