from Buffalo, and has
offered to carry my bundle to Chippewa."

It occurred to Mrs. Sackville to caution the woman to be on her guard,
for she thought Tristy looked wicked enough for any mischief; but a
signal from the boat obliged them all to hasten to the shore. Biddy good
naturedly took the eldest boy by the hand and led him to the boat, and
then took leave of all her new friends, pouring forth a shower of
prayers that God would bless them all, rich and poor.

The woman, whom we shall henceforth call by her name, Mrs. Barton, was
reserved in the expression of her feelings; but the tear of gratitude
she dropped on Biddy's hand at parting, was an equivalent for the girl's
voluble expressions.

There was, in all the poor woman's manner, an unobtrusiveness and
reserve uncommon in a person of her humble degree, and it interested
Mrs. Sackville more than any solicitation could have done. She
ascertained that Mrs. Barton was on her way to Quebec, where she _hoped_
to find her husband.

"And have you the means of getting there?" asked Mrs. Sackville. "It is
a great distance, my friend, and you cannot get across Ontario and down
the St. Lawrence for a trifle."

"I know that, madam; but I have some money; and if I find my own country
people as kind to me as the people in the States have been, I shall do
very well. Every body feels pitiful to a lone woman with little children.
If it please God to mend my little girl, I shall go on with good courage."

Mrs. Sackville commended the poor woman's resolution, and busied herself
putting up some medicines for the child, and giving directions about
them, and was so occupied with her benevolent duty, that she gave little
heed to Edward's continued exclamations. "Oh, mother! how beautiful the
colour of the water of the Niagara is!" "Mother, does not it give you
sublime feelings to think you are on the Niagara?" "Mother, does not
Lake Erie look grand from here?" &c. &c. &c. Suddenly his attention was
diverted, and he was attracted to the extremity of the boat, where
Tristy, the little "Flibbertigibbet" we have before mentioned, was
exhibiting various feats for the amusement of the passengers. He was a
little, pale, wizened-face fellow, with a bleared and blood-shot eye,
his hair black, strait, and matted to his head, his mouth defiled with
tobacco, and in short his whole appearance indicating the depravity of
one experienced in vice. He dislocated the joints of his fingers, stood
f