that he has a will of his own, like all of them; I would n't build too much on the future."

ger with which the plan was fraught. He spoke to him," said the host; "but I have heard it said of the caprices of the great-said that the countess would tire of the toy, or her conscience would get alarmed-that she was for the moment actuated by inconsiderate emotion-but all in vain. As to Jakubska, who was also his relation, through her husband, nothing that he could say had power to shake her resolve-the bait had been too tempting. He now listened to her narration with the deepest interest, and, when she had ceased speaking, he exclaimed

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"Well, I think differently; however, Pavel will now soon grow, and be able to help himself. Do you know it was a hard thing, though, to give up one's child for so many years, and to be treated and looked upon as I have been by that boy? It was a hard thing to be hated and scorned by one's own flesh and blood, and I, too, who was so proud of him, and his handsome face and his fine clothes;

Well, Jakubska, did I not tell you it would I longed to kiss him to-day-it would have been all end in nothing?"

"I don't remember," said the woman, "but if you did it was false; so there is nothing to boast of. Why, do you call it nothing to have had eleven years of pension like that I have enjoyed, without reckoning all the sums I screwed out of the late countess? I am sure, had my good man lived, I should not have been so comfortable as I have been since his death-that is at times. No, no! pity for my destitute offspring would never have got me that. Those that are pensioned merely for charity's sake find a very different figure to cast up at the end of the year, I promise you. And even now, when the worst is come to the worst, I retain that pension, mind you, and all the other advantages the countess granted me. So, far from meeting the punishment you predicted, you see I have greatly bettered my condition. Besides, all my children, except this unfortunate boy, are in a fair way to take care of themselves. The family is brought up. Each knows a trade, and can earn his own livelihood; the countess took care of that for me."

the first time for eleven long years but I knew I should have driven him frantic! I shall have trouble enough to prevent his getting himself or me into some terrible scrape; and it is the manner in which he took our restoration to each other that forces me on extreme courses. This is why I am come to ask your assistance. I dare not leave him in this neighborhood; he'd betray all; find his way to the castle, and make a mortal foe of the count."

"Holy Virgin!" exclaimed the man, in unfeigned alarm," is that the tune he pipes? Then we must, indeed, get him out of the way at any cost, for I would not have my name mixed in an affair concerning any of our neighboring lords for all the wealth that you foolishly dreamt of for your boy."

"I thought," said the woman, with a sigh, "it would be no use proposing to leave him here."

"Then you thought very rightly! For my nearest and dearest I would not put myself into trouble by wagging a single finger in the concerns

"Ay; she was a good lady," exclaimed the of those above me.'

man.

"But you will help me out of this troublesome

"I will help to get the boy out of our way." "Well, where do you think you could dispose of him for the time being?"

"Good! I don't know what you call good-affair?" a bargain is a bargain-have I not sold her my last born, my own flesh and blood? I think there was no occasion for gratitude between us. I had a secret in my keeping would have lost her with the severe general; that gave me power over her, and I made use of it."

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Why, not far over the frontier I have friends who keep a small inn on an unfrequented road; he is never likely there to fall in with any one who

"I'll be bound you did!" said the host, with would attend to his story; he'll be quite snug, a sagacious wink and smile.

"Well, you see," resumed the scheming matron, "though, on the one hand, I might, doubtless, have gained more had my son remained a count, and in possession of a count's estate, yet, on the other, the boy is high of heart, and not gentle in temper. Instead of being frightened by my threats, or induced by my claims to share with me his wealth, he might-nay, probably, would, have denied both, and maltreated me. God has spared him the sin and me the sorrow. Then, all is not over yet. The count may not be able to miss him; he has acted in his first anger; he may yet change his mind. At any rate, when the boy is older, he may write to him a petition, and get a mint of money out of him, one way or other. Don't you see that, neighbor?"

and there, among strangers, he will soon forget his grand airs, and get accustomed to the sort of life he will be obliged to lead in future. Nay, never shake your head; it will come to that, depend upon it; he 'll be glad enough, one day, to come and share your home and your pension. What do you look so blank at? You haven't had him for ten years and more; why should n't you be able to part with him now?"

"Ay, but I knew him to be happy then; it was for his good."

"Well, it will be still more for his good now. Believe me, it is not by degrees that you can break him into such a change. It is better to inure him to it at once. The first shock over, he 'll bear his fate all the better where nothing reminds him of the past; and when he sees you again your pres

"I don't know Count Stanoiki-I don't belong ence will be a blessed relief."

