"It was a lovely morning in June- for the morning's ne'er forgotten task of de"The air, exulting in its freshness and per-votion was over, and every attention of the fume, as if just loosed from heaven's portals, played joyously around the hills of the Lowlands, entrancing all who felt its influence, from the noble invalid in his pillowed chariot to the sunburnt goatherd reclining on the heather, into a deeper love of nature than their physical compositions were apparently adapted to imbibe. "It was indeed a glorious, heavenly morning. The fleecy clouds seemed loth to glide across the blue infinity above, and joyously did the sun illumine the little enclosure (yclept the garden') that lay before a whitewashed cot at the foot of one of the Lowland mountains. "It was the only habitation in sight, and so clean and white it looked as if it had been built only to make its appearance on such a day as this. "The two upper lattices of the cottage, thrown open to their utmost extent, let in the - passing zephyr to fan the fever-stricken temples of two beautiful sisters, who were passing from the world ere their sun had reached its meridian, and who, drinking in the balmy air, prayed that heaven might be as sweet, and turned to pain and misery again! "But to her who watched by her dying children's pillows, the sunniest day had no charms nor brightness! "Oh! how gladly would she have exchanged the gifts of fortune that had raised her above her sphere, to see those children like what she herself once was! "But it is time to introduce the principal character of our tale. veteran seemed to be riveted on an urchin some eight or nine years old, who, having made himself master of his father's walkingstick, was going through the manual and platoon exercises under the old man's instructions; a duty that at times was sadly interrupted, to the utter extinction of all discipline, by some huge drone that intruded upon the parade-ground; whereupon the juvenile musketeer, exclaiming, 'Oh! Daddy; there's Boney!' would forthwith make a grand charge at the encroaching foe, beating the air with his wooden weapon until some chance and lucky blow sent the miserable interloper, humming, and buzzing, and kicking, on his back upon the ground. "It was during one of these charging exploits that the incipient hero, happening to look through the garden-gate, had his gaze attracted by an object that made him exclaim, with more alarm than pluck, 'Oh! pa! here's Boney come, sure 'nough!' and, alas! for poor puerile self-conceit, the old stick was suddenly dropped, and master Bobby might, the moment after, have been espied standing very still and very white, behind the cottagedoor, with his thumb in his mouth. Scarcely less astonished was the father of the boy, when he saw the splendid livery of the Castle approach his humble dwelling, (he had been there but a week,) and mentioning his name, deliver a letter sealed with such a profusion of wax as he had only witnessed once before; namely, on his being the bearer of a despatch on the occasion of the meeting of the Allied Armies in France. "On an old arm-chair, outside the cottage"The contents of the missive were, an indoor, an old man sat-not that years had vitation to the veteran to take a seat that made him old as much as toil and hardship, evening at dinner at the table of the Castle, -but his hair was grey, although he had where its munificent owner-himself a Waterscarcely numbered fifty summers, and as he loo man—was giving a feast in humble imitadoffed the forage-cap of the gallant -th tion of the great captain of the age, on the Regiment-saving that they were white-anniversary of the day that sealed the des his locks flowed thick as ever. On his knees rested a volume that even the reckless and dissolute atmosphere of a barrack-room had never separated him from. It was closed, tiny of Europe, and witnessed the downthrow of the greatest curse incarnate ever let loose on the world and man. "A verbal reply, humbly and thankfully accepting the honor, was the only means at | hand of responding to the important document; for to have obtained writing materials would have entailed a three miles' walk to the nearest town, and a greater expenditure of capital than could with any propriety at the present time be afforded. "But who shall scrutinize the old man's dreams of happiness and grandeur as he read and re-read the flattering missive to the partner of his existence? "He had heard and read in fairy tales of beggars who had become princes of Cinderellas who had, in a night, been transformed to queens; but this was bringing the romance home to his own fire-side in stern reality. "How would it all end?' was a self-proposed question that made him giddy to contemplate. where to get a crust for your own starving home-full on the morrow! when even in your daily sacrifice of prayer, the words, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' tremble on your lips as you breathe them upwards!