ame for parting with our kind hosts, and we offered to
remunerate them for their trouble, they rejected the proffered money
almost with scorn."

"'No, no,' said the old man, 'we haven't got quite so low as that yet;
and I hope that I nor none of mine will ever come to taking pay for a
night's lodging from a traveller. We don't keep _tavern_ here.'"

"The old woman's parting advice to me was to try and 'git over my
_narvousness_; and she thought I hadn't better drink no more strong
green tea.'"

"'I think your tea _was_ strong last night, my friend,' said I; 'and
that, together with the sight of the ghost, of which I have been telling
you, made me very uneasy and restless.'"

"'Well,' said the old woman, 'I hope ye won't be so suspicious of us
next time ye come; for it's a _cartain_ fact, that we never murdered any
_human_ yet. We do kill _hogs_; that I won't deny.' And she laughed so
heartily, that I felt quite sure she had seen through all my fears and
suspicions of the night before. So ends the murder story."

"I wish you could have heard my old clergyman laugh, as I related to him
all the horrors of the night; and when I came to mistaking the last
squeal of a dying pig for his own death groan, I thought he would have
rolled out of the gig. That night, which was _last_ night, found us in
the old gentleman's hospitable home, where his kind lady gave me as
cordial a welcome as I could desire. Here I am still with these good
friends, only waiting for my trunks; and then, with God's blessing, two
days more will find me in the home of my own dear brother.--And here,
with many kind remembrances to the dear ones at Brook Farm, Miss
Edwards' letter closed."

VIII.

Bitter Disappointments.

"Oh! art thou found?
But yet to find thee thus!"

VESPERS OF PALERMO.

It may be as well for us to continue the history of Miss Edwards here,
though its sad sequel was not known to the family of Mr. Wharton till a
long time after she had left them. The letter with which the preceding
chapter closes, was the last heard from her for many weeks. Various were
the surmises in the family as to the reasons for her unaccountable
silence, but at length they settled down in the belief that she must
have fallen a victim to some of the diseases of a new country; though
why they should not have received some tidings of her fate from her
brother, still remained a mystery.

At last, after many weeks, there came a letter