"Well, I have no choice; but will he be com- softly reëntered the kitchen, where he found Jafortable with these friends of yours?" kubska leaning over the sleeping boy, and exam"Much of his comfort will depend on the price ining carefully every part of his raiment, in search you pay for his pension." of the valuable baubles which she fancied he must have on his person.

"I knew you would sing that song!" said the woman, in a whining tone. "I must say it is the hardest thing of all for a poor lone widow-" "You'll accept my succor on my own terms or let it alone," said the man, coldly.

"You know I can't help myself, so what's the use of talking! I'll pay what I can, and you must promise me that your folk will do the best in their power for my boy; however, I'll go and see him occasionally, and judge for myself."

"What are you doing there?" said the host, severely.

"I am only looking after my own; surely I have a better right to anything the child may have about him than the people he is going to."

"Well, it's no concern of mine," said the host, carefully sorting the objects he might need on the road; first, an ample provision of rope and twine-a very necessary precaution to those who travel along Polish roads-then, some nails wrapped in a sheet of brown paper, a hammer, a flask of brandy-then, a sheep's skin for himself, another to throw over the child, and, lastly, a tinder-box.

"And your gun," said Jakubska—" you forget your gun!"

"True," said the man-"the wolves-one is sure to meet them in that neighborhood; and now, Jakubska, the money?"

"That's the best plan; I, too, have sometimes business in that part of the country, for my master has an estate hard by, and I will now and then drop in to look after him. The people have plenty of children of their own, and companionship will reconcile your boy to everything, even to what at first he may term hardships. Come, Jakubska, be reasonable-can you put your child in a palace? If I were not afraid that, owing to my being the brother of the nurse and your cousin, and the child's having been here to-night, I might eventually be mixed up with this ugly business, I-it's all promise." would not trouble myself so much about the matter, I can tell you, but even let you follow your own bent. It has been my principle through life never to let my name come to the ear of the great, either for good or for evil. The less they know about one the better. We have a proverb that says,The meanest bush can cast a shadow-This the man buried in an inner pocket of his what must it be, then, with the huge oak?"

"You were ever a prudent man," said Jakubska, with a dubious expression about eye and lip.

"I never had occasion to repent it. But I'll tell you something more-the child starts tonight I have a good horse-your Pavel is not much of a load-I'll draw out the cart this instant."

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man.

"I have not yet touched a penny from my lord

"Ay, but the people will be wanting some immediately, and I have none at home."

With a heavy sigh, the woman took from her under vestments a small faded purse which had once belonged to the countess, and which miraculously yet contained some remnant of her bounty.

waistcoat, and raising the child gently from his straw pallet, carried him to the cart, and there deposited him, still plunged in the deepest sleep. He next mounted to the rough seat he had arranged in front for himself, and was about to shake the reins, when Jakubska stopped him by a parting exclamation

"Be kind to my Pavel," she said; "remember, But he is fearfully fatigued," said the wo-though you are not his god-father, he is named after you."

"He'll not be more tired sleeping on straw at the bottom of my cart, than in my kitchen corner. It comes to this, Jakubska, he cannot wake here to-morrow; there are too many sharp ears and eyes about."

"Ay, ay; lock the gate carefully after me, and put the key where I told you, and be off before any one is stirring." With these last injunctions, he departed.

The rain had abated, but the night was cold, and the air impregnated with the damp of the previous day. The count, in his hermetically closed, easy, travelling carriage, in vain courting slumber,

"Well," said the woman, sulkily, "I am in your hands, and you know it-so it must be as you say, I suppose, but you take me with you." "Not to-night-not till I have arranged every-looked out on the starless night under an overthing for a thousand reasons it's better so."

It was not till the whole household had retired to rest, that the man made his preparations for the road; and these preparations were simple enough. He harnessed one of his raw-boned, high-cruppered plough horses to an uncovered cart, at the bottom of which he shook an abundant supply of straw, taking care to make as little noise as possible; for, like most very prudent men in his country, he was apt to enwrap his movements in mystery, and his family knew better than to pry into those things which he chose to keep secret. He then

whelming sense of isolation and strangeness. But a few days back a husband and a father, and now quite alone and joyless in the world, to which, it seemed to him, no tie now bound him. The general thought of his own sorrows, his own trials, of himself whom the world would be so happy, so proud to console; but of that poor, lone boy, that very morning sitting by his side in the pride of station and wealth, now littered on straw at the bottom of a peasant's cart-of that existence crushed in its bud-of those first and purest affections trampled down-of that abandoned human

being the count thought not. And herein lies the cruelty of those whom fortune has spoiled-in their fearful egotism! In the total oblivion of everything but self, or what, by position and circumstances, comes nearest to self, exists the gulf that separates them from the rest of the world. What right had the vassal's son, the impostor, to occupy any place in the General Count Stanoiki's remembrance? And Leon-or rather Pavel, as we must henceforth call him-slept on under his sheep's skin covering, unconscious of the deep ruts and hard stones he was rumbling over; for he slept the sleep of utter exhaustion.

