unknown.

Our schoolmistress was a widow, the Widow White, as she was usually
designated. A woman of middle-age at the commencement of my story, she
had devoted many years to securing a decent competence for her
declining years, and for her only child such an education as would
prepare him for an honorable station in society. Early wedded to a
young clergyman of promising expectations, she was left a widow
shortly after the birth of a son, and only a few days after her
husband had assumed his duties as pastor of the little flock amidst
which she had scarcely taken her abode. Thus left alone at the very
period when most she needed a protector, she began her course with the
unfaltering energy which ever characterized her undertakings. Yielding
to conscientious scruples, she refused the assistance kindly offered
by the surrounding community, and having chosen a vocation,
assiduously applied herself to the accomplishment of her cherished
purpose. Ere long, she had heaped together an amount of money
sufficiently large to purchase the comfortable homestead I have
pointed out.

There it is that the opening scene of my story commences. The sun was
setting leisurely behind the western mountains in a mass of lurid
clouds, and drowsy twilight had already begun to blur the fine scenery
in the east, when Widow White sat down to her evening repast. A fire
of hickory reflected a ruddy glare upon the hearth, before which
reclined innocent pussy, with eyes half-closed, gazing intently at the
flames as they crept slowly around the logs, and uniting, darted
suddenly up the wide-mouthed chimney. The pine floor and splint chairs
were scoured with scrupulous exactness; a small, oblong looking-glass,
crowned with shrubs of evergreen, rested upon the high mantle-piece;
the two windows were adorned with curtains of coarse, but milk-white
linen, and, in one corner, stood a quaint bedstead of curled maple,
covered with a counterpane of old-fashioned dimity, which lay upon it
like a sheet of snow. In the centre of the room was placed a small
table, covered with a cloth of freshly ironed linen, which fairly
rivaled the ermine in whiteness, upon which sat a garniture of glossy
porcelain. A plate of venison and nut-brown sausages, surrounded by
pearly and yellow eggs, sent up its savory odors to tempt the palate,
while a pitcher of rye-coffee, on which the heavy cream was mounting
like a foam, stood at its side; and, near by, a loaf of warm
wheat-