, inasmuch as the sale was advertised
for the ensuing week. My late guardian was better acquainted with the
country, up the river, than I was myself; and it was fortunate the subject
was broached, as he soon convinced me the only course to be pursued was to
put Marble ashore at Hudson, where, if too late for the regular stage, he
might obtain some other conveyance, and proceed to town by land. This
would barely leave him time to transact all the necessary business, and to
be back in season to prevent the title to the Willow Cove from passing
into the usurer's grasp. As was usual with Mr. Hardinge, he entered into
this, as into every good work, heart and hand, and immediately set about
writing directions for Marble's government when he got ashore. This put in
end to the banquet, and glad was I to see the table removed, and the other
signs of a tranquil night reappear.

It was twelve before the sloop was as low as Hudson, and I saw by our rate
of sailing, that, indeed, there was little prospect of her reaching New
York in time for Marble's necessities. He was landed, therefore, and Mr.
Hardinge and myself accompanied him to the stage-house, where we
ascertained that the next morning after breakfast he would be enabled to
get into the stage, which would reach town in the evening of the
succeeding day. But this was altogether too slow for Marble's impatience.
He insisted on procuring a private conveyance, and we saw him drive out of
the long street that then composed most of the city of Hudson, at a
slapping pace, about one o'clock in the morning. This important duty
discharged, Mr. Hardinge and I returned to the sloop in which Neb had been
standing off and on, in waiting for us, and again made sail down the
river. When I turned in, the Wallingford was getting along at the rate of
about five miles the hour; the wind having freshened, and come out at the
westward, a quarter that just enabled her to lay her course.

The reader will easily imagine I did not oversleep myself the following
morning. My uneasiness was so great, indeed, that I dreamed of the
dreadful accident which had produced my father's death, and then fancied
that I saw him, my mother, and Grace, all interred at the same time, and
in the same grave. Fortunately, the wind stood at the west, and the sloop
was already within twenty miles of the creek at Clawbonny, when I got on
deck. All was quiet in the after-cabin; and, Mr. Hardinge still continuing
in his berth