fortitude of both horse and man. Bridges composed but of a few trees carelessly lopped of their branches, and as carelessly thrown across the many brooks that bisected the road, had to be traversed; and, where these were wanting, the ferry was of so indifferent a kind, that considerable time elapsed before the cart was in a condition to proceed. Where the road lay through the forest, it at times altogether lost the character implied by its denomination; and it required practice to trace the land-marks among broken boughs, and trot away over the trunks of felled trees, with the indifference evinced both by man and beast.

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The morning light was struggling through the Surely," thought the driver, "this jolting hazy atmosphere when the cart arrived at the fron- and bumping must have awoke the boy." In this tier. A couple of drowsy, grumbling officials supposition he was in part correct. Pavel had turned out, but not so drowsy as to neglect look-raised his aching head and was staring around him ing very sharply after the contents of the vehicle. with a bewildered air, too stupefied to take notice, They manifested considerable suspicion, too, in or even clearly to comprehend the nature of his examining the person of the driver; when, finding situation. Perceiving that he was roused at last, nothing that could defraud government, they per- his conductor immediately drew up, and asked mitted him to move on without further discussion. him if he did not feel faint for want of someBut not even the stoppage, the raising of the sheep's thing. skin, nor his exposure to the cold, damp morning air, could rouse the child from his leaden slumber.

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"I want some water," said the child, fretfully, water-water!"

"There is no water here; take a little sip of this," handing him his brandy-flask; "it will comfort you, for we have yet a long pull before us; but you'd better eat something along with it."

Austrian Poland now lay behind them; they were entering the Russian division, which retains a more national character than those that have fallen under the German sway. Striking off from the high road to Warsaw, into one that led to a The boy instinctively repulsed the proffered town of minor importance, they soon reached a vil- food, for he was no longer master of his impulses ; lage of some appearance. Here the man rested but of the brandy he took a deep draught. In vain awhile, for his horse's sake as much as for his did the driver interpose, saying, "For Heaven's own, and made an attempt to rouse the boy in or- sake have done, will you? you 'll be quite beside der to give him some refreshment; but Pavel yourself." Pavel drank on, eager to slake his could not be awakened. His conductor thought it burning thirst, without being even aware of the would be cruel to insist; and having seen his liquid wherewith he quenched it. When he rehorse properly attended to, he patiently waited the turned the stone bottle to the man, and the latter proper time for resuming his journey, though, in perceived the diminution his young companion had fact, impatient enough to get rid of his trouble- caused in his resources, he muttered with a sort some charge. With the falseness peculiar to, and of grunt: "Like the mother-like the mother. characteristic of, nations accustomed to live under after all. I don't wonder she was loth to part strong pressure, the Pole, as well as the Russian, with him; if the old folk have not a care, he'll is ever desirous of avoiding observation, and giv-play the deuce with their cellar ;-however, it 's ing the change on his movements. He lies even no concern of mine."

without necessity, from excess of caution. Even Soon the brandy, taken for the first time in his though no one suspected or questioned him, Jakub-life, and in such an immoderate quantity, acting, ska's cousin thought fit to gratify the possible curi- too, on a stomach which had received no food for osity of the innkeeper by a long-winded story of the last twenty-four hours, and on a frame prosthe most improbable texture, to account for circum-trate with unaccustomed fatigue, completely stustances that needed no explanation, and which pefied the poor boy, and he sank to the bottom of would have given rise to suspicion had it been the cart in a state of apparent lifelessness. worth the while of the inn-folk to feel any curiosity about him or his concerns.

"He is dead drunk!" exclaimed the man, as he gazed on him-" perfect image of his mother! he 'll be a pride and a pleasure to her!

And as

The horse being once more fit for the road, the tedious journey was resumed. Deep ruts and deep-to the count, he could never have made a silk purse out of a sow's ear-it's all for the best." So saying, he cracked his whip, and strained every nerve to fly over a bridge of planks of doubtful solidity.

er holes had now to be avoided with a skill which kept the driver's mental faculties on the stretch. To escape upsetting or breaking down on most of the Russian-Polish roads some twelve or fifteen years ago, demanded skill that might well establish a man's reputation as a whip; but here there were difficulties to be encountered that tried the

Nothing more passed between them through the whole of that weary day, which, however, is short enough at that time of the year, in those countries.

