ismal chamber. It
looks out only upon a bald waste of common. Shortly after, a slatternly
maid brings his prison fare, and, with a little kindly discretion, has
added secretly a roll of gingerbread. Reuben thanks her, and says,
"You're a good woman, Keziah; and I say, won't you fetch me my cap,
there's a good un; it's cold here." The maid, with great show of
caution, complies; a few minutes after, the parson comes, and, looking
in warningly, closes and locks the door outside.

A weary evening follows, in which thoughts of Adele, of nights at the
Elderkins', of Phil, of Rose, flash upon him, and spend their richness,
leaving him more madly disconsolate. Then come thoughts of the morning
humiliation, of the boys pointing their fingers at him after school.

"No, they sha'n't, by George!"

And with this decision he dropped asleep; with this decision ripened in
him, he woke at three in the morning,--waited for the hall clock to
strike, that he might be sure of his hour,--tied together the two sheets
of Mistress Brummem's bed, opened the window gently, dropped out his
improvised cable, slid upon it safely to the ground, and before day had
broken or any of the townsfolk were astir, had crossed all the more open
portion of the village, and by sunrise had plunged into the wooded
swamp-land which lay three miles westward toward the river.

THE GREAT LAKES:

THEIR OUTLETS AND DEFENCES.

Four years ago there appeared in this magazine two articles upon the
Great Lakes and their Harbors.[E] In these papers the commercial
importance of the Lakes was set forth, and it was shown that their
commerce was at that time nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign
trade of the country. Within those four years the relative value of
these two branches of commerce has greatly changed. The foreign trade,
under the efforts of open foes and secret enemies, has fallen off very
largely. A committee of the New York Board of Trade, in an appeal to the
Secretary of the Navy for protection against British pirates, made the
statement, that the imports into that port during the first quarter of
1860, in American vessels, were $62,598,326,--in foreign vessels,
$30,918,051; and that in 1863, during the same period, the imports in
American vessels were $23,403,830,--in foreign vessels, $65,889,853;--in
other words, that in three years of war, our navigation on the ocean had
declined more than one half, and that of foreign nations had increased