ving been
engaged in the labor of the season.

After having sympathized with him upon the loss he had sustained,
they soon allowed the subject to drop; for it was quite clear from the
expression of care, if not of sorrow, that was legible in his face, that
the very mention of it only caused him to feel additional anxiety.

At length they reached Wallace's house, where they found a tolerably
large crowd of people waiting for the auction, which was not to commence
until the hour of one o'clock.

Sam Wallace was a respectable Protestant farmer, who finding, as he
said, that there was no proper encouragement given to men who were
anxious and disposed to improve their property, had deemed it a wiser
step to dispose of his stock and furniture than to remain as he was--not
merely with no certain prospect of being able to maintain even his
present position, but with the chances against him of becoming every day
a poorer and more embarrassed man. His brother, who like himself, after
having been on the decline for a considerable period, had emigrated to
America, where he was prospering, now urged him to follow his example
and leave a country in which he said, in language that has become a
proverb, "everything was going to the bad." Feeling that his brother's
words were unfortunately too true, Wallace, at all events, came to the
determination of following his example.

The scene at which our friends arrived was indeed a striking and
impressive one. The majority of the crowd consisted of those who
belonged either to the Protestant or Presbyterian forms of worship; and
it might be with truth asserted, that nothing could surpass the clear
unquestionable character of independent intelligence which prevailed
among them. Along with this, however, there was an obvious spirit
of dissatisfaction, partial, it is true, as to numbers, but yet
sufficiently marked as to satisfy an observer that such a people, if
united upon any particular subject or occasion, were not for a moment to
be trifled with or cajoled. Their feelings upon the day in question were
stirred into more than usual warmth. A friend, a neighbor, a man of
an old and respectable family, frugal, industrious, and loyal, as
they said, both to king and country, was now forced from want of due
encouragement from his landlord, to disturb all his old associations
of friendship and kindred, and at rather an advanced state of life
to encounter the perils of a long voyage, and subject