"Nonsense, Noah; don't you see his cart is empty?" said Salome, twitching his long silk gown.

"It's a fine living child I am bringing you," said the guest, triumphantly. "A full-grown child, too."

66 we have

As it was about to close, the drizzling mist, that dog cheap, I have already taken in my provishad continued since the morning, turned into a ion." positive torrent of rain; the wind began to howl fearfully; the road seemed to extend into endless distance; the brooks of the neighborhood swelled rapidly; and the man, growing every moment more anxious, applied his whip incessantly to his now wearied brute. They had not proceeded much further, however, before a safe port was announced, by a steady light on the left side of the road. was from a window of the solitary pot-house which was, henceforth, to be the home of the pampered heir; and though circumstances combined to soften the wretched outlines of the hovel, and to make any place of rest desirable, yet not even fatigue, time, or weather, could prevent its squalid appear-me to stable the horse, let me remove my burden. ance from striking the eye painfully.

It

"You're joking," said Salome ; enough of our own.' "Let me chaffer a little with your husband. Have you any one within?"

"Not a soul, and it is not likely we shall have many interruptions to-night."

"So much the better. But before you help

Come, stir up, Pavel,” he said, shaking the child. "Ah, well, he is again asleep, and no wonder, he must be thoroughly tired out. I suppose you 'll have a bed for him?"

"Why, no," said Salome; "that's just what we have not."

"I am afraid," said Noah, "you must carry your wares further; I don't say for to-night, but

"Wait-wait till we have talked the thing

over."

They now adjourned to the principal, indeed the only sitting, apartment in the inn; a long, low chamber, with deal benches along the walls, before which stood as many tables, cut and hacked, and burnt, in a manner to show that those who were in the habit of regaling themselves here did not belong to the soberest part of the population. Round a huge stove which occupied no inconsiderable portion of the room, not only in breadth but in height, for it reached almost to the ceiling, sat half a dozen children of various ages; whilst beneath it, as usual, the whole poultry yard was at roost, and gave audible tokens of being disturbed by the entrance of strangers.

"So much the better," murmured the man; "it'll break with the past all the more effectually" and, carefully turning his horse's head in the direction of the public house, he slowly and cautiously drove into the well-known gate; but so slippery and rapid was the descent into the yard, and awkward the entrance, he must have upset at once had not his cart been a strong one. A single glance at the host and hostess, who came out to meet their guest, would have been sufficient to reveal, had he not previously known, their despised origin-they were Jews. So iminense is the contempt, in these countries-a legacy of the barbarity of the feudal times-for these Parias of ages, that the man had not dared to mention the fact to old Jakubska, who would, doubtless, have considered it an insuperable objection. But her cousin, with quick perception, immediately felt that they were exactly the people for an emergency like the present; for, whereas no Christian serf would venture to meddle with anything mysterious in its appearance, from fear of being involved in matters displeasing to his master, the Jew was ever ready for profit, great or small, to run his neck into any noose. Stolen sheep or stolen watches were alike to him; to the hard-pressed smuggler or eloping damsel, for a certain consideration, he was ever ready to offer his sympathizing assistance. He troubled the ready-money customer with no questions, and faithfully fulfilled, so far as in him lay, the conditions he agreed to. To these people. therefore, Jakubska's cousin determined to consign Pavel. This was by no means the only establishment of the kind within his acquaintance: but it was the most distant from the estate of Stanoiki, and he knew the man and his wife, whatever might be their line of business, were kind and inoffensive. Moveover, few travellers ever stopped at the house; there was little chance of the boy being recognized, or gaining information respecting his late home. "Well, Salome-well. Noah; how are you years--for to that time his lord's permission exgetting on?"

"I am afraid this child is very ill," said Salome, as Pavel was brought in and laid upon a bench; "and such a fine boy as he is, too! he looks fit to be a lord's son-such small, white hands, and such nice clothes!"

"He has had good friends, but they are gone, and we must look to it that he be fit, one day, to earn his own bread; he must be provided with clothes more befitting his station."

"But he is ill," persisted Salome.

"A little fatigued from the road, that's all. But now let's have some refreshment, and get to business, for I must be off right early to-morrow. I never told my people where I was going, nor, indeed, that I was going at all, and if I be not back by times they 'll get anxious. We strike our bargain to-night, and I leave you the boy for five

tends or he goes back with me to-morrow to another person of your creed, who, I know, will be glad enough to have him."

"Well, well, we'll hear of your conditions," said Noah.

