epeated Mrs. B.

"Give me a light--quick, give me a light, Caroline!"

"Why, don't be a fool. I brought up all the things, the potatoes, the
meat, the squashes."

"P-o-o-h! blow the meat and squashes! Give me a light!" and with a
genuine melo-drama rush, B---- seized the lamp from his wife's hand, and
down the cellar stairs he went, four steps at a lick. In a moment was
heard--

"O-o-o-h! I'm ruined!"

With a full-fledged scream, Mrs. B. dashed pell-mell down the stairs, to
her husband. He had dropped the lamp--all was dark as a coal mine.

"Fred--Frederick! oh! where are you? What have you done?" cried his
wife, in intense agony and doubt.

"Done? Oh! I'm done! yes, done now!" he heavily sighed.

"Done what? how? Tell me, Fred, are you hurt?"

"What on airth's the matter, thar? Are you committing murder on one
another?" came a voice from above stairs.

"Is that you, Mrs. A.?" asked Mrs. B. to the last speaker.

"Yes, my dear; here's a dozen neighbors; don't get skeert. Is thare
robbers in yer house? What on airth is going on?"

This brought B---- to his proper reckoning. He ordered his wife to "go
up," and he followed, and upon reaching the room, he found quite a
gathering of the neighbors. He was as white as a white-washed wall, and
the neighbors staring at him as though he was a wild Indian, or a
chained mad dog. Importuned from all sides to unravel the mystery, B----
informed them that he had merely gone down cellar to see what the
masons, &c., had been doing--dropped his lamp--his wife screamed--and
that was all about it! The wife said nothing, and the neighbors shook
their incredulous heads, and went home; which, no sooner had they gone,
than B---- seized his hat and cut stick for the office of a cunning,
far-seeing limb of the law, leaving Mrs. B. in a state of mental
agitation better imagined than described. B---- stated his case--he had
buried six hundred dollars in a box under the _lee_ of the cellar-wall,
and gone to Boston on business, and as if no other time would suit, a
parcel of drain-cleaners, and masons, and laborers, must come and go
right there and then to dig--get the six hundred dollars and clear.

After a long chase, law and bother, B---- recovered half his
money--packed up and came to Boston.--There's a case for you! Beware of
money!

Nursing a Legacy.

Waiting for dead men's shoes is a slow and not very sure business;
sometimes it pays and sometimes it don't. I know a