erything they put their hand to failed, and that a
curse seemed to pursue them, as if in attestation of the hidden murder,
so long did the feeling that God would yet vindicate His justice by
their more signal punishment, operate with dreadful force against them,
with the single exception we have mentioned.

Mrs. Dalton, on her return home from her unsuccessful visit to the
miser's, found her family in the same state of grievous privation in
which she had left them. 'Tis true she had not mentioned to any of them
her intention of appealing to the gratitude or humanity of Skinadre; yet
they knew, by an intuitive perception of her purpose, that she had gone
to him, and although their pride would not allow them to ask a
favor directly from him, yet they felt pleased that she had made the
experiment, and had little doubt that the miser, by obliging her in
the request she went to prefer, would gladly avail himself of the
circumstance to regain their good will, not so much on their own
account, as for the sake of standing well in the world, in whose opinion
he knew he had suffered by his treachery towards them in the matter of
their farm. She found her husband seated in an old arm-chair, which,
having been an heir-loom in the family for many a long year, had, with
one or two other things, been purchased in at the sheriff's sale.
There was that chair, which had come down to them from three or four
generations; an old clock, some smaller matters, and a grey sheep, the
pet of a favorite daughter, who had been taken away from them by decline
during the preceding autumn. There are objects, otherwise of little
value, to which we cling for the sake of those unforgotten affections,
and old mournful associations that invest indifferent things with a
feeling of holiness and sorrow by which they are made sacred to the
heart.

Condy Dalton was a man tolerably well stricken in years; his face was
pale, but not unhealthy looking; and his hair, which rather flowed about
his shoulders, was almost snow white--a circumstance which, in this
case, was not attributed to the natural progress of years, but to that
cankered remorse which turns the head grey before its time. Their family
now consisted of two sons and two daughters, the original number having
been two sons and three daughters--one of the latter having fallen a
victim to decline, as we have already stated. The old man was sitting in
the arm-chair, in which he leant back, having his chin