-for you think how vain they are. "But joy! joy! why think of sorrow ?— the rooms are blazing in countless lights! glittering trappings!-snowey plumes!— happy voices!-clear ringing tones of woman's laughter! (down thoughts of the morrow!) congratulations, happy and heartfelt!—all these are seen and heard around!—and is the old man left alone?-Oh, no! bright eyes beam sweetly on him; noble lips pour forth praises upon his head. He, the almost sole survivor of his regiment on the field of Waterloo, may nearly be considered the hero of the feast. "Oh! but for one-the least-of the jewels that lavishly bedecked that fair and most enthusiastic interrogator of the veteran to save my darlings from starvation!' "He cannot curb his thoughts: but this is all he thinks of. "The old regimentals of the th regiment were slightly astonished, I promise you, on that day, at being so rubbed and scrubbed, and brushed, and mended, after they had quietly lapsed into the thought that, like their old master, they were worn "The dinner, so unusual to English dinners out, and, after a long tour of duty,' they in general, soon thawed into conviviality. had been laid on the shelf for ever. In How surely we always find, that the more many places they even disdained the stitches inhospitable the appearance of a country, of the busy wife, and mutinously broke out the more hospitable the dwellers therein; as as soon as attempted to be set into anything if to compensate by a profusion of the one like wearing order. for a delinquency of the other. "The dinner ended, and the toasts began. The ladies had retired to the drawing-room, and reminiscences of the eventful day were eagerly canvassed around. Pass round the ruby wine! "It was getting late. "Pass the snuff-box, if you please,' exclaimed the host, who at an early period after the removal of the dinner had produced an article of elaborate workmanship, studded with brilliants, presented to him by Marshal Blucher in person, as a token of admiration for his valor, and esteem for his friendship. ""The snuff-box!' 'The snuff-box!' echoed the guests, passing the word one to another; but no snuff-box. "In vain were the dessert-dishes pushed aside, in vain was search made under the table and under the chairs; the snuff box had vanished, as if by magic! The attendants protested having brought it in at the begin ing of the evening, and having left it on the table. "It is quite ridiculous,' exclaimed one of the company after awhile; 'some one must have pocketed it in error, and I'll be the first to try my own pockets.' "The adjutant! the adjutant!--where is he?' "Matters were looking most unpleasantly | to undergo the investigation, and it was the serious, and each one at table was feeling old adjutant. as uncomfortable under the circumstances as men can be supposed to feel, when the noble host, rising, addressed the company as follows: "Brother-soldiers and gentlemen, I have missed an article of unsurpassable value to me. It strikes me that some one having got hold of the article, has, in error, put it into his pocket instead of his own box, and has not now the moral courage to produce it; so I will order in a box filled with sawdust, into which each of you can in turn place his hand; and the one having the box in his possession may thereby return it without its being known by whom it was deposited. Does any one object to this?' "No one did, of course, so the box was brought, and each guest in turn left his seat and walked up to it, the others looking away, and thrust in his hand. All had completed the ordeal, and the sawdust was emptied; but still no box appeared. "There is no doubt but that some one present has the box, said a noble general, the highest in rank at table; and under the circumstances I propose that we each in turn submit to undergo a personal investigation of our pockets, and I will set the example by being the first to submit to it.' "And I-and I-and I!' flew round the table. "The news had now flown to the drawingroom; and the party, that one hour before promised to be a reunion of deep and noble feelings, of cordiality and good will, became a scene of general disorder, suspicion, and con "Aye, call away! obsequious guests!-search for him from room to room! and condemn him unfound. He's o'er the mountain, and awa'-and little hears your calling. "Cold-aye, shivering cold; not from the chilling atmosphere of the climate, but of the heart-the old man wandered homewards. Thought, feeling, life almost, all but motion had deserted him. "Thief?' at last burst from his pent up bosom, as he strode homewards—' I a thief ?' Thief!" exclaimed a voice at his side, that made him involuntarily turn round, and lay his hand on his sword. He looked around in the darkness, but perceived no one; he was but passing a cavern in the Lowland hills, long since renowned for the clearness of its echoes. "Ere the veteran had scarce begun to recover his senses, he found himself at the threshold of his cottage. "The following morning brought numerous messages and messengers from the castle,' in hopes of recovering the lost bijou. 