effort which they made whilst on earthresults often only brought to light when men have left this scene of things-how great must be their reward! And to none could the reward be greater than to him. Harriet's simple, straightforward choice to do at once, what was prudent and what was kind in going to John Hardy's house instead of lingering in her own, exhausting her money and shrinking from his bounty, was such a choice as he would have approved. She was beginning well her life of self-dependence, by a generous confidence in the good in human nature.

But however firmly time was teaching her to bear her sorrows, it was not without feeling them as a woman, that on the last evening of the year, she removed to her new home. A home made comfortable by every art which John Hardy's brain could invent, and there she might have tasted without fear, the unenvied slumbers bestowed on the rustic. She could not at first

-grief was too busy at her heart-but they did come, when some weeks of the new year had passed.

CHAPTER XII.

"There is a true meaning attached to the word fortune, distinct from prudence and courage. Luck has a real existence in human affairs from the infinite number of powers that are in action at the same time, and from the co-existence of things contingent, or accidental, (such as to us are accidental), with the regular appearances and general laws of nature."

COLERIDGE.

WHAT the flux and reflux of the ocean have been named, "The grave of human curiosity," the ever varying tide of human things might also be called. Yet, the

attentive watcher of the ebbs and flows of this mortal tide, always does, as Coleridge did, make to himself some theory concerning

that mysterious thing called luck, or fortune, in which he finds himself borne out by many events in his own career.

One thing which I have myself observed, (and I have had the observation confirmed by the experience of others), is this, that often when a strong desire for change has arisen within us, and when it seems almost impossible that we can gratify it, the means of doing so, has, unsought for, presented itself. According as the event turns out well, or the reverse, we call the circumstance one of good or ill luck.

It was Hardy's good or ill luck-it is not my duty to tell which, though I may know-to have an opportunity offered him of undertaking something new, just when his impatience of that which he had undertaken three years before, had risen to its height. He had been thought "a sharp lad," when taken into the counting-house; and there had been speculations on making him useful in another way than in poor

Bismark's last post. These, however, dropped through, and he was left to improve himself in mercantile lore as he best could on the high stool, on which he took his seat with so much pride, and of which he was now so heartily tired. But circumstances caused the house, that is, the three gentlemen, partners, who formed it, to turn their eyes and thoughts on him again.

The house had affairs of importance which required immediate superintendence and arrangement in Jamaica. And, whether it were that Hardy did seem to them superior in intelligence to most of the young men in their office; or whether it were some associations with his name, and Jamaica and poor Ned, his brother, which brought him to their mind, they decided to propose the voyage to him. The proposal came upon him in the midst of deep cogitation on three points-giving the house notice that he should leave; writing to Miss Aveley; going to see his uncle, before engaging in anything

VOL. I.

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