place to a smile of unusual beauty. The forehead elevated itself,
with its deep lines, above the large brown extraordinary eyes, and above
this a wood of black-brown hair erected itself, under whose thick stiff
curls people said a multitude of ill-humours and paradoxes housed
themselves; so also, indeed, might they in all those deep furrows with
which his countenance was lined, not one of which certainly was without
its own signification. Still, there was not a sharp angle of that face;
there was nothing, either in word or voice, of the Assessor, Jeremias
Munter, however severe they might seem to be, which at the same time did
not conceal an expression of the deepest goodness of heart, and which
stamped itself upon his whole being, in the same way as the sap clothes
with green foliage the stiff resisting branches of the knotted oak.

"Good day, brother!" exclaimed the Judge, cordially offering him his
hand, "how are you?"

"Bad!" answered the melancholy man; "how can it be otherwise? What
weather we have! As cold as January! And what people we have in the
world too: it is both a sin and shame! I am so angry to-day that----Have
you read that malicious article against you in the----paper?"

"No, I don't take in that paper; but I have heard speak of the article,"
said Judge Frank. "It is directed against my writing on the condition of
the poor in the province, is it not?"

"Yes; or more properly no," replied the Assessor, "for the extraordinary
fact is, that it contains nothing about that affair. It is against
yourself that it is aimed--the lowest insinuations, the coarsest abuse!"

"So I have heard," said the Judge; "and on that very account I do not
trouble myself to read it."

"Have you heard who has written it?" asked the visitor.

"No," returned the other; "nor do I wish to know."

"But you should do so," argued the Assessor; "people ought to know who
are their enemies. It is Mr. N. I should like to give the fellow three
emetics, that he might know the taste of his own gall!"

"What!" exclaimed Judge Frank, at once interested in the Assessor's
news--"N., who lives nearly opposite to us, and who has so lately
received from the Cape his child, the poor little motherless girl?"

"The very same!" returned he; "but you must read this piece, if it be
only to give a relish to your coffee. See here; I have brought it with
me. I have learned that it would be sent to your wife to-day. Yes,
indeed, what pretty fellows