66 Entreaties first, then threats, were had recourse to; but each in turn were met by a steady and firm avowal of innocence by the owner of the cottage. In compassion to the veteran, he was not at once handed over to the civil power; but in a few days afterwards he received a letter from the Horse Guards, to whom the matter had been fully communicated, and the half-pay of the old man's rank, upon which he had retired, was immediately suspended, leaving him a beggar, and powerless in the world! "True, he might have claimed the alternative of a court-martial: but were not all the circumstances of the case arrayed against him-bearing on their face a moral certainty of conviction in spite of his honor or his oath? "Nothing was now left him but starvation or the workhouse, and he chose the latter. "In a huge whitewashed building in the nearest town he found himself separated for the first time in life from his only solace in this world-his wife and children!-from her who had shared his troubles as a private soldier, and his honor as an officer. Those whom God had joined together, man at last had put asunder. 66 Sharp and agonizing was the anguish at first; but ere a week had elapsed, another blow more stunning than this was doomed to descend upon the martyr's head. His "He heard the church-bell tolling, and saw-but at a distance-all that was mortal of his two darling daughters borne from out that whitewashed world of sorrow to the grave! "A settled melancholy, bordering on idiotcy, now came over the old man's spirits. daily task was gone through mechanically; but his wife still lived, and he might yet one day meet her again alive, and that was, indeed, a consolation in his sorrow; but alas! how faint even that poor ray of hope! "Faint--faint, indeed--poor outcast! You have looked your last, and breathed your last farewell, ere you entered within the walls that now enclose you! "The intelligence of his wifes death was soon after communicated to him, accompanied by a permission for him to have access to all that remained of one once dearer to him than life itself, and the further boon was conceded of following her to her long last home. How willingly would he have availed himself of this kindness!-but as the first boom of the bell tolled out, he fell back insensible, and so remained till all was over. "His son was now all that was left to him, and he had been bound as apprentice in a town several miles distant. "Days, weeks, months, a year had elapsed, and his routine of life remained unaltered and unvaried. Nothing seemed to have any effect on him, save when a casual visitor remarked, in an undertone (but what tone is too soft for sensitive ears to comprehend?)- "What means that thundering knocking at the gate? A pauper would not knock so loud. "Even the adjutant looked up from his daily task, but soon looked down again as he saw the hated livery of the castle standing at the portal. He heard his name pronounced, and the pallor of death fell over his brow and cheek. In another minute he found himself ushered into the governor's room, and confronted face to face with the noble giver of the banquet at which his misery had begun. "He had scarce time to gaze steadfastly on the face of his visitor ere the later seized him by the hand; but before a word could be uttered, a flood of tears-tears of repentance for a bitter and irreparable injury done to an innocent man, and coming from the noble and contrite breast of a soldier, broke from the long pent-up channels of the general's heart, and he wept aloud on the old man's shoulder. So totally was he overcome that it was with the greatest difficulty that he prevented the official authorities from introducing immediate medical assistance, and like a flash of lightning through the gloom of night, the pauper's dream flashed o'er his re "That is the old officer who stole the collection. snuff box at the castle.' But what most astonished every one was, that no trace of the box had been, or could be, discovered. It was not found concealed in the old man's cottage, neither buried in his garden, for even that had been turned up in hopes of recovering the lost treasure-neither had it been pawned in the town. "A heavy rolling sound breaks on the dreamer's ears as he starts at midnight from his thin-clad stretcher, and feels the cold damp walls of his tiny cell around him! "He had been dreaming happily. He dreamt that an angel-it was like his dear lost wife, but yet it was not her-had brought the lost jewel to his bedside-had told him "To-morrow!'-to-morrow!'