"What have you for supper? let that be our tions interfering with this plan, his conductor left first care." the house before daybreak.

Supper? why, nothing that will suit youcakes done without butter for the children, black bread, cheese"

"Can't you get up a little beer soup?"

Great was Noah's consternation, and Salome's pity, when, on looking in at their young charge early next morning, they found him speechless and insensible, evidently attacked by the first symp

"Not easily. I don't think there's any beer toms of some fearful malady. They were far

left in the house; however, we can try."

from medical assistance, nor could it be procured, Whilst the host and hostess were, with the as- at that distance, without great expense, and no sistance of a slip-shod girl or two, preparing the apothecary's shop was within miles. Cramped simple repast, Pavel's friend began to entertain | for room, encumbered with a large family, the, at some misgivings about the effect of brandy. "Of all times, great inconvenience of a sick stranger in course," thought he," he can never have had any- a domestic circle, was doubly felt under the cirthing of the kind at the count's; he looks like a cumstances; and should the illness prove infechalf-drowned rat. Jakubska will be awful when she tious, how easily might the inconvenience be hcars of this." But comforting himself with the turned into a calamity! Nor did Noah exonerate hope that he would mend on the morrow, the Pavel's friend from being privy to the real state cousin prepared to make the best terms he could of the case, and he felt somewhat in the position with his new allies. of one who knows himself to have been outwitted.

The first snow of the year fell that night, and in his surprise and his rage the Jew spoke of throwing out the Christian child to perish of cold. Salome did not attempt to argue. Indeed. she was so bewildered and terrified as scarce to know what course to recommend; and whilst she re

little household ventured to interfere. All knew Noah and his ways; they were, therefore, under no apprehension of cruelty to so weak an object as Pavel in his present condition.

He had invented a plausible story by which to put the Jew completely off the scent, and yet, in some degree, to account for the peculiarities that might appear about his protegé. The boy had, he said, been so unfortunate as to attract the attention of a noble family, and to become the playfellow of the young heir-had been permitted to share his lessons and his games, and being nat-mained silent, none of the other members of the urally of a weak understanding, had, latterly, harbored the fatal delusion that he was himself heir to a noble house. The family had left this part of the country, and his own friends could devise no better cure for his mental infirmity than placing him in scenes as different as possible from those which had affected his reason. The strangest part of his delusion was, that he conceived himself the son, not of the gentleman who had protected him, but of another, the richest in the whole province, and with whom he was totally unconnected. Change of air and objects would, they hoped, shortly restore him. Another bitter trial to him would be the learning to work as became one in his condition, and to this strangers could train him better than his own relations.

"Those did the lad great wrong," observed Noah, seriously, "who took him out of his station merely to throw him back into it. That was unjust-worse, it was cruel!"

Pavel's friend shrugged his shoulders, and answered with his usual profundity," that walls had ears; and that no good ever came of talking of one's betters." An opinion in which Salome coincided.

Accordingly, Noah, after vainly looking around him for some opposition that might fan his anger into a flame, and seeing nothing but the pitying dark eyes of his Salome, and the insensible form of the innocent sufferer, dropped his vehement allusions to finding doctors in ditches, and to sick children cradling themselves in the snow; and it ended in the family contriving to find a separate closet for Pavel, by cramming all the children together into a small hole, called a sleeping apartment.

Though the closet was not air-tight, nor the bed of swan's down, there was more of self-sacrifice, and of generosity-more real benevolence

displayed on this occasion, by this humble Jewish family, than the rich and the great are often called upon to exercise; for they may tender their money to those beneath them, and bestow their visits and counsel, without being truly charitable. The first is no self-sacrifice, but rather a duty, re commended by fashion quite as much as by religion; and the latter enables them to spend time which hangs but too heavily on their hands. But how seldom do we see them prepared to render services that might imply self-sacrifice, or even inconvenience! The very forms of what is called "society" are so many icy barriers, and battlePavel's cousin was obliged to swear solemnly ments of reserve, thrown up between themselves to their relationship before the cautious Jew would and the claims of others; and if there be, as there enter into the business; but what with fine prom- undoubtedly is, here and there a warm, generous ises, oaths, bullying and coaxing by turns, Pavel heart, susceptible of a larger and more spontaneous was at last fairly settled on the Jews for the next humanity--that would fain extend its sympathy five years; and to prevent any after considera- beyond misery in rags, and meet half-way the

Noah, however, remarked that he would like to feel quite sure that the facts stood exactly as his friend represented them; to feel sure that this was not an obnoxious heir that a rapacious kinsman wished to get out of the way. He must say the

child looked very much like it.