from the bustle and hurry of the world, lies the little village of Elm Grove. It is situated at a considerable distance from the great London road, and it is seldom that the quiet of its sunny streets is disturbed by the passage of any vehicle more important than the waggon of the carrier, who plies between Southampton and Salisbury, or the arrival of any personage of greater note than the boy who carries the letters from the nearest post-town. Its inhabitants have little intercourse with the

great trading marts around them; and the produce of their own farms supplies at once the necessities of each respective family, and the luxuries required for the Sabbath or the holiday. Their knowledge of the world barely extends beyond the demesne of the Lord of the Manor, and the shady walk by the bank of the river is frequently the farthest extent of their travels. Since they know nothing of the splendours of distant cities, they have nothing to envy or to sigh for beyond the simple com

forts of home; and innocence and simplicity are at once the foundations of their contentment, and the leading characteristics of their habits.

The proprietor of the estate in which the village of Elm Grove is situated, was, at the time of this story, a gentleman of extensive property, whose early life had been spent in all the excesses of dissipation, and whose declining years required the tenderness of the most delicate management to suppress the effects of youthful intemperance. For this reason, he resided continually in the metropolis, in order to procure that attendance from his medical advisers, which the uncertainty of his health rendered almost incessantly requisite; and his visits to the great house occurred but once or twice in the course of as many years, when his stay was only for a few days, as his illness again compelled him to return to London. In his absence, the most important personage in the village was the pastor of the little church in the grove of beech trees on the

son.

hill. This gentleman, whose name was Hartwell, was the son of a merchant in one of the great commercial cities in the west of England, whose fortunes had some years before been destroyed by the commotions in the island of St. Domingo, and who had subsequently died of a broken heart, leaving no family but his widow, Mr. Hartwell, and another The latter had been for many years commander of an East Indiaman; and having amassed considerable wealth by long industry and successful speculation, he had purchased a beautiful cottage, and retired for life to one of the most picturesque spots on the shores of the Isle of Wight. His mother, after the death of her husband, had lived for some time at the rectory of Elm Grove; but on the settlement of her youngest son in England, had removed to his cottage as a companion, he having expressed his determination not to marry, or at least his intention to defer any change in his manner of life for many years to come.

The Rector was a man of the gentlest manners, and the most amiable sweetness of disposition; beyond his own home and the domestic enjoyments of his family, he sought no amusement, and neither felt nor sighed for any additional happiness. Elm Grove and his simple parishioners were all the world to him, and to them the kindness and affectionate attentions of their pastor more than supplied the deficiency of those comforts, of which the absence of their landlord, and the occasional oppression of his agents, deprived them. His income from his living would have been considered but trifling in other situations, but to him it was more than ample; nor would he once have sighed for fortune or advancement for himself, were it not that the ruin of his father had, in a great degree, blasted the prospects which he had once entertained for his children. This me. lancholy circumstance was the only one which gave a tone of sadness to the otherwise placid and contented mind of Mr. Hartwell; and if

at times a tear stole into his eye, or a sigh escaped from his breast, it was only when he cast a look upon his two lovely children, and a doubt crossed his mind as to their future welfare. Frank, the eldest, was at this time about closing his eighth year, and his rapid progress in preliminary education was at once a source of pleasure and of anxiety to his parents: he was a lad of the finest manly feelings, and gay but not boisterous spirits; his lessons were to him no matter of annoyance, and a few hours were always sufficient to con the tasks which his father had assigned to him. In his attention to these, his thoughts were always in earnest ; and the gentle, but clear instruction of his affectionate tutor, never failed to render the subject of his studies a source of attraction as well as of information. In his hours of amusement he was all enthusiasm and overflowing gaiety, his exercises were healthful and vigorous, and his loud laugh of good humour was the clear tone of a heart whose vibrations were