-come to the castle at any time-but come. I am ill; I must go now,' exclaimed the general, and thrusting a purse full of notes and gold into the wonder-stricken old man's hand, he allowed his valet to lead him to his carriage. "There had indeed been a fire at the castle, which being simply occasioned by the overheating of the flues, had done no material injury; but the first place that was attended to was the plate-closet; and there, in a cupboard high above the others, where the usual plate for household purposes was kept, was discovered the GOLD SNUFF-BOX. "It had, no doubt, been removed from the table by one of the servants, who, oblivious of the circumstance, or fearing after all that had occurred to produce it, had placed it where it had so long remained unseen. "The following morning broke again bright and joyously, as if in welcome of the scene it was to witness. The old soldier had at once been discharged at the departure of the general, and was soon provided with comfortable lodgings in the town. "His first thought was to seek his boy; but the news quickly reached him, that, tired of the monotonous life his son was obliged to lead as an apprentice, he had gone on board her Majesty's ship at Plymouth; so he was left alone and childless in the world. "That the snuff-box had been found ran like wild-fire through the place, and had reached the old man's ears before he had left the workhouse; therefore why need he fear to meet the inmates of the castle? In justice to himself, moreover, although he would rather have avoided the interview, he made up his mind to go; and again setting out on foot, he traversed the same path that he had passed just eighteen months ago, when the storm arose around him. "He had scarcely knocked at the castle ere the doors were thrown open, and every servant seemed to vie in being most attentive to the lately reputed criminal. He was at once ushered into the dining-room, where, seated round the table as he had seen them on that memorable day, were the self-same guests that then surrounded the board, and had since concurred in his condemnation. "His place alone was changed, and now a chair was placed for him by the side of his host, at the head of the table; but the veteran refused to take advantage of it, remaining erect, and gazing with a fixed, half-vacant stare on the scene before him, as if it were all a dream. "The general, however, as soon as he recovered his self-possession-for he saw-and deeply felt what a change was wrought in the old man's appearance, broke the subject by saying 66 6 'Deep, irreparable, and undeserved, as is the injury that has been inflicted on you, and for which no amends on my part can atone, you must allow that in a great measure you have been the cause of it, by not at the time submitting to the ordeal which every one else present readily underwent. Had I requested to search you alone, you might justly have felt indignant; but the measure was not | even proposed by me, but by one higher in rank, both military and noble, than myself; and you would have proved as innocent as he or I, without having entailed on me the lasting misery of remembering that I have inflicted such a punishment on an innocent man as you have undergone a recollection that will haunt me on my death-bed-and on yourself, the anguish of the past. 666 'Sire!' returned the veteran, but his voice faltered audibly, I did not take the snuffbox, as you and all around me are now fully aware, but nevertheless I was a THIEF.' "Yes, God forgive me! and I trust he has, as I believe you all will. In the midst of the dinner, when the mirth was at the highest, and when every one's attention seemed to be engaged, I took advantage of the moment to slip a part of the contents of my plate between some bread beside me, and when no eyes were upon me, I secreted it in my pocket. None of my family nor myself had tasted meat for days, aye, long days past! and I had more that day before me than would have saved my darling children from the grave! I was a thief! My whole pittance had for months been swallowed up by the illness of my family, and what was given to me, I had secretly purloined for them. My days on earth are short. I care not to confess all. My gray hairs have come in sorrow to the grave, and little recks it what befals me This is the reason I stole away like a thief rather than be searched, and dearly have I paid the penalty attending THE PERILS OF THE POOR.' пого. "The old man ceased; but the sobs that burst forth around told how deeply his tale had entered the hearts of his hearers. "Spontaneously the whole host arose, and thronged around him. Kind words-noble promises-sweet condolences-from the noble, the brave, and the fair, were showered on the veteran's head, but, alas!—like a soft song in the tempest-they fell unheardunheeded. "A cottage on the estate, fitted with every luxury, was urged on his acceptance-the arrears of pay made up-all that wealth could offer, or contrition devise, was placed at his disposal-but it came too late! The silver cord was loosed, and the golden bowl was broken --aye, shattered past redemption. "The old church trees were budding forth in spring, and glad birds carolled on their new-leaved branches, and a crowd had gathered round the churchyard gate, dressed in their best habiliments. |