ts; an' sorra bit but Miss Linda spins yarn first-rate,
considherin' she never held a distaff before. An' the darlin' Missus
knits stockins; oh mavrone, but she's the beautiful sweet lady intirely,
that ought to be sitting in her carriage!'

News arrived from Dunore this spring, which Linda fancied would sorely
discompose Andy. The Wynns kept up a sort of correspondence with the old
tenantry, who loved them much. In an April letter it was stated that the
pretty blue-eyed Mary Collins, Andy's betrothed, had been base enough to
marry another, last Shrovetide. But the detaching process had gone on
at this side of the Atlantic also. Linda was amazed at the apathy with
which the discarded lover received the intelligence. He scratched his
red head, and looked somewhat bewildered; indulged in a few monosyllable
ejaculations, and half an hour afterwards came back to the parlour to
ask her 'if she was in airnest, to say that over agin.'

'Poor fellow! he has not yet comprehended the full extent of his loss,'
thought the young lady compassionately. She broke the news to him once
more, and he went away without a remark.

When Arthur came in, she would beg of him to look after the poor
suffering fellow. The request was on her lips at his appearance, but
he interrupted her with,--

'What do you think of that scamp, Andy, proposing for Libby in my
hearing? The fellow told her that his heart was in her keeping, and that
she was the light of his life, and grew quite poetical, I assure you; in
return for which, he was hunted round the wood-yard with a log!'

And Linda's sympathy expired.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SETTLER THE SECOND.

Next summer brought a scourge of frequent visitation to the 'Corner.'
Lake fever and ague broke out among the low-lying log-houses, and Zack's
highly adulterated and heavily priced drugs came into great demand. He
was the farthest west adventurer at that date who took upon him to
supply apothecary's wares among the threescore and ten other vendibles
of a backwoods store. So the ill wind which blew hot fits and cold fits
to everybody else blew profit into Zack's pockets.

The population had swelled somewhat since our first introduction to
this little pioneer settlement. The number of wooden huts mottling
the cleared space between the forest and the river edge, clustering,
like bees round their queen, about the saw and grist mill, had
increased during the last two years by some half-score--a slow rat