"Oh, there I apply the republican principle !" Seth exclaimed. "It will be decided by vote, after discussion, in which all take part, women as well as men. Here is my plan for the day. Each takes his or her turn, week about, to rise before sunrise, make the fires, and ring a bell to rouse the others. After a cold plunge-bath, one hour's labor, and then breakfast, accompanied by cheerful conversation. Then work until noon, when dinner is prepared. An hour's rest, and labor again, when necessary. I calculate, however, that six hours a day will generally be sufficient. Supper at sunset, followed by discussion and settlement of plans for the next day. Singing in chorus, half an hour; dancing, one hour, and conversation on moral subjects until eleven o'clock, when the bell rings for rest. You see, the plan combines every thing; labor, recreation, society, and mental improvement. As soon as we have established a few communities, we can send messengers between them, and will not be obliged to support the Government through the Post-Office. Now, I want you to begin the reform." "Me!" exclaimed Merryfield, with a start.

"Yes, it's the very thing. You have two hundred acres, and a house big enough for a dozen. I think we can raise the community in a little while. We can call it 'Merryfield,' or, if you choose, in Latin-Tanner says it's Campus Gaudius, or something of the kind. It will soon be known, far and wide, and we must have a name to distinguish it. I have no doubt the Whitlows would be willing to join us; Mrs. Whitlow could take the dairy, and Miss Thurston the garden. He's been in the grocery-line: he could make sugar, until he got acquainted with other kinds of work.".

"Dairy, indeed!" interrupted Mrs. Merryfield. "Yes, she'd like to skim cream and drink it by the tumbler-full, no doubt. A delightful community it would be, with the cows in her charge, somebody else in the bedrooms, and me seeing to the kitchen!"

"Before I'd agree to it, I'd see all the communities

Mr. Merryfield's exclamation terminated with a stronger

word than his wife had heard him utter for years. He jumped from his seat, as he spoke, and strode up and down the portico. Hannah Thurston, in spite of a temporary shock at the unexpected profanity, felt that her respect for James Merryfield had undergone a slight increase. She was a little surprised at herself, that it should be so. As for Seth Wattles, he was completely taken aback. He had surmised that his plan might meet with some technical objections, but he was certain that it would be received with sympathy, and that he should finally persuade the farmer to accept it. Had the latter offered him a glass of whiskey, or drawn a bowie-knife from his sleeve, he could not have been more astounded. He sat, with open mouth and staring eyes, not knowing what to say.

"Look here, Seth," said Merryfield, pausing in his walk; "neither you nor me a'n't a-going to reform the world. A good many things a'n't right, I know, and as far as talking goes, we can speak our mind about 'em. But when it comes to fixing them yourself, I reckon you want a little longer apprenticeship first. I sha'n't try it at my age. Make as pretty a machine as you like, on paper, but don't think you'll set it up in my house. There's no inside works to it, and it won't go." "Why-why," Seth stammered, "I always thought you were in favor of Social Reform."

"So I am but I want, first, to see how it's to be done. I'll tell you what to do. Neither you nor Tanner are married, and have no risk to run. Take a couple more with you, and set up a household: do your cooking, washing, sweeping, and bed-making, by turns, and if you hold together six months, and say you're satisfied, I'll have some faith in your plan."

"And get Mrs. Whitlow to be one of your Community," added Mrs. Merryfield, "or the experiment won't be worth much. Let her take care of your dairy, and Mary Wollstone craft and Phillis Wheatley tend to your garden. Send me word when you're ready, and I'll come and see how you get

on !"

"I don't need to work, as it is, more than's healthy for me,"

her husband continued, "and I don't want Sarah to, neither. I can manage my farm without any trouble, and I've no notion of taking ten green hands to bother me, and then have to divide my profits with them. Show me a plan that'll give me something more than I have, instead of taking away the most of it."

"Why, the society, the intellectual cultivation," Seth remarked, but in a hopeless voice.

"I don't know as I've much to learn from either you or Tanner. As for Whitlows, all I can say is, I've tried 'em. But what do you think of it, Hannah ?”

"Very much as you do. I, for one, am certainly not ready to try any such experiment," Miss Thurston replied. "I still think that the family relation is natural, true, and necessary, yet I do not wonder that those who have never known it should desire something better than the life of a boarding-house. I know what that is."

"Seth," said Merryfield, recovering from his excitement, which, he now saw, was quite incomprehensible to the disappointed tailor, "there's one conclusion I've come to, and I'd advise you to turn it over in your own mind. You and me may be right in our idees of what's wrong and what ought to be changed, but we're not the men to set things right. I'm not Garrison, nor yet Wendell Phillips, nor you a- what's his name?—that Frenchman?-oh, Furrier, and neither of them's done any thing yet but talk and write. We're only firemen on the train, as it were, and if we try to drive the engine, we may just run every thing to smash."

The trying experience through which Merryfield had passed, was not without its good results. There was a shade more of firmness in his manner, of directness in his speech. The mero sentiment of the reform, which had always hung about him awkwardly, and sometimes even ludicrously, seemed to have quite disappeared; and though his views had not changed-at least, not consciously so-they passed through a layer of reawakened practical sense somewhere between the organs of

thought and speech, and thus assumed a different coloring. He was evidently recovering from that very prevalent disorder an actual paralysis of the reasoning faculties, which the victim persists in considering as their highest state of activity.

Seth had no spirit to press any further advocacy of his sublime scheme. He merely heaved a sigh of coarse texture, and remarked, in a desponding tone: "There's not much satisfaction in seeing the Right, unless you can help to fulfil it. I may not have more than one talent, but I did not expect you to offer me a napkin to tie it up in."

This was the best thing Seth ever said. It surprised himself, and he repeated it so often afterwards, that the figure became as inevitable a part of his speeches, as the famous two horsemen, in a certain author's novels.

Merryfield, seeing how completely he was vanquished, became the kind host again and invited him to stay for tea. Then, harnessing one of his farm-horses, he drove into Ptolemy for his semi-weekly mail, taking Hannah Thurston with him. As they were about leaving, Mrs. Merryfield suddenly appeared at the gate, with a huge bunch of her garden flowers, and a basket of raspberries, for the Widow Thurston. She was, in reality, very grateful for the visit. It had dissipated a secret anxiety which had begun to trouble her during the previous two or three days.

"Who knows"-she said to herself, sitting on the portico in the twilight, while a breeze from the lake shook the woodbines on the lattice, and bathed her in their soothing balm-" who knows but there are Mrs. Whitlows, or worse, there, too!"

CHAPTER XXI.

WITH AN ENTIRE CHANGE OF SCENE.

AFTER leaving Lakeside, Maxwell Woodbury first directed his course to Niagara, to refresh himself with its inexhaustible beauty, before proceeding to the great lakes of the Northwest. His intention was, to spend six or eight weeks amid the bracing atmosphere and inspiring scenery of the Northern frontier, both as a necessary change from his quiet life on the farm, and in order to avoid the occasional intense heat of the Atauga Valley. From Niagara he proceeded to Detroit and Mackinaw, where, enchanted by the bold shores, the wild woods, and the marvellous crystal of the water, he remained for ten days. A change of the weather to rain and cold obliged him to turn his back on the attractions of Lake Superior and retrace his steps to Niagara. Thence, loitering down the northern shore of Ontario, shooting the rapids of the Thousand Isles, or delaying at the picturesque French settlements on the Lower St. Lawrence, he reached Quebec in time to take one of the steamboats to the Saguenay.

At first, the superb panorama over which the queenly city is enthroned-the broad, undulating shores, dotted with the cottages of the habitans-the green and golden fields of the Isle d'Orleans, basking in the sun-the tremulous silver veil of the cataract of Montmorency, fluttering down the dark rocks, and the blue ranges of the distant Laurentian mountains-absorbed all the new keenness of his faculties. Standing on the prow of the hurricane-deck, he inhaled the life of a breeze at once resinous from interminable forests of larch and fir, and sharp